The Coffee House

[jcdeboever]

Dang just showed the Nissan Dealer lot in Cullman, AL. Looks like someone took a baseball bat to all those new cars. They were reporting hail up to 4" diameter. We had a little hail here a few minutes ago but fortunately just small

Cullman County under flash flood warning until 1:30 a.m.

The hail reports are unreal Alabama storms latest updates: Damage reported, baseball-sized hail; Are the storms done?

And it appears that the worst of it, went south and north of us.

Glad your safe smoke. I remember the body shops being smokin busy after hail storms. If I lived out that way, I'd have a shelter outside, underground.

 

[smoke665]

Glad your safe smoke. I remember the body shops being smokin busy after hail storms. If I lived out that way, I'd have a shelter outside, underground.

I'm beginning to think our terrain is a natural barrier. We are on an elevated ridge in the middle of a valley. It's roughly 900 ft to valley floor on the sides. The valley runs due north south and is bordered on each side by mountain ridges roughly 1200' elevation. As our storms track from the south and west, the outer ridges seem to divert any tornados on the ground. We've had a couple small ones get inside but they've still tracked up the valley floor on either side. One thing ive learned over the years though is you never know for sure which way they are going as they pickup and touchdown at will at different spots

As to repairs on some the new cars, They're pretty much totalled. The hail pulverized them,

 

[smoke665]

@jcdeboever think these will buff out? couple off FB this morning

Check out the mirror hanging on the drivers side. Surprised by several that it knocked the mirrors completely off.

 

[SquarePeg1]

We were caught in what they called a "microburst" in PA once - to me, I thought we were hit by the edges of a tornado! Princess (10 at the time) and I were with my nephew and sister-in-law. We were driving from Hershey to Lancaster in the middle of the day and we suddenly saw this black line of clouds coming up fast from behind. Unfortunately we were between exits and could not get off the highway in time. When it was on us it was very scary. First it got dark as night and then it rained so hard that I could not see the lights of the car that was 2 feet in front of mine even with the wipers on full blast. Everyone came to a full stop on the highway and we heard a couple of crashes but were basically stuck in the car blind to what was happening outside. We could hear the wind screaming and the whole car was shaking. Because of the tall trees along the side of the road and all the big trucks around us, I was terrified that something would fall on us but wasn't sure whether or not I should have the kids take off their seat belts and get on the floor or stay where they were buckled in the back. Meanwhile I was trying to appear calm so the kids and my sister-in-law wouldn't panic. Just when I was about to have us all get on the floor of the car it started to let up. Within minutes the sun was out and traffic started crawling along. There were several cars pulled to the side that had been in accidents and so much debris on the roads that it was a miracle more people weren't hurt. When we eventually got to our destination I was sure we'd see on the news that it had been a tornado but no, they said it was "just" a micro burst storm - apparently there were several that day in the area.

A few days later when we planned to drive home we saw that there were more storms coming up from the south expected to hit all along our route home. No way was I driving in that for 7 hours! We got the kids up at 3am and hit the road running. I drove a steady 85 the whole day with only 1 very short pit stop when we hit NY and we stayed just ahead of the storms. When we crossed over from RI into MA, the first drops of rain hit the car but we made it home before the worst of it. I've driven in plenty of snow storms where visibility was terrible and roads were icy and slippery and I have to say give me snow over heavy rain and "mirco bursts" any time. I'm much more cautious about our plans for road trips now and always check the weather before we set out anywhere.

 

[JonA_CT]

My wife found a really good AirBNB deal three blocks from the water in Virginia Beach. It's the Saturday-Wednesday of our spring break week, which is sort of weird. But we're thinking that maybe we'll catch a couple nights somewhere on the way back, depending on how the kids are doing away from home.

It won't be beach season there, but I think just being someplace else for a few days will be nice.

I'll also be taking a solo-ish trip to Colorado/Wyoming at some point in the next few months with the brewery boys. The company that is building the brew house is from out there, and we need to go for training.

 

[SquarePeg1]

My wife found a really good AirBNB deal three blocks from the water in Virginia Beach. It's the Saturday-Wednesday of our spring break week, which is sort of weird. But we're thinking that maybe we'll catch a couple nights somewhere on the way back, depending on how the kids are doing away from home.

It won't be beach season there, but I think just being someplace else for a few days will be nice.

I'll also be taking a solo-ish trip to Colorado/Wyoming at some point in the next few months with the brewery boys. The company that is building the brew house is from out there, and we need to go for training.

I was hoping to head to FL for a few days but Princess has softball practice all week and being a Freshman and it's a new coach so she doesn't dare to miss any. I hate when the teams have mandatory practices during school vacation weeks. Hello???? vacation!

 

[Gary A.]

Buenos Dias Coffee Hosers. Gary sips his first taste of coffee. It is dark and hot and flavorful. No snow or baseball hail or tornadoes down where Gary lives. Plenty of good coffee and wine though. Every year we may get a water spout or two. Just beyond the waves a mini hurricane will form. Gary doesn't recall them making landfall. Nature attacks us with Santa Ana's, 50+ mph winds coming out of the deserts, in summer they're hot-hot and in winter they're cold-cold. If you're caught in a bad one while in the desert, it can strip the paint off the car or leave you driving blindly on the highways. Earthquakes is the second disaster nature hits us with. Gary been through all the big ones ... meh. Gotta be on a fault line in an older unreinforced brick building to be real scared. Otherwise meh ... might lose power for a day. Shortly after a big quake, Gary was coming south to LA from Santa Barbara, fortunately the freeway was barely moving, bumper to bumper due to quake damage to the freeway ... when an aftershock hit ... and Gary could see the freeway rolling up and down for miles, as if Mother Nature was straightening out her bedsheet. That one was scary ... that opened up Gary's eyes.

