Ride Home 6/28: Classics of French Cinema

Buttons. At least two of you tried to buy some and for some reason it didn't work. The purchases were on 6/18 and 6/20. If you tried to purchase a button on either of those days and you haven't heard anything from me, please email talesfromthesharrows@gmail.com. I'll ask you a series of riddles (actually, only for the last 4 digits of the credit card you used) and then I'll mail your buttons post haste. Thank you for your understanding.

Other than the heat, not much worth noting about this ride. Usual route, usual problems, usual hangups, usual opportunities. Usual isn't necessarily bad- especially as far as a bike commute is concerned. I'll take a boring, uneventful, mundane, safe bike commute over pretty much anything. I think that society pretty much owes us as much. No one should have to suffer "adventure" just to get back and forth from work.

I question the value of mirrors on bicycles, but I'm willing to listen to an impassioned defense.

Sometimes I break traffic laws, but a lot of the times I follow traffic laws and in neither case do I think that what I'm doing (or failing to do) is having any appreciable impact on the perceptions of bicyclists and the decision-making process of anyone, traveling by any mode, who sees me. Perhaps this isn't true. Perhaps I'm just being cynical. I just know that I've never admired the example of a driver who's refused to speed or saluted a pedestrian who declined to jaywalk and I can't imagine that anyone who has witnessed a law-abiding bicyclist has changed their ways due to overseeing his stellar moral example. This might just be an apology for lawbreaking. I'm more inclined to believe that it's just a sop to reality. Do you what you want. Try not to piss anyone off. That's pretty much what I have to say about that. I feel like I'm having a Charles Barkley moment.

Q to 11th. At 11th, a turning driver almost cut his turn too short, but it turned out ok and the room for the bike lane cleared and I was able to ride apace, almost catching the green, but arriving a few seconds early. On 11th, I rode behind another guy, who seemed to be interested in going slowly and perhaps "scoping the ladies" and after an aborted attempt (a bus was coming), I passed him and left him behind and I didn't see him again, though another bicyclist on a similar bike pulled up nearly alongside of me by L, but then he fell back as I moved left to avoid the shredding truck. By the way, it's not shredding. It's information security services. Those zany Mad Men! They could make any line of work sound highfalutin and fancy.

Getting stuck between two rows of cars before the light turns green is the worst. It's normally a better idea of hang back, take a place in line and wait your turn. Otherwise, you'll cut someone off and they probably won't be happy.

Some segways on Penn. The tour guide seemed half-hearted about pointing out the historical landmarks. I don't remember much of the tour group other than their khaki-colored, synthetic material shorts. I wonder if they were having fun.

Good times by the Capitol. Mostly uncrowded, though I wish there was a bike lane somewhere in its vicinity. I always feel like I'm trespassing on roads either meant for cars or paths meant for walking. Were Constitution not so harrowing (IMHO) and slightly out of the way (for my desired route home), I'd go back to taking that. I do like riding through the Capitol plaza, if for no other reason than seeing how many people are exploring the area by Bikeshare (today: 2) and photobombing as many people as possible.

"Coptic Solidarity" was on the signs of the two men walking in the middle of the group walking parallel to the Library of Congress.  In the future, and/or in a post-apocalyptic Detroit, we might call for robocoptic solidarity.

Back and forth with a speeding driver. She sped and we met up at the next light. And again, and the same thing. Sometimes I wonder if the act of car commuting is so unfun that the act of waiting at red lights seems like a joyful respite.