Posts tagged ‘rain’
storm clouds and dandelions
There are some days where all you have to do is look up, and you know you are in for it.
I remind myself that the rain is a good thing, washing the pollen from the air, making spring things grow bright and beautiful – even as I stand beneath a storefront awning, trying to wait out another thunderstorm before riding home. Oh well.
Yesterday I had to be out in it; today I really didn’t need to be anywhere, but despite the rainy forecast, I wanted to take a quick ride to a nearby field I had passed yesterday. Red clover and wildflowers were out in abundance, my time was my own, and I wanted to play with my camera. But before I was even a mile down the road, the rain began to fall again.
No fields of red clover today … only a few dandelions in my yard. I’ll have to wait out the rain once again. Sigh.
caught
Riding by the old cemetery, I stop to look. I love the quiet. Stillness is broken by a rumble of thunder, wind stirs the branches. A drop of rain.
Then, deluge.
Sometimes you just get caught in it. And despite the soaking, it is all ok.
utilitaire 5.12
After giving myself a few days off – no biking, swimming or much of anything else – I got back out today, thankfully feeling more like myself. I rarely get sick, or injured, and typically try to push through it if I can. But taking a few days to rest and lay back was a good thing, I think; I feel so much better than I did on Friday.
It was raining all morning, but the clouds began to break up shortly after noon, so I decided to make a grocery run – #5 on my Ultilitaire control card. Two bags of groceries, a gallon of milk, a quiet ride through dripping trees, cows in damp fields, and the smell of springtime in the air. Zig-zagging a route on back roads and out of traffic, feeling my legs again after several days off of the pedals. Mileage guestimate: 7 miles. Daffodils emerging: gazillions.
yin & yang storm clouds
back roads home
daffodils
riding through puddles
The weather continues to mystify me. Heavy rains and severe storms have rolled through the area, and to see tornado destruction in AL and AR in January is mind boggling. I cannot bear the thought of a repeat of last spring – and we’re still in the middle of what is supposed to be winter.
Rain or not, I needed to get out today. It was gusty but warm, and I revisited a road I hadn’t ridden in quite a while. Cows, barns, creeks (overflowing) and plenty of mud. But I still have fun riding through puddles…
rainy
It’s been strange weather. Very warm, pretty windy. Fronts coming through. Rain. It’s like the weather can’t commit to becoming winter-like. Sigh.
Days have been filled with errands, commuting, and not much else. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will return to cold and crisp and sunny over the next few days. Also hoping there will be some Thanksgiving break rides with my boys, home for the holidays.
Meanwhile, wishing everyone a peaceful time with friends and family – and a very happy Thanksgiving.
rain puddles & threatening clouds
foggy mornings
a window of "nice"
hat
#CyclingCapTuesday ... before the rains came
day 328: serainity
While I am more than ready to see some sun and blue skies, I have to confess that there is a certain tranquility to riding in a soft rain. I love the smell of the damp fields, the quiet windless-ness, the mist hanging over the hills. Once I get past my initial reluctancy to be out in it, and get warmed up and used to the damp feeling against my skin, it’s a beautiful time to ride.
bike, barn, cows ... as always
crossing Bigsby Creek
rain commute out-takes
rain
When you’re going to end up jumping into a pool anyway, does it really matter?
One of the big gaping holes in my blog, I think, is … well, the rest of it. The not-so-pretty stuff, the traffic, the rides around town that don’t take place on the pleasantness of the greenway, but rather, tailing exhaust pipes and edging away from distracted minivan moms texting on cell phones.
view of traffic from the handlebars, in the rain {-P
I rarely take pictures while on the commuting rides, largely because it’s tricky business, not-so-safe, and I typically don’t carry my DSLR along. It’s not the kind of shooting where I can take time to stop, compose the shot. When I manage to capture anything, it’s typically blind shots from the hip with my point-and-shoot. And on days like today, rain on the lens and blindly shooting … well, not a pretty picture.
blind shot from the hip
like I said ... my arm (and a truck)
I had a couple errands to run, and since it was a better day to be swimming than cycling, I wanted to head to the pool. The weather was pretty high on the crappy scale – upper 30’s, rainy, gloomy – and probably a blessing in disguise. I ended up having the pool largely to myself.
going from wet to wetter at the Y
pool to myself
Had a great swim, got out and dried off …. just to go back out in the rain. {-P
So, although I may try to tip the scales and balance the biking photos with some real-life-on-a-bike shots, don’t hold your breath. I think I am obviously more suited to old barns and quiet rural roads. 😉
blindly shooting wet legs heading home
the good samaritan
wind, rain, sky drama ... and a bike ride 😉
Are there days when you actually shouldn’t be out riding around on a bike? I don’t know. But apparently the woman who stopped her car as I was standing along the road snapping a few pictures thought so.
“Can I give you a ride home?”
“Oh … no thank you, I’m fine. Just taking a few pictures,” I say.
“Um… well, ok.” (Looking at me sideways, apparently assessing my state of mental health).
“But thanks for asking,” I say with a smile, trying to assure her that I had a functioning brain underneath my helmet.
Maybe if she could just see the sky the way I saw it today, from the seat of my bike … would she understand?
I didn't spot any Holsteins flying through the air...
#330daysofbiking Day 210
rain delirium
- practicing for living somewhere like … Portland?
I have some “nice” fall color biking photos from days prior … but today, while I was riding in the rain, I was thinking about friends in Portland and the Pacific Northwest. (And yes, also snowbound Minneapolis, @bikerly, @blueallez, and @myrnacgmibus). In my mind, cities like Portland, Seattle, and Amsterdam are my idea of cycling nirvana. And Minneapolis. I see the videos, the pictures, read about the bicycle culture, the rideshare, the cupcakes (big incentive), and converse with a few friends who live there in the midst of it. I am fairly convinced that I belong there.
And then I ride on a cold, grey and damp day and wonder if I really would have what it takes? I can easily do a few days here and there in crappy weather, but am I really cut out for months on end of this kind of kind of stuff? I dunno. The cupcakes I could definitely do on a daily basis. The rain riding, well … ?
For now, I ride in it … just to practice. And to pre-qualify. 😉
#330daysofbiking Day 209 ~ in the rain
iFauxlaroid selfportrait
#330daysofbiking Day 72: heat and thunder
circular
Weather continues to be hot and stifling. Heat index peaked today at about 100’F. Basically miserable.
Today I played catch-up at home, after the past few days of fun and games on the river and elsewhere. Took a very quick errand ride in the late morning – which convinced me that I didn’t want to be on the bike again until it cooled off, hopefully by evening. As the pattern goes, the heat builds and builds throughout the day, culminating in big thunderstorms complete with wind and torrential rains. So it was again this afternoon, lingering into dusk. Right now it feels like some Amazonian rainforest out there – steam rising from the pond, the ground, the pavement. I gave it up for the day; the errand ride will have to do.
grapevine tendrils in the rain
shebicycles 