Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Hail - Oh My!

A couple of weeks ago several tornadoes touched down here in Southeast VA. I was in the car, with my daughter, while a tornado uprooted trees in front and behind us on the highway. Surprisingly, Muffin was OK with this - I was freaking the F*** out.

After it was all over, the police had to redirect everyone because the highway was in shambles. It took me five hours to find an alternate route home because I really know absolutely nothing about Suffolk. Anyway, I figured that after that experience - I'd paid off any highway karma debt I owed for a long, long time.

It's been two years since I was in a storm like that. The last time was the Summer of 2006 when I had to drive through a hurricane in order to be an usher in a stupid graduation ceremony where I work. The drive was awful, roads were flooded, cars were stalled out, the wind was terrible. But - I did as I was directed and came in only to be told that they decided maybe it wasn't a good idea to hold the ceremony during a hurricane and by the way, I could turn around and go home. No the hell I wasn't going home! I just got out of that mess! So, I sat at my computer and watched the weather channel's Doppler radar until I thought I could brave it again.

That being said, when the tornado experience happened I figured I had it coming. It'd been nearly two years and I hadn't experienced any hair-raising traffic scares in a while. Nature needed me to learn that I should never be complacent, blah, blah, blah.

But yesterday, (just three weeks after the freaking tornado) I went out to my car and saw that the sky was green. Green! In my job I've seen some very interesting weather conditions, but I've never seen a green sky. I had planned to do a little shopping after work, but decided that it might be in my best interest to head straight home instead.

About five minutes later, the sky opened up and the rain came in sheets across the road. Well, I can handle rain. Even hard rain. Then, I noticed a peculiar "pinging" noise and saw that a few raindrops were actually bouncing off my car. Bouncing rain drops?

Then the bouncing raindrops got bigger and the noise got louder and I was reminded of that time when I worked at the golf course and those asshole golfers actually aimed at me when I drove the little ball-fetcher-mobile around the driving range. Yeah, it was freaking hail. At first the hail wasn't very big but then it got to be about the size of a marble and then, according to the news reports, it got as big as a quarter.

If it was just little bitty hail, I wouldn't have freaked out - but this shit was huge and loud and there was lots of it! Seriously - have you ever heard one of those "rain stick" things? It sounded a lot like that except it was louder and lasted for about 20 minutes. And I was thinking to myself "Really? Again with the nasty storm on the highway? Sheesh!" I was hunched up in my car, shoulders up to my ears, hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel when I turned to the side and noticed the joker next to me calmly talking on his cellphone and driving with one hand. Seriously? In this storm, with that wind, not to mention the HAIL - you really need to talk on your cell?

I must be a complete weather pussy. Either way, I hope that NOW my weather karma debt has finally been fulfilled. And yet, hurricane season is just around the corner. brrrr...