 

[JonA_CT]

My wife found a really good AirBNB deal three blocks from the water in Virginia Beach. It's the Saturday-Wednesday of our spring break week, which is sort of weird. But we're thinking that maybe we'll catch a couple nights somewhere on the way back, depending on how the kids are doing away from home.

It won't be beach season there, but I think just being someplace else for a few days will be nice.

I'll also be taking a solo-ish trip to Colorado/Wyoming at some point in the next few months with the brewery boys. The company that is building the brew house is from out there, and we need to go for training.

I was hoping to head to FL for a few days but Princess has softball practice all week and being a Freshman and it's a new coach so she doesn't dare to miss any. I hate when the teams have mandatory practices during school vacation weeks. Hello???? vacation!

It's why I didn't go anywhere for break in high school either...well, maybe my junior and senior years? Our track team hosted a large meet usually on one of the weekends, too. By the time I was a senior , I just didn't care that much.

 

[smoke665]

Gary could see the freeway rolling up and down for miles, as if Mother Nature was straightening out her bedsheet. That one was scary ..

I grew up on the New Madrid Fault line. I can remember when I was a teen seeing this one winter, only it was'nt a highway, it was the bare field next to the house. Weird feeling.

 

[Gary A.]

Mike, Max's human, is up in Oakland being a new grandfather. Mary Lou, Maggie and Gary stepped up to take Max in during Mike's absence. Mike is from Chicago. We all share the same park three or four days a week and after our walk it isn't uncommon to also share coffee at Gary's place. As the usual fare out here is sunshine with a nice ocean breeze, a few times during our walk or with coffee, Mike will look at all the colors in the park or the garden and give praise to day and to the Monet mixture of greens, reds and yellows. Then Mike states that he'll be calling his brother in Chicago ... and rub it in. As I get older and slowing down my pace, I notice and appreciate the weather much more now than in my youth. The weather is quite nice out here.

 

[smoke665]

As daylight dawns, damage reports are coming in. JSU a small university about 25 miles from us took a pretty serious hit. Roofs off dorms and apartments next to campus, coliseum and field house sustained considerable damage to roofs, cars tossed upside down, stores flattened around campus. Surprisingly despite the devastation their were no deaths, and only 3 injured. Thankful that school was out for spring break, or it could have been a different story.

 

[Gary A.]

Gary could see the freeway rolling up and down for miles, as if Mother Nature was straightening out her bedsheet. That one was scary ..

I grew up on the New Madrid Fault line. I can remember when I was a teen seeing this one winter, only it was'nt a highway, it was the bare field next to the house. Weird feeling.

What is sorta odd but also sorta humbling is seeing the San Andreas Fault. In Central California, between Highway 101 and the I5, is a stretch of low rolling hills. In the middle of the hills is a flat plain/shallow valley feature and in the middle of that shallow flat-bottomed valley there is a dark scare, a crack in the earth. It isn't deep, it is sorta sealed off not opened like a canyon or arroyo, more like a surface crack in a window or glass, you can easily walk through and around and over that crack. From the elevated highway at the southern end of the shallow valley, it is easily seen if you know what to look for, and it runs straight as an arrow, for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see. If you stare at crack and let it all soak in ... after a bit you'll realize how insignificant you are in the grand scheme of the Earth and how we are merely and provisionally sharing the Earth, the skies, the oceans ... the universe with everything else.

 

[Gary A.]

As daylight dawns, damage reports are coming in. JSU a small university about 25 miles from us took a pretty serious hit. Roofs off dorms and apartments next to campus, coliseum and field house sustained considerable damage to roofs, cars tossed upside down, stores flattened around campus. Surprisingly despite the devastation their were no deaths, and only 3 injured. Thankful that school was out for spring break, or it could have been a different story.

Wow ... don't mess with Mother Nature. Gary is glad that you're okay.

 

[davidharmier60]

Nature can be a MOTHER....
4.5.2 hours today (four and a half plus a little over 2 minutes)
Weather here is windy and cool.
I will take all of this that nature will give!
Because sure as God made little green apples it will be 100 degrees and 80+ humidity soon enough.
I called work and told Trish I'll have pennies starting tomorrow. She said I need them today. I said uh oh. She said it's ok tomorrow will be fine. Whew.
Have 5 more rolls in this box. See if I can get enough good copper pennies to make a roll.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[terri58 1]

Whew! As Smoke has been mentioning, the storm front that moved through the SE last night was wicked. We had a major lightning show, in addition to the wind and rain - enough to wake us up a couple of times and keep the girls close by. But I think Alabama caught the worst of it this time.

It's partly sunny and mild here this morning. We have some debris in the yard from the storm, nothing too bad. I stood under our flowering cherry tree for a few minutes and closed my eyes to just listen to the honeybees. They are very busy right now, and listening to them is quite a Zen experience.

Ready or not, it's official now. Happy first day of Spring, hosers!