The 43

I've been off work all week, having taken PTO in between the holidays. We initially had hoped to visit my mom in Texas this week, but airfare proved to be too expensive, and with Omicron raging, not traveling right now is probably for the best. I've mostly been uninspired all week, and it's felt good -- I need an extended break, and used only four PTO days (and I have a bunch to spare) to get a 10-day respite. I did want do something non-lazy this week, and Lori wasn't going to mind if I got both boys out of the house. We had such a video game Christmas that a little road trip to Clearfield and Ogden to look for used video games seemed like a good adventure for a Thursday. Snow wasn't expected until the evening, and we left at about 12:30 and headed north on Interstate 15. We were in the HOV lane just south of Layton Parkway when Ben heard something from the underneath the car. I heard it, too, but figured it was just a piece of ice that had been encrusted on the ca...

(I may have blogged about this previous Christmas before, but I'm not in the mood to look and see if I did. Stories are allowed to be retold ...) When Lori and I moved to Madison in 1995, it was the farthest I had lived from Chicago in my life. While in Milwaukee, I made it home for Christmas every year. My first two years at Marquette, I lived in the dorms, which closed for the break anyway, but after that the trip back was a bus or train ride or a 90-minute drive.  Madison not only added an extra hour to the trip (without any easy alternate transportation options), but also a funky work schedule. Although I worked for an afternoon newspaper, on holidays, we were a morning paper and had to produce the section the night before. With a small staff, if I worked Christmas Eve night, we couldn't leave for Chicago until the morning. Then, I would need to be back for the early-morning shift on Dec. 26. In 1995, that was the case -- I worked really late on Christmas Eve (Lori and I ex...

The NFL is in Week 14, which means there's not much left to the regular season and Christmas is coming up. Seemingly every September, I watch Week 1 games, with its accompanying highlights and enthusiasm, and think to myself, "There's so many weeks of this left." Inevitably, I get to this part of the season and am surprised it went so quickly. This isn't a recent phenomenon -- I've felt this since the 1980s, then watched it amplify once I began working as a sports journalist. December football isn't just about the passage of time -- it has a distinct vibe compared with the rest of the season. With college football mostly over (except for the bowl games), the NFL invades Saturdays with one or two games on a couple Saturdays during the month. I can remember times out Christmas shopping or out and about for the holiday and settling in somewhere for lunch and watching a Saturday NFL game. Furthermore, the NFL regular season is such a fall occurrence that in De...

That's the summer! Work has been so busy that I don't even know where the last eight days went. I vowed not to work over the holiday weekend and ended up putting in hours every day. Today was especially a blur of "I know I worked all day and into the evening, but what did I actually do?" The end of August and beginning of September is always like this with my job, and I need to better account for that next summer by ensuring I still do summer things as the days wind down. The last days did have their moments. Ben and I walked the dog to get a sno-cone, only to discover the shack had already been disassembled for the summer. We instead bought ice cream at Walgreens and admired the sunset from a lawn next to Parley's way. I went to the pool Monday on my own and lounged for a few hours. The water felt good, and the safety breaks (no kids) were extra long, so relaxing was easy. I also jumped off the diving board for the last times in 2021. I ran Sunday and Monday morn...

The smoke is back, and it sucks. Summer is going out with a bit of a whimper, as being outside doesn't even feel appealing. That said, I'm not in a hurry for it to end. The last five days have been uneventful -- and over the weekend, that wasn't a bad thing. I skipped going to the pool because it just seemed like work and I didn't feel like lying out in the haze. Michael and I went up to a video game store in Layton on Saturday, right after Lori and I went to lunch in the Chinatown Supermarket complex in South Salt Lake. (There isn't a real Chinatown here but a kind of shopping center of Asian businesses that we're just now discovering.) I'm still antsy and anxious about work. I'm hoping the long weekend ahead helps. My goal is to try enjoying these last days of summer without exerting too much effort.

Following each of my first two years of college, I returned to Chicago and spent the summer at home. I worked full-time doing custodial and maintenance work for a small suburban school district, helping clean the schools and prepare them for the next term. When I wasn't working, I hung out with my high school friends, partied on the weekends, watched MTV, played a lot of Nintendo, and both eagerly looked forward to returning to school and wishing the summer wouldn't zip by so quickly. "You should be drinking more, Joe, instead of taking pictures of us!" By the spring of 1991, I was already working at one of Milwaukee's daily newspapers part-time. The  lease for my next apartment would begin June 1, and I wasn't particularly excited about trying to find someone to sublet my spot. The decision was easy: I would stay in Milwaukee for the summer and not go home. As I think about it, college students get only three summers (maybe four if you were on the five-year ...

