9/29/16

Rides 9/29

Rain again so I was still in the Ogre, but I decided to treat myself to a mildly circuitous route to work that required me to ride down into the park (at the bottom of the Adams Mill hill, I consider everything 'park,' but I think a lot of it is actually Mount Pleasant) and then over the parkway and then up Porter Street. On Harvard and Klingle there are bike facilities (mostly lanes but a few tiny spots of sharrows) and there's a new buffered bike lane on the downhill stretch of Klingle. I thought that the bike lane might have turned into a climbing lane on Porter, but it doesn't. I'm not sure why. There might be some afternoon changes that turn the right parking lane into a driving lane and that's probably the reason.

Bike lane on Klingle with artisanal leaf decor
Porter is a slog. I ride it so rarely that I forget this. I thought that maybe the part of Porter from the park to Connecticut was the worst, but that wasn't so bad today. I thought that maybe the part of Porter from Connecticut to Wisco (yes, Wisco- it's gonna be a thing. We're making it a thing) wasn't so bad, but it seemed kind of bad today. Funny how the same hill can be so wildly different. I blame plate tectonics and not the fog of memory.

if cars are fast and bikes are slow, how come I passed so many of these people? 
Turns out work installed a fix-it stand recently in the corner of the garage where I park my bike. Thanks, work!

Fix it
I headed to the grocery store at the end of the day and thereafter decided to take Macomb down to Connecticut. I then treated myself to a ride through the zoo. I realize that preceding sentence sounds vaguely Seussian. Or at least whimsical. But it was whimsical or at least as whimsical as a ride through a zoo access road and parking lots can be. Which is to say, pretty freaking whimsical. I might have past the ostriches but I can't say for sure. Guess I had my head in the sand. I don't know why more drivers don't cut through the zoo. There are speed bumps, but it's otherwise empty. Anyway, drivers, if you're reading this, um, please don't cut through the zoo.

After the zoo, I went up Adams Mill, though it might have been less steep to head up Harvard and then over somehow after that. I really need to spend more time riding in Mount Pleasant. After Adams Mill was 18th and then it was home. A good pair of rides in which I somehow avoided any heavy rain. One more rainless bike commute in the books.

9/28/16

Rides 9/27 and Rides 9/28

I go into work later on Tuesdays and this generally reduces the number of drivers I have to interact with on the road and for the most part that's a good thing. Generally at least, but the thing about assholes is that not only does everyone have one, it's also that it only takes one to run you over. Luckily that didn't happen and I remain not run over.

The Connecticut-Calvert situation remains a mess. A wrong lane driver decided to pull into the crosswalk and wait there instead of block the right-turn-only lane. I get it: don't want to inconvenience anyone. Anyone that matters, at least. There are, thankfully, few pedestrians who cross there, zoo foot traffic at that time of day being relatively light. This would be a remarkably easy intersection at which traffic enforcement professionals could issue tickets for sundry infractions, but I'm not sure I've ever seen them there. They must be elsewhere. [lol]

Riding a bicycle in the city is an unintermediated experience. This, I think, is what makes it so enjoyable and also what, I think, makes cyclists feel so viscerally close passes or dangerous turns or the whistle and whoosh of speeding cars. The senses are heightened from not just proximity, but the lack of any physical barrier. In an aquarium, you're but a few inches from the sharks, but that those few inches are measured in glass makes all the difference. Same with bicycling and not have windows. I mean, I guess you could have a fairing, but most of us don't and for the most part, that's ok. Anyway, the extra-sensitivity from being so close to the world around you is really, I don't know, addictive and on nice afternoons, I feel like I just feel the nice weather more. Like it sits on my skin in a way that it wouldn't had I not spent the last many years riding everyday. It's an odd feeling, but I think it's true.

