Looking around...enjoying what there is to see.

Last week went by so fast. My first days at work were great; I got my "roadkill" library organized a bit, and it now is starting to look like a real library!

Bernie and I car pooled to work together. One day I would drop him off, and have the car at my job, the next day we would switch. It is nice to drive into town together in the early light, and nice to chat about our days as we drive home.

I was waiting for him to come get me after work one day last week. I stood by the flower patch in front of the college, and shot a few pictures of the flowers with the circles around their middle.

Like, how many ways can you draw a circle?
Here's a regular circle.

Then there is the dotted circle.

A spiked circle, with golden brush strokes going up the petals, shading from deep brown to deep red, to true orange. Doesn't it look like someone was busy with a paint brush?

I count five circles here, including the center itself.

How about the brush stroke shading on this little zinnia?
(Taking pictures is always a good way to kill a few minutes....)

I thought I had packed all my important paper when we left for SLC. Turns out I forgot my Social Security card.
Without one, I would not be receiving any pay checks.
That would not be good...

My boss told me the SS office was two blocks over, so I should just go over and get a new one, and the receipt would work as proof.

Now think about this for a minute.

I give them my SS number as I know it so they can DEPOSIT money into my SS account.
Why would I lie about something like that?
If I gave them a bogus number, then I wouldn't be getting any money put in my account, it would be going into someone elses account.

Weird.

Oh well. It was a pretty day; Bernie had the car so I decided I would go ahead and take the walk.
The SS building two blocks over didn't do SS cards (naturally) and the building that DID do the card was about ten blocks away across downtown.

What the heck...I could use the exercise.
And of course I had my camera with me and could take blog pictures along the way!

Now where else in the world could you find Mormonbilia except in Salt Lake City?
(My favorite Mormonbilia is a shot glass with the Mormon Temple on it.)

A lovely statue, with life size kids playing cat's cradle. I'd love to have this statue in my garden.

The TRAX trolley/train system had slightly large than life size sea gulls sculptures perching overhead.

In case you don't know the story: When the Mormons first came to Salt Lake City back in the 1848, they planted crops that were tragically attacked by crickets (Or was locust? Or are they the same thing???)
Suddenly a huge flock of sea gulls flew in and ate all the bugs and saved the day. It was a miracle, so the sea gulls have their own memorial statue, and now apparently also permanent berth over the TRAX.

Personally I'm not a big fan of sitting beneath seagulls.
Ahem.

Friday night we had a "date" at the library. While we were walking in, the sun was setting behind city hall. It is a beautiful building during the day; but just catching the sun peering through the tower was lovely.

We were able to hear the talk at the library on the Mountain Meadow Massacre Friday night, and it was standing room only in the library auditorium, which was theater sized. Most of the presenters were talking about violence in America in the 1800's western expansion. I found it quite encouraging to hear that back then the homicide rate was up to 400 murders per 10,000 people; today we have about a 7 homicides per 10,000 people. So while the newspaper reports are alarming, things are actually more peaceful now in American than it used to be.

Isn't that amazing?