Ride In 7/27

If you only have a limited amount of time for local bike blogs today, I encourage heartily encourage you to skip today's claptrap and check out a much more substantive bike issue, Capital Bikeshare expansion. You can get my take on Bikeshare stuff by reading my twitter, which I will not rehash (twitter pun!) here. If you have less limited time for bike blog reading (and who doesn't, really?), you may proceed to the aforementioned claptrap.
Leaving the house a half hour to 45 minutes earlier makes a small, but significant, difference on my commute. It's still "rush hour," but I think there are more pedestrians on the streets aiming for an 8AM start. It also seems perceptibly quieter, but not eerily quieter as it would had I left 2 hours earlier than normal. Don't worry, there's still pointless honking. And there's still drivers darting in and out of parking spots with little regard to those around them. I think if one wanted to avoid this, you'd have to take a helicopter to work. I wonder if helipad parking is demand-responsive.
For the second day in a row, I've had the bad luck to be approaching the Clarendon Boulevard Starbucks, only to encounter car reversing from the lot into the travel lane. If you're a long-time reader of the blog, you probably remember when I complained about this very same Starbucks on February 15. It's a stupid parking lot and it's dangerous (I imagine even more so for the driver reversing without being able to see oncoming traffic).
I think that Arlington needs to lower the speed limit through the construction zone between Rhodes and Pierce. It's pretty narrow and there's almost always some piece of equipment that's trying to get into the roadway. There's a bike lane there, but I urge hesitancy for anyone riding through on account of the buses and dump trucks.
I didn't see you, driver of black Acura and that's why I rode into the crosswalk even though I should have stopped at the intersection first. I stopped and I waved you though, but you didn't go. Was it because I stayed in the crosswalk and didn't go back up on the sidewalk? It would have been problematic for me to turn around and you had ample space to get by. I really wasn't even three feet off the curb. I don't know how long we stood there, looking at each other, but it seemed like forever. I couldn't see through your tint, so I don't know if you were trying to wave me through, that's why I didn't move. I hope I didn't ruin your day. I promise to pay better attention next time.
Does Giant sell extra-small frames? Is this a mixed message?
There's a rather large storage unit occupying a parking space on 37th and it narrows the road in the same manner that a large-ish SUV would. When the road is narrowed in an unusual way, I tend to take the lane just to make sure I don't get squeezed by a motorist trying to pass me. The best way to not get squeezed is to make it inordinately difficult for someone to do so. Typically drivers will get over it if you move back to the right once you're past the danger zone. If not, screw them. You have to do what's safe for you and not what's convenient for them.
I haven't seen a woman I normally pass on New Mexico (she rides a road bike, had brown hair and wears glasses, maybe 45-50 ish, petite) for a while now. I wonder if she got another job and doesn't ride that way any more. Or if she finally got fed up with biking and switched to helicoptering. I always tried to nod at her in recognition, but who knows what she interpreted it as. Probably a neck twitch. Anyway, I hope things are going well with you. And now this blog has become the lamest missed connection ever.