The other thing about the lack of intermediation is that randos will walk up to you and start talking and some of these randos are crazy people. To wit, outside of St. Albans, a man approached. He was white and middle aged and had slicked back hair and wore a yellow t-shirt. He begins:
"You know, I used to work here"
and I thought that I would soon here a story about the school, but then he continues
"and these kids are smart and great and work hard. And they spend their whole lives working hard and trying to get ahead and to get a good job and make money and to think"
Now at this point, I'm worried that there's going to be some helmet-shaming. I wasn't wearing one, but I was wearing a tie and dress shirt and I thought this guy was gonna pivot and be like 'these kids are smart and work hard, like you did or whatever, and to think you'd ride a bike without a helmet and you'll die blah blah blah.' Why did I worry about this? I dunno exactly, but definitely in the past random strangers have commented on my not wearing a helmet and I thought that maybe that was what was happening here. And frankly, I wish it was that, but it wasn't, because he continued
"and you know- and my wife calculated it. 39 cents on the dollar. We make 39 cents on the dollar and the rest goes to taxes and these kids work so hard for all that money-
At this point I was like oh god
"for all that money to be spent by Her"
oh god no. The crosswalk light had changed and I was like 'oh no, must get out of here'
"and all those taxes. She's the-
Honestly here, I was like ok, this is not where I expected this to go. We don't have a lot of angry right-wing types in DC and I can't say that I've ever been dragooned into a one-side conversation (monologue? rant?) with one, but then comes the coda
"Someone should put a bullet in that c*nt's heead"
Yup. That's 1) a pretty offensive thing to say aloud about anyone to anyone and 2) a totally wacko thing to say to A STRANGER ON A BICYCLE WHO JUST HAPPENS TO BE STOPPED WAITING FOR THE LIGHT TO CHANGE

A few takeaways:
1. don't wait for stoplights
2. when waiting for stop lights, take out your phone
3. I think it's kind of weird how comfortable he was launching into this diatribe and perhaps thinking that because I'm a white dude who was wearing a tie that I'd be a) interested or b) inclined to agree with him. Anyway, don't bike in ties.
4. Buy a car and roll up your windows and never commute by bike
5. I didn't say anything in response. I just left. I'm sure I could've yelled at this guy or dressed him down for saying something so horrific, but I've read far too many things about random interactions in traffic escalating for me to do anything other than ride away when the going gets crazy. This might be a virtue or a moral failure. It's unclear.

Rainy this morning. Took the Ogre, which was far too beefy a bike for the drizzle. Like bringing a cleaver to a knife fight. It's probably a max pretty right now. Could use some fenders before autumn gets serious though.



Coincidentally, I was riding in front of the 96 bus for a little this morning, upon which sat my ANC commissioner. She texted me that she saw me. I turned around and waved. We parted ways at the base of the hill at Cleveland and Woodley.

I left work slightly earlier than usual today and the ride home was fine. It'll be the last dry ride for awhile. Tomorrow begins the deluge.

In non-commuting news, I briefly owned a cycling computer. I returned it after maybe an hour's worth of fiddling. It turns out that I wanted it until I had it and once I had it, I realized that I didn't want it. That's the nature of these things sometimes.

9/26/16

Rides 9/26

I took the Ogre this morning. It felt like an Ogre kind of morning. It's cooler. There are some strewn leaves. Clouds linger. It's good that there isn't some deep woodsy path I could've taken towards work because it's likely I'd still be on it, heading deeper still into the forest primeval. Fittingly, I had in my bag some trail mix, which I normally stow in the corner of my desk to serve as an afternoon snack when my energy wanes and my ennui rises. All things considered, it would have been a good day to ride headlong into nature to embrace come what may, but instead I went up 18th to Adams Mill to Calvert. Wild, but of a different kind altogether.

