Sept. 20 Run/Walk: Meet at Schenley Plaza in Oakland (Repeat of last week)

That's it - we'll meet at the tent at Schenley Plaza in Oakland - not sure why, guess we weren't ready for a new adventure.  We'll use this time to plan one.

Also not much time to report, except a few endorsements:

• http://www.everstrongpgh.com - especially their Mellon Park morning exercise class.
• Visit Chatauqua - hardly anyone there, and still beautiful!

A little under the weather this week, literally - smoke covering the country is too heavy a metaphor.  Bring your best good news on Sunday and we'll spread it around!

Sept. 13 Run/Walk: Meet at Schenley Plaza in Oakland

Aimee and I agree this would be a good place to meet again, so here it is:  the Tent at Schenley Plaza, and possibly a run up to the Reservoir - or maybe if Laurie can come (hint!) she can take us on one of her surprise routes through unexplored territory.  There is coffee nearby this time, and possibly bathrooms!  Bring a chair just in case.

Last week we studied the new Glasshouse apartments at Station Square with a somewhat critical eye.  They did let us lounge on their riverside sofas, but I think that was by mistake.  Runners went off to visit the new Pittsburgh Highline, and walkers the new-ish trail that now completely surrounds downtown right along all three rivers.  Just a few endorsements:

• The close-up view of the stunning Black Lives Matter mural along the Allegheny - detail that you can't see from afar.
• the Highline (OK, can't compare to NYC, but it's ours.)
• Books by Carl Hiaasen - escape from the present into an equally insane world but at least it's funny
• The archaeological discoveries from underneath the Fairmont Hotel that you can see in the lobby. 
• But please not Boca Raton - there are pythons!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Sept. 6 Run/Walk: Meet at Glasshouse apartments, 160 E. Station Square Drive (map in the message)

 Report from Virginia! (Thank you - I sadly missed last week's treat due to forgetting to set my alarm.)

For our run on Sept. 6 (Labor Day weekend) we're planning to meet in front of the Glasshouse apartments to visit the newly opened Highline and also run across the Fort Pitt Bridge and into Point State Park. 

The Glasshouse (map) is the new development right next to the end of the Smithfield Bridge on the South Side, near Station Square. There usually are parallel parking spots along the front of the complex (go over the Smithfield Bridge from Downtown, before then end take a sharp right into Station Square and immediately turn right underneath the bridge into the front of the Glasshouse apts.)

There is a Crazy Mocha in the Bessemer Court at Station Square that is supposed to open at 8 a.m. on Sundays, or just bring your own. 

The run:  Gretchen and Beth led us on a fabulous run through suburban back trails and by Potter's Pond and Pine Creek in McCandless. We enjoyed coffee, Jeff's blueberry muffins and good conversation on Gretchen's back patio. (Thanks, Gretchen!)  The best story of the day was Elaine's harrowing adventure with the rolling crockpot.

The walk: (from Paula): Mary Versa and I had a lovely walk this morning with Wendy, Max and Linda – kind of a ‘new age’ ‘alternate’ walk. [Intriguing - tell us more this Sunday!]

Two endorsements:

• Blueland eco-friendly cleaning products
• The book, "One Thousand White Women"

Masked Marauders

August 30 Run/Walk: North Side discovery! Meet at Gretchen's house 10090 Oakridge Dr., Wexford

Next week's special plan from Beth:  

"Gretchen and I will cohost the run next Sunday, starting from her house at 10090 Oakridge Drive. (map.)We’ll explore a lovely stream side trail in Vestal Park. The walkers can then make their way back to Gretchen’s back patio, and the runners can do the same, or the more ambitious can visit a second nearby park, Potter Park. Or maybe we will go and see the neighbors’ house with the gigantic Steelers emblem on the side."

Last week around Homestead, walkers found some kind of forest patio (see photo - would be great for a coffee hour!) and runners went to investigate possibilities for making a circuit:  Costco parking lot-Glenwood Bridge-Duck Hollow Trail-Homestead Grays Bridge-back to Costco.  Answer: maybe.  We only got partway, but a railroad agent we ran into said it was possible. It's a little grungy on the Homestead side, and would take more than an hour.  A challenge!

