What the Hail!?!

Today was a typical spring day in Utah. Clouds, sun, clouds, sun, wind, clouds, sun........and that was within a 5-minute period. One moment I felt I needed a jacket and the next I was wishing I had worn shorts and flip-flops. Days like this become a conundrum when one loves playing tennis as much as I do. Often, certain risks have to be taken.

And so it was today.

(A text conversation between Broderick and me.)

Broderick: What are you up to? It's nice weather outside. I'm just sayin'...

Me: So, what, you wanna go on a picnic or something?

Broderick: Maybe I do.

Broderick: P.S. Let's play tennis.

Me: Let's!

So we meet at home, change and head to the park. As we are walking from the car to the court we see dark clouds rolling in and we hear a thunderclap overhead. Does this deter us? Of course not. We are going to play. We step onto the court and just as we are taking our rackets out of their covers we hear another noise; SHEER LOUDNESS. It sounds like a downpour, but it's a bit distant, as if a few blocks away. Weird. A moment later we see a few raindrops, then a few pieces of hail.

Me: Hey, look, it's starting to hail.

Another moment later we are running for our lives as we are pelted by tiny bullets of pain. (Seriously, I have bruises.) It was crazy, kind of like a movie. You know the one. It's that part of any action thriller when you know something is about to happen but you're not quite sure what it is. And then....

BOOM!

It's right on top of you in the blink of an eye. Yeah, it was like that.

It's too bad the hail wasn't as big as, well, tennis balls. It could have been like having one of those machines that tennis players use to practice.

Yeah, that one.

Except our tennis "hail" balls would have been lobbed by Mother Nature, herself.


Then again, we probably would have ended up in the E.R. with concussions or something. So, home we went.

Now, you're probably thinking, "That's it for the tennis. There is no way they played after a storm like that." Well, you're wrong. Not long after the storm passed Broderick and I ventured out to find a court that was "dry" enough to play on. Our search ended at UVU, which has some pretty ghetto courts, but they at least have these:


Yes, my friends, that little gem is the roller squeegee, a wonderful device conjured up to help the tennis deficient play even in the wettest of conditions. After about 20 minutes of squeegeeing our hearts out, we were playing our........uh........hearts out.

Take that, Mother Nature!