Rain is an interesting thing. See we need it to survive, absolutely. If rain went away tomorrow, we'd all die in a manner of probably oh, a year. Give it less because everyone would go beserk ahead of time and do the whole "It's the apocalypse! Let's loot TV's and kill each other!" thing. However, while it's necessary for life, you'd think we were allergic to it, or that upon touching our skin THE PLAGUE would infect us to the point of no return, some sort of magical "water from the sky" plague of death and destruction.
Okay so maybe I'm being over-dramatic, but you get what I'm saying :).
Monday it was cold and rainy, like 50 some degrees cold. The ride in to work stunk not because of the rain directly, but because I took the "direct" and my (by a large margin) least favorite route in. Near death once, splashed by a Pepsi semi twice, generally it was better than weighing 500 pounds.. by a shallow margin.
Today I came upstairs, noticed the rain and grumped. Shoes already on, almost out the door at 6:45 - plenty of time to take a nice long ride before work - had to take the shoes off and get the rain stuff together. Different shoes, different socks, rain jacket, etc. Looking as I packed up the pannier I couldn't help by try to talk myself into taking anything other than the short route. Then I got on the bike and it decided I'm taking the long route. Or maybe I did, but I'll blame the bike.
First mile? It sucked. The rain was in my face and coming down pretty good. Sure I had a rain jacket on, and I have fenders, but that doesn't do a lot for the face. Then it picked up. Rain slowed down, bike sped up, and I felt great. The rain-soaked jacked was cool against my skin, the slight mist that the fenders didn't stop cooled down my lower legs, and the drizzle from the sky felt good as it dripped down through my helmet. At mile three and a half-ish, as I turned at the zoo, I caught myself smiling. I wasn't the only one, another rider, I noticed she had a big smile as well.
Two more guys I passed? Smiling. Only saw one guy not smiling, but then I noticed he was a regular, and he was riding an old mountain bike instead of the nice hybrid he usually is sporting. Seriously though, this rain thing is supposed to stink, why are all these nutjobs smiling?
For some odd reason, I don't know what it is, once you get past the "this sucks because I'm told it's supposed to suck" part, it kinda doesn't. The rain cools you down, slows you down a little, and for some reason you enjoy it. 7 miles later, my head soaked, my legs a little wet, and my bike completely dripping with water I arrived at work - whistling. Cleaned up, dried off the bike (NOTE: If you don't like rust, do this - 10 minutes spent toweling off the bike is better than rust, seriously), and started to work.
Then this guy showed up to hang out with me for an hour at work, which further brightened my mood. A cloudy, dreary, overcast day suddenly has turned into a seriously good day. Gotta dig that.
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