A few images

This week wasn't overly eventful, so I thought I'd share a few images.

OK, this video is from two weeks ago. At first I thought the cat was trying to keep time with the music with her tail, but apparently she doesn't have great rhythm. More than fourteen years later, she still loves our feet.

When I folded my clean socks this week, one of them had a spider leg on it.

We had the missionaries from my ward over for dinner this week. It's kind of mind boggling for me to reflect on my own mission experience. Missionaries carry iPads now, but they didn't exist when I was on my mission. Smartphones were still brand new in those days (so certainly we didn't get them). We could receive texts, but we couldn't send them. I've also been organizing the letters I received while I was serving, putting them in binders instead of keeping them sitting in plastic bags in my closet. This fall will mark ten years from when I left.

Saturday was my dad's birthday. I got him a cat swimsuit. (And one for me, too.)

I saw this caterpillar-infested nest (or something) near Rudy's Flat. I'm not an entomologist, so I don't know what it is or what the bugs are.

This abandoned structure near the bottom of North Canyon has more graffiti on it than it did last fall. Well, I guess the flag is itself graffiti, but at least it's pretty graffiti, whereas the other writing is ugly. Why can't people leave things alone? I'm also perpetually annoyed infuriated at all the beer cans and bottles littered all over. What terrible people must do that! I hope they get broken glass in their eyes. If I owned a store, I would quit selling beer, because I wouldn't want all that litter (or drunk driving, or spousal abuse, or...) on my conscience. I know people litter other things as well, but it doesn't seem to be as frequent. (I also know lots of people drink beer without doing anything stupid, but everyone thinks they're the exception to negative consequences and poor decisions.)

Memorial Day weekend kicks of the season of patriotic holidays, which means my reverse Lent is over! OMNOMNOM.

Let me geek out a little bit here to explain things. Hershey's is doing a "Flavors of America" line with candies representing different states. I'm counting them as Fourth of July candy, because America. Thus the strawberry Kit Kats (California) and BBQ PayDay (Texas) among the red, white, and blue candy. (No Utah, sadly.) I don't like the M&Ms as much as the other candies, because the M&Ms taste exactly like regular M&Ms, whereas the other candies have unique flavors. But the colors still count.

A hodgepodge of thoughts

On Monday, my ward went to the Salt Lake City Cemetery to hear stories about various people buried there. Of course, I have a career advantage to knowing about the people. I tried not to seem too braggartly (I just made that a word) and tried not to destroy the lessons, so I didn't blab all about Orson Pratt. I may have accidentally ruined the lesson, though, when we got to James E. Talmage's tombstone.

I had previously read about his tombstone, how it had a piece of limestone in the granite, and I thought, "Yeah right." And indeed, when I saw it, I recognized that the featured xenolith was not in fact limestone but was an igneous inclusion. Our second counselor asked if anyone knew the story of the tombstone, and I went all off on the geologic history of the granite (using what I learned in my field studies class four years ago), and I explained the theory behind the darker inclusion. Then the counselor said that the origin of the dark part was unknown to science--right after I had explained it. I don't think he had planned on me. But I can totally understand why the scientists of Talmage's day thought it was a limestone inclusion, because it does resemble the Paleozoic dolostone of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

On Wednesday, I was super happy it snowed. For those who don't know, I enjoy unseasonable snow (though I like it less than I used to), and I'm hoping for a year when I see it snow in nine out of twelve months. My criteria is that (1) I have to see snow falling and (2) I have to see snow on the ground. I haven't personally seen May snow since 2011. I know we had some snow here on May 1, 2013, and Cedar City got dumped on on Mother's Day three years ago, but I wasn't there, so it doesn't count. So I was glad to see it this year! Now it just has to snow in either June or September (the tough ones) and then October, November, and December. It's actually been several years since I've seen October snow.

Yesterday (Saturday), I headed out for my weekly long trail run. I decided to go to Mueller Park (a classic standby). When I got to Elephant Rock, I decided to actually go to the rock itself. I've been up there multiple times but had never gone to the rock. I didn't get on top of it, because I'm not good at climbing (and I was still on the running clock), but I went to it. All this time I had assumed it was conglomerate, but it turns out it's granitic. But that makes sense, as I've noticed lots of gneiss on the surrounding trails.

