My job ends, all hail my new job

The Centers For Disease Control grant that's funded my job for the past 2 years ended yesterday. It's been a pretty good run. Lots of good experiences, a number of excellent colleagues and I've been able to immerse myself in making the city better for people who walk and ride their bikes. Pretty much the perfect job. Though the grant ended, I'm pleased to say that I won't be leaving MOTU afterall. I've been moved over to the City's general funds and have been assured a place here for the next couple of years. Luckily, most of the awesome people who were hired with me through the Get Healthy Philly initiative are staying on. Here's a note from Giridhar Mallya (GEER-thur)the program director about the awesome stuff we've accomplished. 

 Over the last two years, we have implemented an impressive collection of policies and programs that make it easier for Philadelphians to eat healthfully, be physically active, and live smoke-free. It’s hard to summarize our accomplishments in a brief letter, so please stay tuned for our Get Healthy Philly Annual Report in May 2012. Here, though, are some quick highlights:

• 200+ smoke-free recreation centers, playgrounds, and pools, affecting over 2 million visits per year 

• 600+ healthy corner stores, increasing access to healthy foods for hundreds of thousands of low-income Philadelphians 

• Nearly 2,000 tobacco retailers that have applied for permits from the Department of Public Health, enabling us to monitor and enforce tobacco laws, particularly those preventing sales to thousands of youth smokers 

• 160 public schools, serving 100,000 Philadelphia children, that have implemented healthy fundraisers, socialized recess, and classroom movement breaks 

• Tripling of Quitline use among Philadelphians and expansion of smoking cessation coverage for 80,000 adult smokers covered by Medicaid 

• Two new dedicated bike lanes, large-scale pedestrian and bicyclist safety education and enforcement, and embedding of health impact assessments into the citywide district planning process 

• Tens of millions of media impressions encouraging Philadelphians to quit smoking and reduce their sugary drink consumption. 

 The changes that we’ve fostered over the past two years will have long-lasting effects. Over the course of the next 6-12 months, we will be completing evaluations and looking to share the impact of our collective work through conferences and publications.

 

Puffin'

 
After a flurry of house cleaning last weekend, we decided it was time to get rid of the cigar that Todd Shirk gave me in high school. It was dominican, and as crispy as burned toast. Cigars stink pretty bad, but I couldn't just throw it away. Plus, it was Jennifer's birthday on Monday, so a celebration was in order.

Though I've got no interest in tobacco products, my glass of scotch was fabulous after puffing on that stinking log.

Dragon breath

 
Our trusty backyard guardian, the bamboo dragon, finally returned to ashes. Claire gave it to Jennifer and me a few years ago as a windchime, and after enough time covered in bird poo, rain and sun, it was time to send it off. The chimenea proved to be an excelent crematorium.

There's a political platform for you

 

Jennifer and I saw this a while back, and I just stumbled upon the image in my phone. Apparently the guy is talking about the tree of heaven, or ailanthus tree. It really is a weed here, and does do a fair bit of damage to cement, but I think the message is a bit overwrought don't you?

new toy

 
Since my knee flared up again and I can't ride my bike for a few weeks, I've gotten myself a new tool (some might say toy). It's a 9"x16" metalworking lathe from Emco. It's pretty much ideal for the type of stuff I'd do: small to medium sized bike parts and tooling accessories. I can also justify it by making cool stuff for the house, like multi-dimensioned metal bars and uhhh, stuff.

Merry Christmas from Nam and Fam

 
Nam lives across the street from us, and we often see him out smoking, puttering with his cars and such, going fishing with his kids, talking with crazy Nick etc. He always greets us with a "Hi Jennifer and Eric!" and then tells us something helpful like, "You take care of your car, it take care of you."

That's right, I'm from IOWA.

You know which one I got...

What I've REALLY been up to.

Other people's adventures

My teammate Brett is on his way back home from the west coast by bike.  Everyone told him that it was crazy to plan a trip through the mountains in November, but then again, Brett is crazy.

Check out the adventure here:Brett's Blog

What the heck is Mid-Tek

My modestly-crazy friend and former boss Mike from Trophy has decided to spice up the slow winter months by engaging his secondary passion in weird machines. He's focussed, or perhaps obsessed with typewriters and things that he might have used during his stint as a reporter in the late 80s. The concept is called Mid-Tek and it occupies about 40 square feet of real-estate in the front corner of the bike shop. I built up the screen and sliding door to cordon off the shop as part of a trade for my new favorite bike, the Brommie!

Check out the concept here http://midtek.me/

Maitake Mushrooms, in nature

It's apparently been a bumper year for mushroom hunters this fall. The cool, wet weather has been perfect for all of these different fungi. This is a maitake mushroom that I found growing from the base of an oak tree in Fairmount park. It was really tasty when fried up, but had some issues with grits. Apparently the dirt that got kicked up onto the mushroom from the nearby trail was quickly incorporated into the flesh, and proved impossible to scrub out. The end result tasted a lot like turkey bacon with sand. Almost delicious!

Really? That's what you did?

Confirm the timestamp if you doubt, but I went for a run last night. Those are my floppy feet and pencil calves pictured above. I think that the last time I went for a run was last October some time when I had aspirations of getting back after it in the off season.

After a week of a nagging knee injury that seems only to hurt when I ride a bike, I dug out my old cross country spikes and rode to Fairmount Park. I tried riding a bit and then stashed my bike in the woods, switched over my shoes and headed out for a jog. Though I probably only ran for 30 minutes, it was the best 30 minutes of running I've done in the past 5 years. The constant change of pace, hopping over logs, jumping through brambles, shucking and jiving made the time fly, and my legs happy. Powering up little inclines was actually fabulous, and I even found myself diverting on alternate trails to make the trip back to my bike longer. My legs are pretty hammered today, but that's to be expected. I'm hoping that a couple more runs and I'll be able to withstand a bit of pounding again.

The joys of the British pub

The English pub is a great place. You just go, hang out and have a beer. None of the obnoxious loud music and overcrowded garbage that you associate with bars in the US. This was our first afternoon in England. True to form, the weather was lovely day 1 and then rained all over us on day 2.

 

The view from the flat

On a connection between friends of friends of friends, we hooked up with Chris and Jess, the most fabulous hosts we could have asked for. They were actually headed to Cape Cod for 2 weeks and so handed off the keys to their place, and let us crash in their lovely apartment in Brixton, London. Whoever did the gardening on the first floor flat knew what they were doing, as the view from the window was great.

 

Old powerplant that looked cool

London is full of gigantic old coal fired power plants like this one which have been or are being re-purposed for other things. The Tate Modern is a great example of such a building, it actually looks a lot like this.

 

crack fox

Urban foxes abound in London. This one was just hanging out in the rain in the Nunhead Cemetery, which is spectacularly overgrown and weird. I'd recommend a tour through for anyone in South London for a while.

 

3rd fastest weirdo

Here I am being adorned by Andrew Richey himself; inventor of the lovely steeds upon which we all rode.  

Two national champs, both 3rd place.

Kind of serendipitous that Julie Secor, the fastest finisher at the US Championships, and I were both 3rd place in the race. Go USA.