We just got hailed on!

Another electrical storm here in the San Fernando Valley. Mr. Rilch and I had to go to the store: we needed staples, and the impending storm only made that need more urgent. Plus, he wanted to stop at the art store for some tracing paper.

The sky was dark and threatening on the drive over. I mean, heavy clouds. And as soon as we got out of the market, the rain started, along with thunder and lightning. Mr. RIlch had heard hail predicted, and sure enough, it fell on us! Not enough to damage the car*; real tiny pellets, more like snow.

We got home all right, except we had a hard time turning on to our street; we had to wait for the line of cars whose drivers must have pulled over earlier to pass.

One bad thing did happen, though. The tracing paper was wrapped in a plastic tube, which I had to hold in my hands so it wouldn’t get crushed. I had suggested that when we got home, we should leave the paper in the car and go upstairs to get a plastic bag to carry it in. Mr. Rilch insisted it would be okay if he carried it under his jacket. So he does…and more than half the paper falls out, right into a puddle. :smack:

*My mom and I were once caught in a real hailstorm while driving through Texas. Took a long time to convince the Illinois-based insurance company that the golf-ball sized dents weren’t caused by vandalism.

72 degrees here today. On Jan 3. When 40 should be warm.

I just want to know.

When did I move to Florida?

Hail! All Hail Rilchiam!

Sorry, I just had to do that.

We had a storm on the 1st; thunder, lightning, the whole bit. And it was pouring (ice instead of rain, but still). I’ve never seen anything like it in MN in January. Very odd.

Oh, great. That means we’ll get it in about an hour or so. Thanks for the warning.

Man, wasn’t that crazy to watch? The ice was coming down like rain. The grass was green, but the road was white. It was glare ice! I am glad my car was in the garage, so I didn’t have to chisel it off.

It was gorgeous! I was on my way home from work via the 210 and the lightning was just crackling across the sky. Then the hail started. It didn’t last that long, but it certainly was impressive.

I had to drop my sister off at MSP for her First Flight EVER* that night. And then I had to come back home, which is 75 miles if you believe randmcnally.com. It took us (myself and a friend who did most of the driving, thankfully; I was still hungover and panicky…) something like 4 hours to get back here, because 35 was a mess and there were no plows on the north side. We saw probably 8 headed south, though. Oh, and we had to keep getting off the freeway to throw ice on the windshield because, for reasons completely unknown (to me anyway), my car refuses to use the bottle of washer fluid I just put in there. So that was fun.

*It’s her first commercial flight; we both went up in a little something or other when I was 12 or so. They took off a couple hours late, but I guess everything was fine. I still haven’t talked to her to find out how my nephew, who started crying as soon as we pulled into the parking ramp, handled the whole thing.