A Cyclist's Life: Threw Rock at Dog, Got a Bloody Stump

(No, this dog didn't result in any blood.... it's our beloved TINKerbell fondly wearing the new Cycling Hat Jacque sewed for her)

 Today's Short but Sweet Ride Track

I did the usual Monday-Morning-Guilt-Trip thing again today:  It's been 6 days since I rode the bike and I decided to do the 5-something mile mail run this morning, hoped-fully before the sun got too hot.
All last week we received at least one rain-shower each day, and the results have been wonderful:  The air smells terrific, the fire danger is down here in the East Mountains, things are starting to green up, our road is washing out again, etc.  All good. we LOVE THE RAIN -
But though the recent temperatures have cooled somewhat, the increased humidity has made the temperatures more uncomfortable, and the "swamp cooler" we have on the roof has almost no effect except to make it seem even more humid in the house so we run it in blow-air mode only just to keep the air moving in the house, which helps.  Riding the bike down the new ruts and rocks in our mile of unpaved private road to the pavement of Frost Road wasn't too bad and the ride up to the Post Office wasn't bad at all.   Some clouds were a bit threatening but no rain fell on me during the short ride.
Oh, yeah -  here's a photo of Jacque and I eating our pick-a-nick lunch on the edge of the rock cliff just below Kiwanis Cabin on Sandia Crest on our 4th of July hike:

Meanwhile,back to today's ride.... I am always at least mildly surprised at the difference in auto drivers from day to day.   Most days, 99% of auto drivers are courteous almost to a fault, but most days at least one lunatick tries to see how close he/she can brush by me without actually knocking me sideways.  Today was one of those days where everyone was just great, sometimes even crowding the oncoming cars in the other lane to give me a wide berth.   (We had a notorious case a few years ago where a young woman was passing a group of cyclists on Old Hiway 66 near Tijeras and, upon cresting a small hill and finding an oncoming car in the other lane headed toward her, couldn't be bothered to slow down or wait for a gap in the clutch of cyclists:  She just abruptly pulled back to the right, plowing into  2 cyclists,
killing the husband and maiming his wife on the other bike, and only after months of the police making excuses for her young age (and not-mentioned cuteness) was she charged with some kind of traffic offense which, as I recall, resulted in no jail or probation or monetary loss for her, perhaps a short suspension of her driver's license)
/Rant off.  The mud at the bottom of our mile-long dirt road was dried enough to find a narrow path to get across without mud all over me or the bike, and the return home was not too bad, considering I always have to dismount and push the bike up at least a third of the rocky hill road.  As I huffed and puffed into our yard and parked the recumbent, the neighbor's dog opened up on me.  This is the typical dog-lover neighbor you tend to have in the East Mountains:  Several dogs, shut up most of the day in the house, likely never walked or exercised, since their seemingly only joy in life is barking at us in our yard or inside our home almost 100 yards from our common fence-line.  Only one was out yapping at me this time, and he was right in the corner railing at me for being in my own yard, so I picked up a few rocks to heave at him and walked around the juniper trees to get within throwing-range of him.  I drew back my arm for the first throw and was shocked to feel immediate pain:  I'd failed to respectfully note the lack of distance between me and a nearby 5 foot tall cactus plant and I'd slammed my rock-laden hand right into the midst of it.  Talk about inadvertently cutting off your own nose to spite your face.... I managed to shut the noisy offending mutt up by going ahead and peppering his area with small rocks.. with my age and arthritis there is little chance I'd ever nail him... but you know the old saying:  What goes around comes around.  Now if only the neighbor's dogs could accidentally fall into some cactus whenever they start barking at us when they hear us walking inside our house... but poetic justice is for humans only, one supposes.
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.8   --    Ending Voltage: 12.9
Ride's Lowest Temperature: 70 degrees F -- Highest Temperature: 77 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:     5.57
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
04.9 MPH                                7.6 MPH                   22.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 8 mins                        44 mins   10 secs       25 mins8 secs