Endorsements:

• Chatting with our Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman and also his extraordinary wife Gisele, who remembered RG's visit to their house a long time ago!  (November 8, 2015 to be exact.)
• The word Verblunget.
• Carnegie Library COVID outdoor book delivery and dropoff.  It works!
• Related:  reading in bathtubs.
• Elementary school: film strips, and incidences of escaped bodily fluids, not related.
• How are we going to vote?  So many possibilities and questions and stress!  The group will have a mind meld to determine this soon.  In the meantime, the League of Women Voters has these flyers (1 and 2).
• The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books - remembered fondly but then I read this.
• podcast:  Nice White Parents (some of us were, maybe not so nice?)

August 23 Run: One more time - meet at the Waterfront Starbucks!

What's not to like?  Giant chairs, shade, easy access to coffee and napkins, our Lieutenant Governor and his family, and a pristine bathroom.  So we'll return yet again to the yard of the Waterfront Starbucks, showing that this bizarre time is another episode of Groundhog Day.  We also may resolve once and for all the Glenwood Bridge/Duck Hollow trail access mystery.

Reporting on the last two weeks (photos below), we toured Homestead and its amazing churches, visited the riverside trail where goats are employed in landscaping (no leafblowers!), and crossed the Hi-Level Bridge for a foray into Summerset, Duck Hollow and beyond.  Someday we'll follow that beyond to the Carrie Furnace, per Lainy.  

More election anxiety.  We discussed some more things to do:  

• Join the Pittsburgh League of Women Voters 
• Show up at rallies (i.e. Civil Saturdays org. by Young Black & Educated, this Sat. at 3 at Penn and E. Liberty Blvd, wear purple, Support the Post Office - org. by 14th Ward Indep. Dems. tomorrow at 5 at Squirrel Hill Post Office - bring a sign. 
• Get a Biden sign - contact Gretchen at gjezerc@gmail.com. Then put out an American flag next to it.
• Laura suggests the Order of the Phoenix (request to join the private group)
• Another good list to get on:  Partners for Progress SWPA (they have a letter-writing campaign if you hate making phone calls.)
• If you think of anything else, send it in!

OK - back to needed distractions:

• RG scientists enjoy abbreviating the follow-up of something - FU whenever.
• Going gray, no longer scary.
• Zoom enhancement:  get decent lighting and camera placement. And no unmade beds in the background.
• COVID vaccine trials here are starting this week.  Please let them work.
• Drive-in at the Carrie Furnace - films every weekend, but sign up before they sell out.
• Watch Stateless on Netflix, Offspring (oy vey, again?) on Hulu
• Lainy has a paid opportunity to be on an online stakeholder panel - need to be family member or caregiver of a person in assisted living - email emormer@pitt.edu
• Lieut. Governor John Fetterman is actually in this photo right above Max's blonde head.

August 9 Run: Ditto Last Week: Waterfront Starbucks, bring a chair just in case.

                                                    

     

We'll meet at the Waterfront Starbucks again because the locale was, although admittedly an example of our national consumerist mania, perfect.  There were ample chairs out on the lawn, lots of space, coffee aplenty.  As always, the rain held off.  We had runners and walkers, the lovely refreshing Monongahela alongside, a labyrinth to negotiate, some goats, and the adorable Alex to keep us company.  So... a repeat this Sunday.    

For a long time, RG has officially tried to keep politics more or less at bay, but that ship has sailed. We are now endlessly fretting about what we can do to help end this societal and governmental nightmare.  Resulting endorsements:

• Getting people registered to vote, to request their mail-in ballots, to actually FILL THEM OUT AND SEND THEM IN - if anyone has a good idea on the best way to promote winning this election, email me back and I'll share with the group.  And Joanne - please come and tell us!
• What can you attend or do to elect Democrats and work for justice in general? Send an email to Debra Fyock - debra.fyock@gmail.com - and tell her you want to receive the Indivisible Grassroots Pittsburgh Calendar - for up-to-the-minute listings.
• If you can't remember if you signed up for a mail-in ballot for November, check here.
• Revel in our misery with gut-punching political ads from the Lincoln Project
• How does Elizabeth Warren look so terrific?  I researched:  Skincare; long walks.
• Movie: Idiocracy - not a great film but unbelievably prescient.
• Podcasts:  Nice White Parents - remember standing in line for a Magnet School?  Radiolab piece on 1918 Pandemic, brilliant, unexpected.
• Putting vodka in your pie crust. There are hundreds of recipes, so it must be great.  How about putting vodka in anything - chocolate pudding, banana bread, tacos, salad dressing - it's getting a little desperate out here.
• Because several people asked about The Butterlab last week - there's more on Instagram.
• Check out Mindy Kaling's Never Have I Ever on Netflix. Wendy is obsessed with the main character played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan..

