HOW TO INVOKE RAIN: A USER'S GUIDE

1. Plan to cycle all the way across town to large grocery store (this is a major event in our household)

2. Spend the morning doing indoor chores like laundry because, hey, you have the entire day off and there's not a cloud in the sky

3. Leave home in your fleece, rather than waterproof, jacket, and without your umbrella

4. After a leisurely lunch with your wife, cycle all the way across town to the grocery store

5. Wander about said store for a long time as you hunt down all the obscure (at least in England) ingredients on your shopping list

6. Exit store with backpack full of goodies, cycle out from overhang at store's entrance

7. Let the rain and hail begin. But wait, wasn't it gorgeous when you went into the store?? You fool, you live in England!