Spring Version of Brew Run Run...

 

Not as big of a turnout this time. Still, a lot of fun. Cyclists were smarter than those of us who ran. It was very warm. Those of us who knew Terry Canfield were still dealing with the shock of the horrific events suffered by him and his family and I think that hung over our heads and our hearts.

It was the usual route - the garbage goat start to NoLi and then Iron Goat, Budge Bros, Ramblin' Road, Black Label, River City and concluding at Steam Plant. I think we might have had 15-20 of us at one point. But in the end, there were just four of us who made it to Steam Plant. We lost a bunch after RR when they diverted to Perry Street. It would be nice to get Perry Street in the lineup, but that would be a very long uphill run between beers, not so bad on a bike, though.

I was thinking about a brew run every season, but am rethinking that. I'm now exploring the idea of a website (possible app?) where we could share our biking and running routes between breweries. There could be an option to invite others, share maps, post pictures, etc.

I am still stoked about running and drinking, about Spokane's awesome breweries and its international reputation as a running town and a city that now embraces bicycling as a valid transportation option. The Brew Run Run is a good start, but the concept needs to be opened up and played around with.

 

 

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Running to breweries....

Sarah and I will be running once again... Not in any race or event, just to seven breweries this Saturday, May 30th. It's a little over seven miles. And, yes, we finished up in about seven hours when we did it in March. Back then, we had a bunch of people join us. Some were on bikes. Some only joined us at one brewery. Uber was used.

It's not an organized event. Everyone is on their own and you can come and go as you please. Maybe you might encounter some of us at a brewery and opt to run with us to the next place. Probably not. It's going to be hot so hydrate and rest accordingly.

Some of us will be starting at the garbage goat in Riverfront Park at one o-clock. From there we will run to No-Li. After that, the breweries are Iron Goat, Budge Bros., Ramblin' Road, Black Label, River City and Steamplant. We ate dinner at Steamplant and will probably do that again.

Here's the map of the approximate, probable route.

 

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Hydroponic revamp

The vertical hydroponic tomato garden is up and running. I've made some adjustments from previous years' models. Instead of having water flow in at one end and out the other, I've made the water flow in and out of the same end. I'm hoping this will eliminate some of the plumbing problems of the past. I used to get a lot of blockage from tomato roots due to the current. I'm hoping this set-up corrects that. So far no leaks! Eventually, I would like to get a bigger tank, put fish in it and have the whole thing run off of solar panels!

 

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A walk through the parks

Walking through Cannon Hill and Manito Parks is about the only exercise I've had in the last five days. Here are some pictures from my little jaunt.

Turtles really come out of their shells around others.

The lilac garden is amazing right now.

The koi are being, well, you know.

Drinking and swimming.

 

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Haiku Friday

The last month or so, every Friday morning, I have been posting haiku on Facebook. A few Fridays ago, I started "doing" live readings of haiku sent my way and one haiku of mine. Tomorrow morning will be the latest installment at six a.m. on Periscope. This is five hours earlier than the usual time, but duty calls. You can ask questions while I'm reading or make jeering comments. Afterward, I will get the video up on Facebook. Here's last week's thrilling episode:

I usually dress up a bit to channel William S. Burroughs, but I didn't last week and I won't tomorrow.

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A great day and the end of the experiment...

 

I declared April "Alcohol Free April." I wanted to see what it would feel like to be a teetotaler for a month. A while back, I realized that the longest I had gone without alcohol in the last 35 years was probably seven days (SIOP nuclear alert). Of course, with my current job, I am alcohol free for two 24 hour shifts a week and a significant time before and after each shift too.

The past 22 days were interesting and I have some things to report: 1. After about a week of nonimbibing, I slept better at night. I would still wake up in the middle of the night but could go back to sleep easier. 2. I really would miss drinking a little beer or wine when I was cooking. 3. TV shows and movies actually have endings to them. 4. Drinking or not drinking had little effect on my running. 5. I was willing to risk more, not worrying about clouded judgement. 6. Not drinking is a bummer. 7. There was a good (but kind of creepy) feeling of being good to myself. 8. Friends and neighbors treated me with greater suspicion.

