Miserable Day, Great Day, Same Day

Today's Manually Plotted Route (Radio Tracker No Workie)

I have not ridden my trikie-toy in weeks.  I have been mostly on hands and knees removing old nasty flooring tile and scraping and installing new flooring to Jacque's specifications.  We invited some friends for Thanksgiving, and since the kitchen and dining floors were a mess, we were under tremendous pressure and motivation to get the new floor in.  With Jacque helping measure and cut flooring panels and me stretching and straining on my knees, we barely made it.  Mostly.  A few pieces of trim were yet to be installed, but the  new floor was in place in time for the feast.

What I soon discovered was that my contortions, with multiple rest breaks throughout the day and short bursts of flooring, burned MORE calories and carbs than my normal Trike Ride "Exercise".
I had to consume a LOT more carbs to keep from low blood glucose episodes than when taking trike rides.  Evidently trike riding is a lot more leisurely than actually working and getting something accomplished.
The Thanksgiving feast was a success, with the usual overeating and visiting half asleep afterwards.The weather, though, was not conducive to enjoyment of the outdoors.  Cold, wet, and fog.  DEEP fog.  Lots of rain and slop in the yard.  Sump pump in the basement chugging on and off all day and all night.   Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we made a late afternoon run to Springfield to restock our supply of moulding to trim the new flooring.  It was a pea soup ride in the muck most of the way out and back, slowing often to avoid over-running our headlight visibility, with several sightings of dead dear and other critters along the shoulders and in the middle of the roadway in the dark foggy mist.  Thankfully we didn't have any encounters of our own to deal with.  We got home late, soaked, and tired.  Again the sump pump chugged and hiccuped all night long, with water seeping too fast in various spots along the foundation.  Thunder and lightning.  Typical Missouri winter weather.
This morning, Saturday, it was still drizzling, miserable, and deep fog.  It looked like we were in for a weekend of slop again.
Along about noonish, Heavenly Father answered our hearts' desires and the sun actually started peeking through the misty muck.  Within a couple hours it had warmed from the upper 30's to the 60's and it was actually WARM outside and almost dry.  I had some bills to mail at the Post Office and a UPS parcel to deliver for Jacque, so I determined to take a trike ride for the errands and take the day off from flooring. 
I thought it must be warm enough to require only a windbreaker instead of a jacket.  As I stepped out the door I was SHOCKED at the sunny warmth of the day, and immediately took off the windbreaker and returned it to the house closet before taking off. 
It was a FABULOUS day for riding, and before I got halfway through the ride I had to unsnap most of my  shirt buttons and roll up my pants legs to get some cooling air going for the old bod.
I was getting a bit tired early on and realized missing a month of riding had resulted in lack of stamina - as if I ever had any to spare to start with.  The exercise of waddling around with flooring had not kept my cycling muscles properly trimmed.  SIGH
I stopped to check my blood glucose and saw it was getting close to the dizzy stage.  As IF I need any additional dizziness in life, hah.  I took a break and ate one of my emergency 3-packs of cookies stashed for just such occasions.  I had an unusual encounter with a bicycle rider I passed going the other way:  He refused to look at me or acknowledge my wave as we passed.  Very unusual.  Perhaps he - unlike most cyclists - was forced to ride his 2-wheeler by circumstances and not because he enjoyed it.  Who knows?  Didn't wipe the foolish grin off MY face.

Ride Started:    1:13 PM      Ride Ended:  2:14 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.8  Ending Battery Voltage:  12.9   Lowest Voltage:  12.9

Beginning Blood Glucose:  171      Ending BG: 96

Lowest Temp:  55 F    Highest Temp:  64  F

Stats from the GPS:  Total Miles:   5.45
Distance Walked: .6 mile
Overall Average Speed       Moving Avg          Max Speed
  5.3 MPH                             7.4 MPH               18.1 MPH 

Total Trip Time                   Moving Time        Stopped  Time
 1 hour 1 minute                  45 minutes           17 minutes

