Friday, February 24, 2012

caught in the rain

ok, so when it's been this long since my last post, it must be winter in seattle. that or i can walk everywhere i need to go. or both.

i did hop on the bike today for a (semi) quick errand over to the eastside. the idea was quick, the execution? not so much. all i had to do was deliver some goal posts from my dad's house to my friend paul's. what that meant, however, was riding vixen from cap hill to bellevue, picking up the posts and dad's SUV, driving them to maple leaf, returning the car to bellevue and riding back to cap hill.

since it was a typical seattle winter day today, hovering around 48 degrees with heavy overcast clouds that could start dumping at any moment, i did put on an extra shirt before crossing the bridge. it wasn't raining when i left cap hill so i was ok, right? right. it started raining right as i pulled in to dad's driveway and hasn't stopped yet.

the post delivery went fine (cars are still lame), and the ride home? still fine. actually, it was more comfortable than the ride over. let me explain why. riding over it was cold. cold easily finds it way through every crack in every layer of clothing you are wearing. on the ride home it was raining, which means (most of the time) the temperature has risen a bit. it's wet, though, as rain tends to be.

now, i didn't have my rain gear with me (as i said, it wasn't raining when i left. and i hate my rain gear), and so you may be saying to yourself "scott! didn't you get soaking wet and have an absolutely miserable ride home wishing you had never bought that blasted bike to begin with?" ok, maybe that last part was just my mom. and to answer your question, i'm going to explain, step by step, exactly what happens when you ride a motorcycle in the rain with no rain gear on

1) you get rained on
2) your clothes get wet
3) you might get wet (if you have lousy clothes)
4) you arrive
5) you dry off

that's it. sure, if you're riding all day in jeans and summer gloves through a rainstorm in 40 degree weather, you're going to start getting cold and wet and miserable and you might start doing stupid things. but you already did something stupid by wearing what you did in that particular weather. if you're just riding across the bridge on a 20 minute trip wearing warm gloved and full leathers, then it's fine. and it was. my gloves are drying by the heater, my jacket was already dry by the time i was out of the shower, and i don't have frostbite or pneumonia or tuberculosis.

so don't worry about it.

until next time, i will leave you with an approximate image of what i probably looked like today:


rftc,

scott