After we finished eating dinner I headed out for my 30 days of biking day 5 ride. The wind was coming out of the west like at train at 25 mph. I decided the best option would be to pedal straight into it so I’d have it at my back on the way home. I headed up the steep hill past the volunteer fire department. There were a bunch of fire fighters out practicing with the hoses. They weren’t spraying anyting, but practicing getting the hose hooked to the hydrant and just working together to move the hoses around. They look really heavy. I noticed some wrecked cars on the far corner of the parking lot. Maybe they were having jaws of life practice too. I waved as I coasted by but didn’t take a photo. I probably should have. The sky behind them was so dramatic.
As I passed them the wind picked up a bit and started flinging tiny snowballs at my face. Not quite snowflakes but not hail. They sting at that speed. I rode over to Silver Hill Industrial Park which I still call Sara Coventry because I live in the past. I took a bunch of pictures of the dramatic sky and flew home with the wind at my back.
My favorite speed hill is now covered with danger holes and scary parallel cracks so now I ride the brakes most of the way down. I don’t want to go flying over the handlebars and land in the middle of the the road which is also a blind curve.
I feel like I’m getting back into my old groove now, like biking is a necessary part of my day. Maybe a real commute tomorrow. We’ll see. No promises.
I’m happier than I look in that photo. I’m probably just concentrating on trying to get my big stupid head in the frame.
I think those snowballs are called graupel. We get that a lot here in Seattle due to the convergence zone off the Olympic Mtns.
I was getting hit in the face with graupel. Good to know. I swear I’ve heard that word before but it hasn’t made it into my working vocabulary. Maybe now it will.