B is for Breaking Away

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

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Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other a to z challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 24 more times this month. 

Film: Breaking Away (1979)

Director: Peter Yates

By www.impawards.com, Fair use, Link 

Breaking Away is a coming-of-age sports movie about four friends from Bloomington, Indiana.  The movie features Dennis Christopher, Daniel Stern, Dennis Quaid, and Jackie Earle Hailey.   Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern are probably the most famous of the 4 now, but at the time I only recognized Jackie Earle Hailey from the Bad News Bears films.

The movie takes place in the late '70s in Bloomington, Indiana, a college town in the midwest.  Christopher plays the main character Dave Stoller. The movie takes place in the year after Stoller and his 3 friends graduate from high school and are spending their gap year hanging around together when Stoller isn't cycling around Indiana or tormenting his father by cosplaying an Italian cyclist.  

The movie does a great job of confronting the divides between social classes and generations.  It has humor, introspection, romance, and intrigue while being true to its David vs. Goliath roots.  The American Film Institute (AFI) has placed on two of its lists of top 100 films.  In 2006 it was named #8 on the list of most inspirational movies.  In 2008 The AFI named it 8th on their list of sports moves.   

                                           ( Left To Right ) Christopher, Hailey,  Stern, Quaid

(Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

 This is both a well-written and well-acted movie as this monologue by Dennis Quaid will attest.

 

 

 Positive Tomato: I seriously can't imagine anyone not liking it. Gene Siskel - Chicago Tribune

Negative Tomato: This timeworn material probably should work, but it doesn't really since, most of the film's angst and conflict seem calculated. Jeremy Heilman - MovieMartyr.com

The movie was filmed entirely in Bloomington, Indiana.  If you are interested this video goes back and shows some of the main places where it was filmed.

 

Resiliency: Resiliency is sometimes pre-meditated as near the end of the movie when Dave and his friends tape Dave's feet to the bike pedals so as the commentators observe they can no longer switch riders for the duration of the race.  That scene is a visual reminder to me of  the end of Hebrews 12:1 , "And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Top 100:  When I last made my top 100 list, I wasn't really sure what to do with Breaking Away.  I loved it when it first came out but when I saw it last 20 years ago or so I remember thinking it hadn't aged well.  I watched it again earlier this year and it really resonated with me again.  It would definitely make my top 100 this time out and wouldn't be surprised at all if it broke into the top 50. 

For more A to Z challenge click here

 Next Time: C is for Champion

Poetry Friday 8/19/2022 Finding Castles Among Ordinary Things

 I am hosting Poetry Friday today for my very first time. I originally said I would wait until Midnight Eastern time (11 P.m. where I live) so that it would truly be Poetry Friday. I have caved and am posting this on Thursday at 11:09 Eastern time as I worked at 2 of my jobs from 6 am to 9 pm (my time)  counting travel time and don't want to stay up any longer than I have to asI am also working the same shifts tomorrow.  Here's what I have for you ...

 Back on June 17th, Rose Cappelli of Imagine the Possibilities shared her amazing poem, Music Lessons for Poetry Friday.

I was not familiar with the form, an etheree, and decided to experiment with it.  An Etheree is a 10-line poem that works it way incrementally from one syllable to 10 syllables adding a beat with every line. At One aspect that I enjoy about creating poetry is the freedom to see the world a little differently than everyone else.  An ability to make a connection, and then see where that connection takes me.   

As I was reading Music Lessons, at Rose's blog, I noticed that right under her poem there was a section embedded in her post stating sponsored content replete with the usual clickbait about insurance rates, medical treatments, and other sundry time wasters.   Among the annoyance, I had a flash of inspiration.  Why not write an etheree about internet ads.  This was the result ...

Sponsored Content

I

Really

Don't care where

Educated

Singles in Elgin

Meet, Nor do I need to

Know the seven worst mistakes

I can make with my retirement.

There is a search bar for a reason,

I am content to find my own content.

6/18/2022

My wife and I have had one car between us for several months now.  We were hopeful that we would be working at the same school this year and only found out a few days before the school year started that there would not be a position for me.  Fortunately my long term substitute skills  are highly sought after and I received an offer to work at a middle school in my wife's district.  While we begin to look for a second vehicle, I have been bicycling nine miles down our bike path (each way) to my new school.

