Presidents' Day

Martin Luther King and Presidents' Days are welcome winter holidays, but they're usually fairly boring. This year, though, I had an enjoyable Presidents' Day. (Note that the apostrophe comes after the s, because it's plural. Trump doesn't need his own holiday.)

One of the things that gets depressing about this time of year is that it can feel like winter is lasting forever and spring is never going to come. While there is plenty of snow on the ground today, I'm not depressed about it, because I got a taste of spring and a trail run in. The snow had melted enough that I was able to run to Ensign Peak. It was actually my first time running the entire way, since the last time I walked some of the time. I started running from home, but it was crazy windy, so I decided I would rather skip right to the fun part (i.e. the trail) and drove to Tunnel Springs Park. It was so wonderful to be out again. It was a little muddy, but not too bad. It was 6.65 miles roundtrip.

Looking down at Ensign Peak from the top of a steep hill

The view from Ensign Peak

Looking back at where I came from

The steep hill I had to go back up. I had to take a couple of breaks to drink water and catch my breath, but I did run up the whole thing!

My Fitbit GPS shows just how steep that hill was. (Note that the 1,720 feet counts every time I went up. I wasn't actually at that high an elevation.)

The only portion of the trail with snow.

After my run, I went out to do a few errands. I drove to Best Buy because I had a bunch of electronics I had to recycle. I opened my trunk to get all the electronics out, and it was very windy, so a plastic bag was blowing all around my trunk. It was an old BYU Bookstore bag, a very durable and useful one. At the precise moment I closed the trunk, it blew out of my trunk, so I wanted to chase it. But as luck would have it, it kept blowing away as soon as I got to it. And then the plastic bag in which I had many electronics broke, spilling all over the parking lot, breaking a spiral lightbulb in the bag. So much for catching the errant plastic bag! Mother Nature, I was trying to help you by recycling, and you thwarted my plans by taking the bag out of my trunk and making me break one of those mercury-filled bulbs!

I'm all into green foods now, so I went to Burger King for a mint Oreo shake. (Last year I think it was a seasonal offering, but apparently it's permanent now.) While I was there, someone's car alarm went off. As I was going out, a black man with dreadlocks followed me and said something like "You decided to play with your car alarm?" His tone was kind of confrontational, but I was saved because it wasn't my car. I was a little frightened. And then I wondered, am I racist, because I was afraid? Would I have likewise been afraid of a white man with dreads, or a cleancut white man? I was kind of surprised at the confrontational tone of something as innocuous as a car alarm.

One of my bucket list items for the St. Patrick's Day season is to see shamrock-like plants. I think this alfalfa growing as a weed in front of BK fits the bill.

I had to stop at See's Candies to get their St. Paddy's Day candies. Their St. Patrick's Day potatoes blow my mind for their resemblance to actual potatoes and their tastiness.

On Presidents' Day, I spent more than a week's salary in one day. I bought concert tickets, and the cheapest tickets were sold out. (You might say the cheap ones were a perfect illusion. I had a hundred million reasons to walk away, but I got the better tickets anyway.) I also decided to buy some suits. I have one suit, but I rarely wear it because I don't like it. I bought two suits, because it was buy-one-get-one-free, although the price for one was ridiculously expensive. I also went to Old Navy and got socks with shamrocks, Irish flags, puffins (yay!), and pineapples.

But, unfortunately, I don't get another paid holiday until Memorial Day. (Technically, that might not be paid anymore, because my contract status might be changing.)

But maybe this dearth of holidays is a good thing. I might go broke otherwise.