Hail Damages

Both physically and emotionally!

On August 24th, around 1:00pm, the sky opened up and poured forth rain and hail. This is my story.
I was working at my computer and looked out my window to watch the rain for a moment and noticed some hail. I've seen hail before, but I had yet to take a lunch, so I went out to the front doors and watched the hail fall from the sky. While watching it was aparent that this was not your normal 30 second hail burst. It kept getting bigger... and bigger... and bigger... and last, and last, and last. Is it possible to call this phenomenal, without giving the sense that it was good, because it was the opposite of anything positive. Except that I was in awe of the scene and I couldn't move, adrenaline was rushing through me. gluing my eyes to the scene. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and eventually HEARING on the rooftops. Everyone else in the building also eventually came out to the front and we stood together just stunned... watching our cars getting dented.
About 10 or 15mins went by and as we watched the hail grow from ping pong size to tennis ball size, we grew worried about our well being. From time to time we'd hear it hit our office windows, but just when we were worried if our office windows would blow in, we saw the back windows of cars being busted. I was so shocked and nervous, my response was to laugh... it was not a laughing matter, but it was seriously like watching a movie. I couldn't believe it.
It finally finished and we all went out to assess the damage. Three broken windows (only out of 8 cars) and atleast 6/7 cracked windshields (mine included), and too many dents to even count. Large dents, large enough that PDR (paintless dent repair) may not even fix.
My car only suffered a cracked window, but MANY large dents everywhere. I figured it was going to be a hassel to get fixed, but wasn't too worried because my deductible wasn't too high. Well, I brought it to the adjusters last Tuesday and they had another story for me... it's considered a "total loss" because the value of my car is less than it would cost to fix. WHAT? I sat in my car waiting for the adjuster to come back with a copy of the papers and couldn't believe it. I had just finished payments on my car.. it's mine and I'm not ready to get rid of it, even if it never had any special features... power locks/windows, etc. I don't want a car payment! Tears burned my cheeks, LORD, this was NOT my plan, now what? ...pause... no answer... well... maybe i could find a car that has more features.. maybe... but i still like my car with my Belize and Haiti oval stickers on the back...
and the song... "letting go" runs through my head... okay okay... (not to over-spiritualize, tho... those were just rambling thoughts of mine)

anyways..
They said I could keep it, but we figured out it really wouldn't benefit me. Car shopping SUCKS! Especially when you don't haev a lot of options or time. The timing was awful too, because my dad went out of town on business the day after I found out. How convenient... just another reason it'd be nice to have a man around... OWELL.. another learning experience that must be done as a single woman... I guess it makes me more assertive and tough... or just more annoyed that life is just life sometimes and you have no control.


SO... that's the latest... my time lately has been spent on autotrader.com and carsoup.com... i just got the tip to go on Kraig's List, Perfect! another site to waste time on... :)

at some point i may get some pics of my dented car up here...