Late fall hike--Pima Canyon...

...& the things one hears in a classroom

Last Thursday...My wife and I went for a hike in Pima Canyon--

     so close to the city, so far from the malls:

...cottonwoods turning golden, a chill in the air...

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Recently heard in the high-school classroom:

....a conversation between teacher and 15-y.o. student:

St.: My P.E. teacher was so rude to me this morning.

Tchr.: What do you mean?

St.: He called me a b****!

Tchr.: Oh, come on--I'm sure he did not.

St.: No, really--he said to me that I was 'habitually late'...

Tchr.: (trying to stifle eye-roll and gasp) Wait--do you know what the word 'habitually' means? He was most surely not calling you a bad word.

St.: 'habitually?'--no.

Tchr.: Okay, think...'habits?' Like--are you always or usually late?

St.: Well, yeah, I guess so...

Tchr.: So, do you get now what 'habitually' means?

St.: Oh...Oh now I do.

...and:

"...oh, really? Ohmygod, I thought Asia was a country in Africa."

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...and, speaking of Asia--the recent rumblings on the Korean peninsula got me looking back at a couple of old photos, and I came across this one:

...a glimpse into North Korea from a hilltop observation point--one of the few accessible to tourists--in South Korea. This view overlooks the Han River estuary, NW of Seoul; taken in the autumn, when the rice paddies are golden.

Note that all of the North Korean hillsides in the horizon are completely deforested. No North Koreans live permanently in this region, which is a 'propaganda village' zone; loudspeakers blare slogans, hoping to 'convert' the capitalist South.

This year is both the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Japanese colonization/occupation (which lasted from 1910 to 1945) and the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War.

It's crazy that this is sometimes referred to as 'the Forgotten War;' as many Americans died in the three years of the Korean war as during the ten years of Vietnam, and millions of Korean civilians, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese, perished.

The Korean peninsula was completely razed, napalm was first widely used--and all of that to end up with a cease-fire (the war is technically still 'on') and a border essentially where the line was at the beginning of the war...And before this, Korea was a unified nation for over a thousand years...

The last remnants of the Cold War--still simmering in NE Asia...  

Back east, down South, along the canal: Fall

Last weekend, I had four-days-in-a-row off; so, a quick trip back to Georgia to visit family and friends.

It's been fourteen years since I spent any time during the autumn back east...and after a few years of living in the desert, it was refreshing to be back in all the foliage. Fall in the Piedmont Southeast is not as spectacular as New England or North Carolina, but still lovely. I made sure to make time to run along the Augusta Canal on Saturday--a perfect November morning...

From the still waters behind the dam north of the city,...

... the trail continues for miles, running along the ridge between the Savannah River on one side, and the Canal on the other.

When I still lived in Augusta, it was a 'hidden treasure;' relatively few people biked, ran, or kayaked...now, it's a popular place for those activities.

In the century-and-a-half since the canal was dug (in the 1840's by Irish immigrants, and enlarged in the 1870's by Chinese immigrant labor), the trees have grown back up between the Canal and the River--a forest oasis along the Savannah...I took my phone with me, and stopped every now and then to take a few pictures...The weather was so perfect for running that I lost track of time a bit...

 ...and before I knew it, I was almost downtown--five miles from the starting point.

Here is the 19th-century Sibley Mill--with the obelisk chimney being the only remnants of the old Confederate Powder Works, built in the 1860's. During the Civil War, Augusta was the only place in the entire South that manufactured gunpowder. The canal made Augusta the only real industrial area in the Confederacy. After the Civil War, during the Union Occupation, the Factory was, understandably, dismantled...

 ...but the chimney was allowed to remain, and jt has become a Confederate monument of sorts:

 ...For many people not from the region, the South's preoccupation with the Civil War, even a century and a half after the fact, seems strange...but it is alive and well, and not to be minimized...

Also along the Canal is a bit of Victorian Utilitarian architecture--the old Augusta Water Works, built back in the 19th century, is being restored:

 ...and some granite arches that supported a short aqueduct that used to transport a local creek over the canal before flowing down into the River...

Ecologically, the area is interesting as the convergence zone between the northern limit of subtropical riparian habitat (Spanish moss, alligators, etc.) and the southern limit of temperate deciduous forests more common in the Appalachian mountains...

