The 43

The summer solstice was nine days ago, but I'm only now getting around to writing my annual reflection that is supposed to be created on the first day of summer. Nine days ago, I was frenetically trying to finish up work and get ready for a road trip to Denver, where Benji was competing in a swim meet. We got back Monday afternoon, but I was too exhausted to come up to my usual spot in Donner Park. The last three nights were overcast (though the skies cleared a little too late to embark on my quest last night), spoiling the goal of watching the sunset. So, nine days later, I'm finally here. And now that I am, I'm not totally sure what to write about. To say the last year has been a blur would be cliche, and I don't think it's gone faster than any other past year. But I've been struggling to wrap my head around the current summer and, thus, what's really on my mind. I could write about how we're a year away of having two kids in college and being sort of...

I may be in the worst writing rut in a long time. I've been in these zombie ruts before, when I'm not necessarily feeling un-creative, but simply have no will to write. What's different with this one is that usually, I get to summer and feel inspired. I've blogged many summers, tracking day to day (at least as close as I can get to day to day) in an effort to not take for granted my favorite season. This year, however, it's already mid-June and I haven't recorded a single day. Summer has been uneventful so far, but even uneventful used to be worthwhile. In 2023, I'm just blah. I'm not sure what snaps me out of this. Summer solstice? Upcoming trip to Denver? Fourth of July? Upcoming trip to California (which isn't until late July)? Maybe I'll hear a song that will get me into the summer writing groove. Or perhaps, just my first day of sunny lounging in the back yard or by a pool will provide inspiration. There is so much past summer I want to blog...

And then there were two dogs ... Two weeks ago, sort of suddenly, we added a second dog to our family. Charlotte is a 7-month old pointer/blue heeler mix (we think) we adopted from the Humane Society. As with any puppy, the transition has been, well, noticeable. For starters, she wasn't house trained, so we've needed to get her outside a lot to do her business. She struggles with impulse control, going a little crazy whenever she sees another dog or cat. Given we have a dog and a cat, that has been a challenge. Popcorn hasn't been a big fan of Charlotte so far. The puppy wants to play and sometimes bark when she sees Popcorn go by, and the decibel level has bothered our senior dog.  Charlotte also came home with a parasite, which resulted in some runny poop over the first several days. All that said, we've seen so much progress. She hasn't had an accident in the house in a week, and she's figured out that when she goes outside, she should go outside. Popcorn is ...

May is my favorite month of the year and has been since I was a kid. Those leaves sprout from the trees in the first couple days of May and I'm instantly reassured that I survived the winter and that summer is near. Little League in my youth hit full swing in May. School years ended in May. I met Lori in May. Ben was born in May. This year, the buds on our linden tree kept teasing, but on queue, usually around May 3, they sprout. I'm on my porch writing this, looking at a full tree of leaves, accompanied by the full maple of leaves as well. But May is bittersweet in that if I don't fully appreciate each sunny day, each warm temperature, each spring storm (and last night, we had a doozy, with the weirdest orange sky I've seen here in Utah in 23 years), the month is half over before I make an attempt to fully enjoy it. This May, here I am, on May 15 -- and I'm just getting into the swing of the month. June will be hear before I know it. The kidney stone threw a seriou...

The pain started last Thursday, quite suddenly. I'm always amazed how the little disruptors -- even if they turn into big disruptors -- come out of nowhere. I ran Thursday morning, made breakfast, started my work day, and everything was going well. A few hours later, I was in a doctor's office, writhing in pain and the fun was just beginning. Several years ago, I got an ultrasound after wrenching my back, and the technician noticed that I had a kidney stone. I didn't think anything of it, and nothing ever came of it -- I just figured it passed without incident. I doubt this is the same kidney stone, but its descendant is pummeling me five days later. After being diagnosed Thursday, I ended up in the ER on Friday evening after developing a fever. Of course, the fever broke during our nine-hour ER experience (including five in the waiting room), but the prognosis was solid -- no infection, and no surgery or procedure needed. The last three afternoons have been tolerable, rest...

[Writer's note: I started this blog in August, saved the draft, and came back to it in December.] Inevitably as we grow older, the people outside of our lives we only know from TV and movies and music and politics pass on -- just as the people in our lives do. But losing the former is unique in that they are disconnected but, for some, connected in a different way. If the death is tragic and sudden, the pain is shocking (think, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger). However, some beloved celebrities simply grow old and die -- which often is still sad, but carries an air of inevitability. Consider the golden age of television -- almost all those performers are gone, a fact cemented in the last couple years or so with the passing of Carl Reiner, Betty White, Ed Asner, and Gavin McLeod (please hang on, Dick Van Dyke). Watch a movie from the 1940s, or '50s, or even creeping into the '60, and few of the cast members are still alive. Articles have been written about how we...

The summer of 2022 ended with scorching heat. Seriously, I can't pick out individual events during the incredible temperatures of the last 10 days. The high in Salt Lake City was 107 today, breaking the September SLC record of 105 ... yesterday, which broke the record of 104 on Thursday. I read a sobering article on how this will likely be one of the coolest summers of the rest of our lives. I never look forward to summer ending, but I'm ready for some relief. Temperatures are supposed to drop into the normal 80s over the weekend, with rain forecast. Although this was a brutal way to end the summer, I swam often this past week. I worked from the house of our friends with a pool two days, and I also spent all day Sunday at the JCC pool while I worked. But my big swimming moment, perhaps my final frontier, came yesterday at the season kickoff party of Ben's club swim team. We don't have a home pool, but one of the families belongs to a small swim club up in the Avenues ne...