[PPRAANet] 21 May hail storm

[John Bloodgood]

So, yesterday sometime between 15:05 and 15:10, I rolled out of work a bit early to take my car to the dealership for servicing.  I could see the weather cell moving in from the south and the precip looked like a solid wall moving towards me.  
 
By the time I made it to the Nevada exit off I25, it was starting to hail, about 15:20.  Pea sized stuff mostly.  
 
By the time I made it from Nevada to Tejon, I was getting pounded and then as I turned onto Motor Way around 15:22, it sounded like someone hit my window with a rock.  And then another, and another.  I later told Sid, K4ARM, it was hitting me so hard that if I had firearm, I would have returned fire.  
 
I tried to call it in to the weather net that had been activated, remembering that above the deafening sounds of the hail smashing my car that I shouldn't yell into my headset mic.  However, though I was telling myself to keep my voice under control while taking pounding from ice bullets and trying pilot to safety, I neglected to tell my hands the same thing.  Between the death grip of my hands on the steering wheel and stick shift, I managed to crush -- I mean literally crush -- my PTT; I split the plastic case and jammed the button up under the case, causing an open mic condition.  The result was a disruption of the weather net for several minutes until I noticed what I had done and the pretty red transmit indicator on the radio; I was far more concentrated on driving on marbles, not hitting other cars (not sure why people were stopping in the middle of the road in the middle of a hail storm -- maybe they figured if they stayed still the hail wouldn't notice them and would leave them alone), and trying to get to cover.  And another possible result was some folks might have heard some choice language; I know I dropped more than one F-Bomb (actually, knowing me it was a sentence of F-Bombs).  
 
By the time I finally made it to cover around 15:25, my car had taken some moderate damage, but though it sounded like I might lose a window, dents in the sheet metal were the extent of it.  A later walk around the dealership parking lot revealed hail up to 1.5 inches (measured) and multiple dented vehicles.  Then I saw a Facebook post of Tejon and Motor Way that must have been taken about few minutes after I went through -- the rivers of hail must have been two feet deep in places.  
 
Anyhow, first up, my apologies for the open mic and any not so nice language that it might have captured.  
 
Second, learn from my experience -- don't crush your PTT.  It doesn't help your signal get through.  And if you aren't hearing anything, check your radio to make sure you don't have a stuck mic.  
 
Third, if only I had left the office at 15:00 as planned... .
 
John Bloodgood, KD0SFY