Thursday, June 27, 2013

west wind to the rescue

About a week ago, I heard a meteorologist say that part of the reason we've had so much rain lately is that instead of the prevailing west wind, the wind has been from the east, meaning that the storms and rain clouds are blown towards the mountains and trapped in this area, just west of the mountains. She said that once the wind changed to a west wind, the weather would improve.

That change has occurred at last! On Tuesday evening, as we were driving home from the city after an all-day rain, I noticed that the clouds were moving east -- in other words, the wind was from the west. And we finally have clear skies and warm temperatures again.

On Tuesday, as hinted above, it rained literally all day. I didn't ride my bike at all. If I'd been working, I would have ridden to work despite the rain, but since I didn't have to go anywhere, I didn't. I felt pretty lazy, but I figure it's okay to skip a day occasionally.

Wednesday was windy, so much so that I was afraid to ride on the country roads. On Monday while I was riding east, a gust of wind came from the north and actually swept me sideways. That was scary. But the wind that day was nothing compared to yesterday. So, on Wednesday, after taking Maggie for a 7K morning walk, I rode Miranda around the town. I took the long way to the library, and as I rode north I was swept sideways three times by that mighty west wind. When I arrived at the library, a man who was sweeping the sidewalks asked me whether I'd had to pedal at all, or whether the wind simply blew me along. Yes, it was windy all right. From there I rode west as far as I could, then back to the trails and up to Superstore, where I loaded up on fruit and vegetables. My total distance was about 20 km, so not too bad for an in-town ride. Hubby and I also took Maggie for another walk in the evening, so I made sure to get plenty of exercise.

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