Hot Enough for You?

We are a couple of days into our third heat wave of the summer. It was 100 degrees or thereabouts today. Tomorrow will be, in the words (or letters) of 1970s and 1980s Boston weatherman Dick Albert, MOTS – more of the same.

It’s been so hot that everything has stopped growing. An old maple tree in our front yard has even jumped its mortal coil. Yesterday I mowed the lawn for the first time in over four weeks. This hasn’t happened in the 35 years we have lived here. Of course, it was brutally hot and humid; for the first half hour or so my heart rate was at a gallop even though I was moving very slowly. I took some breaks and drank some water and my heart rate came down from field mouse to sedentary suburban human. By the time I finished the task, my clothes were soaked in sweat. I could have gotten away with a few more days without mowing but I didn’t want to use up a lovely 90-degree day later in the week doing yard work.

Today, I took Big Nellie for a spin. I decided to stay near home and did my perimeter ride. The route takes me on suburban streets in a big circle, staying off the Mount Vernon Trail and never crossing US 1, the highway border to the west. Big Nellie dashed from the shade of one tree to the next for 33 miles. I intended to ride 40 but I ran out of water. I had planned on re-filling my water bottles at a fountain on the Mount Vernon Trail but our crackerjack National Park Service turned off the fountain. They even capped the doggy spigot. Monsters!

Like any sane person, I mostly have been staying indoors. I finished reading Amor Towles’s latest, Table for Two. It’s a collection of his short stories combined with a noir-ish novella. As with all his books, I liked it so much I was tempted to re-read it. Instead I went out and acquired a copy of Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest, which is about Charleston SC at the start of the Civil War. I’d be 100 pages into the book if not for watching way too much television.

My wife and I are dutifully watching the latest Star Wars mini-series, The Acolyte, a who-done-it. It’s better than some of the other Star Wars series (e. g., The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka) but not in the same league as the two Andor series. (Disclosure: my sister-in-law did the costume design for The Acolyte. The costumes are better than the plot.)

My daughter alerted us to the fact that the British series Sherlock is now streaming on Hulu. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead in a manner that recalls an Asperger-afflicted Mr. Spock on speed. Dr. Watson is played by Martin Freeman. (Bilbo Baggins to you Hobbit fans.) He’s nowhere near as bumbling as Nigel Bruce’s Watson. He steals many scenes with his reactions. The kicker is that Moriarty is played by Andrew Scott, who is wonderfully evil and utterly different from his Fleabag roll of the Hot Priest. (If you haven’t seen Fleabag, shame on you.)

Of course, I am also keeping track of my Washington Nationals. I went to one game a couple of weeks ago. The temperature in the stands was in the high 90s. Ugh. I have decided to wait a few weeks before returning to Half Street. Otherwise, I’ve been watching them on TV and, after signs of surprising competence, they have regressed to the mean, I’m afraid. They are a far cry from the glory days of Soto, Scherzer, Strasburg, Rendon, Turner and the rest. Fortunately, they appear to be loaded with young talent, which should start to pay dividends in the next few years. When I get bored, I check out the Orioles who are loaded with young talent and about three years ahead of Washington in their re-build.

I’ve also been poking around the interwebs for bike and music content. My two go-tos for bike touring how-tos are Bike Touring Mike and Sheelagh Daly on You Tube. For more adventurous content, you can check out Ryan van Duser. And for info about riding in the DC area and other bikey things, check out Rise and Shine Bicycling.

For music info, I’ve been watching Rick Beato and The Guitar Trooper for a while. Recently, I discovered Fathom. Beato’s lists are entertaining. (Best rock drum solos, Best bass guitar riff, etc., Best piano intro, and so forth), Fathom analyses songs, making interesting observations (And Your Bird Can Sing has guitar chord progressions that mimic a Mozart piano concerto, Who knew?) about the choices that artists make. The Guitar Trooper provides lists of trivia about songs. All three tend to focus a bit on The Beatles but they get into other bands as well. Beato apparently works with grunge and metal bands, as he seems to get off on guitar solos.

Tomorrow promises to be 102 degrees. I plan on riding. I’ll bring extra water.