tut, tut, looks like rain

we headed out today in a steady rain, which stops almost no one here from choosing to ride a bike to work or to school or to drop off children at school before going to work.  we do it because we must.  they do it because why should the rain matter?

by the time i got to class i was mostly dry, but disheveled, given that my helmet doesn't keep the rain out.  this wouldn't be so bad, but after school i was riding over to meet (for the first time) and have lunch with a woman who started her own editing and translating company, and i hesitate to look too scruffy for these kinds of first meetings.

the rain was on a hiatus after class.  i descruffed the best i could, looking at my reflection through a shop window, before heading into her office space.  she is an american (we grew up within 25 miles of each other) who has been over here for 21 years.  all was well and good.  a great lunch, lots of good advice and good conversation.

on my way home it started raining again.  then it stopped. then it started.  then it stopped again and i went to get the guys.  on our way out of the school's bike shed, onto their path lined with pavers, i thought, 'hmm... this is strange... i've never noticed these pavers underneath my tires before...' which quickly turned into... 'i probably have a flat tire.'  which was quickly confirmed.  something. what? who knows, had flattened my back tire.  i started walking the bike with the burley behind it.  i called greg.

yesterday, as i was on my way out the door to get the guys, i thought, 'should i bring my phone?'
'mmm... no.  i never need it.'  but our impromptu stop at a rarely visited park after i picked them up (due to william's insistence on finding novel 'shortcuts' home... "turn here mama, turn here!"), had greg thinking, 'maybe just maybe something bad happened to them on the way home' when he returned from work and we still weren't home, and when he'd gone to the shovel park and we weren't there and when he couldn't get a hold of me on my phone (and when he was locked out of the house and therefore couldn't see that i'd left my phone on the kitchen counter).  so today, i thought, i'd bring it along... just in case.  and, it worked! the just in case happened. when i called he was getting ready to leave work, so he met us at the bike shop, wallet in hand, to buy two extra tubes (though not necessarily for my flat, as we have a patch kit at home) and bike lights (for the impending darkness).  then he hitched up the burley to his bike and got the guys home while my bike and i walked...




in the rain turning on and off...

then a fire, black bean soup, cornbread.  

and after the littlest destructor of citi blocks went to sleep, greg and william built this jeep, and we read about ben franklin sending the mouse, amos, up into a lightning-filled sky on his kite.  

and then everyone else went to sleep and i wrote this blog.  

and then i read my book and i went to sleep too.

and then in this post script, i convinced greg, who was reading this post early the next morning, to consider patching the hole in my tire before going to work (but after making the oats).