On Saturday a group of my cycling friends decided to stay flat and local with a 50+ mile loop from Lodi to Thornton and Galt. The weather was perfect, cool but not frigid, and sunny with almost no wind. Everyone was relaxed and enjoying the day and the company instead of hammering up some hills on the official Club ride.

We don’t normally ride on Harney Lane east of Lodi. It is narrow, with a fair amount of high speed traffic. There are better east/west roads, such as Armstrong Road, Live Oak Road, and even Eight Mile Road which has traffic but also has a shoulder. But there is one short stretch of Harney Lane that we do ride. Curry Road is a delightful and very quiet road that runs north/south, but at Harney Lane it makes a little jog, so we have to ride on Harney for about 100 yards or so. It is normally pretty safe. We just wait to let any traffic clear, then use the gap to continue on Curry.

We were doing just that on Saturday. There were 11 of us at the intersection of Harney and Curry, pointing our bikes north. We were waiting to turn left on Harney and then make a quick right back on to Curry. Rider #1 saw what he/she thought was a big gap and turned onto Harney. Rider #1 had not reckoned on an SUV barreling along at 70+ mph in a 55 mph zone. Rider #1 also did not expect this speeding vehicle to give him about 14 inches of clearance instead of the legally mandated 3 feet.

Dear Reader, you may notice that I am not naming names or genders here. That is because I wasn’t an eye witness to everything, and even what I saw may be mis-remembered.

Rider #1 took umbrage at the dangerous vehicular behavior and made his/her feelings known with a gesture. None of the rest of us saw this because we were still waiting back at the intersection. Then Rider #1 turned onto Curry and soon the rest of us followed.

As we rode north on Curry I was the last rider, and suddenly I see an SUV in my mirror roaring towards me and I hear yelling and screaming. I’m as far to the right as I can be, and the SUV leaves the pavement onto the dirt vineyard headland and pulls next to me ON MY RIGHT! The driver’s window is down and he is screaming at me to “Get the F… off the road!”

I moved to the left side of the road and stopped off the pavement. The driver got out and continued yelling and screaming the same message. He didn’t approach me although he looked ready to beat me up. I tried to keep calm and quiet.

Riders #1, 2, 3 and 4 stopped just ahead and came back. The SUV driver was obviously angry at all of us but especially with Rider #1. There was a confrontation. Riders pulled out cell phones. I tried to take a video but my winter gloves let me down. I’m still standing relatively out of harm’s way and I didn’t get any closer to the potential fistfight, or worse. Call me prudent for trying not to escalate things. Call me a coward for not jumping to the defense of my friends. I’m not sure myself.

Rider #2 put his cell phone a bit too close for the driver’s liking, so he knocked it to the ground. Rider #2, normally a very calm individual, kind of threw what looked like a punch, or maybe a slap. Rider #3, showed the pepper spray that he/she keeps to deal with dogs, and the driver returned to the cab and pulled out a much bigger pepper spray. The SUV passenger got out and joined the proceedings. Rider #4, the smallest of us, got right in there close.

No actual blows were thrown, no one got pepper sprayed, or shot, which seemed a possibility for a time. Eventually the SUV sped off with the driver cursing at us the entire time. One thing the driver kept saying is that we were too f…ing old to be f,,,ing riding bikes on the f…ing road, you mf…ers. His vocabulary was limited so he had to use the same word quite a lot.

Rider #3 called the CHP, and after a short wait a very nice officer arrived. He told us that since no one was hurt, and since he didn’t observe any moving violations, he could not issue any citations. He said we could file a report, but that it would land at the DA’s office and again, since no one was hurt, they would sit on it for a year and then purge it from their system. He seemed reluctant to go through all the paperwork.

We did take down the license number, and the CHP officer ran the plates. Guess what? The vehicle was registered to an address in Valley Springs! Why am I not surprised?

Between my blood thinners making any fall potentially more serious, and the possibility of being a target for foothill rednecks who detest my mere presence on ‘their’ pavement, I’m wondering whether road cycling is worth the risk. I love riding my bike but I don’t like bleeding or bar fights in cycling shoes. Time to Zwift? Got to keep in shape for France next May where I cannot imagine anything like this happening.

Way back in December 2014 I woke up one morning with a very strange tingling sensation in my chest and I felt a little light headed. I took my blood pressure with our home monitor and discovered my pulse was over 100 beats per minute (bpm). That is about double what my normal resting pulse rate is.

