We made it up to 89 degrees today. In a highly variable spring, this feels like the signal day, the one that convinces you that spring is actually, ya know, going to stick this time. It could be the sweat, on the small of your back. It could be that the sweat is telling you that this will probably turn right into summer. You’d like a nice long mild spring. You probably won’t get it. You’d definitely like this to happen before the second half of April.

That also means we’re in the final month of the semester, and boy, it feels like it. A nice warm, sunny, day like this, and we’re all ready to be outside already.

But first there was class. Today in Rituals and Traditions we talked about unhealthy ones. There’s a thing in Pittsburgh where people are stealing traffic cones and taking them into baseball games. It’s silly and probably fun, but also potentially dangerous and certainly theft. We also talked about sports where diet and weight issues create unhealthy rituals and problems for athletes, and some of the people that emulate them. We discussed the running of the bulls in Pamplona. I discussed the old Aggie bonfire and a whole host of things at the University of Mississippi.

We touched on hazing, binge drinking, and the Indians, Braves, Chiefs, and Redskins. We discussed the Seminoles earlier in the semester, and someone brought them up as a sort of contradiction today, which was great. Florida State makes a great effort to work with the local Seminole tribe and treat their imagery and representation with authenticity and honor. But not all of the Seminole approve. You’ll never get universal acceptance, and this is an important consideration. And so is your thinking and your receptivity to different stakeholders, and what you need to be mindful of, prepared for, and what it means to work through perceptions and circumstances that aren’t good for your team, your fans, or your league.

In Criticism we watched Slaying the Badger. This is a documentary about the 1989 Tour De France, one of the greatest editions of the modern race. I picked this because we have recently watched a football documentary and a basketball documentary, and there’s a lot to learn about watching something in a sport you don’t know very well. It says something about what we perceive, what we lose, and how we learn. Plus, it’s just a great story full of real and human drama.

This documentary lets you talk about multiple perspectives and different sides of stories, who’s here and who is not, and the effect of time, memory, and recollection. Also, it is a great film.

I’m buying the book and reading it this summer, finally.

I’m going to do a lot of reading this summer. That’s what I’ve decided this spring. First I have to finish catching up on everything. Or catch up on finishing everything. And also keep up on everything. And do the other things. It’s a lot to think about.

Which is what I thought about on the bike today. Good thing, too, since this was this week’s Worst Ride Ever™️. I didn’t know it when I started out, standing there staring at the wild almond.

I didn’t know it here, at the dogwood.

I was starting to figure it out around this tractor, though.

Here’s my shadow selfie. I think my shadow knew all along.

Same tractor, on the way back in.

And then the last little bit of road on the way back in.

This week’s Worst Ride Ever™️ was still (a very slow) 73 minutes on the bike.

I’m still living in the happy memories of our wonderful Irish vacation. So, I’m sharing extra videos that we didn’t get to at the time. It was a great vacation. I have a lot of footage. This will go on for some time. Enjoy it with me, won’t you?

That’s from our brief stop at Trah Dhumha Goirt.