Rain and Spontaneous Hail

Today was one of those days that had a feeling of...un-normalcy to it.  It was pouring rain when I woke up, and that alone would have lent to a more interesting morning (something you understand if you have ever lived in the desert).  Just that indescribably fresh scent and rumbling thunder had me on a high.  Rain in the desert leads to flooded roads incredibly fast, but luckily I have a ridiculously short drive to work, so it wasn't a big deal.  I dropped my kids off at my mother-in-law's house this morning, and I had time to listen to exactly one song on my way to work.  I was laughing because the "one" song that played on the radio was "Tears and Rain" by James Blunt.  I swear radio stations do that on purpose, because it seems like every time it rains, I'm hearing songs about rain.  Although usually they pick more upbeat rain songs, like "It's Raining Men" or "Blame it on the Rain" (ooh, remember that one?).  I'm still in a festive, rainy mood, so maybe I'll post a rain song at the end of this post.

Anyway, later this morning, we had a code red drill.  Code red drills aren't anything out of the ordinary, but I thought the drill was going to be during third period, and it actually happened during second.  I hadn't prepped my second period kids for the drill at all, and we were all outside (rain had cleared) partner-reading when it began.  Normally I would never have my class outside during a code red drill.  What a pain.  But there we were, outside, when I heard the intercom give a loud click.  I actually said out-loud, "Oh no.  Don't you dare say code red!"  Of course, our vice principal's voice came on the loud-speaker, saying "Code red, code red, code red."  So I had to get thirty-four kids funneled inside of the classroom and crouched beneath their desks with the lights off and the doors locked before admin came around to perform their lock-down "tests."  Thankfully we pulled it off.

But the truly insane part of the day was the hailstorm this afternoon!  I've never seen anything like it before.  Again, we were partner-reading outside during 7th period, enjoying the beautiful partly-sunny weather, when the sky darkened.  The temperature cooled slightly, and lightening streaked across the sky.  The air became very still.  I got those inclement weather goosebumps and decided to escort my students back into the classroom.  They had just settled back into their seats when, with no warning and no gradual build-up whatsoever, it began to pour with hail.  It was so strange.  The temperature was way too warm for hail (somewhere in the low 80s, I'm guessing), yet there it was; dime-sized chunks of ice crashing down from the sky.  And we're not talking just a little bit; it was a torrential downpour.  Since the hailstorm was much more captivating than the Eleanor Roosevelt biography we were reading, I gave up on my lesson and propped my door open.  We spent the rest of the period watching the storm and writing journal entries about it.

Here's "Tears and Rain," but where the heck is the music video for this song?  Does it really not have one?  That seems tragic, because it has the potential to be a beautiful (albeit sad) video.