Ride In 5/15: Cacti and Bolos

First you look outside and then you put put your jacket on and then you go outside and then you take your jacket off and then you take your helmet off and then you take you hat off, put your helmet back on and put your jacket and hat in your bag and then you can finally start riding because you're done overestimating the need for a jacket and a hat, both of which would have been useful had the rain kept up but it hadn't and instead was supplanted by a balmy dankness and your outerwear was no longer useful for keeping exterior moisture out but instead would have been interior moisture in and that would be unpleasant, so you do the hokey pokey of jacket and hat and whether that's what it's all about is entirely dependent on your worldview. Muggy post-rain is the worst sort of weather.
I didn't do BikeDC, but some people did:

• Porta-John

• Bicycle Bug

• Rootchopper

• BloomingCyclist

• Mark Blacknell of WABA 

And probably a bunch of other people with blogs, but that's all I can remember right now. I did BikeDC last year and sat this year out. I think I prefer my rides to be solitary. And how do I prefer my solitaire? With 20,000 other people and a series of treacherous traffic hiccups.
The paths by the Capitol were closed. There were police everywhere. I asked one "can I ride down there?" pointing to the driveway next to the path where I normally ride and he said "No, sir. It's closed." Finally, a recognition of my knighthood. Thanks for being really polite, Sir Offiicer! I knew that eschewing my bike helmet for one of those jousting kinds would work out in my favor eventually. The detour put me on Constitution, which was trafficky, but I moved into the cycle track at the bottom of the hill and went on my merry way from there. You couldn't really see the merriment under the jousting helmet.
Pretty quiet downtown. Some bike commuters, but not too many. Saw Jon. I think he was very early and I was only a little early. Neither of us was Quinn Early.
It sometimes happens that when I ride my bicycle I notice that there is another bicyclist in front of me (only when I lift my jousting helmet's visor, that is) and sometimes I observe the bicycle and the attire of this person and I notice that he is wearing a rain outfit with a jacket and rain pants and has two waterproof pannier and he even has rainproof booties over his shoes and also that his bike has no fenders. Why no fenders? WHY? WHYYYYY? This was a standard hybrid commuter bike. You know who suffers when you don't have fenders on your bike? You. But also me if I'm behind you. So if you aren't selfish enough to think about yourself, but selfless enough to think about me.
Almost biked into a turning SUV at Mass and 15th. He missed the red and I anticipated the green. For the driver, it would have been an "accident' and for me it would be countless comments about all bikers are Lance Armstrong wannabes who don't follow traffic laws and nearly hit someone every time they ride on a mixed-used path. It's best not to dwell on these things.
Some people in DC overreact to the rain:

This flotation device can be used as a flotation device. 

Man [, he went] overboard.
Maybe there should be some bike infrastructure on Connecticut Avenue. See plenty of bicyclists there.
There's only one reason why a horn blare should last more than one second and it's because the driver is having some kind of medical emergency and is in desperate need of assistance or has slumped over onto the horn and is depressing it with the weight of unconscious body. Remember that time that really leaning into your horn actually made something happen? Me neither. It's immature.
I did some one legged pedaling up my slog up Mass, just like Bicycling told me. 10 strokes with each leg. I believe I have now developed "efficiency" and will never do anything this asinine ever again.
Bike racks are empty but it could be just because it's summer. Seems like there are fewer cars, too. One bike has been at the rack for the whole year and has never been moved. Sad.