As a result of the closure of the commuter highway that we decided to build through a nature park, the car traffic situation around Connecticut and Calvert has been worse than normal. There are two lanes westbound over the bridge. The left lane, the one where all of the drivers wait for the drivers in front of them to wait for the light to change, is the one that's the route to the parkway entrance. The right lane, the empty one, is a right-turn-only lane that sends people northbound up Connecticut Avenue. Between the two of these lanes is a bike lane. That's where I go. Or at least try because surprisingly absolutely no one, once drivers "suddenly realize" that the right lane is for turns only, they drive into the bike lane in order to merge back into the lane that would facilitate their driving straight. The presence of traffic control officers has only made this problem worse since now drivers can't fake as if they're going to turn right and then just drive through. I have a few thoughts on this:

1. I would prefer cars to not be in the bike lane. It's unsafe, illegal and annoying.
2. This is yet another very clear example of how the problem with the average driver's commute is other drivers. I wish I had the science to prove it, but I can nearly guarantee you that the average driver is caused more delays by assholes in cars doing this than by the entirely panoply of bicyclists he or she might encounter during the commute. Guaranteed.

Oh, then a little later, I almost ran over some garden shears that ended up in a bike lane. When will this senseless war between bicyclists and gardeners end?

I'd rather ride clipless
Ride home was normal. Ogre didn't mind the potholes on Woodley. Who would've guessed? It's still got fun knobby tires on it, but as fall comes closer, I think it might be time to put the fenders back on, which will necessitate a tire change. I like changing tires.

And in other bike news, I think I'm going to go to Connecticut to bike around on some gravel roads near my parents' house. I've got bus tickets for October. It should be fun.

9/22/16

Rides 9/21 and Rides 9/22

I spent most of my morning commute thinking about robot cars and the nefarious purposes you could put them to. It's a good way to pass the time, though a weird one. I'm obsessed with robot cars and the dystopian future I fear they'll bring. I'm not a technophobe by default and there are many technologies that I think are just peachy. But what I am in a carphobe and when I think about the history of cars in cities, I see a steady progression of space being stolen from people in not-cars and given to be in cars and how we're all pretty much ok with that. I don't see how that changes when the cars are driven by robots and I don't predict a halcyon future where we say 'oh wow, let's use what was a parking lane for a park' and not 'oh wow, let's use what was a parking lane as a place to idle our robot cars so they can pick us up faster when we call them on our smart phones.' I hope I'm wrong, but I fear I won't be.

I rode home now through what's the regular route on Woodley, potholes be damned. At the stop sign at 29th, a guy tried to wave me around him while he stopped to make a right turn. But he suggested that I pass him on the right, between his car, the curb and the place he planned to turn. Thanks, bud, but I passed on the left instead. There are shockingly few reasons to ride in the two feet between a car and the curb, waved through or otherwise.

Today was car free day, but I had an appointment that kept me from work right away. In the morning I was running errands and planned to take Bikeshare, but as I approached the first two stations, my arrival was greeted by someone beating me to the last bike, leaving me with bupkis. You can't ride bupkis. At least not comfortably. I did finally snag one and then I caught the last bike at the Tenleytown metro when I finally got to work. My luck, however, ran out in the afternoon. When it was time to ride home, there were no bikes in the station. Now, this is kind of antithetical to the whole mission of Bikeshare, which is all about sharing, but would I pay a dollar to "reserve" a bike for me, for like 5 minutes, when I absolutely knew I needed it? Yeah, maybe. You could even add in dynamic pricing based on demand. I'm kind of surprised that one of the for-profit systems hasn't tried this yet. Seems like it would probably work.

Instead I took the bus home and I didn't get off the bus at the stop I should have and waited one stop too long, which meant waiting in an extra 15 minutes of traffic to go two blocks. Massachusetts Avenue is barren for Bikeshares between AU and Dupont and that's a shame. You could get off at Observatory Circle and walk over to Glover Park, but that's not exactly right there on Mass, so I don't think that really counts. It'd be nice if they threw in a dock at the Cathedral or by the British or Finnish Embassies. It wouldn't probably be the highest used station, but it would certainly close a pretty expansive gap. When I finally got off the bus, I rode from Dupont to New Hampshire at T. It took 4 minutes.

