May 3 Run: 6th COVID edition - Run/Walk at 7 - Join in at 8

OMG it's May - and now I'm pondering how many COVID editions there are going to be.  I think I should stop counting.  We all need a more cosmic approach to time anyway.  Speaking of cosmic, we are looking for the emptiest spaces for our solo running routes now, and reports are that North Park is too crowded, but Frick Park (at 7 am anyway) is wide open.  So wide open in fact that several of us were running there and never knew it!  Will try to get more reports this week.

Link for coffee - be there!  Surprise us if we've never seen you before!
Join East End Runners  for virtual coffee after your actual solo run!

https://pitt.zoom.us/j/819900089

Meeting ID: 819 900 089

Zoom turns out to be perfectly adequate for our coffee hours, though it can't begin to replace the sweaty cameraderie and raucous cackling disturbing everyone else in the room.  We do have a lot to say though:

• Hurray for Sharon, named a Pittsburgh Magazine Top Doctor in April! And how great is it to have an infectious disease expert with us at the moment.  
• However, she lost the group title for Best Finder of Lost Currency when Wendy reported that she found a $100 bill blowing in the street.
• The trail maintenance taking place in city parks, and the new iHop Trail over by Summerset.
• Eagle Cam!!!  I didn't even know this: "THE FIRST NESTING PAIR OF BALD EAGLES IN PITTSBURGH IN OVER 150 YEARS"  Tiny featherballs providing excellent watching during work zoom meetings.
• Raccoon Creek State Park Wildflower Preserve - perfect right now and lots of space.  Bathrooms, not so much.
• Though the porta-potties in Frick Park (however tawdry) are apparently being serviced. 
• Mayor Cuomo
• Trampolines
• USPS' Stamps.com- you can send anything without going into the Post Office!
• Designer masks, or the one made from a bra.
• Australia and New Zealand - showing what can be done in a pandemic.
• Watch:  Catastrophe, Four Weddings and a Funeral (new series), Little Fires Everywhere, Slings and Arrows
• Read: War and Peace with this virtual book club

April 26 Run: 5th COVID edition - just go anywhere. But come to coffee zoom afterwards.

Join East End Runners  for virtual coffee after your actual solo run!

https://pitt.zoom.us/j/819900089

Meeting ID: 819 900 089

April 19 Run: 4th COVID edition (sigh) - go where you will, come back around 8

Another week in paradise - not!  But mainly because it's SO cold.  Here's the link to zoom in on Sunday morning:

Join East End Runners  for virtual coffee after your actual solo run!

https://pitt.zoom.us/j/819900089

Meeting ID: 819 900 089

You can still be in bed!  Anything goes now.  

Reporting on last week's zoom:

• There are more deer than dogs now in Frick Park, and on Shady Avenue.  In fact, wildlife seems to be taking over.  It feels a little like the scenes in Disney's Snow White.
• Does anyone remember Kaiser rolls?  They have something resembling them and many other crusty miracles at Breadworks, which is still open with curbside delivery.
• Laurie - where are you?  We miss you!
• Zoom meetings are getting a little tiresome, except for this one, of course. Though it is kind of fun to see weird backdrops that people use, or their messy bedrooms.  And, you can use the chat feature for snarky comments. Did you know it all gets recorded? And nobody will ever forget the original harried BBC reporter crashed in on by his tiny child.
• Press briefings - Governor Cuomo, comforting, and the president, viscerally unbearable.
• We thought that water use would be up due to monster hand-washing, but PWSA expert Beth says it is actually down. Fewer showers?
• If it weren't for our homebound status, would we have this thrilling zoom Hamilton performance to watch 17 times?

Hope to see you on Sunday!  

April 12 Run: 3rd COVID edition, go wherever, just be back by 8 to log on for coffee

I think I'll just head over to Frick Park on Sunday - and you?  Running with a mask is hard! It's a mystery where all this is going, but at least we have zoom to talk about it (thanks to Lainy.) See the bottom of this message for the link.

There were 13 of us on the screen last week, including the long-lost Audrey!  There's one advantage:  if you're far away, you can still come for coffee.  PtB - talking to you!  Anna in Glasgow- are you reading this?  Also, there were too many endorsements to count - here are some:

• Allegheny County government is fully operational - so Joanne has to go to work, but we are all grateful.
• There are companies that host online baby showers.
• Sarah and Kristin have been running 50 MILES in Frick Park and say it's a piece of cake.
• 412 Food Rescue is awesome.
• Wendy, Janet and I are making masks - anyone else?  It becomes an obsession, and if you start you will never think of anything else.  Please share your craziness, and your elastic.  Here is Wendy's pattern, and here's mine.  
• Watch Unorthodox on Netflix - which stars Harvey Friedman who...was once in our running group?  Did I hear that right?
• Listen to Radiolab Dispatch 3: Shared Immunity about getting COVID antibodies from plasma - it's happening!  Also Dispatch 1 and 2 are also great.
• Puzzles. Yes, puzzles. You thought they were just for nursing homes?
• Five Points is still open, and Madeleine's is supposed to open soon too.
• Hair ties - scrounge up the ones on the floor of your car - they are getting scarce!
• Putting your phone on airplane mode for entire days

Hope to see everyone on Sunday at 8!

Join East End Runners  for virtual coffee after your actual solo run!

https://pitt.zoom.us/j/819900089

Meeting ID: 819 900 089

One tap mobile

+12678310333,,819900089# US

8778535247,,819900089# US Toll-free

April 5 Run: Wherever your shoes will take you - and then zoom coffee afterwards!

So now we're staying home or solo on the trail, but we are still in touch!  Last week Sharon and I waved to each other (6 ft. apart) on the path beside the Frick Park Lawn Bowling greens.  It might be fun to keep track of RG spottings on Sunday mornings.  Sigh.

At any rate, endorsements abounded at our zoom meeting that Lainy arranged.

• Zoom - saving our lives.  See below for info. about the next one this Sunday at 8 am!
• Mask making - if you sew, join Wendy's team making them for RG member and NYC emergency physician Anat!  Email her at wen.bennett@gmail.com for info.
• 412 Food Rescue and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Foodbank are doing incredible work.
• Yoga teacher extraordinaire and RG member Linda Meacci's online streaming classes. 
• REI is having a pretty great sale - good for running shoes
• Getting dressed for work only from the waist up
• DIY hair and body care (no salons) - rely on the Sally Hansen brand. Also, you can dye your hair purple now.
• The Bryan Lehrer radio show on WNYC - like Mr. Rogers?
• Podcasts:  Brene Brown, Unlocking Us, Dolly Parton's America, Max Brooks on Terry Gross.
• Movie:  The Two Popes
• Dancechurch!
• VOTE BY MAIL - you don't need an excuse any more. We all need to do it. Ask Joanne.

Mormer, Elaine A

Here is the chat transcript and next week’s coffee room: 

Join East End Runners  for virtual coffee after your actual solo run!

https://pitt.zoom.us/j/819900089

Meeting ID: 819 900 089

One tap mobile

+12678310333,,819900089# US

8778535247,,819900089# US Toll-free

Dial by your location

        +1 267 831 0333 US

        877 853 5247 US Toll-free