All in all, I dare say that it was a fun visit for everyone involved. I think our guests were happy to have a few days in Utah. What they didn’t really count on was that they would be getting in on a little, twisted version of the “plagues of Egypt” when they got here.

It wasn’t like I was Moses bringing back the Egyptian plagues in order to convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. I wasn’t turning the Sanpitch River into blood or causing a frog assault or a miserable outbreak of flies and locusts.

I wouldn’t wish that upon our state officials or our county commissioners. The commissioners have enough problems trying to manage Sanpete as it is. Anyway, