32-Mile Friday, Getting to be a Habit?

Bicycle Tracker worked better today

Jacque and I, as ex-single adults, have been invited to a Singles Dance tonight as honored escapees of the Singles Program.  They like to call us "Alumni" but we prefer the term "Escapees".  We loved and enjoyed the singles for the several years we WERE single as well as the years we worked WITH singles after we got married.  But we're very happy to not be singles any more.  We're also happy to go dance with them tonight and see who-all we still know.
Given that, I again decided to ride the recumbent from home to work and have the lovely Jacque pick me up after work from whence we will go to the Sage Street meetinghouse for the Singles Dance.
I again ran very low on blood sugar for the end of the ride this morning, though I didn't notice it as much.  One of my co-workers (Alex A) who also bike-commutes caught up with me on the trail and rode with me the last 3 or 4 miles, very pleasant riding.  It was so cloudy this morning I didn't put any sun-block on, figuring if the sun came out I would stop and slather it on.  But it stayed very dark and cloudy and pleasantly cool all during the ride.  I also noticed another cyclist coming up behind me as I turned north on Pennsylvania this morning, who turned out to be another ham radio nutcase (like me) who enjoys talking on his ham radio while commuting to work (Phil, W5PWB)
Awakening BG:  114                           Post-Ride BG: 41
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.7         Ending Voltage: 12.5

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles: 31.77

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
11.6.  Mph                          13.4 mph             38.3 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
2 hours 44 mins               2 hours 22 mins         21.44 mins

Thursday Thirty-Two Miler (Yawn)

The tracker actually Worked Most of this Trip

You would think 32 mile commutes would not be a big thing since I've done SO MANY recently (well, ah, maybe not that many.... three times?)
Today was not quite as pleasurable.  I went off half cocked and since it has been so uneventful before, I wasn't as worried this morning and thus didn't think it would matter too much when I failed to "Carb Up" with a bigger breakfast than normally necessary when I only ride 7 miles in the morning and back the same route in the evening.  I made it past the wicked first 4 miles of the trip where it's either steep and long or gradual climbing and long, and from that point it's mostly coasting, sometimes in excess of 30 MPH, all the way down the canyon to Albuquerque city limits.  It's actually mostly downhill going west all the way from Clines Corners to the Rio Grande, where of course it begins going uphill again going west out of the Rio Grande Valley.  Thankfully, I don't ride all that distance on my morning commutes.
Anyway, as I approached the village of Tijeras on Olde Route  66 and had to actually push on the pedals a bit, I realized I was out of steam.  My legs were both wooden and wobbly at the same time.  The previous 2 rides through that area was that of exulting in the feeling of power and speed.  Not wooden or wobbly.
I carry carbs with me (normally chocolate chip oatmeal snack bars) but I was hoping to make it to work by 9 AM so I stopped on the road shoulder and guzzled the entire contents of my orange-flavored drink bottle.  Which was probably 15 or 20 carbs, and which did not provide much of a boost.  By the time I got to the last 7 mile leg of the commute, I knew my blood sugar was too low for comfort, but running late, I pressed on without stopping for another snack.  The last 3 miles felt like I was riding in a tunnel with limited vision.
When I got to work my Blood Glucose tested at 47.  I should have stopped for another snack break.  As I entered the Albuquerque City Limits:

 I rode right by Waffle House, which I considered patronizing for some hash browns covered with chili and jalapenos (YUM) but I thought I had to get to work on time.  I was 7 minutes late, and should have said to heck with it and stopped for more chow.  Oh Well.
The only other bike-mobile ham I encountered on the radio this morning was Phil W5PWB.  I also talked to Mark W5MHG, the newest recumbent rider in ABQ, but he was NOT on his bike.  Bummer
I adjusted my pannier brackets for a heavier load and rode with a sealed lead acid (SLA or Gel Cell) battery today, and it held up very well with only minor voltage drop at the end of the  almost-3 hour ride.  For some reason I didn't notice the additional several pounds of weight, mostly likely because I already pack so much junque already.  I'll probably continue to use this gel-cell battery and see if it can hold up under my full electronics load.
Awakening BG:  69                           Post-Ride BG: 47
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.8         Ending Voltage: 12.5

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles: 31.71

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
11.0.  Mph                          11.7 mph             37.8 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
2 hours 26 mins               2 hours 16 mins         10.2 mins

