Thank You, Hail Storm from Hell

One month ago, we got hit by a horrible hailstorm in our neighborhood.  One of those freak late afternoon, pop-up thunderstorms that produced baseball sized hail for a solid 20-30 minutes.  It destroyed our roof, our gutters, 15 windows on the house, some of the wood on the house and our trees and backyard.

Front of our House after the Storm

Backyard Tree Carnage - there is a patio under all that debris

View of our Street after Storm - Steam is rising from the hail stones

Just a sample of some of the window damage

It also claimed the lives of both of our cars as we do not have a garage or covered carport to protect them.  Our poor vehicles took a beating for the entire storm and our insurance company totaled them out and gave us $30K for both of them.  Steve's poor Nissan Altima didn't even want to start when they came to tow it to the salvage yard a week later.  I theorize that it had lost its will to live. On the bright side, we get a new roof, new windows and two new cars and we have insurance to cover everything. In fact, the deductible on our cars was only $50 and the home deductible is only $1500 so we're in pretty decent shape, all things considered.

Murano Damage - Back windshield totally gone and
 front windshield shattered and sagging in

 We ended up using all of the insurance money to buy my husband a new 2012 silver Subaru Outback (his choice) and I used some of my rainy day savings to put a down payment on my new car and financed the rest.  I decided that I was tired of my "mom-mobile" Murano which I really only bought because Steve had a smaller sedan and I felt we needed something with more room. The Murano is a fine car but it never really did much for me.  Also, I have never gone the European car route and have only driven Japanese cars my whole life.  That is, until I was introduced to the Audi.  I walked into that dealership and they had me at hello.  I was a goner.  I ended up buying a turbo charged, all wheel drive, white Audi A4 with a souped-up trim package and I love it.  I have never been a car person but I have to admit that if this car were a person, I would marry it. It's so fun to drive and I love the European-style handling of it.  I wasn't planning on buying 2 new cars this year but now I really don't regret the situation at all. I am calling it my cougar wagon - all I need to do is find some twenty year old guys to pick up but I really don't want them messing up the interior of my car or annoying me with their stupid chatter so I guess I'll just stick with Steve.

Well, hello there Lover.

So, looking on the bright side of what was a pretty horrific evening back in June, things turned out all right.  Zoom, zoom, cougar wagon coming through!