First of all, I finally got a hold of Janet at Meriwest, and it turns out that I *did* have my first payment due on Sunday. Oops. Luckily, there's a 10-day grace period, so I sent the check off on Monday with no penalty. I guess they have another company send out "payment coupons," but mine never got to me, and so I didn't know when the check was due. But anyway, I now own $268 worth of the SVS, which I figure comes out to about the seat. Yay! I own the seat! :D
Secondly, I can now completely confirm that it Sucks Less to be caught in a sudden downpour when wearing water resistant leather pants than when wearing jeans. It was bright and sunny when I left for work today, but by the evening, it was overcast and had that "rain smell" to the air. I made it as far as the video store by my house, but when I came out, it was raining pretty hard. Not "can't see 5 feet in front of me" torrents, but certainly more rain than I'd ever ridden in before. Just as I was coming up to the left turn onto my cross-street, it got worse, and suddenly, there was about a quarter-inch of fresh rain mixed with ick all over the pavement. Y'all know how it is when it hasn't rained in a long time over a busy street, and then there's suddenly a downpour. Yuck. I slowed waaaaay down, but my rear tire still fishtailed a bit as I pulled up into the left-hand turn lane at the light. I just kept on the brake until the bike stopped; it shuddered a little bit when I let up after my feet were down, but I was more or less expecting it, so it wasn't too big a deal. I made the left turn more cautiously than normal, which was probably good, since my path went right over a manhole cover that I don't think I'd ever noticed before. The rear tire lost traction again for a fraction of a second, but the street was otherwise clear, and I made it home without further incident. I was really glad that the rain hit when I was so close to my house, though -- it would have been a mental challenge to ride the 10 miles home from work under such slippery conditions. :(
So, that's my life. It looks like it's supposed to rain again tomorrow, and since Thursday is orchestra day, I'll most likely be driving my cage (no one wants to play a wet viola). So that sucks. The weather reports can't seem to agree on what the weekend weather will be like, but I'm hoping Sunday will be nice, since Kim and I are going to go tackle the foothills. Yay!