Sunday, September 9, 2012

cosmic bucket

Once in a while, I'll take my iPhone with me on my long weekend run.
During the couple of months leading up to this past Monday's Saguaro Nat'l Park Labor Day run, I'd been running out there, but this morning I went back up to Sabino Canyon. With the recent rains, the desert is green:
The typical pattern here in the summer is clear mornings,
with clouds building in the afternoon,
and then evening thunderstorms...
But today began with clouds.

Ominous saguaros...
Some 'paperflower' in bloom...
(I've been playing with my new 
photo-editing 
 'flavor-of-the-month,'
an app called "ColorSplash")

so green!

Running into the canyon,
after about 2.5 miles,
a reflecting pool below Thimble Peak:
Nice to have so much water;
a couple of months ago, this pool had completely dried up...

Plenty of sacred datura blooms
(a.k.a. 'jimson weed' or even 'Indian whiskey')

...and morning-glory:
(another "ColorSplashed" shot)

...as I came back out of the Canyon, though, the sky had turned ominous,
curtains of rain on the horizon...

and then--WHOA!
--like some cosmic bucket pouring out over the vastness...

It's unusual to have a morning thunderstorm;
 this cell came rolling over the Rincon Mountains from the east...

And that was this morning around Tucson.

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The other day, I came across this passage, 
written by Ray Bradbury, who passed away just this past June:

“Well now, when was the last time you ran to a library and took home more books than you could read, like stacked loaves of bread, warm in your arms, waiting to be chewed? When, for that matter, was the last time you opened a book, placed it to your nose, and gave a great sniff? Heaven! The smell of bread, baking. When was the last time that you found a really great old book store and wandered through it hour after hour, alone, finding yourself on the shelves. With no list, no intellectual priorities, just wandering, snuffing the dust, plucking the pigeon books off the shelves to read their entrails and, not in love, putting them back, or in love, toting them home? To be lost in time is to find your roots.”

Monday, September 3, 2012

another Labor Day, another Saguaro Nat'l Park RUN...AND a fusion-recipe

I've been back at work in the classroom for just over a month now...
and on this blessed day off, I woke up at 4:30 a.m.?!


...and this was the third year-in-a-row for me...
(My wife took the above photo--the red cap--that's me...
the Santa Catalina Mountains are in the background.)
I made my time goal (2 min faster than last year, solid middle-of-the-pack), and a fleet-of-foot-friend of mine won his age-division. Again! Our wives and a friend came along as cheering spectators. We had no idea they'd put together a sign--so just past mile 5, after the worst of the climbing (see elevation profile below), we read these words:


Got the t-shirt. 
Run in the desert regularly, and you'll definitely see roadrunners of the avian kind...
And here are a couple of graphics--the elevation profile and the route in the Rincon foothills:



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Just a couple more random iPhone-photo shots...
While weeding in the backyard the other day, this caught my eye:
Looks like an underwater scene, eh? Cactus blooms still amaze me... 

And then last night,
our friend José-Luis made us his renowned ceviche.
The secret ingredient?
A dash of oyster sauce to complement
the Tapatío!
¡Viva fusion!
We made kimchi-pineapple-quesadillas to go with it.
A pre-race meal of champions, ¿no?

quick recipe:
KIMCHI-PINEAPLE-QUESADILLAS
--inspired by the Kogi taco-trucks of L.A.--
Use large flour tortillas.
For the filling:
coarsely chopped kimchi--the 'riper' the better
thin slices of fresh pineapple
(canned is o.k.)
shredded Mexican cheese
thin slices of pepper-jack cheese
Before folding and grilling,
sprinkle either toasted sesame seeds
or 'furikake' seasoning
on top of the cheesy-tangy filling.
Buen provecho & chap-su-se-yo!