I am no wilting violet. In my 20s I lived in Michigan where there were Tornado warnings all night long. I lived on the top floor of a poorly built apartment with no storm shelter. So I have been through some stressful times, storm wise.

But lately it seems storms are so much more severe where I am. I moved to a new town about 20 minutes away from the older one. And since being here the next door neighbor's house was struck... and that was traumatic because they didn't get back into their house for a year afterward.

So this Wednesday night we had terrible storms. The line set up over my house and the storms went from south to north not west to east... so.. they were not over quickly. I have to tell you... I have never ever seen such lighting. It woke me up which is scary enough but the thunder honestly felt like an earthquake not thunder. It was loud enough to shake the house.

For the first time ever-- EVER -- I got dressed and grabbed my keys and was ready to run out of the house. The lighting was deep and bombastically loud but also it was one right after the other.. no break, I just struggled to make it down the stairs. After about 45 minutes the insane stuff was calmer but it was pretty severe for about 3 hours more. 45 minutes of excessively loud and frequent lighting.

My poor cat wailed with terror and there was nothing I could do. I was pretty terrorized myself. But it got me that there was nothing I could do for him.

All day long the next day and today I am literally jumping if a loud noise is made. I do really feel sort of depressed and anxious like I don't think I can go through such a thing again.

Of course kitty doesn't have a care in the world.