Cool Runnings / Riding

Today's non-GPS plotted route

We've been so busy working on the house issues that I haven't had much of a chance for triking since LAST Sunday.
One big milestone done this week was FINALLY getting our water line replaced between the street meter and the house;  about 90 feet worth.
In my crawlings under the house hooking up gas lines for the kitchen range and water lines for the new refrigerator ice maker and new kitchen sink, I - early on - noticed the very corroded galvanized water line coming out of the ground, with very damp earth all around it, even after days of dry weather and no known leaks.  We talked about this maybe being related to our unusually high water bills ever since we moved in.  Deciding it must be the over-50-year-old pipe, we contacted a local plumber to do the nasty replacement for us.  I was pleasantly surprised to get a quote of
$750 labor for the job, plus pipe and parts.  The big problem since then has been the extremely unpredictable weather, with sub freezing temperatures, ice, snow, and rain popping in and out.
One date planned for the work was drowned out with 5-15 degree weather.  The next proposed date was for Friday, 15 November.  Waiting for the day was difficult, still worrying about a possible big failure of the main water line, with several more days of spotty weather.
Finally the big day arrived, and contrary to fears, the weather was great.  AND, instead of taking all day and half the next, as I had worried, they were done shortly after noon.  Happy Camper, Me.
I actually had to work up a sweat a couple times helping the digging plumber get a hole dug underneath our foundation so it could be buried below the freeze danger line without having to build a protective insulating box around it on the surface.
Thus, after taking a relatively restful day off Saturday, moving the kitchen fridge around and peeling up old tile and laying new flooring, enough to roll the fridge back over, I took a ride while resting after Church this afternoon.
Today was a bit overcast, with the sun peeking through the clouds.  However, instead of burning off, the clouds totally obscured the sun most of the day.  By the time I decided to go for a stretch-ride, the temperature was not all that warm:  46 degrees.
So I dug out the cold weather gear, felt skull warmer, hunting mittens (with openable finger flaps), etc.
From experience, I did not wear any heavy layers over my shirt:  Just two layers of lightweight windbreakers.   Even though it was chilly I did not get overheated, and actually had to unzip the jackets about halfway through the ride to let some cooling air in.
It seems a bit more difficult to motivate myself to ride in cold weather, but the lower blood sugar is worth it....

Ride Started:    3:47 PM      Ride Ended:  5:15: PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.8  Ending Battery Voltage:  12.9   Lowest Voltage:  12.9

Beginning Blood Glucose:  171      Ending BG: 96

Lowest Temp:  46 F    Highest Temp:  46  F

Stats from the GPS:  Total Miles:   6.00
Distance Walked: .6 mile
Overall Average Speed       Moving Avg          Max Speed
  4.6 MPH                             7.0 MPH               21.5 MPH 

Total Trip Time                   Moving Time        Stopped  Time
 1 hour 18 mins                    52 minutes           27 minutes

Short Sunday Miles, Great Exercise

Today's As-Usual Spotty Tracking

These last three days have been LOVELY weather-wise.  This after several days of very frigid temperatures, cold rain, and whatnot.  Yesterday and the day before I had planned to get in some miles on the trike but never "got around to it" because of laziness, working on the house, procrastination until it was too late, etc.
The weather wizards on TV have been threatening impending arctic weather from a cold front moving across and down the South and Midwest, but so far so good.  When we got out of Church today it was at least 70 degrees and sunny out.  I still have not found any prohibitions in Scripture or Church Law about avoiding pleasantries like bike/trike riding on Sunday, so I finally got in a ride today.
I tried just riding around various city streets, hoping to add up some exercise miles while seeing neighborhoods I haven't experienced yet.  This is a small burg  but still many streets and neighborhoods I have not seen.
One thing I've seen several of around here makes some sense in Tornado Country:

Earth-Sheltered House

The name of this town being "Mountain Grove" often makes us wonder where the Mountain is supposed to be.  There are a few hills here and there, but nothing we would call mountains.
What we DO have is some pretty deep and steep valley areas that can be fun to smoke downward on, but I have to be watchful for the frequent rough spots and potholes in the pavement.   Thus it's often ride the brakes going down and chugging along in Grandma Gear going back up.  Today's story.
The tracking map doesn't show much of it, but I rode a couple miles west on 13th street - not realizing that it dead ended out near Route 60 with no known outlet or junction to another road to return on.  It involved about a mile of steep downhill, which was nice,  Unfortunately I had already gone down almost to the creek at the bottom before I checked my GPS map and realized the only way out was to go back the way I came.   Funny, when going UP the hill in Granny Gear it seems MUCH steeper than it was going DOWN.  But Hey, it's exercise, right?
By the time I got back up the hill, I was about ready to find home again.  It was a bit over a couple more miles, which only adds to my ability to brag about such amazing feats of mileage.  HAH.

