Ride In & Ride Home 7/30: The Decline and Fall of Roman Kreuziger

I'll start at the end of this morning's ride because that was really the only juicy part and maybe the more interesting part and the part where I made an gesture with my extended right middle finger so as to express my displeasure at a driver who passed me too closely. I was riding up Massachusetts, not even a quarter mile from work, and I had to leave the space between the parked cars and the dashed white stripes because there was some kind of horse trailer blocking the entire lane and so I looked over my left shoulder and saw a gap and moved over so I was then about four feet to the left of the white dashed line which I had previously I had been one foot right of. I had taken the lane, or so I thought. And the driver of the black SUV behind me, well back at the time of my initially moving over, pulled up behind me and then there was a beat and then he decided to pull around me, leaving six inches between the side of his car and the outer edge of my pannier. I yelled "SHITWHATTHEFUCK!," sat up, leaned back, and raised my right hand and let fly my gesture of displeasure. I think the part that I liked about this the least wasn't my flipping the guy off- these are things that happen and I hardly feel any guilt or remorse or disappointment in myself or whatever- but the beat that happened between his pulling up behind me and his deciding to pass me. That was the moment of choice, the moment when he had to decide between waiting one more second for me to move back over to the right or recklessly passing me and in that moment he chose wrongly and this makes him a terrible decider. So, there you go. Some people do stupid things with their cars and some pass have to live with the terrible consequences of those terrible decisions and I'm glad that it wasn't me and I'm glad that I got the pleasure of expressing my displeasure.

Only other thing of note was this defaced tv. Don't leave your old tv on the street if you don't want someone to deface it. That's always been my maxim.

It was an exasperatingly long day at work and I was hoping for solace in a genial ride home, but it was somewhat too hot for solace, so I wanted to settle for mundane and I mostly got a mundane trip and I'm happy for it.

If drivers are allowed to make right turns on red lights based on the understand that they are capable of looking in one direction to determine if their paths are clear, shouldn't pedestrians be able to jaywalk on one way streets based on the same logic? If a person is capable of maneuvering his car under such circumstances, certainly someone would be equally capable of using his legs. What do we want? Mode equality. When do we want it? Whenever convenient, preferably soon. (I'm not much of a radical.)

I took 11th on the afternoon trip and as I took it on the morning trip and that street continues to prove itself perfectly adequate for bike commuting but I'm still open to seeing other streets because when it comes to bike commuting, I like to play the field and I refuse to settle down. Don't try to change me, streets of DC.

What kind of products would you buy if they were labeled as "great for bike commuters"? Like, only bike stuff? I'd like to think I wouldn't be swayed by this kind of endorsement, but I think I'd be lying. I hope someone starts selling "great for bike commuters" churros.

I got this email today.

Joyce Rosario joyce@oc.edu.au via gmail.com

10:01 AM (9 hours ago)
to talesfromthesh.
Hi,
How are you doing? I am Joyce Del Rosario. I am an accounting and finance blogger. I am a long time reader of your blog. Whenever I read your blog, I always imagine myself being featured in your site but I don’t have a good topic to share during those times so I didn’t take the chance to contact you.
I have a great topic to share to your blog readers. It’s entitled “The Penniless Accountant.” This will surely capture the interest of your readers since this will feature ways on how they can maximize their potentials for them to be successful in their endeavors.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Cheers,
Joyce Del Rosario
P.S. I have readmst of your posts and they have been very motivating. I salute your blog for always delivering quality content. I hope you continue being an inspiration to your readers.

I think it's pretty great that Joyce has readmst of my posts and finds them motivating. So, I'll leave it to you all to tell me if you'd like to read on the topic of "The Penniless Accountant" or if you'd like me to stop sharing the various spam messages I receive. In any case, continue to maximize your potentials!

Shoaled by a woman in a sparkly, gold cardigan. She was on a Dutch-style bike and she rode with an impressive level of abandon and carelessness. We both got passed by a guy on a CaBi he wore giant headphones and he hustled to catch a green light along Pennsylvania that I didn't think he'd make, so bravo for him.

Pretty good ride up Capitol Hill, but it got very crowded along East Capitol and it looked like all of the riders in front of me had spread out in order to set up for the sprint finish. SPOILER ALERT: that grandma is not your leadout man. It makes me laugh, but only when I'm not caught up in it.