Rain or Shine

A guy asked me what my 'cut-off' was, meaning the temperature below which I wouldn't ride my bike to work. Since I've done 2ºF, I think I don't have a cut-off. But I don't dig riding on ice and I'm not very keen on cold rainy rides.



Looking at the weather forecast, I could have easily decided to drive home last night. The early reports said it would start raining heavily about 7:00, and I could probably be home by then, but the overnight low as to dip to 47ºF and it was still supposed to be rainy in the morning.





But what do I have fenders and a rain suit for if not to ride in the rain sometimes? While it's not always a good situation, most of the time it's not as bad as I imagine it will be when I set out.



And I did sign that pledge to ride every day in April. I missed the third day, but other than that I'm solid, have over 190 miles as of the tenth.



The ride home was gorgeous, and I had a slight tailwind most of the way. It sprinkled and misted a little, but I was able to make a bit of a photo safari in the West Bottoms and have a Guinness from the truck stop in the process. That's pretty much a perfect way to unwind a lot of evenings, one of my favorite pass times.



I visited the Central Avenue bridge, the lower deck of it. Which is a creepy place, really, the tags so out of hand, the see-through deck, it looks like a place mobsters would bring guys to dump in the river.



All the positive energy that has been ascribed to the bridge me and Corinna got married on, it's negative opposite is there on the lower deck of the Central. But there's some art to be seen as well, especially on the levee walls. I noticed, too, that an enormous tag on the levee I've always thought said 'Shakey' says 'Mayhem.' I'm pretty sure, and now I wonder where I ever got 'Shakey' from.





I got some shots of some new legal walls on a building at Central and James. It's always been muralled thusly, but they covered over the old tags and redid it. Recently enough that the paint cans are still in the trash barrel.





I got home dry and was already in bed when the storm hit. And boy, did it hit. The pets were all over us in the night, Jello even gave me tummy-kitty (usually he sleeps on my feet if he sleeps in the bed at all). The thunder was enough to even get through the density of my sleep.



I could still hear it raining pretty hard when my alarm went off, and I was ready to put on the rain suit but Corinna pointed out as I was actually getting ready to get on the bike that the birds were singing, it had stopped. And it was true, I had a beautiful ride in, perfectly comfortable in a long sleeved t-shirt. The streets were beautiful, wetly reflecting lights, and the birdsongs were prodigious. I saw occasional drops of precipitation, but so small and diffuse they didn't even speckle my glasses.



About half an hour after I got to work, it started raining in earnest again and didn't let up most of the day. Driving my car would have been such a mistake.