Quiet and Dark

Since daylight savings time has ended, the ride home on my bike has been a dark one. This requires the use of my helmet light and my two rear taillights as I ride north on University Avenue. After I hop on this busy road, the sounds of passing cars are muffled by my earplugs as I fly through the night air at a swift clip. While riding, I feel like a cheetah, owning the shoulder of the road but largely vulnerable to the traffic around me. I try to shine my flashing headlamp into the eyes of any spurious driver who tries to intersect my line of flight. I don’t know whether this does any good. I largely go unnoticed, and usually end up stopping since the force exerted by my small bike is orders of magnitude less than the force exerted by a 2000-pound car.

Eventually, I make it to the quiet of home, which is where I am now. Riding home in the dark will last for four months this season, until the beginning of daylight savings time in March.

After getting home tonight, I read some interesting news. One was of an expensive dessert in New York City…costing $25,000! This dessert was made of some of the world’s finest chocolates and was sprinkled with edible gold. Fortunately, you get to take the golden, diamond-studded spoon home as a souvenir. There is also a $1000 bagel offered nearby. If you really have lots of money, you can buy a 3-story penthouse with an indoor gymnasium, an outdoor veranda, and 27-foot ceilings in the middle of Manhattan for a cool $150 Million.

Birthday and a Trip to a Utah Cave

It has been a long day, but I thought I would do a post about a couple of occurrences during the last couple of days. Yesterday was my birthday, and I was surprised about how many people remembered it, especially people at my work. My brother took me to lunch with his two children and we had a great time eating lunch at the BYU Cannon Center. I remember feeling very happy as I walked back to work after eating lunch. I was also glad that I was able to get lots of things accomplished at work that day despite it being my birthday.

Today, we went on a trip to Antelope Springs Cave, which is located about 40 miles northwest of Delta, UT. My friend from work has been to this cave several times. That cave was really something. It was a typical Utah west desert cave and required lots of crawling, climbing, and rappelling.

Antelope Springs Cave sign post

The entrance to the cave was through a small hole in a gate encasing the entrance to the cave. Upon entering this hole, we climbed along the side of a wall a distance of about 30 feet until we reached the bottom of the entrance area. From there, we headed straight into the cave. We crawled on our bellies to get through several of the rock-lined passageways. After several crawls, walks, slides, and climbs, we arrived at the farthest point from the entrance to the cave on our trip: the “Soda Straw Room”. This was a room full of stalactites and soda straw type formations hanging from the ceiling.

The Antelope Springs Cave "Soda Straw" room

From the soda straw room, we were going to do a large loop in the cavern, but as we headed down to the location of the supposed loop, we could not locate it…it was as if the entrance to the loop had caved in and was plugged up by large rocks. But we found a little crawl space from this location to the room at the bottom of the entrance to the cave, so we all crawled through this small crevice in a rock.

We ended up exploring many parts of the cave, but at the end of the day, after looking at a map, we realized that we had left many parts of the cave unexplored. There were many beautiful parts of the cave, including the many stalactites and stalagmites. Many of these features had “died” from people breaking them and touching them as they pass through the cavern’s tight spaces.

Our group in the cave

Upon exiting the cave, I arrived at my car and noticed my rear passenger tire was flat. So the guys in the group helped me replace the tire with the spare located in the back of my car. After replacing the tire, some guys and one of the girls shot a .22 pistol at a target they had set up. Even the spare was a little low on air pressure, so we took it easy as we headed the 50 or so miles back to Delta. There, I had my first experience patching a car tire since we could not find a tire store that was open on Saturdays. That was really a lot of work as we pulled the tire off the wheel, applied glue and a patch to the hole, replaced the tire on the wheel rim, and reattached the tire to the car. After 2 or so hours, we had the tire fixed and back on the car. Thanks for your help, Eric! I think I’ll continue going to tire stores and have them fix my flat tires, though. Luckily, Eric had a shop full of air and hydraulic power tools!

The spare tire on the back of my car and shooting guns

We had dinner at the local Delta burger shop and cruised on back to Provo/Orem, where I came home, cleaned up and took a shower, did my laundry, and wrote this little thing about the trip. It was quite an adventure!

On Thursday night, I went mountain biking around my house again. We went up to some trails around the Bonneville shoreline trail. The ride was really great, and the weather was fantastic! Daylight savings time does not end until after Halloween this year, so I have some had some great times biking after work during the month of October. But I guess this will be the last week of DST, so I’ll have to go biking on Saturday or in the morning from now on. One great thing about the ride on Thursday was that there was an awesome full moon emerging from the crevice of Provo Canyon just as we were ending the ride.

Me on a bike ride on the Bonneville Shoreline trail. Cascade mountain is in the background.

Full Moon in Provo Canyon

On Saturday, I went up to Logan with my friend from my mission for a day. He’s getting married in November, and I ended up spending time with him and his fiancé. We went hiking on the Wind Cave trail, went out to eat a couple of times, and did sealings at the Logan temple. It seemed that there were almost an infinite leaves on the ground in Logan. I enjoy walking through all the leaves on the grass there. It was a great trip!

