A Saturday Morning Greenway Ride

29 AUG 2009 - 11am

This day we took off from Davidson Street and rode up to North Hills Mall to the REI store to pick up another rear view mirror for Evelyn's bike. We got one that was the same kind she had before and installed it right there at the store. We then rode beside REI down behind the mall and back up to Lassiter Mill Road. Once on Lassiter Mill Road we glided down the hill to Crabtree Creek and got on the Green way heading East toward Wake Med. This day we rode all the way to Milburnie along the green way. We turned around and rode back along the green way all the way to North Hills Drive then up to Northbrook then on to Yadkin and back home to Davidson Street. The green way was beautiful the only hills we rode up were just off Lassiter Mill where it turns into St Marys up Scotland St and on to Orange then, of course up North Hills and Northbrook are a bit steep. Here are the stats:

01:51 hh:mm . Total Time

27.37 km .... Total Distance

14.60 kph ... Average Speed

49.40 kph ... Maximum Speed (coasting down Lassiter Mill)

The Things You Find On The Internet

[1] Here is the link to today's "Astronomy Picture of The Day" http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090822.html the part that is most astonishing this that this picture spans 41 degrees of the Sky! [2] Something a bit closer to home: A quote from "The Bad Astronomy Blog" post: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/08/20/two-moons-circling/ " ... In my line of work (y’know, truth promotion) I hear from people who think science is all guesswork. "Yeah, but how do you know?" they ask. The answer is: math. And physics. And chemistry and optics and engineering and Kepler and Newton and Einstein. We know because we test our assumptions, and if they don’t hold up they’re gone. We keep the good stuff, the stuff that’s proven itself. And eventually we get models that are so good they can predict when and where two objects hundreds of millions of kilometers away pass in front of each other. Yeah. That’s how we know. ..." [3] And finally here is something much closer to home but just as grand: "http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=39879"

A Greenway Ride

A beautiful Sunday morning, we headed down Yadkin Drive crossing Crabtree Creek then onto the greenway and down toward Lassiter Mill. Then continuing the greenway following the creek all the way to US1. We turned around there and rode back the way we came. Once back at Yadkin Road we continued on the greenway following Crabtree Creek all the way to the end of the greeway out near Duraleigh Road. Then back to North Hills drive then to Northbrook then back to Davidson Street.

Here are the statistics:

28.82 km ........ Total Distance

15.80 kph ....... Average Speed

01:30 hh:mm ..... Elapsed Time

The picture is Evelyn back on the porch at the end of the rid checking her bike computer:

Health Care Reform Comments From Folks A Lot Smarter Than I Am

One of the problems that health care reform has is that it is assumed that you do not need any brains to think about it or talk about it. Here are a series of articles from some folks who are a lot smarter than I am with some very insightful comments:

[1] The original New Yorker piece: "http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/08/03/090803taco_talk_hertzberg"

[2] 1st response and the response to that: "http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2009/08/health-care-hyde-park-1.html"

[3] 2nd response and the response to that: "http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2009/08/health-care-hyde-park-2.html"

[4] 3rd response and the response to that: "http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2009/08/health-care-hyde-park-3.html"

[5] 4th response and the response to that: "http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2009/08/health-care-hyde-park-4.html"