The first good summer storm of August arrived in full force and just a few moments ago Lanie and I were enjoying cocktails on the veranda when the winds whipped up and spoiled our party. It was calm as could be at 5:30 P.M. when I finally dropped the first edition of a new 142X12 dropout on the bench and called it a day and thought about fixing the jeep and/or drinking strong ale and it was a short battle tonight.

It was 6:40 before I realized it was past 6:30 and time to shut the compressor off. Earlier the regulator started making a squealing noise that we couldn’t figure out so we just raised the air pressure to 200% of normal operating pressure which is a bit like putting out a car fire by driving so fast that the flames can’t keep up and we all find ourselves in that position from time to time. I keep that in mind when building your bikes.

As I was saying, we were relaxing on the patio when the leaves of our little Aspen tree turned upside down and told us of the immediate future. We talked about the poor guy who cares for our dirt road. It’s somehow satisfying to go over that stuff again and welcome the new contender to the King of Storms.

I feel like tonight has potential since we don’t often have a week of perfect weather without a big storm on the other end and we hadn’t seen but one bird since we sat down, that bird was on the ride of his life just trying to get home.
We retreated indoors once the violence began. I went to my room for dry clothes and noticed that the bureau was covered in fresh droplets brought on by the sudden squall so I slammed the window shut and watched the deluge as a spectator.

I remembered riding in a storm like this a couple of years ago on one of the local roads and recall being unable to see a few inches of my front rim as it sliced through the rushing water that covered the road. I carried a thin rain poncho in my saddle bag for a long time after that episode and tonight had a little chuckle at my own expense after being so totally unprepared.

I grabbed a sock out of my top dresser drawer and dried the water from the polished surface after forcing it around a bit. I then opened the drawer below and found the thin plastic garment wrapped in it’s little bag and headed for my bike, I was sure I could find room for it… ah, the storm is passing

The threat of greatness had withdrawn itself and the ground quickly absorbed the moisture that had just fallen. Here, tonight it wasn’t much but, perhaps somewhere else it was the King of Storms.