Biking to work in the rain

[dreamshark]

I've been biking a lot more than usual this summer, and I think it's beginning to change my relationship with the environment. It's 12 miles one way to work, and I've been biking once or twice a week. I'm beginning to realize that weather doesn't make that much difference. Heat doesn't matter much because you create your own breeze when you're biking. Getting wet doesn't matter (at least when it's warm out) because you get damp from sweat anyway, and the breeze dries you off as soon as it stops raining. If I didn't wear glasses I don't think I'd care about rain falling on me at all. However, if it rains enough to create large puddles and mudholes, that DOES matter. Riding through puddles makes your brakes stop working, and riding through mud makes a mess of your bike. The weather that makes the most difference is WIND. Riding into a fierce headwind is just hell. I was a little worried about the wind this morning, but either it died down before I set out or the bike path is more sheltered than it looks.

On a different, but nature-related tack: I keep seeing these birds along the trail that I can't identify. They're reddish-brown to almost cardinal red but with no crest, and big orange triangular beaks. Some kind of finch? I also see a lot of goldfinches, which always cheers me up for some reason. Not only are they bright yellow, but they roller-coaster across the path in that peculiar sine-wave flight pattern that no other bird uses. They also sing while they fly, again something that almost no other bird does.