Monday, March 28, 2011

Sunday Rain...

...mixed with some hail. I think the last time I witnessed hail falling from the sky was in my youth when I was around 10. We were visiting the home of one of our family friend's parents house. The friend was older, so the parents were much older. The house itself was built during the civil war era. It was haunted, or so the owners said. Knowing that both excited and terrified me. I had a few experiences there that I still remember vividly. Only one was witnessed by others, so that is the only one I can say I knew occurred beyond a shadow of a doubt. While sitting in the "sitting room" where they had a grand piano situated in the area of a bank of windows (it was quite beautiful), I was hanging out with a few family members when the piano started to play. No tune in particular. Just a series of keys being struck. The owners shrugged it off. A regular occurrence, nothing to be alarmed by. I thought it was extremely fascinating. It was during that weekend that golf ball size hail fell. I remember seeing it bounce along the ground when it hit.

(These first four photos were taken before the rain arrived today. A cool exhilarating wind was blowing, and the deep blue gray of the storm was quickly encroaching on the sky. The white puffy clouds were rapidly turning into moody dark clouds as if the storm were a contagion. It was interesting to witness.)






(The billowy Cumulus roiling above, as the storm moves in to take over.)

The hail we had here in Savannah was about the size of small Jawbreakers. It, too, bounced when it struck the ground.

I was sitting here on the computer thinking how the rain sounded especially heavy. As soon as the thought passed through my mind, Glenn came back to tell me that he hoped his truck was going to be okay because it was hailing. Hopping up, I grabbed for the camera (everything is a photo op to me), and made for the front door. It was a fascinating sight seeing the balls of ice falling in torrents. Initially, the hail fell sans rain. It was falling so heavily that it covered the sidewalk and grass forming small mounds. The ground quickly became a solid white. Once the gout's of rain started falling, the hail started to flow away. I wish I could have gotten my act together quicker so I could have gotten some pictures of the hail before the rain washed it away. No such luck...

(The photo above is of some of the hail. It's not as impressive as it was at one point due to the rain.)

According to the Weather Channel, we are supposed to have rain every day this week. Knocking wood over here. I absolutely love rain. Wish it would rain all the time. Rain always puts me in a state where I'm my most productive. I have writing projects I need to make some serious dents in. Here's hoping it holds up...


5 comments:

  1. What a wonderfully atmospheric post...

    The story of the piano playing by itself gave me a shiver. When I was a child, the American school I attended in Belgium (long story) rented part of an old building shared with a convent. One lunchtime some children came running out from some place they shouldn't have been, shaken because a piano had been playing by itself. They calmed down when we all decided it must have been a pianola, the kind we'd seen in saloons in Western films. But looking back - a pianola in a convent?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Deborah...

    It's funny how we try to logically explain things, even if it's a pianola in a convent. Haha!

    Hauntings fascinate me. Two places I lived were haunted. It's the eeriest feeling when your ears clearly hear that something is there, but when you look with your eyes there's nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. love the images of the hail...the story of the piano is spooky...LOL

    ReplyDelete
  4. My friend's piano began "playing" in the night, but it turned out to be his cat walking up and down the keys - he eventually caught her at it. I'm glad you're enjoying the rain! I don't normally mind it, but it does make it hard to take the puppy for walks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The cat, huh? LOL Funny!

    I love to walk in the rain, but I can imagine that it might be difficult to enjoy when you have a little furry creature trying to go places that could prove messy..

    ReplyDelete