I do all this on a website called DailyMile, check it out, don’t worry, you can’t find out where I live from the data there. Also, I ride everyday, and logging every commute I do to work tends to the redundant….

In terms of bikes, there are a lot of them around. Every block you travel on there’s quite a number of them locked to posts, rails, and racks, not to mention at least one or two other people riding theirs. Speaking of racks there’s seemingly quite a bit of infrastructure in place here. So far I’ve ridden on bike lanes on Q, R, 14th, 15th (with a contra-flow lane), and New Hampshire streets; there’s also the Rock Creek Park trail and in Virginia the Washington & Old Dominion Trail from the Custis Trail that I’ve explored. I’m looking forward to checking out the Metropolitan Branch Trail too. In addition to all that, I’ve also had my fair share of regular traffic lanes to navigate through—we all know the bike lane, just like the freeway, doesn’t start and stop at your front door. The regular streets are full of potholes, badly described lanes, irregular intersections, huge roundabouts, and tons of cars traveling at varying speeds; it can be super hectic—basically this kind of playing in traffic can be fun.

One other thing DC’s streets have are lot’s of statues of dude’s on horses.

I’ve found work in a pretty cool shop—this one—and again, I am seeing yet another way of running a shop. As we’re all aware of, there’s maybe an infinite number of ways to skin a cat. I’m still figuring it all out there, I have no real criticisms and not many suggestions have developed yet. Working in a variety of shops has definitely given me an education in operating in different environments. I’m glad to add to that—so far, so good. Washington, DC, as a whole will be an effort in education for me, I’m sure I’ll be learning more about the streets, trails, bikes, people, and government the longer I live here.

In the meantime, my wife and I are living as mole people in a friend’s basement apartment. The sofa bed is certainly taking it’s toll on my back. Most of our belongings, i.e. the majority of our bikes, are locked up in a storage unit. Patience is the lesson for now. Today however, we’re off to check out the big parade in Dupont Circle.

Originally uploaded by prestashrader

Originally uploaded by prestashrader

Originally uploaded by prestashrader

It’s not like I access these sites from this website, but the list to the left is just a catalog per se of websites of organizations, businesses, or people that I enjoy, respect, and agree with. Check them out sometime, I haven’t updated them in a while, and tonight it occurred to me to glance at them. Noticing them for the first time in a while I saw some gaps there. Have at it, perhaps visit some locations on the internet you’ve never visited. (There are surely some gaps remaining of sites on my RSS reader, there’s just only so much space.)

(As far as there “not being much to report,” like I mentioned above; that’s a total outright lie. I’ve got a ton of things going on, all of which are keeping me from updating this site in any other significant way beyond link updates and simple photo posts. More posts to come soon enough, thanks for your patience.)

Originally uploaded by prestashrader

Originally uploaded by prestashrader

Yeah, the long wait is soon to be over! Welcome back.

All of a sudden I see the dude on the bike stop abruptly and the truck come to a quick stop behind him. As I continued approaching it appeared the guy’s chain had come off his bike—lame, right? (Here’s a time you want your bike mechanically sound if there ever was.) In order to get out of the truck’s way, bike dude steps up to the sidewalk just as the truck begins to blow his horn, exactly: get out of the way.

Mere seconds later I am about to pass the stalled commuter, I loudly ask him if he’s alright and if he needs any help. No reply. I’m no more than three feet away from him and he doesn’t respond. It was as though he didn’t hear me. In fact, it’s likely that he didn’t due to the headphones in his ears. I’m wondering if he even heard the truck’s horn behind him moments ago. He probably did, but I’d be willing to bet he didn’t know the truck was as close to killing him as he thinks. I’d bet he wasn’t aware at all of the truck’s presence at all.

And the point of this post is this: if you’re going to ride your bike among traffic and survive, you have got to be aware of your surroundings. I don’t care how low you’ve got the music or whatever playing, you’re not as aware as someone without headphones. In fact, having headphones on at all makes you look totally oblivious to what’s happening around you. It’s probably one of the more stupid things you can do on your bike. If you’re riding amongst traffic, or the potential for there to be traffic, and you’ve got headphones on, I just called you stupid.

Is the music so important? Be aware of the music and the sounds of your environment, and enjoy that for a change! Be smart for a change!