Taipei sending 2018 off cold, wet and miserable. After an earlier long-range forecast that this winter is expected to be on the mild side, it's already as cold as winters get in Taipei (upper 50s). Cold that in recent years hadn't come until at least a month later. That said, the short-range forecast does see temperatures creeping up through the 60s by degrees until hitting the 70s by the end of the week when it's also expected to dry out.
I shouldn't be surprised by this extended stretch of two weeks of wet weather, after all I did just get back on my bike. Of course it's going to start raining! That's what the weather does. I get off bike for over a year and it's perfect weather for cycling or running like I'd never seen during my time in Taipei! I get on bike and it's back to rainy for weeks at a stretch. It's what I used to call "the big joke" of my life. The universe conspiring to taunt and toy with me to remind me that all I am is the bare butt-end of some divine joke.
Not to contradict that mild winter forecast, though, the week before the wetness was sunny in the upper 70s/low 80s and I did ride four days in a row, racking up 80 miles, even applying sunscreen for the last two days after feeling a slight singe on my arms after the second day. Can't complain. And to put the current cold and wet into perspective, I still haven't switched out the floor fan for the space heater, and heating pad is still stowed. Those come out when the cold is protracted and starts defining misery at home.
On one of those 80 degree days earlier I met up with my old Mandarin teacher for coffee. Thought I should mark that since she informed me we had met up earlier this year. I couldn't remember the last time we met up and thought it was some time last year. So I met up with someone socially twice in 2018. Had email contact twice with my sister-in-law as usual. Got out of Taipei once for a day trip to Kaohsiung for some family issue. And those were the only notable interactions I've had with people in 2018. Hermit w/internet and alcohol. 2019, here we come.
