Lightning Strikes...

 I was in the kitchen doing what I usually do during an electrical storm: counting the seconds between the flash and the BANG! Five seconds to the mile. I counted to eight, then five, then CRASH! Thunder roared before I could count at all. I let out quite a squeak. It hit, we found later, at tree just across from the kitchen window. 

Pieces were blown out of the trunk and scattered about the yard. Later, we found various devices no longer worked: the dryer, the television, the computer that drove the television, Jo's metal detector (perhaps unrelated).