Rain and wind

My pants are wet from riding my bike slowly in the rain, an umbrella held in one hand providing shelter for my upper body. Nick, poor fellow, walked next to me on our errand to fix my bike seat which broke yesterday. I had been cycling to the post office to post some money to Toronto when I went over a small bump, the low curb of a sidewalk, and there was a snap and a piece of my bike fell to the ground. It was a seat connecting piece, and though my seat remained on the bicycle, it was not nearly so shock-absorbent. As I'm going on a 16 hour bike trip around Lake Biwa this weekend I decided to brave the rain (along with Nick my guide and translater) and have my seat fixed.

A new seat sits atop my bicycle, and I now have a bell instead of half a bell casing, which was my imaginary bell. I never actually resorted to saying "Ding! Ding!" as Nick recommended. The seat is at a strange angle, but after asking the bike shop mechanic to change it twice, I felt a third time would be too much. I'll be on that thing for a long time this weekend, so I hope it's ok. I'm sure I'll be in pain on Monday.

A typhoon is coming tonight. Hence the rain and wind now, a foretaste of the coming fury. I'm not sure if Veronica will visit tonight, given the weather, though that was our plan. At the moment she's the only one that reads this, so it's odd that I don't say hi ("hi!"), but that's because maybe other people will read it later, and because it's a journal for myself. I just share it.

Lunch and afternoon school await me...