TBA Friday

BG before ride home:  96 (ate snack) -  BG after getting back to car: 104
Evening stats from the GPS:    Total Distance Miles:  7.44 Overall average speed     Moving Avg      Max Speed
09.8  Mph                       10.8 mph            21.9 mph
Total Trip time               Moving Time    Stopped Time
  45:35 mins                     41:15 mins            04:20 mins  

I got my "sport - cam " yesterday and am still trying to figure it out.  I keep trying the voice / noise activated movie camera function, and it works, but I'm a rank newbie with it and am not functional with it yet.
Here's a short clip while driving the carrito:

 And here's a wobbly one from the bike with the cam aimed too low, you get sea-sick from watching mostly pavement roll by:



Starting BG:  140      Post-Ride BG:  98
Morning Stats from the GPS:                       Total Miles:  7.44
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
10.3  Mph                          12.1 mph             23.4 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
43:13 mins                          36:53 mins            06:20 mins

Balloon, Daddy, Balloon!

I worked until 6:30 PM thursday evening to make up partially for a half day off I took last week.
Even at that late hour it was still light out when I arrived back at the car, and the temperature for biking and walking is just great.  As it warms up for spring and summer we'll be remembering March with fondness.  The wind was much worse in February but March isn't over yet of course.
I received my much-anticipated "sport cam" in the mail at work yesterday, but I don't quite have the hang of it yet.  It has a sound or voice-activated camera function that I THOUGHT would keep the camera running last night while riding, but it never did.  I'll post a picture of the already-wonky helmet with the little cam on it and hopefully have some video from it to post soon.
BG before ride home:  181 -  BG after getting back to car: unk
Evening stats from the GPS:    Total Distance Miles:  7.43
Overall average speed     Moving Avg      Max Speed
09.8  Mph                       11.3 mph            21.0 mph
Total Trip time               Moving Time    Stopped Time
  45:31mins                     39:23 mins            06:08 mins 

Many moons ago, long ago and far away in Las Cruces, we were eating breakfast one morning while living in Helen Carbine's wonderful old house, when suddenly Jake, our youngest at that time (maybe 4 years old), pointed at the window and cried repeatedly "Balloons, Daddy, Balloons!!!"  At first not understanding what the Cat-Hair he could be talking about, at first seeing nothing out the window, we finally went outside and saw our first hot-air balloons, a couple hundred feet above us, floating slowly along and so close we could hear them and call out to them in reply.  There must have been 6 or 7 of them.  They were involved in some kind of balloon race from Albuquerque to El Paso or somewhere.  We've all seen probably a few THOUSAND hot air balloons since then, but they're still quite spectacular.  This even though there are few days in Albuquerque when at least 2 or 3 aren't floating in the air, usually out over the West Side.  Today as I cycled through the last leg of my commute via the Balloon Fiesta Parkway bicycle path, there in front of me was this:

It had a banner on the side saying something about "Albuquerque Green", and since it's Saint Patrick's Day, it must have some connection.  During Balloon Fiesta in October there are hundreds of colorful balloons sailing over our heads every morning, but this is the first up-close encounter I've experienced this year.
Starting BG:  140      Post-Ride BG:  98
Morning Stats from the GPS:                       Total Miles:  7.43
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
11.5  Mph                          12.0 mph             21.2 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
38:38 mins                          37:08 mins            01:30 mins

Today's Headline: High Wind Forecasts OverBlown

Mercy, what warm, wonderful weather we're enjoying..
It was so warm I had to break out the Redneck Spandex:

other than that, there were lots of joggers and walkers this evening.
I passed another young family, this one with Mom and Dad walking and youngster-son and youngster-daughter on small bicycles.  As they saw me coming across the wooden bridge just north of Comanche, 'Dad' commanded the wobbly boy to keep to the right ('twould be nice if all path users could heed that advice).  The nearly-unbalanced youngster tried his best to get too far to the right and collapsed (lightly, thankfully) against the rail.  No road rash or even an 'ow-ee' as far as I could tell.
BG before ride home:  146  (ate snack before riding)
BG after getting back to car: 62
Evening stats from the GPS:    Total Distance Miles:  7.44
Overall average speed     Moving Avg      Max Speed
08.9  Mph                       10.1 mph            20.2 mph
Total Trip time               Moving Time    Stopped Time
  50:00mins                     44:09 mins            05:53 mins 

Steve Stucker, my favorite TV weather guesser, has been forecasting high winds for the last couple of days, which largely has not materialized, and today his forecast seemed to postpone the winds to "Manana", or tomorrow or the next day.  As for me, I encountered only the mildest breeze this morning.... similar to yesterday.  I often wonder why we even tune into weather forecasts anyway:  The best of them (especially the highest paid scientific types like up at Los Alamos) are wrong more than they're right.  I'm a weather forecast addict myself, riding the daily bike and all.... but I do best when I just look out the window or, better yet, step outside and see what the weather feels and looks like.
At the San Mateo bicycle crossing this morning, an oncoming motorist saw me waiting in the median and stopped for me.  Usually I now just wave such nice innocent folk to go on in front of me, but this time all 3 lanes behind him were empty so I didn't have to worry about being nailed by someone coming around him.  I accepted his kindness and rode through, with a hearty "thank-you" wave, which upset my balance and caused me to wobble like a drunken sailor going across in front of him.  He probably thought to himself:  "I'm really glad I stopped for that old wino... "
Later, I actually passed a fellow cyclist after he pulled out into the path in front of me and got up to speed.... and I stayed ahead of him the rest of the commute.  Unusual for me.  And he was neither a 5-year-old with training wheels nor a doddering old geezer with flat tires.  Cool.

