Foliage

There is a lot of bad going on in the world, from national events, to people acting totally contemptibly against people they disagree with, to lowlifes rummaging through our cars.

But I'd rather not go into all that undesirable stuff right now and prefer instead to focus on the better stuff.

So, the worst thing I'm going to do here is complain about my laptop. I had to pick up my laptop this week after spending a significant amount of money to buy the necessary part on eBay. I got my laptop in April 2015. Six months later, I had to send it in to Toshiba to replace the hinges because my laptop wouldn't close anymore. Now, two years after that, there was another hinge problem, and the keyboard was splitting apart from the base of the computer. So to get it fixed, I had to get an entirely new keyboard. But it's out of warranty, and they don't even make the part anymore. I got a Toshiba laptop in 2012, and it still works, but this 2015 Toshiba seems to have been poorly designed. If it got worse over three years instead of better, I'm not inclined to get another Toshiba. Now I'm paranoid that my laptop is going to break yet again.

Umm...that laptop saga was probably very uninteresting. Sorry.

If you don't like fall, we can't be friends anymore. I'm totally fine if it's not your favorite, but you have to like it at least a little. I'm totally awed by the foliage of our local Woodbriar Trail. I don't have any pictures, sorry, but I doubt they would catch the breathtaking majesty of it. This is only the fourth autumn I've been trail running, but I think this is the prettiest I've seen.

Anyway, now that I'm 29 and have a new car, I want to do some more fun things. I think it would be fun to go to all 29 counties while I'm 29. And for a while I've wanted to see Pando. My boss had never heard of it, and I was shocked. It's one of the largest, oldest organisms in the world, an entire forest that is just one massive root system. And it's located in our very own Sevier County. So my dad was my passenger and we drove down in my blue Rav4 to see it.

It was fun to test out things on my new car. I enjoyed the reactive cruise control, where it slows down for you and then speeds back up again after you change lanes. On the way home, I went from Scipio to Springville on I-15 without once pressing on the gas or the brakes. Amazing.

I have always loved aspens, but I was a little disappointed. I don't know whether we were too early or too late for prime aspen season, because some trees were bare and some were green. And it might have just been the time of day, because leaves aren't as pretty in direct sunlight. I wasn't even sure what parts were Pando and what parts were just ordinary trees. There weren't any signs, which I guess is just as well, because there are all sorts of nefarious crazies out there who might vandalize it. But I'm guessing the fenced in portion was part of Pando.

 I thought it would be awesome to go running through Pando, but I wasn't sure where all the trails were or where they went. There was one trail that looked like it went up through some groves, and I wanted to do that, but it meant I would have to run through a herd of cattle. I didn't want to do that. This summer I was amused when my seven-year-old nephew was scared when he went downstairs and our cat was looking at him...but here I was a little freaked out when a cow was looking at me. I could tell there were lots more cattle ahead of me, and I didn't want to start a stampede or anything, so I turned around.

I followed the Lakeshore Trail along Fish Lake. It wasn't as beautiful as a winding mountainous trail, but it was still really pleasant and a nice change of scenery. It was also easy. I ran a total of seven miles and climbed 600 feet, but I really don't know where those 600 feet came from, because it was pretty flat.

 At one point along the trail, I noticed that my phone wasn't in my pocket! I had to go back maybe a tenth of a mile before I found it lying neatly on the ground. I don't know how that happened; it never happened before.

It was fun to be traveling along the Old Spanish Trail, which predates the pioneers. I even have a song about the Old Spanish Trail that I had to listen to.

 Kit Carson and others recorded finding so many fish in the streams and lake that they could easily catch dozens and walk across them. We humans have a remarkable way of changing nature in a short period of time, usually unintentionally, so the fish aren't as abundant anymore. Nevertheless, I was amazed to see lots of fish in a tiny little stream. Probably spawning season.

Anyway, on this trip I got to go through Utah, Juab, Sanpete, Sevier, Piute, and Millard Counties. (Davis and Salt Lake don't count because I do them every day.) It was a fun way to spend an October day.

Then today I was able to pick apples from our very own apple tree, and after I cut out all the bad parts, I was able to use them for apple crisp. It's the first time we've ever used apples from our own tree. I'm delighted. Apples are the last of our own produce for the season.

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Time for this week's installment of pumpkinundation roundup!

 Trader Joe's Organic Frosted Pumpkin Toaster Pastries aren't as good as Pop-Tarts or Nature's Path Toaster Pastries. They seemed a little dry. 7/10.

 I'm not a big oatmeal guy, but this Trader Joe's Pecan Pumpkin Instant Oatmeal is better than most. Definitely the best pumpkin oatmeal I've had. 7/10.

 My coworker brought me this City Cakes Bakery and Cafe pumpkin muffin. It wasn't as sweet as you might expect, but still good. 8/10.

 When I bought this Russell Stover Caramel Apple with Peanuts, the cashier told me it was amazing and said he loved caramel apple stuff. I should have recommended the Caramel Apple Sugar Babies to him. This candy was good, but not super apple-y. 7/10.

 These IHOP pumpkin spice pancakes were OK. For a place that literally has "pancakes" in their name, they should have been better. Not terribly pumpkiny. 6/10.

 These barkThins Snacking Chocolate Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Seed aren't technically pumpkin spice, but they do have orange branding! I liked the saltiness, and I think pumpkin seeds (pepitas) should be used more in candy. 8/10.

These Harmons Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies were disappointing. It's hard to go wrong with this kind of cookie, but these were dry. 6/10.

 I had Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce on Trader Joe's Fall Zucchette Pasta. The pasta is actually made from butternut squash, but it looks like pumpkin, so close enough. It was a good pasta with just a squashy enough flavor. 8/10. The sauce was good (with pumpkin, tomatoes, butternut squash, and others). But it was a creamy sauce, and there are a lot of dairy things I don't particularly care for. I would have liked it better if it were just vegetables and seasonings. 7/10.

 I think I first had a Tootsie Caramel Apple Pop in 1998, the same weekend Princess Diana died. They sell these year round, but in 2012, I bought a seasonal bag that also had red and yellow apple suckers. (It was because of those suckers that year that I started brushing my teeth more than twice a day.) I saw those this year but didn't buy them. I have always found it curious that the caramel and the hard candy have basically the same malleability. They're a classic candy. 7/10.

 I went to the new Wetzel's Pretzels in City Creek to get Pumpkin Spice Wetzel Bitz and Wetzel's Pretzels Pumpkin Caramel. First I just got the Bitz. They were basically just soft pretzels with cinnamon and sugar, nothing really pumpkiny about them. I went back in and got the caramel second. It did have a bit of an autumnal flavor, but I couldn't taste it after a few seconds because it was so sickeningly sweet. After I finished the Bitz, I threw the remaining caramel away, rather than licking it up. I never throw stuff away. I just felt gross after this. 5/10 for the Bitz and the caramel.

 You can never go wrong with a Dairy Queen Pumpkin Pie Blizzard, which is a delicious ice cream and crunchy "crust" bits. 10/10.

 Jelly Belly Gourmet Giant Candy Corn looks really weird. It comes in three flavors: chocolate, cinnamon, and original. The original and chocolate ones are pretty standard, though they're smoother and shinier than most candy corn. The real star, though, is the cinnamon. It's your standard cinnamon candy flavor, like a cinnamon bear, but it works surprisingly well in candy corn. It seems like a perfect match; I'm surprised cinnamon candy corn isn't more common. 8/10. The cinnamon is the only reason I give it that high a rating.

Entenmann's Little Bites Pumpkin Muffins are cute, moist, and tasty. But I feel like the packaging is wasteful. 8/10.