Clang, Bang, Cover Your Ears!

On the last day of June, I sat on my porch, happy for a long awaited summer day. The huge pine trees standing guard at the end of the driveway had new, spring green growth at the tip of each branch. The grass needed cutting and the flowers I planted a few weeks ago were recovering from the shock of being outside of a greenhouse.

Later in the afternoon, a weather alert crept ominously across the top of a weekday talk show on the television. My Darling Husband, on vacation this week, suggested I move my car into the protective cover of the spring colored trees. Then, he left for a trip to the local grocery store.

The storm darkened the sky, thunder rumbled and the wind began to bend the trees and bushes. Thump, thump, became clang, bump, clang.

Then Darling Hubby came up the drive and swooped the van into the cover of a huge tin shed, a horse arena in earlier days. The sound was deafening for him as the hollow shed with a tin roof amplified each pelting hailstone.

My son and I stood in the hallway with the dog. The cat became a grey streak like a quick brush mark on a canvas.

Bang, Clatter, Bang, then the glass began to break. We closed the doors to both bedrooms as the glass shattered on the other side of the doors. The bathroom window shattered at some time during the crashing and banging.

Then, the wind stopped, the pelting stopped and Darling Hubby emerged from the shed.

In our corner of town, today, it looks like most homeowners are missing their west facing windows. Some siding is terribly pocked and I have no doubt our roof and gutters will be needing repair.

In this time of digital cameras, my two guys ventured outside to take photos.

The spring green pine tips are a carpet on our porch and driveway. The car was blanketed by the new growth as well and suffered no indignity from the storm. My son and husband set about posing the bigger than golf ball sized hailstones in various poses and situations to dramatize their considerable size.

Today, we drove through the neighborhood, put in a claim and began twitching a little bit as the thunderstorms circled. We got some more hail today but were so emboldened by yesterday’s event that we made a little fun at the stuff resembling new age pellets from a leaking bean-bag chair.