I must have some good luck going for me after all, because I didn't get very wet today. There was every chance I would be caught in a downpour at least once, and an outside chance that I'd be soaked twice. The breaks between the heavy rain showers and hailstorms were brief and tentative. You never knew what was going to happen one second after you stepped out the door, so I had to be lucky that I only got a little wet.

If I hadn't had some almost-past-due personal bills to mail, plus disc two of the I, Claudius series to send back to Netflix, I might not have gone out at all today. As soon as I was all bundled up and ready to walk out the door, the hail started for the first time. That kept me inside for a good hour after it stopped.

It wasn't exactly golf ball-sized. More the size of Le Sueur baby peas, if you want to know the truth, but after watching what it did to my garden off and on all day, I have to say that I've seen enough hail to satisfy any interest or curiosity I might have had. Which wasn't all that much to begin with.

Finally I got out of the house and made it to the garage without a drop touching me. I thought I could zip to the post office and back between showers, but it wasn't meant to be. The rain came down so hard when I was on South Wright Road that the person driving the van in front of me slowed to 30. The speed limit's 40, but almost nobody goes under 45 on that road, ever.

I was content to stay a safe distance behind the van until I saw the lights of a car coming up fast behind me. Whoever this guy was, he wasn't going to settle for 30, no matter how bad the conditions. I turned off on a side street in one direction at about the same time the van turned the other way, and the maniac behind me sped off at about 50.

He was only two blocks from the stop sign, and there's a school in between where the limit's 25, so he couldn't have made up much of his precious lost time by putting the hammer down just then. Still, it probably made him feel good. It made me feel good to be going in a different direction from him.

The rain was still coming down when I got to the post office, so I went to the drive-through to deposit my outgoing mail. I didn't care if I picked up the Monday mail or not, but I still wanted the morning Chronicle, so I parked on the street and waited for a couple of minutes. The rain eased just enough for me to get in and out of the building and back to my car without getting soaked. Then I drove home in another shower. That's what I mean about luck.