Hail in PA...

It was going to be another hot day today. So we were up early and outside. I wanted to finish the flower bed by the mail box since all the flowers were up. I then began working on putting a water seal coat on the ceder bench. It was in the garage and out of the sun. Beth began the weed whacking on the fence line and back yard, but the silly machine has a safety on it and shuts done every 20 minutes. What a pain in the butt that is. The weather man was calling for heavy rain and even hail later on in the day, but at noon it was a great looking sky and hotter that heck. Beth left around 12:30pm to get here shaggy dog of a hair cut. I finally finished the water proofing and started pulling all the little weeds in the flower bed. Beth was home around 1pm and started on the weed whacking again. Gayle called around 3pm and said she could come up today and do the welding we needed done, so we said come on. The big tomato holder we have had one of the leg brackets snap and the umbrella holder needed a better seal on the bottom. So BJ, Gayle's son, began welding the 2 items we had. It took him around an hour to finish. Gayle's other son and a friend were already in the pool. The temperature is up to 74 and good to swim in. By this time you could see the storm coming in and the thunder was starting. I hurried and painted the spots that had been welded and put the hanging tomato plants back in place. It was just starting to rain at this time. So Gayle and family left and we came inside. I took a shower and by the time I got out and dressed it began to hail and we are not talking little pea size things either. Beth ran out to get the gazing ball, so the hail would not smash it and got hit a couple of times by hail. About this time, the clouds opened up and hail about the size of a golf ball came shooting from the sky. It was the first time here that I have seen that kind of hail before. In Missouri, I was used to it. So as the hail rained down, I kept wondering if I had a crack in the windshield and my poor tomato plants and flowers. After about 10 minutes of steady pounding, we saw a rainbow and it ended in the field across the street, but we were not going to run over there for our gold as hail was still coming down. It seemed to be over, so I went outside and no cracks and the roof seemed fine. We had to go to the travel agent and get our cruise papers, so off we went thinking the storm was over. We had just made it back in the car and healed to Wal-mart, when the next round came flooding in. We picked up some burgers and headed home. Hail and heavy rain made it very hard to see, but we made it home safely. The electric kept going on and off for around 20 minutes, but it was much cooler downstairs even with no fans. We are hoping to keep the air off as long as possible and are hoping the rain will bring cool temperatures, which it has. So we expect rain off and on all night and even tomorrow, but cooler weather. We have found the the pool is only costing around 60 bucks a month to run, so when we do turn the air on we can see what the additional charge is for that. We are hoping to keep the electric bill under 350 dollars a month during the summer. Today's pictures are from the hail storm today and the rainbow that ended across the street.