Starting BG:  126      Post-Ride BG:  70
Morning Stats from the GPS:                       Total Miles:  7.44
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
10.3  Mph                          11.5 mph             21.1 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
43:12 mins                          38:57 mins            04:15 mins

Yesterday's Racial Profiling

Beautiful, balmy evening weather for a wonderful ride back to the car tonight.Several additionalcyclists were in evidence tonight.   I worked until 7 PM because I had some comp time to make up from taking a half day off last week to repair Jacque's Exploder.  It was still very balmy, with a nice faint but cool breeze, just enough to keep me from overheating and it was just one of those great-to-be-alive and fun-to-be-biking evenings.
BG before ride home:  142  (ate snack before riding)
BG after getting back to car: 65
Evening stats from the GPS:    Total Distance Miles:  7.41
Overall average speed     Moving Avg      Max Speed
11.3  Mph                            11.9 mph            22.7 mph
Total Trip time                Moving Time     Stopped Time
  39:23 mins                      37:21 mins          02:02 mins   

'Tis the time of year where you wrap up in layers for a cold morning ride and peel (almost) everything off for the balmy afternoon ride back.  The wind is forecast to get nasty sometime this evening or tomorrow, but we'll ride it out, hopefully.
Forgot to mention yesterday during my noon walk I stopped at the Jefferson and Alameda intersection and punched the pedestrian crosswalk light button and waited for the light to change.  A lowrider with wire wheels came to the still-red light and obviously intended to turn right.  I thought to myself "Better watch this one", and sure enough, as the light changed and I stepped into the intersection, he calmly accelerated as he turned and forced me to jump back out of his way:  Otherwise I'd be dealing with bodily injury or worse now.  What a loser.  I mildly pre-judged him by his ride and as he drove farther away I put my walkie-talkie up to my face as though I was reporting him to the police.  If I had half a wit to spare I would have pulled out the cell phone instead and gotten a shot of his rear bumper and license plate.  I again thought to myself, first, that I wished I'd had a shotgun to mess up his paint job with.  Second, I thanked God I had no weapons available.  That rush of adrenalin when someone barely misses (or dinks)  you would get me in ALL kinds of trouble if I had instant means of retaliation.... Like the hero Michael Douglas in the movie Romancing the Stone:  When some loser confronts him in the jungle he rips a sawed-off shotgun from a quiver on his backpack and instantly "adjusts the attitude" of his attacker.  I've had so many near misses as a pedestrian I'm convinced that walking is much more dangerous than cycling.  And of course the near misses (and worse) on the bicycle are hard on the Christian attitude as well.  I have considered (more than once) the idea of carrying a plastic but good look-alike AR15 or AK47 on the back of the bike just in hopes the bad guys would back off.  But I always talk myself out of such an idea:  If I looked like I was armed, some local wannabee warlord would likely start shooting at me OR rob me to take the gun away.  If the toy weapon was REAL and USEFUL, I'd be too tempted to use it.
BAH

Starting BG:  173      Post-Ride BG:  75
Morning Stats from the GPS:                       Total Miles:  7.89
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
07.8  Mph                          10.7 mph             20.6 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
46:31 mins                          44:18 mins            06:56 mins

More Monday Madness

BG before ride home:  unk     BG after getting back to car: unk 
Evening stats from the GPS:    Total Distance Miles:  7.42
Overall average speed     Moving Avg      Max Speed
09.7  Mph                            10.6 mph            21.1 mph
Total Trip time                Moving Time     Stopped Time
  45:43 mins                      41:51 mins          03:52 mins  

A lovely day was in the TV forecast this morning but it turned into a COLD bicycle ride.  Not cold enough to cause any real misery:  Just cold enough to make me wish I'd opened a couple hand warmers and stuck them in the handlebar-mittens today.  A bit of stiff head-wind slowed me down as well.
Still no sign of the cheapie video-cam I ordered off the Internet.  BAH
If I'd had the thing this morning I would have photographed the water sprinklers soaking the bike path at the intersection of Chappel and Osuna..... no ice, but it was COLD.  When the Big Decision is made to turn on those sprinklers, (Or light up a "Controlled Burn".....) no bureaucrat is going to worry about wind.
I didn't get soaked, just mildly sprinkled, so I really have no reason to complain.  But I don't let THAT stop me.