Nooners Only these last 2 days

follow the continuing saga of Jim's tracking experiments

I rode close to a dozen miles both yesterday and today during my lunch hour.  An hour is not that satisfactory:  After all, it's only a half hour ride one way and then you have to turn around and hump back towards work to make it in time.  But it's better than nothing.
I've been having battery problems the last couple weeks.  If I ride much more than an hour, my batteries go soft and the GPS gets finicky and the radio stops transmitting and .  BAH - Very boring without working electronics on board for THIS geek.
I got out the  meter and checked my current drains for my bike electronics..... Mercy.  Up to 3/4 Amp on receive and over 1.5 Amps on transmit with the GPS 350 color display running (my favorite, of course).  With a 2 amp hour battery pack I'm lucky it lasts me as long as it does  at this rate.  Yesterday when I rode the ham radio APRS tracker didn't work at all..... because.... I had left the ANTENNA DISCONNECTED!
Today I rode with the Magellan Gold GPS which isn't as fancy but draws about HALF the current of the Garmin 350.  As seen in the tracker voltage reports, the battery was much happier with this arrangement.
Tomorrow, Thursday, Jacque is again coming to town and can give me and the bike an afternoon ride home... Meaning I will again do my new favorite portal-to-portal 32-mile ride from home to work  When I first did this long ride a couple weeks ago it was the culination of a long-held desire to try it at least once.  I had no idea how much FUN it would be to ride that distance or that I'd start doing it quasi-regularly.

Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.5         Ending Voltage: 12.8

Stats from the GPS:                            Total Miles:  11.15
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
08:47 Mph                          10.06 mph             19.0 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
1 hour, 3 mins                 1 hr, 0 mins               03 mins

32-Mile Monday

Only Tracked Part of the 32 miles this morning

Jacque's got some work to do for one of her consulting contracts customers after she gets off from the Beehive Home in Edgewood this afternoon, so we decided I'd do another bicycle ride from front door to work.  This really is an enjoyable ride, at least after the first nasty 3 miles.  It's a mess bouncing down the gravel/washout/rocky/rutted road from out house to the paved road at Frost, then it's about a quarter mile of straight and level riding, and then a long slow pull for 2 miles up to the "Triangle" intersection of North-14, Frost Road, and Sandia Crest Road.  Then after that, even MORE hill for another couple miles or so, which looks steeper but for some reason is not as hard to climb or as frustrating as the west end of Frost Road.  I stopped at the Triangle Shell station to top off my tires and enjoyed a good snort of water and a short breather and then off again.
I looked at my video feed of today's ride and was struck by how pretty the area is we live in here in the East Mountains.  I see it every day and take little notice of it, but looking at the video it struck me as extra nice.  Go Figure:

I'm always frustrated at the time it takes to load up all my STUFF, with a loaded backpack on the front luggage rack and a loaded pannier on the rear bars of the seat in back, water bottles on the side brackets, radio, etc, etc.  But I like my "stuff" and miss it when I don't have it all.
Of course, part of what makes this long ride fun is the several miles (at least 4) of smoking downhill grade where I can easily reach 30+ MPH without pedaling.  Actually, I CAN'T pedal that fast;  my legs would fall off if I tried.
I talked on the ham radio to one of our now-several ham/bicyclist commuters this morning, actually 2 of them:
W5MHG Mark, who was NOT on his bike but passed me in an intersection and rolled down his window to call out a friendly greeting (and called later on the radio to say HI again) and Phil W5PWB, another daily commuter.  It's always a kick to talk to another cyclist on the ham radio.  Helps ya feel like you're not the only weirdo in the world.
Awakening BG:  162                           Post-Ride BG: 168
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.2         Ending Voltage: 10.3

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles: 31.90

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
11.0.  Mph                          11.7 mph             36.8 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
2 hours 46 mins               2 hours 26 mins         20.2 mins

