Ride In 4/13: Tacos for Tiny Tim

I didn't think I would get around to doing this today and would have to combine the morning post with the evening post with the Saturday Evening Post and then just draw some hyper-earnest patriotic Rockwellian depiction of my bike commute, but I've cleaved some time from my late Friday afternoon and I'm feeling plucky, so let's do this thing.
[This is where the TFTS theme music would play. The TFTS theme music is the same as that from the opening credits of Entertainment Tonight circa 1982.]
It's Friday and that means a trip to Swings before the trick to work. Nothing too unusual about the trip there, except for seeing one of the Official Wife's bike commuting colleagues near Lincoln Park. I said hello and he said hello and then he said hello again once he realized that he actually knew me. Probably couldn't recognize me without seeing my signature mane (read: terrible haircut) underneath my helmet. We all pretty much look the same under bike helmets. Well, I mean, within reason.
I tend to think that every red bike is a Bikeshare bike, which is incorrect. Some red bikes are not Bikeshare bikes at all. It's like thinking every red truck is a fire engine.
I got the impression that a man in a yellow jacket wanted to race me, pitting his legs and his bicycle against my legs and my bicycle. For the record, I don't want to race anyone. Actually, upon further consideration, I'm not sure he wanted to race me so much as just get in front of me and arrive at his destination with achieving a certain speed. I should probably stop assuming people are trying to race me, since racing assumes that we're heading the same place, namely some kind of finish line. I haven't yet figured out how to deal with the situation wherein someone thinks they want to ride faster than you but it turns out that you want to ride faster than him. Do you pass or does that seem aggressive and "racey"? I tend to just ride slower than would be much preference in his absence, mostly because I don't want to pass him, get stopped a light and start the whole dance again. In any case, he turned on 13th and I continued down E, stopping briefly to take this rather mundane picture of the White House:

Is this just a bad picture through the fence or have aliens shrunk the White House and imprisoned it? The world may never know. (It's the fence one)
I think #fridaycoffee club broke the 15 person mark today. I think we can crack 20. In case you're wondering, I always order drip coffee because I am a drip I am impatient and I don't like to wait for espresso drinks, at least not when there's bike conversing to be had. Very special guest Girl on a Bike (thus far sole purchaser of the karaoke option!) reminded us all about her charity bike wash and this Sunday, and now I'm reminding you again if you were there this morning and reminding you for the first time if you weren't.
We left Swing's in a convoy (5 bikes strong) and headed west. It's nice to travel in a 5 bike convoy and I recommend it. If you can't muster four other people to ride with you for free, you might even consider hiring others to do it (but not if you're the mayor of DC). Anyway, we rolled along Pennsylvania Avenue and through Washington Circle (without incident!) and up M until I hard to turn off to head up Wisconsin to work. I learned that there are two tricks to Washington Circle: always head west and followed the lead of someone who rides through it every day since he knows the traffic patterns better than you do. Thanks, Jacques!
My ride up Wisconsin was sort of surreal. My body felt completely detached from my legs, which is a very odd feeling. I kept thinking, "curious that those legs down there feel so tired but I feel ok." It's hard to explain, as you might be able to have guessed from the terrible explaining I've tried to do. The Glover Park streetscape renovations seemed to be causing traffic to back up in the southern direction. Or maybe just one pickup truck that stopped in the middle of the street.