Starting BG:  180      Post-Ride BG:  85Morning Stats from the GPS:                       Total Miles:  7.44 Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
09.6  Mph                          10.7 mph             20.8 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
46:31 mins                          41:35 mins            04:56 mins

Colder than Snot Morning - Afternoon BALMY & Radioactive

 Since I started using the new color Garmin 350 GPS on the bike/tracker setup, I've started charging the AA battery pack while I'm at work so it doesn't die on me on the way back to the car.  This afternoon the strategy paid off, because I answered one radio call from a ham down in El Paso, and when I signed off (stopped talking with him), another ham called and wanted to talk.  I signed off with him, intending to take a talking-break and concentrate on pedaling and breathing deeply(!), but every time I signed off with one, another ham would call and I couldn't resist answering him.  I guess they all enjoyed the novelty of talking to a ham radio operator riding a bicycle.... it's not very often you hear other nut-cases on the air while bike riding.
There are about 3 other bicycle-mobile hams I have talked to on the radio, but I hear them maybe once a week or less.  No other radio-active daily commuters I've met yet.  With the skyrocketing price of gas it may not be long before several more show up on the road and on the air :?)

BG before ride home:  262(!)   BG after getting back to car: 149 
Evening stats from the GPS:    Total Distance Miles:  7.43
Overall average speed     Moving Avg      Max Speed
09.9  Mph                            11.5 mph            22.1 mph
Total Trip time                Moving Time     Stopped Time
  45:14 mins                      38:43 mins          06:31 mins 

Well, it really wasn't THAT cold.  I seem to just be jumping the gun in my expectations for warm weather to continue, nay, INCREASE.  I want my Global Warming back.....
It was a beautiful day this morning - I haven't used chemical hand warmers in my mittens for a week or so now - but it was QUITE cool for the ride in to work.  I wore a very light jacket under my flaming yellow biking SEE-ME windbreaker, and could have easily worn the warmer one for this trip.  My hands and fingers got quite chilled too... of course I was still overheated and pouring sweat the last mile of the ride, but the FIRST 6.5 miles of the trip were COLD.  No matter, it will be quite warm this afternoon.
I should whimper for myself.... shame, shame.  Compared to the Japanese suffering from last night's horrendous swarm of 8.9 Richter earthquakes and resulting fires and tsunamis sweeping across entire cities, I have absolutely nothing to complain about.
I'm seriously thinking about changing the name of this blog since I have other mis-guided and dippy things to report and talk about besides my few minutes a day on the bike..... I need a blog name with pizazz, that more matches my personality or lack thereof, this one being an inspiration:
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Starting BG:  137      Post-Ride BG:  81
Morning Stats from the GPS:                       Total Miles:  7.43
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
09.4  Mph                          11.6 mph             20.3 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
47:29 mins                          38:27 mins            09:02 mins

Don't Drift Along With the Tumbling Tumbleweeds

BG before ride home:  179   BG after getting home, after 28 carb  snack: 144 
Evening stats from the GPS:    Total Distance Miles:  7.54
Overall average speed     Moving Avg      Max Speed
08.5  Mph                            10.3 mph            21.1 mph
Total Trip time                Moving Time     Stopped Time
  53:86 mins                      44:15 mins          10:00 mins 
 

Yesterday, when I finished reassembling the cam position sensor on Jacque's Exploder and aired up my bike tires, I also lubed the chain.  I noticed, as I turned the rear wheel, a clicking noise like something was touching the spokes... and there was.  A bit of tumbleweed.  I flipped the offending little thing out of the way, but it refused to get out of the way......  As I looked closer I could see it was part of a stem of tumbleweed wrapped around the outer ring of the cassette gears.  It had been shifting a bit weirdly recently and now I saw why.
Tumbleweed, especially this time of year, is just flimsy and fragile and dried out, right?  Not really.  I remembered the last couple of windy days when the tumbleweeds piled up underneath the Paseo overpass, completely covering the bike AND pedestrian path.  These pile-ups build up on almost every windy day, and unless a passing cyclist (like ME) stops and throws the things one by one over the rail and into the drainage ditch, they just seem to stay there.  I've never caught any city or county workers cleaning them out.
Anyway, a couple days ago I was running late for work and didn't feel I had time to stop and play throw-the-tumbleweed, so I just slowed down, eased over to the west side of the path where the pile was smallest, and rode right through them.  Made it OK, and got to work on time, but then a couple days later I find this so-called fragile tumbleweed stem wrapped solidly around my rear axle like it was strong rope.  It took a bit of hard digging with a  tool and several minutes to finally get it cleared out of the works.  I really like the smoother shifting now, with freshly lubed chain and derallier (sp?) workings.... AND lack of tumbleweed stubs gumming up the action.
Even though it was a bit colder this morning than yesterday, the sunny weather evidently is luring the cyclists back out.  Passed quite a few this morning.
Starting BG:  216      Post-Ride BG:  165
Morning Stats from the GPS:                       Total Miles:  7.43
Overall average speed      Moving Avg         Max Speed
09.8  Mph                          11.2 mph             20.4 mph
Total Trip time                   Moving Time       Stopped Time
45:38 mins                          39:44 mins            05:54 mins