The first three workdays of the week have been so busy, and I find myself not being able to adequately wind down. And I'm still not totally at peace with something, which is probably amplifying the lack of wind-down. I entered this evening in a bad mood (after Monday and Tuesday were good days) and then discovered the fantasy football draft started an hour earlier than what the email had told me (damn ESPN didn't account for the time change). That said, the weather has been nice, although we have some lightning tonight and I think we might get some rain. And yesterday, Michael and I did a quick jaunt to a used video game store where I found a copy of Pitfall -- lacking a label, but the store gave it to me for free because both of us bought games.  Maybe running in the morning will help my mood. Some thunder just rumbled as I sit outside, and the rain is starting to fall but it's not sure if it wants to pour or subside. The patter is soothing, though.

The last week went fast and was ridiculously busy. Work was crazy for a number of reasons, so much so that around Wednesday I forgot how annoyed I was with things. A two-day deluge soaked Salt Lake City on Wednesday and Thursday, relegating me to work inside, which didn't brighten my outlook much (although we really needed the rain). When I haven't been working, I've been watching movies, from the John Wick trilogy to "Bonfire of the Vanities" to a Bee Gees documentary to a doc on the making of "Galaxy Quest." I didn't walk the dog too far this past week, though the rain (which returned Saturday) was part of the reason for that. I also need to start running again and am debating if I should wait until my replacement Fitbit arrives (the screen on mine popped off but it was still under warranty). The weekend went way too fast again but it didn't feel wasted, even though it wasn't too active. We bought Ben a bicycle at a yard sale that we'll...

Not surprisingly, this weekend went by too fast without seemingly too much to show for it. Lori and I did big Costco yesterday in advance of the school year starting Monday. We managed to not spend as much as we thought we might, and getting the trip out of the way gave us the rest of Saturday. But we were tired. I completed the weekend shopping at Walmart and Macey's, then came home lounged in the hot sun in the backyard for a couple hours, For dinner, I grilled burgers, then took the dog on a short walk. A huge wildfire broke out in Parely's Canyon, and the smoke hung thick over the Salt Lake Valley on Sunday. I stayed inside most of the day and worked a few hours to get a jump on the week. Popcorn got only a short walk tonight. And, oh, I'm still seething. Maybe a good night of sleep will help.

The weather today got hotter, and my mood didn't improve much. I'm frankly not too optimistic about the weekend, but at least it's the weekend. I did avoid news sources all day, which I'm calling a positive. I finished up work and lounged inside while listening to Nine Inch Nails, Megadeth, Metallica, and anything else that could feed my relaxed rage (but no Rage Against the Machine ...). We had decided not to go the boys' school's football game, which between the heat and the fact the team lost 40-0, was a smart move. Lori made pizza, which was delicious, and I took the dog on a long walk.  I think I need to lounge by a pool this weekend. I might not cool down, but at least I can cool off.

In March 2015, Ben and I saw Bob Seger in concert. Less than a week had passed after my grandmother died, and the show was on a Friday night when my sister Megan was visiting, and then my dad and stepmom were in town. Michael's club basketball team won its league the next day. I was about two months into my new job after freelancing for the company for two years beforehand. "Against the Wind" is my favorite Bob Seger song, going way back to when I was a kid. That month, I wrote about how it resonated with me. It came up on a playlist tonight, and that lyric that I made the title of this post really slammed into my brain.  Today wasn't great. I won't get into details, but I smacked up into the tug-of-war of everything I've achieved and every goal that I haven't come close to accomplishing. I was reminded of the years rolling past as well as all that is great with my life. I struggle with the conflict among what's been earned, what's deserved, and w...

I didn't sleep well last night, and then work turned out to be one discouraging surprise after another. The weather was nice, though, and I worked outside most of the day.  Lori made homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner, and I let myself get sucked into the second part of "Finding Neverland." That didn't exactly help get my mind off the discouragement, and neither did the long walk with Popcorn when I finally got off the couch. I'm debating whether I'll write some more tonight or go to bed and try to get out for an early run in the morning. I think I do need a news embargo -- the pandemic and stupid people are killing my optimism. At least tomorrow is Friday.