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) 

July 26 Run: Ditto last week: Oakland, Schenley Plaza, meet under the tent.

On Sunday (tomorrow - this is kind of late - shamefaced emoji) we'll repeat last week - meet at the Schenley Plaza tent in Oakland (map), and no need to bring chairs because there are plenty of them!  We also found a cool and breezy spot which has space to spread out and is close to coffee purveyors and also portapotties - what more could one ask for?  Route opportunities: there's up into the Robert E. Williams Memorial Park and reservoir, there's the Shrine of the Blessed Mother, there's down Bates Street to the Hot Metal - or choose your own adventure!

Last week runners explored Italian Oakland and Panther Hollow - presenting the tragic question, how long until we can make the 4627 mile trek to Pizzoferrato? Or the 2 mile trek to the CMU swimming pool?  

OK, let's not dwell on it.  Some endorsements:

• Woodland animals are getting closer.  A bird was using my facemask, hanging on the clothesline, as a hammock.  Every day now is  groundhog day. 
• Local news, especially investigative, is dangerously scarce, but WESA and Public Source are getting better at it.
• The comet - which I missed of course - did anyone see it?  
• Watch Superstore on Hulu, say our Costco fans.  Also, 60 Minutes is still good.

July 19 Run: Destination Oakland! Bring a chair, etc. and we'll meet at the tent at Schenley Plaza

On Sunday we're meeting at Schenley Plaza (map) in Oakland and will spread out according to our new custom, so bring your chairs and desired accoutrements.  The Starbucks on Forbes (but not Fifth) is apparently open.

Report on downtown run last week:

• 
• The sinkhole is indeed filled in!
• Lots of room in Market Square to spread out.  
• Runners visited historic Freedom Corner and St. Benedict the Moor Church
• Walkers crossed bridges and wandered around the Northside.

Endorsements: 

• 9 Cafe at 900 Wood St. Wilkinsburg for takeout
• My Goodness Market in Regent Square
• Oakmont Bakery (but so far!!)
• Prantl's Burnt Almond Torte has a lot of stories about it, and also comes bite-size
• Fries at Hello Bistro

(I see we're getting sick of cooking)

• Dr. Sharon in the news, working to save the world!!
• The Moth on zoom
• Race: The Power of an Illusion documentary - basis of online Race Matters course Gretchen told us about.
• 1619 - New York Times series on reframing US History with the consequences of slavery
• Watch:  Hidden Figures, Homeland
• The Armstrong Trail
• "Any run not near my house"

July 12 Run: Downtown! Meet at the PPG Fountain and bring a chair.

It's been so long since we've been downtown!  March 1 - a million years ago!  We'll see if that sinkhole has been filled up.  We'll start and end at the PPG fountain (map) with all our COVID protections now, including BYO chairs which we can set the prescribed distance apart and our own bottled drinks and snacks and masks - it's another world.  Added attraction:  Aimee informs us that the downtown farmer's market will open at 9 near the convention center at 11th St. and Waterfront place (map.) 

Last week we had our forest experience in Frick Park (have we ever been grateful enough for this place?) and settled down in my backyard for more distanced sharing. Unfortunately, our Yankee Squirrel Flipper was not operational during that time.

Endorsed:

• The Town of Volant and its wine slushies (really, wine slushies anywhere)
• Book:  Rails-Trails Pennsylvania - and trails therein:  Armstrong Trail and Butler Freeport
• The Chicken Flipper  (not to be confused with the Squirrel Flipper) - Joanne says it makes the best chicken ever.
• RG member Sandy, back for a visit after 3 years!
• Gretchen's story about her Dad dotting the i at the Pitt Game
• Keystone State Park and its yurts
• Laurel Hill State Park and its lodge, and bathrooms!
• Watching:  Hamilton!!  Margaret Atwood documentary  The Parent Trap
• Podcast:  Make Me Smart 

July 5 Run: Meet at entrance to Frick Park, Reynolds and S. Homewood, then BYOCoffee at Roye's

We'll be back to forest bathing in Frick Park on Sunday - it did look glorious this morning, so let's meet at the entrance, at Reynolds and S. Homewood in Pt. Breeze.  Despite the depressing and scary COVID numbers lately, I have determined that Pt. Breeze has only had 7 cases so we should be OK.  (Polish Hill has had 0 cases - maybe we should go there next.)  After the run, we can walk the few blocks to my house (305 S. Lang Ave.) and I'll have chairs set apart in the shade, some sugary carbs cut in individual pieces, and a hose ready to cool anyone off.  Take that, Martha Stewart!

