Surprise Find

[CraigC]

I was headed out on my service route and the weather was really nasty with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. As I was about a mile from I-75 on US 27 north bound, my service truck was hit by lightning. It must have fried the "brain" as the horn came on and the truck died. Got towed to a service center and Karen came to pick me up. Since we were close to our favorite Italian market, she suggested we go there. In the same shopping center was a very large oriental market called "New York Market". We decided to check it out. The first thing I noticed was the seafood section, which is usually the first thing that attracts my attention. Unbelievable! Live dungeness, golden and blue crabs. Live shrimp, fish and bullfrogs. The one thing I never expected to see were the live geoducks! Needless to say, we will be trying a bunch of their shellfish.

 

[Kayelle]

Ykies!! Sounds like the powers that be wanted you to find that place!

So glad you're safe!

 

[CraigC]

Ykies!! Sounds like the powers that be wanted you to find that place!

So glad you're safe!

Thanks. I'm pretty sure that I was not in any danger due to the truck being on rubber tires.

 

[Kayelle]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure that I was not in any danger due to the truck being on rubber tires.

That's just too logical Craig! They'd have to give me CPR anyway.

 

[CraigC]

That's just too logical Craig! They'd have to give me CPR anyway.

Then again, it could have been, "ignorance is bliss" on my part!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure that I was not in any danger due to the truck being on rubber tires.

Actually, you are safe because you were isolated from electrical ground, and the lightning was powerful enough to overcome the dialectric breakdown voltage of water, and any impurities in it. You were just not the best path for current flow. The water provided a continuous path from the point where the vehicle was struck, to the ground.

If you are in a bathtub, however, and a toaster, or hair dryer falls in, you have saltwater running everywhere in your body. Pure water is an insulator to electricity, just like rubber, until you overcome the dialectric breakdown voltage and ionize the water. Salt water, on the other hand, has salt ions in it and is a great conductor of electrical current. Thus, you are the better path for current flow, and you fry, even though there is water all around you. This is the reason your shouldn't be using an arc welder when taking a bath.

I sure am glad you're ok though, and that you found such a wonderful place for seafood.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[salt and pepper]

Lucky you, wish I was there........

 

[Mad Cook]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure that I was not in any danger due to the truck being on rubber tires.

Isn't a truck an example of Faraday's Cage? So you'd be OK anyway......I think. Physics isn't really my thing.

 

[CraigC]

Actually, you are safe because you were isolated from electrical ground, and the lightning was powerful enough to overcome the dialectric breakdown voltage of water, and any impurities in it. You were just not the best path for current flow. The water provided a continuous path from the point where the vehicle was struck, to the ground.

If you are in a bathtub, however, and a toaster, or hair dryer falls in, you have saltwater running everywhere in your body. Pure water is an insulator to electricity, just like rubber, until you overcome the dialectric breakdown voltage and ionize the water. Salt water, on the other hand, has salt ions in it and is a great conductor of electrical current. Thus, you are the better path for current flow, and you fry, even though there is water all around you. This is the reason your shouldn't be using an arc welder when taking a bath.

I sure am glad you're ok though, and that you found such a wonderful place for seafood.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

That is what I said, the rubber tires. Water had nothing to do with it as the two, very small spots ( about the size if a wooden match head), on the very back of the bed (upper right side), that looked like spot welds, confirmed the contact and path to the negative side of the battery. This completed the "ground", frying the electronics.

 

[Cheryl J]

Glad you're OK Craig, and that you found an awesome seafood place. I lived in WA state for a little while and moved before I got a chance to try geoducks.

I hear they're pretty good regardless of what they look like if you try them will you let us know what you think?

 

[Dawgluver]

What a treasure trove! Can't wait to hear the reports. Geoduck fascinates me, looks so disgusting (except to other geoducks I'm sure) but bet it's delicious.

 

[Caslon]

See if you see any shrimp that isn't farm raised there. Besides gulf shrimp, I think most shrimp is farm raised now, salmon getting that way too. Salmon is getting to be expensive, is farmed more now and is also colored to look more appealingly pink. Humans are depleting/poisoning the sea of food that was until recently plentiful and inexpensive. Tiger shrimp from Indonesian waters is no longer fished because of all the technological manufacturing there and toxic waste that's made its way into the shrimp population. They're deemed too toxic to eat now.

 

[CraigC]

See if you see any shrimp that isn't farm raised there. Besides gulf shrimp, I think most shrimp is farm raised now, salmon getting that way too. Salmon is getting to be expensive, is farmed more now and is also colored to look more appealingly pink. Humans are depleting/poisoning the sea of food that was until recently plentiful and inexpensive. Tiger shrimp from Indonesian waters is no longer fished because of all the technological manufacturing there and toxic waste that's made its way into the shrimp population. They're deemed too toxic to eat now.

Yup, WC Gulf shrimp. The delivery "tanker" was outside when we got there. I know the company is from the Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda area.

The ecological impact of human advancement is for another thread.

 

[Addie]

Isn't a truck an example of Faraday's Cage? So you'd be OK anyway......I think. Physics isn't really my thing.

I am with you MC and Craig! I didn't understand one word that Chief wrote. Just the last sentence. Any thing to do with math is so way beyond my brain. I think he was talking about math.

 

[CraigC]

Glad you're OK Craig, and that you found an awesome seafood place. I lived in WA state for a little while and moved before I got a chance to try geoducks.

I hear they're pretty good regardless of what they look like if you try them will you let us know what you think?

Will do. but it will be a few weeks. Sold our house and will be concentrating on finding a new place, packing and moving.

 

[GA Home Cook]

Craig - what is the town?

 

[CraigC]

Craig - what is the town?

Not sure what you're asking, where we currently live or where we're going to live? If the latter, we don't know yet, but it will be in south Florida.

 

[GA Home Cook]

What town was the market in?

 

[CraigC]

Sunrise, Florida.

 

[Caslon]

Golly gee, Bubba Gump gulf shrimp. So so these days.