When I bike to work these pictures give you an idea of the view ahead of me.

Granted it's gorgeous but it's also fairly common place. Don't get me wrong I love my commute.  Most days I see at least 2 deer and some pretty good views of the Fox River but for the most part it's just tree after tree with a couple of towns thrown in for good measure.

But there is also this ...

Yes 2 miles from downtown Elgin there is this castle structure that I believe was brought over from England.  Most days I bike right past it often not even seeing it.  

Over the past few years I have found myself in a bit of Poetry Renaissance.  To me poetry has been my way of finding castles among ordinary things and even making ordinary things stick out like castles.  

That's what I have for this week.  Let's see what you can add and find out where the adventure takes us. 

 

As you read through what I'm sure re going to be excellent selections this week. I hope you experience your own Poetry Renaissance.  Next Weeks Poetry Friday will be hosted by Tanita S. Davis  at Fiction Instead of Lies.

Our Summer So Far (In Fragments)

We have been up to a lot already this summer.  Today I thought I would express it in fragments.  Videos and photos of the first few weeks of the summer.

Fragment V1  - Spider Droid Shoots and Jumps

Fragment P1 -  Bunny and Dad Bike

Fragment V2 - Kite Flying Fun

Fragment P2 A Hike in the Woods

Fragments P3 & V3  - Puppies and Dolphins Unite

Fragment P4 - Volunteering at an Outdoor Food Pantry

Fragments P5 & V4 - More Fun at the Pool

That is all the photos and footage I have for now.  Hope your summers are fun also.  For More Friday Fragments stop over at Half Past Kissing Time.  

Cycling Update

On Saturday, I participated in International Teams ride for refugees. I wrote last week about my preparations here. Riding 30 miles was actually much easier than I had anticipated. Easy and worthwhile as I raised a total of $325.00 towards refugee work around the globe. I rode past many beautiful sights of Lake County, IL, including seeing some gorgeous horses. Incidentally I biked past a llama farm without noticing (we drove by them on Sunday, when I did notice.)

I was hoping to post some pictures of my trip, but in my hurry to bring my family, my bike, my helmet and my pledges to the starting point in time for registration at 8:00 am, I neglected to bring my camera.

On the way there I was reading to Charlie and the rest of the family a story about an inquisitive boy who constantly peppered his parents with loads of questions. This boy so reminded me of Charlie that I am interested to hear whatever became of him. The boy's name was Thomas Edison.

I was reading about how Thomas Edison had a job selling newspapers on a train. Since we were on the way to a bike ride, the story reminded me of my first bike trip almost 30 years ago.

It was Memorial Day Weekend 1980. My youth group along with several other local youth groups boarded a train headed for Wisconsin. Our bikes were packed in special boxes and handled as luggage. I think it may have actually been my first time ever riding a train. Once we arrived we stayed at a local church and biked 60 miles each day until we arrived back in the NW suburbs of Chicago on Monday.

I realized while I was riding that I was biking on some of the same roads as I had back in 1980. Some of the area has changed in 30 years but much of the countryside remained the same. Biking next to a teenager for some of my early miles, I realized the same could not be said of me.

I was glad that my family accompanied me on the ride. They're cheered really pumped me up as I embarked upon my journey. At the post ride lunch I saw several kids, my kids age who participated in the ride. While I feel I could have easily completed the 60 mile course this year and would like to do so next year, I think we will instead ride the 5 mile trek as a family.

After we got home I was not at all tired. Emma and I decided to go cycling on the bike trail before it started storming. We biked about 6 miles through Dundee and parts of Elgin. This is my favorite section of the trail as there is an underground bridge over the fox river as well as a castle. This time I remembered my camera and snapped some good shots of Emma.

The only disappointing part of the day was when I read on facebook shortly after returning home with Emma that a friend from my high school bike trip days who I haven't seen since Reagan was president had stopped by at the ride location at noon to see me. By noon we were already on our way back home. So, Joel and any more of my old bike riding buddies: let's all get together same next year and do the ride for refugees next year. We can even train together. I know this great spot with a bridge and a castle.

