One friday evening
Friday afternoon, I am in my classmate's office in the basement, frantically trying to finish the homework set that was due the same day so I can turn it in before the professor leaves. Someone comes into the office and said "it's raining outside". All I could respond was "what??!!"
It rarely rains here in southern California, and it surely didn't look like it was going to rain in the morning when I rode to school. "crap", I think to myself, "I'm gonna have to ride back in the rain". But for now, I must try to finish the homework. (Well, I didn't actually manage to finish the whole problem set, but I turned it in anyways cause the prof was about to leave. )
I bit later, I am in my office, and my friend looks up the radar map of the area, and notices that there's a gap in the rain currently over the area. I look outside, and yep, it's not raining right now. "How long of a gap do I have?", I ask my friend. "About 20 minutes".
It takes me about 15 minutes to get from my apartment to school, so I quickly change into my gear, and head out to my bike. I even remembered to bring some paper towel to wipe down the seat. As I get to my bike, there is another person warming up his bike, which is parked next to mine. "How long is your commute that you have to wear all that?", the person asks me. I blank out for a bit as I do not comprehend what he just said, and his helmet muffled his voice. "How long is your commute?" Oh... my commute. "It's not very far, just 5 miles". "oh.." The person now is on his bike. "Have a nice weekend." "You too", and he rides off. Now I warm up my bike, and I suddenly realize that the person was referring to my full leather gear. Well, I almost always dress with full protection even for a short commute. Although it can be a bit of a hassle at times.
Well, my trip back home was mostly uneventful. I managed to avoid the rain. There was only a bit of drizzle. I knew the metal man-hole covers and painted strips would be extra slippery when they are wet (they are slippery enough dry), so I was careful to avoid those. The only part that surprised me was when I was cresting a hill. There was a fine mist of water drops on my visor, which didn't affect me when I'm riding on flat roads. However, as I crested the hill, there was a car coming the other way, and the angle was just ride so his head-lights shined on my visor and hte light was scattered by the fine mist of water droplets on my visor, making me not able to see much except some blurred light. Luckily, this only lasted for less than a second. Other than that, it was just like a normal trip.
damn dogs
For the past few weeks, I have noticed, while getting the cover off my bike, that there are more and more stains on the cover. My bike is parked outside in front of my apartment. There's some space between 2 bushes that the landlady was nice enough to clear up for me. And judging from the color and smell of the stains, I'm pretty sure that some dogs (or maybe some other animal too) have been marking my bike as their territory.
I guess I can at least look at the bright side that the cover is doing its job. It's keeping my bike from being urinated on. But it still kinda annoys me though. I need to figure out some methods of peeing deterrant. Perhaps I should mark the area around where I park my bike as my own territory.......
Not quite riding related
Well, so far, not too much bike content yet. However, I thought this is a good thing to share. So last night, I stayed up pretty late trying to do some homework (of course didn't get much done). About the only result was that I didn't get much sleep. Naturally, I was very tired when I had to get up in the morning to go to school. So I took the bus today. I usually do that if I'm tired.
Riding a motorcycle safely in traffic takes a lot of concentration. If you are exausted, just don't ride. It's that simple. Plenty of other opportunities to ride when you are in better shape.
My new blog
Well, never thought I would be posting a blog of my own. But here it is. It's going to be about motorcycles. Hope you enjoy what you see here.