The joy of the yearly work retreat is tempered by the knowledge that work will be busy after it's over. This year, it crushed me. To be fair, it crushed many of my coworkers, too. Before I knew it, two weeks had passed, I had spent several nights (and a couple weekend days) trying to get things done I couldn't during the course of a normal workday, and I was exhausted. This was not how I wanted the second half of summer to begin. However, the last three days have been nice. I took these days as PTO with the hopes that we could get in a couple more adventures before the boys start school Monday. Unfortunately, Lori has been swamped with her job and Michael is trying to get as many lifeguarding hours in before school resumes. So, mostly just Ben and I could be adventurous. On Monday, Ben got his permit, and I took him to practice for an hour at the nearby high school's range course and a church parking lot. In the afternoon, Michael, Ben, and I drove to IKEA -- Michael wanted...

This trip wasn't long enough. I'm glad we were able to combine my work retreat with a much-needed family vacation, but at least for me, it felt over before it started. We had one more adventure before leaving California -- we found the Brady Bunch house used in exterior shots (which has since been remodeled to look like the set on the inside. I snapped a quick picture and we were on our way back to Utah. Although we made good time, the journey wasn't that crammed -- we stopped at Giordano's in suburban Las Vegas for the Chicago-style pizza Lori and Michael didn't get to enjoy this summer. After that, we zoomed back to Salt Lake City, stopping in St. George for gas and Beaver for a bathroom break. We listened to the rest of the Ready Player Two audio book along the way. The sun was still up when we pulled into our driveway. I wish we had more time for our trip, but being home feels good.

We weren't in a rush to get out the door this morning, but we did and visited two last used video game stores, the first in North Hollywood and the second in Northridge. The first store was really impressive and I found some old Atari games. The second was just OK. We are done with shopping this trip ... From the second store, we went to a Starbucks near Topanga Canyon, then drove into the Santa Monica Mountains to do a short hike in Tuna Canyon Park. The views of the ocean were amazing, and we hung out for about 20 minutes at the summit. Michael wanted to drive the PCH through Malibu, so we headed west for about 20 miles, then turned around and found a beach to hang out at for a while. Ben had fun in the surf, and I sort of did -- the undertow was freaking me out a little and I gave up even after I got used to the cold water (I now wish I hadn't).  We left the beach and found a Chipotle for dinner. We drove back through Topanga Canyon one more time and emerged near Reseda, the...

Today was our first full day of vacation for all four of us with no driving and no work retreat. We jammed much into it. We ate breakfast at the hotel and got out the door about 10 a.m. Our first destination was the California Science Center near USC. The museum's main attraction is the Space Shuttle Discovery, and we spent a lot of time in the exhibit hall, taking pictures and reading all the exhibits. The rest of the museum was interesting, though some of it was under construction. Besides many old air and space vehicles, it featured exhibits on different ecosystems with cool interactive features that, if the boys were a few years younger, they would have loved. From the museum, we walked over to USC to check out the campus. Michael wasn't as impressed with it as he was for UCLA, I think because it's in not as good a neighborhood (but you could tell USC takes security seriously -- the campus is fenced in and felt safe). We found the building with the video game program, b...

As we were packing up to leave the resort, we surprisingly found ... the coffee maker. I wasn't impressed with this resort as I was with past retreats, but it was still pretty nice, and the family loved staying here. But, it was time to go. We drove to a Costco first to fill up, then worked our way north to Westwood to visit UCLA. Michael is taking an online video game design class through UCLA in a couple weeks, and this was a chance for him to see another college campus (after visiting Cal Tech on Sunday and UC Irvine on Monday) and be excited about what lies ahead, even if UCLA is a dream school for him. The campus is gorgeous, although we couldn't quite find the building that houses the video game program. Plus, almost every building is closed -- I forget how much more locked down California is than Utah. We left UCLA and headed to near the Miracle Mile, where Lori heard of a good taco place, Quesada's. The tacos were delicious, if not a little small, and we then headed...

