Gully-Washer
I love rain.
I feel I need to state that outright because, as a west river South Dakotan, launching immediately into complaints of rain would be blasphemous. All the more so because I spent some of the better parts of my adult life living through drought out here and I really, truly do appreciate precipitation.
I also love thunderstorms.
They look cool. They sound even better when you live in a valley.
However.
As the M-Man would say, it's amazing how much of a mess those little water molecules make when they get together with all of their buddies. (Okay, maybe I paraphrased a little.) Storms around here tend to be ... not calm. We get the wind, the hail, the torrential downpours. Trees fall. Lightning starts fires. Cars get destroyed by falling ice. Phones go out at the drop of a hat. Anyone who was around in 1972 starts to get nervous.
Around here, it also means our little creek turns into a muddy, churning mess. It means trails wash out and roads develop new ruts. We start finding pools of water in strange places. Earlier this summer, one such storm even sent the M-Man and the Rented Lumberjack into a slash pile to escape the hail. (Actually ... it was a pretty funny story in the retelling.)
Today's storm brought on the gravel relocation and the pools of water and a twenty-degree temperature drop, which seemed a tad excessive. Added bonus of having to keep fifty kids corralled inside and it just isn't much fun.
Which is what brings me here. I don't want to complain about rain, especially in July. But I could go for a little moderation...
I feel I need to state that outright because, as a west river South Dakotan, launching immediately into complaints of rain would be blasphemous. All the more so because I spent some of the better parts of my adult life living through drought out here and I really, truly do appreciate precipitation.
I also love thunderstorms.
They look cool. They sound even better when you live in a valley.
However.
 |
| This is a calm day. |
Around here, it also means our little creek turns into a muddy, churning mess. It means trails wash out and roads develop new ruts. We start finding pools of water in strange places. Earlier this summer, one such storm even sent the M-Man and the Rented Lumberjack into a slash pile to escape the hail. (Actually ... it was a pretty funny story in the retelling.)
Today's storm brought on the gravel relocation and the pools of water and a twenty-degree temperature drop, which seemed a tad excessive. Added bonus of having to keep fifty kids corralled inside and it just isn't much fun.
Which is what brings me here. I don't want to complain about rain, especially in July. But I could go for a little moderation...
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