Hailstorm Hits

Last night (no, this morning) I was awakened around 3ish by lightning and the sound of raindrops tapdancing on the window shade.  I nudged DH -- it was his window -- to close it before the furniture got wet.  As I lay there, listening to the growling thunder, it quickly escalated to the sound of fist-sized rocks hammering the roof. Yikes!

I ran downstairs to get the camera and the percussion of hail beating against the skylights  made me pause -- it sounded like they could come crashing down.  I bravely grabbed the camera (by this time both DH and Youngest Daughter were up) and we went out on the front porch to take pictures.

Rosie the dog was distressed by all the racket and doing her velcro-dog impersonation.  The white blobs in the pictures are the falling hail.  My neighbor ran out (wearing pajamas)  to close the windows on his car.  We picked up a piece for YD to hold.  Not quite golf-ball sized.

This morning, the damage was amazing.  It was as if the trees had held a war.

There were no leaves left on the stupid fake fruit tree (of course, the stupid fake fruit is still there).

My pumpkin vines were shredded.

Tomatoes were all over the ground.

Lemons were knocked off the tree.

The fireplace cover had large holes.

The siding and gutters were smashed and dented.

And my new window screens were ripped.  The damage to the house seems to be confined mostly to the west-facing side.

My neighbor said that their skylights were broken in by the hail.  There are branches down and the noise of chainsaws, mowers, and blowers (I hate those things) have sounded a cacophony since first light.  My cars were safe in the garage, but cars that were left out were seriously dented.   I checked the forecast -- there are storms forecast for most of the next week.

And the teenager lay calmly in his bed, reading a book.  "Yeah, I heard the hail," he said.