Earlier this week, common sense prevailed — barely — in Holly Springs when the Town Council voted 3-2 not to crack down on kids playing in the street. Seems a local resident pushed the issue, complaining that her neighbor kids didn’t get out of her way fast enough when she pulled into her cul de sac.
Weekend plans? Wayfinding, kayaking, bicycling
For many of us, it’s the last weekend of summer before the kids head back to school. Act now, because once school and its various activities kick in, it could be a while before the clan has a free weekend of spend together.
Coast
I love exploring and I love a good map. But sometimes you get a hankering to go terra incognita; that is, to a spot on the map where trails are sparse and successful navigation depends upon your ability to use a map and a compass to get around. Good skills to have regardless, and skills you can pick up Sunday during an orienteering course at Lake Waccamaw State Park. If you have a compass, bring it, if you need one the park has a few loaners. Definitely bring bug spray, though. It’s an hour-long class, from 4-5 p.m.
Avoid The Big One, walk to school
Now kids can tell their teachers that if they don’t get outside to play tetherball or romp on the jungle gym, they could have a heart attack!
This helpful bit of fact-based guiltsuasion comes from a just-released study from the University of Buffalo that found that kids who walk to school and get other kinds of exercise throughout the day get less stressed during tests. Less stress means a reduced risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and other cardiovascular woes later in life.
In New Jersey, life’s a (more active) beach
It looked like a North Carolina beach except for one thing: The people were moving.
We just got back from five days at Brigantine Beach, which sits just north of Atlantic City, N.J., though the gulf between the two couldn’t be greater. Atlantic City is all about glitz and gambling, Brigantine Beach is about kicking back — and kicking in.
Running across the state for Parkinson’s
When I saw the flier tacked to the bulletin board at the neighborhood Starbucks, I had one question. So I jotted down the name and number of the local contact and gave her a call.
“This 545-mile, 16-day Murphy to Manteo run that the three of you are doing,” I asked Lisa Tew, who lives in Fuquay-Varina, “this is a relay, right?” The flier touted a bodacious event involving three women — Tew, who is 43, Shay Mendes, 39, and 32-year-old Kristy Tomicki — who planned to run from Murphy to Manteo, a distance of 545 miles, in just 16 days starting Sept. 6. Certainly it was a relay; otherwise, that would be 34 miles per person, per day. That’s like running a marathon and a third every day for 16 days straight.