Frodov
Bronze Member
White's Prizm IV LIGHTNING DETECTOR
Submitted for your approval. An ordinary man on an ordinary day. A day like any other day, or so it had seemed in the beginning. That is, until the weather changed, and he took a wrong turn down a lane that would lead him into ... The Twilight Zone! <cue music>
Yeah yeah yeah.. that's what it seemed like anyway. A scene right out of the Twilight Zone. I woke up this morning and the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the bees were buzzing around all the flowers that were blooming.. it wasn't too hot (yet) and I had nothing else on my agenda but to go out and indulge in some metal detecting. Ahhhh.. nothing like the cool fresh dew (that's water guys.. not Doo.. as in.. well.. nevermind)... uh the cool fresh dew sparkling on the grass. I loaded up my truck with my detector and gear, a cooler with some drinks and a snack, and headed off to a local park to enjoy the morning.
Things were going swimmingly at first, finding coins here and there in the grass, along the sidewalks, under the spreading oak, sycamore and tulip poplar trees, around the picnic tables and on a hillside overlooking the baseball field. Why even the tot lot woodchips gave up a few coins this morning. I was having a grand old time till the mercurial whims of mother nature threw me curve ball. What started off as a bright clear sunny morning began to morph into something that resembled the opening scenes of the Wizard of Oz. I didn't notice the clouds building up until the lights on the lamp posts in the park began lighting up. I guess I was just too wrapped up in my digging targets. I *DID* however, notice very well when the emergency broadcast sirens sounded off, I was but twenty feet from the nearest one and it damn near bowled me over, even with my headphones on! It was only a test though, but it did get my attention off of my digging and into the sky. It had grown suspiciously dark by this point and there was the distinct smell of rain on the breeze that was getting stronger by the minute. I wasn't too worried though, because there was no tell tale thunder to be heard or flashes of lightning in the distance. So.. I kept detectin. Right up till the rain began in earnest. I mean raining cats and dogs.. well ok, not really cats and dogs, that would just be weird.. but raining more heavily than the light sprinkle that I had been trying to ignore. Trying to ignore, and was being fairly successful at it due to all the tree cover and was not getting rained on much at all actually. Till the cats and dogs started falling.. er.. well, you know what I mean.
I took shelter in the.. well.. shelter, the only one in this particular park. I waited till the rain let up, which wasn't long at all. "Hmm" I thought, " Just a passing rain shower maybe." But I was pretty much finished for the day at this park and thought I'd move on up to another location to detect. There was another small park a couple of miles away that I've not been to in several months. So I put my detector in the passenger's seat of my little pick up truck, and still wearing my knee pads, finds bag and digger, I drove over to the other park. Upon arrival, there was hardly even a sprinkle to contend with. Oh sure it was still a bit overcast, but still no thunder or lightning, so I headed out of the parking lot and across the park towards the baseball diamonds. I turned on my Prizm IV as soon as I stepped into the grass, but that's when I should have known something wasn't right. Actually I *DID* know something wasn't right.. my detector was going nuts. I was getting a barage of false signals. My detector was screaming at me. The target indicator was all over the spectrum and would not settle down for anything. I was thinking " Oh Great! Now my detector is on the fritz!" I turned it off and on hoping to reset it, no luck. I pulled my batteries and thought that perhaps they had gotten some moisture from the rain earlier.. nope they were dry. I even pulled my coil cover off to make sure I had no holes in the coil or water in between he coil and my cover. Nope.. that's not it either. I was nearing the tot lot of this park, walking as I'm trying to get my detector to settle down and behave correctly, and when I stepped into the woodchips everything worked! Odd. I was wondering if I was getting false signals from the power transformers near the baseball field concession stand/bathrooms. Maybe from one or more of the lamp posts maybe?
Oh well, I scanned the woodchips, not finding anything and was still wondering what caused my detector to freak out. I headed to the baseball diamond and was just yards away, detecting as I walked of course, when my detector started blitzing me with signals again. "What the Hell?" Then I stepped into the Twilight Zone.. or felt as though I did anyway. While my detector was ringing out like a slot machine gone bonkers I got one little "pop" in my headphones.. as a bolt of lightning struck a tree on the far side of the park.. adjacent to one of the overhead floodlight arrays for the baseball diamond.
Do you remember getting your picture taken as a kid by a friend or family member using a camera with those old disposable "flash cubes"? How your eyes would see spots for what seemed like hours? Well I didn't see spots I saw a WHITE HOT SLASH ! YIKES! Of course I didn't have to wait long for the thunder.. it was instantaneous at that distance! And then the heavens opened up and a river just fell out of the sky. River, or waterfall, I can't make up my mind all I know is that I was ankle deep in water in less than thirty seconds, on what was just moments ago, firm dry ground.
