Yep, I’m in Portland.

Thursday, May 8th. It was a wet one here in Portland. Oh sure, “it rains all the time here”. Well, yes and no. It don’t rain much at all in the “summer” (sometime in June or maybe July through mid October.) And right now we are in “spring” which means alternating good days with not so good days.

For example, this was Wednesday, May 7, the day previous:

Yep, sunny and mild, a high of 68F/20C. Nice enough to sit barefoot on the Willamette Bluffs and eat a burrito while the sun set.

But Thursday, not so nice. I hoped that it wouldn’t rain too much while I rode around doing errands in NW. But nope, it got harder. Reluctantly I pulled out the rain cape. Dorky, yes, but very functional.

There was a short lessening in the rain, enough that I took the rain cape off. Then it picked up, and out it came again.

I started the climb from the Willamette River at the Steel Bridge, up North Williams Avenue, towards home in Woodlawn. I did a shoulder-check and saw a rider wearing a bright green raincape. He caught up to me at the next light. I noticed it was a modern synthetic Carradice raincape vs. my old-school waxed cotton Carradice raincape.

At the light, he turns to me to say, “I don’t see too many raincapes!”

I reply, “Well, I saw two earlier.” And this was true. And it hit me: I saw a total of four raincapes (including mine) today.

He takes off and I follow. I notice that he’s on a folding bike, not a Brompton, but a Dahon. I think for a moment about Bromptons and how I know multiple friends who own Bromptons.

Multiple.

Where else does stuff like this happen?