Out of nowhere came a tremendous flash of brief light.

This wasn’t your typical lightning flash. For one, it was extremely brief and sudden, as if you were whacked in the head and saw a sudden flash, but you weren’t entirely sure it was there. For another, it was entirely singular. There was no other lightning the entire rainy day. None.

Maybe it was a blood vessel popping in my retina? Maybe it was a nerve-ending crying out for help. Maybe it was a cosmic ray hitting me in just the right spot.

“Did you see that?”, we had to confirm with ourselves it was real.

“Yeah!”

<tick>, <tick>, <BOOOOM>, <rumble>, <BOOM>, <ruuuuuumble>

After an approximately 2 seconds pause, the house violently recoiled against a shock wave, several times. There was a long cacophony of multiple booms and rumbles with an extremely long tail lasting 5 or 6 seconds. It felt like an earthquake with an unusually long rumble with multiple explosive reports, but also not an earthquake. Earthquakes on the east coast aren’t associated with cannon blasts and are typically beneath notice.

The puzzle countdown started here. That was weird. It didn’t make a lot of sense. It didn’t match any previous experience with thunder and lightning, or with earthquakes.

Within minutes the NextDoor posts started, lasting well into the next day.

First, a few, then dozens, then scores of people recounting how they were in the middle of stoking the fire or getting a snack or reading a book or knitting a dog sweater or whatever.

“Did something explode?”, asks one.

“Is anybody blasting?”, replies another. (at 8:50 on a Thursday night.. in the rain..)

“Was that an earthquake?”

“What the hell was that?” (some didn’t see the lightning)

Some people theorized it was an earthquake in nearby Trenton, NJ. Some theorized it was a skyquake, which is a really neat phenomenon if you haven’t heard of it, but didn’t really fit the usual thesis of lack of clouds and no lightning. Explosions were very popular.

I puzzled about this that night and through the next day. I mean, clearly, it was thunder and lightning. Jennifer checked the lightning tracker app and said there was a strike nearby, about 1.5 miles away. But other people said they saw a strike nearby too. It couldn’t be near us and near some of the other posters simultaneously. That didn’t make sense.

If it was that close, why all of the multiple reports? Why were people dozens of miles away reporting the same auditory and tangible violence? Why were people over in New Jersey? People felt it. Anxious dogs and cats felt it and went scrambling to their safe places or leaping into the air.

What!?!? How!?

So, Friday afternoon I took a deeper look at the lightning history tracker application for the last 24 hours. I took a screenshot! Okay, there was a strike just northeast of here. 8:50 PM. Well, that’s promising, but what about all the people further away? Hrm, there’s another strike to the west, also at 8:50 PM, and 2 strikes to the south about 4 miles, also at 8:50 PM.

8:50 PM? hrm.. Not only that, but they were all at the same time to the microsecond.

A multi-strike? I’ve heard of multi-strikes before. But, until now, I’d never experienced one. I’d never heard of one multiple miles apart either! But it fit the evidence.

Multipe booms? Check. Each strike being further or closer with a speed-of-sound delay would result in multiple reports. The further away the strike, the less distinct the bang and the longer the rumble. Multiple criteria checked.

Single flash? Check. The speed of light is damn fast. A single multi-strike would seem like broad daylight for a brief second, emanating from seemingly everywhere.

Widely reported over a broad area? Again, check!

I think the mystery is solved to my satisfaction. The theory fits the evidence, as strange as it is wondrous. My neighbors and I had a unique experience to remember for a long time.

“Remember, that winter strike back in ’23, Mabel?”

“I sure do, Betsy. I thought somebody was shelling the neighbors! My cat jumped clean out of his sweater!”

There’s a lot of advice out there about telecommuting, and much of it is actually really good! (unless it isn’t.) Much of it is also specifically formulated for the new teleworker. I used to follow it much more strictly myself. But, then I learned how to embrace my situation.

Here are some common pieces of advice followed by my take, and some twists.

1. Wear the same clothes that you would wear to work at the office.

This is one of those mindset things.

The theory is that it helps put you in the mindset to get work done. In reality, the most important thing is to be comfortable. If you aren’t comfortable, how likely is it that you are going to be efficient? Most of my winter work days are spent in jeans and something fleecy, and my summers are in shorts and a t-shirt.

2. Have a dedicated work room, away from the family.

This one does tend to be important, especially if you have little kids, and especially at first.

