Lightning Strikes Just Once Not Twice

So, I arrived home last afternoon and let the dog out. I noticed some brick flakes, for lack of a better term, by the pool. Hmm, I thinks to myself, that's odd. Where would brick flakes come from? Anyhow, I filed it away as something to check on and went in the house. Inside the house, the GFCI in the kitchen had tripped and the phone wasn't working. More oddities. While I was contemplating these strangenesses, I had to cook dinner and do some other stuff.

After dinner, I walked back into the other side of the back yard to see if I could determine the origin of the brick flakes. Instead of brick flakes, I found actual bricks. I looked up at the chimney and saw more bricks on the roof, plus chunks missing from the chimney.

Holy sheepshit, Batman. Destroyed chimney + electrical anomalies = LIGHTNING STRIKE! Stately YPS Manor has been attacked by the gods themselves! I guess my continuing blasphemy has aroused the ire of the celestial after all.

Oh, joy. I guess this explains why the phones don't work, either. After checking, the phone ground is not hooked up to a ground. It's just flopping in the breeze. Whether this predates the lightning strike, I don't know. So AT&T has a service call in to come fix my phone and DSL.

I have called the insurance company. The current damage estimate stands at a wireless access point, a 16-port switch, one desktop, one laptop docking station, the Squeezebox, an X-Box, and a television. Oh, yeah, plus a chimney with missing chunks. An appraiser is supposed to call me and we'll go from there.

Post title reference here, if you look for it.