I worked hard this week.  I always do now just before a vacation.  It didn’t use to be like that though, I must be getting older.  I think that I satisfied my customers this week, but only time will tell.  These jobs being only part-time and temporary, only further requests for more work will eventually tell the tale.  Anyway, I’m on vacation now.  Even so it will take a few days off to expunge viewgraphs of mass destruction from my mind.

Today Anne and I fly to Salt Lake City.  We fly via Phoenix and yes we are carrying our passports with us.  Tomorrow, we drive up to Grand Tetons National Park.  Our eventual destination is of course Yellowstone.  I just mentioned at work that I was going to Yellowstone and got a whole lot of advice.  Here are a few of the salient points:

• Walk a 100 yards away from any attraction and you’ll find yourself alone.
• Carry pepper spray and wear bells to warn bears of your approach.
• Don’t walk off the marked trails, people die every year by doing this.  They end up breaking through a thin crust into boiling water.
• Black bear scat has berries and nuts in it.
• Grizzly bear scat has bells in it and smells like pepper spray .

The first two photos with this post are from the botanical gardens.  The third picture was copied off the web for Harry and Dan.  Harry likes Edward Hopper and Dan loves Lego.  Tomorrow we ought to have more to say and to show.

NPR had an article about a new website called I Write Like.  I tried it out with three recent posts.  Yesterdays posts, Our Sons = Fine Young Men, came back with the response that I write like David Foster Wallace.  My most famous post, The Bike Stalker came back with H. P. Lovecraft.  My third and final try was my writeup about the Saint Louis Fourth of July air show.  This time I wrote like Stephen King.  As the NPR article pointed out, this researcher’s model needs some refinement.

Anne picked up Annie from the airport.  I’m shopping for a new car.  Well folks, that’s all the news that isn’t.  That’s all folks!