I didn’t have any chest pain, so I skipped the ER, which probably wasn’t so smart. I was hoping it was just an ‘overtraining’ response from the long hard ride I had done the day before. Sometimes resting heart rates will be elevated if you have been riding a lot, although the increase is usually only 10 bpm, not 50.

I called my family doctor and he agreed to see me that afternoon. He listened to my heart for about 3 seconds, then started slapping leads and wires to my chest STAT! He wanted to get an EKG right away. I was in Atrial fibrillation (AFib). This was the first time I had ever heard of the condition.

Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm. An irregular heart rhythm is called an arrhythmia. AFib can lead to blood clots in the heart. The condition also increases the risk of stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications.

I started on a the blood thinner Xarelto right away. This was well before I reached the health care haven of Medicare, so there was real sticker shock. I also had a referral to a cardiologist and an echocardiogram.

The very next morning I woke up and the weird sensation and light headedness were gone. I felt fine and knew my pulse was normal. I slapped on my heart rate monitor and sure enough, 52 bpm.

The AFib never came back. I saw the cardiologist a couple of times and did a lot of research on my own. There is plenty of information out there. But the best source of help turned out to be a GI doctor (and fellow cyclist) at UC Davis. I see him about once a year. The reason will make another entertaining blog someday. An STD without the S…

It turns out he had experienced a one time AFib incident too. His happened on a bike ride. He had to stop and get someone to take him home. His AFib also went away quickly and didn’t come back. He took Xarelto for a couple of months, then decided to stop since there hadn’t been a recurrence.

He also told me about Kardia. This is before Apple Watches and other health monitoring devices became so common. Kardia works with your cell phone to take a medical grade 2-lead EKG anytime, anywhere. Strange my cardiologist had never even heard of the device when I showed him mine at my next appointment.

I have taken hundreds of home EKGs since my 2014 incident. For a while I carried my Kardia on bike rides in my jersey pocket, and would take EKGs at the coffee stops.I even did one on a climb up Mont Ventoux, just for grins. All of those EKGs have all been normal. Until October 17….

My nut counting job was at its busiest on October 16, and we expected an even more massive number of trucks the next day. I got home from work late and went to bed early and woke up at 3:30 since I had to get to work by 5:00.

I immediately knew something was wrong, and I knew what it was. Kardia confirmed the diagnosis. My heart rate was 106 and the EKG report was ‘Possible Atrial fibrillation’.

I sent a text to my walnut counting boss, then headed to the ER at Lodi Memorial. I wasn’t nervous at all, since I was pretty sure I knew what was happening. I was sorry and upset to have to let my walnut counting duties slide, but I really didn’t have a choice.

At the ER when they asked me why I was there I told them I was in AFib. They aren’t used to self diagnosis like that. After only a short wait they took me behind a curtain and did an EKG and concluded I was in AFib. They probably charged Medicare $1,000 for it. My $89 Kardia with a free App on my cell phone came to the same conclusion.

Eventually I saw a doctor, a very nice woman who actually listened to my story about this being AFib Incident #2, 9 years removed from Incident #1. Eventually I left the ER with a script for Eliquis and a follow up appointment with my family doctor the next morning.

I went to my nut counting job and arrived at 9 am. The truck drivers wondered what I was doing there. But there really wasn’t any reason to stay home. I did several EKG’s that day and all of them indicated AFib and an elevated pulse.

The next morning I woke up and knew that, unlike 2014, the AFib was still with me. Kardia agreed, although my heart rate was ‘only’ 90 bpm. I went to work at 6 am, but left to go to my doctor’s appointment around 9.

As I was driving to Lodi, I noticed that the strange tingling sensation in my chest and the light headedness seemed to be fading. By the time I got to the medical office, I felt normal. Kardia agreed: I took an EKG right there in the parking lot and it said 60 bpm and Normal Sinus Rhythm. Hooray! It felt like a frisson leaving my body followed by calmness and relaxation.

I’ve done a lot of EKGs over the last 5 weeks, and they’ve all been normal. I’m still on Eliquis, at least for now. More sticker shock: I have a Part D insurance plan but I opted for a low premium with a high deductible, so the first month tab was $500. More than our PGE bill! Although month #2 was only $150.