Last week we also drank in some cool green-ness in Frick Park, and afterwards lolled happily in Virginia's back patio, mainly reminiscing about decades-old entertainments.  The fact that "The Minnow Would Be Lost" song has been going through my head all week was actually kind of soothing!  We really need a lot of sooth right now.

So it would follow that endorsements were:

• Old shows:  The Love Boat, Mod Squad, Hogan's Heroes, Mr. Ed, Gilligan's Island, Laurel & Hardy, Snow White (Hitler's favorite movie?) and a lot more.  Also The Bionic Man, inspired by the return of Wendy (yay!) with some titanium in a compartment of her knee.  
• But some new shows:  Mrs. America, Hillary, The Good Fight, Irresistible.  
• Plus the fact that you can follow Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, Samantha Bee, etc. on Instagram and get access to their shows.  I'm actually not sure that's right but it sounds like a good distraction.  We also need a lot of distractions.

June 28 Run: Meet at Virginia's house 1200 Lancaster in Regent Square

Thank you, Virginia! for hosting our next outdoor klatch at her house, 1200 Lancaster, Regent Square (map.)  We'll meet there and probably head down into Frick Park.  Due to the sad but necessary physical separation of humans, please BYO mask, coffee, biscuit, Bloody Mary, whatever.  But, we still have our loud and raucous voices to wake the neighbors and keep us together and sane.  If we are actually still sane.

Last week we managed a real run through Schenley Park and a real convo at Sharon's - getting a little closer to normal!  Endorsed:

• Bubbles and pods - getting to hang out with at least a few people
• St. Benedict the Moor Church gets to keep its iconic identity!
• Deer Valley Camp and Mt. Davis - getting away
• Sunset at Chataqua (nobody is there now!)
• Sharon's part in saving the world as her group starts working on the Blessed Vaccine
• The Droll Yankee Flipper squirrel-proof birdfeeder.  See what happened this morning in our backyard. We felt it approached Cirque de Soleil.  (No squirrel was harmed - we checked - in the making of this movie.)

June 21 Run: Meet at the Wendy Bennett Trailhead (see map in message) - then outdoor coffee at Sharon's!

Run/walk will start at the famous Wendy Bennett Trailhead (map). Wendy, please come back to your Trailhead soon!! We'll find the widest trails in the park and/or the CMU campus to spread out in. 

Afterwards, Sharon is hosting the next socially distanced outdoor coffee hour at her nearby house: "5612 Woodmont (near corner of Woodmont and Wightman). I’ll get water and snacks and happy to make a pot of coffee or people can BYO"  - which will be another much-needed and perfectly cautious get-together. 

Much to discuss as always and hopefully I won't lose the napkin this time.  Here's a good theme, as seen in the vicinity of Frick Park:

June 14 Run: Back to the Cemmie! Meet at entrance to Frick Park at S. Homewood and Reynolds

During this distancing time, we'll be having cemetery runs for a while, due to their wide avenues, breezy hilltops, beguiling statuary, and run-ins with groundhogs and other members of the animal kingdom.  We won't comment on the funereal symbolism, but hey, it's kind of right for the moment. So let's meet at the same place, corner of S. Homewood and Reynolds, which only coincidentally allows me to sleep an extra 15 minutes.

Photo: Masked walkers on Sunday.

Coffee hour on Wendy's patio felt like a blessed spring shower after the in-person talking drought of all these weeks, so we're doing it again, invited this time by Max, who lives a half block from there at 1411 Severn St. (around the corner from Five Points if you want to wait in line for ambrosial cardamom buns.)  Like last time, please BYOC (bring your own coffee - or tea - or vodka - everything goes now) and something to keep you from fainting from hunger.