9/20/16

Rides 9/20

It's the twentieth day of September and I don't know where the time has gone. It still feels like summer, but it's not. It's nearly time to start eating exclusively candy corn and pumpkin spice _____, but the weather doesn't really match those vibes at all. The only hint of the changing of the seasons lately has been the slow but inexorable drift of increasing darkness into the evening commute. Buy your lights now. Before you need them.

Decided to mix things up this morning and went over to S Street and salmoned across the very poorly designed intersection of S, Connecticut and Florida. The whole intersection needs a refresh and hopefully those who refresh intersections shine their light upon it soon. I wouldn't mind a contraflow bike lane, but really, the whole intersection needs much more than some bike appreciation. I continued on S up the hill and past Mitchell Park and then down the hill and past the Woodrow Wilson House and then out to familiar Massachusetts. There was some stoppage on Mass in front of one of the embassies (it was either a fender bender or two people who just sorta felt like not driving anymore, which I totally get) and so I scooted by and then the Brompton and I rode up the sidewalk together and slowly. This don't stop the sweating. The humidity was gross.

On the way home, I followed Massachusetts to Garfield and took that down the hill where it turned into Woodley. Right around the time it turned to Woodley, a driver decided that he absolutely more than anything else in the world needed to get past me and he was so successful in this that he then needed to hurriedly slam on his brakes to avoid driving right past a stop sign. Please, please, please drivers of the world (i.e. people who don't read this blog) please don't do this. I get that bikes are *the worst* and terribly inconvenience you, but passing a cyclist just to have to come to an immediate stop, one that you almost missed because you were so intent on passing the cyclist, is just remarkably silly. Rarely ever on my bike do I feel like I lack situational awareness. I pretty much know and can process more or less everything that's going on around me and that's even with about 37% daydreaming sapping my focus. But there's something about driving a car, even when not distracted by a phone or radio or passenger, that leads people to just *miss* stuff. It's signs, it's lights, it's other drivers. I'm sure you've seen it too. It's, how do you say, not great. Ok, robot cars, do your stuff.

After Woodley it was more Woodley and then the bridge and I got stuck on the wrong side, so I rode through Walter Pierce Park and saw Freddie the Firetruck, returned, and then went out Adams Mill on the other side. It's not the most efficient route, but sometimes you don't feel like waiting for a light.

9/19/16

Rides 9/15 and Rides 9/19

Let's be honest, no one remembers what I did on Thursday. I rode to work, I rode home. Details are pointless. I assume that everything went well, that the weather was the weather, and the drivers/bicyclists/pedestrians/pogoists all did the things they normally do that make the tableau of life rich and meaningful. Thursday was my last day of work last week. I took off Friday, biked downtown in the morning on the Brompton and then took Mr. Pink down to Mount Vernon in the afternoon via the Mount Vernon Trail. I have only ridden to Mount Vernon once before and that ride felt much longer than this one. That might have been because it was winter (was it?) or because the Cross Check isn't nearly as zippy as the Pink or because I had a few more miles in my legs than the distance required or perhaps because there was no real mystery this time about the land between Old Town and where George Washington once lived. The trail, unlike the W&OD does get more interesting the further it progresses. There's a windiness and a few ups and downs. Trees hug it in places and where trees don't, there's marsh and sometimes a river (or highway). Mount Vernon itself has a sign outside of it that says it costs $20 to enter and that's all I can tell you about Mount Vernon. Riding back, I stopped in Old Town for chili cheese fries, as George Washington definitely probably did.

I also rode recreationally on Sunday on a unofficial version of the Hills of Rock Creek ride. It was fun and I'd like to do an official version again some time.

Today I was back on the Brompton. I made it to work right before the rain started plus or minus 2 minutes. Ok, minus 2 minutes. I got 2 minutes of rained on. It was fine.

I'm sick and tired on drivers ignoring the right-turn-only lane at Calvert and Connecticut. I wouldn't mind it so much if I wasn't nearly run over through the blatant disregard for law, but getting almost run over a couple of times really tends to solidify your opinion about these things. Back to Woodley tomorrow.