 I went a little past the rock on trail, which I have often done. I had a time I wanted to turn around. But I decided I had the time and energy to go farther, so I did. I usually go to Rudy's Flat via North Canyon, but this time I went to Rudy's via Mueller Park. It was very wet, what with all the melting snow. But I felt accomplished once I got there, because that was the long way up.

When I got to the bottom of the trail, I had gone twelve miles. Not only is that my longest trail run to date, it's also my longest run, period. I was exhausted.

After running so much, I had to make a hearty meal of watercress soup and asparagus. (Just kidding, I had spring vegetable burgers earlier in the day.)

The watercress soup is one of those meals where I will dread the leftovers more each time.

After this busy day, I finally got around to watching The BFG, which I had to see, because I was a huge Roald Dahl fan. (I feel so silly talking about movies on here.) I rarely watch movies, because I think they're generally a waste of time, and I can only justify idly sitting there if I turn on the foreign language subtitles so at least I'm learning something. The ending disappointed me. <SPOILERS> In the end of the book, the bad giants are dropped in a giant hole. Some unruly drunkards get too close and get eaten. At the beginning of the movie, there were some unruly drunkards. I thought they might be the ones to get eaten. But instead the giants got transferred to some mysterious island, and that part of the book never happened. Lame. Roald Dahl instilled in me a desire for people to face horrendous consequences for their horrendous decisions. </end spoilers>

On an unrelated note, I was reading an article today about the Barnum & Bailey/Ringling Bros. circus closing. In all my life, I've never been to a circus. I'm trying to decide whether I should be sad about that. On one hand, I missed my opportunity at being part of a historic cultural phenomenon. On the other hand, it shows I'm part of another historic cultural phenomenon--the culture that cares nothing about circuses and thereby sent circuses to their grave. I don't know whether I never went to a circus because they're simply not that interesting to modern audiences...or because I never got out much.

Sane parents

This post is one I have often thought about, so it's not strictly for Mother's Day, but it is appropriate. It's almost a Thanksgiving-appropriate post.

I feel like I've been pretty successful in life. And I think that's because I was born privileged. And I was privileged because of who my parents are.

A few years ago, I saw a post on Facebook of a young girl saying something like "I have the best mom in the world, and she doesn't know it." As I thought about all the mothers I know, I realized her mom is the worst mom I know. I know there are worse ones out there, but I don't know them personally. Everyone loves their own mother. I'm not going to engage in any sappy hyperbole: my mom is not the best mom in the world. I know that sounds like an understatement where I'm emphasizing her shortcomings, but that's not what I mean at all. I literally mean she's not the best mother, because who is? But when I look at the families other people have, I'm glad I got the one I did.

Occasionally when I have had the opportunity of being home during the day, I have turned on daytime court shows. I see the totally dysfunctional families in those shows, where they fight over dumb things, or get involved in criminal activities, and I feel so grateful that didn't happen to me.

Some mothers are enablers, and their children are abusive toward them, or are crazy lazy. My mother would never put up with such a thing. When I was six years old, at one point I said I wanted to be a bum when I grew up and live in the basement. While that's a funny, quaint thing for a child to say, she did have to tell me she wouldn't really let me do that. If any of us kids were sitting on the couch all day watching TV and playing video games, she would not have any of that. She would make us get a job or move out.

Some parents have no idea how to parent. They yell at their kids all the time but never actually discipline them or follow through with their empty threats. When their children make messes at other people's houses, they don't offer to clean up or apologize. I'm glad I don't have that mom.

In the lottery of parents, I got pretty darn lucky.

Wildflowers and pockets

While autumn might be my favorite time of year for, well, everything, May has got to be the second best time of the year for trail running. You get the late daylight of summer without the hot temperatures. There's a profound fragrance in the air. And, of course, there's an overabundance of wildflowers. Sure, you get Richardson's geranium, common sunflowers, and chicory flowers later in the summer, but not as many all at once. I bought a second Utah wildflower identification book this week, so that if one book doesn't help me, I can look in the other.

