Flat Coke, Yuck

Today's Trip Tracking via APRS, GPS, and Ham Radio

Our Swamp Cooler on our house roof got new pads last week but has been performing quite poorly in the cool air department.
Jacque set to making me a couple of short sleeve white dress shirts today and the heat and stuffiness in her sewing room was making for slow progress.
So, I alighted upon the roof and set to myself, seeing what might be the problem.
Turns out the several-year-old V-shaped water trays on top of each pad assembly were all plugged.  They have slots to allow water to spread out on each pad, and they were plugged with both shards of aspen fibers as well as sediment gunk from our hard water.  I cleaned them as best I could, shook the gunk out of them, and enlarged each slot so more water could soak through.
Almost immediate improvement was the result.  Jacque cooled off and was much happier in the sewing cave, so I saddled up and went for a bike ride, of course.
By then it was eleven-ish and the sun up very high so it was NOT cool outside, but it was a fun ride anyhow.
Days like this make you glad there's breeze and wind, to help keep the arm-pits from overflowing too much.
This was the first ride on my newly installed Terratrike seat fabric, and it was very nice, thank you.
The new corners are double reinforced and don't scare me every time I hit a bump, worrying the fabric might rip and dump me.
A friend's family is building a  new house right on the corner of the loop I take for most of these rides so I stopped to critique their progress.  They are doing a great deal of work themselves, adults and kids, and they are making great progress. 

I snatched this picture of them all dirty and sweaty from their labors, but The Grime did NOT interfere with their good looks.
On the way home I encountered a non furry friend.

As you can see, since he was just a large Bull snake and not a rattler, I didn't try to kill OR relocate him.
I wish he lived in our storage shed so he could keep the blasted rats and mice killed off.
Since my sweet wife has a phobia about snakes of ANY sort, and this guy was just outside the property line, I just watched him for a few minutes before he woke up and noticed me and departed off the road into the tree line.  I rode on up to the house without further disturbing him.
Oh, Yeah, I almost forgot the reason for today's title "Flat Coke".  When I got home I was a bit loopy and checked my blood sugar.  I had [again] forgotten to back off my insulin pump's basal level while riding and my blood glucose clocked in at 43.  So, being thirsty and dry in addition to being low on sugar, I dragged out a 2-year old plastic 12-oz. bottle of Real Coke (we normally drink only diet stuff around here).  I poured it into my ice mug without a trace of fizz or bubble and forced it down.  For those who have experienced it, Coke with no Fizz isn't much of ANYTHING.  It's kinda nasty and blah, but at least it did elevate my blood glucose back into the human level... Then I was able to pour in a nice diet A&W Root beer with LOTS of fizz and enjoyed a good burp.  Or three

Ride Started: 11:19 AM    Ride Ended:  1:04 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   11.8   Ending Voltage: 11.1  Lowest:  11.1 (Left my GOOD battery pack in Town, this is an AA nicad pack Solar-charging during the ride)
Lowest Temp  87 F      Highest Temp:  100 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles: 10.68
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
   6.1 MPH                             8.2 MPH                   30.3 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 44 mins                       1 hour 17 mins            26  minutes