Sunday, 2/27/2022

2022 mileage: 1382.9

This afternoon during my ride, I watched my all-tim favorite movie: On Golden Pond. It earns this high praise for several factors, including its casting and its plot, but paramount is the matchless, magnificent musical score by Dave Grus. It is excellent throughout, but particularly appealing are the main theme, the atmospheric music when Norman (Henry Fonda) is confused and lost while picking strawberries early in the movie, and also when Norman and Billy Ray, Jr. visit Purgatory Cove toward the end of the movie.

A special favorite of mine is the jubilant New Hampshire Hornpipe, which is playing as Billy bounces across the lake driving the Thayer IV.

This gave me a ride of 27.0 miles in 1:47.

Trailer for On Golden Pond

Saturday, 2/26/2022

2022 mileage: 1355.9

Good ride this morning! I started at 8:45, and rode while watching Titanic, which runs a bit over 3 hours, so I finished just before noon, getting in 45.9 miles in 3:08.

Trailer for Titanic

Friday, 2/25/2022

2022 mileage: 1310.0

Late this afternoon, during my ride I watched Slumdog Millionaire, the winner of the Oscar for Best Picture in 2009. It caused me some difficulty, however. Much of the movie is in Hindi, with English subtitles. However, with my badly substandard distance vision, I could rarely read the small subtitles, so much of the action and detail went over my head. But afterwards, as I frequently do following a movie, I Googled it and read the plot summary so I could know what I saw. 😄

At any rate, this enabled me to get in a ride of 30.5 miles in 1:55, and attain a new mileage milestone for the year (1300).

Trailer for Slumdog Millionaire

Thursday, 2/24/2022

 2022 mileage: 1279.5

Yesterday I could not ride, as I had a lengthy day at Firestone (8:30 - 3:15) waiting for work on our car to be completed. So I was relieved and happy to be able to get back in the groove today, riding while watching the movie The King's Speech (the 2011 winner of the Oscar for Best Picture), for a ride of 30.2 miles in 1:53.

Trailer for The King's Speech

Tuesday, 2/22/2022

 2022 mileage: 1249.3

During my ride today, I watched the 2012 winner of the Oscar for Best Picture—The Artist. However, it is a silent movie—and I don't know if it is that I am insufficiently artistic, but I found it too hard to follow, leaving me with far too many questions about who people were and the significance of what was happening. (Thank God, though, that it was not wholly silent—at least there was music.) So even though it was a movie lasting 1:40, I cut it short, and only watched the first hour, riding 15.0 miles.

Trailer for The Artist

Saturday, 2/19/2022

2022 mileage: 1203.3

Today is the birthday of my sweet granddaughter, Isabelle. While thinking of her, I rode watching the movie Moonlight (a coming of age story about a young black boy/man), and this gave me a ride of 27.7 miles in 1:57, and put me over another mileage milestone for the year (1200).

Trailer for Moonlight

Monday, 2/21/2022

2022 mileage: 1234.3

Yesterday, I decided to take a (rare) day off. During today's ride I watched a powerful movie: 12 Years a Slave, (based on a true story), which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2014. "In the years before the Civil War, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. Subjected to the cruelty of one malevolent owner, he also finds unexpected kindness from another, as he struggles continually to survive and maintain some of his dignity. Then in the 12th year of the disheartening ordeal, a chance meeting with an abolitionist from Canada changes Solomon's life forever."

This gave me a ride of 31.0 miles, in 2:07.

Trailer for 12 Years a Slave

Friday, 2/18/2022

 2022 mileage: 1175.6

This afternoon during my ride, I watched the movie Wild, which is based on the story of a woman who hikes a large portion of the Pacific Crest Trail solo over several months. This movie, recommended by my longtime friend Kevin Cain, was inspiring and invigorating, and enabled me to ride 29,0 miles in 1:55.

Trailer for Wild

Thursday, 2/17/2022

2022 mileage: 1146.6

I really enjoy movies, yet we are rarely able to go. So I got the idea to begin working myself through the winners of the Best Picture Oscar (the vast majority of which I haven't seen), and today I began with the 2018 winner, Green Book. This was an excellent production (based on a true story) about an Italian man from New York who takes a job as a driver for Dr. Donald Shirley, a top musician who goes on an extended tour through the Midwest and South. This provided me with a ride of 32.7 miles in 2:09.

Trailer for Green Book

Wednesday, 2/16/2022

2022 mileage: 1113.9

During yesterday's ride I watched the 1973 Best Picture winner, The Sting, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. However, I was unable to follow all of the intricate plot, so I cut it short and watched only the first hour of the movie. I considered picking it back up from that point, and watching the rest of the movie today.

However, upon reconsideration, I decided to restart it and watch the entire movie today, hoping that perhaps I'd better understand it today. That hope was partially fulfilled, in that I did get a better handle on it, but parts of it still sailed over my head.

At any rate, this gave me a ride of 31.9 miles in 2:09, and put me over a new mileage milestone for the year (1100).

Tuesday, 2/15/2022

2022 mileage: 1082.4

Wuth my interest piqued by yesterday's enjoyment of the Scott Joplin ragtime classic The Entertainer, today I watched the 1973 movie that features it (starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman, and which also won the Best Picture Award that year), The Sting. But the movie is a bit over two hours; today I settled for just the first hour of it, and will finish it up tomorrow. I rode an even 15 miles in this brisk hour,

Trailer for The Sting

Monday, 2/14/2022

 2022 mileage: 1067.4

This afternoon, as our cold persists (20° mid-afternoon!), I gladly climbed on the stationary bike once more. I enjoyed a virtual ride on a route whose location was not given, but it was a broad, nice road, moderately curvy and hilly, with lovely sunshine.

