Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Warm Sticky Rainy

Although I don't mind riding in the cold or heat, I'm actually a bit of a wuss about rain, and will often ditch and take the train when it's actually raining.
I didn't plan on riding in the rain Wednesday morning.  At first I was resigned to taking the T,  and then the rain stopped, and I thought I could probably make it by bike,  so I lingered a little longer with my morning tasks than I should have, and by the time I was ready to go,  I was getting pretty late.  And of course the thing about weather is that if you wait a while it will change, and it had started to rain again.

It wasn't a pouring rain, but it was a bit windy,  but by this point I was going to be hopelessly late if I took the train.  Plus the idea of being crammed together with everyone else in their wet gear in a hot sticky train car wasn't too appealing.  So I dug out the $8 Tyvek poncho that I bought at the hardware store and have been pretending is a "rain cape" and saddled up.

And it was basically fine.  Yes, my feet would have been soaked except my leather boots are pretty damppoof.  And my tights dried fast,  and the hem of my skirt was a little damp, but not much more than if I'd walked 10 blocks each end in the rain under an umbrella.

The Tyvek poncho has the advantages of a rain cape, in that it is open below for more airflow,  but it's not a pretty sight, I'm afraid.    By the time I got halfway up Cambridge street, it was only sprinkling, and I decided to ditch the poncho for the rest of the ride.  I 'm tempted by the thought of a Carradice Duxback, but A) it's awfully expensive for the occasional ride through the rain and B) it's dark green, which doesn't seem like a great choice for visibility. There are rumors of a cape from Brooks for next Spring, but I'm not expecting it to be much cheaper, and it's also dark (although with reflective patches).

I did have a moment of schadenfreude, that in retrospect I'm not proud of.  I was stopped at a light behind a car that I'd been following for some time, and despite driving a fancy sporty car, he was driving very carefully and patiently.  Our light turned green,  and he started, when all of a sudden a guy RAN out it front of him,  literally 3' from him.  The pedestrian hadn't even looked at the light, and there actually isn't a pedestrian crossing there.  I had seen him running down the hill, holding his hood down over his brow, and figured he'd at least stop at the light.  The driver just missed him with a squealing of brakes and probably a lot of adrenaline.
The jaywalker didn't even stop, which was unfortunate for him because he'd dropped his iphone,  and it got run over by both the front and back wheel of the car.   I bet he's wishing he'd waited the 90 seconds for traffic to clear now!


3 comments:

  1. LOL. You're evil. Schadenfreude is only okay if I experience it. :P

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  2. hysterical story--I am still laughing

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  3. Ha - that's hilarious that the guy dropped his iPhone and it was crushed. I'll bet that will keep him from ever running across the street like that in the future!

    Much as I complain about drivers, I've also seen some horrible pedestrians and bikers. My favorite one was an older man who was pushing some sort of cart and standing at a red light. He stood there until the light turned GREEN for the cars to go and then started crossing the road (VERY slowly)!!! I was horrified and sure that someone was going to either run over him or at least begin honking their horn, but to my amazement, everyone sat there calmly for him to cross. I'm not sure if he had vision issues or what, but I hope he doesn't do that on a regular basis :)

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