I find it somewhat hard to believe, but it's still May. That means you can still vote this very blog in this very blog contest. Only til midnight. Just think how cool you'll seem when you tell your friends that you waste your time at working reading an award-winning bike commuter blog. On second thought, don't think too much about that.
I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I have a hacking cough that sounds like sputtering engine of a Model A and a sore throat. I might have picked this up in Brooklyn, where I was visiting the Official Brother this weekend. He lives in Greenpoint, ensconced in the plaid and over-tattooed world of the "hipster," a wold in which the bicycle is more the rule than the anomaly. But of all the bikes I saw, there were but a few that looked lovingly cared for and there were far too many rusty chains, flat tires and vaguely unpleasant looking bikes about for my liking. It's sad to be surrounded by neglected bicycles. Though this might be part of the hipster affect, so maybe I just don't get it.
Blogging, as we're all aware, requires the delicate balance between interiority and dispassionate observation. It also requires a keyboard and some perspicacity. However, all of these things go out the window, when you're not really feeling great. My goal today was just to get to work with as little effort as possible. My pre-modern medical beliefs are such that I thought that I could sweat away whatever is currently befalling me. It didn't work, though this might be due to the fact that my sweat was from the preposterous outside temperature (around 423 degree this morning when I left) than from any physical exertion on my part.
I sought balance. I didn't want to pedal so fast as to wear myself through, but I also didn't want to go so slowly as to feel like I wasn't making any progress. This kind of rhythm is pretty easy to achieve on an exercise bike, but much harder on a real commute, with the stop lights and the cars and the whatnot. I figured that if I just stayed seated the entire ride, then I'd be in a good place. This was more or less true.
Now to prattle:
- what's there to say about an old man in bike shorts?
- do red pumps that look like Dorothy's ruby slippers really go with staid grey dresses?
- I guess it's wrap dress season?
- It's hard to exert social pressure on fellow bicyclists. It's much easier for a me, when driving, to get other drivers around him to behave a certain way, like yielding to pedestrians, than for me to convince my fellow bicyclists do to the same. Bikes are for renegades (Lorenzo?), I guess.
- Don't almost bike into me when you turn from M street onto the Key Bridge sidewalk. There's plenty of room. Thanks for the apology though.
- I think that bicyclists are invisible to road repair crews. I'd file this under "special powers," but I'm pretty sure it's not a useful skill.
- Speaking of road repairs, I think that there's a higher instance of driver bad behavior in the block or two after being stopped by a repair crew than anywhere else on the road. Hold a stop sign up at me? Ok. Hold a stop sign up at some one driving a car? Well, you've just declared war and they're going to "have to" speed and run stop signs for the next block to make up for the lost time. Seriously, next time you're in this situation, judge for yourself. If you're on a bike, be extra careful.
It's going to be very hot on the way home.
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