At Last, Another (Bike) Commuter Day

Follow the inevitable radio/gps tracker 

After a hiatus of several days I took the opportunity to ride to work again.  We've been working on the new sewing room addition these last several days.  The new concrete pilings we poured are now all cured and yesterday we cut 4 X 6 and 4 X 4 support posts and installed them with bolt-screw jacks in the top so we could raise the deck a wee bit at a time until it was level again (the NE corner of the deck is the floor of the new room).  Hope to get that all buttoned up and resume work back on the top and inside to get it DONE so we can do something more fun than installing insulation.  BAH
The weather was partly cloudy and beautiful for cycling today.  Enjoyably cool this morning and of course it will be towards uncomfortably warm this afternoon, which I'm about to jump into since it's now time to go home.
I Talked to 2 other hams on bicycles this morning:  Phil W5PWB on HIS way to work, and Mark W5MHG who was out for a joy ride on HIS recumbent cycle.  As we talked on the radio we realized we were all using the same headset and microphone gear, purchased on Ebay from China, where entrepreneurs still lurk.  So it seems.
Awakening BG:  162                           Post-Ride BG: 168
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.2         Ending Voltage: 11.3

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles: 07.46

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
09.0.  Mph                          11.6 mph             21.3 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
49:58 mins                          38:36 mins          11:22 mins

Ride Home:  Uneventful and Pleasant.  It kept threatening rain but none happened until I got up in Tijeras Canyon on I-40 in the car,.  Bicycle Riding Conditions:  Priceless.
My batteries have been going dead so early recently I thought they must be going bad.  It appears my charger may be the weak point.   Now trying a different charger to see if the batteries will wake up and perform as needed.
Pre-Ride BG:  177                           Post-Ride BG: 128:

Beginning Battery Voltage: 11.6         Ending Voltage: 11.2

Evening Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles: 07.37

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
10.,3.  Mph                          11.8 mph             24.4 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
42:59 mins                          37:38 mins          05:20 mins

I Haven't ridden to/from work this week yet since I'm still trying to get home sooner so I can make more progress on Jacque's sewing room.  Yesterday I got some prep done for jacking up the deck floor, reinforcing the supports and pilings, and leveling / squaring everything.  Hopefully in the next day or two I can get the underpinnings finished so I can get back to work on the inside and finish all that mess.

Today I took a noon ride out west to Rio Rancho's borders.  I rode west on the Paseo Bike Trail all the way to Coors.  The bike trail actually peters out just as you approach the intersection of Coors and Paseo, where there is a municipal swimming pool and activity facility I didn't previously know existed.  The last half mile or so you must ride in the very rough street pavement to arrive at Coors.  The bike maps show a bike path on Coors but I didn't investigate that;  I had to return to work.

Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.5         Ending Voltage: 10.7

Stats from the GPS:                            Total Miles:  13.51
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
11.0 Mph                          11.8 mph             22.50 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
1 hour, 13 mins                 1 hr, 08 mins           05:21 mins

Lets Go All the Way

Front Door to Work, 30+ Miles, but the Batteries Sagged..

Got a wild hair under my saddle today and decided to ride the bike all the way to work with NO car involved.
Jacque was worried, but she knows I'm crazy anyway, so off I went.  Gotta tell you, the first 2 miles up to the Triangle Gas Station intersection of Frost Road and North 14, was the absolute killer.  It's not far but it's a mostly uphill climb from where we get off our horrible dirt/rock/rutted/washed out 1-mile road and up on the paved roadway of Frost.  There is a steep hill just south of there that takes some huffinig and puffing to conquer but though it LOOKS steeper and longer it just doesn't suck the fire out of me like that 2 mile slow climb up Frost Road to the intersection.  I decided to pull into the Shell station at the intersection and take a breather.  I guzzled most of one of my 3 bottles of water and checked my blood glucose:  101 after eating my Breakfast Spam Half Sandwich with no bolus of insulin to cover it.  I treated myself to a Fried Apple Pie and took a potty break and took off again.  I probably spent 20 minutes there or I would have gotten to work measurably sooner.
I rode the so-called Bike / Pedestrian trail from Sandia Knolls down to about a mile north of Tijeras and then crossed NM-14 to ride in the right lane of traffic.  The so-called bike trail is spotted with weeds, gravel, all kinds of cracks, and unpredicable bumps and gutters every time a driveway or pullout interrupts it.  In other words, a lot like most bike trails:  Not fit to ride much faster than walking.When I went under I-40 and onto Olde Rt. 66, the shoulder varied from wonderfully wide and smooth to nonexistent.  One pickup passed within a foot of me as I was coasting down 14 almost to the I-40 on-ramp and it messed up my Christian attitude something awful.  I flipped him the universal one-finger salute and it's a good thing he kept going or he'd have had to whup me to calm me down.
Other than that S.O.B., I thought the trip was FUN.  It was a real hoot putting some real miles on the GPS.  It's not hard to imagine with a few weeks of sufficient time and practice being able to make a century day (100 miles for you unbiked people).  Maybe someday....
I also ditched the spare, heavy, lead-acid battery this morning and, of course, as a result, the main battery died just about the time I had 6 miles remaining on my commute.  So the radio blinked and blurped and the GPS tracker didn't report those last few miles.  Ah Well.  BAH
I'll try to condense a bit of the trip video to put on here later.
Awakening BG:  72                           Post-Ride BG: 101

Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.7         Ending Voltage: 10.1

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles: 31.91

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
11.1  Mph                          12.7 mph             34.8 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
2 Hours 52 mins               2 Hours 30 mins    22:03 mins

Another Nooner

12+ miles tracked today

Drove all the way to work today in hopes of again having a bit more time to work on the sewing room addition we're hand-constructing at home.  Couldn't resist the idea of another noon ride, this time with the usual liberal  slather of sun-block.
Carrying the extra 8-pounder lead-acid battery in the rear pannier sure makes it sag.  It also makes the pannier squat on top of the rear fender, which is plastic instead of metal, making the fender occasionally "sing" as it brushes the wheel underneath.  An extra rattle developed on today's ride, which normally spells trouble, so I stopped under a big cottonwood tree west of the Rio Grande and looked things over.  The front of the rear fender had been fastened for the last couple years with a black vinyl "Ty-Rap" fastener strip, which was now, of course, GONE.  I keep a baggette of these strips in the pannier so I pulled out a couple and reattached it.  This did not entirely cure the singing-fender problem but it cleared up the bothersome clicks and clacks previously prominent.
Though the bike trail/path is quite rough and bumpy in many areas along this route, it is a fun ride down to the Rio Grande and the Bosque from here. 

I shouldn't take such rides, however.  It's too often tempting to just keep going and never go back to work.

Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.0         Ending Voltage: 12.2

Stats from the GPS:                            Total Miles:  12.11
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
09.6  Mph                          11.4 mph             25.40 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
1 hour, 15 mins                 1 hr, 03 mins           12:29 mins

Wimpy Wednesday

The Tracker Seemed to Work Fine Today
I called this Wimpy Wednesday because I poked along without a great deal of git-up-and-go today.
Since the tracker stopped tracking during the last third of my 11-mile noon ride yesterday, I wanted to try it again today to see if it was a temporary lapse or if something else was wrong with the electronics.  It seems to have done just fine today.  I started carrying a 7 Amp-Hour Gel Cell Sealed Lead-Acid battery in the rear pannier as a backup.... it only adds about 5 or 6 pounds to the heavy lunk of stuff I always carry.  Mercy.  I don't notice it much riding the bike but I sure notice the load on my arm when I'm carrying the pannier between house and car and car and bike etc.
The recent rains have not produced much in the way of moisture but they surely have helped clear the smoke from the air.  It is great to ride and breathe deeply and realize the air doesn't crinkle the nose or make the back of the throat burn.

Afternoon:  It was cloudy and threatening all afternoon.  Methought I would surely get at least a little wet on the ride home, but though it was cloudy, no such luck.  The repaired battery was not charged since last night so I guess it's again working fine.
Starting BG:  68                           Post-Ride BG: 109

Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.8         Ending Voltage:  12.1

Evening Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  7.43

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
08.4  Mph                          09.6 mph             19.5 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
52:57 mins                          46:37 mins           06:20 mins

Short Noon Ride Only Today

Not very far, but a different path today
I was almost 3 months overdue for renewing my expired gasoline-powered drivers license, so I drove all the way to work today so I could take care of that during my noon hour, plus get home in time to get some progress done on the sewing room construction project.
I got back from the MotorHead VehicleDepartment earlier than I expected, so I unlimbered the recumbent off the car rack and went for an hour's ride.  I was wanting to try out my newly repaired battery pack to see if it would hold up this time.  It did indeed work better, but the tracking system stopped reporting about 3 miles before I got back to the car, so I'm still wondering what happened there.  The reported battery voltages were all well within the operating range of 14 down to 11.5 Volts.  Better check the antennas to make sure nothing's broken there.
Beginning BG:  Unk                           Post-Ride BG: Unk

Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.7         Ending Voltage: 12.2

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  10.91

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
09.9  Mph                          11.5 mph             23.0 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
1 hour, 6 mins                          57:02 mins           09:12 mins

