Last night the rain woke me up

And it wasn't a light soothing feeling, it was more of a menacing force.

Mentally I'd sort of prepared to ride in today, NOAA suggested it would be 35-37 degrees and raining to start the day, only warming to the low 40s by the ride home and rain. Rain all day.

When I heard the rain start.  Well it was sort of a resignation to the inevitable.  Got everyone out the house but since I wasn't heading out with them all for a change, everything kind of ground to a halt.  It wasn't so bad that I made a second cup of coffee, but I did check out playingout.net and their video, read a few other bits, found the Moss book on Salt Sugar Fat (if it was the same price as the Obree kindle edition i'd have purchased it already).  Read the HuffPo piece on Pandora's Lunchbox.

And whined on twitter about not wanting to ride in the rain.

And then is started DUMPING. Like raining HARD.  Oof.

I checked the radar. Oh cool, yellow, orange and almost red precipitation on the map.  Ain't that special.

But it was 42F, so, not cold.  Or not THAT cold.

Eventually I got ready to go. let the dog out. packed up the bag, found my gloves, my shoes, my glasses...  put the backpack in the trailer...  and the rain had let up a little.  Nice.

But still raining.

Finally out the door.  Late, but moving.



It wasn't terrible.  I wasn't too cold, yet I could feel the rain slowly saturating my one pair of tights (1995 vintage Pearl Izumi Thermafleece, yeah they're falling apart and thin but hopefully they will last until next season).  My legs were saturated w/in about 5 min.

Trailer was keeping the backpack warm.

But it felt great.  All that dragging of the feet and then I get on the bike and felt wonderful.

Took a handful of pictures, mentally complained about the shells on the path, desperately hoping to avoid a puncture.  Riding the heavy studded tires because I just haven't gotten around to changing them yet.

And made it in.  Cars weren't esp a pain, but the best was I managed to stay on the bike path the whole way.  I could relax for that stretch.  And there wasn't a single walker, jogger, cyclists, dog, fox, cat, bunny, or squirrel out this morning. Only the waterfowl.

And the rain.

And the wind.

And the standing water and rivers running down the path.

Here are a few of the shots...  I did need that ride. I feel better. Riding doesn't fix everything, but sometimes it can fix more than expected.

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