Rain

It had to happen, because I can't really remember the last time I really got rained on (except for that late summer coffee ride) on a commute or a training ride. (Can I still call those non-commutes "training rides" now that I never go to a race any more? What would I be training for, exactly?). Last summer, after getting to Holland from Milwaukee, I got the nice bike dirty more than once when the weather was still supposed to be nice. This summer, certainly by late September, however, we began seeing news reports about drought conditions in parts of this swamp-like country. It actually was not coming down when I left the house a little before eight this morning, though the roads were plenty wet. Before I started getting it from above, I had already gotten a little wet (one shoe) from several large puddles I was forced to ride through. Two-thirds of the way the real rain started, and by the time I got to work I was plain wet. The heat hasn't been turned on yet in my building, so at the end of the afternoon I had to put the still damp stuff back on. The socks were the worst, but the conditions outside a pleasant surprise. It didn't really rain at all as I rode out of Amsterdam, and the rest of the way all I had to deal with was a light drizzle. I had checked the radar and hurried over to my bike, because it was clear that at the very end of the day some real rain would be moving through. I was able to watch that from inside the house. Other reason why this wasn't the real thing yet: it was sixties, for crying out loud. That's about ten degrees away from warm rain, the kind it's a privilege and a joy to ride in.