The Logan temple at the end of October

Today was church. I prepared my Sunday school lesson, went to church, came home from church, did my home teaching, and ate dinner with my roommates. One of my old roommates stopped in today and we went up to Dry canyon and visited some people. One interesting thing about church was that it was the primary program in Sacrament meeting. The children did a great job, but I was a little sleepy during church.

Pictures from June visit to Washington DC

After listening to John Roberts yesterday, I have been thinking about the trip I took to Washington DC with my parents, my brother, and his family in June of this year. We spent one full day in DC and parts of two other days. We did LOTS of walking there, and were able to see several monuments and structures reminding us of important events and people in American history. Washington DC is such an amazing and historic place…many of the buildings have been in use for over a hundred years, some for over two hundred years. I think that in years to come, people will look at this city like we look on Ancient Rome and Greece, as a centerpiece of a great civilization. One theme of the Book of Mormon is that the Lord “raiseth up a righteous nation, and destroyeth the nations of the wicked.” His hand has certainly guided our nation.

The dome of the US Capitol building

During our time there in DC, we were able to visit the Washington DC temple, tour the Capitol building and watch the House of Representatives, visit the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Washington Monument, the World War II memorial, the Lincoln memorial, ride the Metro (subway), and visit the White House. On our last day there, just before we left, we were able to eat lunch at a great restaurant. We really enjoyed ourselves. I could spend many days there in Washington DC exploring all the memorabilia there.

Here are some pictures of the old Supreme Court chamber, located in the basement of the Capitol building, beneath the rotunda (also shown).

The old Supreme Court chamber in the basement of the US Capitol building

Another view of the old Supreme Court chamber in the basement of the US Capitol building

Inside the rotunda of the US Capitol building

Finally, here’s a picture of me at the Air and Space Museum. I remember being very tired and drained there. It was very warm, and I sat down on a cool bench at the museum and just took a rest for several minutes. We then relaxed by watching an IMAX film there at the museum. I’m the little one at the bottom of the picture.

Me at the air and space museum

Justice John Roberts at BYU

Location: Home

I attended the BYU forum today. I have not been attending the forums and devotionals regularly since I began working off campus, but Chief Justice John Roberts gave the forum address today. I could not miss this unique experience. So I worked from home this morning and headed down to BYU on my bike at around 10:30 AM so I could make it to the forum at 11. I arrived about 10 minutes early, and there were still plenty of seats available in the Marriott Center, even some of the padded seats on the playing floor were still available. I remember sitting on the second row when Margaret Thatcher came to BYU several years ago, but I decided to just sit in the plastic seats about 10 rows up from the playing floor.

I took my seat and the arena slowly filled up until the devotional began at 11:05. Just before the devotional began, Justice Roberts arrived and everybody stood up to honor him. We sang an opening hymn: “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”. After the hymn, President Samuelson welcomed us, a former BYU student gave the opening prayer, and then President Samuelson introduced Justice Roberts.

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Justice John Roberts (immediately to the right of the flag) sitting before his speech at BYU

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Justice Roberts began his talk by reminding us that President Samuelson had encouraged us to read a book about the constitution earlier in the semester. Then, Justice Roberts challenged us to read some more about the constitution…to read the US Constitution itself. He then covered different aspects of the constitution. He first talked about article one, which explains the powers and rules of the legislative branch. Then, he explained that Article two gives the framework for the executive branch. Finally, he discussed article three (his “favorite part” of the constitution), which defines the judicial branch.

He discussed the importance of the Supreme Court…that an independent judiciary is essential to interpret the constitution and the rule of law. One thing (roughly) he said that impressed me is that the Judiciary neither governs by passion (like the legislative branch) nor by will (like the executive branch), but governs by an impartial interpretation of the law. He also mentioned that, until the 1900’s, the original Supreme Court was located in the basement of the US Capitol. The Supreme Court did not get their own building (the legislative branch had the Capitol Building and the executive branch had the White House, which were the first buildings built in Washington) until the 1930’s. He used this fact to show the relative importance of the Supreme Court during the first years of our country. But then he explained that our constitution and the laws stemming from the legislative branch of government would be meaningless without an independent judiciary. He praised James Madison, the primary framer of the constitution and a president of the United States. He encouraged us to read Madison’s Federalist papers, an important commentary on the ideas outlined in the US Constitution.

Justice John Roberts speaking at BYU

I remember visiting the Washington DC Capitol building in June with my brother. We were able to walk through the original Supreme Court chamber in the Capitol, and I took a picture. I want to put a picture of that chamber on this page tomorrow. It was one of the few quiet places in the Capitol, and there was a reverent feeling in that original chamber.

