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The first half of the staycation ended, and I resumed work today. I'm already looking forward to the second half of staycation, starting Saturday. On Friday, we ventured out to the Bonneville Salt Flats in the west desert. I had never been on the salt before, and it was definitely surreal. We let Ben drive for the first time, and he did all right, even if he wanted to use both feet and sped up a little in turns (he never drove faster than 25 mph, so we were OK). Michael loved zipping across the salt, and we let him drive home. The day wasn't super exciting, but we still got away from the city, took a picnic with, and enjoyed far-away scenery. The rest of the weekend was somewhat low key. I looked for a birthday present for Lori on Saturday and Sunday and even chanced going into Savers, where I found a Nintendo 64 console for $5 for Michael, who is really into retro video games right now. I lounged in the sun and did logic puzzles in the yard Saturday; Ben and his friends played...

"It was 20 years ago today ..." Lori and I arrived in Utah on Pioneer Day -- the day the Mormon settlers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley -- on July 24, 2000. Not being from Utah, we didn't realize that July 24 was a holiday. We thought it was just another day, and even though the executive secretary from The Salt Lake Tribune had told me we were coming on a holiday, we didn't understand what the big deal was even when we parked our Corolla at the Little America hotel, in downtown SLC. After a day and a half of driving, we emerged from Interstate 80 and the Wasatch Mountains into the valley, with a view of another mountain range on the other side. We navigated construction traffic, made it downtown, walked to Macaroni Grill for dinner, and took it all in. In retrospect, we should have driven to find some fireworks, which would have been a fitting welcome to our new home. The next day, we visited several apartment complexes around the valley to find a place to live. The...

Staycation, day 7! Finally, we got back to adventures. Today, the boys and I hiked the Car Graveyard Trail in Farmington Canyon. The trail is so named because over the decades, cars have driven off the unpaved road above the canyon, never to be recovered. This promised to be a great opportunity to try a new hike, let Michael take some pictures of the wrecked cars, and be adventurous. The hike didn't take as long as we thought it might -- we were done in a couple hours. Michael can't seem to hike slow; he's always in a hurry to get to the destination, and then get back, without enjoying the scenery. Round trip, we hiked for about three miles. The trail climbed more than 1,000 feet, but it wasn't steep and offered enough shade that we weren't too taxed. We saw three waterfalls and five wrecked cars. I didn't get as adventurous as the boys, who climbed up or down to get a closer look at some of the wrecks, including an old VW Beetle. My favorite was one car that a ...

The temperature dropped today and rain actually fell. Michael worked and Ben had swim practice, so the plan was to go to see movies at the drive-in in the evening. Unfortunately, the dog had a rough, rough day. Popcorn had been moving slower for a couple weeks now, and it seemed like arthritis. She also has a cyst on her right side that has grown bigger over the past few months. This might have been causing more of the pain than any joint problems, because today, she was struggling to walk, and if we barely touched the cyst, she recoiled in a little bit of pain. Even through the slowdown, she's kept up her super friendly personality -- but not today. She wouldn't walk over to her bowl to eat or drink, and she didn't want to go outside. Then, about 5 p.m., Lori noticed a little blood around the cyst. Michael and I took her to the veterinary ER, and by this time, a little more blood and some ugly, gross puss was slowly oozing. I didn't dare try draining it myself, and eve...

Every long vacation has its lazier days. Staycations are no exception. Today felt more like a day off than a vacation day ... and that was OK. I didn't sleep well last night, so I skipped the morning run and settled into some lounging, including finishing watching "Django Unchained" on Netflix and a short nap. I submitted some expenses, wrote a little bit, worked a couple logic puzzles, played two games of Strat-o-Matic, and grilled kabobs for dinner. That was pretty much it - and again, I probably needed it. Five days remain of staycation, part 1, and we have plenty of things we can do in that time.

