(I too am tiring of this titling conceit, but it's what I've got. I rode today, I didn't ride (to work) yesterday and if all goes according to plan, I'll ride again tomorrow and I'll need to come up with a different title. So that's something to look forward to.)
The other day when I didn't ride, I did a bunch of 'spring cleaning' except for the actual cleaning part, which I didn't do until yesterday evening. I decided to clean the bike after I put on new tires, which are Continental Gatorskins of the 32mm persuasion. I like them a lot. I didn't care so much for the processing of removing the other tires, the ones that I struggled so mightily to install the other day, and this prompted me today to stop in at BicycleSpace to by some new tire levers. They are, per their website, 'award winning and universally loved.' (The T in EGOT stands for 'tire lever design awards'). I look forward to not getting any flat tires any time soon, so I hope not to have to use them right quick, but nevertheless, having them on hand provides some sense of insurance anyway. Anyway.
The snow is gone and the temperatures are higher and this means more bike commuters and runners than there has been. Some of them might be new to bike commuting. They'll be less new tomorrow. Yeah, it's 'annoying' to go from empty bike lanes and trails to full ones, but they don't build bike lanes if it's just you using them. And to them, you're just another annoying person taking up space in the bike lane too. I guess what I'm trying to say is just be a nice person.
Really swift ride down the Mall. They're doing some sort of big excavation on the grassy parts and it's either a landscaping project or the archaeologists are finally getting around to unearthing J Street. It's called J Street because it was named after James Smithson. A lot of people don't know that fact because it's made-up.
Do you ever count the number of potholes you narrowly avoid that had you not avoided could have caused your doom? I started, but stopped at 6 because 1) it was getting a little morbid and 2) I was only a few blocks from work and I was confident I knew big enough numbers to keep tabulating the whole route home.
11th Street to E. Both of these streets have bike lanes and are 'on paper,' reasonable bike routes. But you don't bike commute on paper.
I spent some time outside of BicycleSpace adjusting my brake pads on their FixIt stand and then went in and shopped and then fiddled around again and then I left. There was gobs of car traffic in the neighborhood and it didn't really let up until Union Station. With weather like today, it's hard to feel anything other than grateful for the good fortune and felicitous choices that have collaborated to allow to commute by bicycle.
Also, the traffic didn't really let up at Union Station. It kept going, presumably forever. I can't say for sure, since I stopped at home, but I can only assume.
They're in the process of making the rest of the panels like the shiny fancy nice panels between 3rd and 7th streets. The idea being that the National Mall will actually be pleasant and grassy instead of covered in dead grass, rocks, and bare dirt. Now, if only we can convince the kickball players to share...
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