Wet Bicycle Path

I didn't include my tracking link this morning since the battery on the electronics seemed to die right after I started pedaling toward work this morning.  It transmitted maybe 3 positions before it died.  After I got to work I started unwrapping the electrical tape from the 10-cell AA Nicad pack and found the main power wire was totally broken on one terminal and the other was dangerously frayed.  Soooo.... During the noon hour I resoldered and repaired them.
Our concrete pilings look great so far.  A few more days of curing and we'll be jacking things up, inserting wooden 4 X 4 support posts, and side braces.  Hopefully then we can finish off the new sewing room and get on with more fun aspects to our lives, like doing a cross country bike ride, a mission for the LDS church,  a Round-the-USA RV trip, etc.

Awakening BG:  95                           Post-Ride BG: 146

Beginning Battery Voltage: 09.3         Ending Voltage: 10.7

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  7.44

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
10.5  Mph                          12.1 mph             24.7 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
42:24 mins                          36:59 mins           05:25 mins

I repaired the torn wires on my rechargeable battery pack during my lunch break but it didn't seem to want to charge well.  It ran down after about a dozen positions reported on the ride back to the car tonight.
Will have to start carrying a spare pack.  Trying a deep  cycle recharge tonight.
The wind was cool, very strong, and from the east instead of the usual out-from-the-west wind.  Slowed me down considerable.......
Starting BG:  95                           Post-Ride BG: 146

Beginning Battery Voltage: 09.3         Ending Voltage: 10.7

Evening Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  7.44

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
08.4  Mph                          09.0 mph             23.4 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
52:59 mins                          49:47 mins           03:12 mins

RAIN ... and Weekend Work

Jacque and I stayed home again this weekend in order to mix and pour some more concrete to add support for her new sewing room on the corner of the deck.
It actually RAINED on and off all day.  We mixed and poured 8 sacks of "Sac-Crete" at 80 pounds per sack.  Great reason for the old backs to go out, but we tried as best we could to use our legs to do most of the actual heavy lifting and so far, so good.  I'm still walking upright and Jacque seems to be doing fine, too, several hours after we stopped for the day.  Only a few more sacks of concrete to go and we should be ready to jack up the floor joists about 1/2 inch or so to level it and get back to finishing off the room.

More Eye Candy

Watch the Endless BreadCrumb Track

What beautiful weather to be on a bicycle.  Yeah, I know, it gets hot and windy in the afternoons, but it's still great weather for a bicycle ride in the country.... or anywhere else.
Not to mention, for you guys, all the eye candy you meet along the bike paths:

This young lady was friendly, too, not snotty like some you meet.
I need to stop riding the bike for a while so I can make more time to work on the house, pull weeds, shovel dog poop, etc, etc.  I keep hoping I can ride the bike AND get stuff done at home but:
-Usually it's too late OR
-I'm too tired OR
-Both of the above.

Awakening BG:  45                           Post-Ride BG: 74

Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.8         Ending Voltage: 12.2

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  7.44

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
10.1  Mph                          11.9 mph             22.6 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
44:07 mins                          37:35 mins           06:32 mins

 On the ride back to the car this afternoon I spotted a 4-wheeler illegally on the supposedly non motorized MUP (Multi Use Path).  He was mounting the vehicle when I approached and hesitated when I pointed the handheld video cam at him:

After I passed him, I watched him in my rear view mirror for several hundred yards and he just stood there watching me fade into the horizon.  I'd like to hope guilt overwhelmed him and he decided not to ride on the path any more under gasoline power - BAH - I know better.
Leaving Work BG:  156                           Post-Ride BG: 100

Beginning Battery Voltage: 11.9         Ending Voltage: 11.4 (Battery blinking DEAD just as I got to the car)

Evening Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  7.44

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
09.3 Mph                          10.0 mph             20.7 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
47:59 mins                          44:29 mins           03:30 mins

If This Keeps Up it's Gonna Get HOT

7.46 miles of silliness tracker

I tried another GPS puck on the setup this morning.  This one is a Garmin 18, of which I was able to purchase 5 from Ebay.  All but one of them worked, and this one locked and began burping bicycle positions almost immediately.  It's small enough to stay in the bike's back-of-seat pouch with the Opentracker and radio for backup use or when the Garmin 350 color display unit is not on board.
I may squeeze some short videos in here but it takes a long time to go through the pile of raw video for to make up my mind.
Don't watch this one if you've recently eaten anything (It's ME):