The fourth day of staycation was a pool day. Sort of ... The inflatable pool sprung a little leak, then overflowed, then lost more air. I enjoyed the water as much as I could, but gave up after a couple hours. I'll figure out how to patch the leak and make sure it fills up evenly next time. Still, I enjoyed my afternoon outside. The water was shockingly yet wonderfully cold on a 99-degree day, and even after I emptied the pool, I was hosing myself down whenever I overheated. I began reading The Firm again (I think I last read it in 1993 and recently rewatched the movie), did some logic puzzles (note I didn't say solved ...) and napped. All of this on a Monday! I ran in the morning, then walked the dog in the evening. Ben had swim and Michael worked, so we didn't have too much space to do something vacation-y. My time in the sun and the water was sufficient.

The third day of staycation was a little similar to the second day. In the evening, the boys and I went back to the old Saltair site to look at the comet. This time, Michael brought his tripod and managed to get some cool pictures. I brought the telescope that we haven't used in years, and that was more of a struggle -- I had trouble finding celestial bodies other than Jupiter in the finderscope and positioning the telescope to get a good look. Jupiter looked good, but alas, I couldn't get a good view of the comet. Still, the excursion was fun and something we won't forget. The comet looked even clearer tonight, and simply spending time with the boys on an adventure was fun. Michael worked in the morning and into the afternoon, so Ben and I spent a few hours searching for geocaches. Out of 11 sites, we found geocaches on seven, only striking out when we drove up Emigration Canyon looking for some that the app said were active. We took a lunch with and ate in the car. I sunn...

Staycation, Day 2! I slept in this morning and didn't get out for a run, but did take Ben to swim practice and went to Smith's to stock up on staycation supplies: bread, lunchmeat, chips, grapes, cherries, and generic Pop Tarts. After arriving home and putting the groceries away, Ben and I watched the end of "Galaxy Quest" and lounged for a little while before getting back outside. I haven't golfed in a few years, so before attempting to again, I wanted to hit the driving range. Ben hasn't picked up a club, I would guess, since he was 8 or 9 -- and even then he didn't have as much experience golfing as his brother (which wasn't a lot, either, but I at least was able to get Michael out for a few rounds back in the day). We were excited to go to the driving range, despite 95-degree heat. I bought a big bucket of balls at Golf the Round in South Salt Lake, a little downwind from the sewage treatment plant. What is appealing about the range here was the co...

Staycation, Day 1! I have 20 days off amid the next 25 -- a much-needed break after taking just two PTO days since last August. I want to make every one of these days count. We definitely made some memories today. I didn't sleep too well last night and ended up not waking up until 9:30. Despite the later start -- we didn't get out the door until 11, then got sidetracked by the slowest Jimmy John's experience ever in Park City -- we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon on the Mirror Lake Highway east of Salt Lake City. I'm not sure how we've never driven this road in 20 years living in Utah. It darts up and through the Uinta Mountains and offers plenty of places to stop and enjoy the scenery. We visited Provo River Falls, a gorgeous overlook of the rockier peaks, and then Mirror Lake itself. The temperature neared 100 in Salt Lake City but was pleasantly in the 70s in the mountains at 10,000 feet. Many people had the same idea we did, and some of the spots we visited had mo...

Vacation starts tomorrow. I made it. Even though we aren't doing anything more than staycationing, I'm eager for these next 10 days off. First, I needed to finish out the last three. Basically, I worked my tail off to make it to the break. I took the dog on a few walks and ran yesterday, and also got my hair cut yesterday -- but for the most part, the three days were boring. The extreme heat returned today, and I foresee the kiddie pool making multiple appearances during the vacation. I'm not even sure what we're going to do tomorrow. I'm planning on not wasting it.

