Commute Report — 1-29-10

Once again, my good intentions have been washed down the storm drain, like so much oil from the roadway.

I am constantly saying "Oh, rain is no problem, I won't let that stop me from riding to work", and I totally intend to do so, until I wake up in the morning, look out at the rain coming down and think, "OK, I think I will sleep for another 30 minutes and take the bus to work." Of course, once I am on said bus I end up looking longingly out the window at those who have decided to ride despite anything Mother Nature is throwing at them.

And so it was last week, when it rained every day of the week, the first time it has done that in recent memory. Typically, our so-called "rainy season" here in SoCal consists of perhaps ten partial days of rain spread over four months or so. This year it is seeming more like an actual "season" of "rain".

There were a couple of days where I would not have biked, even if I were a man of my word. Strong winds, and torrential rains coupled with thunder and lightning are enough to make me ditch my plan with no regrets, but the other two or three days would have been no problem at all.

I could probably count on one hand the number of times I have witnessed out-of-the-blue thunderstorms here in California. In the midwest where I lived as a lad, rarely a day went by that didn't feature an impromptu storm of some sort, be it rain, snow, sleet or hail (or a combination of any number of those). Here in SoCal I am used to hearing forecasts of "There is a storm heading this way from Alaska, it should be here in three days." And in three days, more often than not, the rain arrives right on schedule, allowing me several days to get my affairs in order before "Drizzle Watch 2010!" is upon us. In the midwest, predicting the weather is about as accurate as having the future predicted by a turbaned mechanical fortune-teller at a run-down amusement park. Back then, if you didn't go out in adverse weather, you didn't go out.

I guess that 30 years of SoCal weather have spoiled me, weakening my once-rugged midwest constitution, reducing me to being a typical Californian: "I can't go outside, there is some sort of moist substance that appears to be dripping from the sky." I guess that it is the novelty of precipitation that makes it something I need to put so much thought into. When you live in an area where it rains on a regular basis, a rainy day is just another day.

Well, next week they are predicting rain on a couple of days, and once again I am saying "No problem, I won't let a little water stop me from my bike commute." But I'm sure this weekend will find me checking the sofa cushions for bus fare, "Just in case."