Sometimes I feel like a broken record talking about this all the time, but I had to go up to North Canyon again. I hadn't been up since November. Maybe I should have waited a little longer to let all the snow melt, but I don't necessarily regret it. And I saw the father of my childhood friend on the trail. I took my phone with me to take pictures of scenery and in case something happened to me.

The bigger flower in the middle is a yellowbell. The others are Nuttall violets, which I hadn't seen before, but I recognized them from my books.

There was a lot of snow still on the trail up at the top.

Last November, I saw this little baby shoe (aww!). And six months later, it was still there (though it has shifted to different signs).

I believe these purple flowers are western waterleaf. They were all over the bottom of the trail, and combined with lots of dandelions, it was beautiful.

Arrowleaf balsamroot is one of the most spectacular wildflowers, partly because they are huge, but mostly because they form colonies all up the hillsides. This is on a side trail. I was pretty exhausted at this point because I had already run up the canyon and then back down. I just wasn't ready stop yet.

Longleaf phlox captivated me before I even cared about wildflowers.

I usually take my phone with me up the canyons, and I don't have any problems. But yesterday, my phone decided to throw a party in my pocket.

The first strange thing I noticed was when I got to Rudy's Flat, I stopped to look around, and I could hear some music. I wondered if some hikers had brought a guitar up. But nope, my phone was playing music without me asking it to--and it wasn't even the playlist I had most recently been listening to!

Near the end of my run, I stopped to take a picture of western waterleaf and noticed I was calling someone by mistake. Whoops.

Then when I got home, I noticed even more things. I had started drafting a text message to someone else that said this:
2111th, 11a÷×AwqaqQ@`

Thankfully, I didn't send it!

Then I looked at my pictures, and there were lots of pictures I remembered taking, but also some that I didn't remember. Like this one:

 And this one:

And not only did I take those "pictures," I even took a 23-second video. All without knowing it.

Six years of song lyric titles

It is the sixth anniversary of this blog, and on every anniversary I like to highlight some of the things I've posted about during its history.

Writing blog posts is pretty easy--since it's not a formal paper, I just start writing and say whatever I want. But sometimes it's challenging to create a title, and I often resort to song lyrics and song titles.

So here's a list of the posts I've made using song lyrics. Those with an asterisk* mean that I modified the lyrics somehow to suit my purposes. Some of them are popular, while others are incredibly obscure, and I don't necessarily endorse every song on here. How many do you know?

Enter Sandman
And It's Hotter than the Fourth of July
River of Tears
Wake me up when September comes*
I turn my music up*
A Spoonful of...Something*
The REAL most wonderful time of the year*
A short holiday and looong hours*
Yuletide by the Fireside, and Joyful Memories There
Two Whole Years*
Auld Lang Syne
Ring Out the Old, Ring In the New
You say goodbye, I say hello
Free as my hai-ai-ai-ai-ai-air
Those Easter Morns*
Jumping around like a house on fire, having some fun tonight.
Oh, beautiful for rainy skies*
Take the last train to Emeryville*
One year older and wiser too
Let the Lower Lights be awesome*
Bewitched, Bewitched, you've got me in your spell
Fin Octobre, Début Novembre
Gravity hurts
Journey to March*
Here Came Peter Cottontail*
It Passes All My Understanding
Only because it's spring
Summertime, and the living will be easy, eventually*
Whenever I think about pioneers
Then school comes along just to end it
I turn my music up, part two*
California Dreamin' on Such a Winter's Day
Love and Remodeling at Home*
The bombs bursting in air
Ain't it fun living in the real world?
Get Down Goblin Valley!*
Candy, pumpkin, witches awound
Thankful people
The Modern Yuletide Carols*
Christmas and New Year's found me home
Iron wheels a'rolling
On the rock our fathers planted
Boys in cars
O Ye Mountains High
Leaves are falling
This was Halloween.*
Seize the week*
I'm gonna run right up this hill
Monkeeing around*
Red, white, and blue upon a birthday cake
Natural highs*
All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray
The snow lay on the ground