Watching

The Odyssey – Christopher Nolan’s latest epic. The sound quality was not up to snuff. Many of the actor’s lines were lost in the background sound. As a whole, the movie was fine and included surprisingly good performances by Tom Holland, Elliot Page, Matt Damon, and Anne Hathaway. I was disappointed that the Cyclops didn’t descend into a steamer trunk. (IYKYK.) A good movie for a rainy day, but I could have done without the pre-show half-hour of commercials and trailers of movies I have no interest in.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day – A mediocre installment of the Spider-Man saga. Tom Holland is now too old and too beefy for the title role. I think his physical training for The Odyssey is to blame for the muscle. Speaking of too old, Mark Ruffalo is a bit long in the tooth to be playing The Hulk’s alter ego Bruce Banner. I’ve never seen Sadie Sink before and she was quite good.

Reading

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Like The Virginian, this novel is one that I have been meaning to read for many years. It is the story of Frankie Nolan’s life growing up as young Irish Catholic girl in the slums of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. In amazing detail, Smith describes the hardscrabble urban life of the early 20th century. This book deservedly is regarded as an American classic.

Riding

Every summer one month seems like a dud and this August was the one. I eked out 870 miles, riding 27 days out of 31. My longest ride was 44 1/2 miles which was split among riding to a protest in DC, to lunch on Capitol Hill, to a Nats game (they won in 10 innings), and then to home through clouds of midges in the twilight along the Potomac River The Mule won the mileage trophy at 653 miles as I crept toward another 1,000-mile milestone. “Crept” being the operative word.

My year-to-date total is 6,884 which is quite a lot considering I haven’t gone anywhere. I am on pace for a 10,340-miile year, just a tad off last year’s pace.

Medical/Physical

As happens every year (until I die), my odometer clicked over another year. I am 71 and I sure feel like it. This fall’s event rides are going to be quite challenging, I am afraid. Early in the month I managed to shatter the notion that I might have prostate cancer by acing my latest PSA test. My PSA level came in below 4.0 which prompted my urologist to say, “You don’t need to see me again.”

Near the end of the month I nearly fell down the stairs when my left knee seemingly imploded. An hour later all was calm. I blame the episode on wearing Hoka shoes for a couple of days; they have a bizarre amount of cushioning that my back appreciates. A couple of days ago my left hip and knee went all wonky on the last leg of my 44 1/2-mile ride. This occurred a few days after I adjusted my saddle height to spare my neck from pain. These episodes remind me of my running days when seemingly every week some part of my anatomy protested.

And to add to the medical mess, I came down with a nasty cold for the last week of the month. It was my first cold in recent memory. Oddly, bike riding made me feel better. Go figure.

Family Fun

In July my son Eamonn and his Thai girlfriend Anne came to visit from Phuket. They spent several days with friends in New York City, Philadelphia, and DC before hanging out with Mom and Dad, with a brief visit from our daughter Lily who drove down from Connecticut. Anne had a wish list that included several trips to DC to see the sights. These were mostly flops because it was oppressively hot and humid.

The three of us attended a Nationals game where it was oppressively hot and humid, so much so that the dye in my brand new, red Nationals t-shirt bled all over my favorite shorts. At least the beer was cold.

One day we drove out to rural Virginia. We stopped in Linden to have the best diner breakfast I have had in many moons at The Apple House. They are famous for their awesome cider donuts (true) but everything else was yummy. Next we drove up Skyline Drive into Shenandoah National Park. The weather was perfect for taking in views of the Piedmont and the Shenandoah Valley. Anne had hoped to see a white-tailed deer and was treated to a close encounter with a young one as it walked slowly past her at one of the pullouts. Our next stop was Luray Caverns which is always fun and refreshingly cool. Then we stopped for food at a typical family restaurant in NewMarket before driving home.

In addition to being a master tourist, Anne is an elite shopper, Instagram black belt, and master chef (she cooked us bona fide Thai food one night and made awesome guacamole another). Being a former au pair, she was the best house guest we’ve ever had. She left a few days early to spend some time in Los Angeles with her former au pair family. My son stayed behind and chilled before taking his 15-hour flight to meet Anne in Taipei.

