Coffeeneuring: Ride #1.2, Not According to Plan

All week I had been figuring that I'd log my second coffeeneuring event by attending my favorite of the DC area weekly coffee clubs, the Wednesday Hump Day Coffee Club (HDCC) at Best Buns in Shirlington. After all, this coffee/cycling  intersection is a pleasurable regular part of my weekly routine and deserves to be celebrated as a part of coffeeneuring. However, a fatal flaw in my plan dawned on me just last night – this Wednesday is Yom Kippur, a holy fast day in Judaism. That meant that Wednesday was going to be  really, really poor choice for AM socializing and breakfast. I momentarily thought about riding Wednesday anyway (HDCC starts at 7 AM, and religious services not until 9) and just sitting and not eating or drinking, but since I wouldn't be able to consume any coffee it wouldn't qualify as coffeeneuring. I instead quickly hatched an alternative plan to replace HDCC for this week with another commuting coffee: a detour to the Ballston Buzz Coffee on my way to work. HDCC will have to wait. 

I was particularly conscious of the time because I really wanted to catch my boss first thing this morning to discuss the fact that I had, um, sent him an email last week saying that I was quitting (well, transferring, really), and oftentimes first thing in the morning is the only way to catch him. Needless to say, it took forever to get going.

Do you ever have one of those mornings where you just can't seem to get out the door? 

• I didn't want to saddle myself with two complete clothing changes at the end of the day (Jewish holidays run sundown to sundown and so there are services tonight) and so I decided to ride "mullet style", that is, business on top, party on the bottom: dress shirt, stretchy hiking pants and sneakers. No bike shoes, no bike socks, no padded shorts (hey, the ride is only 3 miles). So I had to figure out what to wear instead of grabbing bike gear by rote.
• Since I was going to be riding in street clothes I decided to ride my hybrid bike. This bike hadn't been ridden since July so I had to pump up the tires, give it a once over and move my rack bag over from my usual commuter.  
• With clothes and bike squared away I was ready to head out the door, but where was my phone? I almost always plug in my phone in my bedroom at night. I would say there are maybe three nights per year I don't do this. This was one of those nights. I searched the house, couldn't find it. Searched again. Checked the car. Had I dropped it at Home Depot yesterday? 
• I decided to use technology to help me find my phone by checking the online "FindMyiPhone" to make sure the phone was, in fact, at the house. I went to log into iCloud, which required that I change my password since my present one no longer met their security standards, then it made me update my security questions, then I had to log back in, then answer the security questions I had just entered, before showing me that my phone was indeed at my house. The truth is it was within arm's reach at this point but it took a bit more hunting and calling it from my home phone (yes, I still have a land line) to find it. 
• Having found my phone (allowing me to start the all-important Strava app) I thought I was ready to leave but I realized that with my non-standard riding attire I had forgotten to grab the bike room key for my office building (I keep the key with my cycling stuff). Back upstairs from the basement to retrieve it.  
• At this point I finally made it out the door: total time to get out the door, about 45 minutes. 

The ride to Buzz was, fortunately, uneventful, except for the usual looks of disbelief from the Lycranauts at the vision of someone riding in street clothes.  I ordered a dark roast coffee (admittedly, not my first of the day – yes, I have coffee before I go out for coffee rides in the morning – Hello, my name is Jesse and I'm a caffeine addict), but it was so late by this that I didn't really linger. The window to meet with my boss was closing. I snapped a pic and drank the first half cup and wrote the first paragraph of this entry, but then I grabbed my coffee and the bike and walked the block from Buzz to work. 

Coffee at Last!

I got into my office and quickly changed my pants and grabbed the black shoes I keep at work. And wouldn't you know, one of the shoelaces broke. This left me having to put on brown shoes, which, to my horror, don't match the black belt I'm wearing (yes, I know I am risk of being excommunicated from the male gender because I care about stuff like this). I headed for my manager's office, where he and I had a one minute conversation, basically to set up a time to talk later in the day. I then went back to my office where I swapped a shoe lace from one of my brown shoes so that I was able to rectify the horror of the mismatched leathers. 

  

Note 1 to self: Changes from the routine to save time don't always save time.  

Note 2 to self: Plan a more relaxed ride for my next coffeeneuring outing! 

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/741344420