Summer Is Over

Hey, we made it to September! My favorite month! I feel like I was able to make some decent memories for the end of summer. Nothing extremely interesting, but it was a satisfying week.

 My state job has asked us to start spending one day a week in the office, and Monday is the day. Part of the reason for this is that if we are using our office space, then we are more likely to get offices at the new Museum of Utah when it is finished in 2026. 

The building we are currently in is an old, bleak structure. My supervisor and I sat at our new desks in our assigned room. For some reason, there is a closet with an AC unit (I think? something like that) with a window in it. So if we want a window, we have to keep the closet door open. 

And there is also a kitschy wall decal in the otherwise drab room.

When my supervisor told someone about the decal, the other person said, "No, you need all the vibes!"

That evening I went to a church activity where someone was explaining what to do if you get pulled over. But he started off by saying, "Who knows what 'cop' stands for?" I said, "It's short for copper!" He laughed, then said, "No, it stands for 'constable on patrol.'" As a linguist, I know that there are all kinds of fake etymologies claiming to be from acronyms, but it is actually rare for that to be the etymology. So I looked it up and corrected him. I was right, it's short for copper (just not the copper I thought).

I continue to monitor a few spots in my neighborhood to keep them clear of goatheads, the Ted Bundy of the plant world. There is one spot on Marialana Way that has been problematic in the past, and two years ago, I adopted it as a place to go back to regularly to pull up any new plants. This year, there have only been a handful of new goathead sprouts. I was wondering if I had mostly eradicated them.

But not so. This week, there were so many new plants! It usually takes me less than fifteen minutes to go to this spot, pull up any new sprouts, then go back home. But this week, it took three times as long—twice! These horrendous plants are far from being eradicated in this spot. But I still think I have made a difference there, and this year I have only found one plant in that spot that had produced "fruit."

And on Thursday, I went to a different spot I have adopted this year. I think there has been some kind of treatment there, because there used to be tons of goatheads there, but now there are few plants at all. But farther away from the sidewalk, there have been some plants that have gotten really big—I just haven't seen them when they're small because they're harder to see. This week I pulled up a particularly massive one.

Goatheads are what you would get if Jack the Ripper and Vlad the Impaler had a baby

I dragged it home to throw away, and I was dismayed that some of the green seeds were coming off as I brought it home. So I worry I was spreading them around. But I still think I was having a net positive influence. 

When I have extra goathead seeds, I like to put them on a brick, then put another brick on top, then step on the brick. It is, like, the only way to destroy the horrendous seeds. 

Since this week's seeds were still green and wet, I liked to imagine they were bleeding and I was inflicting pain on them, because they deserve nothing better.

Anyway, you know what plant is not evil? Plums! On Tuesday I made baked plum omelets and plum bread.

It is my bucket list to go to all of the state parks in Utah, and on Wednesday I thought it would be fun to have an end-of-summer "trip" to a nearby state park in Salt Lake, Jordan River OHV State Park. There are various ramps and dirt roads for dirt bikes to perform stunts. It was impressive to see the bikers jumping in the air. But I don't do that, so I didn't feel entirely comfortable at the park.

Then on Saturday, I went to another state park to check it off my list, Rockport, a reservoir. I took my paddleboard, and my parents took their kayak. I did a tiny bit of swimming, but the water was colder than I expected for late August. I used my paddleboard; I stood up for a little bit, but there were a lot of wakes, so I preferred sitting or kneeling. And I used the kayak for a bit. I saw a bald eagle! But I didn't have my phone to take a picture. I also heard it making eagle noises, which are more like a seagull than the red-tailed hawk you always hear in movies. It was a good way to spend the last day of meteorological summer.

Also this week, I got these Nancy and Sluggo pins. I put them on my work lanyard.

Now that I've been sharing AI images of my dreams, some people are surprised at how many dreams I have. I do have a lot of dreams, but some of the images simply represent different elements of the same dream (for example, the visitor center and the eye implants below were the same dream). And since I've been making the images, I pay more attention to my dreams and try to remember them. On Friday morning, I woke up remembering that I had dreams, but I couldn't remember what they were. Here's this week's collection. (Some of this week's images weren't interesting enough to include on the blog.)

Mark plays a game with a group that involves picking jelly beans and tossing small balls into cups

at a local shop, Mark sees drag queens, pioneer reenactors, and the Monkees

Mark goes to a history convention where the historians dress in Star Wars costumes, and some kids happen to be dressed as astronauts

a curious teenage boy pulls a lever that stops the roller coaster he's on

Mark is too shy to introduce himself to the famous historian

Mark looks at the Christmas candy dish, and there is a Kit Kat from Lori in wrapping paper

Mark missed some of the checkpoints on the hike, and he wonders if he has time to go back to them

Mark gives a presentation about Africa for Hugh's class

the paved trail is covered with water and calcite deposits, so Mark goes through the visitor center to see if he can go around

Google put implants in Mark's eyes that blur people's faces

leaves get in Mark's food because he leaves it in a pot with an ill-fitting lid in the sunroom (This one isn't even remotely close, but I like it)

Mark plays a Super Mario game, but the buttons don't always work

Mark sees a pile of snow in the church parking lot, even though it has melted everywhere else

Mark and his friend converse while a woman carries bones to an artist

Mark puts up Halloween lights on the garage late at night in the rain, but he can't find electrical tape

Mark wants to help Grandma carry a table, but Grandpa beats him to it

Carly makes many quick breads with different fruits and vegetables to sell at the fair