OMG-Those are wonderful! We brought my parents to live with us and in order to make room for everybody's everything, I got rid of a lot of my stash. Also, a lot of stuff is packed up in a storage shed. Looking at these pics of yours, I've got to get out to those boxes and see what I have left as I'm sure I kept a couple of my old candle holders. I went looking last week at a couple of Salvation Armys specifically for crackled glass globes. Everyone must have the same idea because there wasn't a single one to be found. I have two 8" crackle globes (was hoping for a third to make a totem candle holder) I was saving for whatever came to mind and now that I see your pic, I know what I want to do with them--Thank you!

All our closets (except the master) have a fluorescent light mounted inside the closet above the door, so you don't see it unless you walk into the closet and turn around. I can't remember the exact code, but you can't have an incandescent light within so many inches of anything flammable (like clothes), so we went with fluorescent just to be safe. The code (in our area) doesn't care if the bulb is "bare" or not. What matters is incandescent vs. fluorescent. The master walkin has one incandescent fixture in the middle since it won't be near clothes. Eventually it will have a nice approx. 180 fixture. Personally, I would do fluorescent for kids' closets to cut down on electricity (every kid I've ever known leaves the closet light on 60% of the time).

If the base is an edison screw in base (E26 or E27), it is a matter of putting in a CFL or LED bulb with the same base. The look will not be the same though. Alternatively, if you can get http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/LED-Globe-suits-vanity-and-decorative-lighting-fixtures-20014058

It can hail in most any weather condition. Remember the old lottery machines with the ping-pong balls that popped up and down in the big container? It's a similar concept. What happens is a layer of cold temperatures is aloft with warm layers and the raindrops get sort of "bounced" up and down through those layers (similar to the popping in the lottery machine). Once a raindrop goes through the cold level, eventually some drops freeze and different winds and pressures move them up and down and the frozen drop gathers moisture from either or both sides of the cold layer(s) and then it freezes the added moisture again in the cold layer. The more times through it, the larger the hailstones until eventually gravity overcomes the pressures and winds up there and makes them drop to the ground as hail. So actually there's cold layers required to produce hail, but it's the difference in temperatures that give the storms so the bad storms will normally be when it's hot (and usually humid) on the ground level and cold air layered above. These conditions give the more severe storms and with the right conditions can produce tornadoes. I've often wondered on skylights. I know they're tough, guess it's being able to see through that gives the impression of vulnerability. I have one cat who likes watching lightning and she enjoys a good storm as long as the pressure isn't too bad and the noise not too loud. The other one usually takes cover.