I didn't sleep well last night. Between the wine, too much food, and just feeling kind of exhausted (but happy exhausted, my body rebelled -- at about 1 a.m. I thought I was going to throw up. I didn't, thankfully, and eventually fell asleep. This morning, I got breakfast with some coworkers (the company always springs for breakfast on retreat Tuesday). The rest of the morning and afternoon was free time -- no events planned. Lori, Ben, and I walked around the grounds and made it down to the ocean and rocky beach the resort has. I kind of wish Ben and I would have embarked on a longer hike north of the resort, but we never quite got around to it. Instead, Ben and I, and Michael for a little while, hung out by the pool, both the one outside our room and the bigger pool with the water slide.  Basically, our company took over the 13+ pool -- I bet at one time that at least half of the retreat attendees were hanging out by it, drinking, socializing, and enjoying the great weather. ...

I woke up early and walked to get Lori coffee because apparently the room doesn't have a coffee maker. She was tutoring in the morning, and I offered to walk down to the coffee shop to get coffee for her and Michael and a muffin for Ben. I enjoyed my own breakfast as part of the retreat, and it was decent.  Monday of my work retreat is always a work day -- not a real work day, but a big team-building activity, a nice lunch, a pep talk from our CEO, and some other workshops and stuff. This year, we broke into our individual teams for 90 minutes, and afterward, when the boss asked the entire group how it went, our editorial team might have been the only one cheering. After years of having a small team, having a real time (14 of us, though only 10 attended the retreat) feels awesome -- and today was the culmination of that. Dinner was at a restaurant right on the ocean, and it was a feast, almost too much food. My big problem is that we get all this food, and then because we're al...

The morning started with breakfast at a little diner in Eagle Rock with Tim. After walking home, we repacked the car and tried killing a few hours before going to the Terranea Resort, where my work retreat was being held. First, we drove to Cal Tech in Pasadena. Michael isn't necessarily interested in the school, but we are showing him some colleges to get him excited as he gets closer to the next step. The campus is neat but was really quiet -- but I guess that's understandable on a Sunday during the summer during a pandemic. Afterward, we found a Starbucks and a Winchell's. For our next excursion, we visited two used video game stores in Burbank -- one cool store where Michael bought a used Wii U, and another at a mall in beautiful downtown Burbank that we couldn't for the life of us find (it was incorrectly located on the mall maps, and tucked away in a corner of the mall that wasn't easily seen). Our effort to find the store wasn't worth it: The selection wa...

The drive from Salt Lake City to SoCal is about 10-11 hours, and the last time we went , we tackled the journey in one day. That was our plan again today, and despite a little traffic outside San Bernadino, we made it to my friend Tim's house at 5 p.m. Pacific time. We stopped only in Scipio, St. George, and Primm (the line to get gas at the Las Vegas Costco was ridiculous). Lori drove the first shift and Michael drove the rest of the way, getting his first taste of freeway traffic -- he needs to get better at slowing down when he sees brake lights activating several cars ahead. At Tim's, we picked up dinner at Oinkster's, then watched Game 5 of the NBA Finals (the Bucks defeated the Suns). Tim, Ben, and I went for boba tea/ice cream after the game

The last 10 days have been filled with heat and work and car trouble and fatigue and stress. I've been too tired to write, and last weekend, I wasn't much active for a summer weekend. The 10 days haven't been that bad. Brutally hot, yes, but not terrible. However, our vacation plans were curtailed a bit after Costco gave us bad info on the clicking tires on our RAV4. We delayed our trip one day to have the car checked, and the mechanic found nothing wrong. More than likely, Costco had screwed up rotating our tires, because after it took them off again and put them back on, the clicking stopped. The extra day at home turned out to be helpful -- work exploded and I had to take a couple hours to sort out a big emergency, and preparing for the trip seemed to take all day. California beckons!

Today was the last day of our trip, a flight home in the morning notwithstanding. The vacation went too fast, but they always do. I started the day with a run through the woods, and the heat and humidity were already beginning to build at 8 a.m. I returned to my Dad's house and began to pack. After a shower, my friend Chris from the old neighborhood picked me up, and we bought Superdawg and brought it back to the house. Chris and I spend a couple hours catching up -- I hadn't seen him in at least a decade, and hanging out was nice. My stepbrother was moving into a new apartment in Chinatown, and we helped him finish the move later in the afternoon. The view from his apartment of downtown is fantastic. Dinner was Giordano's pizza -- another Chicago favorite that I'm going to miss after today. Dad and Susy let me drive their Forester home, and Ben and I took the long way, going down Lake Shore Drive into Rogers Park, then cutting west to return to the house. The lake at t...

