Rides 7/15: Local Oysters

Why do we ride? We ride because it's Tuesday and we have to get to work somehow. It was bearably hot and I left for work before noon, having veterinary obligations in the morning. FUN SHARROWS TIP: save money on health care costs by skipping the doctor and going to the vet! I haven't gotten distemper yet, so I'd definitely say it's working. Actually, it was one of the pups who had to go the vet for a checkup and we took the car. I've never tried to take a dog by bike, but I can't imagine it would go very well, even for a relatively short trip. She's not that kind of dog. I see people biking with dogs all of the time, but I just don't know if I could do it. Her little poodle legs probably couldn't even reach the pedals.

The people you see on bikes around midday are a different set of people of bikes you see during the morning commute. There's about 5 or 6 different #bikeDCs and they don't always overlap. Or maybe ever overlap. I guess that's what happens when the common denominator for a "community" is "gets around by bike." It's like if there were #hatDC. (Is there a #hatDC?). Anyway, saw some guys by the Capitol in cowboy hats the other day. I suspect they were wayward gauchos. In a way, we're all wayward gauchos. Wayward gauchos on the pampas of life. (I'm still sorted bummed that ARG lost.)

Do you live close enough to the Glover Park Whole Foods to walk there? Well, don't. Because someone will now bike you your stuff.

Ignore the pro-bee message. 

Anyway, it says that the delivery radius is 1.5 miles and initially I was pretty skeptical of how much area this could possibly be (2.25pi?), but according to this, it's not an insignificant chunk of NW, including the Zoo and you know the pandas are all about their organic groceries and/or just bamboo.

Hot on the way home, but I beat the rain. Seemed like a lot of people riding bikes and even more people walking bikes. I'm not very good at walking my bike. I always bump it into things and it just feels so unwieldy and cumbersome. Accordingly, I've developed a great deal of sympathy for people who push around strollers, especially in the more crowded parts of downtown and on narrow sidewalks. There's really no way to do it, I imagine, without feeling like you're totally in the way. I guess that's why it helps to have a cute kid in the stroller, so you could point to it and shrug. And then maybe the kid would do something adorable and yet another minor social inconvenience fails to escalate into a big, Washington Post column ordeal. All you can do with your bike (and presumably, its lack of adorableness) is apologize if it accidentally bumps into someone or trips someone up or just gets in the way. And that's ok and you totally should. So in conclusion, bikes are unlike kids. And also, ride your bike and don't walk it and if you associate with some un-biked person who you happen to want to share your trip with, ditch them and get cool new bike friends and ride side-by-side, holding hands, and into the sunset. Or just be really cautious when walking your bike and embrace that you'll feel a bit like a clod who is in everyone's way because you are. But that's ok.