Seasons

I have to admit that while I'm no stranger to bikes or bicycling, I'm a fairly new bicycle commuter.  I've certainly ridden my bike to work and school before, but only when the weather was nice or because it was too hard to find a place to park my car at my destination.  It's only in the last nine months that I have embraced my bicycle as a viable mode of transportation.  [I'll explain in another post.]

As a new commuter, I seem to have become acutely aware of the change of seasons, even in the mostly gray Bellingham winter.  On the ride to work, as the weather got colder, I would find myself thinking, "I'll have to wear my thicker jacket tomorrow" or "time to transition to rain gear."  Riding to work the other day,  I found myself thinking, "whoops...a bit too cool yet to be wearing my windbreaker."  I seem to be marking the passage of time or season by how many layers to put on before I leave the house.

And the length of the day!  Every morning before going to work and every evening before returning home, I found myself looking outside to determine how to set my front and rear lights.  "Is it so dark that I need the headlight on to see where I'm going, or does it just need to be set to flashing so that others can see me?"

Honestly, I feel more in tune with nature than I ever have before.