Ride In 12/7

Some housekeeping:
- Buttons sales are going swimmingly. I've nearly hit the break-even point, meaning that soon each dollar spent on buttons (or ride blogging? any takers?) will go entirely to WABA. And this only after a day of sales. Amazing. For those of you who have purchased a button (or buttons), my sincerest thanks. For those of you who have purhcased buttons and then used social media to promote that fact, I offer my sincerest-er (the rare superlative-r distinction). And for those of you who have yet to purchase buttons, fear not. In addition to selling the buttons through www.manfredmacx.com, in the coming weeks, I will be holding an "event" in a "bar" where you can pay "cash money" and leave with your own button that very day. You might also be able to "partake" of some "libations" at which point you can over-imbibe and "question", perhaps "belligerently," my "overuse" of quotation marks. Details will be forthcoming as soon as I make them up. This "event" will also be a chance for you to hobnob with other blog readers/bike commuters and I look forward to meeting you all.
- One other thing from yesteday's comments. For the twitterati among you, please be aware of the new @helpbikeDC, your one-stop-shop for #bikeDC kvetching. Include @helpbikeDC on any bike-related issue (detritus in bike lane? penguins in the cycle track? whatever) and she'll do her best to notify the powers that be. I think that this can be a useful tool in highlighting issues that bicyclists face. It's good to document these kinds of things and you know, the squeaky wheel and whatnot.
***
But what about my own bicycle ride? Well, it was wet. It started wet and it ended wet and featured a lot of wet in between. Most of the wet came from the sky, but some of the wet came from the ground after having previously come from the sky or perhaps from one of the hilarious practical jokes where someone puts a bucket of water on top of an ajar door, but probably not that because frequently those buckets of "water" are actually just full of confetti and I didn't notice much confetti on the roadway. I also didn't notice many other bicyclists about. In my eight miles (I'm the Eminem of bike commuters. Or decidedly not) of riding, I counted 17 other people on bikes. That's low, but not surprising. Nothing like rain to dampen the spirits (and clothes) of city cyclists. Were it 10 degrees colder, I doubt that I would've counted more than single digits. Because it'd be too cold and wet and I'd be too miserable to count.
On days like this, I've taken to packing a second set of bike clothes to wear on the way home. I figure that I've got space in my bag, so why not? It's not like the extra weight of another shirt is going to be the difference between me and maillot jaune. Because there is no maillot jaune in bike commuting. It's not a race. But if it were a race, I could tell you that I made it from Lincoln Park to Ward Circle in the same amount of time as the powder blue VW bug with the Georgetown University (hoya saxa) license plate holder. Of course, the driver arrived considerably drier, but I didn't wear down my windshield wiper blades, so I'd call it a tie.
Architectural Testing. One of your vans was blocking the 15th street cycle track. I'm going to have to boycott you and that's a real shame because I had a ton of safety glazing to do and now I'm going to look elsewhere. I would've taken a picture, but it was rainy enough to have to put my phone in my bag rather than carry it in my back pocket.
Good spot for jaywheeling: R street between 20th and Connecticut. (I'm working on a compilation DVD called "Great Moments in Jaywheeling" and maybe I can get the voice-over guy from NFL films to narrate. "On the frozen tundra of the West End, one man...")
I don't think the Iraqi ambassador is home. There's three newspapers out in front of the embassy gate strewn about the sidewalk. Also, that stuff is online (and probably for free), so you might want to think about cancelling your subscription. Just a suggestion.
Once again, I'd just like to remind everyone that lights and fenders are pretty great. That is all. Also, buttons are great too and just as utilitarian. Let's say you needed to, um, poke a really small hole in some fabric or maybe make one of those things that you use to look at a solar eclipse or lance a boil on a very small animal or trade a bauble to some natives for some reason, maybe for their land...? Or just for decoration and to get some money to a genuinely worthy organization. Either way.