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
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Man Cannot Live by Cookies Alone
Today's Lengthy Tracking via APRS and Ham Radio
I had a doctor's appointment today at 10:50 AM. I had previously planned to use this for an excuse to do a long ride, estimated at 25 miles each way. I realized this, early this morning, but only at about 10 minutes to 8 AM. Since my average speed is normally about 7 or 8 MPH, this means I should have already left in order to arrive in time.
I jumped to, loading up the 2-wheel recumbent bike for the ride, but had not had breakfast yet and feared I didn't have time to EAT a real breakfast, so I snarfed 3 homemade choc-chip cookies and took off.
I was chagrined to find my pannier's LiFePO4 expensive long-life battery had not been plugged into the charger after yesterday's ride. I was in a hurry so I took off anyway, hoping the battery had sufficient capacity to carry me through the day anyway.
My waking blood glucose had only been 67, so this obviously was not the best of programs for ride preparation. I dialed my pump's basal rate back to 20% of normal and rode onward and westward.
It's been cold in the mornings recently and today was no exception. I donned a windbreaker for the first several miles, taking it off to climb the long hills on southbound NM-14 and putting it back on when I topped the hill for the long mostly-coast into Tijeras and Old Route 66. It was still cold when I got to Tijeras so I left the windbreaker on clear into the city limits of Albuquerque, and not taking it off until halfway THROUGH Albuquerque.
I haven't ridden this route in a while and today I was struck by the number of homeless camps and homeless folks I encountered. They tend to congregate along the bike trails since many places are not easily reached or monitored by the "Authorities". A couple of guys were set up in tents close together, and several others were just lying in piles of clothing and bedding in the open, including a male & female couple with a DOG lying right next to Old Route 66 just outside the city limits. They were lounging around in a huge pile of clothing, pillows, and bedding, evidently trying to thus keep warm overnight against the cold.
When I got to the doctor's office the GPS said I had traveled 27.34 miles. It had taken right at 2 1/2 hours.
When the physician's assistant took my blood glucose inside the office, it was 120.... a little on the high end but not bad considering all I had for breakfast was 3 cookies. My blood pressure was 114 over 60 and my pulse was 80, surprising me. Having just ridden 27 miles and still panting slightly, I assumed it would be pumping hard.
The doc gave me an atta-boy since my A1C had dropped a full point since we last met, and said I was doing good.
I've known several people who died within days of receiving such "sound-as-a-dollar" reports, so remember me in your prayers.
He asked what I was going to eat for lunch, having skipped a decent breakfast, and I told him I was thinking of a nice juicy cheeseburger. He said "Sounds good to me!"
Thus I was watching for a LotaBurger or most any burger joint as I rode homeward. Albuquerque's bike paths are like most, meaning they rarely come close to established businesses such as restaurants or grocery stores. I remembered there were fast-food joints close to the bike crossing at San Mateo, but I could find none when I stopped and looked up and down the street. My eye fell upon the "Subway" sign less than 50 yards south, requiring NO heavy-traffic street crossing or dodging. Thus my meal of a FULL foot-long Pizza Sub sandwich, with chips and a NON-diet Barq's Root Beer. I've never eaten a foot-long before, always settling for the halfway 6-incher version, so I wondered if I could eat it all. I knew I had a long pull going through Tijeras Canyon and the mountains to home, so I wanted to stock up on carbs. I was able to stuff it all down, and it lasted me clear to Tijeras (about 10 miles), where I had to dig into my second baggie of 3 choc-chip cookies. I stopped at the Subway in Tijeras solely to refill all 3 of my now-empty water bottles but, after checking the blood again, realized I had to "force" myself to eat the cookies.
When I got out of the doctor's office and started home, almost immediately my radio, GPS, and electronics died, indicating a dead battery. I carry a smaller spare backup battery but it produced the same dead results when I plugged it into the bike's wiring so I gave up and rode home with no electronics at all save my cell phone, which was still charged and worked nicely, thankfully.
The ride east through Albuquerque is more uphill than downhill so it took me quite a while to make the return trip. It was much warmer also, leading to more frequent water and rest breaks while slowly climbing the hills.