If I go another 9 years without going into AFib, do I need to stay on Eliquis? Should I risk cycling and possibly crashing while on it? Would I rather risk bleeding to death or having a stroke? The safest advice would be to stay on Eliquis and stop cycling on the road. Difficult choices…

Something startling appeared in my Facebook news feed yesterday (9/21):

Shimano recalls 760,000 Hollowtech road cranks after receiving 4,500 incident reports.

Shimano says 760,000 11-speed Hollowtech road cranksets will need to be inspected for signs of delamination. The affected cranks — Dura-Ace and Ultegra models manufactured prior to July 2019 — can separate and break; the company has received reports of 4,519 incidents of cranksets separating, and six reported injuries, including bone fractures, joint displacement and lacerations.

There are 4,519 reported crank failures, and there could be more. It is kind of remarkable that there are only 6 reported injuries. If the crank on the Bianchi above failed like that while someone was pedaling they could really get hurt.

There are a large number of these cranks on bikes ridden by Stockton Bike Club members. Ultegra components have a reputation for delivering quality at a bargain price. Comparing Ultegra to its higher cost big brother group set Dura Ace, there is very little weight or performance difference but the DA will set you back more than twice as much cash. But the recall affects both models…

Including mine. I have a Dura Ace crank on my Sampson titanium bike, and it is one of the problem parts. So I called Robbie’s Bike Shop in Stockton to see if they knew anything about the recall. They sure did; the shop is an authorized Shimano Dealer and they had already performed 3 inspections even though the recall was only announced that same day.

I dropped the Sampson off at the shop, and they said they would get to it Friday and I could pick it up that afternoon. If it passes inspection Shimano says it is safe to ride. If not the crank will have to be replaced.

Before I took the bike in I did my own inspection. I looked carefully for any signs of cracking. I didn’t see any. But the crank is black, and my aging eyes don’t see perfectly up close even with glasses. I watched a video, and the mechanic said one test is to tap the crank with the butt end of a plastic screwdriver and listen to whether it sounds solid or hollow. Even though the crank model name is ‘Hollowtech’ , a solid sound is good, and a hollow sound is bad. Mine sounds solid to me.

Another test of whether the crank is a problem is whether it is making a creaking noise when you pedal. Usually noises from that part of the bike involve the bottom bracket, but apparently a delaminating crank might be the culprit. For what its worth, my crank is silent.

I learned on line that the local shops who perform the inspections are going to be compensated by Shimano. The inspection is free for the bike owner, so if you have one of those cranks support your LBS and take it in. They will get paid.

I’m expecting the Sampson to get a passing grade and be back in my garage in time for the Sunday Club Ride. But if not I’ve got two other bikes I can use. N+1…

I have never liked riding my bike on bike paths. I think that they are actually more dangerous than riding on the road. Most paths are used by a variety of walkers, dog walkers, skateboarders, roller skaters, people on scooters, little kids wobbling on trikes or children’s bikes, or casual adult cyclists wobbling on their fat tire city bikes or Walmart mountain bikes. Even though I obey the bike path speed limit (usually 15 mph) and slow down and unclip whenever anyone approaches, I’m never really comfortable. unless the path is deserted.

So this story from Belgium got my attention:

The viral video shows the young girl and her mother walking along a nature trail as the unidentified 63-year-old cyclist comes up behind them and looks to deliberately stick out his knee, knocking the child down face-first into the snow. The cyclist then pedals away without apologizing, prompting the family to report the incident to police.

I don’t do viral videos. Life is too short and the Brumby Road internet connection is too slow. But apparently lots of people do and the cyclist was excoriated on social media. When cyclists behave badly there are plenty of haters out there ready to pile on. But did he behave badly?

The case eventually went to court in February 2021, according to a report from the New York Post, where the cyclist said he stuck out his knee to “avoid a fall” and that he “did not immediately realize” he knocked the young girl over.

Here are a couple of photos of the incident:

The first photo shows the girl standing on the far left side of the road, forcing the cyclist into the snow bank. The cyclist is wedged into a very narrow gap and good bike handlers will stick out the left knee to avoid crashing on the right. I’m not a good bike handler so I would probably have crashed. The fact that his knee hit the girl and caused her to lose her balance is unfortunate but really not the cyclist’s fault.

On the other hand, I have a very hard time believing that they cyclist did not know he had collided with the girl. Once he regained control he should have stopped. In the U.S. ‘hit and run’ is a serious offence, even for cyclists.

