Neighborhood Bike Works is holding the first of many June bike sales today from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. near St. Mary’s Church (3916 Locust Walk).

Today’s sale is being dubbed as a “preview sale” in preparation for the Big Sale next Saturday (June 11) at the same location from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bike prices will be as low as $20 and some spare parts – like tires and tubes – will also be available. Keep in mind that the cheaper the bike the more likely you will need to do a little work to get it up and running.

Proceeds from the sale will go toward scholarships for the Neighborhood Bike Works’ summer programs.

The Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll seemed to be a great success last night. Great stuff available and tons of people on hand. How about those lines?

Here’s a quick slideshow:

You know the feeling: Standing at a stop some time in off-peak hours, maybe a Sunday morning, looking up Spruce Street or Baltimore Avenue or the El tracks – wondering when the bus, trolley or train will be arriving. You forgot to check the schedule and you’re late and getting later.

Well, SEPTA has unveiled a couple of new services that might ease your angst a little.

A new SMS service will allow you to punch a code for your stop into your phone, send a text to SEPTA and get the next four scheduled stops for your bus, trolley or train. Each of SEPTA’s 18,000 stops regionwide has a code. For now each code (called a “StopID”) is only available on SEPTA’s website here. This summer signs will be installed at all the stops with the unique code number.

The code is key. For example, the eastbound 34 trolley stop at 43rd and Baltimore has a number (it’s 20875). Send that number to 41411 and you will get a quick reply (it took eight seconds the first time we tried it) with the next four times a trolley is supposed to get to your stop. OK, supposed, is a key word here. There is no guarantee it will be on time. But, hey, they’re getting there.

If you like a little more precision, then look into another new service, TransitView, which is available for 116 bus routes and all of the trolleys (no trains) that service West Philly. For this one, you go to the interface and select your route. A Google map will pop up that will show you the location of all of the vehicles on that route by location. For example, on the map of the 34 (see image) the little red icon is a westbound trolley and the blue icon is eastbound. Using GPS updates, the locations are refreshed every three minutes.

There is a catch. The SMS services won’t work for T-Mobile or Sprint customers, which is a fairly big chunk of the Philadelphia market (about a quarter).

For those who can use them, the services will at least help you kill time while you wait.

If you want to get a running start on the Dollar Stroll or just pick up some stuff for dinner, then you might want to hit the inaugural Thursday edition of the Clark Farmer’s Market today. The Thursday market is, of course, held at the same location as Saturday’s – along 43rd Street between Baltimore and Chester – but with special work-friendly hours of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

And don’t forget that the “A” section of the park (between Chester and Baltimore) is scheduled to open June 16.

The 4400 block of Chestnut Street is developing a nice inexpensive African/Middle Eastern restaurant scene. The northwestern bookend of the block is the Pakistani kabob spot Wah-Gi-Wah (“spectacular” in Punjabi). The block’s culinary fulcrum is the Ethiopian cafe and restaurant Kaffa Crossing and now on the eastern end of the block is Al-Khartoum Echo Restaurant, a recently opened Sudanese joint.

Al Khartoum maintains the block’s reputation as a solid place to go for inexpensive curry (lamb or chicken, $5.99), shish tawook ($6.99) and kufta ($6.99), but the more adventurous might dip into the Sudanese fare. Examples include molokhia, a stew like dish made from molokhia leaves and a generous amount of herbs and spices usually served over a bed or rice ($5.99).

It appears that there are several options for vegetarians, including staples such as falafel and okra, but you’re advised to ask about most dishes, because many use a meat stock.

Another restaurant, which looks like it will specialize in gyros, appears close to opening next door to Al Khartoum, so the food choices on this little stretch of Chestnut will likely grow even more this summer. Maybe some day it will get its own “stroll.”

Due to the heat, the School District of Philadelphia has announced that all of its schools will close at 1:30 p.m. today.

Here is the statement from the District:

Due to extreme heat and humidity, all School District of Philadelphia schools will close early today, June 1, 2011.  According to the National Weather Service, the combination of temperatures in the mid 90s and high humidity could create a situation in which heat illness is possible.  The District is taking this excessive heat warning seriously by closing schools at 1:30 p.m. today.  At the 1:30 p.m. dismissal time, routine transportation will occur for students.  The heat advisory in effect until 8 p.m.

The general public and media are urged to monitor the District Web site at www.philasd.org for any updates. Updated information will also be posted on the District’s Information Hotline at 215-400-INFO (4636).