Why Is It?

While the girls and I were driving down the road, we passed a man and a boy walking along the edge of the road. My youngest daughter saw them and made the comment "weirdos." The discussion that followed is not worthy of a post, mostly because it was pretty one-sided. My side.

Why is it that when we see someone walking or riding a bike our first thought is 'weirdo' or something equally derogatory? And heaven forbid, someone tries to be a good citizen while they are walking. If you carry a bag to pick up trash along the way, then you aren't just weird, you're a bag lady, or something equally demeaning.

Yes, I walk. A lot. Yes, I often carry a bag to pick up trash. Yes, I even pick up cans that go to support Habitat for Humanity.

Yes, I've been called weird and a bag lady and not just by my kids. Why is it that I am embarrassed for being a good citizen?

And last but not least, why is it that there are no trash cans alongside the Ravine?

Gmap Pedometer

This may not qualify as a Web 2.0 site, but it is one that I use all the time and since I was showing a student how it worked, it seemed like the perfect blog subject.

Using Gmap Pedometer you enter a zip code to select any location and zoom in on the streets. About a 15 or 16 works well, but if you make a lot of turns the balloons get in the way at 15, but you can zoom in further without losing the route you have started if necessary.

Find the starting point for your walk or run or whatever and click the "Start Recording" button to the left of the map. Double click on the starting point and at each turning point on your walk. You can see how far each leg of your walk is as you click and at the end of the route you will see the total miles walked.

If you walk the same route each day, you can save the map and refer back to it, like this. Since I tend to walk different routes each day, I use this site on a regular basis.