After taking New Year’s Day off from riding (50 mile per hour gusts just aren’t my cup of tea) I’ve been doing my best to get outside and ride. Yesterday I rode into a strong headwind to drop off some books at the Carpe Librum nonprofit bookstore in downtown DC. The ride utterly exhausted me. I always forget that riding in cold temperatures is much harder than riding in the summer. I think I get dehydrated because I tend not to drink enough water when I have a balaclava covering my mouth. Also I am wearing more layers than the kid in A Christmas Story.

During my rides I have noticed that the wildlife around here is very busy. I have seen evidence of beavers like never before. They cut down small trees and leave wee stumps that look like they’ve gone through a pencil sharpener. Today, the Friends of Dyke Marsh posted a picture of a new lodge in the marsh.

The other day The Mule and I came ripping down a hill at a bit over 30 miles per hour (did I mention that it was damned cold?) through a posh neighborhood along the GW Parkway. At the bottom there’s a chicane with a stop sign. Of course, I normally don’t look up because I routinely blow through the stop sign and swerve through the chicane. Sue me. Anyway, this one time I did look up to clear my eyes which had teared up during the descent. There to my left, high up in a mature tree in the backyard of a rather nice home, was a massive bald eagle nest. (For you locals, it’s at the corner of Park Terrace and Huntly.) When did that get there? I didn’t see any activity in the nest mostly because I was more concerned about surviving the chicane and such.

Last week I noticed that a nest near Tulane Drive on the Mount Vernon Trail in Dyke Marsh was no longer there. So I am guessing that the nest or its tree had somehow been compromised. Trees in Dyke Marsh have been succumbing to ever rising river water levels so perhaps this tree toppled. In any case, the backyard nest is approximately 200 yards west of the old Tulane nest.

This kind of nest relo happened about ten years ago a bit further north. Eagles had built a nest in a tree between the Parkway and the golf course at Belle Haven Country Club. The tree took a beating in several storms and the eagles moved about a half mile uphill into a backyard in the Belle View neighborhood. For some reason they abandoned that nest and moved to a light stanchion at the mixing bowl where Richmond Highway meets the Beltway.

Another development in local eagle real estate has happened at the nest in a tree on the trail near the intersection of Morningside Drive and the Parkway. There had long been a nest in this tree only 50 yards from the trail toward the river, but it was abandoned in recent years. The other day I was cruising north along the trail when I saw two people, one with binoculars, looking up at the tree. I craned my neck and saw the head of an eagle above the rim of the nest. Fast forward a couple of days. I was heading south along the trail and remembered to look up at the nest. To my shock, there were two nests in the tree! Multifamily housing has come to Mount Vernon. Do the authorities know?

Across the river in Oxon Hill, Maryland I recently rode past a sign warning of deer for the next 1/4 mile. I’d ridden this road scores of time but had never seen a deer. I scoffed as I followed the road 90 degrees to the right. And there, in the middle of the road, were four deer. Dang.

On the same ride, I was attacked by a dog. It was a nasty looking cur. Lucky for me it was territorial and stopped at the end of its driveway. This was one of two dog attacks in the last couple of weeks. The other was in Fort Hunt Park near home. A woman was walking her dog with her friend. They were chatting and the dog walker had dropped the leash. As I went past, the dog came after me with bad intent. I stopped and gave the dog and the walker a piece of my mind.

Back at the homestead we’ve had several interesting developments in the world of critters. Twice in two weeks, mourning doves have been evaporated on our lawn. There was nothing left but feathers. Harsh! We suspect ospreys from the nest in the light tower at the softball field down the street. Or maybe there is an owl in the woods nearby.

Raccoons come and go, often leaving their paw prints on our garbage cans.

Foxes stop by several times a week in the dead of night. They come close to the house, sometimes on our deck and make a racket. They have an eerie distinctive, deranged bark that sends shivers up your spine.

And finally we have become engaged in anti-squirrel warfare. We spend a ton of money on birdseed and other bird food. Our preferred seed is shelled and covered in red pepper. This is supposed to deter squirrels. The red pepper seed is expensive so we mix it with slightly cheaper un-peppered, shelled sunflower seeds. This mixture, and the removal of two nearby maple trees, has greatly reduced our seed loss to squirrels. Until recently.

A squirrel has figured out that if he shakes the otherwise squirrel-proof bird feeder he can loose some seeds to the ground. Our nemesis then hops down and eats his fill of the un-peppered seeds. My wife also puts out suet in a cage and some peanut butter in an artful little wooden house. The squirrel simply yanks them off the tree. The peanut butter house was recently found forty feet away. Khaaahnnnn!

I’d like to tell you more about the beasts of suburbia but I am in the process of panicking about an impending snowstorm. We had a squall the other day that featured a nasty micro burst, sideways snow, and thunder. It was good prep for the coming mayhem. We expect to get inches. INCHES! We have milk and toilet paper so no worries.

