Ben Franklin don't got nothing on me

[Archer]

Two nights ago a rather powerful thunderstorm passed through central Indiana. I work in a suburb of Indy, and the office is in an old building on a "main street" with buildings attached to either side of it.

Well . . . said thunderstorm produced some hail, a few nasty straight line winds, and some lighting. Storms will do that.

One particular piece of lighting decided to get aquainted with the building to the west of us. It's a restaurant and was open around 9pm when it got hit. According to the fellow I spoke to, "The sky turned blue".

Well . . . to make a long story short (too late, I know), phones (hardware and software), computers, net/work connectivity, alarm system, one HVAC system all went poof (or more accurately boom, zapp, buzz, or just flat out dead).

Well most everything is back up (sans alarm). About $5.5k in phone hardware (no labour on that one), couple new laptops on order, one new pc, new network cards for everyone (much rejoicing there), new cable modem (thanks comcast).

Needless to say, my new best friend is not my insurance agent.

Oh, and the strike blew through the building surge protecters like it was blowing through water.