I had decided that in order to save money and get into
shape, I would ride my bike to work during the spring and summer. The thing
was, I was living at the bottom of a river valley and the airport where I
worked was up on the flats, ten kilometers away with an elevation gain of 240
meters. That's six miles and 800 feet, for you Imperial folks.
It worked out reasonably well, except for the first week of
riding. That was (and still is) a long hill. Really long. And I always was
heading into the prevailing wind. The worst part was after I had a shower and
cleaned up at the airport, I still had to climb three flights of stairs to get
to the office. That final staircase took about twenty minutes sometimes.
Anyway, I survived the first week and the second and so on
and I was becoming pretty comfortable riding to work. It took me about
forty-five minutes to an hour to get there and only twenty minutes to get home.
The downhill going home was a nice commute.
One evening I kissed my darling wife goodbye, hopped on the
bike and started up the hill. The day had been a hot one and there were
thunderstorms forecast for the area. The sun was still shining and even if it
rained, I figured that it would only help cool me down on the long uphill run.
I had just reached the edge of town when the heavens opened
up on me. Some sneaky little thunderstorm cloud came up from behind and turned
on the taps. It took about 2.53 seconds for me to become completely soaked and
the saddlebags on the bike to fill up completely with water. It was like being
in front of a fire hose. I ducked into the gas station on the side of the road
to wait out the storm and empty the saddlebags.
It was a stubborn storm cloud. It hung out over the gas
station long enough to potentially make me late. As I got on the phone to call
my wife to come and pick me up, the rain abated.
Did I mention this was s sneaky storm? As it appeared to
clear up and the sun started to shine out from behind it, I told my darling
that I would continue on and not to worry, I could make it to work now. I
hopped on my bike, with just a sprinkling of rain falling and headed out of
town.
I hadn't been riding for more than thirty seconds when there
was a huge FLASH and a simultaneous cascade of thunder, as a lightning bolt hit
a transformer about a hundred feet from me.
Before you could say
"holycrapthatwascloseletsgetoutofhere", the primitive part of my
brain swung into action. Without conscious thought, I had turned that bike
around like I was on a BMX track doing a mid-air jump and was hightailing it
down the hill. But that sneaky cloud wasn't finished playing with me. It kept
right on top of me, soaking me for the full twelve minutes it took to get home.
I didn't have to have a shower for two weeks, there was so much rain pouring
over me.
It even suckered my wife in. It was raining so hard that she
jumped into the van to come get me and as she was heading onto the on-ramp, I
was heading off on the off-ramp. It took another twenty minutes to meet in the
middle, but both of us and the van were completely clean!
I finally did get to work, my darling wife taking me and my
bike to work in the van so I could ride home in the morning. It would have been
a nice ride home, except that the thundercloud told his cousin the East Wind to
make an appearance just as I was heading home.
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