It's Raining Bowling Balls

I'm not sure what it is about April hailstorms. I do know that I am SO done with them.

Last year, they managed to rain down golfballs onto Pearl's trunk – the only part not covered by the carport. This year, they rained down TENNIS BALLS on the MonkeyGirl's ride, Luna. (A really pretty Volkswagen CC.)

We were scrapbooking on Saturday at a charity event the MonkeyGirl's office has each year (sometimes twice!) when the tornado siren went off shortly before 6. We all went into an enclosed stairwell and rode it out. We didn't have to wait long before, as the MonkeyGirl put it, "it started raining bowling balls." As it turned out, it really wasn't much of an exaggeration.

It's not a great photo but it's good enough that you get the idea. Bear in mind, too, that I took these pictures 15 minutes or more after the fact, after I had been holding it for a minute or two and then it was melting while my volunteer held it -- and it was about 70 degrees at the time. So this is smaller than when it fell. These suckers were MASSIVE!!!!

I've never seen hail this size firsthand before and I hope that I never do again. The scary part was that hailstones this size were NOT rare. They were still all over the parking lot after they'd done their damage. Windshields were cracked or busted out. Like in the car above which belongs to a fellow scrapper and was the first damage I noticed in the aftermath. Back windows were smashed out all over the place. Car bodies looked like they had been target practice in some kind of a bizarre game.

I knew there would be damage but to so many cars and all so severely. Meanwhile, Pearl was at the MonkeyGirl's house and appears to have come through the much smaller hail storm that happened there unscathed. Knowing that made me feel even worse once I saw this. That's the MonkeyGirl's windshield -- and only the beginning of the damage.

She has an incredible attitude about it. Luckily, we weren't on the road when the storm broke out, so no one got hurt. And, as she put it: "That's what I have insurance for."

Like I said,I've never seen hail like that before, except on TV or in pictures online. It's just unreal how much damage it can do and how quickly it can do it. Let's hope that we're DONE with this stuff! While I'm not bold enough to assume we'll never have hail again, it would be nice if it would be a while before it comes our way.