So I said I wasn’t going to do the whole early adoption thing [much] anymore, nor would I camp out for new tech, but I will be hitting Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh bright and early to get my black 16GB 3GS (couldn’t justify 100 bucks extra for a 32GB when I’m operating with an 8GB now). I’d also like to head to my old stomping grounds (and former part-time employer) over to the original North Carolina Apple Store at Southpoint in Durham, but I’m closer to the Raleigh store for heading to work after getting my new phone. It’d be nice to take it home to sync all my apps, etc., but unless it’s super quick getting through the line, I’ll have to head right into work.

Anyway, looking forward to my new phone, and hoping the process is efficient and the line is short and smooth first thing in the morning.

The hopes and wishes of a whole bunch of [racing] cyclists here in the Raleigh Durham area is about to come to fruition — some criteriums locally, meaning a better travel to racing time ratio. It looks like Sundays for the next couple months (starting in July) will be full of bike racing at Raleigh’s Centennial Campus, most likely utilizing the course of the early season Wolfpack Criterium.

This comes on the heels of talk of a semi-regular Tuesday night race series in Chapel Hill on weeks opposite of the Altamahaw, NC Ace Speedway series. Now let’s all get out there, race and support these to keep the local race scene buillding and hopefully growing in the coming seasons.

2009 Weekly Sunday Raleigh Criterium Series Flyer

I meant to post this earlier this week, but am just now getting around to it. Any local cyclists interested in a group ride tomorrow:

On Saturday June 6, Bull City Cycling and McKinney will host the Inaugural Clive Sweeney Memorial Ride: Ride for Clive.

The Event:
In remembrance of Clive and to promote bike safety, Bull City Cycling and McKinney are hosting Ride for Clive on June 6 starting at 8am in front of the Durham Performing Arts Center. Participants will bike 12 miles on the American Tobacco Trail from the American Tobacco Campus to Southpoint and back. If this is an event you are interested in, please join us! It is a free, recreational ride for people of all ages.

Clive:
Clive Sweeney spent 4 years as a Flash developer at McKinney and was a true Durhamite. He was an avid collector of Durham Bulls hats, he volunteered with the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and he developed the Triangle Battle of the Bands website to support Durham’s Center for Child and Family Health. Clive was a proud grandfather who could dead lift 420 pounds and loved cycling. Sadly, he passed away June 3, 2008 in a bike accident. Ride for Clive will be our way to honor the man we knew and loved.

For more information or to sign up to participate, please visit rideforclive.com

It looks like now that the Canes are out of the Stanley Cup (and the Penguins are struggling in the finals), the RBC Center is upgrading its central hanging, meaning it’s getting four updated high definition screens. There must be a lull in the scheduled events at the arena. It is early in the summer concert season.

Follow the progress and process here and view the RBC Center’s live webcam.

Well, the Stanley Cup playoffs are officially over for me, with the Canes getting swept and eliminated in short order against Pittsburgh.

The RBC Center took little time before melting down the ice, and clearing it away. I first checked the RBC Center’s webcam around 11am this morning, and the ice was still fully intact, and the Olympias (RBC doesn’t use the Zamboni brand) were actually running. I’m not sure what that was about — possibly they were spraying the ice with warm water to assist in melting it.

Regardless, the ice is all gone now, leaving a concrete floor for the Sesame Street Live crew to setup on. It looks like that’s well underway— curtain is up, and there’s been some action/assembly going on on the floor.

Only a couple months till football starts up, then next season’s hockey starts up and finally basketball. We’ve hit that lull in sporting events I care about.

RBC Center Floor Melting Underway

So today is Bike to Work Day, ending Bike to Work Week in the middle of Bike to Work Month. Well today, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before – bike to work. Sure, I’ve driven part way and parked the car at Crabtree Valley Mall, then biked the just over seven miles in. But today, I’m going the whole distance – door to door.

There’s a lot of unknowns: the total mileage of this bike commute, the total time it’s going to take and how much traffic I’ll encounter. But I’ll start to find out here in a little over a half hour. My guesstimate is that is going to take me about three hours to get from my home in Durham to downtown Raleigh. My route is pretty convoluted, but keeps me in residential neighborhoods almost the entire time. Wish me luck, and expect another post somewhere later today with the details of my maiden Durham to Raleigh commute. See you on the road.

Here’s another cycling-related post, I’m passing on from the local cycling email lists for everyone. Sorry, I’m a little late posting it for anyone looking to hit the Warren County meeting, but these meetings all relate to the planning of a huge greenway that is going to span North and South along the East coast from Maine all the way down to Florida. The meetings here in North Carolina obviously relate to how local current trails (and future local trails) will connect in with this large-scale trail network.

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A bit more high definition love for the Raleigh-Durham Time Warner Cable lineup – at the end of the month (May 28th to be exact), it looks like we’ll be getting Smithsonian HD added to the lineup, and that HD Net will be moving from the HD package down to being included with just the digital tier.

Originally from GoGoRaleigh.com