Watching

Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2 – The final two episodes of this series includes gun violence, insane fight sequences, and a courtroom scene in which, in the tradition of A Few Good Men and The Caine Mutiny, the bad guy’s hubris does himself in. Also, the hero uses his Catholic faith to persuade the bad guy to surrender. The entire series is characterized by good people turning bad and bad people redeeming themselves. Not your typical comic book show.

Off the Chain by Pahrnia Parsons. This is a video series of her trip with her boyfriend Henry from Ushuaia at the southern most point of South America to Mexico City. It is a work in progress. The tour is orders of magnitude harder than anything I’ve done. Parhnia is not an experienced bicycle tourist so it was a leap of faith to take on this journey with her boyfriend. The difficulties are obvious. Incredible winds, snow, hail, numerous crashes, illness. Suspiciously, she seems to have enough clothing to outfit a fitness shop. Regardless, the trek is truly epic. I look forward to her new posts in the future.

Washington Nationals – I went to my two games and watched nearly all the rest on TV. The team faced a brutal schedule with 17 games without a day off followed by 16 games without a rest. And they played some of the best team in baseball. They won 16 and lost 12. I expected them to stink and be unwatchable (just like the last 4 years) but instead they are competitive and showing signs of real progress. Alas, the dog days of summer will expose their shortcomings but I don’t expect them to be cringeworthy. Progress.

The Land of Hopes and Dreams – Bruce Springsteen at Nationals Park. I’d never seen The Boss before which seems like a ludicrous oversight given the fact that my mother’s side of the family hails from Freehold, NJ. I am not the biggest fan, but I know his reputation for putting on a bona fide rock and roll show. He did not disappoint. He played for 3 hours which is not half bad for a 76 year old. Yes, he’s lost some of his physicality on stage but his passion for his music and his country haven’t faded one wit.

Reading

Home Stretch by Graham Norton. My fourth Norton novel of the year. A young man admits to driving a car that kills three and disables a fourth passenger in his small Irish hometown. The man becomes a pariah and leaves home for decades, breaking contact with his family in the process. The facts are not what they seem and his being gay in small town Ireland in the 1980s propels the plot in unexpected ways. My only issue with the story is an improbable twist, not unlike one in The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. Still, the book is well worth the reading.

Forever Home by Graham Norton. My last Norton novel. Carol’s older, romantic partner, Declan, develops dementia and is put in a home. His children, who are estranged from Carol, sell the man’s home where Carol had lived with Declan for many years. Carol’s parents secretly purchase the home. The home contains a horrible secret, a dead body in a freezer. The second half of the book pivots on the decision not to report the body to the police. Sadly, Norton passed on the opportunity to turn this into a comedic story in the style of Richard Osman but played it straight instead. Not his best work.

Riding

Cue the Gene Autry because I’m back in the saddle again. I took one zero day and one “nearo” day (ten miles), but otherwise I rocked and rolled. 70, 51, 50, 45, 42, 40, 40, 40, and 40 were the longer rides with the rest between 30 and 40 miles. Having successfully tweaked The Tank, my Surly CrossCheck, I managed to cross the 34,000-mile threshold on it while riding 367 miles in May. I hauled Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent out of the basement and rode it 394 miles, passing 55,000 miles on the odometer in the process. The Mule accounted for another 292 miles. In total I rode 1,054 miles, the most since June of 2024. For the year I’ve ridden 4,013 miles, on a pace for 9,700 miles for the year. (Slacker!)

Also, without missing a day of riding, I snuck in a blood donation.

Reading

Meditations from the Breakdown Lane: Running Across America by James E. Shapiro. The author recounts his run from Dillon Beach, California (north of San Francisco) to New York City in 1980. This is a re-read. It’s my favorite book title. As you might expect, Shapiro encountered physical (muscle cramps and atrophy, and a debilitating infection in his ankle), mental (monkey mind out the wazoo), and pre-cellphone logistical challenges (at one point he rented a car to place caches of food and water along his route out west). Having since ridden across the country three times, I appreciated this book in a different way from when I first read it 42 years ago. You know you’re tired when you start doing the math in your head. If you think about the totality of the day or, god forbid, the entire distance, you’ll break your brain. Shapiro refers to himself as a “journey runner”. I like the ring of that.

