Month: May 2026

May 2026

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 presidents like it when the Nats win

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.

Green thumb? Not me.

My father was a master gardener. We moved into our house in August 1960. Over the years he augmented the swampy soil with truckloads of topsoil and so much peat moss I’m surprised than one of our dogs was not named “Sphagnum”.

He grew everything. Amazing veggies. Massive spruce trees. Pin oaks. Rhododendrons. Flower out the wazoo.

Me not so much. I can kill anything with roots.

So far this year I’ve planted a hibiscus that lasted a week. Undaunted, I started a project to clean up the wreckage from a ground up maple tree stump in our front yard.

After removing all the mulch from the stump, I ordered 35 bags of topsoil and filled the gash in the lawn on April 30.

The aftermath of the stump grinding

Next I spread grass seed onto the topsoil and watered it twice a day.

So much top soil. So much seed. So much water.

On Mother’s Day I transplanted a volunteer pin oak from the back yard to the front to replace the maple.

And I watered and waited.

Now three weeks out the grass seed has barely germinated and the pin oak appears to be dying.

Grow damn you!

I’ve added some more seed, scraped the soil with a hand rake, and am hoping that three days of rain will win the day.

Maybe the rain can save this poor oak tree

In addition to moving all the stump mulch and spreading the bags of top soil, I also bought and spread 16 bags of pine bark mulch and spread them elsewhere in the yard. It goes without saying that moving all the mulch and dirt totally wrecked my back.

I am back to doing my back exercises and riding Big Nellie, my recumbent. It still hurts to walk without my cane but I’ve banging out beaucoup miles without pain.

Bike to Blood Day

Today was Bike to Work Day. It is not an official holiday but it ought to be. My bike commute back in the day was 30 miles round trip. Not surprisingly, I suppose,33 I still ride 30 miles per day. Most days I just improvise my route. On Fridays, I ride to Friday Coffee Club at Swings Coffee near the White House in DC, about 14 1/2 miles one way. I leave at 6:40 to arrive a little after 8.

Today was different. Having registered for Bike to Work Day and having picked Old Town Alexandria as my pit stop, I rode with the expectation of getting my umpteenth Bike to Work Day t-shirt. Who could turn down a free t-shirt? As I hit the road I immediately saw three other bike commuters, something that is rare. On the way to Old Town I saw two more.

Yesterday, I was doing my daily 30 miles when a helpful motorist honked his horn as he approached me from the rear on a quite neighborhood street. I yelled at him not to beep at me. “I was only trying to help,” he replied then he decided that my ingratitude deserved a lesson. He swerved in front of me and nearly forced me into a parked car before speeding away. So helpful.

On the way to Old Town today, I encountered another helpful driver. I was stopped at a stop sign waiting for car traffic to clear so I could take a left turn. A driver approaching from my left slowed and flashed his lights encouraging me to cross the road. I shook my head. Lo and behold, there was car closing on my position from the right. Had I taken the helpful advice, I would have ended up in the Mount Vernon Hospital ER pit stop. I seriously wish well meaning drivers would just drive their cars and stop “helping” bike riders.

One other digression, if you’ll abide. I am using ten-year old water bottles these days and hoped that I might pick up a new one at the pit stop. Also, I recently started wearing an old bike helmet because the fit of my newer one bothers my neck. Old helmets are better than going without but they offer diminished protection. I could surely use an upgrade.

Okay, back to Bike to Work Day.

I arrived at the Old Town pit stop just as it opened at 7:30. Tables were set up in a courtyard and along the sidewalk. I stopped to check out the goodies at each table. The first table was sponsored by the Cursio Law firm, a personal injury practice. (I wonder how many of their clients were “helped” by drivers.) They gave me a water bottle. Next to the bottles were several bike helmets. I asked somewhat sheepishly, “Are you giving these out?” “Yes. Try one on.” Sure enough the helmet I tried fit like a glove. Dang. Good morning, karma. Each helmet they give out has a sticker that says that if your helmet is damaged in an accident, they will replace it! Dang again.

My Bike to Work Day Haul

I went to other tables and picked up a multitool, three more water bottles, a blinky light, a pen, a microfiber hand towel, some coupons for smoothies, and, of course, my t-shirt.

I continued on to DC, passing Jon, a Friday Coffee Club regular, as he was riding toward Virginia on the 14th Street Bridge. This was surely a sign that Friday Coffee Club would be lightly attended. And it was. I took attendance. One. After 10 minutes Rando Ed, co-founder of Friday Coffee Club, made a brief appearance. Then I was alone again. Okay, time to head home.

A mile later, in the cycletrack on Maine Avenue, I was passed by Ashley, yet another FCC regular. She was late getting to DC undoubtedly because she went to a pit stop en route.

I crossed the Potomac to Virginia and, for the next 13 miles, enjoyed a brisk tailwind all the way home.

Bike to Work Day is a day of taking but I had something to give back. After lunch, I rode 1/2. mile to the Inova Bloodmobile parked at the hospital down the street. I donated a pint of my finest for all those unfortunate folks who take helpful guidance from well meaning drivers.

Of course, the day wouldn’t be complete without another t-shirt.

Bloody T-shirt