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.