Riding in the Rain

I decided to ride to my tutoring students this morning (rather than drive) despite fairly steady rain. Why? I guess I felt that I needed the exercise. And I figured that I'd be fine if I wore nylon waterproof pants over my shorts and a nylon raincoat over my tee-shirt. I failed to take into account two things. Firstly, the rain rolling off my pants was enough to soak my socks and sneakers (even if I hadn't ridden thru some huge puddles that were up to my pedals), and secondly, 'waterproof' should really be called 'water resistant.'

When I arrived at my first student's house, my shirt was a tad moist, mainly in the chest area, so I assumed that rain had gotten in where my coat was open. My student's father put my socks and sneakers in the dryer (the sneakers on a special rack), but 45 minutes wasn't enough to dry them out much, especially as I had forgotten to wring out the drenched socks.

My students are only a few blocks apart, so I was none the worse for the short trip, and anyway the rain had nearly stopped. But it resumed in earnest during our lesson, so that when I left, the rain was a pretty much coming down in pails (if not buckets). By the time I arrived home about 25 minutes later, my clothes were completely soaked despite the rain gear, my socks were tattooed to my feet, and my sneakers looked liked they'd been dunked in a tank. That last bit was pretty much the case, really, due to two six-inch-deep puddles that I hit in short succession as I neared home. The puddles were so deep that they caused unplanned dismounts (UPDs), my feet landing in small lakes each time.

I was still changing out of my togs when people started to arrive for the open house. I guess driving would have been a better idea today after all.