Ride In & Ride Home 8/3: Juan Carlos de Scotch

This might be a dry post as I've used most of my inspiration today on #inspirationalNIMBY, a flash-in-the-pan twitter hashtag meme started by @ggwash in response to something I tweeted. Twitter memes are even more ephemeral than blog posts, but somehow take even more effort to maintain. In any case, it's been a lot of fun.

I left the house in jeans and slung a messenger bag over my shoulders and both of these contributed to me feeling especially gross in the muggy mugfest that awaited me outside. I'm not used to riding with a messenger bag or a backpack and I really felt the weight as I carried it. Furthermore, it's well past the season in which denim makes sense as a fabric in which it's wise to bike commute, but I cling steadfastly to it, must as it clings steadfastly to my legs. I don't think I'll make this same decision again, eschewing the bag on the back for a pannier on the rack and I'll just pack a pair of pants next time.

Lots of runners out, some of them with fairly impressive physiques. I saw a guy with the torso of He-Man and I bet he had the personality to match.

A to 15th to East Capitol to Penn and then up 15th ever so briefly before cutting across the White House Plaza (I suppose properly, Pennsylvania Avenue) and then down to Swing's for yet another get-together of the best, most coffee-lovingest group of bicyclists this side of the Mississipi (Avenue). I've especially enjoyed my conversations these past few weeks with Mary (aka @gypsybug) because they are so long and deep and really philosophical and engaging. Other things I learned at #fridaycoffeeclub today include to be wary of purchasing a wheel set from a certain bike company and that it's possible, but perhaps expensive, to set up a local Political Action Committee solely focused on funneling money to candidates who support bicycling issues. It's really an enlivening bunch.

I rode with both Jacques and John down G Street through Foggy Bottom and then John peeled off and Jacques and I took 24th street to Pennsylvania and over to M Street and then up Wisconsin, where my slog to work really started and I felt even more burdened by hill climbing than usual. Jacques left around P Street and I carried on up the hill, huffing and puffing, but not blowing down any houses as that would be cruel and lupine and there really aren't that many homes fronting Wisconsin Avenue anyway.

Home was another non-standard route, diverting through Adams Morgan (to stop at an ATM, which is something I almost never do but now have done a couple of times this week. This blog might as well be called Tales From The Enter PIN). After Adams Mill, I decided that I ride down 18th through the heart of Adams Morgan and the street was downright empty, both of motorists and bicyclists and maybe the sharrows are just totally unnecessary. I don't know. I turned left on T and then it was T until 11th and then down 11th through downtown and then onto Pennsylvania. I'm not sure I've ever seen another bicyclist when riding in the bike lane on T Street. I'm not saying that other people don't use it- it's just that they don't use it at the same times I use it during the times when I use it.

I took Pennsylvania to the merge at Constitution and then made a slight left on Constitution, rather than staying on the route to the Capitol parking lot to ride up the hill, and I stopped in front of some safety cones that blocked the right lane because I aimed to cut across the street to go to Hamiltons, a bar in an alley that's next to the Department of Labor, where I would meet some friends for a Friday Happy Hour, which I did after I locked up my bike on a parking meter outside. I used to care a lot about whether I locked my bike on a meter or a sign post or on actual bike parking, but I've given up caring since the paucity of real bike parking is so ridiculous. If car parking were as scare as bike parking, um, there'd need to be more bike parking (since people wouldn't drive).

Thereafter, it wasn't far to home. On East Capitol, I think I rode behind former TBD on Foot (remember TBD?) columnist, Dave Jamieson, who I think lives two blocks away from me. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it was him. Oh, last night and I don't know why I failed to mention this, I saw Senator Al Franken. He was sitting in the passenger seat of a black SUV with Minnesota plates that drove past me in the Capitol plaza. Brushes with greatness.

Now that I've putatively finished this post, I'm off to go on the BicycleSpace "Luau" Ride. Maybe I'll see you there. Have a great weekend.