'If you see the lightning and hear the thunder, it
missed you,' my Daddy always used to say.  HE
didn't need the Weather Channel.  Another
one:  'The weather's gonna do what the weather's
gonna do.'  No worries.  Unless the lightning
hit right outside the window  --- 'INCOMING!!,' he'd
scream, ducking under the cannon fusillade
of thunder.  'THAT one,' he'd nervously say, 'was
just a little too close.  Did I ever tell
you about the time right after Mom and I
got married?'  Mom was in the bathtub and he
was reading the paper in the living room.
BOOM.  A strike just outside:  Mom discovered she
could fly and Daddy got more than the morning
news when she landed in his lap.  That wasn't
the only time:  once, him, Mom, and their best friends
were sitting under the willow tree in the
backyard after a cookout.  He was telling
Mr. Smith about Chinese firecrackers, how
you'd light the fuse and they'd go SSSSS:  went to say
BOOM, and lightning said it for them:  right in
the woods.  Twin sis and I had been running in
the sprinkler:  he didn't know he had cheetahs
for daughters.  I am my Daddy's girl ... have had
several close encounters with lightning, myself.
Did I ever tell you about the time I ...