While I rode, I enjoyed some fun music. Recently I was pleased to read an article online about a recent NPR (National Public Radio) piece on the Scott Joplin ragtime classic The Entertainer, which was featured in the 1973 movie The Sting and led the way to a great rebirth of interest in ragtime. Here is a recording of the piece, which will be quite familiar to folks my age.

The Entertainer

The article also includes a link to a Spotify playlist of numerous versions of the song—many for keyboard, of course, but also many for strings (both bowed and plucked), woodwinds, and brass. It was great fun to experience this wide variety. Here, for instance, is a sparkling Entertainer Rag played by the virtuoso small ensemble Canadian Brass:

Canadian Brass - Entertainer Rag

And here is guitarist Chet Arkins playing it:

Chet Atkins - The Entertainer

Finally, there is this creative and challenging version by jazz pianist Jacob Koller

Jacob Koller - The Entertainer

I settled for a shorter ride than I had originally intended, doing 15.9 miles in 1:02.

Saturday, 2/12/2022

2022 mileage: 1051.5

Today I got up and got my ride underway relatively early, setting off about 7:30. I rode while watching one of my favorite musicals (My Fair Lady), but only watched the first half of it (up until intermission), for a ride of 23.3 miles in 1:42.

Friday, 2/11/2022

 2022 mileage: 1027.8

Eager tor the approaching (but still distant) baseball season, during today's ride I watched my favorite baseball movie: Field of Dreams. This gave me a ride of 25.9 miles in 1:43. And I was struck again, as I have been numerous times before, by this quotation, spoken by the character Terrence Mann (played by James Earl Jones). It can send chills up the spine of the most ardent baseball fan:

"They'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again."

Thursday, 2/10/2022

2022 mileage: 1001.9

Just Saturday, I watched the movie Into the Wild, based on the book by Jon Krakauer, during my ride. I was sufficiently taken by the story, that I got the book from the library, and am now well into it. Today, I decided I wanted to rewatch the movie, and did, giving me a ride of 33.3 miles in 2:29, and putting me over my first big mileage milestone (1000) of the year.

Wednesday, 2/9/2022

2022 mileage: 968.6

Over a decade ago, my brother John gave me the book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, a gripping account of the 1996 disaster on Mt. Everest when a storm closed in on a party of wealthy climbers led by professional guides and claimed the lives of nine of them. As People magazine puts it, the book is “A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism.” During today's ride (23.4 miles in 1:20), I watched the film based on the book.

Trailer for Into Thin Air

I have always been drawn to challenge myself physically. The year 1984 exemplified that, as I went skydiving in the spring, and then ran my first marathon in the fall. I find an appeal to the idea of climbing Everest, too -- however, after watching today's movie, I came very quickly to the conclusion that even if I somehow had all the money it would take to try such an adventure, at 65 next month I am clearly past an age where this would be feasible, to say nothing of the severely compromised breathing ability and significant balance issues I suffer since the severe 1993 accident I experienced.

Tuesday, 2/8/2022

 2022 mileage: 945.2

Yesterday I took the day off, for no particularly strong reason—I cooked us a big meal, and the effort of doing that wiped me out, so I was happy to just and relax when I got the chance. Today I was glad to get back in the groove, though, and rode 37.0 miles in 2:59 while watching The Sound of Music—only today, unlike last Thursday when I watched it and cut my ride short, at 2 hours, today I pushed myself to do the entire movie.

Sunday, 2/6/2022

  2022 mileage: 908.2

Crossed another mileage milestone for the year today (900), as I did a brisk ride of 35.2 miles in 2:29 whilewatching a very interesting (2007) movie: Into the Wild, about a young man who, after graduating from college, severs all ties to his family and to society, and sets of to live on his own, in the wild. It is based on a 1996 non-fiction book which tells the eye-opening biographical tale of an actual young man.

Trailer for Into the Wild

Saturday, 2/5/2022

 2022 mileage: 873.0

I got the day underway this morning with a brisk ride of 30.2 miles in 2:05, while watching the 2016 film Mary Poppins Returns, the long-anticipated sequel to the 1964 original, which I had watched yesterday.

Trailer for Mary Poppins Returns

Friday, 2/4/2022

2022 mileage: 842.2

This afternoon, delighted to be inside (as the high temperature here in Ann Arbor was 19°, and we still have a lot of snow impeding the surface from all that fell on us the last two days), I did a 32.1-mile ride on the stationary bike (2:18) while watching Mary Poppins.

Trailer for Mary Poppins

Thursday, 2/3/2022

2022 mileage: 810.1

This afternoon, I climbed on the stationary bike and did a brisk 2 hours even (30.6 miles) while watching the first part of The Sound of Music. (I had planned to watch the entire movie, which is about 3:15 long, but instead got itchy to move on to other projects.)

Wednesday, 2/2/2022

2022 mileage: 778.4

I kind of wimped out today -- much like our weather forecast. They were generally calling for us to get over a foot of snow, and one forecast I saw had it up to 23 indhes. However, the rain changed to snow later than they had predicted, and they have scaled back the snowfall predication considerably, as well.

I had considered trying to do a big ride of 3 hours or more, but instead settled for a single hour, riding virtually in South Africa, along the coast at Cape Town.

Virtual bike ride - Cape Town, South Africa

Tuesday, 2/1/2022

2022 mileage: 764.5

This afternoon saw another virtual ride (today in Japan), going 33.0 miles in 2:09. We sit right on the verge of a big snowstorm ... I've seen predictions of anywhere between 12 and 21 inches for Ann Arbor, and that should allow me to do a big, big ride on each of the next couple of days, since I'm sure not going to be going anywhere. So, I decided to get that stretch started off with a pretty good ride today, also.

Virtual bike ride - Japan