Ride Home 7/22

I was met with rain when I pulled out and it was the greatest, most welcome rain I could have ever imagined. I was anticipating the death heat, some cross between the Sahara and a microwave, that would completely waste me. Instead, I was rained on and I smiled like a madman, to the point that I barely exhibited any of my usual rain precautions (I sort of really hate going downhill and even more so in the rain) and just rode like a happy imbecile.
The rain didn't last and by Georgetown is was gone. But it did the trick and the rest of the ride wasn't that bad.
There's no bit of road detritus worse than a baby's shoe. Talk about depressing! Though, I guess roadkill isn't exactly fun either. Sometimes it just better not to look at the road and just look at old people and dogs and trees and stuff. You should probably avoid saying things like "Two poodles!" in a way that the dog's owners can hear your stupid excitement. Not that I'm speaking from personal experience or anything.
I think I'm going to start riding up 18th from Oak instead of taking Wilson. There are no bike lanes, but there's also barely any traffic. I think the stretch between Oak and Quinn might be one of the most dangerous bike laned stretches in Arlington on account of the driveways and the constant inflow and outflow of parking and unparking cars. The only bad part of that 18th might be a bit steeper and there's not as much rest on the climb through Arlington. Also, there's a strange bit of 18th where the street narrows and the right lane stops and becomes the entrance to a perpendicular driveway. So, watch out for that.
Made it the rest of the way home without riding in the small front ring. I think that means it wasn't as bad today. I don't think I'm going to be doing any weekend recreational riding on account of the terrible, terrible air quality.
Another night of Jeopardy!. So there's that.