It rained most of the day yesterday, and my ride home was quite wet. I was soaked to the bone by the time I got home — fortunately, it was in the 60s, so I wasn’t too cold. It rained pretty hard all night and the rain continues today. I drove to work so I wouldn’t arrive soaked. It looked like a possible inch of rain last night, and maybe another inch today. I’m wondering how much flooding we’ll get, with all this rain. I’m itching for some more rides. I managed to get some work done while it rained last night; it’s nice to get some of that out of the way so when it clears up, I can ride.

This morning has been weird. There was rain in the forecast for today, but it wasn’t raining when I was getting dressed, so I figured I’d ride to work in my work clothes. I’ve been doing this recently since temperatures have been mild, and it’s very convenient. Unfortunately the minute I stepped out the door, it started raining pretty hard. Generally if it’s raining I’ll still ride, but in different clothes. I didn’t want to take the time to change my clothes, so I made a last-minute decision to drive to work instead.

Strangely enough, within a few blocks of my house, the rain stopped and didn’t start back up again until after I got to work. I should’ve ridden.

April was not a good month for cycling for me. Despite the fact that spring weather finally arrived, I spent about two weeks off the bike. I had two of my wisdom teeth extracted, and had some really bad allergy problems. Shockingly, looking back on my riding, I only rode my road bike once in April.

The flipside of this has been increased productivity in other areas. I had more time for some geeky projects (and even made a little extra money), photography, hiking, and music. I am looking forward to getting more time in the saddle again, but I may need to find a better balance between riding and … well, everything else.

All told, I rode 135.10 miles in April. That’s least I’ve ridden in a full month since I started tracking my miles. That’s breaks down to 47.30 road miles,  54.30 commuting miles, and 33.00 mountain biking miles. Oh, and one half-mile errand.

I missed a good portion of things blooming in my absence last week. Many things are in full bloom now, and a few things are shedding petals already. Let me assure you, this town isn’t called Bloomington for no reason. While all of the flowers and flowering trees are very beautiful, my allergies are going crazy right now. Even Claritin can’t help today, it seems.

I took it easy during my ride to work this morning, in part because I can’t breathe too well, and in part to enjoy the scenery. Here are a few photos.

IU actually goes a little overboard with the landscaping at times

Flowerbeds

We have a lot of these trees with white flowers

Mossy tree

One of a few cobblestone roads in Bloomington

Apartments

It’s hard to believe how long it’s been since I wrote anything here. Back on April 11, I had my wisdom teeth out. I was pretty afraid going into it, but I tried to convince myself I was overreacting. Immediately following the procedure, I felt surprisingly good. I was suddenly awake, and I was numb, but it didn’t seem so bad. I got a false sense of security. The next two days were terrible, and things have gotten gradually better since then (except getting dry sockets, which are still healing), but I was pretty much out of commission last week. I called in sick Monday and Tuesday and worked from home the rest of the week. I planned to go into the office yesterday, but woke up with probably the worst headache I’ve ever had.

Finally, today, I went in to the office. My ride to work this morning was also my first time back on a bicycle since my surgery. It felt good to ride, but I think it’ll probably be a couple more days at least before I can do any major riding. Naturally, during my hiatus, Spring hit in a big way around here, everything blooming, and the weather was finally warm and sunny. I missed out on some prime riding time, but it feels good to be back, at least to some extent.

I did manage to do some photography in there, taking some cool infrared shots, and we went hiking once. More on that later.