What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday it was 55 degrees.  This morning it was only 12 degrees.  This morning was also greeted with the remains of last night’s ice storm.  There wasn’t too much ice around the house, except for the glacier that had swallowed my car.  After chipping the car out, I set off for work.  Traffic was light.  Anne’s and most other area schools were closed for the day.  MODOT and all the other ancillary road maintenance crews had taken the position that if a little salt is good, more is a lot better.  Most of the roads were white with salt. 

I took it slow and things were going well until just before the plant’s gate.  I came to a stop at a stop sign just outside the gate, or at least I tried to.  Apparently, the white coating of this intersection was not salt, but ice.  Remarking about this incident later, it appears that most everyone else had had a similar experience.

Yesterday, during the New I-64 ride and party there was much discussion of making playing on the highway an annual event.  There will certainly be another opportunity a year from now, when the second phase of the New I-64 project is finished.  Obama’s infrastructure based stimulus package could lead to many more opportunities.

Diane mentioned Chicago as an example to emulate.  Every summer, fifteen miles of Lakeshore Drive are closed for a day.  Another example is New York, which has its Five Boroughs ride.  Saint Louis does already have its Moonlight Ramble.  Maybe we can build on that.

MSNBC published an article entitled Leaner nations bike, walk, use mass transit.  This touches on a subject near and dear to my heart, that is losing weight.  I was reading with relish about how much less obese were Europeans then Americans, until I came to this paragraph:

Europeans on average walk 237 miles and cycle 116 miles per year;  U.S. residents walk 87 miles and bike 24 miles.  Experts calculated that translates into burning off 5 to 9 pounds of fat annually for Europeans compared to only 2 pounds for Americans.

Cycling 116 miles per year?  Please, don’t insult me.

OBTW, if you think the woman pictured in today’s post looks cold, try imagining what she would look like it we had today’s weather yesterday.