I slept badly again last night. Fireworks were blasting well after midnight, and my digestive tract wasn't exactly the paradigm of efficiency. I woke up late and didn't go for a run. We did get out the door with Dad and Connor to visit the Art Institute. I have a gazillion pictures I'll eventually put up on Facebook, but needless to say, the experience was wonderful. Ben asked if he could wander the museum on his own, and I let him. After three hours -- and we didn't even see everything -- we left downtown and picked up Taco Burrito King for a late lunch. Dad and Susy hosted dinner for family tonight, and the evening was enjoyable. We played Ticket to Ride after everyone had left, and Dad surprisingly won.  Just one more full day of vacation. The time has gone quickly. I hope that at least I'll get a good night of sleep.

This is my first Fourth of July in Chicago since, I think, 1990. I forgot how much people love blowing off fireworks illegally here. It's been nonstop for a few hours now, and my father is saying it will get worse after midnight.  The day didn't feel too long. I woke up and went for a run -- the bike trail was crowded for the holiday. After breakfast and a shower, Ben and I were planning on walking to see the Edgebrook/Wildwood parade, but Ben took a long time to get ready and we missed most of it. He was super tired today, and once we got to the park and saw we'd be mostly out in the sun (plus the food at the celebration was overpriced), we walked back to the park. He then took a 2.5-hour nap and woke up starving. Likely, Ben needed a day to recover that he didn't get yesterday. I didn't mind just hanging out. Dad let us use his car and we drove to a used video game store in Harwood Heights, located in the old Blockbuster that I'd occasionally rent movies from ...

After not sleeping well Thursday night, I really didn't sleep well last night. I woke up late, too tired to go for a run. And following a busy week, both Ben and I were content to have an easy day. The day wasn't totally easy. Ben and Connor (who's in town) swam a workout. We all walked over to the Edgebrook farmer's market. Plus, we walked to get ice cream in the evening. But I also took three naps today and played Advance Wars on the DS. The Saturday definitely had some lazy elements to it. Dad picked up Lou Malnati's for dinner, and it was delicious. The family played two games of For Sale, both won by Susy.  We always have one lazy day in Chicago, and this was it. I can see the end of this trip already on the horizon.

Today was long, exhausting, and great. I just wish I slept a little better the night before. My grand idea to run before taking the rental car back was thwarted when I didn't sleep well. Ben and I barely got out the door in time to return the car in time in Evanston. We walked to Walgreens to get a few provisions, then waited for the Metra train to take us downtown for our adventure. The ride was free, as no conductor found us to collect a fare. We emerged from the station and proceeded to walk in a slightly wrong direction, though we get to see the giant bat sculpture in the West Loop. After getting our bearings, we headed toward Michigan Avenue, then north toward Water Tower Place. The goal was to do this day as cheaply as possible, which isn't easy in downtown Milwaukee when every place wants you to spend money. Looking at the bridge gears underneath the Michigan Avenue bridge would have cost $6 each, and I knew we'd be charged for taking a look at the Museum of Illusion...

Our quick visit to Wisconsin ended and we are back in Chicago. I'll miss the North Woods. I woke up early by default after Ben usurped the entire inflatable mattress when I got up to use the bathroom around 6:30 a.m. I went for a walk around Three Lakes, settling into a bench overlooking Maple Lake for several minutes. The view was serene and, most importantly, without any bears. Ben and I said goodbye to his grandparents around 11 a.m. and went to Merrill to see Lori's sister, niece, and niece-in-law. Andrew and his wife Kati have a new baby (almost 9 months old now), and we got to see her for the first time. After hanging out at Dakota's house, we all went out to eat Milwaukee Burger Company, which was delicious -- although they forgot to put chicken on Dakota's chicken sandwich.  We went to a park afterward for a little while, then Ben and I hit the road to return to Chicago. I was nervous that I was going to be too tired for this drive, so I bought a 44-ounce soda a...

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...

After a productive Saturday and Sunday, I didn't quite feel in the mood to get a lot done on Memorial Day. I did run this morning, which felt great, and Ben and I went walked the dog in the evening. Dinner was cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and drumsticks on the grill, which was just fantastic. I always connect Memorial Day with generic cream soda -- I have a memory of drinking it at my Grandma Elsie's house for the holiday barbecue when I was a kid -- and I had a 12-pack of it in the basement to enjoy while I'm grilling. However, Michael drank all my sodas, so I was stuck with a beer (a Red Rooster Blackberry Cream Ale). The rest of the day I relaxed. Although I missed my soda, I did sit on the porch writing while enjoying a Dad's Root Beer. I also took a short nap in the afternoon, and played a game of Strat-o-Matic baseball in the evening. And I didn't even think about working, even just a little bit. This was a nice start to the "official" summer season. Let...

