Ride Home 11/7

Today is one of my least favorite bike commuting evenings of the year. The first ride post-post-DST (ST, if you must) is typically the first one where it's dark, or mostly dark, from the time you to leave to dark, or very dark, by the time you get home. No one, motorist nor bicyclist, is accustomed to it and it makes conditions at least somewhat dicier. Even worse is the sheer quantity of morons one encounters, who elect (or perhaps just happen to through sheer ignorance) to ride their bicycles without lights. This is idiotic. Riding without lights is, in my opinion, vastly worse than riding with a helmet, the latter which might protect you in event of a crash, whereas the former might prevent that crash from happening. It's not excusable to ride in the dark without lights, in the same way it wouldn't be excusable for a driver to do so. If I counted the number of bicyclists I saw (or barely saw) without lights, I think I'd be far more disappointed because then I'd actually have an quantified number (redundant!) of morons instead of an undefined quantity (is this even possible?), which somehow makes it feel worse. I assume that if you're reading this, you're at the apex of cultured sophistication and would never dare to ride in the dark without lights, but you might have a friend or neighbor or colleague who might and you should posthaste mock and scold them and insist that they do not set upon another evening bicycle journey until the situation is addressed. It's patently absurd. I'd rather have far fewer bike commuters tomorrow than just as many but the same proportion of lightless.
Just because a bus is out of service doesn't mean that its driver won't cut you off. That's a tip.
Great ride down Massachusetts. This properly adjusted seat is really paying off. I felt fast, as in fast enough and that's good enough for me.
I hate when pedestrians are afraid to cross even when they have the walk signal. The extent to which pedestrians have been cowed to sheepishness and forced to duck like chickens due to the piggishness of drivers is bullshit and I could get hoarse over it. It's a real farm jungle out there.
I'm starting to recognize more "regulars" on Q, including Ms. Pink Wheels and Mr. Guy Who Turns Left at Vermont Ave. I hope remain "regulars" so I have more time to come up with better names. Good number of bicyclists riding up 15th.
I'm glad I've had a month to learn to the learn the ins and outs (read: potholes and manholes) of my route home because doing it in the dark is concomitantly much easier. Still didn't prevent me from almost biting it along 11th, but there's not much you can do when the road is craggier than...[insert your own Star Wars or Lord of the Rings reference. I'm tired]
Rode behind a bike commuter with excellent judgment along Pennsylvania. I always like it when I encounter another bicyclist who approaches things about the same way I would. Makes me feel more correct about stuff, though I suppose it could just be that we're both doing it wrong. We parted somewhere by the Capitol.
Rode behind a bicyclist with Velo Orange fenders, the kind I covet. We rode down East Capitol and then down A, SE and I thought/worried at one point that she was my neighbor (not the one we like, but the other one), but she wasn't and continued to ride down 17th somewhere. I wanted to say "nice fenders," but I'm not sure that's something one should say, much less could say with a straight face. So, there's that.