March Madness

The weather finally took a turn for the better and I found myself riding 16 days in a row, mostly outdoors. I used the rides as a last attempt to get the CrossCheck set up to my liking. For eight months (since last July) I rode it only 108 miles, because my neck and upper back simply couldn’t tolerate it. I took measurements of The Mule, my trusty, fits-like-a-glove, steed, and tweaked the saddle position on the CrossCheck so that all the dimensions exactly matched The Mule. Or so I thought. I put the bikes side-by-side and noticed the handlebars on The Mule were rotated slightly backward but the bars on the CrossCheck were level. I rotated the CrossCheck’s bars. This seemed to help but the new position made it a bit awkward to squeeze the brake levers. I ordered a new stem in the hopes of fixing this issue. If it doesn’t work, I’ll surrender and donate the bike.

I shouldn’t complain after dealing with brutal winter weather, and riding indoors, for most of February. It was so warm the last couple of days that I could wear shorts and a t-shirt. Not having long pants and upper body layers makes a world of difference. Ahh. For a couple of days the thermometer broke 80 degrees F, setting back-to-back high temperature records. It was humid, too. So much so that Mrs. Rootchopper turned on the air conditioning at home. When I walked past the AC unit on my way into the house, I heard an unfamiliar SNAP! It turns out the cool air coming out of the vents in the house was recycled from the cooler days before the heat bump, the AC unit was not working. So, Mrs. R. called the AC repairman to check things out today. Then this happened…

For some strange reason the repairman called to reschedule.

With the weather gone bung and dead legs, I spent most of my day in the basement shredding old tax documents. I have been meaning to do this for a long time. Lawyer Mike at Friday Coffee Club last week reminded me that any tax document older than seven years serves no purpose. My tax files went back, believe it or not, to 1979! I overheated my shredder multiple times.

The shredfest was one of the items on my To Do list for March. I have gotten into the habit of putting a monthly to do list on my phone. It helps if the items on the list are easy to do. For example, in February my do the income taxes task was broken down into download software, data entry, review return line by line, file return, calculate estimated taxes for 2026. I completed 15 of 16 tasks in February. March has 18 tasks. I’ve completed eight so far. I’ve started three others. I also add tasks as the need arises. (I generally don’t include recurring things on the list like Friday Coffee Club, lift weights, go for a bike ride.)

Baseball is back. I am enjoying the World Baseball Classic, a tournament of players from 16 countries. It’s what the All Star Game should be but isn’t. Opening day is about six weeks away.

I have not been reading about the Washington Nationals this spring because the Washington Post fired its sports reporters (and photographers and most of its other reporters). I loved shopping at small bookstores but many of my favorites closed because of competition from Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.com. So why not wreck another one of my favorite things, Mr. Bezos? So far this spring there have been zero articles about the Nationals and only one spring training box score. Basically, the Post is a little more than a conduit for the wire services. Sorry, Jeff, we’re cancelling our subscription.

I’ll finish with a note of thanks to reader and former Friday Coffee Clubber John Fisher. John moved to California and recently has been cleaning out his box of unused bike stuff. He found an old Light and Motion integrated headlight and taillight. He sent it to me out of the blue. What a super nice thing to do, John. As for the rest of you readers, you can surprise me with cold hard cash. On the advice of Lucy van Pelt, I take tens and twenties.