Ride In 6/27

This is going to be a light week of blogging for me. I'm not riding in tomorrow and I'm out of town Thursday and Friday. Just wanted to let you know ahead of time because of conscientiousness... maybe? I might try to do a few extra posts about non-my-commute bike topics, but they'll be contingent on my finding worthwhile things to say about what I come across in the velosphere (my highly pretentious name for the bike blogs I follow).
I didn't even really to expect to ride in today, either. As you might suppose, riding a century is really exhausting and lots of me hurts in unique and interesting ways. It was a really good ride, two flat tires excepted. It's the longest I've ever gone on a bike and the amount I rode yesterday is about the equivalent of two weeks of commuting. Much thanks to Bicycle Space for organizing and route planning.
Accordingly, I took the ride in today a bit slower than usual.
Remember Hoosbastank? I apparently do. Thanks for being stuck in my head. I don't know why this happens, but sometimes songs just follow you around and there's no way to escape them. You can ride, but you can't hide. (This is also the movie poster catchphrase for my planned cycling-themed remake of Logan's Run, called Logan's Ride. I wasn't planning on recasting Michael York, so I hope he's not doing anything.)
I bluster about pedestrians and drivers being jerks, but jerkshare is equally distributed across modes and there are a fair share of cyclists who behave poorly on the roadways. Obviously. I feel that this is just a truism to all non-bike types, but it's worth pointing out to those of us who live in the bike bubble and are generally more concerned about non-bicyclists and more than willing to excuse or rationalize our own behavior. That's all just a preface to say to the dimwits riding down the Custis across the Nash Street entrance to the Marriott that they need to look out for cars and bikes that might cross their path. You want to cross against the signal, that's fine. Just don't do it when someone's coming. When I ride down Nash, I like to cut across the trail into the parking lot rather than make the hard right onto the trail/sidewalk, so try not to ride into me or cut me off. I will call you a dipshit, maybe to your face, maybe under my breath.
Are a lot of people out of town already for the Fourth of July? Roads seem quieter than usual. Well, not quieter- I don't have a sound meter or anything- but not as crowded. But my commute is in a weird part of town, dominated by colleges and schools (and their angry neighbors!), so it might not be an actual reflection of traffic conditions overall.
Anyone willing to go Barbacoas for cycle tracks on L and M? Anyone?
Smart Car, dumb driver. You still need to give three feet to pass, even if you drive a particularly small car. You still outweigh me by a factor of 8.
Some days it's a tough decision about whether to drop the small ring and have an easier, but longer ride uphill or stay on the big ring and have a harder, but shorter ride. Today it was not even a decision and I took my time and I'm perfectly content with that choice, given that the alternative was me crumpled in a heap on the side of the road.
Why are there so many chicken bones on our streets and sidewalks? Will future archaeologists mistake our roadways for elaborate and expensive chicken paths built in honor of the great god Gallus Domesticus? I know that it's awkward when you're walking (or driving?) and you finish your piece of chicken and then you're stuck with the bone, but throwing it on the ground hardly seems like a good idea. And I'm sure that the much more reasonable explanation is that squirrels or some other kind of rodent take them from our trash bins, but I don't think we can rule out people entirely. Maybe it's time for a PSA?