23:43 Tuesday 29 June 2021
I have been cycling very little this year. With 2½ days off this week, I felt I really should get out on the bike. It's beastly hot this week; heat index today of 100°F/37.8°C. Riding in the evening, leaving around 20:30, was a good idea. Just an ordinary ride, out the
Washington & Old Dominion Trail through Vienna to Clark's Crossing, about 20mi (32.2km).
I've
mentioned before that there are plans to
widen the trail in Falls Church. When I got to the Arlington/Falls Church border, the trail was closed for construction.
The detour went southwest on Little Falls St, then northwest on Great Falls St, back to the trail. The detour ended here, but immediately there was another detour for the same trail on the other side of Great Falls St. Turning west on Lincoln Ave, detour signs at Oak St saying south and continuing west - I ignored that turn - and southwest on West St to return to the trail at the end of the expansion/construction. At that point I could see that the trail was not open from West St east to Oak, so ignoring the sign ending the detour early was the right choice.
A better detour would be going north on Little Falls Rd (staying in Arlington) and then left/west on Fairfax Dr; Fairfax becomes Lincoln Dr, to West St to rejoin the trail. That's the way I came home, except not taking Little Falls back to the trail, and staying with Fairfax to Lee Hwy (which is going to be renamed). When I've taken a shorter but much hillier route from home to the W&OD, I've usually taken Fairfax/Lincoln instead of the W&OD because the pavement's better and there's no stop signs (but 2 traffic lights).
Drivers are less likely to stop for cyclists at trail crossings at night. They're probably not expecting cyclists to be there. I've never understood the custom, given that the cyclists have the stop signs.
When I last saw
![](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vvalkyri I mentioned I had not seen fireflies around. I've seen a couple of flashes in my yard since then, and I saw lots in the bushes along the trail west of Falls Church. I saw deer outside the Beltway, past Gallows Rd. There were other cyclists out, mostly with very bright lights, and pedestrians out walking, but not busy/crowded. It's probably too hot for people.
I think I saw
Beth Permenter on my way back. I'm not sure; she was heading toward the bike shop, which isn't open that late. (Not open at all, Tuesdays.)
Coming back, there was a lot of food in the road on Lee Hwy. It was uncooked food, like grocery stock. Much of it packages in boxes that had broken open. I stopped on the sidewalk to move it, and a car pulled into the gas station there with a couple of guys who apparently had lost the packages. I'm wondering whether it was forgotten on the roof, or a door wasn't shut, but we didn't have a chat about it. They appreciated the help, and we got it all except the packages that broke open.
Wednesday 23:00
I should have thought to see whether
![](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vvalkyri had any free time the last couple of days.
Saturday 20:08
I mowed the lawn today, front and back. The battery is fine for the whole yard when the grass isn't crazy tall.
Saturday 22:02
I just renewed the domain registrations for my webserver.
Good thing I checked my GMail accounts tonight (which I had not done in months), where the renewal notice went.
Monday 23:09
I went for another bike ride this evening. I went out the W&OD again, but a little farther than last Tuesday. I spent most of the return trip avoiding leg cramps; that really slowed me down, and I had to stop and let muscles relax several times.
I stopped at the grocery store on the way back to take advantage of Cheap-Chicken Monday.
On that last bit of the ride I found a University of Miami student ID card in the road. I think I've found his family address, so I should be able to return it without mailing it to Florida.
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