A Rainy Evening
10/08/14 05:00
The Black Hills are a great place for sudden downpours. It isn’t that we don’t have warning. We can see the clouds building and know that we may be in for rain. But there are plenty of showers that we can see that fall around us and leave us dry. When it is our turn, however, we can really get quite a bit of rain in a short amount of time. Sometimes the storms just sort of “park” over and area and dump a lot of water. With all of the steep hillsides, the hills are a great place for flash flooding. Last Tuesday there were areas of the hills that got a couple of inches of rain in about a half hour and the water rushed through the valley with quite a bit of short term flooding. We live on a hill and were in an area that got considerably less rain, but it rained hard for a short amount of time.
Again last night, there was a good downpour. We got about .4 of an inch of rain in about 15 minutes. The problem for me was that those particular 15 minutes were when I had to drive to the church. I was going to the church to meet a young man who is in town and found himself with no place to stay. He is taking a cross country motorcycle tour - a sort of low budget Jack Kerouac summer adventure. He started in California and is driving across the U.S. We knew he was coming sometime, but didn’t know when. Had we had more warning, we could have arranged a place for him to stay. But young people don’t always plan ahead as much we would like. He didn’t know a thing about the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally until he got to the hills last night. So he called us from Wal-Mart where he was taking shelter from the rain. As I said, we knew someone was coming, but we didn’t know when.
Saturday night isn’t our most flexible time in the week, and I am planning to leave on a trip this afternoon and we are expecting a house full of company the day we return. And our home was a long ways from where he was on a motorcycle in a downpour. I arranged to meet him at the church and allowed him to sleep on the floor in one of our classrooms.
I got to the church before he did and when he arrived, he was one wet kid. He said he had driven his motorcycle through some pretty deep water running down the road. I don’t ride a motorcycle, but I imagine that it doesn’t take too much of a puddle for the splash to be able to get you really wet. I know that if he had been riding alongside me when I was driving, my car would certainly have splashed him head to toe.
He comes to us with good references. The pastor who gave him our name is a long-time, trusted friend. Still, it was a rather unusual set of circumstances. Re-thinking things this morning, I guess we probably should have invited him to stay in our home. But last night in the midst of our surprise at finding him here at that particular time, we made a different decision. He plans to worship with our conjugation this morning and will meet some of our people.
And he will return from his trip sometime this fall filled with stories. The sudden downpour in Rapid City will be one of the great adventure stories that ends well. He didn’t get into an accident. He had a good place to change into dry clothes and a warm place to sleep. As they say, “All’s well that ends well.”
By the time I drove home the rain was sill falling, but it wasn’t the heavy downpour that we had seen earlier. I know that we always think that the weather we are experiencing is unusual, but I can’t help feeling that this year is unique. It is August 10 and our grass is green and lush and we have yet to water it with the hose. I’ve only watered the garden a couple of times. The weather still holds surprises for us.
IN THE NEXT WEEK MY PUBLICATION OF THE BLOG WILL LIKELY BE IRREGULAR. I take off this afternoon an an adventure that involves two weddings in the next week. Both are in rural and isolated locations in Montana. I’ll be staying in my camper in places that do not have Internet connections. While I am able to use my cell phone to upload the blog, I will be in places where cell phone service is marginal and I may not be able to get a connection that allows data transmission. I’ll continue to write, but I don’t know when I will get things posted. Part of my adventure will take me to the land where my great grandparents and grandparents homesteaded alongside the Missouri River between Great Falls and Fort Benton, Montana. It was the place where I worked summers during some of my teenage years and I’m looking forward to a short visit and making connections with cousins. Susan and our children and grandchildren will be joining me at the end of the week for another family wedding in Red Lodge. It is always a special time when we get our family together.
Life is good despite an occasional downpour.
Again last night, there was a good downpour. We got about .4 of an inch of rain in about 15 minutes. The problem for me was that those particular 15 minutes were when I had to drive to the church. I was going to the church to meet a young man who is in town and found himself with no place to stay. He is taking a cross country motorcycle tour - a sort of low budget Jack Kerouac summer adventure. He started in California and is driving across the U.S. We knew he was coming sometime, but didn’t know when. Had we had more warning, we could have arranged a place for him to stay. But young people don’t always plan ahead as much we would like. He didn’t know a thing about the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally until he got to the hills last night. So he called us from Wal-Mart where he was taking shelter from the rain. As I said, we knew someone was coming, but we didn’t know when.
Saturday night isn’t our most flexible time in the week, and I am planning to leave on a trip this afternoon and we are expecting a house full of company the day we return. And our home was a long ways from where he was on a motorcycle in a downpour. I arranged to meet him at the church and allowed him to sleep on the floor in one of our classrooms.
I got to the church before he did and when he arrived, he was one wet kid. He said he had driven his motorcycle through some pretty deep water running down the road. I don’t ride a motorcycle, but I imagine that it doesn’t take too much of a puddle for the splash to be able to get you really wet. I know that if he had been riding alongside me when I was driving, my car would certainly have splashed him head to toe.
He comes to us with good references. The pastor who gave him our name is a long-time, trusted friend. Still, it was a rather unusual set of circumstances. Re-thinking things this morning, I guess we probably should have invited him to stay in our home. But last night in the midst of our surprise at finding him here at that particular time, we made a different decision. He plans to worship with our conjugation this morning and will meet some of our people.
And he will return from his trip sometime this fall filled with stories. The sudden downpour in Rapid City will be one of the great adventure stories that ends well. He didn’t get into an accident. He had a good place to change into dry clothes and a warm place to sleep. As they say, “All’s well that ends well.”
By the time I drove home the rain was sill falling, but it wasn’t the heavy downpour that we had seen earlier. I know that we always think that the weather we are experiencing is unusual, but I can’t help feeling that this year is unique. It is August 10 and our grass is green and lush and we have yet to water it with the hose. I’ve only watered the garden a couple of times. The weather still holds surprises for us.
IN THE NEXT WEEK MY PUBLICATION OF THE BLOG WILL LIKELY BE IRREGULAR. I take off this afternoon an an adventure that involves two weddings in the next week. Both are in rural and isolated locations in Montana. I’ll be staying in my camper in places that do not have Internet connections. While I am able to use my cell phone to upload the blog, I will be in places where cell phone service is marginal and I may not be able to get a connection that allows data transmission. I’ll continue to write, but I don’t know when I will get things posted. Part of my adventure will take me to the land where my great grandparents and grandparents homesteaded alongside the Missouri River between Great Falls and Fort Benton, Montana. It was the place where I worked summers during some of my teenage years and I’m looking forward to a short visit and making connections with cousins. Susan and our children and grandchildren will be joining me at the end of the week for another family wedding in Red Lodge. It is always a special time when we get our family together.
Life is good despite an occasional downpour.