TTT (Today's Trike Tracking)
Well, there wasn't a WHOLE lot of snow we pedaled through, but even a little is not too enjoyable, especially frozen into a hard crust.
I was waffling this afternoon about whether to sneak in at least a short bike ride when Jacque, out of the blue, said: "It's 3:30 and beautiful out. Why don't we ride the trike to the Post Office and pick up the mail?" Which sounded like a great idea to me, even though I knew the hour was late. Ignoring my recent late afternoon experiences, we saddled up the trike for the ride. By the time we actually got rolling it was after 4 PM, and it gets pretty dark by 5 PM nowadays, and nastily colder starting around 3 PM.
Man, did it ever seem COLD this afternoon. And SLOW. The cold seemed to sap our strength and it was a struggle to keep moving. We made several rest stops along the short but difficult climb to the P.O. and still struggled. About halfway up the road Jacque noticed something rubbing and making noise in the back as we downshifted to Granny Gear, the lowest of the low gears of our theoretical 27 combinations. We stopped and found the derailleur was rubbing the tire when in the largest rear gear, meaning the derailleur was extended the most, normally barely clearing the ground in this gear. Now it was rubbing the rear tire and leaving a mark on the sidewall. The tire looked a bit low in pressure, making it sag outward on the bottom, so I dug the CO2 cartridge inflator gun out of the tool pouch on the pannier and used the last few PSI, inflating the tire noticably. It still seemed to touch the derailleur but not as badly or noisily. By the time I got everything packed back up in the pannier, it was almost dark. Did I mention it was cold? Neither of us seemed to have much energy and we wondered aloud at our sanity at riding this late in a cold day. I felt like I was getting a bit low on blood glucose but didn't want to stop and check it until we got to the Post Office, where I could check all that out whilst Jacque went inside to retrieve the mail. During our tire-inflation stop we had noticed the girls, Tink and Jazzy, were shivering. Jacque took Tink out of her harness in the rear basket and tucked her inside the front of her jacket, warming them both a bit more. No complaint from either of them (Jacque OR Tink). I took my layers off. Jazzy was in her belly pack on the outside of my layers so I re-layered everything with HER on the INSIDE, where she could be zipped up underneath the windbreaker. Both doggies seemed to appreciate the gestures since they stopped shivering.... almost completely.
It was a strain and a struggle but we finally made it to the P.O., and we agreed unanimously that we were definitely NOT going to go on up to the Shell Station for a snack. We were cold and tired and interested solely in the mostly downhill run back toward the vehicle that burned gasoline and had a working HEATER inside. When Jacque came back outside, with the usual couple of admiring passers-by clucking at the doggies, I showed her my blood glucose reading, not sure I was seeing straight: TWENTY (20), way below the level of consciousness for most diabetics. No wonder I had been so low on energy coming up the hill. I quickly ate my stash of chocolate chip cookie emergency snacks (3 cookies), feeling bad because we were just sitting in the PO parking lot getting colder and no closer to home.... and the sun was fast going away completely. We finally got underway again and - with only 2 mild hills obstructing a good downhill ride - were soon back at the Ford SUV and loading up. The warmth of the inside of that Ford was truly wonderful this evening. We were fairly chilled and it took over an hour of basking in the wood heat at home to get our insides warmed up again.
We agree we will definitely ride in the cold again.... but never again after 3 PM and more hopefully no later than 1 or 2 PM, at least in the colder months.
Ride Started: 4:08 PM Ride Ended: 5:27 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.3 Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp 35 F Highest Temp: 57 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 3.56
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
2.9 MPH 5.3 MPH 23.6 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 14 mins 40 minutes 33 minutes
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Ode to the Wintry Day
Today's Boring Tracking
Well, it's been over a week (8 days) since I got off my butt and rode the bike anywhere. The very cold weather has reduced my enthusiasm, and I've been frantically hauling and splitting and stacking firewood these last few weeks. All of which might be good excuses but excuses aren't good enough when I'm trying to stay healthy. When I was still gainfully employed I rode almost every day in much colder weather, but then, before the US economy took a free-fall, I had the motivation of having to go to work anyway and riding the last 7 or more miles each day was easily obtainable.
Anyway. Back to the "El Rancho No Tengo", as I saw painted on the door of a beat-up truck years ago.