It was a big year for YouTubing (is that even a word) and catching up on old movies that I missed when they first came out.

The Big Dig – video documentary about the stupefyingly expensive project to bury Boston’s infamous Central Artery. It transformed the city but traffic still sucks.

Loki Season 2 – Another dud from Marvel

Echo – Still another dud from Marvel

Armageddon (Ricky Gervais) – Stand up comedy performance. He’s funny and often crude but has some interesting insights.

The Enemy Below – Classic black-and-white WWII movie with US skipper Robert Mitchell playing cat and mouse with a German u-boat. Ripped off by many other movies and TV shows (including Star Trek)

Barbie – Let’s just say, I’m not the target audience for this one.

Two NFL Championship games and the Super Bowl (my total football watching for the year) – I’m not the target audience for this one but the nachos were good.

Chinatown – Another classic, this one I had never seen. Damned fine movie.

The Conversation – Another classic from the 70’s that I managed to miss. Gene Hackman, the character actor’s character actor, delivers a stellar performance along side a cast of even more great character actors.

Old Boy – Super creepy Korean film from 2005. Somehow this didn’t win any Academy Awards.

The Greatest Night in Pop – Documentary about the making of We Are The World. Some singers I’d dismissed come off very well. Weirdest moment: Bob Dylan had to be trained to sing like Bob Dylan by Stevie Wonder.

The Marvels – Yet another dud by Marvel.

The Two Popes – Two popes with different philosophies talk for two hours. And it works because Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Price are wonderful.

True Detective – I watched all four seasons Seasons, but seasons one and four are the keepers. Season one has Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in an acting tour de force. Season four has Jodie Foster and Fiona Shaw and that’s all you need.

My Cousin Vinnie – Still another old film I missed when it came out. Marisa Tomei won an Oscar for a speech about muscle cars of the 1960s.

The Academy Awards – Because it’s a must

Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan’s film about the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Forces trapped on the beach at Dunkirk.

The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) – Okay, now I get it.

The Acolyte – A Star Wars dud. Good costumes, though.

Sherlock – Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Holmes and Watson with Andrew Scott (the Hot Priest) playing Moriarty in a BBC series set in modern times. Starts out strong but gets somewhat formulaic after about five episodes.

More Olympics than I ever want to see again – Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky. For hours and hours.

Hit Man – A vehicle for Glen Powell. Yeah, he’s handsome but his performance didn’t float my boat.

Monsieur Spade – Sam Spade retires to a village in France. So obviously a crime needs to be solved. Clive Owen plays Spade. I had a hard time buying into his casting. Entertaining though.

From Russia with Lev – A documentary from Rachel Maddow about a Ukrainian grifter who became a key player in Trump 1.0’s shenanigans in Kyiv. How he got within 200 miles of the president tells you all you need to know about Trump’s competence.

The Rick Rubin Interview with Rick Beato -YouTube video about the hip hop music fan who started Def Jam records from his NYU dorm room. He produced dozens of great albums by artists ranging from Run DMC to Johnny Cash.

A ton of baseball games including several at Nationals Park – The Nats were interesting until the All Star break. After that they folded like a fitted sheet.

Mat Ryder’s Trans Am Bike Tour videos on YouTube – Inspiring day-by-day account of a Welshman’s trek across the US. Coffee, beer, and Sour Patch Kids can get you a long way.

Sheelagh Daly‘s YouTube channel – Sheelagh’s first bike tour was from Scotland to Croatia. I can’t even.

Endurance – National Geographic documentary about the finding of Ernest Shackleton’s ship that was crushed by ice on a 1910s expedition to Antarctica. I’ve read two books about the failed expedition but still found this fascinating.

Mat Ryder’ Great Divide Mountain Bike tour videos on YouTube – Ryder did this before his TransAm (and after hiking the Appalachian Trail). A bit less polished than the TransAm video but entertaining nonetheless.

Beatles ’64 – Rehash of their first trip to the US using mostly film from an old documentary. Padded by outtakes from the documentary. Other than cleaned-up live performances (thanks to Peter Jackson and Giles Martin) this is not worth the time.

Aftersun – Paul Mescal blew me away in Normal People and he delivers another great performance as a clinically depressed dad on holiday with his tween daughter. Very slow paced and artsy.

Walking from Boston to New York City on the Old Post Road – A YouTube video of a man who walks the walk. Pretty interesting since I have either lived or visited much of the route. Lots of gorgeous old New England clapboard houses, stone walls, and graveyards. Also, traffic and scuzzy businesses.

The Kennedy Center Honors – My wife is a Deadhead so this was must see TV for her. I was more interested in Bonnie Raitt who deserves all the accolades they can throw her way.

