CNN iReport

Whoever said lightning never strikes twice in the same place never knew my tree.

7.7.2008:

My wife and I awoke at 3am to 3 noises: Boom!!!, Boom!!, Crash! (as in glass breaking). We immediately bolted out of bed to check on our 2-year old son (we thought maybe he jumped out of bed). However, he was sleeping like a baby. We were not sure what happened, so we cautiously check around the house to see if any of the windows were broken, but none were, all the while suspecting of course thought that perhaps someone was trying to break in. We looked out in the window in backyard, and only saw some light rain and few flashes of lightning off in the distance. I suspected that perhaps it was lightning, but how could that explain the breaking glass sound I wondered. It sounded like it happened right inside our home. In our state of uncertainty and heightened awareness, we called 911, and waited. As I looked out the window from my closet to watch for the squad car to arrive (which seemed like forever, but really only took 2 minutes), I noticed leaves up against the window. I then went outside to discover that part of the tree in our front lawn crashed into our house. I also noticed that the glass bulb covering the light on the front porch was broken all over the ground. The first thought that entered my mind was, "What a relief!"

The police then arrived and said, "There's your culprit.", pointing at the large extended branch connecting the tree to my house. I asked if he could take the tree in for questioning, but then I realized that the tree would probably lawyer-up with some "tree-hugging-hippie".

In examining the wreckage, I could see the burn marks from the lightning bolt on the tree limps.  Fortunately, only minor damage was done to our home, and nobody got hurt.

Nearly one year later on 7.3.2009:

There was a small storm brewing around our area on the night of 7.2.2009, but we thought nothing of it.  My wife recalls waking up in the middle of the night to a loud sound, but dismissed it for a dream she had and immediately fell back asleep.

We continued our normal routine for the day, I went to work while my wife stayed at home with our 3-year old son.  She had some visitors throughout the day.  I arrived home early (3pm).  I had a chance to play with my son, and take him to the park to take advantage of the cloudless afternoon on the eve of our great nation's birthday.  We came home, had dinner, and then decided to take our son out for ice cream.  We weren't gone for more than 45 minutes when we returned to a familiar scene, a large branch resting on the ground with the other end nestled in our tree.  I looked up in the sky to see if there were any clouds, but could not see any.  I closely examined the tree and noticed charred burn marks on the pertruding branch.  My assumption is that lightning struck the tree again last night, but the branches underneatth it were supporting to the larger branch, thus preventing it from falling.  Time and gravity eventually overtook the heavier severed branch, and fell gently (but did it make a sound?) to the ground.  Clearly, we now have a lightning rod in our front lawn.

I wonder if there is some sort of paranormal activity going on here.....