I will never attempt to sell this anti-lightning rod invention, but it would save a few lives if manufactured and sold. I was narrowly missed by lightning last year. See Lightning Strikes at me! ! I had been raking my backyard with an aluminum-handled rake when big drops of rain started falling. I knew that big drops mean that a cumulonimbus cloud was above me. It takes a powerful updraft to lift the drops high enough to form big raindrops, and when they are falling through the cloud, their friction creates the electrical charge that permits the lightning strike. I put the rake down, walked fifteen steps over to an open gate to close it, and was returning straight back toward the rake when the bolt struck. I was looking directly at it when it sizzled, hurt, flashed, and boomed. Ten seconds later, I was inside the house looking at my leg and showing a strange mark to Debbie.

That experience came to mind while we were taking our noon walk. It was cloudy, but there was no rain or thunder, but I was carrying an umbrella just in case it started to rain. We were about ten minutes from home and starting back when big drops started coming down out of clear air. The raindrops were far apart like the ones I used to catch with my mouth when I was a kid, but now being older and wiser, I was concerned about attracting lightning with my umbrella. So we put up the umbrella, huddled under it, and hurried home, but I wondered what I could do to prevent that lightning experience from happening again.

The obvious answer is to replace the metal shaft and the metal radiating spokes that hold up the cloth with plastic parts. That would reduce the chance of being struck by lightning. I will consider making one, but it will be much easier to make a non-folding one, creating a storage problem.

I also made a way for conveniently storing tubes of things like toothpaste and other pointy items.

In addition, I made a way to take glare out of the edges of eyeglasses. I did make a beautifully working model, but I’ll wait a bit before showing those.