I went home via the grocery store, filling my bag with the nightly supply of tomatoes and limes. Not everyone's a fan of marinara rickeys, but I've developed quite a taste for them. I followed Newark Street home, which has a nice curviness toward the bottom, which makes it moderately fun. Fronting the street are giant houses. I wonder how many more people could afford to live in DC if normal-sized houses lived there instead. But that's the point I guess.

I stopped in Bicycle Space to talk to a man about some tires. I declined to purchase these tires. This time. After that, it was down the rest of 18th and a left on T, around a stopped FedEx truck, and then one more right turn and home. Last Monday bike commute of the week. Glad to have gotten it over so early.

9/14/16

Rides 9/14

Even though I've been riding a new route since July and even though I've been getting lost in trying to get to and from work, I don't think I've really ridden on any new roads. You commute long enough or if you ride around aimlessly on weekends and a few years pass, it's likely you'll ride on most streets at least once and I think it's pretty safe that say that that's the case with my new commute route. There's really only so many ways to cover the three miles between Dupont and AU. However, today I rode a new road and it wasn't even a road I knew I could ride, but I did it and oh yeah, it's also the access road to the zoo parking lots.

I don't spend a lot of time at the zoo. The last time I was there was Brew at the Zoo and the time before that was...2003? And I'm not sure that I've ever driven to the zoo, or at least parked anywhere near the official zoo parking lots. All of this is to say that I'm not very familiar with the Zoo access road, but it turns out that there is one and it goes from Connecticut Avenue down to Rock Creek Park and it's downhill, at least in that direction. It's two lanes and it bans pedestrians. I guess they spent all the sidewalk money on signs that say 'No Pedestrians" and "Watch for Pedestrians," the latter being placed at the few crosswalks from the zoo side to the parking lots and the former being placed everywhere else. I don't see any reason why there couldn't or shouldn't be sidewalks, but apparently that's something the zoo isn't interested in having. Caged animals indeed.

There were no signs about bikes.

The best part about the zoo road (North Road, as it's called on google maps) is that no one else was on it at 5PM on a weekday and so I could ride it leisurely, though the rumble strips were hardly that. The worst part about the zoo road is that it empties you at Harvard Street at its base in the Rock Creek Ravine. That meant riding up Adams Mills Road, which is hilly, but a fun kind of hilly and then it was back up to Calvert on the east side of the Ellington Bridge. The zoo road lets you skip Connecticut and Calvert, but you trade that for a hill. But it's still a new road and you can't put a price on a new road. Is it practical? This is bike commuting- what does that matter?

Guys, the zoo road

Zoo gate. It doesn't so no bikes which means yes bikes obviously

Yup, that's a road. But to the right is a zoo. So that's cool. 

Rides 9/14

Even though I've been riding a new route since July and even though I've been getting lost in trying to get to and from work, I don't think I've really ridden on any new roads. You commute long enough or if you ride around aimlessly on weekends and a few years pass, it's likely you'll ride on most streets at least once and I think it's pretty safe that say that that's the case with my new commute route. There's really only so many ways to cover the three miles between Dupont and AU. However, today I rode a new road and it wasn't even a road I knew I could ride, but I did it and oh yeah, it's also the access road to the zoo parking lots.

I don't spend a lot of time at the zoo. The last time I was there was Brew at the Zoo and the time before that was...2003? And I'm not sure that I've ever driven to the zoo, or at least parked anywhere near the official zoo parking lots. All of this is to say that I'm not very familiar with the Zoo access road, but it turns out that there is one and it goes from Connecticut Avenue down to Rock Creek Park and it's downhill, at least in that direction. It's two lanes and it bans pedestrians. I guess they spent all the sidewalk money on signs that say 'No Pedestrians" and "Watch for Pedestrians," the latter being placed at the few crosswalks from the zoo side to the parking lots and the former being placed everywhere else. I don't see any reason why there couldn't or shouldn't be sidewalks, but apparently that's something the zoo isn't interested in having. Caged animals indeed.

