If only I could have seen it

As wet as it’s been in some parts of Montana, it’s been dry as a bone in others.

I haven’t seen rain in more than a month at my home in Malta or my cabin on Fort Peck.

It rained in Malta last night but I missed it. I was headed home from the lake to water the garden when my wife called to tell me our dock – with pontoon boat attached – had blown off shore and was resting against a neighbors dock.

I turned around at Saco and headed back to our cabin on the appropriately named Big Dry Arm. Clouds were moving in across the Hi-line and the air smelled of smoke from the July Fire burning in the Little Rocky Mountains.

The wind blew hard all the way back to the lake but nary a drop of rain splattered off the windshield.

Barb had anchored the pontoon on the shore to keep it from drifting any further. I waded out to the dock, started the boat and drove the whole outfit back into position, this time tying the dock to a stake I drove into the bank.

Back at the cabin, dirt covered the patio and all the furniture that sat there. Barb said the storm blew in without warning, a big brown cloud that swept across our bay and reduced visibility to a few yards. It was over in moments.

By the time I got the dock and pontoon situated again, the wind had stopped and the heat, which has been lying over the land for weeks, returned.

I drove to Malta early the next morning, and passing through Glasgow, noticed it had rained there. It had actually rained all the way back to Malta, water still filling the rumble strip on the edge of the highway.

I wish I could have seen it. I’ve been fantasizing about rain lately, the idea of water falling from the sky a difficult concept to grasp when forecasts of hot and dry follow weeks of the same.

The front that brought the wind and rain also brought cooler temperatures, but only for a day. Triple-digit heat is soon to return to northeast Montana with no end in sight.

On the bright side, all that dust and smoke is making for some spectacular sunsets, and because of all the snow in the mountains, the lake is full.

It provides relief on the hottest days, but I’m still dreaming of rain.

Parker Heinlein is [email protected]