Scott and I were in the middle of an intense game of scrabble this evening when rocks started hitting the house, or at least that’s what it sounded like. Turns out it was hail! I’ve seen pictures of severe hail in other Minnesota cities but in the 31 years I’ve lived here, it’s never been this bad in Cannon Falls. It reminded me of when I was a little girl living in Southern California and we had a very rare hail storm. I put on my yellow rain slicker, and took my bucket outside to play in the hail. (This was after it had quit coming down.) It was almost as good as snow in my mind. I mean, we NEVER had anything fun like that to play with in our yard.
Though Scott and I were safely tucked inside when the hail started, John was out mowing the lawn. He saw a piece of hail land on the grass and did the most logical thing that one can do when things are falling out of the sky. He looked up! He has a slight red mark above his right eye, but I think he’ll recover. Our neighbor is annoyed that the sirens didn’t go off. I reminded him that hail wasn’t generally considered life threatening. He said, “No, but it sure does hurt when it hits you in the head!” Below is a picture of John holding the assaulting hail. This isn’t actually the one that hit him or the neighbor, this is the one I stuck down the back of Scott’s shirt, so it’s melted a little.
The hail in our garden made it look like there were quite a few errant miniature golf balls! If only I had a yellow rain slicker I could have gone outside to play!
Thankfully, the most severe damage at our house caused by the hail was to our hostas. Unfortunately, they make up about 90% of our very large garden. Do you think we can make a claim for them on our homeowners insurance?