Mai

Every year, I like to blog on my blog's anniversary, May 1. Earlier this month, I realized that I had completely forgotten about it! It was my fifteenth anniversary, and it was the first time I missed blogging on May 1. Oh well, at least I've still blogged every Sunday.

I had an enjoyable week.

On Monday, I went to the dentist to have the stitches removed from my gums. I believe tomorrow I'm allowed to floss normally again. It's nice for my mouth, and my diet, to get back to normal! I was able to eat popcorn again.

After my appointment I went to the North Capitol Building for Utah Historical Society staff meeting. For a long time, we had monthly piñata days to count down to the opening of the Museum of Utah. Those stopped in the fall, but we had one final piñata day to celebrate the opening on June 27. One of the museum folks bought these massive custom piñatas: a rubber chicken, because apparently Utah is a leading producer of rubber chickens; the Mormon Meteor, a record-breaking race car from the 1930s; and a brine shrimp, the state crustacean. 

I came home to do more work, and Reggie sat on my lap, as he frequently does. He often likes to rest on my arm, and it's hard to work with one hand. I truly adore Reginald. With a pet fish, you just look at them; with a hamster or a snake, you can hold them occasionally; but with a cat, they get to be a full part of the family.

I was able to go trail running five days this week, and May is truly a spectacular month for it. There are so many wonderful flowers in bloom. Twice I ran before working for the day because I happened to wake up early. That is one benefit (of many) about working from home.

The first sego lilies of the year! This is the earliest I have ever seen them.

longleaf phlox

Tufted evening primrose. These are very fragrant—I love them!

Bitterbrush (according to my plant app)

Utah sweetvetch

Mulesears. They haven't peaked yet, and they're spectacular when they do!

Western waterleaf

arrowleaf balsamroot

Lewis flax

But my favorite was my Saturday run. It was overcast and cool, a perfect May day. I ran up Mueller Park, which is always busy. I often go past Elephant Rock rather than stopping at it, but I decided to stop there for a snack break before I kept going up. As I got there, there were some chatty fellows, one of whom said, "This is the place! As Brigham would say." Then his buddy said, "Actually, he didn't say that. Well, what he said was 'this is the right place.'"

This was my chance! I said, "Well, I'm kind of an expert on this. According to Wilford Woodruff, he said something along those lines. One account says 'this is the place,' one account says 'this is the right place,' and one account says 'this will be our abiding place.'" Maybe that was an earful, but I didn't tell them how people didn't really care about Brigham saying "this is the place" until the early twentieth century. The first guy really was chatty, even with another group of hikers who came up. Before I left, I told them about the Museum of Utah (because he had asked for resources), and I went on my way.

I went a mile past Elephant Rock to the Perigrine Trail, which I first went on a year ago, and the last time I was there was in November. I really love the large bridge and the Precambrian Farmington Canyon Complex boulders, which are 2.4 billion years old.

I'm still impressed with this bridge, because it's four miles up the trail! How did they build it?

The stream that the bridge crosses

Look at that gneissic foliation!

It's nice that everything is so green right now. That's what it's supposed to be in May, but since our winter was so dry, I don't know how long things will be green. 

showy stickseed 

cutleaf balsamroot

western wallflower

heartleaf arnica—I don't recall seeing it this early

larkspur

smallflower woodland star

mulesears

This week, I also did some transcription work for my BYU job. I don't transcribe very often, but I actually like it—I just turn on a podcast, get in the zone, and start typing. When I worked at the Church History Library and was writing about nineteenth-century letters, I found it was easier to work with them if they were transcribed, so I would devote some time to transcribing them. I miss that. In fact, my very last assignment there in December 2023 was a transcription assignment.

Today I taught Sunday School about Numbers and Deuteronomy. I had a few discussion points and questions from those difficult books:

• How do we reconcile the idea of a merciful God with many of the not-so-merciful things in the Old Testament?
• Many things have changed, and that's normal (the Lord making Levites special instead of firstborns, Zelophehad's daughters asking about their inheritance)
• How do we acknowledge problems without it becoming unrighteous murmuring?
• The Israelites didn't look at the brass serpent because it was easy (1 Ne. 17:41). What are easy things we are reluctant to do?
• The story of Balaam, whose donkey talked to him and who refused to curse Israel, tells us that God is more expansive than just one group of people, and even people who do good things can later make bad decisions (Rev. 2:14)
• How does keeping the two great commandments help us keep all the others?
• How can we keep God's words in our hearts (if we're not wearing phylacteries or writing them on posts)?

Next weekend is Memorial Day, and that is the weekend I start the Fourth of July season. This is going to be a special season because of America 250. My annual pumpkinundation roundup is surprisingly popular, so I'm going to do the same thing for Fourth of July foods this year to commemorate the semiquincentennial. I haven't decided on a name yet (America 250 roundup? Red, white, blue or RWB roundup?), so I'm open to suggestions.

My niece bought these for me. I especially love the Liberty torch.