It was a brilliant summer day today. And it ended in an exciting thunderstorm.

The skies were clear and the weather hot, pretty much all day. The dogs lazed around, not wanting to be outside for much longer than a quick zoom around the inflatable pool.

The kids and wife ran an errand which included lunch out and some time at the park. The governor eased some restrictions today, but we're not rushing in. The city did ease the playground restriction, but still with social-distancing guidelines. The trio grabbed some take-out burgers and hit a picnic table at one of the smaller parks nearby. Another family was playing on the equipment while mine ate, but left about the time mine finished eating. The kids climbed on ropes and rock walls, laughed on swings, slid on slides, and ran around amok, in the best possible way. So many big grins when they got home. I'd stayed back, a little tired, even though yesterday was pretty laid-back. I also sunburn like a vampire. A nap was had, after they got back, and some lounging.

It started raining a bit around dinner time. I sat on the porch while the kiddos ran out into the drizzle, and then returned to report they'd gotten wet, many times. It turned into a monstrous thunderstorm and downpour at bedtime. One of the strikes was quite loud and startling, so both came from their bedroom. At the same time, the internet stopped working, killing all of the distracting bedtime music from the Google Homes. That didn't help.

One of the UPSs had tripped with one of the lightning-induced brown-outs, and that's how I learned I'd plugged the telco router into a surge spot, not a battery spot. I tickled the power on the UPS, and inadvertently reset one of the servers. Normally it goes from on to battery, but you can turn it back on without turning the battery off--didn't this time, though. One of the reasons this particular server is on a UPS is because it doesn't restart well, so I spent some time doing that, too, and then checking it for unexpected power-off damage (there was none). I made a note to pick up a better UPS. I've got two massive 1500VA UPS for the big server, but the little server only draws 200W per power supply, so it's plugged into a 350VA, one to battery, one to surge, but through the same UPS. This little server only uses both to power-up, then powers one off until needed for failure of the other, or load (that I've never seen on the system).

In all pretty big thunderstorm and downpour waves came through, the third after the littles finally gave in for the night. Nice bacon-sounding rain, with a light show and rumbles not fireworks for a change.

Everyone's healthy.