I'm ready for vacation, even if we aren't going anyplace. My time off starts Friday. After a sort of nondescript weekend, I'm looking forward to 10 days without having to think about work. Ben's confirmation was Friday, and it was mellow. Only his religious ed class was confirmed, so the church wasn't too crowded, and except for a couple people not wearing masks, the ceremony went off without a hitch. We went for ice cream afterward to celebrate. Saturday, the heat became a bit heated. I ran some errands and was pleased to see everyone in every store I went to was wearing masks. I unfortunately needed to go to Walmart twice. The rest of the day was lazy, though I grilled steaks for dinner. Sunday was my day to enjoy the heat in the only body of water available right now -- this inflatable kiddie pool I bought. I filled it enough that I was able to dunk myself, which was cold but felt great. I sat by and in the pool, listened to music (my summer 1981 mix), solved log...

These last two days have been similar: Work, dinner, a little more work, walk the dog, sit on the porch. This morning I went for a run, which felt good. Temperatures might hit 100 this weekend, but these two days they've settled in at a tolerable 90 degrees. Lori made stuffed peppers for dinner tonight. I'm still distracted by too much news -- particularly as the number of cases in Utah spikes -- but I'm not stressing about it. Another week is zipping by, but I'll be happy when the weekend arrives, no matter how hot it gets. Goodnight, friends.

I've always had a nostalgic streak -- that should be obvious from my blog, even from this post. I know in 1984, I became memory-dreamy for the summer of 1981 ... which was only three years earlier. Three years seemed like an eternity back then, but I know now that it's just a blip. By 1996, the memories were stretched further away, and the urge to write about those memories grew stronger. One cassette brought it all to the forefront. Lori and I were living our first summer in Madison together in 1996, in an apartment complex way on the far west side of the city. For exercise, if I wasn't at the health club we belonged to, I would go for walks in the neighborhoods around our apartment complex. Sometimes, I would just walk the immediate neighborhood or the trails at nearby Elver Park, but for longer walks, I would cross Gammon Road and wander through the blocks and blocks of 1950s residential and almost suburban Madison. The expanded neighborhoods didn't necessarily remin...

Today's update is short because it was a swift Tuesday -- before I knew it, dinner was ready seemingly a few minutes after I started working (but actually several hours). I ran this morning, made a egg/bagel sandwich, worked from outside the entire day, ate dinner, played a game of Strat-o-Matic, walked the dog, and watered the lawn. I've been recording AT40 streams all day -- I'm hitting the jackpot with iHeart's classic American Top 40 station airing episodes I don't yet have digitally. I have meetings all day tomorrow, so I'm taking advantage of this bonanza today. Work still feels scrunched, but another weekend will be here before I know it.

Ben and I walked the dog later in the evening, around 8:30 p.m., and the heat was still oppressive that late. The temperatures have cooled off a bit now, but the week looks hot, hot, hot. My Monday reflected that -- I struggled to make real progress on what promises to be a busy two weeks before vacation. Still, the day wasn't that unproductive. I at least have a plan for the rest of the week and am optimistic I'll get everything done that I need to get done. I played two games of Strat-o-Matic, and the walk with Ben was nice. Plus, those 10 days of vacation (followed by another 10 in August, weekends included) loom. The best of this summer is yet to come.

This is my 1,000th post in 13-plus years of this blog, and ironically, it comes at the end of a week in which I wasn't too inspired to write. Everything was just a little frantic last week, with the short schedule, my coworker/counterpart leaving the company, and watching Michael in the Big Mountain Jam. The energy wasn't there to write in the evening, even though I didn't work Friday for the holiday observed, and yesterday for the Fourth of July. The heat returned in a big way, and some of my new grass that I worked so hard to grow is wilting. Independence Day was weird because there were no celebrations, no neighborhood parade, no organized fireworks. It didn't even feel like a holiday. Ben and I went for a short drive up Emigration Canyon and took some pictures at the top, which was enough to feel summery for a little bit in the evening (and listened to Dickie Goodman novelty songs on the way back). Michael's team went 2-3 in the tournament but played hard. Ben w...