His entire talk was informative and impressive. During his talk, Justice Roberts mentioned some of the early pioneers to Utah, including Brigham Young. He also spoke lots about President Rex E. Lee, the former president of BYU and former US Solicitor General who was BYU president for several years after my mission. Sadly, President Lee died of cancer a few years after retiring as president of BYU. Justice Roberts obviously had a great respect and admiration for Rex E. Lee. He shared an interesting story about a case he argued in the Supreme Court for his client against President Lee. Justice Roberts lost this case with a vote of 9-0, he says because “there were only 9 justices in the court” (indicating if there were more, they, too would have voted against him). Everybody enjoyed this humorous story. In the end, I felt like Justice Roberts was a humble man and I really enjoyed his talk. I only wished he would have spoken longer.

The first snowfall of the season

Location: Home

I had a surprise this morning! I woke up this morning and looked outside as I usually do and found that it had snowed about 2 or 3 inches in my front yard, and there was more snow in the mountains. All the green grass and still green trees were covered in a blanket of fluffy snow. This caused many trees to be strained under the weight of the leaves and snowfall, and some broke, but all of my trees seemed to hold up well. The white-barked aspens in my front yard had lost most of their leaves, and were covered in a fine layer of snowfall. The first snowfall of the year is always a special treat.

The first snowfall of the year from the front of my house

After preparing my Sunday school lesson on Acts 21-28, I hurried off to the ward choir, where we had a final practice before our sacrament meeting performance. Like I said, my Sunday school lesson was on Acts 21-28, and it was made easier because of a great video put out by the church about the life of Paul the Apostle. The video lasted 11 minutes, and I filled in the missing parts and tried to get some class participation between segments of the video. I wish I could be more courageous and confident in what I am supposed to be doing like Paul was after his vision. He was really a great apostle.

After church, I hurried home and went around to a few of my neighbors to try to collect Friends of Scouting offerings. I was asked to collect the offerings from 4 of the houses around mine. This took a very short amount of time, and then I went down to my brother’s house in Provo where we celebrated my nephew Lincoln’s first birthday (it was also Loren’s brother-in-law’s birthday, so we had a double birthday party). We had so much food that it was like the Thanksgiving holiday. There was turkey, nutty Jello, vegetables, rolls, olives, mashed potatoes, pies, and most everything you could want at a turkey dinner. It was really great and I felt like a stuffed turkey afterwards. In one game I play with my niece, I pretend to want to eat her because I say that I’m hungry. But I was not hungry in any way after this fabulous feast. We then opened presents. I think Lincoln was happy to see his presents from me…a “sippy” cup and a chewable moose that can be used for teething. He will be one year old.

Lincoln ("Linky Love" we call him) at his first birthday party

Location: At my kitchen table

Yesterday after work, I wanted to go and do some mountain biking because there was rain and snow in the forecast for today (Saturday). So I left work a little earlier than I usually do and headed home on my bike. After arriving at home, I changed into my biking outfit and headed out from my house. I did not have much time before it became dark, so I stayed close to my house and took my light with me. I headed up the road to the water tanks just north of my house. There’s one new water tank they are still working on that will be VERY big…I think it’s bigger than all the rest of the tanks combined. After passing the tanks, I journeyed up the dirt road east of the tanks that is part of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail system. Just before reaching the top of this dirt road where it overlooks Provo Canyon, there are a couple of trails that branch to the North. I took one of these trails, but at this point, I was low on energy as well as daylight and knew I would not make it very far on this narrow, difficult trail. Like a worn-out moose, I slowly started climbing the trail, and the sun began to set as I climbed. The weather had a cool snap, but the temperature was comparatively warm for a mid-fall day.

Mt. Timpanogos from the bike trail

Mt. Timpanogos and the trail

Squaw Peak and Provo from above the Bonneville Shoreline Trail

Utah Lake at sunset from above the Bonneville Shoreline

I stayed on this trail until it branched to the right and began heading back into Provo Canyon and to the Bonneville Shoreline dirt road. After reaching the top of this trail, I slithered down this trail like a snake slithering through a hole in the ground. The ride back to the Bonneville Shoreline road was fast and exciting. From here, I headed east on the Bonneville Shoreline road and took the fun but rocky singletrack trail down into Provo Canyon’s Canyon Glen Park. From the park, I rode the Provo River Parkway home. I have ridden the last part of this route many times, but it was a beautiful day and the trail was great.

This morning, I ran much of the same route…up the Bonneville Shoreline Trail to the Provo Canyon overlook and from there I went down the Provo Racetrack to Timpanogos Park. I ran home from the park. The run was invigorating and the weather was great. The sky was overcast, but the weather was warm. At home, I raked some leaves and did some other yard work. Later this morning, the air really cooled as some wind and rain came through. Bryan and I went to a couple of auto supply shops, Harbor Freight tools (Bryan likes tools and working on cars), and then to TJ Maxx. From there, we headed over to Costco and then home.

I then went to my brother’s house, where I babysat my niece and nephew. We really had a great time pretending that we were riding in a boat downstairs as I pushed them around in a laundry basket full of blankets. Just as I began to get very tired, Lincoln fell asleep and I fell asleep beside him. By this time, Miriam was home and started putting together a puzzle full of cartoon characters. We completed the puzzle and had flour tacos for dinner.

The cartoon puzzle