Outa Shape

My Ham GPS tracker was not working today, even after "repairing" it.  BAH

 After several days with bitterly cold weather, it was definitely time to get out and around on the Catrike.

I wanted to get going earlier than I usually do, but with various distractions it was 3:00 -ish PM by the time I saddled up.
It's been only a few days without riding, but I sure noticed a difference getting going.  I seemed to run out of steam earlier than I'm used to, and I'm no speed monkey at my advanced age in the first place.
So what, I just gear down earlier and longer and huff and puff, etc.
Of course my objective for an "excuse to ride" was our local Big Box Store for a few minor items.
I was looking for some 4 inch black stove pipe for our little garage wood burner.  Supposedly such a size of stovepipe is made and sold SOMEWHERE but evidently not in Mountain Grove.  First I tried the Hardware Store just north of the Big Box Store, since they usually have more of such stuff I often look for - even if a little higher in price.
After several fruitless minutes wandering around the store and asking sales help, I gave up and tode back the few hundred yards to the Big Box.
Why do the Big Box Stores have to move stuff around and rearrange - do customers buy more if they have to wander around??  I suppose I prove the point since I found NOTHING I was looking for, finally giving up to leave but buying a couple of nickle/dime items on the way out.  Had I been able to find anything actually on my list, I think they would have made more money from me.  I might have to swear off Big Boxes and just pay the higher prices at other places where I can actually find what I'm looking for.
When I staggered out of Big Box, I was feeling a bit punk and checked my blood sugar - it was crashing low at 47.  I've learned not to ignore such things nowadays, so I ate a couple of my emergency cookies.
I waited for a while before pedaling away, and Jacque called me - worried at the linked alerts she'd been getting on her smart devices.  I finally rode south across the Route 60 overpass and turned left at the Mickey D's exit.  Again feeling punk-ish, I pulled over in a wide spot in the pavement and checked my blood sugar again and it was again crashing, now at 40 with the pump bleeping and screaming at me.
I actually carry a little vial of white sugar for such "incidents", and consumed that as well, washing it down with my bottle water.  I sat there, impatiently waiting to see if / when my blood sugar would rise out of the danger zone.  Twenty or more minutes later, I finally was brave enough to again head for home.  The sun was still shining brightly, but by then it was starting to get cool again.  Motivating me to move along.
I stopped  again at our CHC Home Center, who also had no 4 inch black stovepipe in stock, so I went the remaining few blocks home.
Ending blood sugar was a bit low but acceptable.
When I got home I couldn't find our favorite Papillion doggy Tinkerbell.  She usually sleeps all day in her fluffy bed, but was nowhere to be found.
I finally spotted her:  Under the dining room table feverishly ripping through my Ziplock baggie of Jacques' Emergency Cookies.  Only a few crumbs left, rats.  I then realized I had stepped in a strange puddle of "unidentified water: on the floor.  Obviously I had arrived home too late to "walk the dogs".
SIGH.  Life in the Slow Lane

Ride Started:  3:15 PM           Ride Ended:   5:04 PM
Beginning Blood Glucose:  150   Ending BG: 102

Stats from the GPS: Total Miles:  5.95
Overall Average Speed      Moving Avg          Max Speed
  5.9 MPH                              7.2 MPH             18.2  MPH
Total Trip(s) Time              Moving Time        Stopped Time
 21 minutes                          17 minutes             4  minutes