Ride Home 10/4

I write this with last week's Glee on in the background. What's-her-name and Idina Menzel just sang "Somewhere" in a weird, vampy adult contemporary style, recasting a song about star-crossed lovers in the context of that of a mother and long lost adoptee child. I can't say I was a huge fan of the rendition. Though I suppose you don't read this for my take on Glee, but rather for my take on...biking? Yeah, that's what this blog is about: the bicycling. And that's what I did (again!) today, getting myself and my bicycle home by whatever means necessary, which was pretty much just biking.
Some guy on a fixie on Mass, going down and up and then crossing the street before we got to Wisconsin. He looked pretty serious and kept a pretty good pace going up the hill considering that he only had one gear. Good for him. Per usual, skinny jeans and beard.
On the other side of Wisconsin, it was pretty fast going. I rode in the drops and picked up more than usual speed and felt moderately comfortable with though. I cannot no longer delude myself thinking that I don't need to replace my brake pads. I do, and I ought to do it soon.
Is it the biker riding on the right or the driver turning left (and blocking the left lane) that you should really be upset with? I mean, at least I'm moving forward. It's incidental whether there's a bicyclists or a motorist or a bus or whatever in the right lane because we're not the ones holding up your progress. So, don't get mad at me.
I was on Q for what I'm pretty sure was 354 miles. At Q and 15th, I saw a woman pushing a baby carriage full of boxes from Cake Love. Also with a baby inside, but I didn't notice the baby at first. Or thereabouts. I rode from 23rd to the MBT through parts of town that I don't actually know the names of. Shaw? Logan Circle? Eckington? I'm really not very good at identifying the neighborhood distinctions, perhaps because they all looked kind of the same. For a while, a young (high school?) girl on a hybrid, no helmets, braids, sweater, was playing catch-up and would roll up behind me at each stop light after dropping back for a block or so. I looked back and she smiled- I think she was proud of keeping up with me, the (in her opinion) "superbiker." I smiled.
The intersection of Q, Florida and North Capitol is a bit of a disaster for bicyclists. I suppose it's easier when the car traffic is stopped. I then rode the wrong way a little and had to double back to the trail entrance on R.
MBT was fine. Didn't get hit with a brick, so progress!
I stopped at the Harris Teeter on M to buy $.73 worth of (what turned out to be subpar) kale. Two police bikes out front. Not locked to anything. It's probably because the police need to be able to go at a moment's notice, but I'd also like to think they weren't locked because bike cops are just that badass. Maybe there was a wheel lock? Still, would you steal a cop's bike? I don't think so. And not just because there was a CaBi station right there and they would catch you (and in well under 30 minutes). A few other cool bikes locked up to the ample bike parking. NoMa = lots of bike parking, I guess.
M Street to 4th NE, which has a bike lane but it's faded. I rode past H street, narrowly avoiding the streetcar by two years, and then down to D and over to 14th. Going through Capitol Hill any other way than East Capitol makes me feel like our house is very far away from points west. And I guess it is, but not that far.
And then I saw a guy with a dog on his back. At first, I thought it was a weird, animal-shaped backpack. It was not. I asked "Do you do this a lot?" The dog said nothing, but the guy was like "yeah." I asked if the dog liked it or just abided it and he said that the dog didn't mind and was pretty comfortable. Sure. I asked if I could take a picture and I did.

You can almost see the dog

Dog not as blurry in real life.

So, that's pretty much that.