Keeping myself away from the rain

Finding the right moment to get out for a bicycle ride in this season is like betting. According to the spartan weather forecasts coming from all the available on-line meteorological services, this month is going to be very wet. But forecasts don't say it all. Accuracy is not their best feature.

This is the reason why I'm constantly keeping one eye outside the window and the other one on the precipitations radar tracks, taking notes of the movement of storms and predicting the right time to put the nose out. Sometimes, it's a matter of few kilometres. In a valley you're dry, in the next one you'd get a shower.

Beside your own weigh, you have to account for some extra for a wind jacket and a helmet cap. And as you climb the steep roads of a mount, your sight stretches farther and farther, till you can spot the wall of water coming down from a single cloud, right in the valley you opted not to go.

I giorni della merla

These should have been the traditionally and (till some time ago) statistically coldest days of the year. "I giorni della merla" (the blackbird lady's days) are somehow celebrated and long waited, at least in the northern regions of Italy. A time to stay put at home, cozy and warm.
I don't know about similar traditions and sayings here in Austria. The weather has recently taken a break, forgetting traditions to respect and stats to maintain: it will give us some more chilling days, for sure, but not soon ... later on.