1/19/12

Ride Home 1/19

This might be a short one. There's an opportunity for free beer that I'd rather not miss. #bloglife
Every once so often, it seems like there are more jerks out than usual Tonight was one of those nights. I don't know what causes it and I certainly don't know how to stop it. The best I hope to do is deal with it because, frankly, I'm on a bicycle and I'm not going to win.
After watching drivers jerkily drive down Massachusetts, weaving in and out of lanes, cutting each other off, speeding, honking and generally being nuisances, my irish was up. This takes a lot because while my last name suggets otherwise, I've never strongly associated with my Irish heritage, considering myself much more Tyrolean-American, like famous American actor Peter Facinelli (plus) and presidential candidate and internet joke Rick Santorum (minus),  than anything else. Cheesed-off, I rode along the flatter parts (not yet-corporately sponsored "Embassy (Suites) Row" doing my usual thing and minding my usual business. Some guy decided that my usual business (luxury upholstery for pet furniture) wasn't good enough for him. Ove the years, I feel that I've gotten sort of ok at bike commuting and pretty good at seeing traffic and getting through james and avoiding bad stuff. One of the abilities I've yet to develop is being able to sprectrally pass through parked cars. So when I moved slightly over in front him he honked. He then passed closely and fast, causing a pedestrian to say "whoa whoa."I did the whole left-hand shrug "what do you want me to do? spectrally pass through this parked car?" thing that honked-at bicyclists do, passed the parked car and moved back right once there was a gap. I didn't turn my head to make eye contact when he passed. What's the point? Instead, I slipped in behind him and rode as usual. But when he slowed down, I, maturely, yelled "HONK." I don't think he heard me. I hope no one else did either. Not one of my prouder moments. Sort of.
I saw a guy that I've seen before, some time back in Arlington, I think. He rides a Salsa Casseroll and has stars on his mudflaps. I wish I could link back to the post, but Google doesn't want to tell me when it was. Anyway, hello.
At Q and 15, I watched a woman always jaywalk herself to her doom. She wasn't looking for the car pulling out of the parking spot and luckily the pick-up driver saw her. She waved apologetically. I heard another pedestrian snicker. I said "At least he saw her." She said, "Yeah. People." or something like that. I watched the pedestrian counter tick down, but the pedestrian proceeded to cross the street. She said "It's ok. You can go too" and I said "Will you stop a car if one comes?" and she said "Yeah, I've got it." I love DC people. This was the second funniest pedestrian encounter I had today. This morning an old lady at a bus stop said "faster faster faster" as I slowly trudged my way past. Hilarious.
Very light bicycle traffic the rest of the way. Briefly rode behind another commuter on Pennsylvania and through the Capitol. I heard some ducks make a quacking sound that was almost exactly the same as the Penguin's cackle.
Ok, folks. That's a wrap. Supplement with comments.

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