There were no signs about bikes.

The best part about the zoo road (North Road, as it's called on google maps) is that no one else was on it at 5PM on a weekday and so I could ride it leisurely, though the rumble strips were hardly that. The worst part about the zoo road is that it empties you at Harvard Street at its base in the Rock Creek Ravine. That meant riding up Adams Mills Road, which is hilly, but a fun kind of hilly and then it was back up to Calvert on the east side of the Ellington Bridge. The zoo road lets you skip Connecticut and Calvert, but you trade that for a hill. But it's still a new road and you can't put a price on a new road. Is it practical? This is bike commuting- what does that matter?

Guys, the zoo road

Zoo gate. It doesn't so no bikes which means yes bikes obviously

Yup, that's a road. But to the right is a zoo. So that's cool. 

9/13/16

Rides 9/13

I figured out Woodley both ways today. I consider this no small accomplishment, but I have a very low threshold for self-congratulation. I say that as I polish the trophy I ordered myself for Best Bike Guy Who Rode Up Woodley Twice Today Without Getting Lost. On the way up, the hill starts gentle, but there's a little kick after 29th. The way down is easy, but the road is ruddy and the little tires of the Brompton disagree with the potholes, which provides exciting pretense for swerving when riding down the road, which is fun. The only problem with taking Woodley home is that it leaves me on the wrong side of the Ellington Bridge, which is to say the north side sidewalk and so I ride on the sidewalk even though I'd prefer to ride on the road. So it goes.

I've been thinking a lot about speed bumps lately and how much I dislike them. Like stop signs, they're there to control drivers and in a world without cars, we wouldn't have them and me, a guy on a tiny wheeled bike, would be much happier for it. They might go away in our future of robot cars, when the robots, unlike the humans who currently drive, will know not to speed and then I'll be considerably happier. Other things that might go away in our robot car future include those rumble strips on the highway that make noise when you  drift outside of the lane, but those don't really affect my bike commute, so I'm less excited about that. "No turn on red" signs and speed limit signs will also disappear in our robot car future (presumably the car will know based on GPS or something). Overall, I predict we'll live in a world with much less visual clutter, which I'll appreciate. Just think about how many signs there are telling drivers what they can, should and shouldn't do. The robots won't need them. But I wonder why, in the mean time, we don't take advantage of the fact that cars basically are GPS-enabled right now and more or less just computers on wheels and enact some intermediate steps. If you can map the entire world, you could add speed limits to that map and couldn't the car "know" the speed limit on the road and limit itself to that speed? This seems like a pretty good idea to me.

Yes, there will still be human driver error, but think of how many lives would be saved in the mean time if we just limited top speed. No more speed tickets! No more crazy aggressive drivers weaving in and out trying to get by! Of course we won't do this because freedom means the freedom to kill yourself or others by ignoring the law, but if we ever decide to not be as free, I wouldn't mind if we chose that particular restriction. We have the technology.

9/12/16

Rides 9/9 and Rides 9/12

On Friday morning, I avoided the Connecticut-Calvert intersection by riding over to Woodley Road via Woodley Place. Here's a map. It'll be useful if you care to follow along with my premise, which is that Ward 3 is confusing and it's very easy to get lost. This is partially because all of the houses look the same and there are too many trees, blocking the sun by which I would normally navigate and also because the streets are all diagonals and OH YEAH ALSO THEY DON'T CONNECT IN ANY REASONABLE WAY and WHY THE FUCK ARE HALF OF THEM NAMED WOODLEY?!?!


