Tag: biking

Biking to work again

Studying at FSI has the advantage of being closer, so I can push the biking season a bit.  It has been a little cooler than average this year so far, but pleasant enough on some days to make the trip enjoyable. I don’t like his hitting the strong west winds in springtime. They get a little more languid in summer and the leaves on the trees block some of the wind. Above & Below are parts of the trail in Falls Church. It will look better when the leaves come on in a few weeks. The W&OD bike trail is a nice park. Narrow, but very long.

Best boots ever

My Marine boots are still doing service and don’t seem to be wearing out. I wore them every day for a year in Iraq, walking on some pretty rough surfaces and they have been great in my forestry since. My only complaint is that they are not waterproof. Of course, who can complain that boots designed for a place where it almost never rains may let water in?

Construction on Gallows Road

Our neighborhood is changing; I think improving. Above is the new building on Gallows. It is mostly wood framed and going up really fast. 

Road Work

I liked to watch construction when I was a kid and I still do. But now big machines do most of the work and everything is a lot cleaner. This machine (above & below) pulls up the asphalt, grinds it up and drops it in the truck w/o even slowing down.

Washington

I got back to Washington the other day. Now that I don’t work there everyday, I miss it. Above is the White House. They were having some kind of ceremony. Below is a statue in front of the Old Executive Office Building and the Washington Monument.

I am at FSI for the PAO course that I never took. I figure that there are basic things that I just didn’t know and I hope to learn about them.

At FSI, I was greeted with an “improvement” around the bike racks. Look at the picture.  I bet these things cost the government a lot, because we never get anything cheap. What good are they? They won’t protect the bikes from the rain. The probably actually make it hotter around the bikes, since they face into the south and into the sun.  Worst of all, they eliminate at least two bike parking spots (on each end) and make it a lot harder to get at the bikes in the middle.

This is the kind of thing that someone who doesn’t ride a bike much thinks is “bike friendly.”

I figure that somebody will get an award for putting those things up. They will look better on somebody’s personal report than they do in real life. Maybe that same person will earn another award when they take them down, create more space and “save” the upkeep.

Class got out early enough for me to head down to Washington, go to Gold’s Gym and take the Metro home.  It is easier for me to go down to Washington and take the Metro than to go up hill home, although both are about the same distance. Actually, it was a bit farther, since I went the long way through Shirlington and along the Potomac. They connected the bike trail all the way. Sweet. You used to have to get off the trail and cross the freeway on a footbridge.

Above and below are pictures of East Potomac Park. I have been stopping here at the end of the day to kind of settle back into that peaceful, easy feeling.  It is another thing that is a little out of the way, but worth going.  I went down there today for around a half hour, listened to my audio books and watched the water flow. It is a pleasant place to be. The breeze blows off the water in the late afternoon, keeping the mosquitoes confused.

It was cool and overcast for my morning bike ride, but an easy trip because of the west wind.  I am glad that I don’t have to drive. Below you can see the cars backed up on Memorial Bridge.

Above is the stop light to cross near the Lincoln Memorial.  You have to push the button to get the walk light, at least you HAD to.  Somebody glued button down so that it just goes through the cycle continuously.  I think that is good.  I hate that idea that you have to push the button and always wait.  Of course, sometimes you can just nip through between the traffic.

Above & below are elm trees looking not good on Independence Avenue.  I have noticed that many of the elms around town are not looking good.  Some elm trees are resistant to Dutch elm disease, but none are completely immune.  I worry that something is going on with the trees.  It would be a shame if these big trees died.  I have been watching the media for reports re the elms.  So far I have found nothing.  I hope that my fears are unfounded.  It was a hot year. Maybe they are just stressed.

Despite my move to the new building, I still have to go down to the old area both to work out at Gold’s Gym and to make it possible to get on the Metro.  

As I think I have explained before, I ride only one way. It is 17 miles from my house to the my old USIA building by the route I have to take on my bike to avoid traffic. I used to ride both ways, but 34 miles a day is a lot and it is daunting to have to ride home after a long day’s work. Maybe I have just become wimpier in my old age, but I enjoy the ride to work most days, while the ride back was just a chore. I have developed several rationalizations, the foremost of which is that the one-way trip extends my biking season because I don’t have to worry about darkness in spring and fall.  I also don’t worry so much about the weather.  If it is not raining in the morning I am okay.  I don’t have to worry about late afternoon storms.  Finally, it is fairly comfortable in the early morning, but often enervatingly hot by the afternoon.

Besides all that, I think my Metro-bike combo helped get me promoted. I cannot get on the train with my bike until after 7pm, so I used to hang around work until then waiting.  Sometimes I actually did some useful work, but probably as importantly I was SEEN to be at work. I always told the truth; I told people that I was merely waiting for the train, but they didn’t believe me, so I got points for consistently “working” late.

Now I generally leave work around 6:30, which give me plenty of time for a leisurely ride along the Smithsonian Mall and my vigorous but short workout at Gold’s Gym. You can see the Smithsonian with the shades of evening on the longest day of the year.  Along the way I have observed traffic enforcement.  Cars can park along the main streets during non-rush hours and lots of people evidently don’t know when that period ends.   When rush-hour starts, tow trucks fan out to ticket the cars and pull them off the road and onto the grassy verges.  It must come as a bit of a surprise to hapless tourists. It is a little hard on the grass.  The tow truck below, BTW, is NOT doing the grass towing. I don’t think it is ever legal to park on that part of 14th Street and we all pity the fool who parked there just before rush hour. His vehicle is going to a public impound in DC, from which it may never emerge.

BTW – my title “tow the line” is a variation on the saying, “toe the line.” I know the difference. The latter saying is based on conforming to a military line. The former is just wrong, but it does create an image that could make sense. A tow truck, I suppose, could tow a line.