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 move 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 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 when 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.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 