Sometimes when it rains...


It seemed quiet on the streets tonight; maybe I was just imagining it. It was also raining...not heavy, just a light drizzle; slightly heavier than a mist...a drizzle. It was also a typical autumn evening...cool and damp; I could smell wood smoke in the air as I pedaled. And as I pedaled and coasted I reveled in the silence of my bike (except for a small squeak which I've yet to locate its origin). It brought to mind a quote by Gertude Stein I remember reading but can't remember exactly where; it may have been in her book, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, but I'm not sure. Anyhow, she was reminiscing about Paris prior to the automobile and one of the things that was different, she said (and I'm paraphrasing profusely) was how quite the city was. And that's what I thought about as I silently pedaled and coasted home tonight in the slight drizzle of a crisp autumn evening. I love the rain--especially when I hear it while I'm lying in bed--but I generally do not like to ride a bike in it. Though there are exceptions...I don't mind getting caught in a downpour on a hot summer's day, for example. Or when I mostly coast home on a crisp fall evening in a drizzle. Sometimes when it rains and your on a bike it's not so bad.

Comments

Anonymous said…
When it rains, I purposely don the rain gear and go for a ride. Living in the southwest makes rain a special even.