Ride Home 7/7

I try not to let this blog devolve into immature screeds based on ignorance and misguided umbrage (though it happens) and I try not to trawl for page hits (JUSTIN BIEBER DATING CASEY ANTHONY???), but sometimes it happens and I apologize. So I'm going to try to keep this post positive and focus on all the pleasantries of riding my bicycle home this afternoon.
What's great about the hot and muggy weather is that it provides another opportunity for me to beat my hobbyhorse (is this a real cliche? or is this just some cruel portmanteau cliche that's going to get me in trouble with PETA?) of suggesting/advocating the use of sun screen. Here's the Melanoma Center's prevention page. Slip! Slop! Slap! Wrap! isn't just a horribly messy way to make a burrito- it can save your life.
Biking uphill is so much fun! It's like biking downhill in that you're biking, but it's also like mountain climbing, which is an activity that Sherpas love and Sherpas are probably really happy people! (statistics pending)
I love sharing the road. It's awesome. I get to see so many different kinds of cars (it's like a real life episode of Top Gear but without wry British wit) and I get to see people walking, which reminds me of the really fun time I had watching the NOVA miniseries Becoming Human for a few nights after the Official Wife had fallen asleep. And buses! What could be more fun than seeing buses? If buses weren't fun, why would we make our preschoolers sing about them and the questionable motion of their wheels? Maybe there should be a verse about a mechanic checking the struts. Just saying.
Isn't being positive about stuff great?
What's more magical than biking on a bridge? You start on one piece of land and then you're on another piece of land and in the intervening time you were suspended over water! It's crazy! It's like the poor man's version of flying!  It's way better than taking the mope boat, a ferry which is yet non-existent.
I love off-road mixed-use trails. They provide a quiet alternative to biking on the street and frequently the trails are tree-lined and shady, which is welcome relief from the hot sun. I biked along the Custis to Veitch today and I'm glad that I can use the trail as a respite and an opportunity to relax a bit. Though, the parts that I ride are a bit hilly- good thing we've already covered (positively) how much fun biking uphill can be.
Superbikers! They're impassioned amateurs with a wild dedication to the sport, nay, art, of bicycling and they're definitely not rife for mockery. I saw a superbiker today with a saddle narrower than my fenders. I'm not being negative- it's amazing that we've developed the technology that can stretch space-age materials into super-thin strands on which the more committed and spandex-clad of us can sit.
I think that my front brake might have a little shard of metal in it (from the tire rim) and it makes a noise whenever I pull on the brak levers sort of hard. Positive spin? Another chance to work on my bike maintenance skills? Sure...that's something good, right?
I made it home in a little more than a half hour and with a marginal cost of $0. I paid nothing for parking and I paid nothing for gas. I got some exercise and fresh air and I didn't have to sit in traffic. While I didn't get to listen to the radio, I got a chance to clear my head after a day of work and have some time where I was relatively free from distraction or obligation. I didn't stop anywhere, but if I had wanted to, I could have. Most of my route was in dedicated bike facilities and for the parts that weren't, I was treated fairly courteously (or at least ambivalently) by those around me traveling by other modes. All things considered, it was a nice ride.