Ride Started:    2:47 PM      Ride Ended:  3:55: PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  14.1  Ending Battery Voltage:  13.0   Lowest Voltage:  13.0

Beginning Blood Glucose:  156      Ending BG: 119

Lowest Temp:  68 F    Highest Temp:  71  F

Stats from the GPS:  Total Miles:   6.31
Distance Walked: .6 mile
Overall Average Speed       Moving Avg          Max Speed
  5.7 MPH                             6.7 MPH               21.9 MPH 

Total Trip Time                   Moving Time        Stopped  Time
 1 hour 6 mins                     56 minutes            10 minutes

Monday Madness

Today's Two Trips Tracking

I was working on more plumbing - running pipes under the house and through the basement today.
Since I needed a couple more items from the local plumbing supply store (Miller), I wound up making two trike trips.
The first trip was close to being just around the corner to High Street to deliver a toilet seat I'd sold for $5 - which I'd just paid twenty-something for via Amazon.com .
I ordered the toilet seat in color "Almond" since I thought it would look nice on the brand new white potty in the master bathroom.  Unfortunately, I neglected to consult with Jacque about the color, which she hated immediately, resulting in another order to Amazon for the absolute white color version.  I advertised the week-old-nearly-new seat in the local Facebook Marketplace, for $10.
No takers.  I lowered the price to $5 and it still took another couple weeks for someone to contact me and buy it.  Then she asked if I could deliver it.  You may snicker, but I thought it a good excuse to ride the trike.  After delivering the wonderful accessory, I kept riding west on Clouse out to the "airport".  I put airport in quotes since I've never seen any activity there, just a couple of hangars, a locked office building, and a lonely crop duster plane sitting on the tarmac.
As I rested a bit in the shade and was leaving, I was surprised to meet a van actually coming into the airport lot, with a sign on the door saying something about "aerial applicators".  I assumed that had something to do with the crop duster.
Then I got busy again under the floorboards cutting and running pipe  to take gas to the kitchen for our new gas range.  With several black pipe joints and adapters, each stage requires careful testing for leaks with soapy water.  Still have a few feet and joints to go.  Hopefully we'll be cooking with gas before too much longer.

Ride Started:    11:53 AM      Ride Ended:  3:24: PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.0  Ending Battery Voltage:  13.0   Lowest Voltage:  13.0

Beginning Blood Glucose:  203      Ending BG: 136

Lowest Temp:  60 F    Highest Temp:  71  F

Stats from the GPS:  Total Miles:   1.90
Distance Walked: .6 mile
Overall Average Speed       Moving Avg          Max Speed
  5.1 MPH                             7.5 MPH               24.3 MPH 

Total Trip Time                   Moving Time        Stopped  Time
 32 minutes                         25 minutes            1 hour 8 minutes

Saturday - Another Plumbing Parts Commute

Today's SHORT Tracking

I needed a 1" pipe nipple to add to my do-it-yourself plumbing job collection, so I used it for an excuse to take the trike for the very short ride.

Ride Started:    3:55 PM      Ride Ended:  4:18 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  14.1  Ending Battery Voltage:  13.0   Lowest Voltage:  13.0

Beginning Blood Glucose:  197      Ending BG: 95

Lowest Temp:  34 F    Highest Temp:  41  F

Stats from the GPS:  Total Miles:   1.90
Distance Walked: .6 mile
Overall Average Speed       Moving Avg          Max Speed
  5.1 MPH                             7.5 MPH               24.3 MPH 

Total Trip Time                   Moving Time        Stopped  Time
 22 minutes                         15 minutes            8 minutes

Halloween: Sunny and FREEZING

Today's Mostly Accurate Plotted Route

The last couple days have been COLD and WET.  Zero motivation for riding around the neighborhood(s).

This morning we awoke to our thus-far coldest morning on record for our Missouri area: 26 degrees and icy rain.  Surprisingly, around noonish, though still freezing horribly, the SUN actually came out and it turned into a beautiful afternoon.  Still a freezing breeze, but "warming" tp almost 34 degrees.
Having missed a couple days of "fresh air" and riding, I decided to dig out my cold weather gear and take a ride.  I layered on a couple more layers, dug out my fleece skull cap Jacque made me some years ago, and rode onward.  I did NOT regret the warmth of the layers.  I even wore real shoes with socks, and the feet did not overheat for the first time in who knows when.  About a mile before I got back, I had to unzip the outer layer from my chest when I finally warmed up a bit.   I also accomplished a couple of minor errands during the ride:  I dropped off a bag of surplus goodies to the local Thrift Store across the tracks, and on the way back I stopped into the barber shop on the square to get the surplus hair off my ears.
It was GREAT to be out riding.

Ride Started:    3:19 PM      Ride Ended:  4:32 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.9  Ending Battery Voltage:  12.9   Lowest Voltage:  12.5

Beginning Blood Glucose:  197      Ending BG: 95

Lowest Temp:  34 F    Highest Temp:  41  F

Stats from the GPS:  Total Miles:   6.09
Distance Walked: .6 mile
Overall Average Speed       Moving Avg          Max Speed
  4.3 MPH                             6.6 MPH               20.8 MPH 

Total Trip Time                   Moving Time        Stopped  Time
 2 hours 14 mins                 1 hour 27 mins      46 minutes