Mark My Words: What will happen next?

My grandpa is still alive, but he is noticeably declining. On Monday, we took food over for my dad's birthday, and when we told him we had pickle-flavored potato chips, he said, "Blech! Why do you hate me? Maybe you're trying to speed the process along." (He hates pickles. I don't.) But he is becoming less coherent. According to my family members, on Wednesday, he said, "Who was the murderer? Where are the bodies?" (He likes mysteries.) My grandma held his hand, and he said, "I found a body, and it's a nice one." When I visited on Thursday, he said, "I think I need a shot." We asked him what for, and he said, "Well, I've had a COVID shot, I've had a [unintelligible] shot." My mom said he didn't need another shot, and he said, "OK." Again according to my family, on Friday, out of the blue, he said, "Shane's a bear." Shane is my cousin, and I can verify that he is not a bear. Yesterday, he was even less coherent, and he has to drink water from a sponge on a stick, otherwise it just drips out of his mouth. He randomly grabbed a tube of Poligrip and was putting some on his oxygen tube below his nose. I can't help but wonder what's taking so long, because he has no quality of life, and it's hard on my grandma and my mom to take care of him.

That's been the dominant focus of the week, but I got some time in for some other things. With my day off on Monday, I ran up North Canyon for the first time since November. I love it there.

The aspens are striking in both the spring and the fall

I also made s'mores cookies for a church activity, and I replaced the chocolate chips with red, white, and blue M&Ms.

A year ago, my grandparents decided to get a dog, because they were jealous of my sister's elderly dog, Buddy, and they thought a new dog would be a good replacement when Buddy died. (Buddy died in April this year.) So they got this white dog named Bear.

This is a picture of Bear from April, when he was carrying an empty container of Easter candy

Now, if you know me, you know that I'm really not a dog person. At all. And Bear doesn't do much to improve my opinions of dogs.

When I showed up at my sister's/grandparents' house on Wednesday, Bear had managed to escape because the yard guy had left the gate open. And whenever Bear escapes, it's always an ordeal to get him back, because he runs away, likes he thinks it's a game. And he likes to dart into the road. ~~He is a very naughty dog, and it wouldn't be so tragic if he darted in front of a car.~~ Finally my sister trapped him by opening the door to my mom's car, so he jumped in.

But then she didn't want him to think of the car as a trap, so I took him in the car to the nearby dog park. A park full of dogs and strangers is certainly not something that appeals to me. As naughty as he is, at least he's well behaved at the dog park.

Bear also likes to take things, and you never know where they will end up. My grandpa has a microphone for his hearing aid, and on Thursday it turned up missing. It still hasn't been found, and we assume Bear is involved. They also found Bear playing with the hearing aid itself. And somehow they still love the dog.

Reggie doesn't steal our stuff, and he doesn't run away.

One day I hope to get a picture of Reggie's teefies

Wednesday I saw the first sego lily of the season, though it was not blossomed enough to be pretty yet.

I went to the dentist on Thursday for my regular periodontal disease maintenance. I had an enthusiastic but weird hygienist who was aggressive about cleaning my gums. She told me my teeth were very clean, meaning I have good dental hygiene, even though I have a gum disease. (My sister told me recently she's glad I have something. I had seizures as a tween, and I'm allergic to a laundry list of medicines, but other than that I'm in great health.) But I had to go back on Friday because the dentist wasn't there Thursday, and they didn't tell me that until I was already there. It was the first time in my life I've had a female dentist. (That office is also the first time I've had a male hygienist.)

And I went back up North Canyon on Saturday. I never get tired of that place, even though I went there almost daily in 2020.

I never get sick of this view

It's surprising to see glacier lilies in June, because they are the first flower to bloom at the lower elevations, in March and April

I see these caterpillar nests every year, and the dancing caterpillars crack me up

In 2020, I began removing rocks from the trail and piling them up to discourage people from taking this shortcut. I have quite a pile now.

June is the month I have selected to try to eradicate goathead plants, which are the most evil, abhorrent, abominable, detestable, diabolical, horrific plants in existence. I've been doing this since 2012, but I changed the way I do it in 2022. I used to go to lots of different places and pull a few of them. Now, I focus on just a few places, but I return frequently to pull up any new sprouts. I think it's more effective and sustainable, and I think I have made a noticeable difference on one problematic spot.

I pulled up probably half a dozen baby plants. But I don't like to use the word "baby," because that implies cuteness, not evilness

And to close this week's blog, here are some of my favorites of this week's AI dream images. Let me know if you get sick of these. (A lot of these images are actually more interesting and hilarious than the dreams themselves were. I will include the prompts so you can see what I mean.)