Cycling In The Rain

Now that the Bay Area is finally seeing some rain, I’m now in the position of having to decide whether or not to cycle to and from work. On Friday I cycled home despite the rain, which was OK, because I had a cozy evening planned, with dry socks, a warm dog and hot soup for company.

This morning I cycled in to work, with the fine drizzle coating my glasses and making me wish I had wipers of some kind. But don’t worry, I’m not sitting in damp trousers, because I have my favourite wool flannels on, which dry very quickly, especially when I have my little under-desk ankle-heater heater on.

Talking of rain, I’m sorry to see that there is flooding in the UK. That and the surrounding nonsense about blaming the EA and the rest of the Government reminds me of my time working with the EA in Lewes, and driving around the south of England checking out the telemetry on Southern Water’s pumping stations and treatment works in the heavy rain of 2000. I remember working with the EA on their flood management system in Leeds. They were in the process of informing the public if they were at risk of flooding. They received letters back from angry people complaining their taxes were being spent on another “quango”. One letter in particular amused me, because the correspondent said he didn’t need flood prediction because his house had never flooded. It flooded a week later when the Ouse burst its banks in York.

Interesting note, I just googled the word “quango”, and saw some news results from right-wing publications The ToryTelegraph and The Spectator whining about “Quango Britain” in relation to the floods. Some things never change.

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