A Keeper by Graham Norton. My third novel this year by Irish talk show host Norton. Another wonderful book set in small town, rural Ireland. Elizabeth goes to Ireland to deal with the affairs of her late mother. Her life, her identity, goes off the rails as she learns the circumstances of her birth. As with his first novel, Frankie, and his most recent, Holding, Norton drew me into his fictional world page after page. I have two more of his novels to go and am very much looking forward to them.

Watching

DareDevil Born Again, Season 2 – When I was a kid, I bought the very first DareDevil comic, so I have bragging rights. This Marvel series is very violent, much more so than the Marvel movies. People are shot at point blank range, thrown off buildings and go “THUD”, get shards of glass stuck in their heads, and have their head crushed. The mayor of New York, played by Vincent D’Onofrio, is a Trump-like character who turns the city into a police state for his own financial gain. Blind Hell’s Kitchen attorney Matt Murdock does what he can to oppose the mayor’s fascist rule, both as DareDevil and as a skilled lawyer. Like all good heroes, he operates by a code of personal honor, in this case informed by his Catholic faith. Charlie Cox as Murdock/DareDevil and D’Onofrio are excellent. The supporting cast is also outstanding. One more episode to go.

The Washington Nationals: I haven’t been to a game yet, but from seeing them on TV this is a team destined for mediocrity. They are a couple of top-tier pitchers, an elite catcher, and one more big bat from being playoff worthy. With appropriate expectations, I expect to enjoy this team for the next several months.

Riding

Because of a wedding in Wilmington, NC and a funeral in Albany, NY I put far more miles on cars than I did my bike. I managed to squeeze in 656 miles in 22 days of riding. The Mule did the lion’s share, clocking in at 364 miles. The Tank (my CrossCheck) contributed 258 miles. Little Nellie made a couple of guest appearances at 34 miles. Big Nellie is gathering dust in the basement and will be freed to roam the roads in a matter of days.

Another reason for my low mileage was a yard project. I had a weed tree removed from the front yard. After the stump was ground, I excavated the chipped wood and used it as mulch in the back yard. Today, 36 bags of top soil were delivered. The driver placed the bags around the perimeter of the stump hole. All I had to do was cut them open, spread the dirt, and tamp it down. I planted grass seed and now I will water and wait.

For the year, I stand at 2,958 miles. I am on pace for 9,000 miles. Since I have non-biking events in late May, June, and July, it appears I will not be doing a long tour this year.

For the last ten or 15 years we’ve had a silver maple tree growing next to our driveway. My daughter calls it our weed tree; we didn’t plant it. From past experience we know that the surface roots of silver maples eventually take over your entire yard. They can also destroy your walkways, sidewalks, and driveway. I spent most of a summer about 25 years ago removing the surface roots of a much larger silver maple in our backyard. My kids were giving out online name for our AOL mail and dubbed me Rootchopper.

Last year I hired a lawn service and after a year the lawn looks terrific, except for the maple roots. Before any more damage happens, we hired our tree guy to take the weed tree down. Using a chain saw attached to a long pole, he had the tree down to a stump in less than 20 minutes. His crew cut up most of the stump before using a stump grinder to take care of the rest. This left a big pile of maple bark mulch where the tree once stood.

Over the last three days I’ve been digging out the mulch and pitching it in the gardens around the perimeter of our back yard. This took about five hours. The weather cooperated, sort of. Temperatures were about 20 degrees F higher than normal.

The next step is to fill the gash in the lawn with topsoil, and plant grass. I hate taking trees down. To make amends to the tree gods, we are going to plant a pin oak tree that will, someday in the 2030s, provide shade to the south facing side of the front of our home. We have a volunteer pin oak in the perimeter garden that just might fill the bill. It’s about three years old which means in a year or two it will be 10 or 15 feet tall.

As much of a hassle as this project has been, the warm weather means I will be done with most of the early summer yard work before the start of summer.

Watching

The TransAmerica Bike Route – The Full Movie by Mat Ryder. A condensed video (albeit three hours long) of the long series of Mat’s epic ride from coast to coast.

Washington Nationals Baseball – On the eve of Game 1 of the season, my cable provided announced that it will be carrying Nats games again. They’ve won 3 of their first 4 games but I have faith that they will lose at least 100 games this season.

Reading

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. The story of the life-long friendship of Sam and Sadie, two video game developers. Sounds boring but it made best sellers lists for months for good reason. In an odd way, it reminded me of Normal People. Zevin really makes you care about these two, as well as their friends, lovers, family members, and business associates. In video games, you die until you re-start the game. Real life not so much.

