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.