There's something wrong with me

Some days I think it would be nice to have a little camera embedded in my eyeballs so I can play back my experiences later. Mostly I'd use this to avoid repeating the same stupid mistakes over and over. Apparently, my brain can't recall stupidity, so despite repeated statements (in the immediate aftermath) that I really don't need to do that again, I inevitably end up doing it again.

Tonight, for example, when I was riding 30 mph uphill with hundreds of little raindrops hovering in front of me, as I pedaled at 140rpm because I was on my singlespeed 'cross bike, I might have thought that the return trip could be somewhat difficult. In the future then, when it's raining and there's a 30+ mph wind out of the West (with gusts to 50 mph), I could replay that moment, remember how insanely cool that part of the ride was, and not have to experience the rest of the ride.

The rest of the ride being when I turned around and was riding back down the hill, except now the rain drops aren't hovering peacefully in front of me, but instead are pelting my face at 30+ mph as I pedal at maybe 20rpm. And of course, I'd have video of that too. And that video would probably suck, because you wouldn't be able to see anything except my wet glasses and occasionally the pavement 2 feet in front of my wheel. Unfortunately, there wouldn't be a soundtrack, because even though my i-Pod was up somewhere past 11, the wind was too loud for me to hear anything.

Besides the utility of the video eyeball, I also thought about railroad rights of way tonight. Primarily how they often make big cuts into hill sides that seem like they would provide some protection from the elements, but instead serve as massive wind tunnels that magnify the already quite absurd effect of the seriously unnecessary wind gusts.

While I am prone to exaggeration on occasion, tonight is not one of those occasions. Below is the wind advisory issued by the National Weather Service at 5:05pm this evening, about 15 minutes before I left on my ride (but which I didn't bother to read):

A COLD FRONT WILL CONTINUE TO SAG THROUGH THE INLAND NORTHWEST THIS EVENING... RESULTING IN WINDY CONDITIONS. SOUTHWEST WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH LOCAL GUSTS APPROACHING 45 MPH. THESE WINDS WILL IMPACT MUCH OF THE PALOUSE AS WELL AS THE FOOTHILLS OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.