On Sunday morning, Cape Cod was gray and rainy. The temps were in the high 50s. Off Cape, temps improved - high 70s/low 80s, sun with some clouds, though the sky looked a bit...unsettled. And unsettled it turned out to be. We checked the weather forecast and decided that the better day to see a movie was Sunday, since rain was in the forecast, so we headed out in the afternoon to go see Star Trek.
(I've never seen more than a passing glimpse of a Star Trek episode and have never seen any of the movies, but B wanted to see the movie and reviews indicated that a love of science fiction and all things Trekkie were not required to enjoy the movie, so I was willing to go along.)
Midway through the movie, some interesting sound effects started during a critical scene. Then the sound effects got loud enough that we realized that the sound was coming from outside the theater, not the speakers. The sound was in fact coming from the golfball-sized hail that was assaulting the building. We were tempted to leave to see the phenonemon, but the movie was so good! We decided that whatever was happening, we'd deal with it after the movie finished.
As we left the theater, high from peanut M&Ms, popcorn, and our rowdy space adventure, we worried about the state of the Subie. Would his windows be broken? Would have be speckled with damage from hail stones? Would there be any unmelted hail stones (because we really wanted to see the weather that had made the theater feel like it was rattling)?
We got outside--it was sunny again, though cooler--and discovered that the Subie had weathered the storm nicely without a single dent. Unfortunately, all of the hail storms appeared to be melted (though we had plenty waiting for us at home).
As we drove home, we were astonished by the damage that the storm had caused. Green leaves covered the roads, yards, driveways, roofs, and the sides of houses. I saw one house where the shutters on one side had been destroyed by hail. Some roads were flooded--apparently, the hail was followed by a ferocious rainfall.
We pulled into our complex with heavy hearts, and we were right to be concerned. The 5 screens on the front of our house had long tears in them from where the hail had struck. Parts of the siding were broken off, and--saddest of all--the Island Corolla is pockmarked like a golf ball from all of the places where the hail hit. The dents aren't deep but they're plentiful. Our neighbors' screens and cars suffered similar damage.
We headed to Lowe's to buy replacement screens, but as it turned out, we didn't need to replace the entire screen. You can buy the mesh and the spline and a tool for assembly, and all of those parts were cheaper for 5 windows than a single new screen would have been. Bargain. We made a little instructional video about how to do it; I'm hoping B will post it on YouTube so he can show off his handyman skills to the world.
As for the damage to the Island Corolla - I will be calling my insurance company tomorrow to report the incident. She seems to have perked up since the assault and might eventually forgive me if I am unable to have the damage repaired.
1 comment:
K said you should check out dentwizard.com. We've never used it, but he said that he's heard good things about it from others.
Post a Comment