My normal route is pretty easy and pretty direct and I take it both ways, which is Calvert (horizontal in the map) to Cleveland (diagonal) to Garfield (horizontal) to Massachusetts (diagonal). It's easy and relatively direct, but it's also trafficky and I think sometimes 'oh, this is a quaint quiet leafy neighborhood with slow speed residential streets, why wouldn't I just take those?' So on Friday morning, I did and I rode up Woodley Place from the west side of the Ellington Bridge to Woodley Road and then eventually ended up at the familiar intersection of Cleveland and Garfield and considered the whole thing successful. Little did I know, however, that when I tried to repeat it this afternoon that I wouldn't be nearly as successful, but through machinations not of my own but rather those of the devious street namers and perhaps also the French nuns who founded the Maret School. I came down 34th towards Cleveland and thought I'd be able to make a left turn onto Wooldey, but little did I know, there was no Woodley to be found there. I had passed a Woodley previously, but I dismissed it as a pretender Woodley knowing that the Woodley I knew was the one that intersected Cleveland. But the what-I-thought-was-Woodley that intersects with Cleveland is actually Garfield and not Woodley. It changes name before it gets there. Why, you ask? I don't know! With no Woodley, I ended up making a hard left onto 32nd shouting 'here woodley woodley woodley woodley' as one is wont to do when one's woodley is missing. Keep in mind, that this is Woodley, not Woodland, which is an entirely different kind of wood and perhaps even a land onto itself. I have previously been lost on Woodland, but it's been years since I've ridden between Cleveland and Massachusetts, having been so scarred by this experience. Let's press on.

I rode north on 32nd even though I didn't think that was necessarily the right way to go and then I saw Cathedral and thought 'well, Cathedral. That's a street that goes somewhere. Maybe even to Connecticut' and then I turned onto Cathedral. And then on Cathedral there's a stop sign and there at this stop sign, snaking in from the left, well, look who's there- it's mother fucking Woodley. "Where've you been, asshole?" I might've mumbled. "I need to get on you now and ride you home." But how? Woodley intersects Cathedral but then it stops at the gates to the Maret School, so there was no riding Woodley home and I had left was to sulk along Cathedral, wondering where it all went wrong. Cathedral passed Connecticut and then I made a right...onto Woodley (Place), but I thought it was Road and I was mad that after all that time, Woodley had the nerve to show up again, when I needed it the least.

This was a few hours ago and I finally decided to look at a map before writing this post.

Turns out it's not entirely my fault. There's a Woodley gap. There's a Woodley that stops and a Woodley that starts but these Woodleys don't meet for reasons that escape me. That's why I propose for Serial season 3 the topic of Woodley Street. Also, Ward 3 is confusing. Once you get past the letter streets in DC, forget it.

****************

Friday afternoon I rode home via Massachusetts for the first time in a month or so and it was fine. Got hung up a bit by an overly polite traffic in Sheridan Circle (please don't wave me through, sir, just go because the other fourteen drivers in this circle also don't plan to cede the right of way and dear god aaaaaaaaaaaaaah), but made it to 20th where I locked my bike up outside to attend an event inside.

This morning's ride in was really nice. The weather was charming. It might be autumn someday.

9/8/16

Rides 9/7 and Rides 9/8

Two more days on the Ogre. It's still summer. Yesterday evening I had some bonus rides back and forth between home and NoMa and the one at night was in a light drizzle. It's been too long since I've ridden in the rain. I kind of missed it. Sort of. Happily, on the ride over to NoMa, I ran into Nelle and Nick from WABA and we followed all of the traffic laws. All of them. Just like I would have had I not been with WABA people.

My front brake makes a rather horrific noise of late. It's a primal scream, I think. The bike wants me to keep going. Would that I could. I don't mind a brake that makes a lot of noise. It shows that I'm at least trying to stop. Also, easier than dinging.

There's one corner on my new route to work that I don't like and it's the intersection of 5 streets at the base of the hill where Calvert meets Woodley meets Cleveland meets a few other streets. There's just a lot of different directions to look for the unexpected and a few too many places to worry you've missed someone coming from. The downhill in the afternoon worries me more than the uphill in the morning, but the morning isn't without its stresses either. Maybe it's time to take more seriously my previously stated desire to avoid that whole area whatsoever.

