Insurance Company & Its Ingenious Use Of Texting.

A group outing into stormy weather.

We were invited along to the choirs " Thank you " excursion ( eh, volunteering pays off ! ). Quite exciting as it was a walk through the forest to a neighbouring Kellerstoeckl village for a meal and drinks.

We set off late in the afternoon and it was still blazing hot. This whole week has seen temperatures soaring into the mid-thirties. About twenty of us meandered through the forest and as will happen with a few chiefs, we split up.

One group was determined that their path would be shorter. Naturally Bob and I took the long road and walked an extra 20 minutes...you can imagine the ribbing our chief got when we arrived. Good lord, they were already quaffing their second rounds of drinks !

Look, it was nice, but what was extraordinary for me was the following: We could see the clouds moving in and a storm building. But at about half past five, three of the women at our table simultaneously received a text message. The same message !

It was from their insurance company and they read it to us. They had been texted that
at 18.39 pm there would be a very bad hail storm above us. Cynics that Bob and I are, we thought " yeah, right...to the minute ? "

Well, all of a sudden, looking up and about, we realized that the storm was here and we dashed inside. When the hail started to fall, we all looked at our watch and it was ....18.32 pm. But as we were about 5 km from our village, the timing was eerily right. My jaw dropped. Their text had been spot on.

The insurance guys are clever because as soon as the texts came through, there was a round of furious phoning to family. Those who had forgotten to close windows, switch off stuff etc, rallied the troops to do it for them.

The choir had arranged for a bus to pick everyone up at 10 pm. Bob and I certainly don't have the stamina that the older crowd have and we decided to walk home leaving just before 8 pm. Walking through a forest at dusk does take a bit of courage. It didn't help that Bob kept reminding me of the TV program " Grimm " and the possible monsters lurking in the forest !

Storm clouds, even though they bring destruction, are beautiful and fascinating.

Setting off to walk home. This is about where we entered the forest.

Coming out on the other side of the forest after walking about 3 km in it. I was just glad we didn't get lost. Forest lanes all look somewhat similar at dusk...

About 100 meters from our house. Isn't that just a beautiful natural scene ?

Unfortunately our vegetable garden got hit rather hard by the hail storm. But what is awful, is that a lot of the vineyards and crops got blasted as well.

Biggi