Gloom returns

It was swell while it lasted but not unexpectedly in this year of no October the perfect light disappeared yesterday with the sun and did not reappear today. Instead a heavy overcast descended, much remindful, yet again, of November.

But it was 48 and I ride at 48. I rode over to Dead Man's Curve to get a photo from the north side to complement yesterday's south side image.Fairly obviously, the beautiful sky blue is gone. It may not be obvious to those unfamiliar with the spot but it is obvious to me that the new configuration, while still double curved, will be considerably less on each of the two curves. In addition, the bank on the left of this photo has been considerably cut back. This will enormously improve visibility particularly when approaching from the far side. This will be good for automobile traffic, what the effect on bicycling will be remains to be seen. While the pavement will be wider, visibility will be improved and the curves will be diminished, all of those things mean that the cars will be going faster. This is not necessarily a good thing for me when I am on my primary means of transportation.

And this picture should prove what my primary means of transportation is. Thanks to GFR for directing me to the software to make the photo collage. It was still a bit of hassle as I tried to learn how to make the software do what I wanted but eventually I got at least what I needed (recommended action is right click, open in a new tab). The collage displays my bicycle odometer and my automobile odometer at the conclusion of today's ride.LOOK takes the lead.

Since June 15 I have added 1,062 miles to the total on my automobile odometer. In the same period I have added 2,296 miles to my bicycle odometer.

LOOK takes the lead.

I have ridden several times this year when conditions were a little questionable and have not been punished for doing so. I haven't been caught in the rain for a couple of years. Today I was about 8 miles from home when I finally had to admit to myself that the heavy overcast and high humidity had morphed into mist.

So I had to ride home with the streets turning wet. I was still lucky though, my punishment for riding in questionable conditions ended up being a small punishment. It never really rained. To be perfectly honest though, at a couple of points in the dash for home it was really pretty heavy mist. The streets were damp but without enough water to be thrown up by the tires. So the bicycle stayed pretty dry. The real issue was that the mist was intense enough to begin to create vision issues on my eye protection. Heavy mist indeed.

As I neared home I rode out from under the worst of the misting allowing my anxiety level to diminish and allowing me to complete the full two hour ride before entering the garage. From here in the warm and dry I pronounce the whole experience to have been like totally completely acceptable.