Riding in the Rain

This morning, against some of my better judgment, I biked to work in the rain. When I first left it was just drizzling, so I thought maybe I could make it without getting too wet. But by the time I turned down Falls Road I could feel my pants sticking to my legs and decided to attempt riding a bicycle with my umbrella. This worked alright, but it is a little more difficult to steer the bike and maintain balance when you are using one hand (especially on bumpy roads). Really, it wasn't too bad, and I probably would not have resorted to my umbrella had I been smarter and brought my jacket and worn the rain pants that I bought just so I could do this commute in the rain. It was much cooler than usual.

All this reminded me of Invent America--you know, that contest that they had when we were kids. Someone told me later on that it was some sort of scam, but I was totally into it at the time. In my oddly patriotic first grade days I invented a remote control flag pole so that people could take down the flag when it started raining without getting so wet. I should note at this point that you didn't actually have to make a working invention, a model made out of clay would do. Then in 4th grade I went for a bike (using playmobil people and wax paper) that had a "roof" on the top so that bicyclists wouldn't get rained on. All this leads me to two questions: why was I obsessed with not getting rained on when I was younger? and why is there not some kind of detachable bicycle roof yet? I should probably answer that second question myself by recalling that my fourth grade model did not win the contest. I think the only reason that my first grade model won the school competition is that my competition "invented" a gum holder, which was a cleaned out yogurt container with a hole punch in the top.