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This jam-packed vacation day started early with wildlife.  I got out the door at my in-laws' duplex to run on the trail that connects Three Lakes and Eagle River. My plan was to run/walk out for a half-hour or so and return. On the way back, about 100 yards ahead of me on the trail, two midsized, probably juvenile bears popped out of the woods and onto the trail. When I realized what I was seeing, I stopped and began to walk in the other direction, keep my head turned toward the bears. One trotted for two seconds, at which time I thought I was in deep bear s--t. I began to contemplate how to jump through about 10 feet of brush to the highway, but the bears lost interest and returned to the woods. I called Lori and then saw a runner go through the same spot where the bears were. When he caught up to me, he hadn't seen them running by. I cut over to the highway and returned on the other side of the road. I had stopped maybe a minute to take a picture of some perched eagles -- if

As I went to sleep last night, the conflict that raged in my brain was whether to wake up early and run or sleep in.  I woke up on my own at 6:30 -- really 5:30 on Mountain time. But darkness had fled and it felt like morning, so I roused myself, put in my contact lenses and on my running shoes, and got out the door for a run. After weeks of running at 4,500-plus feet, running at 4,000 feet lower felt great. However, I was rained on for almost the entire workout through Caldwell Woods and Bunker Hill. I got back soaked but in a good mood. I took a shower, and Dad took me to get the rental car in Evanston. Ben and I did a quick repack and departed for Wisconsin. We stopped at Kopp's in Milwaukee and enjoyed another Midwestern culinary masterpiece -- a Kopp's double cheeseburger followed by a scoop of Cookies 'n' Cream frozen custard. The first half of the drive up north went quick, and we stopped for gas and RCs at a station outside New London. But then, we hit a massive

I ate so well on the first day of vacation.  Just Ben and me are on this trip to the Midwest. We flew out on Delta from the new SLC airport. The flight was smooth, and I watched "Lethal Weapon" on the airplane. My dad picked us up from the airport, and we got Superdawg for lunch. It was amazing -- I missed my favorite hot dog after not visiting Chicago for two years. The rest of the afternoon was mellow. I took a long nap after waking up early (and after a week in which I hadn't rested enough). Dad and Ben picked up Lou Malnati's for dinner -- another Chicago must-have I had greatly missed. We all played Splendor before calling it a night. I'm hoping this vacation doesn't speed by. It doesn't have to be super eventful, just blessedly paced.

The days before vacation are always hectic. This week was so busy with work, with extra work as things came up that only I could write and needed to be written before I left. Combine that with a swim meet and packing, and I've been scrambling nonstop. The weather cooled off finally, and we finally got some rain. Not a downpour, but just enough to break the heat and soak the lawns. Ben's swim meet was in Magna, where I did manage to get some work done. He swam OK -- he always struggles with the transition to the long-course season, and two years have passed since he has competed in a longer pool. I wish I could share more about the last week, but there wasn't much to tell. We had ordered a bulk pickup, and Friday the city hauled away our old mattress and a whole bunch of electronics, including a 41-year-old Sylvania TV that we finally retired.  So ready for vacation ...

This is my 15th blog post written from a hillside near my house on or around the summer solstice. I've been seeing conflicting reports on whether yesterday was or today is the first day of summer. But I'm here tonight, continuing a writing tradition that I started in 2007 . I'm not sure from the picture if you can tell how dry the ground is around me. Utah is experiencing perhaps its worst drought in modern history, and it looks like the Parks Department has stopped watering its lawns.  I felt a little dry, too, as I wondered what to write for this annual installment. The last year has been perhaps the biggest blur in a decade full of big blurs. Almost eight months have passed since the election and six since the attempted insurrection, yet the anxiety kind of festers in the back of my mind. The pandemic is coming up on 18 months, although there's some light at the end of the tunnel thanks to the vaccines, changing the mindset that maybe life can go back to normal -- i