Next Time: Penny Winners

Three Things This Thursday

Hi! Welcome to another edition of 3 Things This Thursday. I'm Dave I'll be your host.
Welcome also to October. Which brings me to my first item which I have titled
#1 (catchy huh?)

Our family does not celebrate Halloween. Other families do and that's just fine with us. What really bothers me is that there have been Halloween displays up since late August early September. I mean early September. The kids and I were shopping for Amy's birthday (which is 9/10) and Walgreen's already had a full display of Halloween candy up. That was at least 52 days before Halloween! I mean how in the world are you going to keep Halloween candy around 52 days without indulging? Or perhaps that is the point of putting it out so early. I think that October first should be the first official day for Halloween displays. 30 days to sell costumes, candy and other finery should be enough!

2. Glee
I watched the premiere of Glee this week (The premiere was about 3 weeks ago, but I've been busy.) Glee is a new show on Fox this year about a high school show choir. It is supposed to have biting humor and good musical numbers. I liked the first episode although I am not sure I liked it enough to watch a second. It did not surprise me that the meanest and nastiest of the high school girls was portrayed as a hypocritical Christian girl. The musical numbers were good but unlike Fame I'm not sure that this show will live forever.

3. This year has been cycling intensive at our house and we have had some difficulty getting our oldest on the bicycle bandwagon. Emma was never that much into biking when she had training wheels. It was always like pulling teeth to get her on her bike. This year however she showed a little more interest especially when Charlie's training wheels came off before hers did. Within a week she was biking training wheel on free on Charlie's bike.

Emma has grown a lot in the past year and the bike she's had since she was 6 just wasn't cutting it. So we bought her a new bike that was just a tad too big for her. It was possible for her to ride it but she was so scared of falling off that it was becoming too difficult to coax her to ride it and put up with all the angst. So we tried this: we let her use her take turns using Charlie's bike and she took a real shine to it. She has been riding it almost everyday for the last two weeks.

So today with about 20 minutes left of daylight, I told her it was time to give her bike a try. She was far less than thrilled. What I expected to happen, happened. Over the past few weeks she has been learning how to balance herself, and when she tried her bike today, she was mastering it within seconds. Before we started biking, she insisted that she only have to ride once around the parking lot. We biked until dusk and even then she wanted to stay longer. On the way home she actually thanked me for insisting that she try her bike again.

As parents we often have a plan for the well being of our child. This plan is not always embraced by the child at the time. It is very rewarding when occasionally the child can get a glimpse that the parent has a pretty good grasp on what's best.

Those are my Three Things for This Thursday. Now it's your turn just link up below.

Next Time: Penny Winners Revealed

I'm biking on purpose, for a purpose.

I love bicycling. Ever since I was a kid I have spent most of my free time bicycling. Our town's library was right across from our house and I used to spend hours biking around in it when the library was closed. When the library was open I would bike around town.


When I got into high school I became an even more avid cyclist. My youth group went on two cycling trips a year. We would bike 3-5 days riding 60 miles a day. In addition to that I would often bike 10-25 miles (one way) to visit various friends. Once I was there we would often go cycling.

When I graduated high school I volunteered for 3 years at my youth group and continued my biking frenzy. But in the past 22 years I have mostly rested on my biking laurels. I would occasionally go on a 30-40 mile trek but those treks became few and far between. When I moved to South Carolina in 1995 I went through great pains to bring my bike with me and then rode it a grand total of twice in 2 years. When I got married in 1998, I made great pains to make sure my bike fit into our apartments and rode it a grand total of zero times in three years.


Last year when I lost my job in July I started cycling again with some regularity. This year we made sure the whole family had working bikes. While the rest of the family has been doing most of their biking in a church parking lot on our block, I have been hitting the roads and bike trails of Kane and McHenry county. 10-15 miles at a time is now a grand accomplishment but I am finding that I still enjoy cycling as much as I did in those days of youth.


A little more than a month ago I was told by a facebook friend of mine about a bike ride that International Teams (IT) was putting together. IT is a missions organization that I was somewhat involved with back in the eighties. I say somewhat because my involvement was to train 3 months for a two year missions trip that I ended up not going on. My facebook friend trained with me and went on the missions trip. IT is very involved in sharing the Gospel in refugee camps throughout the world. They are really in the forefront of refugee ministry.


