Rolling Under Thunder, Here I'm Dry

 Yup, I'm a fan of co-opting for blog post titles, even if I still have yet to read Mildred D. Taylor's novel. Nearly as much, I'm also a fan of the line from a friend's father: "It's better to be lucky than good." I'm not making a case against ability and skill, but in reality, the person who gets good breaks often fares better than the one who works hard to good effect.

Today I was lucky. My plan: ride to Greenfield because I like it up there, and getting there and coming back aren't half bad either. The forecast, for what that's worth these days, predicted rain, so I figured I'd ride my bike with one gear, but a couple of fenders as wet roads were a more likely challenge than hills on my ride up the Connecticut River Valley. More than half way to the summer solstice, it's light early, so before 8am, I was out the door to prep my bike and go, but out that door, I was greeted by sprinkles.

I may not have great faith in meteorology's ability to quickly adapt to a climate system that no longer matches the years of data in their models, but live radar is good science and hard to mess up, so I take a peak at that, and following the lead of the sprinkles are bands of yellow and red downpour. Ok, a dry hour of reading beats starting a ride with a thorough dousing, so that is what I do, inside, dry, watching the heavy rain arrive.

It ends. I leave. It's nice, and the fenders do a great job of keeping the wet from the roads off my back and front. I ride to Greenfield, have fun, and ride home a different way, both dry. Then returning through Sunderland, I hear the rumble of thunder. Ok, wet happens, and just before I enter Amherst, the sky is pretty dark, although not exactly in a pretty way. The cars are driving with lights on, so I pull over to attach mine above goodies from the Greenfield Coop, and start riding all lit up and flashy.

I can also see wet drops on the pavement, or at least I can discern drops until shortly later when the pavement is just comprehensively wet, but the place I don't see wet is in the sky. Yup, I still hear thunder, but to my east, where more frequently goes, not comes. On down to UMass, the roads are soaked, and then further down in South Amherst, the road is full of rivelets plus the stones and debris dragged by them in what must have been quite the pouring down.

So let's hear it for procrastination! By delaying, I missed the opening dousing and then hours later, managed to tuck home on the heels of an even heavier rain. Sure, I'll take that, even if I do hope to bring a little bit of "good" to the streak of luck!

I may like my luck, but I also know not to push it,

so no stopping for rain debris photos until the end of my not-very-driven-way, 

which keeps flooding in hard rains.

Yes, it poured again 5 minutes after I was inside.

Timing!