Now there is hardly a more cycling friendly country on Earth than Belgium. Cycling is deeply rooted in their culture. Look at that 63 year old out on a frigid day riding on a very wet and slippery cobbled path and you get a feel for the passion. Bicycle racing is the 2nd most popular sport there, after soccer. Almost everyone has a bike of some kind. So when the case went to trial, it really wasn’t surprising that the judge gave the cyclist a sweetheart deal, kind of like what the DOJ had in mind for Hunter before a judge threw it out.

The judge in the case ordered the cyclist to pay a small fine equivalent to about $1, reasoning that the biker did not intentionally hurt the girl, who was identified by the name Neia, and that he had since faced a rash of social media criticism.

The cyclist reacted to the ‘rash of social criticism’ by suing the girl’s parents for defamation. In the U.S. this case would have been laughable. You hit a little girl, leave the scene and then when daddy posts the video you scream defamation? But this is Belgium, and he won! The damages will be determined in court in April. Maybe he will get his $1 back.

Belgium actually has a law that says a cyclist MUST use a cycle path if there is one. I’ve never been cycling in Belgium but I have wanted to do so for a long time. And I still might make it. So I will be forced onto cycle paths whether I like them or not. I’ll be careful to unclip and stop for 5 year old girls, and then probably get hit from behind by a racing cyclist pedaling furiously with his head down. A problematic path puzzlement…

That is what we used to say back in high school when we were assigned reading material. “Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ was banned at our high school, so of course we went out and bought paperback copies to see what all the fuss was about. ‘The Godfather‘ wasn’t on any English Class reading lists, but we all knew what was on the bottom of page 27 and the top of page 28. Really good parts!

Stoker has a master’s degree in Library Science, although she achieved it before the Internet, which means it is more like a sheepskin in Ancient History. Over the years we have had a running debate about who gets to decide which books to purchase and make available with taxpayer dollars.

Her opinion is that librarians are trained to decide which books are important or useful or significant, and that they rarely eliminate a book because of its content. Freedom of the press runs deep in the librarian community, and the idea of non-librarians objecting to their choices offends them. They believe they are the defenders of freedom and know what is good and appropriate for the public.

Risking marital censure, I asked her if the library where she worked had copies of ‘Story of O‘. She said no and I asked why not? It is a significant book that was published in French in 1955 and won a prestigious prize. But the material was quite controversial and it wasn’t published in English until 1965. Stoker made some lame excuse that if the library purchased it people would just steal it. My point in asking is that librarians do their own censoring.

My own view is that private funds can be used to publish anything, no matter how salacious and seditious. Of course if it is libelous you risk getting sued, but other than that Freedom of the Press is pretty much absolute IMHO. But when taxpayers are footing the bill then which books libraries choose is a public matter and should be determined via representative democracy rather than librarian autocracy.

With that as back round, it’s Story Time in the U.S. Senate:

Senator John Kennedy, R-La., made Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias uncomfortable while reading aloud from several LGBTQ and sexually-themed children’s books during a recent Senate hearing.

Senator Kennedy has a delightful Southern/Cajun drawl that makes him sound like a redneck and conceals a very sharp legal and political mind. I’m pretty sure he was uncomfortable reading the material out loud. It probably made him ‘cringey’. If you are a regular reader you will recall that term. Need help? https://freehtt.org/2022/12/12/their-up-to-no-good/

Addressing the Secretary of State, the senator said, “Let’s take two books that have been much discussed. The first one is called ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue.’ And I will quote from it.”

Kennedy then read from “Gender Queer”:

What he read from these books discussed activities that have never reached our Brumby Road backwater. Those activities are completely inappropriate as a topic for the Rich Freggiaro Cycling Blog. We have standards here. I did read what the Senator said and listened to a brief part of it on video, and it was painful. The Illinois Secretary of State, who was there to argue that parents shouldn’t be able to restrict literary choices, was squirming in his chair when confronted with was in the books out loud. In a Senate Committee chamber, no less!

I got a little queasy trying to imagine what I would have thought of this as a 12 year old. I’m sure glad I don’t have kids and have to explain the material to them when they brought these books home from the school library.

You recall the old adage about how a conservative is a former liberal who got mugged? Case in point…

Shivanthi Sathanandan, the 2nd Vice Chairwoman for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, posted on Facebook Wednesday that she was “violently carjacked” by “four very young men, all carrying guns.”

At the height of the George Floyd riots in June 2020, Sathanandan wrote Facebook posts supporting efforts to “dismantle” the police. “We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Say it with me. DISMANTLE. The. Minneapolis. Police. Department,”.

