Ride In 4/21

Back in on the saddle again. I don't like the word saddle, not so much for the connotation of equestrianism- I like my palominos wild, thank you- but rather because of the way that the flat a sound abuts that alveolar d and then folds into a nondescript, not-really-a-schwa final vowel. It's not as bad when you only have to read it. Though, maybe not after this overwrought explication. 
It was colder than I expected it would be, but not so cold as to warrant my wearing anything more than a light jacket over my usual springy shorts and shirt. I did see someone biking along the Custis wearing a winter hat (with pom-pom), a jacket with a faux-fur-lined collar, and wool gloves with snowflakes on them. I thought she had overdone it a bit, but go with whatever makes you comfortable. Maybe she was riding to work in her work clothes and she happens to work in a meat locker or as a snowboard instructor.
You know how some people in Virginia have Jimmy Buffet vanity plates? You didn't? Anyway, you never see a Parrothead license plate that's just CS-2353. When you sign up for a Parrothead plate, I think you might also be required to submit a Buffet-related sequence of letters and numbers. Today I saw "PAROTS." The other day I saw "PH4LFE" or something close to that. I assume that these don't come stock with the license plates, though I could imagine a sadistic prison warden making the incarcerated struggle with to string a sequence of 6 letters and numbers together in a Buffet-centric way. Wasting away in Margaritaville (State Penitentiary).
All tow truck drivers, by law, should be required to play heavy metal music as they ply their trade. It doesn't have to be Metallica, but it probably will be.
I saw a CaBi on the Key Bridge. Other side though.
Stuck behind a bus in Georgetown with an advertisement on its back from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. It was a doctored image of a penny with the "In God We Trust" replaced by "In Reason We Trust." It still had Abraham Lincoln on it, not Richard Dawkins or whoever. Nothing says reason like the depiction of a coin with a value less than it costs to make.
I don't like when pedestrians wave cars through crosswalks, even when the driver has decided to stop (as required by law?) and let them cross.  This makes me crazy. The driver did the right thing and rather than start to cross, the person was like "nah, why don't you just go. I'll just chill here a little longer." I think that she was letting the cars from the other direction (who were not stopping) go past and figured "why delay this driver when I'm not gonna cross for another 25 seconds?" By all means, I'm not advocating anyone do anything unsafe, like throw yourself out in the middle of the street assured of your correctness that drivers should yield to pedestrians. This would be a Pyhrric victory, relished most likely from a hospital bed.  All I'm saying is that if a driver stops for you, you should just accept it and cross as far as you feel safe. Stepping away from the curb might even cause a driver coming from the opposite direction who wasn't planning on stopping for you to do so. Waving a driver through just muddles the whole situation. Also, never run. No running in public is a frequently expressed concern of the official wife. Her line is "Spandex and emergencies- that's it." You're rightfully using a public space, not trying to escape an axe murderer. Running in public should be exclusively saved for emergency situations. Like actually trying to escape from an axe murderer. If we adopted this rule, then when I see someone running, I could be like "whoa, is there some kind of emergency? Did an axe murderer escape Margaritaville State Pen?" Running in public is the pedestrian equivalent of speeding. Obviously with less deleterious outcomes, but it still seems uncivil.