Labor-day weekend in Tucson, for the past four years, has meant running the Saguaro National Park Labor Day 8-miler...but not this year. Yesterday, while waiting at a red light, on the way to pick up my racing t-shirt and bib, we got rear-ended.
Oh, inattentive and unapologetic driver, you spoiler of annual tradition and inducer of neck-and-back-pain for my wife and me--PAY ATTENTION! And she even had the nerve to say, as I tried to explain my irritation (we were stopped at red light! LOOK UP! you were probably texting, anyway...) at being rear-ended for the second time in less than two years, "Well, it's not like I did it on purpose, and, uh, what if I'M injured?" Ahem. (What--you want me to apologize? for YOU running into US?!) Well, that would still be...YOUR fault!
Yes, yes, accidents happen. But own up. Apologize. Be an adult.
Alas, then, I'm in no shape for the up-and-down 8-miler in the desert tomorrow morning.
I did end up picking up the t-shirt, though:
So...do I get to wear it?
I've been running the course every weekend since July...I just won't be running it tomorrow morning...
It has been a summer of good runs, though, scenic and far-flung...
...now, on into autumn, even if thermometers in Tucson would seem to indicate otherwise...
===================
After ibuprofen and ice-packs, we did decide to make the best of the rest of the day...
...and so, with a friend, we checked out a food-truck and micro-brewery.
For about a month now, the "Zany Beaver," run by a husband-and-wife-team, has become the newest addition to Tucson's food-truck scene, bringing POUTINE to our urban corner of the desert! If you don't know what 'poutine' is--it's Canada's national junk-food, born in Québec in the 1950's, and clogging arteries with deliciousness ever since: french fries topped with fresh (squeaky) cheese curds and hot brown gravy...
 |
| I got the "Bacon Bacon" poutine...And if you're concerned with how to be a locavore, these cheese-curds are from right here in Arizona...and the glass-bottled sodas are from nearby Mexico! |
Last night, The Zany Beaver happened to parked in the parking lot of "Dragoon Brewing Co.," one of Tucson's microbreweries... A perfect marriage, right?--fries and beer:
They've been brewing here in Tucson for about a year-and-a-half now...
My favorite was the "Monsooner," the Dortmund-style lager; it turns out that the mineral-content of the water here in Tucson is similar to the water in that north German city...so, sehr logisch...und sehr gut!
And on their website, they've got this cool beer-locator map, showing where their microbrew is on tap:
No shortage of thirst-quenching-options in this desert...
==============================
And, from last week in my classroom--one random map-snippet:
a very bright student, in discussing how to remember certain European countries on the map (I always include geography in my language classes), referring to Austria, said: "it looks like a flying potato/whale; also shaped a bit like Oklahoma." Now will that make you run to an atlas? Won't forget that one...
No comments:
Post a Comment