All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain: A one-man tour de force in which Patrick Page takes us through the progression of villains in Shakespeare’s plays. I’ve seen Page as Iago and King Lear and was blown away by those performances. This event exceeded my already high expectations.

Conclave – A terrific movie for grown ups. Ralph Fiennes leads a splendid cast as the cardinal who runs the election of a new pope. Cardinals are not birds; they’re snakes. A very, very good movie.

I didn’t read a whole bunch in 2024 but mostly the books were worth the time.

Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnaski – Just the think to read when Spring Training seems like it will never get here.

Prequel by Rachel Maddow – The story of the German infiltration of the US Congress and the mass movement to side with Germany in the years approaching WWII.

Blood Memory by David Duncan and Ken Burns – An account of the near elimination of the American bison, known more familiarly as the buffalo. Depressing as hell but worth the time.

Eat, Poop, and Die – How Animals Make Our World by Joe Roman – The circle of life involves pooping. Lots of pooping. Surprisingly interesting science for the masses.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – I never read this before. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the life of David as he struggles to advance from nothing to prosperity in the structured society of nineteenth century England. You gotta love a book with a creepy character named Uriah Heep.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver – A reworking of Copperfield set in 1990s southwestern Virginia. Very impressive and an interesting prequel to my summer bike tour down thataway.

200 Hard New York Crosswords – The first 50 were pretty easy. By the end I was utterly defeated.

Blowout by Rachel Maddow – An account of how oil and gas interests became intertwined with geo-politics and the 2016 election.

Drift by Rachel Maddow – How Congress has ceded the authority to wage war to the White House. It touches the same themes as Michael Beschloss’s Presidents at War which I read a couple of years ago.

Over the Hills by David Lamb – A re-read of an account of a cross country bike trek by a middle aged, booze drinking, cig smoking, foreign correspondent in need of a break from his career.

How I Became Red Bike Guy by Joe Flood – My friend Joe had his 15 minutes of fame when he mocked some brown shirts on the national mall. This book covers related events and their kooky participants after their fearless leader lost the 2020 election.

Chip Wars by Chris Miller – Everything you wanted to know about the world of computer memory. It is mind boggling how everything we do, as people and as nations, is touched by incredibly sophisticated silicon chips.

Table for Two by Amor Towles – Short stories and a novella by one of my favorite authors. Just read all four of his books.

American Ramble by Neil King, Jr. – King hikes the back roads from DC to Manhattan and takes us along on a fascinating trek. Sadly, he died a few months ago.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann – Apparently white folks in Oklahoma and nearby Kansas were murderous scum who systematically killed Osage Indians for their oil rights. Astounding and true.

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane – A murder drama based in Boston during the dawn of school desegregation in the 1970s.

North Woods by Daniel Mason – This novel follows events on a plot of land in western Massachusetts from the 17th century to present day. It sounds tedious but it’s a great book.

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton – The last survivors of a world wide catclysm race to solve a murder before they are subsumed by a lethal fog. I found the plot contrived and manipulative.

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney – A nice comeback from Rooney. She still has an incredible facility with intimate dialogue.

The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto – The mostly forgotten history of New Netherland, long forgotten when the British took control of America.

The Hunter by Tana French – The follow up to French’s The Searcher, A fish out of water story of a retired Chicago cop in rural northwestern Ireland. Grifters, crosses and double crosses, and murder.

Call for the Dead by John Le Carre – Le Carre’s first book and the introduction of secret agent George Smiley. It turns out that spies in the late 1950s were frumpy middle-aged divorced men. Not an Aston-Martin in sight.

In the Woods by Tana French. Who brutally killed the little girl who lived near the woods? Does the crime have anything to do with the disappearance of two other kids 20 years before? Twists and turns and red herrings galore, a fine debut by French.

The Likeness by Tana French. The follow-up to In the Woods. Another entertaining murder mystery by French but the plot is based on an utterly implausible premise.

Bike Tripping by Tom Cuthbertson. A re-read of a book published in 1972. My how bicycling has changed in my adult lifetime!

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. A novella about a man who is encounters the evil of the Magdalen laundry in his small Irish town at Christmas time. Wonderful.

On Bicycles: A 200 Year History of Cycling in New York City by Evan Friss. This book tells the story of the wheel from the first short-lived velocipedes in 1819 to the boom in bike infrastructure and the Citibike bikeshare system in the 2010s and 2020s. A good primer for newbie bike advocates and a breezy and informative read.

Sweet new bridge on the Mount Vernon Trail. Replaces a bridge damaged by storm surge 21 years ago.

1. The Graduate (Again!): In May, my daughter graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law. At the end of the summer she moved from the Hartford area to the Westport area to begin working in a law firm. The move included a significant upgrade in her living quarters and easy access to such regional highlights as the southeastern Connecticut car sewer, trains to New York City, and Stew Leonard’s bizzarro supermarket.

