Texas Hail Storm April 2021
My husband and I were sitting outside enjoying a glass of wine on our covered porch on a rare spring day in Texas when the Texas 2021 Hail Storm hit. We were talking about what we needed to do, and about Toretto (whom I’ll mention later). And in April, we get plenty of thunderstorm watches and warnings, so this was nothing new. The watches and warnings are easy to ignore.
But nothing, nothing prepared us for what came next.
When it came down it was like, oh wow this is hail. It is getting worse. Let’s record it. So I recorded it, and so did my husband, and it just kept going on and on. I finally stopped recording because I was getting messages and calls and also wanted to talk to my sister. Because my sister is the one person I always want to talk to when I’m going through something tough. Then I’d record again, then stop. The worst of the hail went on for at least 10 minutes. Maybe…probably more (I was on the phone with my sister quite a while and finally said I would call her back, so it is hard to judge the exact timing of everything.)
And at this time, all I could do was think of my lost animal, Toretto. I have been searching for him for three weeks now. He is an outdoor cat, but was a rescue cat. You might remember me telling you about our cat community. Toretto was very injured when he came to us over a year ago, and the vet would have convinced most people to put him down and out of his misery. But we were not giving up on him. Maybe I’m a crazy cat lady? Proud of it too. But Toretto was happy. We healed him. We tamed him and he was doing well. Very well. He would jump up on my shoulder and stay there wherever we went. He always wanted to be near us, but he still had some issues, such as leaking because he had a lot of damage to his spine and bladder. His tail was paralyzed, and we were working with a specialist on what we were going to do next. (I would post those pics, but not everyone wants to see something like that.)
He disappeared in the middle of the day, while I was at work and right after my entire routine changed (along with the time change). We think he went off to roam. Many people I talked to say the same. He is neutered, but cats in a cat community who are used to the outdoors will do that. And I’m still grieving very hard! Crying every day. I don’t talk about it much but if affects my life very hard. I’ve done a lot, sending flyers, but in my community (minimum 5-10 acre tracts) it is not always enough.
It’s been a hard year. We got COVID, then battled the Snowpacalypse, then got sick from a COVID vaccine, (I was down for days, but honestly in hindsight I was still recovering from COVID when I got the vaccine so my immune system was probably running rampant). Then we lost Toretto. Then we had a hail storm that did a lot of damage and cost a lot of money that insurance will not cover. A lot of out-of-pocket expenses and a lot of things that are irreplaceable. Things that might appear to be junk, but that do have value.
I hate to complain, because that never helps and also many people suffer or are going through way worse. I was often reminded of the fact by well-meaning people that at least we are still breathing and alive. But why aren’t we allowed to feel our emotions? Hmmm? My emotions are running pretty rampant right now. Why should I be ashamed of them? Why are people so scared of emotions?
But that’s a post for another day.
And the worse of all of this is someone very close to me is sick, and it isn’t my place to say what is happening with her. I wrote the story of her double lung transplant years ago, but I lost it and can’t imagine re-writing it now. It was very emotional then, and it’s very emotional now. She had three siblings (one of them was my mother) and she lost them all. She is the only surviving child of my grandmother (who is still alive). She had a double lung transplant, and has issues. I told her that no way in hell would she not beat this because her mom couldn’t go through losing another child. WTF!
So yes, it’s been a lot to deal with, on top of other things that are too personal to mention. It’s just been very very very very tough! And mindset…I know it’s very important but how hard is mindset sometimes, right?
So…here some photos of the Texas Hail Storm April 2021!
The ground was covered with hailstones everywhere after the Texas Hail Storm April 2021 hit!
There is a lot more to share, but for some reason I keep getting errors. I will try to share more later. In the meantime, here is my video link:
Damaged birdhouses. And yes, I worry about all my living beings, so this broke my heart.
So here are a few photos of the hail storm in Texas. I admit that I am still processing a lot, because it is a lot to deal with, and all while trying to work. I’m grieving a lot right now, and grief really sucks, but I have a lot to be thankful for as well.