CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

The Rain Deity

(46 posts)

12

  1. Min
    Member

    In homage to Rob McKenna, a character from the Hitchhikers Guide.

    "Described by the scientific community in the novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish as a "Quasi Supernormal Incremental Precipitation Inducer," Rob McKenna is an ordinary lorry driver who can never get away from rain and he has a log-book showing that it has rained on him every day, anywhere that he has ever been, to prove it."

    I went through four rain types on the way home:-

    #1. Irritating lens speckling
    #2. Regular goretex drumming
    #3. Irregular goretex drumming
    #4. Light spattering bringing indecision as to whether to remove the goretex

    Any more? :-)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. crowriver
    Member

    No.5: Absolute drenching, roads turned to rivers
    No.6: As above, but with added sleet/hail

    The Spokes ride to Linlithgow yesterday experienced both. It was weirdly localised though. A few miles on from a full downpour, we'd discover bone dry roads where not a drop had fallen. You could see columns of rain advancing across the landscape, with blue skies inbetween.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. Min
    Member

    Sounds kind of cool. So long as you are just looking at it from a distance and not in it.

    #7. Persistant and slightly greasy downpour rendering rim brakes entirely useless.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Intriguing - if only because a few hours before this post was started I wrote an email to a separate group of cycling people entitled "Thanks for all the fish..."

    #8 Upward Rain - that period after a really heavy downpour when the sun suddenly comes out and it would be a really nice day, but for the mass of standing water that even full guards can't protect against.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. Darkerside
    Member

    #9 Sideways rain that manages to get under my hat peak regardless of hat position.

    Building on 6, when I went through a mercifully short hail storm a few weeks back I was briefly entertained by the pinging noise as ice bounced off my bell.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. crowriver
    Member

    No.10: Horizontal rain driving into your face at high speed: cold and stinging.

    Very 'popular' in the Highlands and the Norther Isles.

    (I refuse to use Americanisms like # for 'number'. Sorry. # is properly cover for expletives, eg. !*#&*#?*#!!!)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. Darkerside
    Member

    Hadn't even realised that it was primarily US English! Oddly, whilst I'll defend English spelling to a stiff-upper-lipped death, anything else that makes writing/typing faster I'll eagerly embrace.

    I think, therefore I contradict myself regularly.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. crowriver
    Member

    I think No. is correctly a Francophone invention, being a contraction of "nombre". Still, I'm an old fashioned stick in the mud and I refuse to use the 'hash key'.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. Darkerside
    Member

    Wikipedia (as ever) has interesting articles on both - titled numero sign and number sign.

    On a vaguely related note, does anyone know of an excuse for using a 'broken pipe' sign ¦ ? Only because using the 'Alt Grrr' key always seems fun.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. Min
    Member

    I was conviced that someone was going to pick me up on the use of "goretex" to denote waterproof. I wasn't expecting the numbering thing at all.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. Smudge
    Member

    I can live with the # sign on electronic devices, but on paper it should always be "No."

    What really tickles me though are the mobile phone users who think they invented "txt spk", when the telegraphists beat them to it by the best part of 100 years B-)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. gembo
    Member

    There is a point beyond saturation - super saturation.

    Up Cairnpapple there was hail but as said - localised. Heard golf cancelled in uphall. Think someone didn't want to play golf with someone else although also tornados in oxford

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. Nelly
    Member

    @Min on waterproofs, I have found myself not bothering to use anything but my windproof for the last few months - even though my wee packable waterproof is in the Carradice - on the basis that 'how wet can I get on a half hour commute?'

    Found out the other night the answer is - drookit

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. minus six
    Member

    heavy and persistent rain due tomorrow

    looks like the best so far this year

    http://www.yr.no/place/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/hour_by_hour.html

    bring it on !

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. crowriver
    Member

    Oh great.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Marvellous.

    That's it, I'm moving somewhere warm and pleasant, getting fed up of the weather here...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  17. steveo
    Member

    I'm think NZ earlier than planned! I'm meant to be at the zoo tomorrow!! :(

    Posted 13 years ago #

  18. minus six
    Member

    surely i'm not the only one who revels in the moment when the rainstorm commute grimace gives way to maniacal laughter and a complete surrender to the power of the elements.

    good character building stuff.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  19. crowriver
    Member

    Actually as long as you have your waterproofs/rain cape on in time, heavy rain is no problem. If you get wet and then cold, it is horrible.

    *Ponders whether to wear rain jacket/trousers the morn or rain cape*

    Posted 13 years ago #

  20. minus six
    Member

    a good pair of overshoes, a decent cap, and new brake blocks.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  21. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "surely i'm not the only one who revels in the moment when the rainstorm commute grimace gives way to maniacal laughter and a complete surrender to the power of the elements"

    Not at all Bax, wrote this about 5 years ago.

    But to be honest, I'd kinda like to have a bit of spring and then summer sometime soon...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  22. cb
    Member

    "I was conviced that someone was going to pick me up on the use of "goretex" to denote waterproof. I wasn't expecting the numbering thing at all. "

    Yes, I was shocked. It is, of course, "GORE-TEX®".

    Posted 13 years ago #

  23. minus six
    Member

    there is a lot to be said for experiencing what the world throws at you. It gives you a real sense of the change in seasons

    So mote it be !

    Posted 13 years ago #

  24. Darkerside
    Member

    It does look somewhat damp tomorrow... Might break out the winter tights for the day

    Posted 13 years ago #

  25. crowriver
    Member

    Crikey! 23mph winds? That's the rain cape out then.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  26. chdot
    Admin

    Be prepared, take alternative transport or stay at home??

    Posted 13 years ago #

  27. Darkerside
    Member

    Well, that wasn't so bad. Fairly mild, fairly dry, fairly calm.

    Your experience may differ...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  28. Uberuce
    Member

    I went for waterproofs over jeans and shoes on my leggywegs, meanwhile on my top half I had yesterday's T-shirt and stowed today's in the bag.

    It's quicker to remove the overbreeks than to change from shorts, and the rain just about cools me down enough that the double layer on my legs isn't a problem.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  29. Instography
    Member

    Waterproof jacket over usual clobber and moved up from level 2 to level 3 gloves. It's just a wee bit of drizzle. Maybe it'll become proper rain later.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  30. crowriver
    Member

    I'm going for the jacket/trews combo. Just about to head out, I may be some time.

    Posted 13 years ago #

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