Rainy Autumn Monday

I've been foiled again.  A couple of weeks ago I booked two vacation days hoping to get one last multiday ride to Vancouver Island, but I was rained out.   Our Company has a policy of not letting you carry over vacation days to the next year.

So I booked my last vacation day planning on going for a day ride somewhere and this is how it turned out.  Torrential rains again.  I just didn't feel that it was going to be a lot of fun navigating our roads with the crazy, tailgating drivers who drive like they do when the pavement is dry

Our weather patterns have changed over the past decade or two.  We used to get drizzling, non-stop rain.   For some reason we now get constant rain which lasts for days at a time and continues for months until late Spring, often until June of the next year.



It does get a bit depressing at times.  We do not have a lot of colour here in the City, but we do have tree-lined streets like this one where the leaves pile up and stop the water from reaching the drains.



It is also the time of year where you have to be careful of the rain-soaked slippery leaves.





I worry a lot about the pooling water.   When we get this much rain during a short period there are many reports of pooling water all around town, especially on freeway entrances and exits.  On the weekend downtown there was a large pool of water which covered one lane of traffic and cars were producing large rooster tails as they HIT the water.   I just can't imagine what I would do if I were to hit that same pool of water whilst riding my bike.  If there is no one in front of you, you just cannot see the water filled danger so I feel much safer with the security of 4 wheels.

I came down this street a few days ago when it was dry and the sun was shining.  I couldn't help but notice the beauty of the trees and the way the light shone through the leaves.   I know I should have stopped to snap a photo, but I didn't.    I have been meaning to stop several times and each time I didn't.  So today I had a whole day to waste so I decided to show you what this looked like while there are still some leaves left on the trees

This is looking the other direction.  Many years ago we saw a house for sale on this block and we nearly bought it,  instead of where we are now.    We had trees where we lived before and it seemed that every Fall we would have to rake up a ton of leaves and stuff them into garbage bags for disposal.   It was a lot of work so we are glad to not have these type of trees where we are.

I notice that there is a big pile of leaves in the foreground which some one has already raked up.   We have a   few parks like this around our neighbourhood and some have running tracks which this doesn't

I know the rain isn't going to stop anytime soon.   They call this the Wet Coast for a reason