Umm, okay.
After about a week of being under the weather due to an annoying late-season flu, I finally got back enough energy to drag myself out on the bicycle to do some errands. One of the errands involved going into Milwaukie to get some cough syrup at a drugstore in the mall (it was either that or go to a drugstore at 39th and Holgate, and I foolishly thought that there’d be less traffic going down to Milwaukie,) and no sooner had I crossed into Clackamas County than I encountered an inch (or so?) of freshly fallen snow.
Freshly fallen, and freshly melting, and as I pedalled south along 17th Ave a long stream of people in SUVs came roaring on by me, passing very close and drenching me and the bicycle with waves of melting snow. By the time I made it to the drug store, I was soaked to the skin head to toe and thinking very uncharitable thoughts about my fellow man and the whole American auto culture.
At least the layers of wool were doing their thing by trying valiantly to wick the icy water away from my skin. The only place it wasn’t working was in my shoes, which, as befitting shoes designed for cycling, are very good about letting water in but not so good about letting water back out. Brr, and brr again, particularly since there’s supposed to be Yet More Snow tonight and tomorrow (When I was growing up in the midwest, the occasional March snow was par for the course, but last time I checked Portland wasn’t exactly in the midwest.)