A Rare Phenomenon

The boys & I ventured out to a playgroup dinner last evening, despite the rapidly accumulating snow and warnings of a major snowstorm hammering the area.  I was feeling the need to get out, and the house we were going to was pretty much a straight shot on one of the main roads.  Anyway, while eating dinner we experienced a brief thundersnow, which paled in comparison to most good springtime midwestern thunderstorms, but nevertheless caught us all off guard and sparked some interesting conversation.  One friend mentioned she had just heard how rare thundersnows are, with only something like 6 reported annually in the United States.  Laurence was pretty fascinated with all of this, but the concept of snow + lightening + thunder was clearly concerning him somewhat.   He talked about it quite a bit during the ride home, and as usual, he left me wishing I had more information stored up here (pointing to my head just now) on his current topic of fascination.  We made it home safely and were pleasantly surprised to find Bill waiting for us.  "Oooo, wait 'til Daddy hears..." he's saying, mostly to himself, as we pull in the driveway.  Bill greets us at the door and Laurence eagerly exclaims, "Daddy, guess what?  We just drove thru a blister!"  In total the storm left only about 6 or 7 inches of new snow, and I believe we only saw & heard 2 thunder/lightening episodes, but in our house, the Blister of February '09 will go down in history.