I fired up the wonderful old Ford tractor this morning and used it to haul firewood, grade the goat-path road, clear a bit of the neighbor's yard, and dig and haul gravel and dirt "Borrowed" from various areas along the road to fill potholes and depressions in the aforesaid road.
The "Powerful Steering" on the tractor is faint, and I have to really strain with both arms to steer the dern thing, and I had to continually get on and off the tractor and man-handle huge log chunks and stumps out of the neighbor's chipwood-pile and into the tractor front bucket. Which is exercise, and leaves me puffing, but I doubt it's efficacy in acting as aerobic exercise, i.e., getting the pulse rate up and maintaining it for a while. Shortly after noon I decided I was done and it was time to dig the bike out of the small snowbank next to the shed and go for a ride, even if short.
Tink and Jazzy, the world's cutest and most wonderful lap-dogs, were all excited to go. By the time I snarfed a bacon-cheese-jalapeno lunch sandwich and got everything ready to go it was past 2:00 PM, which I thought left us plenty of time.
We did the standard-but-tiring ride up to the Post Office. It was a bit cool outside but I had to stop 2 times in less than 3 miles to peel off layers to avoid getting hot and sweaty, which of course leads to getting really cold in the sweaty spots. The cyclist's dilemma, trying to regulate body heat.
We arrived at the P.O. fine and dandy. I was doing OK and my blood glucose checked fine at 147 (a bit high for a diabetic on insulin but it drops quickly when exercising). I planned to get the junk mail and hit the road for several more miles on my favorite eastbound loop out to Mountain Valley Road and back on Entranosa and Tumbleweed.
When I came out of the P.O., however, I found Tinkerbell visibly shivering. She has a nice thick coat, but evidently the breeze was penetrating it and she was COLD.
I thought better of riding a longer ride and decided to take the girls home instead. Jazzy was in her belly papoose-style snuggle harness and staying warmer than Tink, but neither of them had Jacque's cute and effective doggie vests on.
As we bounced off the pavement of Frost Road and up the hill on our dirt, rock, and gravel mile of goat path, I stopped. The girls normally get antsy and need to "do their business" while riding around, and I used this for an excuse to take a short break myself. We no sooner dismounted than Jacque drove up, at which point the dogs rejoiced at the idea of getting in the warm car and riding the rest of the way home with "Mom".
Ride Started: 2:42 PM Ride Ended: 4:04 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.8 Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp 39 F Highest Temp: 53 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 5.50
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
4.8 MPH 7.1 MPH 25.4 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 9 mins 46 minutes 22 minutes
Well, it's been over a week (8 days) since I got off my butt and rode the bike anywhere. The very cold weather has reduced my enthusiasm, and I've been frantically hauling and splitting and stacking firewood these last few weeks. All of which might be good excuses but excuses aren't good enough when I'm trying to stay healthy. When I was still gainfully employed I rode almost every day in much colder weather, but then, before the US economy took a free-fall, I had the motivation of having to go to work anyway and riding the last 7 or more miles each day was easily obtainable.
Anyway. Back to the "El Rancho No Tengo", as I saw painted on the door of a beat-up truck years ago.
I fired up the wonderful old Ford tractor this morning and used it to haul firewood, grade the goat-path road, clear a bit of the neighbor's yard, and dig and haul gravel and dirt "Borrowed" from various areas along the road to fill potholes and depressions in the aforesaid road.
The "Powerful Steering" on the tractor is faint, and I have to really strain with both arms to steer the dern thing, and I had to continually get on and off the tractor and man-handle huge log chunks and stumps out of the neighbor's chipwood-pile and into the tractor front bucket. Which is exercise, and leaves me puffing, but I doubt it's efficacy in acting as aerobic exercise, i.e., getting the pulse rate up and maintaining it for a while. Shortly after noon I decided I was done and it was time to dig the bike out of the small snowbank next to the shed and go for a ride, even if short.
Tink and Jazzy, the world's cutest and most wonderful lap-dogs, were all excited to go. By the time I snarfed a bacon-cheese-jalapeno lunch sandwich and got everything ready to go it was past 2:00 PM, which I thought left us plenty of time.
We did the standard-but-tiring ride up to the Post Office. It was a bit cool outside but I had to stop 2 times in less than 3 miles to peel off layers to avoid getting hot and sweaty, which of course leads to getting really cold in the sweaty spots. The cyclist's dilemma, trying to regulate body heat.