Today was Father's Day, and in true dads-do-whatever-is-needed fashion, I replaced our toilet seat. The day wasn't otherwise too exciting, and that was OK. I ran in the morning, enjoyed breakfast that Lori made, and napped. In the afternoon, Michael and I went to Home Depot for the toilet seat, then to a used video game store and Walmart. I relaxed in the sun for about 90 minutes, then grilled brats and hot dogs for dinner.  The heat subsided a little bit today. Yesterday started nice, with overcast skies in Cottonwood Heights early in the morning. Ben and I were at his swim meet, and I managed a run that felt almost pleasantly cool, especially when it started drizzling. That didn't last, as the clouds burned off and the temperatures jumped into the 90s. After the meet, Ben and I went to Cottonwood Cafe for lunch. We got home and I was exhausted, taking two naps and just getting Little Caesar's for dinner. The two of us played cribbage in the evening outside when the te

Heat. So much heat. Two days ago, the temperature in Salt Lake City reached 107 degrees. That tied the all-time high, and the previous records weren't anytime near June 15.  The heat has been going strong now for a week. Ben and I went to the pool Sunday and I got my first sunburn of the year. I've been dousing myself in the backyard with buckets of water, which have helped chill me a little. The air conditioning isn't getting the house cooled down as we want it to, which isn't a new problem in our old house, but we've never had to worry about that in June. The best we can do is continue swimming, self-dunking, and running the AC. I took the dog for her longest walk in a week tonight, and she looks worn out (running around with other dogs at the park didn't help) but happy.  Ben has a swim meet this week, and I timed his 1,500 last night. He swam OK, and we picked up Barbacoa for dinner after. I was exhausted by the time I was finished eating and took the dog on

Over the past couple months, I've noticed a weird trend with my work weeks. Monday arrives as it always does, but before I know it, Thursday arrives. Basically, the first three days of the work week are going by super quick. By Thursday, I'm already thinking about the weekend, but I don't feel like the week has even picked up steam. This wouldn't be so bad if the weekends weren't also zipping by. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week involved plenty of writing, work in the evening, a couple morning runs (hurray!), hot and breezy weather, and not quite enough sleep. They haven't been the worst three summer days, but they haven't been that enthralling, either. I took Popcorn on a longer walk tonight, which she enjoyed. I haven't quite been writing for work this evening but have been doing some admin stuff, which isn't so bad. Even if it was, the next weekend is almost here ...

When I write for work late into the evening -- perhaps after a busy day or a pressing deadline -- I don't blog. And the funny thing is, I tend to lose my will to write for a couple days after a work slog. On Thursday, I wrote to 11 p.m. I was writing all day Friday, too, and even though I finished before dinner, I wasn't in the mood to blog. Last night was the culmination of a busy Saturday and I was talking with my friends late in our weekly virtual happy hour. Tonight, I'm finally catching up. The heat has been crazy the last four days for early June in Salt Lake City -- temperatures have been in the high 90s. I've been running in the morning, which has been nice. Working outside has been somewhat bearable, although I did pour a few buckets of water over my head Thursday to cool off (which is fun to do during the workday, but the hose water hasn't caught up to late summer and is cold, cold, cold). So I need to recap the last four days. I'm just going to hit th

Long weekends mean short work weeks that follow. That is sometimes great -- you're closer to the next weekend than you would normally be -- but when you're saddled with five days of work, trying to squeeze that into four can be difficult. The last two days have been busy. I was working until 11 p.m. last night trying to get something done (and still didn't finish). Today wasn't so bad, but I still found myself working after dinner.  The heat really arrived today -- and is expected to stay all week. That's unusual this early in SLC, possibly foreshadowing a really hot summer. I didn't mind working outside in the shade, though, and even the dog didn't mind the heat. We turned the air conditioning on for the first time this year. I ran this morning, and Michael and I took the dog for a quick walk in the evening. I need to water the lawn. I'm not expecting much green this summer, but I don't want the grass becoming tinder in the heat. And there's mor