About halfway to Tijeras I had to pull over to remove some thistles from my socks that were aggravating me. How do you get thistles in your socks while riding a bike, you might ask? Well, it must have been the walk in the woods looking for a private place to pee alongside the road.
Instead of returning the exact way I came, I rode farther east from Tijeras to Guiterrez Canyon Road and rode north from there to Frost Road. By now I had gone 40+ miles so when I neared a friend's home alongside the route I couldn't help myself. I stopped in to say hello and stayed almost an hour cooling my heels.
After finally arriving home and plugging in the supposedly-dead battery, I was horrified to find a broken wire on the power connector for the electronics. Had I realized this earlier I could have "hay-wired" it to get me home with radio & electronics blaring all the way.
Ride Started: 8:18 AM Ride Ended: 5:36 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.9 Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp 37 F Highest Temp: 74 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 54.68
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
7.9 MPH 11.7 MPH 35.1 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
9 hours 20 mins 7 hours 4 mins 2 hours 16 mins
I had a doctor's appointment today at 10:50 AM. I had previously planned to use this for an excuse to do a long ride, estimated at 25 miles each way. I realized this, early this morning, but only at about 10 minutes to 8 AM. Since my average speed is normally about 7 or 8 MPH, this means I should have already left in order to arrive in time.
I jumped to, loading up the 2-wheel recumbent bike for the ride, but had not had breakfast yet and feared I didn't have time to EAT a real breakfast, so I snarfed 3 homemade choc-chip cookies and took off.
I was chagrined to find my pannier's LiFePO4 expensive long-life battery had not been plugged into the charger after yesterday's ride. I was in a hurry so I took off anyway, hoping the battery had sufficient capacity to carry me through the day anyway.
My waking blood glucose had only been 67, so this obviously was not the best of programs for ride preparation. I dialed my pump's basal rate back to 20% of normal and rode onward and westward.
It's been cold in the mornings recently and today was no exception. I donned a windbreaker for the first several miles, taking it off to climb the long hills on southbound NM-14 and putting it back on when I topped the hill for the long mostly-coast into Tijeras and Old Route 66. It was still cold when I got to Tijeras so I left the windbreaker on clear into the city limits of Albuquerque, and not taking it off until halfway THROUGH Albuquerque.
I haven't ridden this route in a while and today I was struck by the number of homeless camps and homeless folks I encountered. They tend to congregate along the bike trails since many places are not easily reached or monitored by the "Authorities". A couple of guys were set up in tents close together, and several others were just lying in piles of clothing and bedding in the open, including a male & female couple with a DOG lying right next to Old Route 66 just outside the city limits. They were lounging around in a huge pile of clothing, pillows, and bedding, evidently trying to thus keep warm overnight against the cold.
 |
| Can you read the sign "Dark Tunnel Ahead"? |
 |
| Translation: "Homeless May be Sleeping or Camping Inside" |
When the physician's assistant took my blood glucose inside the office, it was 120.... a little on the high end but not bad considering all I had for breakfast was 3 cookies. My blood pressure was 114 over 60 and my pulse was 80, surprising me. Having just ridden 27 miles and still panting slightly, I assumed it would be pumping hard.
The doc gave me an atta-boy since my A1C had dropped a full point since we last met, and said I was doing good.
I've known several people who died within days of receiving such "sound-as-a-dollar" reports, so remember me in your prayers.
He asked what I was going to eat for lunch, having skipped a decent breakfast, and I told him I was thinking of a nice juicy cheeseburger. He said "Sounds good to me!"