We arrived at the P.O. fine and dandy. I was doing OK and my blood glucose checked fine at 147 (a bit high for a diabetic on insulin but it drops quickly when exercising). I planned to get the junk mail and hit the road for several more miles on my favorite eastbound loop out to Mountain Valley Road and back on Entranosa and Tumbleweed.
When I came out of the P.O., however, I found Tinkerbell visibly shivering. She has a nice thick coat, but evidently the breeze was penetrating it and she was COLD.
I thought better of riding a longer ride and decided to take the girls home instead. Jazzy was in her belly papoose-style snuggle harness and staying warmer than Tink, but neither of them had Jacque's cute and effective doggie vests on.
As we bounced off the pavement of Frost Road and up the hill on our dirt, rock, and gravel mile of goat path, I stopped. The girls normally get antsy and need to "do their business" while riding around, and I used this for an excuse to take a short break myself. We no sooner dismounted than Jacque drove up, at which point the dogs rejoiced at the idea of getting in the warm car and riding the rest of the way home with "Mom".
Ride Started: 2:42 PM Ride Ended: 4:04 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.8 Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp 39 F Highest Temp: 53 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 5.50
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
4.8 MPH 7.1 MPH 25.4 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 9 mins 46 minutes 22 minutes
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Balancing Biking and Busting Firewood
Today's oh-so-very-short Tracking
I haven't ridden the bike since Saturday, when I only rode it several hundred feet around the parking lot at Intel for the ham radio swapfest ongoing that day.
I've been getting serious about firewood, cutting about an eighth or more of a cord per day. I have the distinct suspicion we may have a cold and snowy winter this season, and of course we've already been burning wood in the living room stove for the last 2 weeks in the mornings and for about the last week also in the evenings. It's not horribly cold yet but the house has been getting chilly enough to warrant wood fires - at least for an hour or two. It won't be much longer before the stove is going almost full time. My procrastination proclivity normally finds me cutting firewood, after dark, with headlamp, often with snow falling gently (or in gale-force winds).
Every year I "decide" to get started on woodcutting early enough to build up a good stock of it BEFORE snow flies and begins to complicate the process. Then I normally put it off so long it's cut-wood-for-a-few-more-days all winter. BAH
I'm ahead of the game - so far - for once - and it's mostly due to the lack of snow thus far. Usually we get our first snow around Halloween. We've been experiencing hard frosts and freezing temps (it was 25 F this morning at 7:00 AM) but so far no snow.
Anyways, my burning desire to cut firewood has been crowding out my available time for cycling.
Cutting firewood is good exercise, mind you, or at least it's EXERCISE. I get winded and tired, my back and arms and legs get tired, my blood glucose gets burned down to danger zone levels, indicating I'm burning carbs. I don't think such body abuse constitutes AEROBIC exercise. I still feel I should continue to shoot for at least a few miles a day on the bike.
Today I started to run out of daylight after a day of busting firewood, but I wanted to ride at least a short while - so I used the old "Go Get the Mail" excuse. Not a long ride, but a long several-percent climb of over a mile going TO the Post Office. Coming back I get to coast for a mile or more, meaning little exercise, but climbing our mile of goat-path up the little valley to our house results in some good huffing and puffing.
Tonight wasn't even extra cold. I wore only my violently green/yellow tee shirt on the way to the P.O. and put on my light windbreaker for the ride back. Once back to the huff-n-puff of our mile of goat-path climb to the house, the windbreaker came off and was packed back in the pannier.
Ride Started: 4:32 PM Ride Ended: 5:16 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.1 Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp 53 F Highest Temp: 60 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 5.51
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
5.9 MPH 7.3 MPH 26.4 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
56 minutes 45 minutes 11 minutes
I haven't ridden the bike since Saturday, when I only rode it several hundred feet around the parking lot at Intel for the ham radio swapfest ongoing that day.
I've been getting serious about firewood, cutting about an eighth or more of a cord per day. I have the distinct suspicion we may have a cold and snowy winter this season, and of course we've already been burning wood in the living room stove for the last 2 weeks in the mornings and for about the last week also in the evenings. It's not horribly cold yet but the house has been getting chilly enough to warrant wood fires - at least for an hour or two. It won't be much longer before the stove is going almost full time. My procrastination proclivity normally finds me cutting firewood, after dark, with headlamp, often with snow falling gently (or in gale-force winds).
