Rides 7/26

One of the things about my old commute is that for about half it, I was riding on my way downtown and then on half, I was riding from downtown. This allowed me to have elements of the standard commute and elements of a reverse commute and I liked experiencing both. Now, I pretty much only get the reverse commute, but it seems that, for whatever reason, I'm picking up more cyclists heading in the same direction than I almost ever did riding out of downtown and up through Georgetown. I wonder where everyone is going when they ride up and through AdMo. Maybe I'll have to follow someone someday. Yes, that would be sort of creepy and bad and curiosity killed the cat and all that, but the demands of being DC's 78th favorite bike commute blogger (hiatus killed my ranking, but I'm clawing my way back) are what they are and I just have to know. Maybe these reverse commuters are going to my workplace. That be convenient for the whole following them to work thing. And way less stalkery.

Before work, I stopped and bought a muffin at the grocery store. Morning grocery shopping = great. Morning grocery shoppers = less great. It's not '12 items or fewer unless it's before 9AM and then it's just however many things you want,' madam. Oh hey, maybe I'm a little grumpy in the morning.

This morning was the last ride with the busted grips and they didn't disappoint by further unraveling. I don't think I'll much miss them. Bike stuff and I have a weird relationship right now. I really enjoy having a lot of it and I enjoy the things that I've purchased along the way...for the most part. But sometimes I've gotten it wrong and I've been left with stuff that just isn't right. I don't think this is a unique problem to me (hello, facebook used bike marketplace) and I don't think it's a unique problem to bicyclists, but I find this problem to be more problematic than other problems I have because I really hate the idea of 'wasting' stuff. I guess it's not really wasting if you sell it along and send it to a new home, but it seems a little wasteful of money, I guess. Anyway, these grips lived their life and they ended up destroyed at the bike shop as two mechanics diligently worked to remove them with a hammer and a wrench and some screwdrivers used as ice picks and a fuck ton of gumption and gone they went, into the dustbin of history/regular bike shop dustbin. Could have they been salvaged? I don't know. Like 30% maybe. But they're gone now and I've got new ones. They're blue.

Blue and foamy. Like the ocean.

Pants.

Rode home again in work clothes. This would be madness if I were going any more than 15 minutes. After the bike shop, I stopped for bread. I also bought cheese. The worker at the register said 'Nice. Bread and cheese.' And I was like 'Yes.' It's good that she could successfully identify those items. Otherwise I'd worry about her future in the grocery industry. Really, though, bread and cheese are great. Glad I finally got to blog that. It's been on my mind for years.