Thus I was watching for a LotaBurger or most any burger joint as I rode homeward. Albuquerque's bike paths are like most, meaning they rarely come close to established businesses such as restaurants or grocery stores. I remembered there were fast-food joints close to the bike crossing at San Mateo, but I could find none when I stopped and looked up and down the street. My eye fell upon the "Subway" sign less than 50 yards south, requiring NO heavy-traffic street crossing or dodging. Thus my meal of a FULL foot-long Pizza Sub sandwich, with chips and a NON-diet Barq's Root Beer. I've never eaten a foot-long before, always settling for the halfway 6-incher version, so I wondered if I could eat it all. I knew I had a long pull going through Tijeras Canyon and the mountains to home, so I wanted to stock up on carbs. I was able to stuff it all down, and it lasted me clear to Tijeras (about 10 miles), where I had to dig into my second baggie of 3 choc-chip cookies. I stopped at the Subway in Tijeras solely to refill all 3 of my now-empty water bottles but, after checking the blood again, realized I had to "force" myself to eat the cookies.
When I got out of the doctor's office and started home, almost immediately my radio, GPS, and electronics died, indicating a dead battery. I carry a smaller spare backup battery but it produced the same dead results when I plugged it into the bike's wiring so I gave up and rode home with no electronics at all save my cell phone, which was still charged and worked nicely, thankfully.
The ride east through Albuquerque is more uphill than downhill so it took me quite a while to make the return trip. It was much warmer also, leading to more frequent water and rest breaks while slowly climbing the hills.
About halfway to Tijeras I had to pull over to remove some thistles from my socks that were aggravating me. How do you get thistles in your socks while riding a bike, you might ask? Well, it must have been the walk in the woods looking for a private place to pee alongside the road.
Instead of returning the exact way I came, I rode farther east from Tijeras to Guiterrez Canyon Road and rode north from there to Frost Road. By now I had gone 40+ miles so when I neared a friend's home alongside the route I couldn't help myself. I stopped in to say hello and stayed almost an hour cooling my heels.
After finally arriving home and plugging in the supposedly-dead battery, I was horrified to find a broken wire on the power connector for the electronics. Had I realized this earlier I could have "hay-wired" it to get me home with radio & electronics blaring all the way.
Ride Started: 8:18 AM Ride Ended: 5:36 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.9 Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp 37 F Highest Temp: 74 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 54.68
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
7.9 MPH 11.7 MPH 35.1 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
9 hours 20 mins 7 hours 4 mins 2 hours 16 mins
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Hauling Firewood on the Bike
Today's VeryShort Tracking
Today I was again left home alone with the dogs, since Jacque has signed up for poll watching or supervising or something during the ongoing election process. She left fairly early and promised to be gone most of the day.
The dogs and I got a few odds and ends done today.
Yesterday I installed new LED tail lights on our little beat-up trash trailer/bike/trike hauler. The old lenses and lamps were so dim I always feared someone would rear-end us after dark. These new units are pricey but very bright, even quite visible in the daytime.
I got done with that installation right about sundown and left tools and materials outside, which was semi-forgiveable since there was no trace of wind, moisture, dust, or rain overnight. Today I cleaned all that up and put the tools away. Then I emptied Jacque's kitchen slop pail out in the compost pile. The pile is a 3 foot high pile of horse poop that has been rotting for a couple years, and when we have kitchen slop and scraps I dig a hole in the middle of it and pour in the contents. We should never have to buy potting soil again, if I can talk Jacque into trying this stuff instead. Today I found a huge hole in the side of the pile where a fair-size critter of some kind (think COYOTE) had dug in for the smelly stuff inside. I buried the newest contributions to the stinky stuff and added a couple inches of wood stove ash, since we have accumulated a bucketful of that in the past week from burning wood in the mornings to take the chill off the house. When I mentioned the violation of the sacred poop pile to Jacque, she suggested trying our largest varmint live-trap out there in hopes of capturing at least one of the intruders. If it's a coyote, it will have to be one of the newer young pups since a full sized varmint would have trouble getting caught or even getting fully inside. I baited it with a fresh slice of Spam and we'll see. Nothing bothered it all day and the sun is currently setting. We hear coyotes yipping close by most nights so it might even get some results. If I do indeed trap one, it will NOT be a catch-and-release. More details will be none-of-your-business.
Anyway. I planned early this morning to saddle up for a bike ride and as usual with all my puttering around it was late afternoon when I finally got to it.
The girls, as usual, were all enthusiasm for a ride. When we rolled down to the pavement of Frost Road we found the wind to be unusually strong and cooler than we're used to. Blowing briskly from the West, it slowed us down enough to have to pedal furiously using most of my lower gears even on the few level areas of the road.
