riding in the rain

The clouds arrived and opened today.  Not like a spring thunderstorm where the big drops hit the ground so hard that they make the sound of a steak frying.  This was all day rain.  The kind that soaks into everything remotely absorbent and drums the remaining leaves off the trees so they form a slick, shiny mat on the ground.

Since I ride my bike to work nearly every day, and I live in the midwest, I have to contend with all weather conditions.  It's not that bad if you are ok with minor discomforts and inconveniences.  I actually revel in the sensory feast that riding throughout the year feeds me.  But people who rely on cars for transportation are bewildered by bicycles plying anything other than a sunny summer day.  Bikes are recreational...not for serious transportation.  "What do you do when it rains?" they ask.  "I get wet," I tell them.  I'm not sure when mankind became so removed from the outdoors that getting wet was considered an emergency, but apparently it's at least an accident if it doesn't happen to you in your own shower or a properly maintained swimming pool.

To add to the drama, today is an election day and our polling place was near my route home.  I entered carrying a good 7 miles worth of rain on my person.  Other than being tweaked by a "nice day for a bike ride" the polling officials took my dripping in stride and I filled out the form and quickly received my ballot.  It's an off, off year, so there is not much to vote for.  I arranged myself so that I could mark the ballot using the official felt tipped pen without inadvertently turning by ballot into a Winslow Homer watercolor and successfully navigated my way to the machine that scans the ballots.  There the lady "manning" the ballot machine attempted to give me an "I voted" sticker.  She abandoned her effort when she realized that there was no way to make it stick to a guy covered in 5 gallons of rain water and instead said "oh, is it still raining out there?"  For a moment I thought...you need to talk to the guy who suggested it was a nice day for bike ride, but I just said, "Yes."

So I ride away in the rain, my I voted sticker still on the roll waiting for next November and the polling folks wondering what kind of offense to society I must have committed to be banished to a bike.  And me, wondering what kind of society banishes people to riding around in tin cans so afraid of getting wet that they don't know what fall rain feels like anymore.