Their annual bike ride benefits refugees and refugee ministry and is aptly titled the RIDE FOR REFUGEES. The ride is being held in 3 countries over 2 continents. Bikers will ride 5-60 miles and will raise funds as well. The day I heard about the ride I had just completed my goal of biking over 100 miles this summer. Back in the day I would do that in the week, but 100 miles in 2 months is much better than zero miles in three years.




I decided I would do the ride this year. On October 3rd I am going to bike 30 miles which is 10 more than I've bike at one time in a decade. To prepare for the ride I've put on 100 more miles and have raised $260.00. My goal is $300 and anyone wanting to donate can contact me or donate on line by clicking HERE.


So to sum up, biking again after many long years away works, but making that biking count for others really works for me. To see what else is working head on over to WE ARE THAT FAMILY.





Next Time: Three Things Thursday.

June, July and August

I don't remember the first time I heard the joke, I have heard many variations through the years. The essence goes like this: Q: What are the best three things of being a teacher? A: June, July and August.

Last summer I lost my job and became the teaching parent in our home school family. My wife went back to her career as a school psychologist. My kid's school year ended the week before Father's Day, my wife's last day was the Friday before Father's Day. We are now in the midst of what amounts to be an 8 week paid vacation provided by our school district.

I would not go as far to say that these three months are the best things to be a teacher. Having this time with my family unencumbered by non-family concerns sure make Summer my favorite season. Before this it was Paprika.

Our main exploits this summer have been gardening, swimming, biking and reading. In addition we've been on a number of outings; some as a full family, some in partial strength.

In addition to our weekly cleaning day we made a list if "bigger jobs" we wanted to accomplish this summer and are knocking them out about one every week. I also am taking one afternoon a week to prepare for the school year and the two classes I will be teaching at the co-op this year.

When I was the "paycheck" parent I enjoyed the summer and tried to get as much time off that we could spend as a family. Having all five of us all home for this extended family time certainly works for me.

To see what works for others go to We Are That Family. Next Time: Strawberry Picking With Emma.

An open letter to the car behind me II

Warning: This article may contain sarcasm.

Dear Car Behind Me:

It happened again as it usually does on my first bike ride of the spring. It doesn't always happen the same exact way. This year, my wife dropped me off at the bike shop where my bike was being tuned up. I hit the bike trail for my first cycling of the year. Now I am not quite the cyclist I once was, but even in my heyday no one was confusing me with Lance Armstrong. Mainly because he was 6 in my hey day. For a 10 year period I cycled 100 or more miles a week. For the last 10-15 years I have biked less and less but for the past couple of years I have been getting back into it.

Now I am not one of these dangerous people. I wear a helmet, I mostly bike on trails and when I do bike on roads, I stay as close to the line as possible and when possible I bike on the shoulder. I use proper signalling techniques. I even stop at all stop signs which is uncommon for many cyclists. At 44, I can use all the rests I can get.

Yet that doesn't stop people like you from honking at me. When you honked at me I was no more than 2 inches off the line. Did you think a loud noise startling me from behind would be prone to keep me at a safe distance from you? If you ever have to take a field sobriety test ask the officer to blow an air horn halfway through your walk and see how you do.

Every year as energy and cost concerns increase, media outlets champion the idea of cycling to work. Who wants to bike to work while people are blaring their displeasure on us? Isn't that what awaits us on the job?

Please dear motorist, cyclists have a right to the road. During the cycling months you will just need to pay more special attention and pass us with caution. I mean, we're cyclists! You won't be behind us long.

Next Time: The Run Around Place

The Kids Bike

2-4-6-8 who do we appreciate cyclists! Cyclists! Go cyclists! It was Tuesday afternoon and my 7 year old and I decided the training wheels needed to go. So I took them off and I've been riding without them ever since. Kidding! They were his training wheels.

We took them off and went to the church parking lot, down the street. There was quite a bit of falling and after a while my sad, dejected son wanted to give up and go home. I told him 3 more falls and we would go home. The next time up he got it. Here is some footage.

When my 9 year old, also still in training wheels, got wind of Charlie's achievement, she wanted to be part of the act. So here she is earlier today.

They are getting better and better and I am really proud of both of them. We plan to do a lot of biking as a family this year sans training wheels will be best.

Next Time: Next Time