I've previously written about how May is my favorite month , with plenty of memories of Mays past. I've also written, perhaps ad nauseam, about how time is zipping by far too quickly. Welcome to May 2021 -- my favorite month that lasted about four days. I was running yesterday morning out in the suburbs, continuing a weekend trend in which Ben swims and I also exercise. Except, it hadn't been much of the trend, because even though I felt like I had just run this route, four weeks had actually passed since I had. The time warp gets a little crazier. Michael and I took a Saturday morning/afternoon to scour the region for used video games. He has a membership to a used video game store that also has a location in Orem (about 40 miles south), and we took our time by finding yard sales and stopping at thrift stores, before finally making it to Utah County. Michael hit a bonanza that day, and we had a lot of fun. Did we just do that? I thought we did, but it was three weeks ago....

For this Memorial Day weekend, I made a list of things to get done. Today, I managed to cross off a bunch of those tasks: Removed branches from the patio roof Cleaned out my backpack (I'm going to write a blog about that soon) Organized my nightstand Replaced the AC filter Inventoried my Atari games (sounds silly, but I've now bought two games that already had purchased before and just forgot) Besides that, Michael and I went to Savers, where I found a bonanza of two good board games, an Escher jigsaw puzzle, a pair of basketball shorts and a 10-pound weight (we needed a second). Lori and I went grocery shopping at Smith's, and I bounced over to Walmart quickly. Ben and I walked the dog to the H Rock to watch the sunset. Not surprisingly, I didn't have time to nap. Maybe tomorrow.

I went for my longest run/walk of the year this morning, about five miles, while Ben was at swim practice. I actually got a little displaced -- I was running in West Jordan on a bike trail, and in an effort to not get stopped at a light, I took a detour and was concerned I was running too far out. But it worked out well, and I figured out the trail for next time.  The rest of the day was nice. I went to Kohl's and Harmon's and Home Depot to buy sunglasses, pork chops, and a roll of screen. Also took a longer nap. In the evening, Ben and I walked the dog and got ice cream, then I video chatted with friends.

Memorial Day weekend has arrived. Summer is beginning. And I'm resuming my annual quest to blog every day of summer. Day 1 was a mellow-ish workday after a long week. I cemented vacation plans for Ben and me to visit Chicago next month. Michael and I went to Kohl's. (Today was the boys' last day of school.) We all celebrated summer's arrival by going to Red Robin for dinner. I walked the dog and called the police on a bunch of teens who had climbed to the roof of an LDS ward house.  And now, I'm on my porch typing. I'm happy summer has arrived ... and am looking forward to Day 2.

A few days ago, a muscle in my back began feeling sore. The dull pain is right in the middle of my back, right of my spine, I think where the lat meets the trap. I can't explain what caused the strain. I think our couch isn't conducive to good posture. That sounds ridiculous, but it's not the first time that the couch has exacerbated back pain.  Unfortunately, the pain is in a spot that I can't sleep that comfortably on either side. I might turn slightly in the middle of the night and wake up in discomfort. The muscle is aching right now, after mostly feeling good all day -- I even ran this morning with no trouble. I was sitting on the couch, however ... I'll take a couple Tylenol PMs and hope I can sleep comfortably. The pain began so seemingly instantly, and not following any difficult activity, that the minor hypochondriac in me wonders if it's something that's not just a muscle strain. But, it just might be age. Popcorn turns 10 next week, and she has so...

Looming somewhere on the outskirts of I'm guessing most American cities, and cutting through the countryside like sentinels watching over the expanse, steel transmission towers carry electricity onward, inward, and outward. These tower networks are stark and solitary. Not much resides underneath them -- maybe a park or a golf course, but not houses or apartments. The towers stand alone but define a path. Since I was little, transmission towers have always fascinated me. I could care less about the technical workings of how they carry electricity . The structures themselves made the impression. To me, they always looked anthropomorphic, as if many were designed to look like people, forming a socially distanced line across the land.  And when I saw those lines, I knew we weren't in the city anymore. If you look on a street-level map, the towers might not show up, but you can trace the course they take because most side streets don't cut across the land. Satellite maps offer a...