Ride In 1/17

It really wasn't that bad. I thought it would be worse, but it wasn't. I don't know if you can be inoculated against bad weather, but you can at least be habituated to it and I think there have been just enough bad days this winter so far to make today seem not totally terrible. Or maybe it's just because it was a few degrees warmer than the truly terrible threshold. I don't know.
There's a secondary (or maybe tertiary, I can't remember) consideration that goes into picking my bicycle ensemble on cold, rainy days and it's locker space. I have a locker at work (thank you employer!) where my bike clothes live during the day. This locker is of moderate size, but there's only so much room to hang clothes and in winter, when I layer like all get out, I tend to stack clothes on top of other clothes and this inhibit their ability to dry. Not a big deal on most days, but changing back into very wet clothes after a rainy morning commute isn't my idea of fun. In fact, it's my idea of not fun. So, rather than wear 37 different layers on top and bottom, I decided to wear my most superbikerly bike pants and a thermal long sleeve shirt and the standard yellow jacket and hope that they would keep me warm (they did) and hope that they find their way to dry by later this afternoon. We'll see. I mean, I'll see. You'd only see if you came here and looked and I think that's much more of a commitment than you're willing to make. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
I think the worst thing one could wear on a rainy commute is one of those tiny cowboy hats. But second to that is cotton sweatpants. I rode behind a guy in a pair of gray sweats and I felt bad. Nothing quite soaks up water like cotton.
If you honk at a fire engine because its blocking your way, you deserve a beatdown. Whether or not that beatdown is delivered by firefighters is totally up to them.
I put air in my tires this morning and I think that helped. Remember to inflate your tires sometimes.
Between the White House and R Street, I only saw two other bicyclists. No bikeshare bikes. This is about what I expected. I did see a number of pedestrians in the cycle track and I had to yell "stop" about to turn his giant black SUV across the cycle track in front/near me, but this is nothing new either. I think "stop" is probably the thing I say the most. Its short and to the point. I also sometimes say "no" but I think that's much less clear. I don't give a crap if my saying "stop" hurts someone's feelings. I do give a crap about arriving at my destination safely.
Who buys a yellow car?
The climb up Mass wasn't so bad. I saw what might have been a motorcade. At around the midpoint, I found myself riding behind another bicyclist, who also seemed to be not having fun in the rain. I "on your left"-ed her rather than dinged and when I passed by, I looked over and said "this fucking sucks." She said something like "yeah, it's awful" but I can't be so sure since I head ear flaps over my ear and I'm not really great at hearing anyway. I decided to drop the f bomb for its amplifying effect. I'm sorry if I offended her, but I don't think any cyclist out in the cold rain has an internal monologue free from considerable cursing. Maybe LDS missionaries.
Like surveys and hate mysteries? Or maybe just like mysteries and abide surveys? Anyway, local DC bike type John wants your input to help solve "bike mysteries" like what foot you drop at stop signs (if any) or how many lights you wear. Take it here. I eagerly await the answers.
That's pretty much it. Sort of boring. Drivers seemed unable to deal with the rain, as usual. I don't get there, but it's not really a "bike mystery" so I'm not going to spend too much time thinking about it.