Endorsements:

• Tuesday (tomorrow) 6-8 pm there is a protest bike ride sponsored by Major Taylor Cycling Club, "Honoring Slain Citizens" starting at the Trader Joe's parking lot.  See you there!
• Article: "Wendy Bennett keeps history from fading"!!
• HomeMadeMimi - "Yes, you can spackle. It's like putting on foundation."
• Another bike and walking trail:  Samuel Justus Recreation Trail
• Lainy's manicure lady at Pearl Nails which has just moved to Murray near Hobart.
• When you're on the highway and have to choose the least infected bathroom, RG recommends Sheetz.  If you want a movie theater, a shower, or to make your own milkshake, though, it's the truck stop you'll be looking for.
• The liberating feeling of living without lipstick, manicures, packing for conferences, hair coloring, pants.
• But if you do have to go to a conference some day, try the Denver Marriott in Cherry Creek.

Not endorsed:

• Gargling with hydrogen peroxide (now required at the dentist)

P.S.  Anyone wanting a blue VOTE face mask, just email me back with your address.

June 7 Run: Homewood Cemetery, meet at the entrance to Frick Park at S. Homewood and Reynolds

Yes, we're officially green as of today, and we're actually going to do a run again, but bring masks and your sense of a 6 ft. distance. The cemmie (as we know it) has nice wide avenues for spacing, and good breezes for blowing away germs.  Also a lot of critters these days.  We'll meet at our usual spot at the Frick Park gate at S. Homewood and Reynolds, so our last run isn't uphill.

AND, courtesy of Wendy, who has just the right setting on her patio, we will also have a REAL coffee hour! seated decently apart and with our favorite masks on.  (Though drinking the coffee will be a challenge.)  See the left side for details.

We'll talk about everything as always but NO HUGGING and NO SHARING.  Even though we will literally be in Mr. Rogers' own neighborhood.  This is something he never could have foreseen.  Don't forget to bring your own coffee and comestibles!

May 31 Run: 10th COVID edition, Destination: Oakland! Anywhere you like, then on to the coffee zoom

This week we recommend roaming around Oakland, though unfortunately you can't get into the famous basement bathroom in the Cathedral of Learning.  However, it's possible that St. Paul's will be open in our new yellow state - June is bustin' out all over evidently!  Though not at my house.  Karen won last week's spotting contest with 2.5 views of fellow RG members in Schenley Park.  It wasn't clear which half that was.  Also spotted by Aimee:

Here's the zooming link:
Join East End Runners  for virtual coffee after your actual solo run!

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

Meeting ID: 819 900 089

2 weeks of endorsements:

• First up - the COVID-19 Blues!  Courtesy of David and Jules Coulson - really don't miss this.
• Also, for Disney fans - "If Disney Songs Were About Quarantine"
• Hugelkultur - something about planting in raised beds
• Transformative composting! Also - a good place to store it until it goes outside:  Stainless steel containers, good for 30+ years according to Pam's very effective infomercial.
• Moth virtual story SLAM based in Pittsburgh, zoom to next one June 22.
• Stephen Colbert keeping us sane and laughing, despite that impossibility.
• Barack and Michelle (sorry, can't write for a minute due to crying jag) reading a book to children together (more crying.)
• Books:  Radical Spirit: 12 ways to live a free and authentic life, and The Library Book (with a jaw-dropping description of a library conflagration in Los Angeles).
• Ticks - good ones (no Lyme Disease).  We hated them until we got the bad ones.
• Zoom meetings with judge's dogs, patients in their underwear, and attorneys in bed
• Haircuts without talking!
• New York Times No-Knead Bread - seriously astounding
• CSA's this summer  - there will be many but so far there is Kretschmann (been doing this for at least 20 years) and Harvie Farms (somehow related to Penn's Corner?)
• The Wednesday and Friday runs, leaving at 5:45 from Squirrel Hill Library corner, still going!! though described by attendees as "barely moving."

May 24 Run: 9th COVID edition - Anywhere in Schenley Park, then back to zoom

Just the facts today:

Run or walk anywhere in Schenley Park, and count how many others of us you see.  Then report back to our zoom 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

See you there!

May 17 Run: 8th COVID edition - Everyone to Frick Park? See below for the idea. Then we discuss zoomwise.

OK, what if we all do some sort of individual run in Frick Park, and then see how many of each other we run into?  Whoever sees the most RG members wins!  It will be sort of like atoms careening around and occasionally colliding.  Or like those scary looking spiky virus particles.  I'll be wearing my VOTE DEMS mask.

