It is raining, but it is not your April Showers bring May flowers or even Singing in the Rain type of rain. No, a warm humid air mass from the Gulf of Mexico has converged with a cool air mass from the Atlantic and created a 60,000 foot high monster thunderstorm over central Florida, and Minisql and I are under it. I am worried, there are 3-4 inches of water on the road already and the radio says there is hail. I'm desperately looking for a place to take shelter, but the bank drive throughs and gas stations are full. Then I spot a Publix Supermarket in the next shopping center. I pull into the lot and head for the arcade at the front of the store. I wedge Minisql between the coin operated space shuttle and the shopping carts. It doesn't look good, the shoppers huddled at the entrance are glowering at this intrusion into their space. Still wearing my black MINI baseball cap I hop out and open the boot. I rummage under my boot box and pull out a sign I had palmed at a car show some months earlier and put it on the windshield. "THE NEW MINI, now available at DOWNTOWN MINI". I put on my best s. eating grin and stand by the drivers door. A little kid pulls on his mothers arm and says "there's a new Mini!" she looks and smiles, I smile back. A couple of the men in the crowd turn their backs on the carnage the hail is doing in the parking lot and ask me about gas mileage. I tell them it's more of a sports car than an economy car, but that it gets around 26 mpg. Some of the soccer moms notice Minisqls taught body, brutish face, and the bulge the hood scoop makes and give him the look they'd give Mel Gibson or Russel Crowe. The store manager is passing out cookies from a tray. He looks my way and smiles, I smile back. The lightning is flashing like papparazzi cameras, bracketing the applause of the rain and the drum roll of the thunder. Then just as suddenly as it came, the rain is gone and the sun is shining. The crowd, like zombies, heads for the parking lot to see the damage done by the hail. I slip away like a thief in the night. I want to yell Hi Yo Silver! but, I am Electric Blue.

 

My MINI has to live outside 24/7.It is a car ,weather proof,but the thought of hail always
makes me nervous

 

MINISQL:

Dogspeed.

 

Great story and FAST thinking.

Earl

 

Our last hail storm came through on a Friday night. I watched it roll in on weather radar. As the storm neared my location I got in my MINI and drove about 5 minutes (AWAY from the storm) to a small parking garage in the small downtown of my not-so-small town. As I pulled into the covered garage, I noticed two other cars. Two others cars pulled in right after me. Then the hail started....quarter sized. I got out of my car to watch from my oh-so-safe refuge. The folks in the other cars got out, too. One had a dog. We chatted and visited and got aquainted. Several of the cars were new aquisitions...hence the taking of shelter. I had no such excuse but no one even wondered in the least why I was there. Soon the hail abated and we all said farewell. We had fun. Next hail storm I'm bringing a lawn chair and a cooler. They have hurricane parties in New Orleans...why not hail storm parties in North Texas???

 

I think that's the best MINI story I've ever heard

 

We could definitely use some rain here in C.F., just leave out the hail! I always worry about hail storms, but luckily I'm moving to a place where you can rent a garage. I work out near the attractions area and have to leave my car outside in the parking lot, and for some reason, the storms out that way seem so much more violent compared to the rest of the C.F. area. Just hoping for no hail on my MINI

 

Great story!

Regards,
Red