what the hail?

I actually wrote this post on Mon., but the darn thing flipped out on me. I lost what I had written, and it took me this long to get up the energy to re-write. I hope I can remember most of it...

I went home this weekend and got the opportunity to fellowship with much extended family. We ate a huge feast on Sunday, which precipitated in me returning to Kentucky with armloads of little tupperware dishes full of leftovers. I haven't cooked a meal yet this week!

This trip was facilitated by the fact that my new roommate, B., was going to a town near my parents for a wedding, so I was able to hitch a ride for half a tank of gas.

On our way back Sunday p.m., B. and I were enjoying a lovely ride, quietly singing along to Gillian Welch and the Indigo Girls.

As we topped a hill in Kingsport, a giant, dark, ominous stormcloud was hovering over the mountains of Virginia into which we were about to drive.

By the time we reached Big Stone Gap, we had to pull over to the side of the road because pea-sized hail was pelting the car and covering the road. The temperature dropped from 80 to 56 in just a few minutes.

I have never been a big fan of the thunder-boomers. When I was 11, my music teacher's husband was killed on a golf course with 3 other men. Seems a tree is not the place to seek shelter in a thunderstorm. Especially if you're wearing metal cleats.

After that, I became obsessed with the seeming randomness of lightning. Or perhaps the lack of randomness. It makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up with the feeling that my kharma is going to make me a likely candidate for the next strike.

But what I really wanted to say was...Does anyone else think that storms have become more violent in the past few years? I can only remember a few times in my childhood when it hailed. Now it seems I hear about hail at my parents' house every other week.

Is it global warming? Or am I just paying closer attention to the weather report than I used to?