Every year I "decide" to get started on woodcutting early enough to build up a good stock of it BEFORE snow flies and begins to complicate the process. Then I normally put it off so long it's cut-wood-for-a-few-more-days all winter. BAH
I'm ahead of the game - so far - for once - and it's mostly due to the lack of snow thus far. Usually we get our first snow around Halloween. We've been experiencing hard frosts and freezing temps (it was 25 F this morning at 7:00 AM) but so far no snow.
Anyways, my burning desire to cut firewood has been crowding out my available time for cycling.
Cutting firewood is good exercise, mind you, or at least it's EXERCISE. I get winded and tired, my back and arms and legs get tired, my blood glucose gets burned down to danger zone levels, indicating I'm burning carbs. I don't think such body abuse constitutes AEROBIC exercise. I still feel I should continue to shoot for at least a few miles a day on the bike.
Today I started to run out of daylight after a day of busting firewood, but I wanted to ride at least a short while - so I used the old "Go Get the Mail" excuse. Not a long ride, but a long several-percent climb of over a mile going TO the Post Office. Coming back I get to coast for a mile or more, meaning little exercise, but climbing our mile of goat-path up the little valley to our house results in some good huffing and puffing.
Tonight wasn't even extra cold. I wore only my violently green/yellow tee shirt on the way to the P.O. and put on my light windbreaker for the ride back. Once back to the huff-n-puff of our mile of goat-path climb to the house, the windbreaker came off and was packed back in the pannier.
Ride Started: 4:32 PM Ride Ended: 5:16 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.1 Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp 53 F Highest Temp: 60 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 5.51
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
5.9 MPH 7.3 MPH 26.4 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
56 minutes 45 minutes 11 minutes
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Rode the Bike to Vote.... But
Today's Accurate and Short Tracking
I wanted to vote earlier this morning but time got away from me, as usual. I left the doggies home since I knew the election officials would not allow me to bring them inside, and since the voting place is normally a school in session, I didn't want them left outside to attract attention.
Trouble is, when I got there, no voting apparatus was in sight. Evidently since this is an "Off" non-Presidential election year, the voting will take place at the Village Offices in downtown Tijeras.
I considered riding the 7 miles or so down into Tijeras, but I have commitments this evening and cannot afford to risk getting home too late. PLUS, I need to check online and find out exactly where the voting IS taking place.
It was pretty cold this morning but I layered up, with a wicking thermal long sleeve shirt, flaming yellow biking tee shirt on top of that, and the windbreaker on top of that. I also donned the polar fleece skull cap and the mid-winter mittens. (When it gets down to freezing and below, I wear muk-luk style gloves with chemical hand warmers inside. I can barely work the shift levers, but it keeps the fingers from freezing.)
I did not get overheated until I started back home, climbing the slow hill toward the intersection of Frost Road and North-14. I stopped at the Post Office for mail and then screamed downhill eastward toward home, unzipping a couple layers when I got to the turnoff onto our goat-path uphill mile of private road to the house.
Ride Started: 10:49 AM Ride Ended: 12:00 Noon
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.9 Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp 42 F Highest Temp: 50 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 7.27
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
6.1 MPH 7.7 MPH 25.5 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 12 mins 56 minutes 15 minutes
I wanted to vote earlier this morning but time got away from me, as usual. I left the doggies home since I knew the election officials would not allow me to bring them inside, and since the voting place is normally a school in session, I didn't want them left outside to attract attention.
Trouble is, when I got there, no voting apparatus was in sight. Evidently since this is an "Off" non-Presidential election year, the voting will take place at the Village Offices in downtown Tijeras.
I considered riding the 7 miles or so down into Tijeras, but I have commitments this evening and cannot afford to risk getting home too late. PLUS, I need to check online and find out exactly where the voting IS taking place.
It was pretty cold this morning but I layered up, with a wicking thermal long sleeve shirt, flaming yellow biking tee shirt on top of that, and the windbreaker on top of that. I also donned the polar fleece skull cap and the mid-winter mittens. (When it gets down to freezing and below, I wear muk-luk style gloves with chemical hand warmers inside. I can barely work the shift levers, but it keeps the fingers from freezing.)
I did not get overheated until I started back home, climbing the slow hill toward the intersection of Frost Road and North-14. I stopped at the Post Office for mail and then screamed downhill eastward toward home, unzipping a couple layers when I got to the turnoff onto our goat-path uphill mile of private road to the house.