Today, the "day of the end," started out with an early morning run, then a trip out to the sewage treatment plant. I was lucky enough to get on the City Wastewater Management Bloomsday team. Why doesn't the fire department have a team? I don't know. But the team was having a pizza fundraiser and I wanted to meet them. I had a good time hanging out with those guys and eating pizza. The last time I was there was eleven years ago. My crew rescued a guy who had jumped from the top of a sewage digester when it exploded, sending another to his death. Here's a nice statue (but a bad picture) commemorating Mike Cmos. Rest in peace, Mike.

I hung out with my brother Joe and my mom after pizza. Joe and I were reminiscing about a 325th Bomb Squadron dining in we went to, how I stuffed a dinner roll with napkins, set it on fire and threw it at the general who was making a speech. It bounced off his chest and he stamped it out. There was much brawling and what not. Joe said I supplied our table with a dozen scoops of neopolitan ice cream for more ammo. I doubt the USAF is like this any more. Here's a picture of Joe (brand new lieutenant) and me before we headed out to the base. Some of my friends and fellow aviators used to call me The Evil Elf. I guess that kind of comes through here.

After tripping down Memory Lane with mom and Joebro, I went home and worked on some chores. Sarah calls to tell me she has missed the bus and she is drinking a beer at Black Label, would I join her? When I arrived, she gave me a big beery kiss and that's when I called the experiment complete. That's an IPA, yes sir.

 

 

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Arrow Leaf Balsam Root on the High Drive Trails

A great time to be running down there. Lots of excuses to stop and take pictures.

 

 

 

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High Drive Trail and beyond... To the confluence!

Sarah and I did a rare thing today. We ran together. We used to run together all the time and then we had little kids, so we took turns going on solo runs and it just kind of stayed that way. We ran together for a 50K race five years ago, but since then we might have started together but never finished together.

The arrow leaf balsam root is set to pop.

 

The confluence of Latah Creek and the Spokane River. There's a guy out there in hip waders fishing.

 

And of course, next to unicorns, dolphins, dream catchers, and narwhals, shopping carts are the best!

 

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Alf lives!

Back in the mid '80s and early '90s I was stationed at Fairchild AFB. I was a navigator and then a radar navigator (bombardier) aboard B-52s. Besides 7-14 hour training flights, usually twice a week, our main mission was to live out at the base for a 7-day stretch, once every four weeks (one week on - three weeks off). We lived in the "alert facility" and would start our alert tour (shift) on a Thursday morning and end it the following Thursday morning. The alert facility was next to our nuclear-weapon-laden B-52s.

Every alert tour, or so, the klaxon would sound and we would run out to our planes, start the engines, decode the messages and then shut down the engines, refuel the planes, and go back to our normal alert routine. The rest of the seven days, we would have some classes to go to. Sometimes, we would be used as a rent-a-crowd for retirements of people we did not know.

As you might guess, we would find ways to occupy our time. Often we would hang out at the base's Buger King, The Burger King was having an "Alf" promotional, and I bought an Alf hand puppet. We placed him atop the rotating beacon on the roof of our six-passenger (6 pack) pickup truck. This truck was used to travel at break-neck speeds back to the bombers, if for some reason we were not at the alert facility when a klaxon occurred. Flashing lights above the streets would warn motorists to pull over because we could be coming their way. Somehow, we were all pretty good at being positioned far away from the alert facility when a klaxon sounded so we could drive at 100 miles per hour up the runway and into the area where our planes were parked.

Alf quickly became an alert force mascot. Soon, like all celebrities, he became a target of extortion and even kidnapping.

I was going through some old papers yesterday and I found this ransome note:

Yesterday, I also found Alf while spring cleaning. His hair grew back. He hasn't aged at all and has settled into a nice retirement. I must have paid the 100 beers.

 

 

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