Ride In 4/8

Because I'm one of the more civic minded local bike bloggers (and not a jerk who just complains about stuff all the time...), I feel compelled to share something you probably already know about. LIVING SOCIAL IS SELLING CABI MEMBERSHIPS FOR HALF-OFF! This deal will probably break the internet. You can even use it to renew your membership. So, go here and buy one. $37 is well worth the year of bikesharing, even if you only use it sporadically. You can afford it- it's $3 a month. If you substitute one metro ride round trip with one CaBi round trip each month for a year, you'll have broken even. That's a serious deal.
A light, almost too light, rain this morning. I wore my cap under my helmet because I really hate getting my head wet and it kept off the rain though it caused me to sweat. Fail.
A Jimmy Johns (I think) is going in the newly built building along Quincy between Glebe and Wilson. So, if you like "sandwiches" and you live in Ballston, yay? Anyway, I'm not totally sure it's a Jimmy Johns, so I apologize if I've insulted another sandwichery. My overall attitude towards sandwiches is a complicated one and I'd rather not bore you with the details, instead saving those for the many sessions I plan on having with a therapist to work through my feelings on the combination of bread and meat.
Some hullabaloo involving a big truck made it more efficient for me to take Wilson instead of Fairfax today. You shouldn't use the pedestrian countdowns on cross walk signals to judge whether or not you're going to make the green light because they are not always synchronized. I felt like a dope stopping at a green.
I didn't feel like a dope when I pulled out into the left (or zoom zoom) lane of traffic to get past a stopped bus. This is maybe not the safest thing to do, since each driver in the line of five cars stuck behind the bus had their blinker on indicating their desires for leftward movement. An overall lack of patience combined with the invisibility of cyclists to some drivers could have made this a hairy situation, but luckily it all worked out.
I saw a guy on a folding e-bike today at the corner of Nash and Lee Highway.

Today's victim of my volubility.

I even asked him about it. I'm becoming a really annoying person and I promise to stop bothering people on their commutes to work. I always disparage "elevator talkers," the kind of people who just have to say something to you while you're sharing an elevator ride, but at least an elevator is an enclosed space where the small talk diffuses the general discomfort of being trapped in a metal box hurtling vertically tethered only be a thin metal rope. I'm instead trying to strike up conversations on public streets, which makes me more like a  panhandler or a street magician. I'm also on a bicycle, which makes me inherently untrustworthy. If man were meant to roll, God would have given him wheels or whatever that phrase is.

ME: How fast can that go with the assist? (Electric assist is the snooty, bikey way of referring to the motor)
HIM: Not that fast, about 20 miles per hour. It mostly just flattens out fills.
ME: Cool. And it folds?
HIM: Yeah, but it's so heavy, I never really fold it.

I passed him on the Key Bridge and said "bye." I'm sorry for ruining his morning. The universe managed to correct this almost immediately by causing me to forget to switch gears to get up the hill on 35th street and I had to dismount rather than fall over. When I walked up the hill, I saw a bus ad about Judgment Day, which will be on May 21st. That would suck because I really want to do Bike DC, which isn't until the 22nd.
The police officer who directs traffic outside of the Washington International School is so cool. Thanks for waving me through that stop sign every morning!
The stars and bars sandal is still at the base of New Mexico. Talk about a lost cause.