Awakening BG:  75                           Post-Ride BG: 141

Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.7         Ending Voltage: 12.3

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  7.43

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
09.8  Mph                          11.8 mph             22.3 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
43:10 mins                          37:27 mins           05:43 mins

Afternoon ride.... what can I say?  The ever present afternoon winds weren't as stiff as usual.  YAY
Beginning BG:  50                           Post-Ride BG: 154

Evening Battery Voltage: 12.2         Ending Voltage: 11.8

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  7.47

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
08.8  Mph                          10.3 mph             21.7 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
50:58 mins                          43:31 mins           07:27 mins

Fixing the Check Engine Light on the Bike

Back to the Boring 7.46 Mile Track
The title of this entry reflects yesterday evening's activities:  Jacque's Exploder got it's wheels aligned and repaired, then she got on me about getting the "Check Engine" light problem fixed since the vehicle is a couple weeks away from needing re-registration, meaning it has to pass the dreaded emissions test, which it wouldn't since the check engine thing has been glowing brightly for a couple months at least.
I took it to Autozone after retrieving it from the alignment joint and got the nice lady there to run a diagnostics check to see if the
warning lights" might be anything I could repair or replace myself.  It had two error codes that recurred several times, each with a suggested solution of catalytic converter (Ouch- hundreds of bucks) or oxygen sensors, of which this vehicle has 3 of, front, middle, and back.  The nice lady printed out the codes and suggested solutions so I could review them at my leisure.  I had noticed on MY car (Ford Taurus) that the check engine light comes on and off almost every day but if I STOPPED any tracker beaconing or transmitting on any of my other ham radios, the check light would never come on.  I decided to try an experiment with the Exploder:  I disconnected the battery, set my cell phone alarm for 15 minutes, and sat there in the Albuquerque heat reading my latest e-book novel and then reconnected the battery, thus resetting the vehicle computer to clear all old codes.  I unplugged her ham radio tracker (Which produces a fairly strong pulsating Radio transmittion every few minutes) and turned off the voice ham radio transceiver so I wouldn't be tempted to talk on it if I heard someone I knew, and drove home.This was over 30 minutes of driving including a stop for gas at Sams Club, and NO engine check lights came on, at all.
 If no check lights have blinked by the time Jacque gets off work at Beehive at 3:00 PM this afternoon, she's supposed to RUSH it down to a local emissions place and see if it passes the test, which if successful, will allow re registration for the next couple years.  Technology and Bureaucracy... What a Combination.  BAH
This morning I caught a couple cute videos:  2 speed-racers who passed me and heckled me about all my electronic stuff on the handlebars.  The 2nd guy to pass me hollers out "What Channel are you Watching on TV??" at which point he, looking at me over his shoulder, goes slightly off the path into the gravel and just BARELY misses going down while being the smart-aleck:

The second video clip is of a non typical path-walker.  Non-typical because she's tall and blonde, instead of short and brown all over:

Awakening BG:  120                           Post-Ride BG: 107

Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.1         Ending Voltage: 12.3

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  7.44

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
10.3  Mph                          11.9 mph             22.8 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
43:10 mins                          37:27 mins           05:43 mins

This afternoon's ride back to the car was not too bad, though of course the usual headwind is bothersome.
One of my bike-riding co-workers asked me, disbelievingly, if I was "Still riding in all this heat."  He seemed to think that was amazing.  I think it's more amazing that I ride all through the winter months with few exceptions.  This guy is a cool dude, but he obviously misses out on a lot of riding... he doesn't ride when it's cold OR hot.   That really limits the number of available riding days.
Passed a nice group of cyclists this afternoon, must be a riding group of some kind:

Beginning BG:  254 (Having a bit of trouble with this lately)   Post-Ride BG: 166

Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.3         Ending Voltage: 11.8

Evening Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  7.40

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
09.9  Mph                          10.3 mph             20.2 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
44:59 mins                          43:04 mins           01:55 mins

Happy 5th of July!!