Ms. Sathanandan (gender and she/her pronouns assumed) had quite a different point of view after her recent ‘road to Damascus’ incident.

We need to get illegal guns off of our streets, catch these young people who are running wild creating chaos across our city and HOLD THEM IN CUSTODY AND PROSECUTE THEM. PERIOD.”

There was a picture of the poor woman’s bloody head, which I did not include here. We try to keep thing light and humorous on the Rich Freggiaro Cycling Blog. She also claimed to have a broken leg, cuts and lacerations, and feeling “rage” against the lack of accountability against criminals. Welcome to my team, Ms. Sathanandan!

On a much lighter note, but closer to home, there is this:

Residents of the Spanos Park West and Westlake Village neighborhoods in Stockton were in for a rude awakening Thursday morning. Many reported vehicles along the neighborhoods with their tires missing.

For my readers all over the US and Europe (there is at least one ‘across the pond’) Spanos Park is a pretty upmarket part of Stockton. You might expect a car parked off of 8th street or El Dorado Street south of the Crosstown Freeway to be missing a few parts after sitting out over night. But not in Spanos Park .

Residents noted that most of the cars targeted were Hondas.

Stoker and I have owned nothing but Honda cars since we got married, and so far our tires have remained in place. But the catalytic converter on my Honda Element was stolen a few years ago. It’s hard to imagine a more staid, white bread (oops, was that a micro-aggression?) car brand. But apparently white bread is popular among car thieves: according to The Zebra website.

The most stolen car of the past decade is the Honda Accord.

I am aware that the Stockton Police Department is understaffed, But I still expected a more aggressive response than this tepid press release:

Police suggest that all residents take precautions and are asking people to keep their outdoor lights on to assist in capturing footage, use their parking garages if possible, and remain vigilant.

Yes, by all means remain vigilant. If you see something report it immediately. No officer will respond since no one was injured, and you will be directed to a web site to file a report. Then even if by some incredible lucky chance the police identify the thieves, what are the odds charges will be filed or that anyone will do any jail time?

Poor Ms. Sathanandan’s experience was extreme, but I imagine going out to your parked car and finding the wheels missing might cause some ‘defund the police’ politicians and citizens and non-citizens to rethink their position.

On Saturday I met with 5 friends for a flat 55 mile ride from Lodi to Thornton to Lockeford and back to Lodi. It was really an incredible day to ride after all the hot weather of the summer; cloudy with temperatures in the 60’s and almost no wind. There were even a few showers possible.

I started out feeling really good. I took a few pulls, then sat behind Marlin and his brand new very nice e bike. Marlin is really strong and on this flat road he had the battery off. On flat rides he and I do quite a bit of riding at the front of the group, trading pulls and letting everyone else follow. I think we have gotten pretty good at doing this. When we pull through we know how to ease just enough to let the other get onto the wheel, and once on the front we don’t surge. We keep the same speed and try to keep the group together. On the regular Tuesday club ride heading west on Collier Road into the prevailing wind I get quite a workout doing half the work.

I felt really good for about 20 minutes, all the way to Ray Road. When we turned right something went wrong. I took a drink and got dropped, but I caught back to the group. As I sat on the back I felt like I was really struggling just to hang on even though we weren’t going that fast.

When we turned onto Kile Road I was really dropped. The gap was so big Marlin spotted me in his mirror and slowed down to see what happened. I wasn’t sure myself, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to do 55 miles feeling like this.

I’m a big cycling data guy. I always ride with a heart rate monitor and all three of my bikes have power meters. I enter all the data from each ride into a spreadsheet. So I have a really good idea about the relationship between my heart rate and how much power I can generate. And what I saw yesterday was that my heart rate was much higher and my power level was much lower than usual. My heart rate was in the 120’s and my power was only about 120 to 150 watts. On Thursday I averaged 112 beats per minute and 166 watts. Normally on flat ground if I’m doing over 120 bpm the power is 160 to 200. Not yesterday.

When we got to Thornton I told my friends I had to turn around. They were nice and concerned and offered to help or ride back with me. I told them I felt fine, which was true. I didn’t have any chest pain, or leg pain, or cramps. I just seemed to have zero energy.

So I rode the 10 miles back to Lodi going about as slowly as I ever have. I was crawling and trying to figure out what was wrong. I didn’t ride on Friday so I wasn’t overtraining, although a heart rate higher than normal is a sign of that. I often have trouble after two hours of hard riding when it’s hot, but that certainly wasn’t the case on Saturday.

