Welcome back, Helen. That sort of thing is agreed to be scary .... Once upon a time, I was listening to approaching lightning on my crystal set, and timing the delay between crackle and thunder; suddenly there was an almighty bang outside and a simultaneous crackissimo in my earphones, and the next thing I knew, I'd thrown the earphones off in panic. And no, the long-wire aerial outside hadn't been hit, or my brains would have been toast.*

Point of interest: Is your network connection via wires or fibre? One of the few reasons I'm glad our phone now goes over fibre-optic is that it reduces possible problems if there's lightning about, for reasons I can bore you rigid with on request.

* Stop sniggering at the back, there.