Wow, slightly Longer and Different Route Today -

Well, I thought it was going to be a lousy weekend.  Jacque and I had decided to stay home and work on the house and yard instead of doing any 4th of July activities, such as traveling to Chama or somewhere where the temperature is still in the double digits.  We purchased some redi-mix sacks of concrete from the local home ripoff store and some other expensive items and Saturday was spent digging underneath the deck with pick and shovel and post-hole diggers for which to make stronger supports for the deck already overhead, which unfortunately is beginning to sag a bit under the weight of the new sewing room above it.  I managed to jam both my right thumb and right pinky and the finger next to it somehow, what with the whanging away with post-hole diggers being the biggest source of bumps and pains.  By Saturday night I was whupped.

Sunday was a great day.  Our stake had announced a stake fast and prayer for rain to ease the drought.  After an especially moving worship service in which many prayers were offered up for rain and relief, I had to laugh out loud at God's Goodness:  When we went to the door to leave after meetings, guess what we encountered???  A SOAKING WET parking lot, with drizzling rain.  It was certainly not enough to break the drought, yet, but it certainly was a nice response to a bunch of sinners' prayers.

Then Monday, the 4th, yesterday, Jacque went to work at the Beehive House (she's their prima cook, and old folks get hungry on national holidays, too) and I went to work mixing concrete and pulling weeds.  Jacque got home shortly after 3 PM and was able to help me, and we got the major piling poured by about 5:00 PM.  What a hassle.  I despise having to move so slow, being such an old farte and all, and still hurting all over from the effort.  These bags of concrete, when still dry, weigh 80 pounds each and are not fun to hump around from the Ford to the wheelbarrow to the waiting water mix before being dumped into the thirsty waiting piling-hole.

I mixed 4 bags of the stuff to make the one piling, and it was hot and sweaty work all the way, of course.  If I was still 30 it would have been much easier......

Anyway, I thought sure my back would be screaming in agony by the time we quit in exhaustion for the day, but so far so good.  I shouldn't state out loud that my back isn't suffering because it could do the delayed "

Spazz - Out" thing at any time.

This morning, Jacque's Ford Exploder had an appointment with the wheel alignment man who is expensive but thorough:  Chet's Wheel Alignment

So, she drove my Taurus to Edgewood and the Beehive Home, and I racked up my recumbent bike on her Exploder and drove it to Chet's and turned it over to them and loaded all my STUFF on the bike and rode 10 miles to work instead of 7.45 or so this morning.  Too bad I don't have sufficient spare time in my life to ride this distance or more every day.

 Awakening BG:  120                           Post-Ride BG: 107

Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.2         Ending Voltage: 12.5

Morning Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  10.04

Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
12.1  Mph                          12.6 mph             24.2 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
49:37 mins                          47:46 mins           01:51 mins
   
Along about 4:30 PM the wheel alignment shoppe called to tell me Jacque's Exploder was ready to be picked up.  This was wonderful news, but when I asked how late they were open the response was "5:30 PM".  That gave me exactly one hour to ride 10 miles, with slight uphill grades part of the way.. I could likely make that distance that quickly IF the bike was already packed, loaded, and ready to go.  I asked him if he could PLEASE wait for me if I wasn't there by 5:30.  He asked "How MUCH later?"  I responded with my best guess of maybe 15 minutes or so... it normally takes me almost 50 minutes or more to ride my normal home-commute of 7.5 miles.  It was frustrating trying to get out of the building as quickly as I could and hit the road.   I took Jefferson straight south to Paseo and then took the back streets over to the diversion trail bike path, which saved me a mile and a half or so and several minutes.  I have to fight more traffic that way, especially at Jefferson and Paseo, one of the busiest intersections around.  Kinda dicey - which is why I rarely ride that way unless in a hurry, a storm is threatening, etc.
My current geek-squad equipment on the bike does not include a clock so I rode as fast as I could, in spite of the usual nasty afternoon headwinds.  The stoplight at Osuna and Chappel was, as usual, frustratingly slow.  When I finally got there, the guy was still there, holding the fort for me.... thank goodness.  Turns out I was only 5 minutes late:  It was 5:35 PM.  I actually passed 2 or 3 other riders today.  No telling why they were running so slow... maybe they were slowing down to pee in the weeds when I passed them and I mistakenly patted myself on the back.  WHATEVER

Beginning BG:  276 (My infusion site was bruised and leaking!)        Post-Ride BG:  297 (changed infusion set after this, got BG down to 107) 
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.6 (No intermediate charging today) Ending Voltage: 12.0
Evening Stats from the GPS:                 Total Miles:  9.09
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
09.7  Mph                          11.2 mph             21.5  mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
56:24 mins                        48:51 mins            07:33 mins