Going Downhill

The forecast for this morning had been pretty pessimistic, so even before I got dressed I checked weather.com to see what the radar was showing. I was both surprised and relieved to find that there wasn't any rain falling within a hundred miles of us, so I hurried out the door to try and get to the levee on time. I didn't quite make it before the group pulled out, but as I rode past the starting point I could see cluster of flashing red lights just a minute or two up the road. I knew they would be going slowly only for another mile or two, so I put my head down, shifted to a higher gear, and took off in pursuit. They were still spinning easy when I caught them a few minutes later, but soon the pace started to pick up. The tailwind we were enjoying was doing nothing to keep the speed under control, and when it started to get up over 26 mph, with thirty miles left to go, I dropped to the back for a while so they could get it out of their systems. Eventually the pace started to stabilize and I got back into the rotation. Looking up at the cloudy sky, I thought we were lucky. I was fully expecting that we'd finish the ride long before the first raindrops appeared. Well, not quite so lucky were we to be. The first hint of drizzle started somewhere around the country club, and although I was surprised I wasn't worried. It was light and sporadic and by then I was only about five miles from home. That turned out to be about two miles too far, because once we got to the playground things started going downhill fast. The raindrops got heavier. I picked up my pace. By the time I started down the levee access road and crossed the tracks onto Oak Street it was a full-out tropical downpour. I pulled over under an awning to put my camera into the ziplock bag with my cellphone and turn on my lights, and for a moment considered trying to wait it out. It was only a mile or so to the house, so I decided to make a run for it, and a few minutes later I sloshed into the basement soaking wet, dripping water all over the floor.

Riding the last mile to the house I had been going though a mental checklist of what I'd need to pack and wear in order to make the commute to work in the rain, but when I rounded the last corner I saw that the car was still there. It turned out that The Wife needed to pick up a bunch of party food at Whole Foods for their office party, so I rushed through my shower, put on my only no-iron shirt, and we headed over there as the rain started to ease off. Naturally, everything wasn't ready, and then it took an act of Congress to get them to not charge tax (Tulane is tax-exempt), so we were probably there for the better part of an hour. Anyway, I get to work and find that there's practically a riot going on down the street at City Hall because they are approving demolition of a bunch of old housing projects and a small but vocal minority seems to want to keep these people living in those run-down conditions rather than allowing HUD to do what it's been working on for the last ten years, which is to tear them down and replace them with new mixed-income housing. Anyway, it was quite a sight. They had to call out the SWAT teams and lock the gates to City Hall because more people wanted to be in the chambers than the Fire Marshall was happy with. Change is hard...

Right now, at 2 pm, it is dark and grey and gloomy outside, and a steady rain has been falling for hours. When I went downstairs to get something to eat I found that the little cafe had decided to close an hour early today, so lunch consisted of a bag of microwave popcorn that I found in the office and a cup of coffee with artificial sweetener because we seem to be suddenly out of sugar. I'll bet somebody's Christmas cookies are being made with Tulane's sugar right now...