Out with the old. . .

So this may come as a shock to some of you, but after lots of consideration, Kristin and I have finally decided to retire the motorcycle. I’ll pause for a moment to let the murmurs of disappointment subside. . . I know, I know. I understand. I feel it too. But let me explain – there’s a good reason for it. Mostly it has to do, ironically, with the weather here. And by that, I mean rain. Go figure, I’ve been using the motorcycle as my main commute vehicle now for about 3 years and I never had a problem commuting in the rain in Boston, but here in the South they have a different kind of rain than I’ve ever encountered before (and that’s saying something, coming from Washington State). It’s basically a complete downpour for about 15-20 minutes, to the extent that you can’t see 20 feet in front of you. And it can come out of nowhere. Kristin and I first experienced it last summer on the freeway drive home when we came here to house-hunt. All freeway traffic dropped to 20mph, and hazard lights were turned on everyone. It was really freaky – it came and left so fast.

So I’ve been spending the last few months worried about rainy season starting (which apparently runs on and off through spring to the end of summer), terrified about being caught in one of those events on my shiny little two wheeled eye-catcher. <sigh> In the end, I finally listened to that part of me that has long been tired of having to live in constant fear of the stupidity of others any time I take to the road, and we decided to look into a normal, four wheeled transportation device. But before you moan too much about the diminishing of my awesomeness with the loss of my blue lightning, I will state unequivocally – do not fear for the awesomeness. It will live on.