4/20/12

Ride In 4/20: Intermediate Accounting Waived

Check your tire pressure and inflate your tires if needed. I did this yesterday and my ride is now considerably better for it.
What would Leonardo da Vinci think of airplane food? I imagine that on one hand, he'd be underwhelmed since the food isn't so great. But on the other hand, he'd be in an airplane and that would probably be a really big deal for someone who died in 1519. (Can you tell that it was a pretty uneventful ride and I'm floundering?)
I don't remember too many details about my trip from home to coffee. Presumably, I biked there. At Lincoln Park, I pulled alongside a guy who was very intently waiting for a red light to change so he could continue to pedal forward. Like he was trying to will the light green with his mind. The light turned green, so he might be some sort of bike commuting telekinetic, but I've been duped into believing outrageous claims of telekinesis before. Ok, not really, but I probably could be. I'm a very gullible person.
Do you know anyone that bikes their golf clubs to the golf course for golfing? I don't, but I don't know too many people who golf. Maybe I should go to a golf course or a driving range and inquire. It's probably really unlikely that people do this, but maybe? I feel, somehow, like golfing and bicycling are completely inimical and that the dads of the kids on a Bethesda youth soccer team are divided into warring factions over this very issue.
First rule of #fridaycoffeeclub: everyone pretty much talks about #fridaycoffeeclub at any prevarication and it's widely mentioned in social media amongst the 20 or so people who sometimes attend. But if you don't know how it works, here's how it works: some people show up and get coffee on a Friday morning. Many of those people ride bicycles there, but some arrive via other means (but NEVER POGO STICK. WE DON'T WANT YOUR KIND. HOP ALONG, BUDDY). And then we drink some coffee and talk on subjects of mutual interest, which is predominantly bicycles, but often other things, like coffee and baseball and sundry topics. Note: I'm not sure that baseball has actually ever been discussed. #Fridaycoffeeclub meets at M.E. Swing Company (17th and G, NW) from roughly 7:30 to 9 AM. So, that's that. If you're interested in coming, it's a very welcoming group (me excepted. I sit in the corner and scowl, writing horrible things about pogo commuters in the moleskin I've purchased for that very task). It's fun. It's also a good place to buy buttons. Yes, I'm still selling those and will be for the foreseeable future. And the unforeseeable future for all you non-psychics out there.
Post coffee, as is my wont, I rode up 15th and it was crowded with bicyclists, which is wholly unsurprising. Bike commuting, for what it's worth, no longer seems to be a novelty and I think that maybe (maybe?) the reality that many people choose to use bicycles as transportation might finally be getting through to those who don't, but I have no real factual basis for this opinion. I'd like to be true. I'd like to think that seeing stacks of 6 or 7 bicyclists at each stop light along the city's various cycle tracks might result in this kind of change in perception, but I don't know. I also don't know what the impact of this kind of change would be and I worry about backlash and about those insistent on defending the status quo (make roads so cars can go fast no matter what) outweighing those willing and ready to embrace a paradigm shift. In any case, I'm just going to keep riding my bike to work. And maybe to a golf course, if I find out that that's a thing. FUN FACT: I've never been golfing.
I think I spent much of the time riding up Massachusetts working on a title for this post. I certainly decided on something, but the title that's there now isn't what I thought up at the time. I'm sure it was very clever.
Bike etiquette question: if you ding you bell and the jogger in front of you is wearing head phones and they don't hear you, what should you do?

a) pass the jogger
b) ding again
c) quit biking, join Shaolin Temple, master kung fu
d) None of the above. This: __________________________

I really don't have an obvious answer, except for maybe not (c), but I wouldn't begrudge you if you wanted to do that. I think that you're not obligated to ding again and can proceed to pass with caution, but an extra ding wouldn't hurt. If anyone feels especially strongly about one of the choices, I'd like to hear your rationale in the comments.
Should be beautiful weather for the ride home. You might be want to consider a meander.

8 comments:

  1. I love/hated my Intermediate Accounting I, II, & III -@SamuelMoore

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  2. Baseball HAS been discussed at the Happy Hour version of #fridaycoffeeclub. So now you know.

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  3. d) Kick the jogger in the kidney as you pass.

    I kid. I ding again as I pass and ignore the shocked/surprised look on the jogger's face.

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  4. I pass and ding pointedly again as I'm passing. If they look like they might suddenly dart to the left I might even say "Hey!" a bit loudly.

    It's amazing to me how many runners (NEVER SAY JOGGER THAT'S HOW THEY REFER TO RUNNERS WHO DIED AND MADE THE NEWSPAPER) believe they need music every step of the way. Which is fine, it sure helps rev you up, but if you're running anywhere other people might be, keep it low or rightly expect to be startled when said folks pass you "out of nowhere."

    I LOVE #fridaycoffeeclub.

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  5. As a biker and a runner I think that the biker has every right to pass in this situation, even if it means scaring the runner into dropping some excremental weight. Running, or biking for that matter, with two headphones in and the volume at a level that blocks out all sound is essentially signing a social contract that you are willing to take whatever comes at you, be it barking dog, vehicular close shave, or runaway linebacker.

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  6. I'm with Ritchie and ultraeunnergirl. People should bear SOME responsibility for their own welfare.

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  7. Don't know much about the local golf scene. But I was at Baron Carter Tennis National Park @ 16th & Rock Creek today for a running race. The only bike rack I could find was an old fashioned two station rack which has been moved to serve as a doorstop for the clubhouse. Huge car parking lot however.

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