Ride Home 2/15: Balsam Absalom

It still isn't Friday. I need a better calendar.
It was exactly the right kind of weather for wearing a pullover (hu.: pulover) and I decided to wear my fleece in place of my yellow jacket. Fleece wearing isn't something I do very often, in spite of the fact that for a few years I lived in Colorado, a state with the motto "a fleece for every occasion (buddy)," but I did it tonight and it worked out well. I don't think I've worn my yellow jacket in weeks now and I don't know what that means. Maybe it means that I don't want to stand out or maybe it means I do want to stand out, being one of the few bike commute types who doesn't seem to wear one. Though I think I've perhaps overestimated the number of yellow jacket wearers among us.
I shouldn't even be writing this post. Instead, I should be toeing in my brakes. I'm just going to have this video on loop and watch it over and over and over and over until I'm able to stop the ridiculous squeaking, which is both annoying and embarrassing. (Did you watch this video? IT DOESN'T EVEN SHOW HOW TO DO IT! IT JUST STOPS ONCE THE DUDE PICKS UP THE TOOL. I expect more of you, eHow. I bet that guy rides a recumbent) I think I know what to do and I certainly have the resources, if not the patience, to make the very minor adjustments. This, for example, seems to be a reasonable resource.
This was my last ride on my old rear cassette. I got it replaced at Bicycle Space. Took maybe 15 minutes. Easy in and easy out and there were plenty of other people in the shop. So, I guess that's one problem that I can cease complaining about. I suppose I could have done it myself, but then my bike probably would have caught on fire and I would have likely been attached by a rabid raccoon. These are just the kind of (imagined) things that happen when I try to do my own maintenance. I resisted the urge to buy other stuff when I was there, but I guess I also resisted the urge to ask the mechanics about my squeaking brakes. D'oh (which I believe is a hydroxide).
Some guy was singing in French in Dupont. He had a hand held microphone. I don't think he was associated with a restaurant or anything, so, I don't really know what that was all about. Near the same corner I once heard a guy repeating into his cell phone "we got grandma a gift certificate to the French place she likes," so maybe that's the most francophilic corner in Washington. I believe the Spanish Civil War was fought between the Francophilics and Francophobes, most of whom were rather francophilic. Maybe that's why they lost. Growing up, I was always John Franco-philic, which is a totally different thing, but one equally associated with losing.
I'd like the intersection of Q Street and 11th Street and Rhode Island and Q Street to be entirely different. Pierre L'Enfant (terrible?) was history's greatest monster. Other than Mothra.
Rather than take M, I stuck on 7th until Massachusetts and got to Bicycle Space that way. Along 7th, I saw the new Bicycle Space (Bicycle Space Nuovo). It'll be smaller than the current shop, but it's in a great location.
From the bike shop, I took 4th to E and E to Union Station and then I took a train to Newark. Just kidding. I rode home instead. Had I gone to Newark I would have had to say goodbye to Columbus, but rather than do that, I just said goodbye to Columbus Circle, which is also something DDOT is doing with the massive reconstruction. I won't miss the old Columbus Circle (Columbus Circle Vecchia) and it's terrible terrain. I'm not sure that the pavement could be worse. Maybe if there was lava pushing through the surface.
Easy for the rest of the way. A few pushy types on Bikeshare bikes and a few drivers who could have driven better, but nothing new and nothing untoward.