They've installed new and better bike parking outside my office and I've started taking advantage of it. One of my students said that she tried to park next to my bike the other day, but couldn't. 1) it's cool that one of my students bikes 2) it's cool that one of them knows that I bike and knows my bike (likely because sometimes I keep my bike in the office, which I really shouldn't because professionalism or something) but 3) I should've inquired why she couldn't park next to me. Did the Ogre take up too much space? Was it just too tight to get the bike in there? Why did I not ask? Oh well. Next time, I guess.

Read this from WABA. It's important.

9/6/16

Rides 9/6

First day back at work after the long weekend and the bike wasn't nearly as sluggish I felt. I rode the Ogre, which is set up with big knobby tires that make a very pleasant whirring noise on the DC pavement. They'd likely make the same whirring noise on non-DC pavements, but that's not the way to work. I don't often think of cycling as a sonic experience, but it is. Especially when you stop for a Bacon Cheeseburger TOASTER. It's a lovely thing to hear lovely noises from your lovely bike.

18th to Adams Mill to Calvert and slowly up the hill. Rare sightings of another cyclist on the west side of the bridge, but he rode up Woodley to I wonder where. I don't wonder too much- that'd be nosy and everyone has a right to cycle to wherever they're going with some degree of privacy (btw, you won't get this in the robot taxi future that people insist is coming. Your robot taxi- and whoever owns it- will know everywhere you have gone. Cycling- the preferred transport of paranoid nutjobs and technophobes!), but I'm still curious since there's not many businesses up that way and it was the ride-to-work time of morning. Hopefully it was somewhere fun.

Easy ride home down Mass to a somewhat perilous crossing at Mass and Garfield. I was in the crosswalk and so were turning drivers. There was sun glare. It would've been no excuse, but it also would've been a complete excuse for any "accident" that  would've occurred had I not been so cautious. Such is the way it is. Anyway, I don't rush across crosswalks. It seems counterintuitive, but I feel much safer in crosswalks when I go slower (this is true both walking and biking) since it forces (hopefully!) drivers to really acknowledge you and stop rather than just kind of slow. I consider this a small price to pay for my remaining not run over, but I'm admittedly biased in this. Rush across a crosswalk too fast and maybe the driver doesn't slow down as much and maybe he gets it wrong and maybe you suffer that consequences of that. Oh well. That's just my approach. I'm sure others are just as wrong.

Cleveland, Calvert, Biltmore, 19th, T and home. It was warm, but I rode home in work clothes anyway. I wore novelty socks. They had pictures of poutine on them and they were a gift and I like them very much.

9/5/16

Rides 9/1 and Rides 9/2

Welcome to September and perhaps autumn. But not yet. Summer in DC stretches at least until the end of the month and even the nice cooler days are still the nice cooler days of summer and not the nice cooler days of fall, which are even nicer and cooler. Thursday saw rides with the Brompton and and from work and a midday Bikeshare trip home for dog walking purposes. Friday meant a ride to coffee club in the morning (I've never habitually had to ride eastward in the AM and thought nothing of forgetting to wear my sunglasses and this was a mistake) and a ride back to work the long way (up Mass) afterward and then a blissful escape ride home into the three day weekend, which soon lapses, but not before I fit in some holiday cycling, which was for leisure (and coffee).

I don't have much else to offer than this fairly boring recounting of the facts. If there was tumult, I've long since forgotten it. The one thing you learn to do quickly when you're in the habit of bike commuting (and especially when you're in the habit of writing about your bike commute) is to value the act of forgetting. If you remembered every little thing- every little bad thing especially, as those are the most craw-sticking- getting back on the bike each day would be more struggle than joy. But starting each day eternally sunshiney and spotless-like, you mind it much less and can carry yourself forward happily and let winds carry your cares away. I think it's why I don't like Strava and why I'd never record my commute. Memory, faded and jaded, is a much better substitute than recorded reality.