a ding...

I am usually very courageous...or so I think...but last night, I was scared stiff.  I have never driven in such horrible weather in Texas before.  Hail that was HUGE!!!  The largest I have ever seen since I have lived here.  

I had seen a post on Facebook about a Weather Advisory being issued for the evening in Texas, but I didn't stop to read the details nor did it occur that evening was 5.30pm!  Regardless, when the crackle and down poor of massive hail occured, my mind went back to the short clip I had read.  I was at a client's office, fixing to wrap up my day and head out to my monthly AAPC class.  But all those plans quickly changed with the state of the weather.  The office manager and I were trying to lock up the place, but the alarm would not set.  That usually means a door is not closed all the way, but with the massive hailing going on, we made a quick decision after trying to do a quick trouble shoot to forget the alarm and get gone.  We were pelted with hail as we ran to our cars.  When, I got in my car, I quickly realized this hail was not going to leave anytime soon and I decided to skip class and head straight home.  After I got on the freeway, I wasn't sure this was the best idea or not...people were pulling over and parking under the overpasses and blocking all lanes of traffic.  Police were coming thru having to honk so that they would break up and keep moving.  Someone pulled over like that right in front of me and it was all I could do to miss them.  No break lights, no warning!!!  It was insane to say the least!!!  I decided to keep moving, my hands criped really tight on the steering wheel, trying to decide whether I was going to find a bank drive thru to pull under or just keep making headway home.  As the hail streamed down, I thought at any minute I was not going to have a windshield.  The wind, the driving rain, the ice and hail let alone the maniacs out on the road made the drive home scary!!!  I made it home before the hail hit my end of town.  After I pulled in the garage, I wasn't sure I even wanted to inspect my car to see if there was damage as I was thoroughly expecting to have dents all over my brand new Honda Civic!  There is one big dent on the curve of the left rear panel halfway in towards the trunk (see the picture below) and it is comparable to the size of your first finger curved towards your thumb to make a circle.  The other picture is of someone else's post on Facebook of the hail in their area and I snagged it so that you can see in detail the actual size, and larger, pieces of hail I had to deal with.  Totally incredible that hail can come out of the sky like that...makes you feel really small when you think about how God does that!  I am very thankful that I did not have a wreck and that I made it home safe and sound.  Though having a dent in my car isn't my choice of things, it matches my life, anything but perfect!

golf ball size hail

dent in my car

In every situation, particularly when you have negative results, I always contemplate what would I do different...so I wonder, should I have just stayed put at the clinic???  Dents could have happened moving or not.  Would that have been safer???  I was afraid to stay there in case the power went out and then trying to get all my things out the door would not have worked out well by myself.  I still don't know...I just hope that I know next time what to do and that I will have the same safety, but if not, I know God is still with me!