Back home, I took my blood pressure and it was a perfectly normal 129/78. My pulse was 58. After a very hard hot ride on Thursday I was really kind of wiped out and my pressure was 101/65. Then I used my Kardia to do an EKG; could it be A Fib? I had a single incident of A Fib way back in 2016, but it never recurred, and my Kardia has recorded well over 200 normal EKG’s since then. Including yesterday.

So what happened? I don’t know, so I don’t know what to do about it except worry. Did I just have an off day? Certainly possible and I hope that is all it is. In Europe this year I rode 8 days out of 9 and never got ‘overtrained’; my heart rate/power relationship was normal. A day like yesterday on an expensive cycling trip would be quite a disappointment.

This morning my blood pressure and EKG are still fine. I do feel a little light headed, but not really dizzy. I’m going to walk the dog and then do a trial ride and see if things are normal. Stay tuned…

And here’s the update: I went for a ride to see what would happen. I watched my heart rate and power and decided to try to do 1 hour over 150 watts, which is well within my capabilities, except for yesterday. But I felt good and rode better than that: 1 hour at 173 watts average power. My heart rate averaged 122, drifting up over 130 for the last 10 minutes or so, which is completely normal. After the ride I felt fine. So maybe what happened on Saturday was a one time event. I sure hope so. I have a really nice two weeks of cycling in France planned for next year, with some of my cycling friends on roads that I really love (more on this trip later). I’d really hate to spend parts of in a van with a ‘power outage’.

If you read my blog, you will remember that I began this year staying off of the bike because of my flap and subsequent complications. I went over one month without riding at all and almost 6 weeks without getting out on the road. Obviously I lost quite a bit of fitness.

All through the spring and early summer I kind of went through the motions of getting into some kind of shape, but I really didn’t train for my trip to Italy in early June. But I surprised myself in Europe: I made it through 8 rides in 9 days totaling 320 miles with 26,000 feet of climbing. Not the hardest week I’ve ever done, but I was still pretty happy about how I rode.

For most of this summer I’ve felt pretty good on the bike. I’m not doing as much climbing as I should, but chasing down Marlin on flat rides and trying to do my share of pulls with him is pretty good training. My power numbers have been acceptable. They aren’t as high as they were when I got my first power meter in 2005, but I was only 49 years old then and now I’m 67. One expects some kind of performance drop off in many areas (why do you thing there are so many ads for Viagra?). which is fine as long as you don’t drop off of a cliff.

In the two weeks from July 26 until August 8 I did 8 rides adding up to 340 miles. That was quite a bit of pedaling for me. Only one ride was in the hills, but I did do 3 rides over 50 miles. And two interval sessions: 4×5 minute efforts followed by some short all-out sprints. Intervals are no fun while you are doing them but afterwards Garmin gives you some pretty pictures to look at.

Unfortunately I am facing another period off of the bike. On August 9 I had a pterygium removed from my right eye. A pterygium is a kind of fleshy overgrowth on the surface of the eye. Mine has been there for at least 4 decades, but my optometrist noticed that it had grown toward the center of the eye over the last 2 years. He referred me to an ophthalmologist who recommended it be removed.

The surgery had me more than a little nervous, especially when I learned that I would be sedated but awake and aware during the procedure. The anesthesiologist said the injection (a needle in my eye?!) would feel like a bee sting for a second or two, but truly I didn’t feel any pain at all during the entire surgery…

Until I got home and the numbing medication wore off. I was told I might have “slight to moderate” pain, but this was far more than moderate. There was a bandage and shield over my eye, but underneath I alternated between shooting pain and feeling like someone was using sandpaper on my eyeball. I took six Tylenol over 4 hours, and it didn’t help much.

Today, four days after the procedure, the pain is pretty much gone but the eye feels scratchy and irritated. And irritated kind of describes my mood too. Cycling produces endorphins, keeps my blood pressure down, my weight under control and provides me with most of my social interactions with friends. I’m missing all that. And then there is the loss of fitness. It is incredible how much you can lose in a short time if you stop riding completely .

The doctor said I should refrain from all exercise for a week. He also said I should not ride on the road for another two weeks after that. He doesn’t want me to get sweat or sunscreen into the eye until it heals, which is reasonable. He said after a week I could ride a trainer as long as I don’t get sweat into my eyes. Obviously he doesn’t know how hard I ride on the trainer. I see him on Thursday and I hope to get this non-riding sentence reduced, but I think he will be unlikely to let me get back on my bike any sooner.

