Rain, sheep, and resolutions

More rain in the desert - a welcome respite. This afternoon's showers seem to be the first appreciable accumulation of rain since it sprinkled in October, which in turn was the first real rain since the record-breaking summer monsoon season. We desert dwellers always seem to be waiting and wanting for the next bout of rain, though drought is by far the more typical condition. At any rate, this afternoon's steady, cold rain washed away my need to fabricate excuses for not having ridden or hiked today. I did lift a bit, though.

The weekend will be here tomorrow and with it will come less automobile traffic with which I have to share the road. Or, given the season, will there be more cars about? The hordes of addled citizen-shoppers rushing to find, to buy, to consume in time for x-mas will make riding anywhere near a mall or shopping center a suicidal endeavor. Though the average Tucsonan seems to be very aware of cyclists, I fear that the bike-on-road search image is at this time of the year replaced by a full-time scan for clearance-sale signs. I'm lucky enough to live on the Old Pueblo's left side in a neighborhood more or less devoid of retail establishments.

I was feeling my inner taxonomist today, so I subdivided the bike-related web links in the sidebar. I especially recommend that you click through a few of the links in the [advocacy | information | art] subset and then resolve to park the car and ride your bicycle to your job, your school, the store, etc. as often as possible in 2007.