Oh Hail

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Weather is looking dicey tonight but we're going business as usual. If it rains, we'll just adapt and figure something out (Some people call that "Vigus-ing" it). The rain last night was cold! I was on College rd. at at the Long Leaf traffic light when it really started to fall and I saw the hail start to bounce off the hood and road. It was cool because it wasn't threatening.


The 5 worst hail storms I've ever witnessed were all on the same afternoon. Here's the story :

We were on last year's baseball trip (one of my favorite things every year) at an afternoon game in Cleveland. It was a good game, they had a buffet for large groups like us, weather was great. After the game everyone was walking down 10 or 12 blocks to the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame museum.Since the day they opened, I have wanted to go. I watched the Opening Day Concert on VH-1 all the way through, keep up with who's inducted,,,,everything. Always wanted to go, so I was really looking forward to this, plus.....Bruce Lennon was going. If I had to pick one person who deserved to go to the Rock'n Roll hall of Fame museum it would be Bruce. Bruce is encyclopedic in his knowledge of rock in general and flawless in the rock from his teenage and college years. It was going to be fun to hang out there with someone who knew as much ,and was into it as much as me.


But first David Smith and I had to get the bus from the ballpark to the museum. No problem, it was just a few blocks straight shot....except that it started to rain. Still not a problem....except that Time wasn't something we had tons of. Everyone else had gotten there and gotten in. We weren't there yet and time was ticking. It closed at 5:30 and it was a little after 3. Still worth it but we had to hustle.


Then it started to rain really hard.


We pull up in front of the Museum ( did I mention it sits directly on Lake Erie?) and it starts to rain even harder. Like, step off the bus and be drenched 10 ft. later and sopping wet for the rest of the time you're inside, harder?


So here I am, only 150 ft. from the entrance and in plain view of a place I've always wanted to go and not really able to go in yet.


Time is running short, so I gotta make like The Clash-Should I stay or Should I go now ?

Just about the time I decide to bolt out of the bus and run for the door, it starts to hail. Hard. Lots of it. Sideways. Inside of the bus it sounds like the world's largest popcorn popper. 15 solid minutes of it.

Stops for a minute or three and then starts all over again. As hard if not harder than the first time. Nonstop for 10 minutes.

Another break ...and here it comes again. It's rolling in off Lake Erie in waves. I'm texting people back in Wilmington about it It's starting to get pretty ri-darn-diculous.

I'm thinking "Why doesn't God want me to go to the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame?"

"How much can it hail in one afternoon?"

"Is this what it was like for Moses looking out at the Promised land?"

I was dying.

When it was over, 5 separate bands of hailstorms came through that afternoon, with no break in the rain in between. Every trash can was now several blocks down the street and all the trees in the area were bare, with all their leaves on the ground and strowed everywhere. It lasted over 55 minutes and was written up the next day in a story in USA Today.



When it finally stopped hailing and raining enough for me to make a run for it, it was 5:10.

I had a whole 20 minutes to see the Rock'n Roll Hall of fame Museum.

The kicker was, it cost 20 bucks to go in and see the exhibits. My options now were: A. just go in and hang out in the gift store for 20 minutes or B. go for the Dollar -a - Minute Experience and not even come close to seeing everything.

It's a decent gift store.


Looks like Baked Spaghetti is what we'll cook tonight. We had someone give us a nice amount of fried chicken and some fixin's that might get us most of the way through the first stop and then when it's gone we'll bust out the baked spaghetti we've cooked and use it the rest of the way.
Tell you how it went later tonight.