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For weeks now, a lady in our ward has been bugging Gin to write a biography about me to be published in our ward’s newsletter (because I am a “new member”), and Gin’s been resisting (I haven’t been helping, either). This morning, Gin asked me to write my own biography to fulfill this purpose, and stared me down with those eyes of hers until I had no choice but to comply with her wishes. I ended up liking what I came up with and decided to share it here. My one paragraph bio:

Joshua Whiting was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, the only child of Robert and Tamara Whiting. He attended East High School in said city. He served in the Ohio Columbus Mission. He received a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Utah. He married the beautiful and mysterious Virginia Carlston, and now resides with her at Vivian Park. He is currently employed by the Instructional Technology department of Granite School District in Salt Lake County, for which department he provides a variety of services. Joshua also enjoys Mexican food, road trips, writing, hiking, photography, etc. He has amassed a collection of 69 cent thrift store t-shirts. He maintains a website devoted to Canadian indie/progressive rock collectives. He currently has no plans to run for political office.

Last week our little Civic was declared totaled, but only after the insurance company required us to “authorize a complete tear down” of the vehicle. Afterwards, we went out behind the auto body shop to get things we had left in the car and say goodbye. I love that they had put the front bumper in the passenger seat.

I can only claim knowing this car for a few months, but it has been with Gin since 2000. It was kind of a sad day. I’ll miss its curled and snarled upper lip (hood). It is nice that the insurance company is going to give us money, though. And we now have a special new friend that will be introduced as soon as we have pictures of it.

Ha ha, as it turns out, I totally slept in this morning. The view outside my window is nice, though. Maybe sometime today I will go outside. Very ambitious.

[This post is a sequel to a previous post, “The Dichotomy of 6:00 A.M.“]

This morning Provo Canyon was absolutely stunning as I drove to work. Mists rose from the waterfalls and clung to the wet rock faces of the canyon walls. We are in that fleeting time of the year when the greenness of the Wasatch mountains can almost rival the Hawaiian mountains. It was 6:10 A.M. I wanted to take pictures, or otherwise just stay and gulp it all in, and I cursed that I had to gas it down the canyon and up I-15 to get to work on time.

It is not the first time. Almost every morning I am struck by the beauty of this canyon as I come out of my house and hear the birds chirping and feel the coolness of the morning. Then I jump in my car and drive to work. And yet, if I did not need to go to work, I would still be in bed and I would never see the morning mists or hear the birds coming from the forest. So, in a way, getting up early for work is really giving me something of life in the canyon that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

Tomorrow, I don’t have to go to work. I’ll let you know whether I get up early and go enjoy my new canyon.