Ride In 3/7: Remain Indoors

Much of what I think about bicycle advocacy (whatever that is) has been developed from my surprisingly (even to me) in-depth and somewhat coincidental study of the history of Europe in the Late Antique/Early Medieval period and the transition of peoples from paganism (whatever that is) to Christianity (whatever that is). [FUN FACT: Graduate school, especially in useless subjects, makes you aware of pointless academic controversies which in turn makes you unable to write anything about anything without qualifying your terms to the point that they're essentially meaningless. FUN FACT II: It's really annoying. FUN FACT III: Maybe don't go to graduate school]. In conclusion ("wait, why are you concluding? You haven't told us anything about what you think!"- the one person still reading), I recommend the Vita Martini (which might or might not leave you shaken or stirred) and something by Robert Markus and then thinking about the role of miracles (not just on ice!) in the conversion process. Alternatively, you could not do these things.

In tangentially related news, the National Bike Summit was this and from all reports, it was great. Here's friend-of-the-blog Veronica Davis speaking at that summit about Black Women Bike: DC. I was unable to attend the summit, but I did happen upon (by design, really) the Congressional Ride, in which attendees of the confab would meet by the Capitol and take a tour of DC's bicycle facilities. I hung around that for a bit, but left before the ride set off in a somewhat futile attempt to make it to work on time.

It figures that the only snow we have anywhere in DC can be found in the middle of a bike lane.

It was tough, but I got through it. Didn't even need a fat bike.

I rode the Haul today, which is a lovely bike that's great for short trips to the grocery store and on which I almost never commute to work on account of its weight being measured in terms of displacement, like a frigate. About halfway to work, I was like "Frigate it! I'm never doing this again!," but I guess I am doing this again because I have to get home somehow. I find that bike commuting is about expectations and I unfortunately failed to adjust mine to better match the pace at which I would be able to travel. Bike commuting is not about Great Expectations, though I would look forward to a comprehensive study on the Miss Havisham Effect to see whether bike commuters wearing yellowed and frayed wedding dresses are treated with more deference by passing motorists.

I saw a Biden-cade today. It was led by maybe twelve motorcycle officers, all of whom rode motorcycles with sidecars (sidecars?) that remained unhilariously empty. Basically, sidecars, as a means of conveyance, are hilarious and they should be employed to comedic effect pretty much all of the time and especially in the overly serious business of securely delivering the Vice President somewhere. But that's just an opinion and maybe an opinion backed with a social media campaign (#waronsidecars).

The Bud Light Lime-a-Rita is the kind of drink that's popular with the kind of people who like to throw empty beer cans on the ground. Litter is classy.