A few weeks ago we had a hailstorm here. I was here at the shop late as usual, trying to get inspired &/or motivated to do something really great that will make our life better, hearing the rain coming down harder & harder, then the rattling on the roof so I ran down the stairs to pop the back door open to check it out. Sure enough, there's hail coming down & it's covering the ground, making ice floes on the river that just started flowing down the alley beside the shop. Normal sized hailstones, then it kicks up a notch or two & really starts pounding & the hailstones begin to look like mothballs. Down at the Old Base, a few miles south, they got stones that were two inches across. Then it stopped, the hail, anyway. It continued to rain a while longer.
A few days later the Hail Damage Guys started showing up. In one day three different guys came to the shop to get me to do signs & banners for them as they're setting up at auto dealers, tire shops, auto glass shops, parking lots & whatever with their trailers & tools & crews. In a couple more days there's like thirty different outfits set up around town doing Auto Hail Repair.
Now it's been weeks & most of them are still here, still busy. It's like around $1,500 a pop, more if it's a big ol' Expedition or Navigator or something.
We made a bunch of money, well, not a big bunch - we didn't get into five figures or anything - but it was real easy, slam-dunk cut vinyl sign work, the kind that pays the bills without stressing you out. Some clouds do indeed have silver linings.
It hailed for like ten minutes or so.
