Today's Activities include: fridge now fixed

I ordinarily buy appliances from appliance dealers, because I know the kind of trouble caused by buying them from places like Home Despot. But when we moved in here, I took a flyer on Home Despot and Lowe's, and lived to regret it when the fridge quit closing properly. R. fiddled with it. I read the owner's manual and wondered about what R. said about maybe it wasn't leveled properly, and then I called an appliance dealer, Hunter's Appliance in Littleton. They sent someone out, which I paid for because I can't find my receipt for buying the fridge. It was not unreasonable and it was fixed very quickly (yep, wasn't leveled right by the guys from Home Despot -- they used the support posts that are the anti-topple device to try to level it, which of course Does Not Work). Door now shuts properly. AND Hunter says if you're in the market for an appliance and find a better deal, bring it to them and they'll match it (at least for Home Depot and I would presume in general). So if you are in the area and in the market, I'd recommend these guys.

Kids woke up early (ugh) so I'm a little loopy from not enough sleep. I was going to go mail something in West Acton, but I forgot, then when I remembered, I knew A. was sleepy and so bicycling was out, but I figured I'd take her in the stroller, but she nursed to sleep before we got out the door. Tragedy, I know. In theory, I should be asleep, too, but I'm far too excited about the prospect of uninterrupted time.

R. took T. up to B. and went to do the CSA pickup and get some stuff at Costco.

complete streets

http://www.completestreets.org/

Ran across this as I was attempting to research why some towns oppose bike paths (I know about the vehicular cycling argument -- I'm looking for the crazy people who put up big signs in their yard saying vote no on rail trail type of thing, usually mentioning increased crime and decreased property values).

Complete Streets is include cyclists and peds in street (re)design.

great discussion of railbanking and rails-to-trails

http://www.americantrails.org/resources/railtrails/antirail.html

This more or less covers what I was looking for.

stumbled across Teh Devil

http://www.motorists.org/

I ran across this via their Massachusetts Unreasonable Speed Limits page (which confirmed what Acton Traffic officer told me over the phone about how speed limits get set in this state). They're like the NRA, only the deadly weapon in question is of course a motor vehicle (specifically, a car -- you search that site and find me something about motorcycles. Really!), instead of a gun.

SF's bike plan, District 5 Diary's Rob Anderson and SFWeekly's coverage

http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-05-27/news/ironically-bike-hater-rob-anderson-advances-cause-of-cycling-in-s-f/1

It's honestly hard to say which is weirder: the reality, or the SF Weekly's coverage of it.

It's bad to make a commotion when entering a smoky room? I thought that don't-complain-about-smokers attitude had been tossed as past-its-pull-by date. Altho the weirdest bit has to be comparing incrementally creating a cycling network and incrementally creating a light rail system. Because, yeah, those are similar.

LA Times history blog covers 1899 LA speed limit law

4 miles going through intersections or anywhere a ped might be getting on or off a street car
8 mph in general

bikes have to have a bell, gong or whistle to warn of their approach

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2009/07/city-sets-new-speed-limits-on-bicycles.html

Interestingly, horses and wagons had a speed limit of 4 in intersections etc., and otherwise 6 mph