Oh, and I turned off my metal detector and took shelter in the dug out of one of the baseball diamonds. There were only two more flashes of lightning over the course of the next thirty minutes, and they were nowhere near the park or me, but I wasn't taking any chances! After the rain let up somewhat I made a soggy dash for my truck and piled into the cab as fast as I could get the door unlocked. I sat there in my truck dripping water from my ears, eyebrows, and nose.. I could still feel the hairs on the nape of my neck standing up and I had goosebumps that were in no way related to temperature. ENOUGH metal detecting for today! I headed for the house! I'd spent enough time in the Twilight Zone for one day.
I puzzled over the events of the last hour or so on my drive home. Could the static charge buildup that became that bolt of lightning from the heavens have been causing the false signals that were driving my detector haywire? If that's so, then the next time I start getting such an overload of signals from my detector you can bet I'll be ducking for cover and checking out the skies. WHEW! I'm GLAD I can say "Live and Learn" from this adventure.
I kind of wish I had brought my camera along on today's excursion. I'd have taken a picture of the tree that the lightning struck, and of all the water that was let loose in that cloudbursting deluge. Alas, I didn't. I didn't even bother taking pictures of anything I *DID* find this morning. I'm still just a little bit rattled I think. But wouldn't you know it, by the time I'd gotten home (and we are talking less than thirty minutes of drive time, stop signs and stop lights included).. well the clouds were passing and the sun was coming back out. Was someone trying to tell me to stay home today? Perhaps. But then, two or three hours later we had another, this time, SEVERE Thunderstorm roll through my neighborhood, complete with high winds, rain and even hail. But this time I watched it all from the dry comfort of my recliner in my living room.. indoors!
Oh.. I did get some pictures today.. Early this morning, before leaving on this ill fated adventure, I took these shots of some flowers blooming in my yard. That's when the battery indicator informed me that the battery was dead.. so I put it on the charger. And now you know why I didn't have my camera with me later. *sigh* Anyway, the flowers were nice.
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Hope you all had a better day today, and if not today then sometime you can have some..
Happy Hunting!
Frodov
Submitted for your approval. An ordinary man on an ordinary day. A day like any other day, or so it had seemed in the beginning. That is, until the weather changed, and he took a wrong turn down a lane that would lead him into ... The Twilight Zone! <cue music>
Yeah yeah yeah.. that's what it seemed like anyway. A scene right out of the Twilight Zone. I woke up this morning and the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the bees were buzzing around all the flowers that were blooming.. it wasn't too hot (yet) and I had nothing else on my agenda but to go out and indulge in some metal detecting. Ahhhh.. nothing like the cool fresh dew (that's water guys.. not Doo.. as in.. well.. nevermind)... uh the cool fresh dew sparkling on the grass. I loaded up my truck with my detector and gear, a cooler with some drinks and a snack, and headed off to a local park to enjoy the morning.
Things were going swimmingly at first, finding coins here and there in the grass, along the sidewalks, under the spreading oak, sycamore and tulip poplar trees, around the picnic tables and on a hillside overlooking the baseball field. Why even the tot lot woodchips gave up a few coins this morning. I was having a grand old time till the mercurial whims of mother nature threw me curve ball. What started off as a bright clear sunny morning began to morph into something that resembled the opening scenes of the Wizard of Oz. I didn't notice the clouds building up until the lights on the lamp posts in the park began lighting up. I guess I was just too wrapped up in my digging targets. I *DID* however, notice very well when the emergency broadcast sirens sounded off, I was but twenty feet from the nearest one and it damn near bowled me over, even with my headphones on! It was only a test though, but it did get my attention off of my digging and into the sky. It had grown suspiciously dark by this point and there was the distinct smell of rain on the breeze that was getting stronger by the minute. I wasn't too worried though, because there was no tell tale thunder to be heard or flashes of lightning in the distance. So.. I kept detectin. Right up till the rain began in earnest. I mean raining cats and dogs.. well ok, not really cats and dogs, that would just be weird.. but raining more heavily than the light sprinkle that I had been trying to ignore. Trying to ignore, and was being fairly successful at it due to all the tree cover and was not getting rained on much at all actually. Till the cats and dogs started falling.. er.. well, you know what I mean.
