The Go or No-Go Decision

Every biker faces the dilemma that I faced yesterday morning. Based on what I was observing out my window, as well as what I was hearing on weather reports on television as well as reading on-line, the question was, "will it rain and should I go on that ride today or not?"

Sunday night, quite unexpectedly, it rained. Monday morning at dawn when we awoke, the ground was wet but the streets were dry. The clouds, though, were low and leaden. The weather forecasts from six different sources were all over the place. None were in agreement.

It is very difficult to predict weather in the part of the United States where I live. The Chesapeake Bay is not that far away, nor the Atlantic Ocean for all that matter (meteorologically speaking). Both of these bodies of water strongly influence our weather. There are mountain-ettes (foothills of the Appalachian chain) to my north and west. Then there is all that hot air from Congress... (but wait a minute, they're not in session right now.)

Anyway, I had cleared my calendar to be able to go on a long motorcycle ride with my club. However, it really looked like rain. It felt like rain (by that, I mean that I was achy.) The scheduled ride was toward the west, where the radar on television indicated that rain was falling and would be worse as the day went on.

I called the club's phone number where ride updates are posted, to hear if the ride leader had cancelled the ride. He didn't....

... but I made that difficult and very disappointing decision not to go on the ride. Being the superstitious sort, I figured that if I did go on the ride, it would rain cats-and-dogs. However, if I did not ride, then it wouldn't rain.

The latter proved true. It did not begin to rain until 4:30pm. I would have been home by then (or close to it!) I don't get to ride very often with my club, and I missed a great chance to do so. Oh well... nothin' I can do about it. I guess, overall, I would rather be safe and dry than sorry and wet.