4/15/14

Rain in, rain out

Some notes from a very rainy day: 

-Nothing can keep you dry. It's mostly pointless to try. My bag did surprisingly well in keeping my work clothes unwet and the inner pockets of my rain coat mostly succeeded in protecting my wallet and phone. But me? Soaked soaked soaked soaked soaked. Oh well. 

- Ban 18 wheelers from city streets and not just because one splashed me. 

- I heard a rumor that DDOT hired Bob Ballard to find and bring to the surface the M Street Cycletrack. 

- I rode past a car with a license plate holder that read "I'd rather be riding dressage." For real. Fancy horse prancing is the latest trend in multimodalism. 

- There's nothing unintentional about my riding in the middle of the lane, especially in the rain. I really don't mess around on roads with no bike accommodations when the weather's bad and when visibility is poor. If I feel I need the space, I'm gonna take the space. Relatedly- JUST CHANGE LANES! There's nothing quite as mind-boggling (-ly infuriating) as a driver who would prefer to try to "squeeze" past you rather than move over to a wide-open left lane. (In other news, cars don't really "squeeze." If anything's to be squeezed, it's me and I'm not really into that sorta thing.) At it's best, doing this is totally thoughtless and at it's worst it's totally thoughtless. It's really easy and makes a big, big difference. 

- Much of my ride on the morning is uphill and for much of that time I was riding headlong into onrushing streams of fallen rainwater. It was kinda wild. Like something out of the Poseidon Adventure or a Brita commercial. 

- I'm normally really nice, but rain makes me mean. I apologize for the f bombs, which, due to our antiquated sewer system, mix with the rain water and pollute local rivers and streams. I'm fairly certain one made its way to a duck and that duck is deeply offended by my cursing. Once again, sorry to any and all mallards, woodland creatures, river fish, and/or people. 

- It was stupid cold this afternoon and I was totally unprepared for it. I am grateful to have regained feeling in my remaining fingers. I need to start looking at the whole day's forecast and not just the morning's temperature. Or packing for every weather contingency ever, which would be, admittedly, difficult. 

- I counted 14 other people out on bikes this afternoon over the course if the whole trip. That's a very low number of bicyclists. Can't really blame anyone for not being out today. It was gross. 

- Twigs are the enemy. It's even worse for a Bromptoneer. The folding bike did perform admirably today, though maybe it would've also performed admirably folded and on the Metro. 

Anyway, here's to a dry tomorrow. 

2 comments:

  1. I admit it. I took the dreaded Metro.

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  2. I rather thought it was fun, but admittedly, I get to ride on trails for almost half my ride. There was a surprise tree down along the trail that almost caught me off guard. Still prefer that to cars. For some reason, people drive stupider around bikes in the rain. My Royal jacket kept me dry.

    The Arlington bike counter had me as number 6 in the morning and number 208 in the afternoon.

    DE

    ReplyDelete