Sooo far behind at work,busiest 2 weeks ever for me.

BUT!!

The thunder calls. I left the house to do charts and the flashes caught my peripheral.
There was no stopping it at that point.Had one camera with me and decided rather than go home I would take it with what I had.
The old trusty 30D.
Drove to a high spot about 10 minutes from our house and pulled onto a long dirt road.The show was fantastic with a strike every 5 seconds,about 1/2 of those outside the thunderhead.(the ones inside just flash and don't give good pictures.
Got my camera out,got my settings and went to put it on the tripod and found I had taken the part off that holds it to the tripod(something I never do)
Well hey,I didn't have a tripod when I started,so I set up my coat on the car as a tripod.
Bout that time I get a deer spotlight in the eyes from about 50 yards away(you know the 5 million candle power one you plug into your lighter.By the time I recovered my vision this former cop pulls up and asks me what I am doing.I explained and he was satisfied I guess and went back to his house.
The lightening was fast slowing down(oxymoron?) so I hurriedly set it up and got 2 shots before the battery went on me.
Was there a spare in my bag......you know the answer

SO
I went home to return to my work and saw the storm had spread to the south and was every bit as good as before.
Oh did I mention I had to see a nursing home patient before I went to sleep.
I picked a route that got me the above shot.
I know, I know horrible quality BUT after all that work this makes my favorites list.
Funny most of my favorites are about getting the picture or whose is in it not how good it is.

That blown out object is the moon over a lit up thunder head over a dramatic ground strike.
Cristi loved that for once I was out of strike range 8*)