Extra Points

Rolled out of bed at 5:45 as usual, pulled on the shorts and shirt, and stumbled down the stairs to the basement. Something about the sound of the cars on the street outside made me crack open the door. The streets were soaked; rain still dripping from the roof; puddles in the street. Back upstairs to check the radar. Scattered rain with a capital "S," but it was all moving fast and the temperature was warm. So I transferred the lights and seat bag to the ol' full-fender Pennine and pointed it toward the levee, knowing I'd get rained on a bit, but figuring I could get in a reasonably pleasant twenty miles or so before things started to get uncomfortable. As I rode through the neighborhood in a light misting drizzle I couldn't help but think of Jill, Up in Alaska, where she's been riding in the cold rain pretty much every day for the last month. By comparison, a wet ride on the bike path in 75 degree weather is a walk in the park.

I was surprised to see a rider waiting at the meeting spot, and even more surprised when we picked up three or four more before we'd even passed the playground. So along with Keith and Jeff and Mignon and John and I think one or two others we started out up the river on wet asphalt and through occasional sprinkles of rain. As the raindrops got larger, Jeff went faster. He was a parked out by Williams Blvd. and it was becoming clear that the weather was getting worse the farther upriver we went. Somewhere before the pumping station the drizzle turned to rain and we decided that would be a good place to turn back, so we left Jeff to finish off his last mile in the rain and made a u-turn. I was happy to have the full fenders keeping my feet relatively dry, and as we made our way back down the river into town I commented that even though we didn't put in the usual mileage today, we all qualified for extra points just for showing up. Toward the end of the ride I heard my cellphone telling me that a text message had arrived. It was the NOLAReady warning system notifying me that a tornado warning had been issued somewhere out to the east of the city. I was almost home by then, and half an hour later I was in the car driving to work with The Wife, a huge cup of coffee in hand. Then, when I stepped into the office up on the roof, the first thing I saw was a bright complete rainbow. Nice.

Firing up the email, I saw a nice article on Bob Garry about test kits for hemorrhagic fever that he's been working on. Bob's one of our researchers who lives a couple of blocks from me on Pine Street and whose daughter was in the same class as mine in high school. The guy is really the definition of a scientist's scientist. Or maybe a professor's professor. He has a little touch of that "absent-minded professor" demeanor that hides a thinly veiled passionate genius for his work. We need more of those!