rainy ride

there's nothing quite like riding your bike home from work in the rain. correction, in the deluge. add in a bit of hail, some lightning and strong winds and you'd have my ride home from work today.

you see, the weatherman has screwed me lately. i suppose that it might be incredibly challenging to accurately predict the weather. but mostly i think that if we can track people using GPS and have satellites that can take photos of distant galaxies, that maybe (just maybe!) we'd be able to have accurate estimates of weather patterns. but no! it seems to be the great human mystery.

over the past few months, i have checked the weather in the morning and made my plan to ride to work based on what might happen that day. inevitably, the days i decided not to ride my bike because it was suggested that rain was in the forecast that day were the days it stayed dry as can be. i get frustrated when i take public transit in summer (it's so nice out!), so i started to get pissed off. and then i decided to forgo the meteorologists advice and ride my bike regardless. so far, i've been ok.

until today. i was soaking wet before i'd finished unlocking my bike. but generally, after that initial "ugh, i hate being wet" thought, i can move on. i'm already wet, who care if it takes me 30 mins to get home. so i started peddling. then the wind picked up. then the hail started (albeit small, it stings more then i'd expected). i couldn't really see at some points because the rain was dripping through my helmet down my face or was actually flying directly into my eyes. i waved with a knowing smile of "man this sucks" to any of my fellow cyclists on the road (which wasn't a large number really).

and then i got honked at. by a damn driver in his super dry car. because i was taking too much room in the lane he was in and he had to *gasp* wait 10 seconds to pass me. the reason i was taking too much room? the side of the road nearest to the sidewalk (where i generally ride) was inundated with water up to my pedals. not my ideal riding situation. i threw my hand up, flipped him the bird and got on with it.

i pulled up to my apartment building just as the rain was dying down (naturally), dripping and cold. i looked at the man sitting in the lobby, expecting him to help me by opening the door so i could pull my soggy self and my bike inside. but no, he just sat there. so i started fumbling with shivering hands (drip drip) into my bike bag (drip drip), searching for my purse (drip drip) until i found my keys (drip drip). still no movement (drip drip). i clumsily unlocked the door (drip drip) and managed to manoeuvre my bike inside (drip drip) while scowling quite heavily at the man (drip drip drip) who sat on his lazy ass and watched me struggle (drip drip drip). after i put my bike away (drip drip), i came back through the lobby (drip drip) to the elevator (drip drip), because i wasn't risking the stairs dripping wet in flip flops- an accident waiting to happen to me really. i was pretty peeved with the man. who doesn't offer to help? jerk.

i walked into my apartment generally frustrated by the jerk-ness of some people and irritated by the clinginess of my sopping clothes. i think i'll probably leave my bike at home tomorrow.
xo