Today we were supposed to get rain, more or less all day. But I left early, got to the station 5:10 Am before the rain started, which is what matters.
And when I got off the train, 6:15 AM, it still wasn't raining, so I got to my office dry. Not that important, but I like it. :
True, I got pretty wet when I went out to get my breakfast, 8:00, so I know it rained. Nonetheless, it wasn't raining when I left for the station at 3:50 PM. Got on the train dry. That's how I like it.
And when I got off the train, still no rain. The sun had only just gone down, the sky was completely black, the air was warm and humid, and the wind was blowing straight toward home. I barely had to pedal for the first two miles. So far, all in all, a pretty good day for commuting.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking when there was a flash of light, bright light, and then I saw a bolt of lightning come down and hit the horizon right in front of me. I just happened to be looking right at it for once, and I distinctly saw it come down from the sky; and a few seconds later (not nearly as many as I'd have liked) the sound began, ripping through the sky above me, moving toward where I saw the bolt, followed by a deep boom. Cool, I thought, and maybe I should put on my rain jacket now... or just pedal a little faster, I'm almost home.
About two minutes after that, the sky just opened up. It didn't take a half mile from when I saw the first raindrops until I felt the water coming through my nylon windbreaker and my two layers of cotton and I felt that cold wed drippy feeling. Not actually cold, just wet. At this point I turned onto a rather busy two lane road, so I was way over by the curb, riding through standing water most of the time, puddles up to six inches occasionally. A lot of the storm drains got clogged with leaves pretty fast, so there was a lot of random crap floating down the side of the street, which is where I was riding. By the time I got home (and my commute is only 4.4 miles now!) I was utterly sopping wet. I couldn't have got wetter by swimming. Well, okay, a little bit maybe. That is, when I took off my shoes I poured a quarter cup of water out of each one. If I'd been swimming, that'd be a third of a cup.
Just after the rain started in earnest, my headlight (dynamo hub with nice LED units front and back) flickered and went off. I yelled obscenities at it and jerked the front wheel off the ground a couple times, coming down with a resounding splat each time, to show it I wasn't in a mood to be gentle to unreliable bike components, and it came back on. Miraculously it stayed on all the way home.