Lots of lovely spots. I wish I had discovered the place when I was younger--I didn't really know about the Canal trail until I was a sophomore in college, when I began biking there at least once a week...

...and, before returning to Tucson, the now-obligatory foot-shot: 'I was there.'

So--from the locks at the headwaters of the Canal to downtown and back: TEN MILES!

I've never run that far before--a milestone for me--funny that it should happen when in GA,

where, growing up, I never thought that, one day, I'd enjoy running...

(For more information: http://www.augustacanal.com/

The Augusta Canal is now a National Park Service National Heritage Area.)

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...in closing, an unrelated view from the plane:

Atlanta: huge, sprawling, the self-proclaimed capital of the 'New South,'

stretching to the horizon, even from some 30,000 feet up...

still, it's amazing how much 'forest' survives in this city...

Local color; fall above Tucson

Autumn color in the desert? True--saguaros don't have leaves that turn crimson, but in the mountains around Tucson, there IS some fall color to be found--you just have to go UP...

...and you have to be prepared not to be underwhelmed--in the Santa Catalinas you won't find entire slopes covered in a patchwork of orange and yellow. (This is not New England or North Carolina or Korea...) But just 30 minutes from the desert floor, you can find splashes of fall foliage in the mountaintop evergreens--just enough to make you feel like you're elsewhere...

This past Sunday, some out-of-town friends were visiting us, so we drove up the Catalina highway to the top of Mt. Lemmon.

Although the pine forest starts at about 6000' elevation, you have to go up above 8000' to truly arrive in the mixed evergreen zone--and in that zone are a few stands of aspens--some sparse...

...and then, closer to 9000', the groves of aspen are larger--an impressive splash of brightness among the conifers:

 ...and a wonder to walk under:

...the slopes of Ski Valley resort at the top of Mt. Lemmon are still summer-green, but autumnally-lined:

Nearby is a little valley known as 'Bear Wallow'--probably the best spot in the Santa Catalinas to go 'leaf-peeping'--and this was the peak color weekend...

This area got its first dusting of snow a week or so ago...

winter's not far off, even if today's high down in the city was in the mid-80's...

(still trying to 'bloom where we're planted,' S. & I...

in between bouts of wishing to be elsewhere,

we're enjoying 'here'...having out-of-town friends

visiting us from less pleasant climes helps...)

...on running and radishes...

First, check out this NY Times article, about an event 'in our backyard' today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/sports/18tucson.html?src=me

And here's the official website:

http://www.mountlemmonmarathon.com/

Crazy people, eh? I mean--TWENTY-SIX MILES UPHILL all the way!!!!!

Down at the base of the mountain, I did my weekend 7-mile run in Sabino Canyon...doesn't really seem like an 'accomplishment,' when thinking of the hundreds of people who ran UP the Santa Catalinas today...and it was indeed a picture perfect October day in Tucson...

...entirely unrelated, now...

I was washing some vegetables this evening, getting ready to pack some work-lunches for the upcoming week, and I'm chopping the leafy tops off some radishes, when, from the childhood recesses of my brain come the words--the name, really--"Roger Radish."

Huh?

Yes, Roger Radish. And Penelope Strawberry...

Behold:

This is the cover of a children's book--and I actually had this book--one in a series--when I was a little kid...

(More information about this British series of children's books from the 1970's:

http://www.easyontheeye.net/ladybird/70s/garden/793.htm)

...ahh, the wonder of Google image search...a thought comes to me in the kitchen, and I can run in the next room and type something on the computer--and instantly a childhood memory is no longer simply a cerebral approximation, but a reproduction on the computer screen.

I think I was 4 or 5 years old, living in Germany, the last time I saw that book...

Radishes ready;

plan to run more later...

(...view of the entrance to Bear Canyon, parallel to Sabino Canyon, well below Mt. Lemmon;

ran with the cellphone one afternoon last week...)

Sunset from Gates Pass. "Bloom."

Tonight, before dinner, we drove across to the western edge of the city to watch the sunset:

Wherever you live, find what's good about it and enjoy it.

"Bloom where you're planted." Those words--corny enough, I agree--ring through our ears now and again as we come to terms with Tucson-as-our-'home.' I had never seen that expression until our first trip to Central America--we came across those words, (cross-stitched, no less), in a missionary home--must have been a well-intentioned gift from someone 'back home' to encourage voluntary souls in their tropical assignment...

