It's raining, it's pouring . . .

Like the title of this blog entry indicates, it is raining and pouring today. I listened to the rain during the night on our roof and outside as it puddled. I anticipated the ride to school in the rain, but when it came time to leave on the bike, though the road was still wet, it wasn't raining. So, I took off.

I made it to the highway before the rain began to pour down. It started off gradually and I tried to think where I could pull over out of the rain in order to don my rain suit. By the way, that's not a picture of rain I took; and that's not me in the hi-viz rain suit, although I often display a cheesy smile a lot like his. But, what I did was take my 10 year old rain suit of gray, about like the one on the left, and add my own reflective patches to it in hopes it would look professional like the one on the left. Instead, mine just looks ghetto; or white trash.

Anyway, I stopped at an antique mall that had a nice big porch and I pulled on the rain gear as the cars and trucks swished by. I had recently (and it turns out, wisely) switched the gloves I carry in my backpack. I used to carry part cloth, part leather gloves with matching professional clothing in mind. That's what I used to carry, now I've switched to a pair of heavy duty, leather, insulated gloves more like these:

I always get more than a few looks when I enter the school wearing my home made high visibility rain suit, and above that my high visibility work vest:

I also wear a high visibility strap around my ankle on the traffic side of the bike, like this

I was the only person on bicycle this morning, and I predict I'll be the only one on bicycle this afternoon on the way home. I've received many comments from students and adults alike that were meant to be a little bit derisive or sarcastic along the lines of "We saw you this morning, you were hard to miss." I look at these sarcastic comments as evidence of success. That's my goal: to be seen. Not because I'm an attention hog (which I am), but because I want vehicle drivers to see me so they won't hit me with their vehicles!

I get quite a few rubber neckers who are amazed someone would ride their bike to begin with, let alone in the rain, and never mind wearing all these reflective clothes.  Here's a picture of some gear I plan to add to my reflective wardrobe for bicycle commuting.

Anyway, I hope it's still raining when I leave the building. I'm looking forward to a rainy ride!
Keep on commuting by bike!

MWBC