And the Rains Came ...

South Louisiana isn't noted for its wide range of seasons.We get about eight months of Summer, which is unbearably hot and wet. There are about three months of Winter (or something resembling Winter), when it is cold and wet. There is about a month, combined, of Spring and Fall, when it is comparatively nice, and wet. The operative word here is, of course, "wet".

It has been raining every day now for about a week. So far, I have been pretty lucky to miss most of it: it has rained a lot while I was at home and a lot while I was at work, but not too much while I was in transit, which is good when you ride a bicycle everywhere, like I do. Well, it looks like my luck ran out today. The image on this post is the view from my north windows of the Jack-in-the-Crack parking lot, and it is a veritable monsoon. It rained last night, but only after I got home, and again, about 3:00 AM. It started raining again about 20 minutes ago, and, from the look of the skies, I am either going to have to catch a ride with Travis at 4, when he goes to pick up Fernando, or pack dry socks in my backpack and brave the flood.

Fortunately, I texted him, and that is not a problem, since they live in the next block, and I can walk there. Of course, that means that I will have to find a way home tonight when I get off at 11.

I really love riding my bicycle. I do it all the time. But weather like this takes all the fun out of it. The rain is so hard that it feels like having gravel thrown in your face. The water drips down in your bike shorts and soaks your nether regions, and your shoes fill with water. When I get to work I have to strip off my wet clothes in one of the stalls in the employee bathroom (people at work are used to me using it as a dressing room, so this doesn't shock anyone), dry off, then change into work clothes. My underwear is usually wet, but I wear lightweight nylon underwear (a good thing to do when you ride a bike), so it usually dries of in an hour or two.

The main problem is the maniacs on the road.At their best, Baton Rouge drivers are incompetent idiots; at their worse, they are insensitive, overaggressive road demons. They have absolutely no concern for anything on two wheels, other than to become annoyed when they are forced to slow down for you, in which case they show their displeasure my leaning on the horn or blowing past you with a rush of acceleration, or both. Often, they drench you with standing water as they pass. I know I have posted about this before, but it is such an annoying fact about living here that it bears reposting. You would think that, in a place where it rains so much of the year (5-6 inches per month)that people would learn to drive in it, like people learn to drive in ice and snow up North. There, you would be wrong.

When it rains in Baton Rouge, drivers are transformed from simply annoying assholes into psychopathic juggernauts. They actually drive faster and more recklessly, presumably, to get out of traffic and the rain, more quickly. The number of traffic accidents doubles: sirens are heard everywhere. They take chances. They cut each other off. They drive as if they were in some kind of soggy demolition derby, they object of which is to take out as many vehicles on the way to where they are going as possible. Riding a bicycle on Baton Rouge streets in the rain is, well, suicidal.

So, why do I do it? Well, with no automobile (I can't afford one), I don't have a choice, a lot of the time. I have to get to and from work, even if I curtail other expeditions in poor weather. Maybe some of it is bravado: I pride myself on being a tough, competent street rider, capable of negotiating city streets under any conditions. Maybe I should reconsider that. I have to admit, though, that out of all the times I have been hit by vehicles while riding, only once has it happened in the rain (which is probably because I go a lot slower and take fewer chances). Hmm.

Maybe some of those idiots out there should do the same: go slower and take fewer chances. Naw. Where's the excitement in that?