So I have another layoff, and walnut season starts soon afterwards. I’ll be busy counting nuts and won’t do much riding. In November I’m going to start getting ready, slowly, for another trip to France. Both Mont Ventoux and L’Alpe d’Huez are on the tour, though not on the same day. I’ve got plenty of time to get ready, unless I have another stint on the cycling disabled list.

When Diane’s mom passed away last year I wrote a blog about her. People must have liked it, or at least read it. WordPress keeps stats and my blog Remembering Doris really bumped up the page view count. You can find it here if you missed it:

Remembering Doris

Last month Doris’s family gathered to lay her cremains to rest next to her late husband Dave in The Garden of Memories in Waterloo Iowa. The attendees were Doris’s 4 daughters and their husbands, 5 grandchildren bringing 3 spouses, and 7 great grandchildren ages 14 to 2.

Diane and I flew to Cedar Rapids from Sacramento on Friday morning. Early Friday morning; our flight left at 5:10 am. Flying is never fun or comfortable (Air France Business Class is an exception) but this trip was on time and relatively smooth. We even dozed a little. The United hub at the Denver airport was humming, with people everywhere, but we made our connection to Cedar Rapids with plenty of time to spare. The trip home on the following Monday was a bit of an adventure, but that is a subject for another blog.

Arriving at the Cedar Rapids airport, we were greeted by Herky: this is Hawkeye country!

Diane’s sister Cindy and her daughter Sara and grand daughter Brinley picked us up at the traffic free Cedar Rapids airport. After a quick check in at the Hampton Inn we headed to Cindy and her husband John’s house, which was the base of operations for the next 3 days. John is an expert carpenter and he showed me the work he was doing, turning an unfinished basement into a work room and craft room and entertainment room and spare bedroom, with a full bath.

He is also skilled with a barbecue. I had heard of beer can chicken, and even tried making it once. His version used 7 Up instead, and it was delicious. As was the fresh sweet corn we enjoyed with dinner.

Sara’s three children were at the dinner table and I marveled at how polite and well behaved they were. Their ages are something like 8, 10 and 14, but they acted like adults. No teenage boredom or pre-teen hyperactivity. The next day when I accompanied Sara on a grocery run I told her how impressed I was, which probably made her a proud mama. Deservedly so.

Ben is in high school and a new member of a state champion marching band. A few months ago they were raising money for new equipment. Since I have a soft spot for high school musicians I made a fairly generous donation. He sent me a nice note at the time, and now offered up a very mature and sincere thank you in person. Sara and Matt should be proud of their kids.

Diane and her sisters were a little concerned about the plan for Saturday, probably because there really was no plan. Everyone was arriving that afternoon and meeting at the cemetery, and the Hampton Inn had a room reserved for a cocktail hour and dinner afterwards. But the meal plan wasn’t finalized until Friday: they decided to get catering from Olive Garden, and Sara took charge of ordering and picking it up.

About 2 pm we drove from Cedar Rapids to Waterloo where the Garden of Memories is located. This part of Iowa is really pretty, and green, green, green in a way California never is. There are fields of corn and soybeans irrigated by rainfall instead of pumps and sprinklers. What isn’t crop land is either pasture or woodland. The countryside is gently rolling hills, and an occasional silo or barn adds to the bucolic setting.

At the cemetery there were hugs and handshakes all around. This was the largest gathering of the Roberts family since pre-Covid. Kris had the cremains, and the sisters transferred them into an urn, which was placed in a small vault. The sisters put some items associated with Doris into the vault, including some crafting supplies and a small bottle of white wine. “Just a splash” which is what Doris would say when offered more than her usual one glass.

Diane ‘volunteered’ me to kick things off by reading my previous blog as a kind of eulogy. It was better on paper than as a speech, even with a few changes to smooth it out. But it did break the ice and others offered up memories of a wonderful mom and mother in law and grandma. Then we held hands and said The Lord’s Prayer, opened some champagne and drank a toast goodbye. “Just a splash…”

The littlest kids were not at the grave site; Patrick’s wife Megan kept them busy splashing in the hotel pool. But everyone was present at the cocktail hour/dinner back at the Hampton’s private room. The kids had a great time and the adults had fun watching them, but Amelia (the youngest) stole the show. A 2 year old bundle of energy with a non-stop smile, she must have done 5,000 steps just during the dinner. Eventually the party broke up, and I know Diane and her sisters were relieved. Plan or no plan, it was a very nice and touching goodbye.

