Hail

My house has the mixed scent of freshly baked sweet potato bread and just brewed coffee. My kids are playing nicely but separately. B is painting at the kitchen table and R is working on chasing plastic golf balls around the house with his clubs. In a quick glance you could say that so far it's been a good start to our week....

What you can't see is the damage and frustration that came from this weekends hail storm. In our garage is parked one brand new Hyundai Sonata with a near shattered windshield and 6 dozen golf ball-base ball size dents. In the parking lot of the hubby's work is my loved and in otherwise perfect condition 07 Mazda with almost the same description in damage. It's a bit less cracked which why it is the one being driven and not the Sonata.

The storm rolled in fast and fierce on Sat. around 5pm. The kids and I were at a party with my MIL. We could see the giant hail balls hitting down in the yard. Admittedly they were gigantic and for a storm lover like myself, quite fascinating. However it was the sound that stuck out the most. It wasn't just that common noise that hail makes when hitting the roof or the pavement. There was this extra resonance that followed the usual clinking of the ice chunks. Once the hail stopped and we were able to step outside to view the damage we realized what that sound was. Broken Glass. The force of the storm and ridiculous size of hail cracked, dented and shattered almost all the windshields of the vehicles parked outside. To see dents on your car from hail is one thing, but to have your entire windshield sprawling with lines of cracks brings down a whole other level of anger.

But that's the thing about storms. There is really no point in getting angry. I mean with whom are you going to be angry? Yourself for leaving your car outside? That's often unavoidable, as it was in my case. Angry at God for causing storms?...That's just stupid. Mad again at yourself for even owning a car that's now going to cost you a few hundred dollars on new windshields and dent repair?....Again, stupid. There's nothing to be done, other than, if you were smart enough to fork over the extra dough for full coverage, wait for your insurance adjuster to come and survey the damages so you can get your repairs done and get back to driving without fear of the whole glass panel shattering in on top of you.

C'est la vie.