9 JAN 06: WHEELS AND WALKWAYS

The temperature bounced back in Columbus Sunday, to a high of 68 F. So of course, neighbors at my apartment complex decided to do some outdoor grilling - and one guest showed up in pants stopping about three inches above the ankles. I think that's the new official length for "shorts."

I put on my more conventional-length shorts a little after 5:00 p.m., for a pre-dinner run. Several families were out on the Chattahoochee Promenade, south of the Space Science Center. But all of them were on the sidewalks - NOT on the large green lawn. Military towns can be like that....

One family had children scattered all over the Promenade. One actually was up a tree, which was something I've never seen before in Columbus park space. My apologies to Trees Columbus for not getting the family's names, so you can send them to Environmental Court.

Two other members of this family rode along the Promenade on old-fashioned two-wheeled scooters. You know, the kind without motors. The kind children had before someone developed the first great invention of this millennium -- the Segway, which people are ignoring as they walk with their iPods.

I had to jog with care, as one child's scooter came toward me and passed me. He was under control, so we didn't collide. But behind me moments later, I heard a "Look Out!" Thankfully, the child did NOT turn around and decide to race me - though it must have been tempting, with the "76" T-shirt I was wearing.

The jogging course moved north up Front Avenue, then west to the Dillingham Street Bridge. When I engage in "urban running," I stay on the sidewalk at all times -- and long as crazed drivers don't try to join me there.

But even the Dillingham Street Bridge had people on it Sunday afternoon. Two people walked toward me as I jogged, carrying large items. On this old bridge's rather narrow sidewalks, this is a blockade right out of a Parcheesi game.

The two people saw me coming and adjusted to single-file walking. But behind them was something unexpected -- a young man on a bicycle. He was going eastbound on the sidewalk, along the westbound lane of the street. It was the wrong place, the wrong time, the wrong way - and he didn't have a helmet on, either.

At the apex of the Dillingham Street Bridge sidewalk, the cyclist seemed to be in no mood to stop. He decided to "thread the needle," going between my jogging and the two people walking. Not even NASCAR driver Kurt Busch would try this after leaving a bar....

I was at the "rail" edge of the bridge, which really is no rail at all. I held on to it and jogged in place for a moment or two, while the cyclist insisted on going through. Something had to give -- and I've never taken a dive into a swimming pool, much less the Chattahoochee River.

This bicyclist should have been on the street, not the sidewalk -- and the other side of the street at that. You're supposed to pedal with the car traffic. And in Columbus, you might even get into a race with people riding motorized wheelchairs.

I fear some bicyclists have become confused about the rules because of the Riverwalk. It's used by walkers, runners and cyclists, who seem to make room for each other all the time. But when the city trucks come along carrying jail inmates with weed-whackers, you have to make exceptions....

(By the way, those two-wheeled scooters probably SHOULD be on the sidewalk. The only thing which would make them go fast is a push off the edge of the Promenade, all the way down the hill to the Riverwalk.)

Now let's see what else we spotted on a splendid Sunday:

+ The Bliss Salon of Columbus held a special day of fund-raising for the Georgia Transplant Foundation. I suppose the stylists' scissors could be used in operations, if the hair is shampooed....

+ Executives at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta reported in seven weeks, they've already had 500,000 visitors. And who knows how much business has jumped at Captain D's, because tourists can't get seafood off their minds.

+ The Columbus Cottonmouths won 4-3 at Fayetteville, for their 11^th win in a row. If the Snakes were any hotter, they'd have to form a swim team - because the Civic Center ice would melt.

+ Columbus's new Chattahoochee Valley Vipers held tryouts at the Civic Center, for their first season of indoor football. Even the team's owner lifted some weights - so if Terrell Owens wants a spot on the team, he'd better watch his mouth.

+ Instant Message to Pastor Frank McLeod of God's House of Prayer Holiness Church in Auburn: Did I hear you right on WLGA-TV Sunday night - "fat people" who try to lose weight are wrong, because they have a "restless spirit?" When you walk all over the place during a sermon, what sort of spirit do YOU have?

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