Winter to summer in a week
This past Sunday, is the first time I’ve skipped a ride on account of weather. It was in the low 40s, threatening rain, and windy. Gusts into the 40s, trees falling down, power out to 4,500 homes; it just wasn’t worth it. I missed it too.
Later that night, it snowed. A few flakes, mostly to the south of here, but it was snow, all reported and confirmed by the Natinoal Weather Service.
Last week’s winds have slowly subsided through the week and the weather has slowly warmed up. Wednesday night at 6, I went out for my Sunday training ride. It was a nice night. It had been sunny and was still mostly so. It was warm enough that after a mile or so I was just fine in a long-sleeved t-shirt.
I hadn’t counted on two things: Bugs and baseball. The trails wind alongside the river and the canal, and where there’s water, there are bugs. Got them in my eyes, nose, mouth, even inside my helmet.
(Relating the story the next day, someone told me there was a sale on insect repellant. I thought, Um, if I’m cycling through a cloud of bugs at 15 to 20 mph, I don’t think repellant is going to do me much good. I thanked them for the word, nonetheless.)
At the park, all the baseball diamonds were full. Which meant that there were two full teams’ worth of cars parked along the trail along with all their spectators. Only because this was a trianing ride, did I get the wee-est bit upset that they slowed me down.
I’d have stopped for a breather and watched them play, but I’d already stopped to watch the rowing teams on the river. And I had a face full of bugs.
At one point in my 18 miles I thought I was out of water. I could’ve sworn I’d put two extra bottles in my bag. Fortunately there’s a gas station near where I turn around and I bought two bottles there.
The suburbs are weird. The gas station had café tables set out between the building and the pumps. There were a bunch of old guys sitting at the tables, smoking cigars and drinking coffee. While the mixed aromas of gasoline and cigar smoke brought back pleasant memories of summers at my grandfather’s cottage, I couldn’t stop thinking that if they put in proper sidewalks in the suburbs, they could have proper sidewalk cafés.
Anyway, after circling the lot a couple of times, I found the only place I could lock up was to the handicapped parking sign. As I did, one of the old guys called over, “You don’t have to do that. We’ll watch it for you.”
“Thank you,” I replied. “I appreciate the offer, but I’d like to stay in the habit. After all,” I continued, gesturing towards the fueling cars, “those people all lock their cars and set their alarms when they go inside.”
To underscore the point, just then a Volvo beeped and blinked its lights.
“Yeah,” agreed one of the others. “Good habits are hard to keep.”
He’s got that right.
In any event, when I got home I discovered I had packed those extra bottles of water. They’d just sunk into the depths of the backpack and other, lighter stuff covered them. I’d just not reached inside far enough.
Back to the weather. They’re calling for the low 80s for tomorrow and Monday, and upper-80s later in the week. It rained heavily yesterday. It was my first time riding in real rain. Other times, it’s just been very light, more of a heavy drizzle than rain.
I put on my blinkies on the bike and raingear on myself and set out in the morning. I rode slowly because it was muggy too and I didn’t want to get all sweaty inside the raingear. Only my face, shoes and the cuffs of my pants got wet. And it was amazing how much more space drivers gave me. In that regard, I wouldn’t mind rain more often.
The afternoon run between Presbytery and the library was dry I was buzzed by several school buses. They seem to be the only vehicles that consistently don’t get the “share the lane” thing. Everyone else generally does—truckers and RTS buses, by the way, do the best job of it—but school buses seem out to get me with those big-ass mirrors then have hanging from the side.
The rain returned for the evening commute and I politely, but firmly turned down offers of rides from my co-workers; who then stood under the awning waiting to see if I really would pedal off into the rain. Later, it had slackened off a bit, so I wore only my raincoat to the meeting. I think I arrived there drier than if I’d walked.
I have plenty of work, errands and rides planned for the weekend, so I think I’ll be off to it.
