When I was growing up in Soda Springs, Idaho, we subscribed to the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper (which is no longer available in Soda Springs). On the front page of the second section of the newspaper, columnist Dan Valentine wrote a daily column on things happening in and around Utah. Sometime each spring he would have a column with the same heading: “Spring is sprung, the grass is ‘riz. I wonder where the flowers is?” (I’ve written about this before….)

The significant characteristic of Springtime in the high desert area of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming is how fast the weather changes from one day to the next. We’re in one of those weather patterns right now. It was 65° and sunny on Friday, 50° and very windy on Saturday, and today was 40° with rain and snow. The cold, wet weather will continue through most of the coming week.

Since riding a motorcycle isn’t fun when the weather is cold and wet, I tore into the front of my motorcycle on Saturday to install a 12v accessory plug. In order to do so I had to take most of the fairing off as well as the headlight. Behind all of that are the electrical wires that I’ll tap into to provide power to the accessory plug. I’m now ready to wire in the accessory plug and put everything back together.

I ran out of time on Saturday to finish the job. This is the time of year for Ward Conferences in our Stake here in Pocatello and the next set of Ward Conferences was today for the three wards meeting in the Grant Building. The ward conference starts with a session at the Idaho Falls Temple on Saturday afternoon. Nina and I needed to leave at 3:30 p.m. to drive up to Idaho Falls.

We had dinner at the Temple, then dressed in our white clothing for the session, which was nearly full. We left the Temple about 8:30 p.m. and got home last night, very tired, about 9:30 p.m. We enjoyed the session and it’s good to be in the Temple with people we know.

During this year’s set of Ward Conferences, my assignment is to conduct the Sunday School portion of the conference and give a short history of temples and temple ordinances in the Church. Today I had this assignment at 10 a.m., noon, and 2 p.m., one time for each of the three wards meeting in the building. That meant being in Church from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. and taking a very short break from 1:00 – 1:45 p.m. for lunch. It’s a long, but very enjoyable day.

It’s also a day soon coming to an end. Driving home from the Temple last night, I drank a bottle of water. Not a good idea that late at night. I was up twice during the night because of the water! The general rule at my age is nothing to drink after 7 p.m. to give my system enough time to move the water out before going to bed. I shall sleep well tonight, for sure … dreaming (possibly, as I never remember my dreams) of a nice, warm spring day riding the motorcycle across the countryside….