As we neared the Post Office, I noticed a piece of firewood lying on the right side of the road, and a few hundred feet farther, another piece was smack in the middle of the road. I almost stopped to throw it out of the roadway but thought I'd just keep pedaling and throw it out of the road on the way back. On the way back a couple MORE firewood pieces were spotted in the other lane of the road. I picked them out of the roadway, carefully dodging oncoming traffic, but decided I had room on my front cargo rack to bungee them down and take them home with me.
Not really enough to be worth the trouble, but I couldn't resist a few extra BTU's for the stove.
Everybody we see comments on the carrying of TWO dogs on the bike with me. What am I supposed to do, leave one of them home alone and heartbroken?
Quoth the Raven..... Nevermore.....
Ride Started: 3:52 PM Ride Ended: 4:56 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.9 Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp 67 F Highest Temp: 75 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 5.59
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
5.0 MPH 6.8 MPH 29.2 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 7 mins 49 mins 18 minutes
Today I was again left home alone with the dogs, since Jacque has signed up for poll watching or supervising or something during the ongoing election process. She left fairly early and promised to be gone most of the day.
The dogs and I got a few odds and ends done today.
Yesterday I installed new LED tail lights on our little beat-up trash trailer/bike/trike hauler. The old lenses and lamps were so dim I always feared someone would rear-end us after dark. These new units are pricey but very bright, even quite visible in the daytime.
I got done with that installation right about sundown and left tools and materials outside, which was semi-forgiveable since there was no trace of wind, moisture, dust, or rain overnight. Today I cleaned all that up and put the tools away. Then I emptied Jacque's kitchen slop pail out in the compost pile. The pile is a 3 foot high pile of horse poop that has been rotting for a couple years, and when we have kitchen slop and scraps I dig a hole in the middle of it and pour in the contents. We should never have to buy potting soil again, if I can talk Jacque into trying this stuff instead. Today I found a huge hole in the side of the pile where a fair-size critter of some kind (think COYOTE) had dug in for the smelly stuff inside. I buried the newest contributions to the stinky stuff and added a couple inches of wood stove ash, since we have accumulated a bucketful of that in the past week from burning wood in the mornings to take the chill off the house. When I mentioned the violation of the sacred poop pile to Jacque, she suggested trying our largest varmint live-trap out there in hopes of capturing at least one of the intruders. If it's a coyote, it will have to be one of the newer young pups since a full sized varmint would have trouble getting caught or even getting fully inside. I baited it with a fresh slice of Spam and we'll see. Nothing bothered it all day and the sun is currently setting. We hear coyotes yipping close by most nights so it might even get some results. If I do indeed trap one, it will NOT be a catch-and-release. More details will be none-of-your-business.
Anyway. I planned early this morning to saddle up for a bike ride and as usual with all my puttering around it was late afternoon when I finally got to it.
The girls, as usual, were all enthusiasm for a ride. When we rolled down to the pavement of Frost Road we found the wind to be unusually strong and cooler than we're used to. Blowing briskly from the West, it slowed us down enough to have to pedal furiously using most of my lower gears even on the few level areas of the road.
As we neared the Post Office, I noticed a piece of firewood lying on the right side of the road, and a few hundred feet farther, another piece was smack in the middle of the road. I almost stopped to throw it out of the roadway but thought I'd just keep pedaling and throw it out of the road on the way back. On the way back a couple MORE firewood pieces were spotted in the other lane of the road. I picked them out of the roadway, carefully dodging oncoming traffic, but decided I had room on my front cargo rack to bungee them down and take them home with me.
Everybody we see comments on the carrying of TWO dogs on the bike with me. What am I supposed to do, leave one of them home alone and heartbroken?
Quoth the Raven..... Nevermore.....
Ride Started: 3:52 PM Ride Ended: 4:56 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.9 Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp 67 F Highest Temp: 75 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 5.59
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
5.0 MPH 6.8 MPH 29.2 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 7 mins 49 mins 18 minutes
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