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@Judd 210906 wrote:

Third Thursday Happy Hour is back this Thursday. Location is the golf course at East Potomac Park starting around 5.

If I take my Thursday night kayak group around Haines Point, will you toss us some beers?

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We accept way less than perfection from our human drivers. Upwards of 35,000 people die in car accidents every year in the U.S., and another 4.4 million people suffer serious enough injury to seek medical attention, and yet we haven’t prohibited the use of the automobile. Autonomous vehicles will be imperfect. They’ll just be imperfect in different ways than human drivers. Autonomous vehicles are not distracted by their phones or by their kids. They won’t nod off behind the wheel on long highway drives. With 360 degree sensors don’t miss seeing cars or bicyclists in their blind spots. An autonomous car would not forget to look before pulling out of a parking space and collide with a cyclist — an incident I experienced as a cyclist. However, autonomous vehicles will make mistakes, including some which would likely have been avoided by a human driver. I don’t demand perfection from self-driving cars; I’ll be comfortable as long as they drive better than the humans I see on the road, which is not that high a bar.

Also, recognize that autonomy is a continuum. My current car has various blind-spot detectors, lane departure alert and correction features, and so on. We can keep making cars safer by adding more of these self-driving/driver-assist features in as the technology matures, even while they fall short of full autonomy.

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@matteblack 210247 wrote:

As my friends and family are fond of saying “so that’s like one song, right?!?”

I remember that when The Golden Road collector’s set came out, one of the late night hosts joked: “The Grateful Dead announced they are putting out a 12 CD set. There’s no word yet on which song it is.”

As someone who plays in a Grateful Dead tribute band, let me tell you it can be hard to practice those really lengthy songs. As a keyboard player, when practicing I fast forward through a lot of guitar solos

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I would like to give a special shout-out to all the cyclists who competed for Pointless Prizes that didn’t even exist. These stalwarts logged rides against prizes which had been offered in previous years, but which weren’t sponsored this year. Assuming the stats on freezingsaddles.com are correct, this year’s non-winners include:

Winner of the Alexandria Infrastructure Non-Prize: “Making the Push”, who logged 17 rides and was the only competitor. This prize had been offered last year by lordofthemark. I wonder if “Making the Push” meant to log these as Bike Infrastructure rides?

Winner of the London Bridge Non-Prize: “Will Stringer”, with 11 falls (ouch!), with Nadine in second place with 5. This prize, previously offered by Wheels & Wings, was given for falling down while riding. Amazingly, 26 people logged London Bridge rides this year. That’s a lot of falling – and that’s not including the people who choose not to reveal their embarrassing mistakes (let’s not mention the unclipping fail I had right in front of my house a couple of weeks ago).

Winner of the Supple Ride Non-Prize: “Laurie E”. This prize had been sponsored last year by drevil to recognize people who ride on fatter tires. Thirteen people competed for this Non-Prize.

Congratulations to all the Winners of these Non-Existent Prizes! Since the prizes didn’t exist, you win your own sense of accomplishment and maybe our admiration – but nothing else.

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To All Pointless Prize Sponsors:

Thanks again for sponsoring a great part of Freezing Saddles! If you’ve read the comments you know that for many riders, prizes rather than points are what kept them out riding through the cold and inclement weather. Since we won’t be having a final happy hour, please post your results in the forum thread for your prize, or in this thread if you don’t have a thread for your prize.

It’s up to you to coordinate distribution of any physical prize. There are riders who regularly visit coffee clubs and such across the area, so you may be able to enlist distribution help through the forum..

Spring is Here! Happy Riding!

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3/17/2021 — rainbow, leprechaun, or four-leaf clover.

Photo through the door at Best Buns in Shirlington. I didn’t go inside because there seemed to be some complex protocol required to actually get inside the shop.

Tip o’ the hat to Casey, who pointed out to me that Best Buns had these decorations.

It occurred to me as I posted this that the picture shows run of the mill shamrocks, not four leaf clover. I suppose the easiest thing to have done would have been to do a quick bike ride over to a store with holiday decorations, but instead I did an extra credit project.

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I don’t usually do the sock thing, but Happy St. Patty’s Day!

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3/15/21 – Christmas Ornaments or Lights

I’ve been slacking on this contest lately, but jumped back in today. Here’s a house in North Arlington which still has a Christmas wreath on the door. I’ve noticed that quite a few houses in my neighborhood are still lighting their Christmas lights even as we approach springtime – perhaps they feel a little extra cheer is warranted in these times.

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3/9/21 – “Amerigo Vespucci” Subanagram (5 letters or more)

Continuing my preference for finding as many items as possible at Westover. Once again, it’s Toby’s for ICE CREAM.

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3/7/21 – Cookie Selfie

My first stop this morning was at the Westover Farmers Market. Lots of delicious-looking baked goods there, but no cookies. Likewise, the Girl Scouts didn’t have their table set up outside Westover Market (well, it was 9 AM on a Sunday). So, I rode down to Best Buns, an excellent bakery and erstwhile home of HDCC. Unfortunately, cookies are an infrequent indulgence for me and I’m back on the wagon after indulging all week in my wife’s home-baked hamentaschen (a traditional cookie baked for the Jewish holiday of Purim), so I didn’t go in and order anything.

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3/6/21 – element name

I had to go to the drug store anyway. Went looking for Coppertone. Found this first.

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@Nadine 209087 wrote:

You had just taken this when I saw you this afternoon, right? [emoji57]

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@Nadine – yup, just seconds before. I had planned to site there and wait for a train, but there was a train going by as I hit the bridge so I scrambled to get my phone out and barely got the photo.

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3/4/21 – Bowling Alley

I took a trip down to Bowl America.

(Falls Church)

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3/3/21 – Train

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3/2/21-Little free library

My ride today took me past three Little Free Libraries: one in my neighborhood which was my destination, plus two others I happened upon while riding. All three were in the Arlington part of my ride. Once I crossed over into McLean, no more libraries. Perhaps the covenants in the neighborhoods of multi-million dollar homes prohibit such beggarly little structures.

As I was finishing up my ride I passed someone who I spotted wearing the telltale green reflectors (LisaE, I think, based on Strava Flyby) – I shouted out “Hi Freezing Saddles!” as I went by, but I demonstrated my usual lack of social graces and didn’t slow down to chat with them.

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