April Go She Will

April begins with layers and ends in shorts. All four bikes got in on the riding action. Every day brings more daylight. Baseball is back. Trip planning is in full swing. Now if it will only stop raining…

Riding

Big Nellie came out of the basement and went for a rumble or two in the open air. Little Nellie continues to delight with her new handlebar set up. In fact, for the first time in nearly five years I rode Little Nellie over 60 miles in a day with no ill effects. The CrossCheck with saddle moved slightly forward is running well.

The front shifting on The Mule was working great for a day, then it went bung. I was about to give up when I decided to take it to a bike shop near home and have another set of eyes look at it. (This is at least the fifth bike mechanic to try to fix the front shifting in the last 12 months.) A scruffy looking mechanic whom I had never seen before took it for a ride. Then he put it in the repair stand and started making adjustments. Then he took it for another ride. Then he put it back in the stand and made more adjustments. Then he took it for another ride. He returned and declared the shifting fixed. I was skeptical of course so I took it for a ride. It works! Just like it is supposed to. The mechanic suggested that the problem is likely caused by a worn tensioning spring (something my friend Rudy mentioned at a recent Friday Coffee Club) and recommended replacing the front derailleur. As Aesop the bike mechanic once said, a derailleur in hand is worth two in the bush. I’ll replace the derailleur (and probably the rear brake) in the fall.

I clocked in at 931.5 miles for the month, riding 27 of 30 days. All of my riding was outdoors. In addition to my 63-mile ride on Little Nellie, I did 52 milers on The Mule and, again, on Little Nellie.

For the year, I stand at 3,294.5 or 27.5 miles per day, nearly dead on 10,000-mile-per-year pace. It’s amazing to me that I have ridden Little Nellie 686 miles this year. When the year started I had all but given up on this bike because of the back pain it caused me. Now, it’s my favorite bike.

Viewing

Luther – The Fallen Sun. It’s been a long wait but Luther is back. I am a big fan. Idris Elba is fantastic as DCI John Luther, a cop who breaks the law while enforcing it. He doesn’t walk; he skulks. He always wears the same overcoat and the same shirt and tie, like Indian Jones and his fedora. Some shots and the overall vibe intentionally borrow from Batman. The bad guy is played to sinister perfection by Andy Serkis, in an absurd looking wig. The movie is flawed in more ways than I could count, but it is still entertaining.

The Caitlin Clark Show – I watch the last two games of the Iowa run at the NCAA women’s basketball title. Clark is a one part Steph Curry one part John Stockton. Fun to watch. South Carolina deserved to win.

The Frozen Four – I lived with the hockey team when I was a freshman at Boston University. They finished second in the NCAAs that year, losing the final game to Wisconsin. (The won it all the year before and the year after I attended BU.) The Terriers were in the Frozen Four this year but lost in the semifinal to Minnesota who seemed to be a much better team. (Minnesota lost the final to Quinnipiac ten seconds into overtime.)

Washington Nationals – I watched a bunch of games knowing full well that the Nats are going to stink this year. They are living down to my expectations but I did ride to a game and watched them make three errors then come from behind to beat Cleveland. They are a couple of sluggers, a decent starting pitcher, and a hundred games of major league experience away from being consistently competitive.

The Mandalorian – A group of armor clad people plod around the Star Wars universe. Baby Yoda is with them. There is ominous music. Mostly this series is a good sleep aid.

American Manhunt – The Boston Marathon Bombing. I lived in Boston for five years. When I moved to Providence (where I lived for five more years) I took up running. I always wanted to run Boston but I was never fast enough to meet the 2:40 minute qualifying time. The bombing hit me every bit as hard as 9/11 and January 6. I just could not fathom it. Hearing about it filled me with rage. This three-part documentary on Netflix describes how the bombers were identified and found. I can’t believe it happened only ten years ago. I suppose the pandemic twisted my perception of time.

Conversations with Friends – A miniseries based on Sally Rooney’s second novel of the same name. Very well acted. Basically a moody Irish telenovela. Lost of talk. Lots of sex (although the sex scenes aren’t nearly as overdone as in Normal People). I found two actresses distracting. The actress playing Bobbi, who is protagonist’s BFF, doesn’t look a thing like my friend Rachel but she had very similar mannerisms and vocal overtones. The actress who plays the protagonist’s Irish mum was the doppleganger of my friend Finn who is Irish. They even sound the same.

Reading

The Anthroprocene Reviewed by John Green. Green is the author of several very good young adult novels including, most notably, The Fault in Our Stars. He decided to take a break from teen lit and go back to his roots as a book reviewer, applying his reviewing chops to random aspects of modern day life. He reviews Halley’s Comet, Sunsets, CNN, the movie Harvey, velociraptors, and several dozen more topics. The reviews are informative and quirky and very entertaining. Each one is only a few pages long which makes this excellent bathroom reading. I give it five stars.