Legacy Trail...Again with the biking...And WEG

Lexington's new Legacy Trail officially opens Sunday, September 12.  This is just the first two phases as the third phase linking the Northwest side with the Downtown East End has yet to be built but at the completion of the full trail  you'll be able to ride or walk 12 miles from the east end of downtown's new Isaac Murphy Memorial Garden -- think almost Bell Court area if you don't know what I'm talking about -- all the way to the Kentucky Horse Park.  For WEG, this means by the time the fun begins, you'll be able to bike to the Horse Park and park your bike for free as opposed to the $20 per car fee to park next to the horse park.   

written last Friday but only posted this morning...

I feel a little ill this morning.  Maybe more than a little ill.  I've been feeling this way since August 11 when I dropped off Mary Rollins at high school.  Actually, I think this has been coming on since the last day of eighth grade.  All in all, I think I've been pretty accepting of my children growing up -- I was only a little misty on the first day of kindergarten and slightly nostalgic as she went off to middle school.  I've always said I like me children more and more as they've grown up but I confess that high school has thrown me for more of a loop than I ever expected. 

I've been trying to narrow down the root of my angst and I think it started when she came home from orientation to tell me she only knew about 3 or 4 kids at most in each of her classes which doesn't seem possible since half of her middle school transitioned to Henry Clay.  Of course, I guess that's only about a quarter of her freshman class so I shouldn't have been surprised, but still I had this idea that she'd be with all of her sweet little friends that she's known since I dropped her off last week at kindergarten whose parents I know and who I used to read with in 2nd grade and I was their homeroom mom...

Or, maybe it was looking at the boys soccer team players who looked decidedly like a men's soccer team as they were practicing that stressed me out. 

It could have been yesterday's comment, "you know those boys I walk past on the steps into school in the morning, Mom?  They're all smoking."  Snappy mom, said back "Did you tell them it's bad for them."  Quick-witted girl says, "I will tomorrow.  Maybe I should take them my DARE hand-outs.."

Maybe you should funny girl. 

But, I digress.

Monday she told me about the fight in school along with the Language Arts class lesson on why it's bad to kill yourself.

Or, her friend's story last week about sitting next to a girl in Debate class he thought was just on the heavy side until she grabbed her stomach and said, "Oooh, it kicked!"

Or, today in the drop-off line, looking over at the 17-year old boy/man in the BMW SUV next to me wearing his football jersey, needing a shave, checking out those three cute freshman girls walking past the smoker-boys.

I guess this is the time where as a parent you hope you've done the right things or at least packed some of the right stuff in the baggage they carry through life.  For today though, today's one more day that she doesn't have a boyfriend, that she loves school, and is thinking that it would be fun to have an American Girl Doll tea party with her friends to relive the good old days.  Maybe I'm starting to feel a little better after all. 

Facts & Oberservations about Lexington

Fact Number 1:  It is officially only 30 days until the start of the World Equestrian Games.  If you don't live here, that probably doesn't seem like a big deal (actually I live here and while I hate to say it I'm not sure it seems like a big deal). 

Fact Number 2:  The Wall Street Journal had an article on the best and worst markets to invest in real estate.  Lexington was ranked as number 5 on the BEST markets.  Pretty cool.  The worst markets are in Florida and Las Vegas.  Imagine that. 

Fact Number 3:  School starts too early in Fayette County.

Fact Number 4:  Horse Mania is back and well underway. 

Observation Number 1:  Over the last 6 months, I have noticed more and more bikers (not the motorcycle kind) riding the streets of Lexington.  These aren't just the usual plethora of neon Lycra-clad ectomorphs who speed by on their racing bikes heading for country roads doing Lance Armstrong impersonations.  Those people have been around for years.  What I'm seeing are normal folk on bikes with baskets, wearing backpacks and actually using their bike as an alternative means of transportation!  Some of them are college students but many of them appear to be from the ranks of the gainfully employed.  It's so cool!  Even kids are out riding instead of being driven.  Will found his freedom this summer on his bike and has ridden to school and spend whole days meeting up with friends and roaming Chevy Chase in his throw-back 1950s lifestyle.  It's true functional and practical biking that includes dining at the counter of Wheeler's Drugstore or Graeter's Ice Cream and then heading over to Wyatt's pool or to throw some smoke bombs in our backyard.  I'm part of the biking revolution too, as I have have tried to make all of my mini grocery trips and around Chevy Chase errands on my bike.  In fact, I think Mary Rollins and I rode somewhere nearly everyday this summer doing virtually all of our grocery shopping by bike. 

I'm seem to be writing about biking a lot lately, don't I?

The end of summer hours

MR & Friend at Gray's Arch

Hi all.  Summer ended.  Last Wednesday.  Children back to school.  Back to work at a more normal pace.  Oh well....it ended all too soon so I'm going to write my state representatives that they need to pass the Save our Summer legislation that mandates that school may not start before the end of August.  I've actually written them before but just not lately. 

Here's a farewell to summer picture of last Saturday's hiking adventure at Red River Gorge.  Technically it's from after school started but it was 94 degrees so it still sure felt like summer...

Lakehouse this weekend, anyone??