The sky was not just dark and ominous,

it was dark, swirling chaos, sick yellow and blueish tints coloring the grey and black, like bruises on the stormclouds, lightning ripping through the murky haze of the horizon.

I could catch glimpses of it as we came through the last stretches of the Canyon, and then we hit the open plains, and the Big Sky rolled out to greet us. The sun was setting off to the left, with beautiful wispy clouds catching its rays. Dead ahead, it was dark. The heat of the summer, the Rocky Mountain Front in its proud glory, the Great Plains sweeping for their many lonely miles, all come together and create wild thunderstorms. I love them, the power and wild fury, making us run for cover or suffer the wrath of Mother Nature.

But after spending the day with a carful of bored kids, ranging in age from two to twelve, driving across this big assed state, I do not really appreciate running into one twenty freaking minutes from home. Big thunderstorm. Big enough just about everyone pulled over. And those that didn’t were fools. Sit there for fifteen minutes, wind rocking the car, rain coming sideways, lightning flashing.  And then the wind died. The rain slackened. I could see further than the next reflector pole. I put the car in gear. thwak. The boy and I look at each other. I put the car in park. The heavens went from pouring water on us, to pummeling us with hail. We picked up a couple (after it stopped) that were as big as a soda bottle cap. They were hitting the pavement beside me and bouncing higher than my car. Beautiful. When that finally stopped, we all had to drive in about 50, or we ran into the back end of the damn rain.

And my back yard is barely wet.  

7 July 2007 | Life | Comments