The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty. The story of Smithy Ide, a middle-aged, obese drunkard who decides to ride his bike from East Providence RI to Los Angeles to claim the remains of his beloved, mentally ill sister. McLarty was a character actor back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. This is his debut novel that I first read in 2006. It’s quite good but extraordinarily depressing.

The Birth of the Erie Canal by Harvey Chalmers II. This is a brief history of the various concepts that evolved into the Erie Canal, the early 19th century moon shot that transformed the economies of New York and the rest of the United States and Canada. The original idea was to connect central New York to the Hudson River and Lake Ontario by cleaning up rivers and creeks. This idea would have limited cargo volume because the canal boats called bateaux would have had to be small enough to navigate the shallow waters. Eventually Gouverneur Morris promoted the concept of a waterway that would travel down an “inclined plane” from Lake Erie to the Hudson. Ultimately this was rejected for a level waterway with lift locks. The political pushing and pulling went on for over 25 years. Although the book was published in 1960 (when I was in Kindergarten), the author autographed my copy: “To John, I hope you enjoy the book.” I have no recollection of meeting him and wonder if “John” might be one of my upstate New York cousins.

How the Irish Built the Erie by Harvey Chalmers II. This 1964 history of the construction of the canal follows the efforts of Irishman J. J. McShane, the primary contractor tasked with building the canal. McShane with the significant help of his right hand, Pippa Post, used mostly Irish convicts from New York City as laborers on the project. The story is bogged down by detailed descriptions of various engineering methods, many improvised, to overcome the swamps and rocky hills that the canal traversed. Bitterly cold and snowy winters and malarial swamps made for additional challenges. Chalmers is a champion of Post, who earned the respect of the all-male workers with her multiple talents from cooking, providing makeshift shelters, supervising, and skill with two long knives she kept in scabbards under each arm to keep the workers in line.

Riding

I fell just short of 900 miles for the month reaching 889 miles on the last day. My longest ride, 52 miles. was to and from the Kenwood neighborhood of Bethesda, Maryland where I viewed cherry blossoms that were truly amazing. Last March I did several longer rides in preparation for my tour of the Natchez Trace. This year’s 52-miler damned near did me in.

My bikes took me some interesting places this month. On one day I ride to Capitol Hill to participate in a ride to protest the threatened removal of a cycletrack near the Washington Monument. The next day I rode back to the Hill to check out the purported best Italian sub in the area. It did not disappoint.

I rode 363 miles on my CrossCheck, hoping to convince my body that this bike should remain in my stable. I have a new stem on order and if that doesn’t help with my various aches and pains, this bike will be donated to charity. The remaining 367 miles this month came on my trusty Mule. For the year, I have managed to ride 2,302 miles, a little over 100 miles less than last year.

The highlight of the month was the emergence of blooms and flowers. Cherry trees, weeping cherries, crocuses, daffodils, tulips, eastern red buds, forsythia. DC puts on quite a show in the springtime.

I rode my CrossCheck today to Long Bridge Park, located about 12 miles north of home. Long Bridge Park is situated aside the main rail line that crosses the Potomac River to link DC with points south. The rail crossing currently is being expanded which will eliminate a major pinch point for Amtrak, commuter rail, and freight traffic. Next to the new Long Rail Bridge will be a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge.

This morning I saw a picture of a line of cherry trees in bloom in the park on social media so naturally I had to go see it for myself. I arrived to see that none of the trees in question were in bloom. The Internet lied! (Who knew?) I continued past the trees to the northern end of the park where I saw something unexpected.

The construction crew had taken down all the trees on the north end of the park that had obscured the view of the river crossing. The new rail line will leave the park, cross the George Washington Parkway and the Potomac River before land fall in East Potomac Park on the DC side.

I turned for home and rode back south and picked up the Mount Vernon Trail at the southern end of Old Town Alexandria. The path lies immediately between the Parkway and the Potomac. I noticed on the grass between the trail and highway a large black shard of plastic autobody. I didn’t give it a second thought until I passed another large dark object in the grass. It was a huge beaver. Judging from the condition of the carcass and the small number of flies lighting it, I guessed the poor critter had been dead only a half hour or so. Apparently, the beaver had been hit by a black car while crossing the Parkway. Dan