Cloudy Bellingham

This past week I capitalized on some free time and went for a bike ride on the Raleigh. Ski to Sea is coming up in less than a month now and my legs haven't peddled a bike very much in the past year, so I swapped the clipless pedals from the Cannondale and put them on the commuter for a work out. Riding is a relaxing time for me but doesn't get to happen all that often anymore. I have become a "fair weather rider" which means I am lazy. A few years ago when I was riding religiously, I would BLOW past someone I thought looked like a fair weather rider as fast as I could to prove a point: I ride more than you. When I was in shape it made me feel good to spot someone in the distance and make it a goal to pass them in a certain time (there isn't much to really entertain a person when you're on a bike for 3-4 hours) and then actually pass them. I am getting too far off topic though.

So the other day the sun was out and I was on the bike. Happy. When I ride, and this has always been true, I look around. The experience of riding along a country road outside Bellingham, with cows munching the greenest grass in a field that undulates in no particular set rhythm, Mt. Baker in the distance as a scale for size, one isolated tree for shade in the middle of nowhere, and the pulse of a hot road giving off heat in waves. It's splendid isolation.

When the clouds are out, which is nearly every day, I look at those too. This brings me to the reason for this post. I was on the bike and close to home when I spotted a cloud formation I had not ever seen before. The kickstand went down and I parked the bike on the side of the street, grabbed my phone out of my pocket and turned down the music. The wind quickly ruined the formation, and by the time I got home it was gone altogether.

Clouds are magnificent. Bellingham has an endless supply of variety and after seeing this formation I want to study and know the different types of clouds. It sounds a little odd and possibly really dorky to know the different cloud types, but that's okay. Some people know the stats of a football player (who am I kidding...these people probably know the stats for nearly ever person in the league!) so why can't I know what causes our atmosphere to produce an array of different clouds. Yeah...still dorky. HA