August 2 Run: Meet at the Waterfront, in front of Starbucks

 

In these plague times the weeks seem to be speeding up and I'm getting later and later in getting this out.  Sorry!  I just read that time is "a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future" so hopefully that won't matter too much.

Tomorrow we're going a little farther afield, venturing across a river!  We'll meet at the Starbucks at the Waterfront (map) (the one in the "Town Center" , now that's retail!)  Bring a chair just in case.  The Steel Valley Trail beckons, and Homestead, and the Hays Bald Eagle Cam (have they fled?), and the Great Allegheny Passage, and Duck Hollow, and the Costco parking lot - somebody pick something.

Last week walkers and runners went in different directions, and I'll be damned if can remember where anyone went, but Virginia sent me this image of climbing the new stairs behind the Frick Arts Center, so that must have been part of it.

As we sat peacefully under the trees (except for the ominously frequent Life Flight helicopters) there were tons of endorsements though:

• Becoming a Flight Nurse
• New Balance shoes with The Cushion.
• Circles organization in East Liberty that connects people across socioeconomic lines to make a more equal society.
• Places to go that are not too far:  Deer Valley Family Camp, usually booked forever, has openings now because of COVID, Ditto Chatauqua, and the fabulous Skytop Lodge. 
• Books: A Woman of No Importance, Circe, May the Road Rise Up to Meet You.
• Entertainment value of the comments any time Sen. Toomey posts on FB.
• All the stuff you can pick up on South Oakland streets because the rentals are turning over - example:  a new unopened Amazon kitchen set that someone's Mom clearly thought would be used.
• More details on the story of Gretchen's Dad as a Pitt freshman band member in the 60's on a trip to Jim Crow Louisiana with star linebacker Bobby Grier. This needs to be a movie, but at least on Story Corps.
• Radiolab (always terrific) but especially this one on the Cheerleader and the Mississippi flag.
• Movies:  Spike Lee's Da Five Bloods, Greyhound (Tom Hanks very different from Mr. Rogers in this one.)
• The Butterlab - photos & recipes from culinary heaven (by my son's partner Tamara)