2. Don’t Look Up: In April, my wife and I met up with our daughter and mother-in-law and watched the solar eclipse in Portland, Indiana, smack dab in the path of totality. My father-in-law gave us some useful maps which allowed us to avoid the massive crowds in Indianapolis and Muncie. None of us went blind.

3. The Tour de Fiasco: In May and June I made a valiant attempt at riding the eastern third of the fabled TransAmerica bicycle route. The tour involved a four-day false start (I was under the weather); I took a train home from Charlottesville. After a week of rest, I rode back to where I abandoned the tour and resumed. Highlights included staying at the Cookie Lady’s house in Afton, Virginia, hiking the Blue Ridge tunnel, riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway, having an absolute blast riding to Damascus, Virginia, and staying at The Breaks State Park on the Virginia/Kentucky border. Lowlights included impossibly steep hills (so much walking!), suspicious fatigue that came and went, and numerous dog attacks. I quit for good after being advised to buy bear spray to deal with the dogs between Hazard and Berea, Kentucky.

4. The Four Horsemen of the WABApocalypse: I rode all four of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association’s Signature Events: the Bloom Ride, the 50 States Ride, the Cider Ride, and the Ride for Your Life. Special thanks to Chris Mrstik for doing all four with me. It was my 16th 50 States Ride. I tacked on the non-WABA Great Pumpkin Ride in October.

5. Pain in the Neck: After receiving an amazing deep tissue massage in May, my chronic neck pain all but disappeared. I suspect the pain was the result of getting rear-ended by an SUV while at a stop light on Big Nellie. Normally, I take my treatments from doctors and physical therapists and end up utterly frustrated with little relief and much time and money spent. Massages I have received in the past have mostly been for relaxation. This one was different. It worked like a charm. A second massage in November was similarly helpful. Big thanks to Casey Kane who referred me to his therapist.

6. So Many Blossoms: Two highlights of July hereabouts are the sunflower bloom at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area and the lotus and water lily bloom at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. I did one ride to the former and multiple rides to the latter. And the annual cherry blossom bloom didn’t disappoint either. Once again the Kenmore neighborhood of Bethesda outdid the trees in East and West Potomac Parks. Alas, Stumpy died a hero as the National Park Service started a major reconstruction of the Tidal Basin area.

7. Next to Last: As is usually the case, I watched a ton of baseball games this year. I rode to Nationals Park several times. The team showed promise until July when they bought up their minor league “stars”, mostly acquired in trades of elite players who were about to become prohibitively expensive. The last two months were ugly. The postseason featured many of these former Nationals, a couple of whom were on the World Series winners, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

8. Wikked Wedding: In October my wife and I drove to the North Shore of Massachusetts to attend my nephew Kevin’s wedding. We bounced between Beverly, Swampscott, Salem, and Marblehead. Damned pretty country. It was the first time that all my five surviving siblings and I were together since 2001.

9. Hell, the Fall Will Probably Kill You: We had 38 consecutive days without rainfall this autumn. And unseasonably warm temperatures to boot. This event was just one of several climactic oddities this year including multiple heat waves over the summer and nearly no snow during the winter. The climate here in DC is basically the same as North Carolina in the 1980s. It’s like we moved south without renting a U-Haul.

10. The Tank Reborn: In March, I all but gave up on The Tank, my Surly CrossCheck. The gearing was too aggressive and the ride was just unpleasant, exacerbating my neck pain. I had mentioned changing the gearing to a couple of bike mechanics over the years but they told me it couldn’t be done. During its annual physical last spring, Dr. Beth at Bikes at Vienna said pshaw! to all that and suggested changes to the bike’s drivetrain that gave it considerably lower (easier to pedal) gearing. It was a vast improvement. Next, I put lighter tires on. In the fall, I decided to switch from toe clips and straps to Lambda platform pedals. After a few minor adjustments to my saddle position and handlebar height, I found that the pedals really work great, especially with my cold-weather footwear. Instead of mothballing or selling the bike, it has become my go-to for local rides. At the end of the year, I sprung for some Catalyst platform pedals for The Mule, my Specialized Sequoia touring bike, after Bikes at Vienna’s Tim Fricker gave them his enthusiastic thumbs up. After a few tweaks to my saddle position, I found them to be the bomb.

And as always it goes to 11:

11. Trigger Finger: I developed a weird physical problem called trigger finger. The middle finger on my right hand involuntarily bent palmward and froze in a claw-like orientation. I would have to use my left hand to pop it back to attention. Gross! Worse, the condition made signalling my dissatisfaction with drivers problematic. I went to a hand surgeon who gave me a cortisone shot and diagnosed me with carpal tunnel syndrome and cervical radiculopathy (in plain English, a pinched nerve in my upper spine). I discovered some easy exercises in December that have greatly improved the nerve problem.