A study in opposites

Yesterday was a beautiful day, unseasonably warm with bright blue decorating the sky. Today was a very different story, dawning gray and damp, continuing with an absolute downpour. The sun spent the entire day hiding behind very dark gray clouds.

My bike insisted on riding yesterday, a very good decision on her part.

(Oops! You're absolutely right, you've caught one of my little idiosyncracies. Yes, my bikes talk to me. And yes, they do help me decide which set of wheels should roll down the road...)

I started out without a destination in mind, riding a series of loops within loops. It was cool when I headed out, temperatures in the upper 50s warmed into the low 60s by the time I returned home. My attire was almost right; I couldn't have left home with fewer layers, but my windbreaker ended the ride tied around my waist. That worked. It was a beautiful day for a ride, dry pavement, bright sunshine, comfortable temperatures. Occasional trees dressed in bright yellow leaves popped out of the bare branches of the majority of the trees. Yellow leaves shine against a clear blue sky; beautiful.

Today I woke up to find wet ground, gray skies, the air filled with mist. I expected a rainy day, so the cool misty morning should really be viewed as a gift. I chose to walk and not ride today; the wet roads would have made for a very messy ride and an after-ride bike cleaning session. Walking, legs clad in warm tights, upper body topped with a hat and a serious rain jacket... Either my timing was perfect or the weather wizard held off the heavy rain because I was dressed for it. My entire walk was accompanied by heavy mistl Just a short 15 minutes after I returned home the sky opened up and heavy rain started pelting against the ground. Lucky!

It was a good day for relaxing, reading, making a big pot of soup... Yes, I would have preferred a dry day for riding. But I really can't complain about our quiet wet day when I look at the rain that has been flooding the northwest over the last week. Hearing that Mt. Rainier National Park had 18 inches of rain withing 36 hours just blew my mind. 18 inches of snow in that amount of time is a lot; 18 inches of rain is such a large amount of water that it is beyond my imagination.

Opposites... riding in sunlight, walking in gray gloom, relaxing inside while the rain splashed down.