September's rough start

I love September, but it kind of got off to a rough start.

On Labor Day, I tried out my new Camelbak on a run up North Canyon. It was a very hot day for September, but since I had more water with me than I usually carry, I thought I would explore some of the side trails that go past the campsites at Rudy's Flat. But they weren't really trails. They just kind of disappeared. Maybe they're elk trails? Some of them looked like they kept going and like some branches had been cut at some point in the past, but my legs were getting scraped up, so I didn't keep going.

 I felt like I wasted the rest of Labor Day and felt terrible about myself. Even though I didn't entirely waste it.

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, it was so smoky that it didn't seem safe to go running. We reached the red Unhealthy category, and even in the winter we rarely exceed the orange Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups category. (I'm talking government air ratings here. KSL, for example, for some reason jumps from yellow to red even when it's really only orange.)

I visited the state fair this week, and maybe I'm weird, but one of my favorite things at the fair is all the giant produce.

I don't know what that vegetable in the middle is, but it was like five feet long.

I also got a cake dog and some overpriced socks for Thanksgiving and Easter. There was one performing duo that consisted of a woman on stilts in a bizarre costume and a man driving a giant cart and playing weird music. It was really creepy, like nightmarish creepy. One of the most memorable nightmares of my childhood was of a T-rex and a sentient cannon roaming the streets, looking for victims. This real-life duo reminded me of that villainous dreamland duo, even though the worst thing the fair performers would do would be to brush you with their feather dusters.

It was annoying as we had to keep walking past all the Dish bros, who tried to stop us and sell us stuff. That and a few other things this week got me thinking about sweet bros and the ones I have known. Of all the kinds of people there are, none are more uniform than bros. (Get it? Because they wear polo shirt uniforms?) Also, I struggle more with bros than with any other kind of person. I was thinking about my MTC companion, who was very much one of them, and years ago I unfriended him because I remembered how he had treated me. But I stalked him on Facebook, and it said he was a manager at Vivint. I thought, "Well, of course he is."

On Saturday, I found myself at a street fair in the avenues, and even though I already have way too many t-shirts--especially since I have to wear a shirt and tie every day--I found one I had to have. The man at the booth said, "That's fitting that you're buying a red Utah shirt today." I told him that I graduated from BYU and I didn't care about the rivalry; he said he didn't care either and went to USU. 

See, I just don't understand people getting into sports. I guess people don't understand me getting into holidays, but sports seems like something that brings a lot of distress and disappointment yet has no effect on your life. 

I don't mind that other people like it. I just don't understand.

What I do mind, however, is people becoming nasty and even criminal over it. Like those morons jerks villains who vandalized the cougar statue. Really people? You want a criminal record just because of people running an air-filled bladder up and down a field? Sheesh! Those people deserve to be locked in a dungeon full of spiders and bats. I would say the same thing if it was BYU fans vandalizing U stuff, but that would be even worse, because Honor Code.

On the other hand, I was delighted that a group of rational, even-headed students from both schools engaged in a unifying "prank" by lighting a purple Y to show unity over climate change. See, there's people bringing people together over something that actually matters. Bravo! I even wore my purple tie today because of it.

See, rivalries are stupid. I know they don't always end up in nastiness or crime, but those undesirable things are a side effect. We're supposed to create unity and peace on earth, and all these yahoos are out there trying to do the opposite. I can be a graduate of BYU and still appreciate the Natural History Museum of Utah, Red Butte Gardens, and Kingsbury Hall. I know plenty of U graduates who love Studio C and various BYU speeches. Rivalries create a climate of hostility that needs to be put in cement shoes and dropped in the ocean.