... then what about people? Because I think I used one up this past weekend.
We had a nice, typical thunderstorm on Saturday. Steady rain, few booms in between. Around 11, all had stopped and was quiet. The sun was even beginning to show. Then the dog began barking. My neighbor from across the street was heading over. A large bag in hand. I ended up closing the front door and standing on the porch because the dog would not stop barking. Turns out, the bag was cat food. His cats didn't like it and was offering it to mine. He began telling me of this particular brand when all of the sudden there was a large boom/crash noise and a flash of light with it. As we were standing on my porch talking, lightning hit my front tree that was maybe 5 feet or so away from where we were. We could feel the heat and electricity from it. It sounded like an M-80 going off. Brought out all the neighbors. Luckily, only a couple pieces of bark came off the tree. Because of my (wood) awning, we weren't able to see where it actually hit. It was definitely a scarey thing though. And feeling very fortunate it didn't know the tree into my house where we were or anyplace else for that matter. As the heartrates slowed down, my neighbor went back home and said he was staying on his side of the street from now on. Although, lightning doesn't hit the same place twice usually so my house should be deemed safe. And, ah yes... the dog stopped barking.