Autumn Approaches

The days are now noticeably shorter; I used lights for the first time since May to ride to Friday Coffee Club last week. September brings yard work, vaccinations (flu and Covid), a blood donation, and the 50 States Ride. Bring it on, all of it.

I normally have one month in the summer where my riding takes a back seat to other doings. This year was August’s turn.

Summer’s Almost Gone: For the last several days the weather hereabouts has been sublime. 80s F. Low humidity. Gentle breezes. Every year I become so used to stifling heat and humidity that I forget when the weather starts to break. The skies do give us a gentle reminder; sunrise and sunset are starting to converge incrementally. I’ll miss my 15 hours of daylight. Soon I’ll need a vest and lights to ride to Friday Coffee Club. Sad face.

Mother Nature’s Fireworks: We’ve had several very entertaining thunderstorms this month. I didn’t see much in the way of storm damage except for one tree that fell across a road in Fort Hunt Park.

Down for the Count: Despite the splendid weather I took today off from riding. A zero day in Appalachian Trail lingo. My wife has been sick for about a week with a nasty cough and general fatigue, your basic summer cold. I came down with it a couple of days ago but soldiered on, riding and going to the gym and doing yard work. Nyquil seems to work well but the day after I take it I have brain fog. So last night I went without. Despite being exhausted at 11 pm, I could not fall asleep. (I also was treated to muscle cramps in my calves. We’re having fun now!)

I noticed two rather disturbing symptoms as I tossed and turned. The vision from my left eye – the one I had a retinal detachment in years ago – was cloudy. Worse, I could not inhale. Dang. I figured the left eye thing was probably related to my clogged sinuses. The breath problem had do do with drainage into my lungs. I forced myself to cough and my airways became unplugged. I took one Nyquil and within a half hour my vision returned to normal. I crashed hard on the couch. I woke up and decided that The Mule will just have to gather dust for a day.

A Devine Task: Over the last three days I have been clearing vines and other obnoxious vegetation encroaching on the perimeter garden in my backyard. I managed to fill the equivalent of five 30-gallon barrels of debris. Aside from the fact that my lower legs were covered in small black insects (mosquitos, not ticks) it was a rather satisfying endeavor. I have another round of clearing but it will wait until next week.

It’s Been Good Knowing You, Doc: I went to my urologist last week to discuss my remarkable PSA test results. He agreed that I don’t need to come back. I’ll have another test when I have a physical in November. I’ll prep for that by switching my rides to Big Nellie, my recumbent bike. I mentioned my recumbent cure to an male acquaintance. He told me that some time ago he and his wife were having trouble conceiving. He was riding a Peloton bike several times a week. His fertility doctor told him to stop riding to see if that would make a difference. Sure enough, they conceived shortly after he stopped riding.

Baseball Fashion: My son and his girlfriend came to visit from Thailand where they are both school teachers. While they were here, we went to a Nationals game on a typically hazy, hot, and humid day. We all wore brand new red Nationals shirts. I baked in the heat while the two of them went scouting for vittles and grog. At the end of the game I stood up to discover that the red dye in my new shirt had bled all over my shorts. Fortunately, fans were given aloha shirts and shorts upon entering the park. They aren’t really something I’d want to wear in public but they make for absolutely awesome pajamas.

Country Roads, Take Me Home: On another zero day, my wife and I took my son and his girlfriend out yonder to check out the Virginia countryside. We stopped at The Apple House in Linden, Virginia on the approach to the Blue Ridge. They has amazing apple cider donuts and the food topped any diner food I’ve ever had. We next proceeded to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. I don’t think I’ve even been on it despite having lived here for over 40 years. The weather cooperated and we had a great time checking out the views of the Piedmont and the Shenandoah Valley. My son’s girlfriend had wanted to see a white tail deer and, sure enough, one came along the road while we were stopped at a pullout. The deer even walked right past her along the road before scurrying into the woods. After Skyline Drive we drove to Luray to check out the caverns there. They were cool, in every sense of the word. Our final stop was a family restaurant in the Shenandoah Valley town of New Market. We could sense the “they’re-not-from-around-here” sideways glances as we took our seats. We finished our excursion by taking country roads back to the exurbs of DC.