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

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

Meeting ID: 819 900 089

Last Sunday we had 14 zoomers!  I tried to take a sneak screenshot but believe me, you wouldn't want to see it.  Many endorsements of course:

• The Horse Barn at Hartwood Acres, and nearby pond and trails.
• Seeing things in our neighborhoods that we never noticed before.  Maybe that was a good thing.
• The path to the Glenwood Bridge and the collapsed hole in the middle of it.
• The new staircase in Oakland behind Frick Fine Arts
• Gynecologist Dr. Katherine Scruggs at Magee.  It was also recommended that, if you have to go there for anything, try to make it before May 16.  Unfortunately that's tomorrow.
• Animals are really boldly going forth - deer on the porch, red fox in the cemetery.  Please see this video (with the music.)
• JCC virtual fitness classes are apparently free?  Linda Meacci's yoga classes may not be but they are so worth it.
• We knew Chris when - before he patented a $100 ventilator and may have gotten an intro. to Respironics from Gretchen.
• Pittsburgh restaurants giving needy and heroic people free meals
• Beth's psychic grandmother's ghost story
• The universal collective unconscious is now coronavirus-ized.

May 10 Run: 7th COVID edition, same drill, move around somehow and zoom in at 8

Our Internet stopped working this morning and I thought it was the end of civilization.  Then I thought it was the beginning of civilization.  Then it came back on.
For Sunday (tomorrow), here's the link for coffee - be there.  Still waiting for the surprise new face!

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

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

Meeting ID: 819 900 089

We had 14 RG members at the last zoom, and it was delightful.  Recently recommended:

• Purple haze hair color - looks fabulous on Aimee and Greta anyway.
• The 61C is still open for takeout
• Virtual Zumba - ask Wendy
• Hiking and biking - you CAN get out!  Places not too far away are wide open:  Ghost Town Trail, Wolf Creek Narrows, Sandy Creek Trail, Allegheny River Trail
• Mornings in the basketball court at Blue Slide Park - lots of davening going on.
• TV series:  Unorthodox
• Book: Educated
• Movie:  Bad education (is there a theme here?)
• Zoom breakout rooms (really?)
• GET YOUR MAIL-IN BALLOT NOW please!  Here is the application!  Joanne tells us there are only going to be 150 polling locations - down from 1300! - in all of Allegheny County.  
• Gretchen sent in this beautiful piece of music from her former choir in Italy which was recorded in honor of the victims of the pandemic (music starts about halfway through.)  Let Gretchen know if you want to learn more.
• Also on my list was the Disney Singalong. Perhaps this is a comment on Italian culture/US culture. No judging!
• Also, the Parks and Recreation special is adorable and harks back to the unimaginable days of the Obama administration.   SNL has also been pretty good lately.
• It must have been water guru Beth who told us about analyzing sewer samples to see where COVID-19 is spreading.
• The painfully early 5:45 am Wednesday and Friday Run is still going!  Meeting at corner of Murray and Forbes, and distancing is comme il faut.

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 

March 29 Run: Meet at 61C Cafe, and for the foreseeable future

We're still going - believe it or not - it's OK to exercise, says our (only) leader Gov. Wolf, and it's totally possible to run and walk 6 feet apart and STILL talk.  Take it from us:

So for a while we'll have weekly meet at the 61C Cafe and find as many routes as possible from there. 

We did have a lovely run last week, through Schenley Park and through the CMU campus and over the golf course, where we investigated the BRAND NEW public golf club being built, looking pretty spiffy.

Our discussion on the way and standing around (6 feet apart) on the street afterwards had the usual sparks of insight and brilliance, but they were not recorded.  No napkins available outside!

Instead, here's at least one that looks good - happy movie recommendations from some friends of Dana Stevens, Slate's film critic:
And another:  61C has takeout.

BEST OF ALL - Lainy has arranged a ZOOM COFFEE HOUR from 8-9 on Sunday! Anyone who runs/walks will get back to their homes by 8 so we can make it.

