July Rain

I don't know what came over me. I chose to ride my Harley to work yesterday when I knew it was going to rain. Looking back, I'm sure it had to do with the sunrise yesterday morning. When I came downstairs to get my second cup of coffee at about 5am, I saw a glimpse of beauty that eased any doubts I had about riding to work. By the time it was time to leave and I rolled the bike outside I was greeted with one of the most dramatic orange and pink sunrises I have ever seen in my life. The sky was so bright and so brightly colored that it was tinting me and everything around me as I stood there. As I rode to work I seriously considered making myself late for work and going up on the west hill of our valley and watching the whole sunrise. Yes, it was that nice! In retrospect, that old adage, "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning" comes to mind...

Anyway, the sky belayed all of my doubts about rain that day. I also had confidence in the fact that if it did rain it wouldn't rain all day. For the most part I was right. It was showery, so it rained off and on pretty much all day. By the time 2:30 came and it was time to leave it was not much different--It was lightly sprinkling. I guess my attitude towards rain has changed a little since that soaking I endured last year coming over the mountain pass because I didn't really care at all. I just carried a paper towel out with me and wiped my seat off. I enjoyed the ride home enough that I threw caution into the wind. I was going to go up to Suzie's house for the evening and decided to ride there as well. After all, it gets a lot better mileage than the car does and it's more fun too.

I made a stop at Fred Meyer for a loaf of french bread first, and looking toward the "weather direction" I noted how it seemed to be clearing up. Good. Sure, it sprinkled a little while I was locking the bike up to go in, but that wasn't much different than it was when I came home from work, and that ended up being okay. When I came out of the store the sprinkling had stopped and I smiled to myself and hopped on.

I had just rounded the corner at the outskirts of town when I ran into drizzle. At that point I was about halfway to her house. The rain got heavier quickly, and at one point I was afforded a view of the valley in the direction I was going and it was solid gray--The gray of rain. Great. In retrospect I guess I should have at least had my windshield on. The rain tended to sting the face at the speed I was riding, so I just put one hand over my lower face when I could and plodded onward. When I got to Suzie's house I wasn't soaked by any means (she's not all that far away after all), but I definitely had wet pants everywhere my chaps weren't covering. That of course included the illusion that I had peed my pants.

We had a very enjoyable evening together. Her son Dane was there, and we were also visited by her daughter Rachyl at one point. We were both surprised when Dane did a little "show and tell" with some math he was working on. He came out of his room over to me and proudly showed me what he was helping someone with. See, Dane is the only one of her kids that is not very happy with "us". It's not me that he's unhappy with, it's what I've done to disrupt the normal flow of life in their family. He's very religious, and his mom being disfellowshipped while we are dating still makes him mad. So to have him talk to me like that is a good sign that he's slowly coming around.

Anyway, I digressed. Back to the rain. When I left her house it was raining. It was light rain, but solid nevertheless. And I was finally getting dried out too. Oh well. It wasn't nearly as painful on the face as it was on my way to her house, nor did I get as wet, but I definitely appreciated being able to strip down and warm up when I got home last night.

Hey, it's almost time to go to work. I wonder if everything is dry down there yet...