What a Saucy Fellow

One of my favorite concerts of all time was seeing Raffi when my kids were little. Raffi is most famous for the song "Baby Beluga", but his real talent is toddler wrangling. He had 1,500 kids in the palm of his hand.  "We'll sing another song when you guys go back to your seats." And they all did. Immediately. Raffi is a god.

My youngest child is 17. And this is a bicycling blog. What the hell am I going on about Raffi for?

It rained today. The kind of rain that keeps sane people from moving to Seattle. Small drops by the bajillions. I was soaked before I left my driveway. Robins were bouncing around in the grass hunting for worms. And whenever I see robins in the rain I think of the Raffi song called - wait for it - "Robin in the Rain":

Robin in the rain
What a saucy fellow
Robin in the rain
Mind you socks of yellow

And so I felt quite a saucy fellow today (except my socks were black and wool and smelled like a dead goat when I got to work).

Most of my ride in was alone.  This is Bike to Work Week amigos. Do I have to do this all by myself? Okay. That means more bagels and coffee for me at the Rosslyn rest stop for Friday's Bike to Work Day. Go ahead. Drive your cars.  Bwahaha. Nom. Nom.

The water gets to you.

I was passed by only two bike riders on the way in today.  That could be a record. Normally, it's in the dozens. Those young whippersnappers who get on the trail after Old Town Alexandria with their fresh legs must think they're something leaving me in their wake.  Just wait. Time will catch up with you and you'll be slogging along just like me. In 20 years or so.

 Riding in the rain is actually quite fun even with the mediocre brakes on the Sequoia. Even if it weren't fun, riding in the rain when the temperatures are moderate is way better than riding in January bundled up like Charlie Brown.

I was expecting a ride home in the same rain but five minutes after I left the office the rain stopped. The Mount Vernon Trail was mine and it was 65 degrees. And I had I light tailwind, to boot. Not too shabby.


I saw the movie The Avengers (the one with Iron Man not Diana Rigg in leather) last night. I loved it.  I collected comics as a kid and had the very first Avengers comic. I was a little disappointed that Giant Man and the Wasp were not in the movie, but you can't have everything.  Now that I think about it ScarJo in leather was a pretty good replacement.

Egad, another pointless tangent. Not so! In one scene in the movie, The Hulk (do you capitalize the "T"?) tries to pick up Thor's hammer and can't.  Thor's hammer can only be lifted by Thor.  I am pretty sure The Hulk would have trouble picking up the Sequoia (or is it The Sequoia?).  So I had this idea that I would finally give the Sequoia a proper name. I'd name it after Thor's hammer. So I looked it up on Wikipedia. Thor's hammer's name is Mjolnir with two dots over the "o",  I think it rhymes with "mule deer".   On second thought, I'll just call it the Sequoia.  After 30,000+ miles it's too late to change now.

Obviously I have water on the brain. The forecast calls for more rain tomorrow.  I may have to switch tunes to "Rubber Ducky" if it doesn't stop soon.