Mormer, Elaine A is inviting you to drop by for Virtual Running Group Coffee

Topic: East End Runners/Walker's Virtual Coffee, after your solo run or walk

Time: Mar 29, 2020 08:00-9:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://pitt.zoom.us/j/759393782

Meeting ID: 759 393 782

One tap mobile

+12678310333,,759393782# US

8778535247,,759393782# US Toll-free

Dial by your location

        +1 267 831 0333 US

        877 853 5247 US Toll-free

Meeting ID: 759 393 782

Find your local number: https://pitt.zoom.us/u/acF4ZXqKgt

Join by SIP

759393782@zoomcrc.com

March 22 Run: Meet at 61C Cafe for a Runners' Choice Run or Walk

This Sunday, meet outside 61C cafe for a default run or walk.  Socially distance yourself from each other and be safe!   I'm not sure if 61C is open for to-go coffee, but it still won't be the same without being able to sit and visit with everyone.

Last week we started at Five Points Bakery and coffee shop and ran or walked through Homewood Cemetery.  It was a great morning to run together while we still could and discuss the implications of Coronavirus.

There was a line outside Five Points but people were already starting to keep spaces between each other, and the shop was limiting the number of people inside.  We were able to sit inside, later learning they closed the seating area.

Endorsed:

• Everything at Five Points, so delicious!
• Water Aerobics at LA Fitness (probably suspended for now though)
• Big disaster movies: "Contagion" (one of the top most-downloaded films on iTunes right now and strangely accurate to what is currently happening), It's a Disaster! (Hulu), or more listed here
• Shows: "Love is Blind" (a guilty pleasure you can't stop watching), "Cheer," "Interior Design Challenge," "Modern Love"
• Working remotely:  use your TV as a second monitor-- you just need an HDMI cord; Skype, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams for video chat
• Phone calls because "social distancing" should really be called "physical distancing"-- we can still be social!

Not endorsed:

• Landlords still showing renters' apartments to strangers during coronavirus!

March 15 Run: meeting at the new cafe at Five Points Artisan Bakeshop, 6520 Wilkins Ave.

Yet another coffee locale to start from:  the new cafe at Five Points at 6520 Wilkins Ave. in Squirrel Hill, with the delectable pastries we know and love, plus coffee from Espresso a Mano.  There are so many of these now we could go on forever trying them out.

On Sunday we moseyed around industrial and commercial Larimer and East Liberty, circumnavigating that enormous development that we used to gawk at when it was a giant hole in the earth.  Things that aren't there any more.  Or, are there now but weren't.  Which is also true of the megadose of hipster-mania in the KLVN coffee emporium, living up to its motto: "TURNING ON AND PUTTING OUT THE CLEANLINESS OF CAFFEINATED STOKE AND POWERFUL CRYSTAL VIBES." Whoa. The barista made my espresso twice because he wasn't quite satisfied with it the first time.  You've never held coffee cups like these, and the music made me feel fairly ancient, not to mention slightly deaf.  You've gotta try it.


Totally appropriate to the ambience were these inspirational fired clay plaques discovered in Teri's basement!  (They may ultimately be found at the Center for Creative Reuse.)  We endorse all those words, as well as:

• The Fred Rogers Center at St. Vincent College
• Robotic dogs and cats - when we get old, we may not know the difference.  But, there are advantages!
• A"corn box" for your arm in PT (warm floating shredded corn cobs) feels terrific
• Watch:  Cheer on Netflix or Dixie Chicks on Amazon (upbeat), Trials of Gabriel Fernandez on Netflix (NOT upbeat)
• Listen:  Michael Pollan audiobook "Caffeine"

March 8 Run: Meet at KLVN Coffee Lab, 6600 Hamilton

For the 3rd time in a row, we're trying out a new coffee locale, so we'll meet at KLVN Coffee Lab at 6600 Hamilton (map), whose website gives no indication of what they actually do, but we'll hope for the best.  Someone will invent a run - lots of possibilities!

Last week we followed the rivers and as promised crossed bridges all around downtown - photos below do not relay the crystal beauty of the morning light on the water, but do show us investigating the legendary sinkhole and the gritty picturesqueness of alleyways.

De Fer Coffee was quite nice and has the continental touch of offering both coffee and cocktails.  We didn't ask whether the cocktails are available at 8 am but really should next time.  We were so glad to see our plot worked when Cheryl walked in - yay!!
Endorsements:

• Dan Droz "sculptural magic with metal"exhibit in Sharpsburg starting tomorrow!
• Pitt Osher classes, especially with Abby Mendelson and Chris Rawson
• Fireborn Studios pottery classes
• Major Taylor Cycling Club
• Um, there is evidently a Vagina Spa in Pittsburgh which may or may not be this one - if you want more info, you'll need to come to the run!