It hasn’t been a good week for riding. It’s been raining a lot and on the one really nice day we had, I was sick. The weekend looks great, hopefully in the 60s and sunny.

This morning’s commute was strange. Rain was in the forecast, but when I looked outside it didn’t appear to be raining. I looked closer and could see a fine mist falling. I was going to ride in my work pants but decided against it. The parking lot was wet and there was more moisture falling. Once I got moving, it felt like I was riding through water droplets suspended in mid-air.

At first I thought I wasn’t going to get very wet. It still wasn’t actually raining. But as I rode more and more water accumulated on my helmet, glasses, and clothes. My wet ankles reminded me that I need to add a mud flap to my commuting bicycle. I felt water droplets on my face, and eventually enough water pooled on my face to reach my lips. The mist tasted slightly sweet. The air was thick with mist and fog, and I imagined anyone behind me must have seen the fog parted by my figure, and swirling eddies in my wake.

The mist got more aggressive during the second half of my ride, and I arrived at work quite wet but in good spirits.

It’s been one of those mornings. You know the ones. Seemingly everything goes wrong, including small and fundamentally unimportant things, but eventually they build to one giant heap of frustration.

I woke up late and stumbled into the second bedroom that functions as our home office. My computer was turned off and I couldn’t seem to turn it back on. I unplugged the power cord, and suddenly the computer sputtered, lights flashing and fans spinning, for about half a second, then fell silent again. It did this a few more times — with no power source connected! I was more than a little creeped out by this, and frustrated that it wouldn’t work. I messed with it for a few minutes, but ultimately gave up. I hope I’ll be able to fix it later. I used my file server to send an e-mail to work saying I’d be a bit late.

I got ready to ride to work and looked outside. Rain, as predicted. Great. When I went to extract my coffee mug from the dishwasher, I hit it on the underside of the counter where the dishwasher is screwed in, covering the mug with sawdust. I dropped the lid on the floor and it got covered in gunk. This was not going well. I almost forgot about three different items and kept having to go back for them as I continued my struggle toward the door.

Once I exited my apartment, I realized it was wet and foggy, but not actually raining much. Actually it was quite pleasant outside, a nice quiet morning. I paused to admire some buds on the trees in front of my apartment.

Budding trees

As I started riding, I felt better almost immediately. I actually like riding on cool, overcast, foggy days, if I don’t get too wet. There were very few people in sight until I reached campus, which had quite a bit of foot traffic. Some fields and paths off 7th Street approaching Jordan were flooded.

Path

Flowers have been planted on campus

When I got past campus I once again had the roads to myself. I didn’t push myself and savored the ride, knowing soon I’d be mired in work. I wished I could have ridden off into the distance.

Green light, and fog

I did take a slight detour to capture this:

Johnson’s Creamery

Even though it’s no longer a creamery, this is a real Bloomington landmark. All in all, a great ride to work. The ride home promises to be much, much wetter.

This morning’s commute was very misty. It wasn’t really raining, but there were some rather large drops of water seemingly suspended in the air. Riding through it, the air felt thick and heavy. My glasses became coated with mist and fortunately the terry wiping strips on my gloves worked well to restore my vision. Visibility was poor, with thicker fog than on my ride on Sunday. Fortunately it was warm, in the upper 40s. Campus is getting pretty vacant now as students finish their finals and go home for winter break.

The fire alarms went off at work today and we all went outside for a while. Several fire trucks showed up and firemen entered the building. Either they didn’t find anything at all, or they only found something small. Nobody has said, and I haven’t asked.

That was some kind of excitement.