Ride in 4/18

Happy TY 2010 filing and payment deadline everyone! A few things about taxes: if you don't owe money, your return doesn't need to be in today. You also don't need to file an extension. Of course, in order to determine that you don't owe anything (anything additional that is. Remember, your withholding is taxes already paid. It's a pay-as-you-go system), you probably had do at least do a little bit of your return, so you might as well just finish it. Plus, why wouldn't you want to get your money back rather than let those fat cats in Washington use it interest free? A big refund is a sign (in most cases) that you've badly miscalculated your withholding and you should probably submit a new W-4. Instead of the lump sum, you can get more every paycheck. Another thing with extensions- it's just an extension to file, not an extension to pay. There's no such thing as an extension to pay (at least not so far as my working five months on the Balance Due phone lines).  If you owe anything, it's due today. Otherwise, we're talking penalties and interest.
Anyway, this used to be a bike blog, so let's get back to that. I wanted to ride through Rosslyn today to see if any of the newly installed CaBis were in use. I saw two yesterday down by the intersection of the MVT and the Custis, but I was hoping to see whether any Georgetown-bound or Georgetown-from commuters would avail themselves of the new stations. On my way there, I rode behind a guy on a Trek Allant who was wearing a Notre Dame baseball cap. I passed him around Courthouse, but he was in front me of again on the Key Bridge. I passed him on M street, but he was in front of me again at Wisconsin and P. I guess he wasn't interested in taking a route that required stopping at multiple red lights.
So, number of CaBis in the wild: 0. That was a little disappointing. I was expected at least one crossing the bridge, but I guess not. It might take a few days before knowledge of their presence has been fully disseminated. They're going to be a pretty great alternative to the GUTS bus and I expect a pretty good amount of usage by students, but they're going to be very useful for anyone doing to the Georgetown-Rosslyn trip. I think I might CaBi to work some time this week.
I rode down M street to Wisconsin and Wisconsin to Calvert. Nothing better on a Monday morning than sucking in the exhaust of a 30s series bus. No CaBis going up Wisconsin either. In fact, I didn't see an active CaBi anywhere, so I should stop dwelling on it.
Onto Tunlaw, a road about which I learned an interesting fact this weekend. Many of you might already know this (on account of seeing The Shining one time too many?), but do you know that Tunlaw is a nonsense word that's just Walnut spelled backward? That's crazy! I thought Tunlaw was just some dude who was friends with Glover and Archbold. (Side note: is Tunlaw a bizarro version of Walnut Street? Perhaps some exploration is needed) I learned this from Erik, local factotum, at Bicycle Space and this marks reason 80,276 that this is the best bicycle store in Washington, DC and environs. Please frequent (frequently) this establishment. You might learn something, you might buy a Brompton, you might be served a baked good.
Confusing trip up New Mexico with lots of drivers doing lots of weird things. People stopping at green lights to yield to left-turning cars, drivers parking in front of driveways, many, many trucks unloading liquor, a bus turning right from the left-lane, just a whole mess of stuff that made it seem like everyone was a little bit out of it this morning. These things happen.