Mile 102.7 – Today Allstate Insurance Company released a rather sobering report. The report ranked Salt Lake City as the 99^th safest large U.S. city for driving. The report ranked 200 U.S. cities and apparently 101 of them have larger moronic driving populations than Salt Lake City.

July 8, 2009 – Oscar G. Mayer, the third Oscar Mayer to chair the meat processing company that bears his name died this week.

Mile 95.0 – From its founding our fair city has been the namesake of the desert lake known as The Great Salt Lake. If you’ve never visited the shores of this mighty lake, I highly recommend you do so. Millions of birds can’t be wrong.

July 2009 Map

62.5 Miles – I. Prelude

When our weary world was young
The struggle of the ancients first began
The gods of love and reason
Sought alone to rule the fate of man

They battled through the ages
But still neither force would yield
The people were divided
Every soul a battlefield
(Peart, Hemispheres, 1978)

June 25, 2009 – A man was shot in both legs during a carjacking in Salt Lake City late Wednesday night, June 24, near 900 West and 800 South.

June 2009 Map

Mile 53.1 – “People are strange when you’re a stranger
Faces look ugly when you’re alone
Women seem wicked when you’re unwanted
Streets are uneven when you’re down”

- Jim Morrison

June 19, 2009 - President Obama spoke to young men today telling them “Even if your father was not there, you can be there for your child.” Obama made his remarks two days before Fathers Day at Year Up, a nonprofit program for urban youth.

June 12, 2009 – Two climbers fell to their deaths yesterday afternoon, June 11, on North America’s tallest mountain – Mount McKinley. Park Rangers reported that the two men fell at least 2000 feet.

June 11, 2009 - The World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic today, it’s the first global flu epidemic in 41 years.

28.5 miles – The Salt Lake City County Building is an amazing structure. In fact I would consider it one the three buildings that make up the Salt Lake City Trifecta; the other two being the Salt Lake Temple and the Cathedral of the Madeleine.  These three buildings, perhaps more than all others in our fair city, have had an immense historical and social significance to the city’s residents. All three of the trifecta are over 100 years old, were completed within 16 years of each other, and are located within a mile of each other.

June 10, 2009 - The Sutherland Institute and the Salt Lake Chamber hosted a panel discussion today on the implications of immigration bill SB81. Both those for the bill and those who oppose it were present. Both audience and panel members were given time to speak and one man had to be expelled from the meeting. The bill goes into effect July 1, 2009.  Among the bills many provisions, the bill calls for an immigration enforcement role for state and local law enforcement agencies.

Mile 26.3 - It seems I am destined to wander among strangers, day after day without the June sun. It’s really hard to stick an image in the rain.

June 9, 2009 – Swine-flu cases in Utah have almost doubled since last week and the numbers are expected to continue to increase. As of yesterday there have been 713 confirmed cases.

“And as we wind on down the road  our shadows taller than our soul”

-Robert Plant

Microsoft announced yesterday, June 2,  that  Windows 7 will go on sale Oct. 22, in the  hopes of possibly giving the slumping  PC industry a lift in the holiday season. Windows 7 is intended to replace Windows Vista.