The Whole State's on Fire, but it's Still Cold in the Morning

The ride back to the car this evening was windy and cool..... but the head-wind was short lived.  After the first mile and I got through the north end of Balloon Fiesta Park and turned south on the bicycle path (officially referred to as the "MUP" (Multi-Use-Path), the headwind turned into a TAIL wind which was a great help, as you can see from my maximum speed recorded tonight.  Almost 27 MPH, even downhill with the tailwind, ain't bad for an old out of shape geezer.....
Starting BG:  111       At-the-Car arrival BG:  Unk, but spacey:  Ate an oatmeal bar
Afternoon Stats from the GPS:                       Total Miles:  7.38
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
10.8  Mph                          12.3 mph             26.8 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
40:56 mins                          36:04 mins            04:52 mins   

Woe is us.  High winds have buffeted the entire state all weekend.  Wildfires are burning - 50 or more according to the news.  This doesn't deter model rocketeers from launching rockets in the weeds in Embudo Canyon or kids from setting fires and playing with matches in the Menaul trailhead area (still burning 3 days later), NOR does it seem to bother Forest Service officialdom who have announced their intention of starting a (ahem) "Controlled Burn" in the Gila forest near Silver City.  They might do well to read the official accounts of the "controlled burn" in 2000 that burned half of the town of Los Alamos to the ground.
We watched Conference from the comfort of our living room with the wind howling outside Saturday and Sunday.  Early Sunday afternoon at 1:30 sharp, the house lights went OFF with a slight "Click" and that was that.  No electricity for hours.... and hours.... all night long.... and most of today, Monday morning.   We listened to KOB radio which was broadcasting their Sunday afternoon "Money Talks"  "talk show" but no local news breaks were allowed to interrupt this important programming.  I fired up the heart-attack-pull-cord-start emergency generator and found, from watching KOB TV, that there had been 8 power poles that collapsed in the wind in Edgewood, about 20 miles east of us, and that the electric power would likely be off until at least Monday afternoon.  Jacque called me this morning about 10:00 and the power had come back on unexpectedly early.  Hurray.  We have all sorts of standby power, RV generator, 5 KW generator to run the 240 Volt well pump, small generator and inverters to run small appliances, candles, battery lights, Coleman lantern (to REALLY blow the darkness outa the house), but it really isn't that much fun to have to go around and arrange extension cords, activate the change-over system for the emergency generator (which has a very minimal and thus LOUD muffler and is under the deck at the same corner of our house as our bedroom), light all the candles and lamps, put them out here and there, go dig out the emergency can of gas for the generator, etc, etc.....This doesn't happen enough to justify it, but when it does it sure gives you ideas about disconnecting entirely from the "Grid" and investing in solar and wind for power generation.  It's do-able, but even at today's prices, would take longer than we both have left to live to pay off the high investment costs for installing such stuff.
It was 27 degrees when I woke up this morning and it was a COLD bike ride when I got to Albuquerque.
I even drug out a pair of emergency hand warmers and ripped them open and put 'em into my bike mittens, and was I ever glad to have warm fingers this morning.  I thought I could make it without the face mask and regretted it all the way to work.  My face got so cold it ached.  But of course I didn't want to take additional non-rolling time to stop and dig it out and put it on so I kept pedaling..... and hurting.  BAH
Starting BG:  151       Post-Ride BG:   95
Morning Stats from the GPS:                       Total Miles:  7.70
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
07.7  Mph                          09.7 mph             19.1 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
01.00 Hour(!)                     47:51 mins            12:28 mins