shoes 2

Americans, in general, don’t use the metric system. We learn it in middle school. I know this because Amber had to learn it last fall I think and she had some odd phrase to help her remember the prefixes – something aboutΒ King Henry, I think. I have to admit that it was a lesson my husband had to help with because I’m not any better at it than she is. I measure distance in inches, feet and miles, liquids by the cups, quarts and gallons, spices by the tablespoon or teaspoon. I know a meter’s about 3 feet, but that’s it.

However, tomorrow, metric matters. My husband and I are running in the Pirates Charities 5K. Yes, it’s 3.1 miles, and when I run through town or at the track I count miles, but tomorrow it’s kilometers. It should be fun, if a little chillier than I would like. In addition to the commemorative t-shirt we also get complimentary tickets for a baseball game. We’re thinking about going Sunday afternoon.

So I was looking up kilometers today on Wikipedia, just to see if it had anything interesting to say. Apparently only Americans spell it that way; for the rest of the world it’s kilometres. Also, only three countries haven’t officially adopted the metric system, the US, Liberia and Burma.

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