14 miles
randolph to the river / crosby farms / confluence
75 degrees / dew point: 68
And now it seems you are still summer. Still the high, familiar, endless summer. . . A warm September day. We started later than we should (9:30), but Scott and I both wanted to sleep in. Sun, some shade, an occasional breeze.
We took a new route: south on the west river road, over the ford bridge, north on the east river road, west on randolph — past st. kate’s, a walgreens, trader joes, a cool coffee place, a-side public house — to shepherd road and the river. Through crosby farms and past 2 lakes — crosby lake and ? lake, up a STEEP hill to the confluence, above hidden falls, over ford bridge again, and finishing north on the west river road. Wow, such different terrain. Randolph is a very cool avenue. Near 7th street, there are some great restaurants and quirky houses, their yards stuffed with flowers and sculptures and other whimsical thing.
It was hot! An hour in, we were both soaked. So much sweat! Tough conditions.
Mostly we were quiet, conserving eneergy, but we talked about the hills and the heat. Scott sang the song from his favorite childhood movie, Midnight Madness. Then he mentioned how he wanted to study its composition and explore what chords make a song a disco song. I recited W.S. Merwin’s “To the Light of September” at one point. I also talked about wanting to check out Phillip’s Aquatic Center with RJP this fall.
update, 17 sept: Reading a past entry (from 17 sept, 2023), I remembered that Scott talked about an article he read about how they (St. Paul? Minneapolis?) has been handling the ongoing problem of people stealing wires out of street lamps for copper. They’ve replaced the copper with aluminum and put signs on the posts that say something like, these wires contain aluminum and have no value. Scott added that aluminum isn’t as efficient as copper, but it’s helping with the theft problem. Typing this up, I also remember a random thought I had about street lamps vs. street lights. I was suggesting to Scott that we should start running again at the streetlight ahead of us in the parking lot. I thought, why did I call this a street light and not a street lamp? Is it because it’s much taller? A boring thought, I know, but I could imagine using it in a poem.
14 Things
- some poop smeared on the sidewalk — someone must have stepped in it and then dragged it for several feet
- passing by, but not stopping to read, several st. paul sidewalk poems near st. kate’s
- the patio at carbone’s pizza place, looking very inviting with its chair in the shades and its planters creating some space from the road (mentioned this to Scott and he said there was also a sign that read, caution pizza crossing)
- the loud beeping of a crosswalk sign (scott said it sounded more like the rapid fire of a machine gun, and I agree)
- up and down and up and down — so many hills on randolph!
- a few small leaves fluttering in front of me as we ran on the trail next to shepherd road
- a woman on the ground, stretching, her bike nearby. as we ran by, she called out, way to go runners! you can do it!
- the cool shade of the cracked trail in crosby farms
- overheard: a walker to another walker — tomorrow we’re going to tum rup thai. they moved locations into a bigger space. I said to scott, where did they move? I want to go! just looked it up, and I can’t find the new location anywhere
- the delightful knocking of a woodpecker on dead wood, echoing in the quiet forest
- a group of high school cross country runners taking over the trail by the confluence. one kid was swinging his leg out onto the path
- lots of bikers calling out, on your left
- crossing the ford bridge again, looking down at the water, noticing the bumpy texture created by small waves
- a guy (a dad?) on a bike blasting some music, two little kids sitting behind him in a safety seat