Today was positively beautiful and just right for a long bike ride, but I spent most of the day inside, helping judge for Maryland History Day before falling asleep for a once-in-a-blue-moon afternoon nap, which clearly I needed. Fortunately, the days just keep on getting longer, so there was still plenty of time to sneak in a ride, which I did, down the hill to Harbor East to pick up a pair of padded bike shorts. Yep, it is time, methinks, to acknowledge that tomorrow’s 80 mile training ride just might be better made in gear rather than the ol’ skirt and a tank top get up I’m used to. And then I was riding around the Inner Harbor toward Federal Hill to A.’s house for a party. Good weather means a whole lot more people using the shared path, and pedestrians seem largely oblivious to the idea that bikes might be there too. I used my super-outside voice to gently encourage groups to make way for ducklings, but to no avail. The same problem plagued my ride back, even as the crowd had largely dispersed. I stopped to snap this picture of one attempt at a solution–a reminder painted on the road to encourage sharing. These were put there by Bike Blaze Guy who takes matters into his own hands when it comes to marking our trails for ease and safety. I have seen him at work–he doesn’t appear to ask for permission, but instead just dresses the part with his safety vests, brings his safety cones, and goes to work. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Here’s hoping some pedestrians look alive, or it is going to be an awfully long summer.