Ride Started: 10:49 AM Ride Ended: 12:00 Noon
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.9 Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp 42 F Highest Temp: 50 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 7.27
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
6.1 MPH 7.7 MPH 25.5 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 12 mins 56 minutes 15 minutes
Monday, November 3, 2014
Baby, It's Cold Outside
Today's Unusually Effective Tracking
The weather has finally been turning cooler over the past few weeks.
For the last week or so we have been starting a fire in the wood stove in the mornings to chase the chill out of the house, and yesterday (Sunday) it rained much of the day and got even colder, so we lit up the stove early in the afternoon and kept it going almost until bedtime.
This morning we awoke to frost and ice on the windshields, even though we're not sure what the actual low temperature was last night.
We've been burning firewood left over from last season, but with all this cold settling in for several days and winter staring us in the face I decided it was time to get serious and dedicate some effort toward cutting firewood for THIS winter.
Of course it is a bit late for this "grasshopper" to start laying in stores for the winter, but I have many dead junipers I cut down last year and are cured and dry enough to burn efficiently.... all I have to do is cut 'em up into stove lengths and pile them conveniently close to the house.
My easiest way to do this is to fire up the Ford tractor and use the front bucket for throwing freshly cut wood into. Most places in my trees I can just drive the tractor right up close to the desired already-felled tree and cut it up with the chainsaw and throw it right in the maw of the tractor's front bucket.
The trees I cut last year were all junipers, but the rampant bark beetle infestation that is raging throughout the SouthWest has killed many of our pinons and pines as well. Three of them were right in front of the tractor's parking spot and I just had to start it up and move it maybe 20 feet to be as close as possible to minimize the distance I have to throw the cut wood.
I got all 3 trees cut down and cut to stove lengths, with the tractor bucket a little over half full. Suddenly my chainsaw's safety chain-brake lever stuck and would not pull into running position.
I was pretty winded and the old back was talking to me by now anyway, so I hauled the chainsaw and wood over to the house and offloaded the wood onto our deck and began the tedious process of disassembling the saw. Ours is an old and very reliable Stihl that has run and run, eating several chains over the years and a couple of bars.
I got it apart and found the broken piece blocking the action of the safety handle-bar. Upon reassembly I was carefully replacing the snap-ring that holds the chain-gear in place and the universally dreaded KA-PINGGGG occurred and the blasted critical piece ricocheted around the deck and out of sight, making several smaller "pings" as it disappeared totally from access or view. I searched the deck for it - knowing the odds were microscopic I would ever find it - and finally asked the little fuzz-ball Jazzy if she wanted to "Go For a Ride?" and upon getting the affirmative answer of jumping joyfully all over creation, I loaded her up in the Ford Exploder and drove to the nearby Davis True Value Hardware Store, where I found a good selection of snap-rings.
Got the saw reassembled completely but the afternoon sun was fading fast (Don't we all love the fall time change where we suddenly lose that hour of evening daylight?). I decided if I was going to get in a bike ride I'd better do it whilst there was ANY daylight left.
It had warmed up today while the sun was highest so I wasn't much worried about wearing any extra layers when I rode off. It only took a quarter mile or so before I pulled my windbreaker out of the pannier and zipped it up. The breeze was a bit nippier than I'd thought, and I expected to peel off the windbreaker when I got a few more miles down the road and heated up a bit more.
Didn't happen. I unzipped the jacket front climbing my longest hill but had to zip it back up within another quarter mile or so. By the time I got to the halfway mark the sun was actually setting; another misjudgment on my part. Thank goodness I have headlights, tail lights, helmet and side lights.
The ride back home was definitely cold, with me wishing I had more cold weather gear to put on, like my polar fleece skull cap, mittens for the hands, etc. Even when I huffed and puffed up the final steep mile of our goat-path dirt road to the house, I was still cold. Of course a large coyote crossed the road about 50 yards in front of me and I grumbled for the lack of my 12-guage shotgun. You can only carry so much on the bike - and I normally don't spot coyotes while riding - if I ride this close to dark-thirty in the future maybe I'll carry some firepower with me.
As soon as I got home I dug out the bag of winter gear and stuffed it in my pannier. If THAT doesn't make the weather warm up for another week or more, I'll be surprised.