As corny as my first impression was of those words, over the past few years, we've come grudgingly to accept it as good advice.

Last night, as we made dinner, we had the television on, and two travel-shows featured, back to back, Seattle and Guatemala...We grew wistful for the Pacific Northwest and Central America as we waited for our food to cook...

But there is no utopia.

So--resolved: enjoy the good things where we are.

Tucson: pedestrian urbanity? Nope. Progressive local politics? Nope. Thriving high-wage economy? So no, at least not right now. (And don't get me started on the now-nationally-ridiculed lack of syntax during a recent state gubernatorial debate!) But clean air and wide open outdoor vistas? Yep. Technicolor sunsets? Oh yeah.

So. Blooming.

(Incidentally, last night's dinner--my local attempt at re-creating the Kogi-truck fare described in the last posting: we did a vegetarian version this time--a pepper-jack/kimchee/pineapple/sesame quesadilla with black beans on the side--made with local Tucson tortillas and kimchee from the Korean grocer down the street from where I work: Viva la comida del Seoul!)

this past weekend: across the desert to KOGI!

...just got back from another weekend jaunt to the L.A. area; due to funny timing this year,
we had two conferences to attend, just a few weeks apart...So, last Friday afternoon we took an after-work flight to LAX, got in a rental car, and on the way to our destination, we made a culinary pit-stop:

Yes--FINALLY: KOGI! The now-legendary Korean-Mexican taco-truck! (Actually, there are now four of the trucks; check out their website, and you'll see that the trucks move all over the L.A. location throughout the week for lunch, dinner, and late-night locations: http://kogibbq.com)

It has started a nationwide trend; check out this New York Times article from a couple of months ago:

"The Tortilla Takes a Road-trip to Korea"... Atlanta. Chicago, Brooklyn. Portland...Viva cultural fusion-food!

So, we looked up the location and dutifully followed the GPS directions through Los Angeles...and ended up in a light industrial office park in suburbia. At first I thought--huh? Are we lost? Was there a misprint on the website? Nope. The Friday-night location was in this warehouse area because of the plentiful parking--and we turned a corner and there was a long eclectic line of people...We waited forty minutes, chatting with a family behind us, who'd just come from soccer practice with the kids...And S. and I. had spicy pork tacos, kalbi (Korean-marinated beef short-rib) tacos, AND a glorious kimchee-pineapple-pork quesadilla topped with sesame seeds, a ponzu glaze and even toasted seaweed flakes! Wow, eh?

The pseudo-pilgrimmage for this food was not the main point for our weekend trip...but definitely a fun extra.

A few out-the-window views from the Friday-afternoon flight--yes, gratuitous shots from my iPhone:

looking NE over Tucson and the Santa Catalina Mountains,

with some of the irrigated fields of the San Xavier del Bac Indian Reservation in the foreground:

closer in--you can just make out the tiny cluster of 'high'-rises of downtown Tucson

in the left middle-ground...where we live is just off to the right of this photo:

the ribbon of blue is the Colorado River, just south of Lake Havasu on the AZ-CA border;

whenever I've flown over the SW, I'm always struck by the suddenness of irrigated farms in the middle of barren sands...

Back to Tucson.
Back to work.

post-race

I did it! I finished the annual Saguaro National Park Labor Day 8-miler! And the adrenalin-rush provided by the thousand fellow runners helped fuel things--I finished five minutes faster than I've ever run it before...

So--a new 'personal best' for me...Just a few years ago, I'd never have imagined that I would willingly wake up at 4:30 a.m. on a day-off from work to go run up and down hills in the desert--for FUN!? ('Personal best' and 'race-day' just weren't in my vocabulary.) Such is life in Tucson...A friend of mine, who carpooled with us (yes, my wife even got up that early to be our 'cheering fan section' at the finish line), did VERY well--placed 11th overall and 2nd in his age division...Hats off to him! There were people in their 70's and 80's, even, on the loop! Inspiring! (...and, no, they did not pass me...)

Afterwards--met up with some friends for lunch at an Italian restaurant. Once a year--no more, no less--I permit myself to indulge in the miraculous alchemy of fat and carbs known as Spaghetti alla Carbonara. Afterwards, a nice long nap.

That's how to spend Labor Day...

...above photo from this morning's Tucson paper