and then....it hailed!

Yesterday it was sunny and hot in the morning, I was working from home. Around 2:30pm I knocked off work as planned and went down to the garage to get geared up to get an errand done before riding over to a bar&grill joint called "Illegal Pete's" near the datacenter where I used to work a week and a half ago. Back in the military, we used to have these social functions called "Hail and Farewells" which were used to welcome new unit members and say goodbye to members who were moving on to other postings, little did I know when I woke today that there would indeed be "hail" as part of my "farewell" get together!

As I geared up, I notice, through the open garage door, that there's a few droplets here and there which quickly would evaporate due to the heat of the day. No big deal I say to myself, I've ridden in worse.

As I got my riding boots on it started raining harder and harder and water started pooling and running down the sidewalks in streams, the air got markedly cooler and then.....it started hailing! Yep, August in Colorado. Temps in the low to mid 90s in the morning, thunder/lighting and hail in the afternoon. Not to say hail is a common occurrence around here but geez.

Rain and Hail pummel my culdesac

Closeup look at the hail, I'd say it was no bigger than pea-sized

So I delayed departure, bagged the errand and waited the storm out, I draw the line at riding on top of ice particles, not to mention the fact that hail stings! It was a thunderstorm cell which moved swiftly to the NE after dumping a bunch of rain and hail on my neighborhood. Pretty good lightning display as well, one lightning bolt was definitely too close since the flash to bang interval was nonexistent!

So just shortly before 3pm, the rain was gone, roads were drying out fast and I headed out to the place where the team of folks I'd worked with for the last year and a half were gathering to wish me a fond farewell. The turnout was pretty good actually:





A nice farewell/work get together, everyone seems to be doing well and we talked till about 1730 when I headed home. I nursed a couple of beers for over two hours, since it does not make much sense to drink too much and then ride.