Lightning...

Joe Albertson was the son of a homesteader in Colorado, My good friend married Joes great grandaughter and I headed to Burns for the wedding. Joe's grandchildren had helped him write a book "The making of a Cattleman" about him and ranching when he got elderly, I have a copy of it but don't know if it was ever published or not. Anyway this man was struck twice by lighting and died of old age. I hadn't thought about it in a long time. Here's a little piece of it........

"Twice in my life I have been struck by lightning. The first time it happened I had taken the hay crew during a rainy spell over to Ragland pasture on Castle to rebuild a peice of fence. I heard thunder and looked around, I didn't want to work on fence if there was danger of lighting, but the sun was shining where we were and the storm was miles away. One of helpers was holding the gate stick while I was fastening a wire with my pliers. All of a sudden the lightning hit somewhere close. A big ball of green fire exploded in my face and it knocked me back from the fence several feet. I was lying on my right side, paralyzed, but able to breath and think. It wasn't long till my fingers began to get some feeling and then I was able to raise up on one elbow and turn my head enough to see the helpers. The helper holding the gate was coming out of it just about like I was, about this time one of the boys up the fence say, It got Joe and Dee. I had sore ligaments and muscles in the back of my legs for a few days.
The second experience I had with lightning was after we moved to Derby Mesa a year or two. It started raining and all of a sudden there was the bolt of fire in my face and it felt like someone had hit me on the head with a hammer. I was lying on my left side, everything was dark and I was completely paralyzed. I could just barely think. My first thought was, "I must try to keep breathing." My next thought was, "Well I didn't make it. Too bad, but thats OK." Then, for all practical purposes I was dead. When I came to I was still paralyzed but a little bit of feeling soon came back to the ends of my fingers and gradually crawled up my arms. I aslo soon began to feel the sleet on my head and some of it melting and running in my ear. I got so I could move my fingers a litttle and I slowly moved my hand up to my face and dug the slush out of my ear. As I got some feeling back I got cold. I really shivered and shook. The tree had kept some of the rain and sleet off my legs, but shoulders and back were pretty wet. So just as soon as I could move a little, I squirmed over to where I could get hold of a two inch quaker tree and gradually pulled myself up to stand holding on to the little tree. It wasn't long till I saw Dave and kid come up through the meadow. I was still afraid they wouldn't see me, so I tried to holler, but all the noise I could make was kind of a small croak. They saw me and rode up, asking what happened to me. Dave right quick sent the kid down to the Doc's about a mile down country to come and get me with his jeep. It wasn't long till Doc came with his jeep and with Dave holding me in the seat, they hauled me down home.
I got in bed and finally got warm but the more I got warm the more I hurt. I had a wrist watch that I carried in the watch pocket of my overalls. It had a burnt spot on it and my belt buckle had a spot on it , and my skin was burnt a little where my belt buckle rested. I really hurt for a few days. I didn't know if I ever would get back to normal. One ear was deaf and my head had a ringing in it. In about a week I dug a hard ball of wax the size of a small pea out of my ear and after that I could hear alright and my head cleared up.
Two things I think I learned from that episode. One, the lightning jolt that kills you, you won't even feel. Two, when you get that close to death, you are not afraid to die. I had long before that made my peace with God, so I was ready to go if He wanted me."

"True words from a true pioneer"