You need to try to enforce with the family that when you are in the work room, pretend you aren’t home. In reality, once kids are grown, this is far less important.

On really cold winter days I will work downstairs on the couch by the wood stove with my laptop.

Also, after family got used to it, taking breaks from work is actually a good way to think about problems and come back later with fresh ideas. Your brain will keep thinking about unfinished tasks in the background.

I’ll spend some time working with the laptop and some time working at the desktop throughout the day, depending upon how I’m feeling at the time.

3. Carry on your regular work routine at home.

This is another piece of advice geared towards mindset. If you pretend you are at work, then you will be in a work mindset.

In reality, I break this ALL THE TIME. Sure, I attend meetings, but I’ll take a break to drain the chicken mash for the day; then take the dried mash out in bowls for them after some hours; then take the dogs for their walk at some point; wander down to the kitchen for a snack; maybe sneak in a tiny bit of gardening; oh damn, I forgot I wanted to finish painting that molding around the windows; another astronomy article on Medium by Ethan? Time to read..

Whether you get your work done from 9–5 or 8am–10pm interspersed with personal tasks, it doesn’t really matter to most employers as long as you are getting your tasks done, available for communication, and meeting your obligations. Little distractions can be like recharging your batteries after thinking about things without interruption. Your communication apps can follow you around in the modern world.

I used to receive far more interruptions at the office from people talking in the halls, or in the office next door, or randomly stopping by. I can achieve far more intense focus at home on tasks and get more done with greater efficiency.

Different people may have vastly different experiences with this.

For me, it helps that our primary development team is 5-6 timezones away. Mornings are spent in heavy communication mode, and afternoons are typically good for concentration.

I also get a fair bit of scripting done later in the evening on the couch while news is on in the background. The trick is, don’t have anything on that you have to pay close attention to, like a twisty thriller. Light content in the background doesn’t get in the way.

4. Communication with co-workers is still very important.

This Covid-19 self-sequestration may, ironically, be one of the best things to happen for companies and telecommuters.

Wait, what?! Why?

Because if everybody has the same limitations with communication, than it’s less likely that an individual will be isolated. Isolation is usually the killer to teleworkers in a mixed office/remote setup. The people at home do not benefit from the quick scrum that happened spontaneously and organically. This often leads to people feeling disconnecting, or things having to be rehashed multiple times. But, if everybody is in the same situation, there are less likely to be non-participants.

Establish regular and sanctioned communication mechanisms and channels like Slack, IRC, or similar. Have a daily check-in or scrum in the morning where people can talk about what they did the day before and what they’re planning to do today. It’s a great way to keep people on task and connected.

Further, establish a #random channel in your slack where people can put random articles and links, comics, and other things not directly related to work. (Obviously, nothing inappropriate or offensive should be posted).

Having a #random channel is a lot like having a water cooler. Recent things that have happened in our #random channel include: conversations about chickens, how great Far Side was (undeniable, really), HPE’s latest SSD flaws, the latest Covid-19 stats, and vacation photos.

5. Take breaks.

I find this just fits in nicely into my routine. This is especially advisable for people with repetitive stress injuries. Home work really lends itself to taking breaks, especially if there are pets or other members of the family. Of course, if you are single and live in a metro high-rise without any pets, I’m not sure what advice I could give to you. Maybe post something in #random or read a Medium article. We have 2 dogs, 10 chickens, a pond full of an uncountable number of Goldfish, a pedigree rabbit named Bob, and bird feeders for wild birds. There’s always something going on. Also, I never have problems with delivered items sitting outside the door for too long because I can see them arrive.

6. Make sure you have enough screen real-estate.

Have your Slack or Skype or whatever up there, a place where you can check your email, various desktop things, whatever it is you normally would want to see at a glance. And of course, the more IT focused you are, the larger your monitor is likely to be. I, personally have a 33" monitor in landscape mode and a 19" one next to it in portrait mode which I have dedicated to my mail client.

Final advice:

Be flexible! You don’t necessarily have to have a rigid schedule. If you can get more done by spreading it out through the day, do that as long as it works for you and your team. Be available, but you don’t have to be glued to your keyboard. If you need to take a trip to the store, fine, just make sure you let your team know. You can always make it up later. Your home is your office is your home. The lines can blur, and often times that is okay. Embrace the flexibility that your new situation provides.

Working from home doesn’t have to be an inconvenient chore if you have the right attitude. Carpe diem.