Miscellaneous

 As I work at This Is the Place, I am surprised at how similar humans are to each other. They say or do a lot of the same things. 

For example, we have a small replica of the ship Brooklyn, which carried pioneers from the East Coast around South America to California. But kids, and sometimes adults, always call it a pirate ship. Always. Like, why is a pirate ship the default? It's more effort to say "pirate ship" than just "ship." (I think a more fitting term would be a pyrite ship, since it's next to our "gold" panning. Most kids know that it isn't real gold, but a surprising amount of kids think they're finding real gold!)

Also, our mini train drives through a tunnel-shaped garage, and half the people feel like yelling when they're going through the tunnel.

And our bank hasn't been staffed yet this season, but when I worked there before, a significant number of people would come in and say, "This is a stickup!" It was especially obnoxious when they would laugh raucously, as though they had said something entirely original and witty.

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Jimmy likes to chase the red dot of a laser pointer, but I feel bad if he's chasing it without getting any kind of tactile stimulation. So I like to put a treat on the ground, then have him chase the laser until he reaches the treat, so it's like he's hunted for the treat. He has gotten smart: he knows what is coming when he hears the package of treats. Over the last week or so, he will start following me because he knows I have a treat for him. I can even get him to follow me in circles!

He is getting skinny, and he's still drinking a lot of water. But in most other ways, he seems normal.

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Thursday was two weeks since my second Moderna dose, so I am now fully vaccinated! So happy I made it through the pandemic without getting sick! I even attended sacrament meeting today for the first time since September (when I attended in September, I felt too uncomfortable to return again). I don't have to wear masks in many place anymore. But I have spent the last year seeing maskless people as selfish, ignorant jerks, so I will keep wearing my mask in many settings to signal that I'm not one of those people. 

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I don't know how, but I haven't budgeted my time well enough to go on very long runs lately. Which is a shame, because May is such a fantastic month for them. I was off on Friday, and I wanted to do a long run, but it rained. But the mulesears have started to bloom, and they are the most spectacular of all the wildflowers. Now is the prettiest time of year until the fall (and it's even prettier than certain falls).

If it hadn't been cloudy, I think this field of mulesears would have been even more stunning. And I think they haven't even peaked yet.

Tufted evening primrose

Wasatch penstemon

False Solomon's seal

Arrowleaf balsamroot, which is now dying out

Death camas