Ride Started: 4:08 PM Ride Ended: 5:33 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.8 Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp 39 F Highest Temp: 57 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 10.52
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
7.5 MPH 8.6 MPH 29.3 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 24 mins 1 hour 13 mins 10 mins
The weather has finally been turning cooler over the past few weeks.
For the last week or so we have been starting a fire in the wood stove in the mornings to chase the chill out of the house, and yesterday (Sunday) it rained much of the day and got even colder, so we lit up the stove early in the afternoon and kept it going almost until bedtime.
This morning we awoke to frost and ice on the windshields, even though we're not sure what the actual low temperature was last night.
We've been burning firewood left over from last season, but with all this cold settling in for several days and winter staring us in the face I decided it was time to get serious and dedicate some effort toward cutting firewood for THIS winter.
Of course it is a bit late for this "grasshopper" to start laying in stores for the winter, but I have many dead junipers I cut down last year and are cured and dry enough to burn efficiently.... all I have to do is cut 'em up into stove lengths and pile them conveniently close to the house.
My easiest way to do this is to fire up the Ford tractor and use the front bucket for throwing freshly cut wood into. Most places in my trees I can just drive the tractor right up close to the desired already-felled tree and cut it up with the chainsaw and throw it right in the maw of the tractor's front bucket.
The trees I cut last year were all junipers, but the rampant bark beetle infestation that is raging throughout the SouthWest has killed many of our pinons and pines as well. Three of them were right in front of the tractor's parking spot and I just had to start it up and move it maybe 20 feet to be as close as possible to minimize the distance I have to throw the cut wood.
I got all 3 trees cut down and cut to stove lengths, with the tractor bucket a little over half full. Suddenly my chainsaw's safety chain-brake lever stuck and would not pull into running position.
I was pretty winded and the old back was talking to me by now anyway, so I hauled the chainsaw and wood over to the house and offloaded the wood onto our deck and began the tedious process of disassembling the saw. Ours is an old and very reliable Stihl that has run and run, eating several chains over the years and a couple of bars.
I got it apart and found the broken piece blocking the action of the safety handle-bar. Upon reassembly I was carefully replacing the snap-ring that holds the chain-gear in place and the universally dreaded KA-PINGGGG occurred and the blasted critical piece ricocheted around the deck and out of sight, making several smaller "pings" as it disappeared totally from access or view. I searched the deck for it - knowing the odds were microscopic I would ever find it - and finally asked the little fuzz-ball Jazzy if she wanted to "Go For a Ride?" and upon getting the affirmative answer of jumping joyfully all over creation, I loaded her up in the Ford Exploder and drove to the nearby Davis True Value Hardware Store, where I found a good selection of snap-rings.
Got the saw reassembled completely but the afternoon sun was fading fast (Don't we all love the fall time change where we suddenly lose that hour of evening daylight?). I decided if I was going to get in a bike ride I'd better do it whilst there was ANY daylight left.
It had warmed up today while the sun was highest so I wasn't much worried about wearing any extra layers when I rode off. It only took a quarter mile or so before I pulled my windbreaker out of the pannier and zipped it up. The breeze was a bit nippier than I'd thought, and I expected to peel off the windbreaker when I got a few more miles down the road and heated up a bit more.
Didn't happen. I unzipped the jacket front climbing my longest hill but had to zip it back up within another quarter mile or so. By the time I got to the halfway mark the sun was actually setting; another misjudgment on my part. Thank goodness I have headlights, tail lights, helmet and side lights.
The ride back home was definitely cold, with me wishing I had more cold weather gear to put on, like my polar fleece skull cap, mittens for the hands, etc. Even when I huffed and puffed up the final steep mile of our goat-path dirt road to the house, I was still cold. Of course a large coyote crossed the road about 50 yards in front of me and I grumbled for the lack of my 12-guage shotgun. You can only carry so much on the bike - and I normally don't spot coyotes while riding - if I ride this close to dark-thirty in the future maybe I'll carry some firepower with me.
As soon as I got home I dug out the bag of winter gear and stuffed it in my pannier. If THAT doesn't make the weather warm up for another week or more, I'll be surprised.
Ride Started: 4:08 PM Ride Ended: 5:33 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.8 Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp 39 F Highest Temp: 57 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 10.52
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
7.5 MPH 8.6 MPH 29.3 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 24 mins 1 hour 13 mins 10 mins
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