Oh, Hail!

 We had a hailstorm about 6:00 Monday evening, with the biggest balls of hail I've seen since we moved here four years ago.   It was exciting but scary! 

I was sitting out on the patio when it started, nicely protected by the roof of the balcony above me as I watched the small balls splat against the flagstone.  But they soon became bigger and the sound of them whacking our neighbor's metal roof was like bullets.  And, like bullets, they ricocheted off any hard surface, bouncing around in every direction.  Feeling a bit scared and wanting to share the experience, I ran downstairs and called Paul out of his room.  For some reason I felt better with him watching the storm with me, even though he thought it was great fun and I thought it was fun but scary. 

Here's a one-minute video so you get an idea of the noise and chaos as the big balls of ice flew around.  (If clicking on the arrow doesn't work, try clicking here.)

Ben was out at the store during this deluge and called to suggest that I move my car into the garage.  It was too late by then, and later we realized that there are now plenty of very small dents all over the hood and roof of my little VW Gulf.  Luckily there wasn't any serious damage to our cars or our house, though the entire yard was covered with leaves that had been sliced off the trees by the hail.  The other casualty was a newly planted cucumber plant; each one of its four vines were cut cleanly  off the stem.   

Yesterday some of the area had yet another round of hail, but it just got dark and windy here.  I was glad; one big hail storm every four years is about all I think my nerves can take!