I took shelter in the.. well.. shelter, the only one in this particular park. I waited till the rain let up, which wasn't long at all. "Hmm" I thought, " Just a passing rain shower maybe." But I was pretty much finished for the day at this park and thought I'd move on up to another location to detect. There was another small park a couple of miles away that I've not been to in several months. So I put my detector in the passenger's seat of my little pick up truck, and still wearing my knee pads, finds bag and digger, I drove over to the other park. Upon arrival, there was hardly even a sprinkle to contend with. Oh sure it was still a bit overcast, but still no thunder or lightning, so I headed out of the parking lot and across the park towards the baseball diamonds. I turned on my Prizm IV as soon as I stepped into the grass, but that's when I should have known something wasn't right. Actually I *DID* know something wasn't right.. my detector was going nuts. I was getting a barage of false signals. My detector was screaming at me. The target indicator was all over the spectrum and would not settle down for anything. I was thinking " Oh Great! Now my detector is on the fritz!" I turned it off and on hoping to reset it, no luck. I pulled my batteries and thought that perhaps they had gotten some moisture from the rain earlier.. nope they were dry. I even pulled my coil cover off to make sure I had no holes in the coil or water in between he coil and my cover. Nope.. that's not it either. I was nearing the tot lot of this park, walking as I'm trying to get my detector to settle down and behave correctly, and when I stepped into the woodchips everything worked! Odd. I was wondering if I was getting false signals from the power transformers near the baseball field concession stand/bathrooms. Maybe from one or more of the lamp posts maybe?
Oh well, I scanned the woodchips, not finding anything and was still wondering what caused my detector to freak out. I headed to the baseball diamond and was just yards away, detecting as I walked of course, when my detector started blitzing me with signals again. "What the Hell?" Then I stepped into the Twilight Zone.. or felt as though I did anyway. While my detector was ringing out like a slot machine gone bonkers I got one little "pop" in my headphones.. as a bolt of lightning struck a tree on the far side of the park.. adjacent to one of the overhead floodlight arrays for the baseball diamond.
Do you remember getting your picture taken as a kid by a friend or family member using a camera with those old disposable "flash cubes"? How your eyes would see spots for what seemed like hours? Well I didn't see spots I saw a WHITE HOT SLASH ! YIKES! Of course I didn't have to wait long for the thunder.. it was instantaneous at that distance! And then the heavens opened up and a river just fell out of the sky. River, or waterfall, I can't make up my mind all I know is that I was ankle deep in water in less than thirty seconds, on what was just moments ago, firm dry ground.
Oh, and I turned off my metal detector and took shelter in the dug out of one of the baseball diamonds. There were only two more flashes of lightning over the course of the next thirty minutes, and they were nowhere near the park or me, but I wasn't taking any chances! After the rain let up somewhat I made a soggy dash for my truck and piled into the cab as fast as I could get the door unlocked. I sat there in my truck dripping water from my ears, eyebrows, and nose.. I could still feel the hairs on the nape of my neck standing up and I had goosebumps that were in no way related to temperature. ENOUGH metal detecting for today! I headed for the house! I'd spent enough time in the Twilight Zone for one day.
I puzzled over the events of the last hour or so on my drive home. Could the static charge buildup that became that bolt of lightning from the heavens have been causing the false signals that were driving my detector haywire? If that's so, then the next time I start getting such an overload of signals from my detector you can bet I'll be ducking for cover and checking out the skies. WHEW! I'm GLAD I can say "Live and Learn" from this adventure.
I kind of wish I had brought my camera along on today's excursion. I'd have taken a picture of the tree that the lightning struck, and of all the water that was let loose in that cloudbursting deluge. Alas, I didn't. I didn't even bother taking pictures of anything I *DID* find this morning. I'm still just a little bit rattled I think. But wouldn't you know it, by the time I'd gotten home (and we are talking less than thirty minutes of drive time, stop signs and stop lights included).. well the clouds were passing and the sun was coming back out. Was someone trying to tell me to stay home today? Perhaps. But then, two or three hours later we had another, this time, SEVERE Thunderstorm roll through my neighborhood, complete with high winds, rain and even hail. But this time I watched it all from the dry comfort of my recliner in my living room.. indoors!
Oh.. I did get some pictures today.. Early this morning, before leaving on this ill fated adventure, I took these shots of some flowers blooming in my yard. That's when the battery indicator informed me that the battery was dead.. so I put it on the charger. And now you know why I didn't have my camera with me later. *sigh* Anyway, the flowers were nice.
:
:
:
Hope you all had a better day today, and if not today then sometime you can have some..
Happy Hunting!
Frodov
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