The next day events moved to John and Cindy’s house, The grandkids had a mini pool to fill and splash in, and splash they did, even though the weather was quite cool and pleasant for summer in Iowa. Little Amelia grabbed the hose and doused her cousins and squeals and splashes entertained the adults sitting out of harms way on the front porch. Diane’s niece Jamie had her dog Fozzy along, and I guess Fozzy knows a dog person when she sees one.

The four brother in laws (or is it brothers in law?) spent most of Sunday afternoon sitting of the front porch watching the little kids and chatting while Diane and her sisters went through hundreds of Doris’s old photos looking for the few worth keeping. Jeff and Mike and John are all guys I like with lots of interesting stories. And the weather was simply incredible, not hot or humid at all, so it was a pleasant afternoon.

The little kids and their parents headed home later Sunday afternoon, but the adults stayed Sunday night. Since there was plenty of left over Olive Garden no one had to cook. More stories, more conversation, some extended goodbyes, and then Kris and Mike drove us back to the hotel. We had an early morning flight so we wouldn’t see them in the morning. That was the plan anyway. Plans change…but that is another blog.

So we all came together to say a final goodbye to Doris and put her next to her husband of over 60 years. A marriage that really was ” ’til death do up part”. As we were ending the grave side activities someone (Mike, I think) pointed out that Diane is now the matriarch of the family. I’ve never been married to a matriarch before.

The first time I recall seeing ‘trigger warnings’ was for special effect strobe lighting that might potentially cause epileptic seizures. But now such advisements are everywhere. For movies or books with violence or sex, which is pretty much all of them made now, warnings tell us there is potentially disturbing material and susceptible people should practice ‘self care’ as they read the book or watch the film. You think I am making that ‘self care’ part up? Nope, I found it on Google looking up definition of ‘trigger warning’.

But the concept has gone woke and publishers are getting carried away. Now in the cross hairs (trigger warning: violent imagery): Bertie and Jeeves and their creator P.G. Wodehouse:

PG Wodehouse is the latest literary great to be targeted by cancel culture, as the publisher Penguin announces text removals and a trigger warning for all new editions of Wodehouse books.

The trigger warning issued by Penguin read: ‘Please be aware that this book was published in the 1920s and may contain language, themes, or characterizations which you may find outdated.’

The move comes after publishers rewrote Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster books to remove ‘unacceptable’ prose, in April.

I haven’t read everything P.G. Wodehouse wrote, but that is only because he was so prolific and his catalogue of work is so vast. But I’m a big fan and I do have quite a few titles sitting on my bookshelf:

I am having a hard time understanding why Wodehouse’s wonderful wacky world has even a single word that could cause offense. Unless you are disturbed by a spoof where long winded country church reverends have the length of their sermons timed and turned into a parimutuel wagering scheme (The Great Sermon Handicap). Or unless the idea of the useless young men of the aristocracy throwing dinner rolls at each other in the dining room of their appropriately named Drones Club makes you worry what the workers of the world will think of such exploitative frivolity.

Trigger warnings are one thing; they occupy a page in the front of the book, and like my blog can be easily ignored. But changing an author’s words is another matter. Apparently publishers are employing ‘sensitivity readers’ to flag what they consider unfit prose and then either delete or substitute.

This strikes me as wrong, and ironic and hypocritical. The woke-up gender gendarmes are aghast that parents might not want sexually explicit material in grammar school libraries, but they seem perfectly ok with removing or rewriting passages they do not like in literary classics. A touch inconsistent, no?

It isn’t just Wodehouse either: two other authors that are well represented in our home library are also being ‘updated’:

Wodehouse isn’t the only author whose books have been purged of language that might offend modern readers, novels by both Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming have also been reissued.
Racist terminology was taken out of Fleming’s work, meanwhile Christie’s work was changed more drastically.

Fortunately we have plenty of pre-woke copies of Jeeves and Bertie and James Bond and Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple books on our shelves. But new purchasers of these classic entertainments should be advised that they are getting the watered down, politically corrected versions. Put a second trigger warning underneath the first one: “This book has been revised to conform with the views of sensitive snowflakes. Self care not necessary…”