My favorite thing about winter: Static electricity.

No, that's not sarcasm. 


I have three cats who like to sleep on my bed and some very conducive blankets. Over the winter, I get a light show just about every night before I fall asleep – at least while the weather is cold and the heat is on.

My cats love heavy scritches. Whether it's what they really love or what they've learned to tolerate from me since they were kittens, who knows? But I can run my hands back & forth – with and "against the grain" of fur – on any of them. 

When I do this over the shedding months, it generates terrifying clouds of fur. But when I do this over the winter, they sparkle with kitty-cat lightning!

This has been a thing for years, but recently, I've noticed even more – probably due to more fleece in the assembly of covers on the bed. Clusters of sparks have followed the cats as they've rolled over or walked around. Last night,  Rudie went crazy as I spent several minutes generating sparks with  my hands across his favorite blanket. Rosie was quite intrigued, too. The laser pointer wins only by way of controllability.

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I might try to catch it on video before the winter moves on, because I'd love to share it here, But with the light level so low, I'm not optimistic. If I achieve any level of success, you'll be the first to know!
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