It's Not Paranoia if They're Really Out to Get You

After last week's cavalcade of misery, I was looking forward to a clean start with the new week.  I saddle up the Tour Easy and headed out into a cool headwind for the jaunt to work.  Remarkably, nothing bad happened.  Not a thing. No falls. No killer pick up trucks.

At work, I called the IRS about my identity theft problem.  It took an hour, mostly of waiting on the phone to resolve. Now you may be thinking that I ripped off my employer for an hour of his time, but, as it turns out, one of my colleagues is working on identity authentification issues and she was very interested in learning about my problem and how I was going to resolve it. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for her), the whole mess was a misunderstanding.  The IRS apparently raises alarms whenever there is a social security number that is used twice on tax returns. I goofed up my daughter's return and that goof caused my return to be rejected.  The IRS was very helpful about the whole thing.  I did have to wait 20 minutes to talk to a human being but the human being I got was helpful and articulate.

So, no crashes, no killer pick ups, no identity theft. I am on a roll baby.

Big Mess at the Bottom of the Bridge to Rosslyn

Then I started for home.  I came down the hill from Rosslyn through the switchback to reach the Mount Vernon Trail.  At the bottom of the hill was a mess of gravel and stone.  If I had hit it at speed, I'd be wearing an IV right now.  I stopped and took a picture. It looks like a car traveling through the parking lot or maybe even from the Parkway slammed into the side of the bottom of the bridge.  It hit the slope of the bike path and smashed up some pavement and concrete.

Having survived that little ordeal, I sailed home with a lusty tailwind. Or maybe it was gusty. In any case I wasn't working very hard and I was covering a whole lot of ground.

South Royal Looking South towards the Wilson Bridge

Until I came to the far end of South Royal Street in Old Town Alexandria. The Mount Vernon Trail coincides with South Royal for a block or so to get under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.  Work is being done to renovate the adjacent Jones Point Park and this work occasionally closes the trail. Today, it looked like a complete blockade but the construction crew snuck in a narrow passage through the barricade.  I didn't take more pictures but this work around is pretty crappy.  There's a light post and some other utility hatch thing in the middle of the pathway.  And the transitions to and from the trail are rough.  The contractor who has been doing this work is at least consistent.  It has never done a detour without some half-assed aspect to it.  I do hope the work on the park is better than these temporary fixes.

Passage through the Barricade

The rest of the ride was literally a breeze. I nearly went off the trail down near Morningside Lane because I was looking up into the trees to see a bald eagle. I am pretty sure the Morningside nest is in use so I hope to make an eagle siting soon.   Unfortunately, in the process of looking for the eagle I nearly went off the trail.  No eagle. No crash. Knock wood.



Some how I managed to arrive home in one piece.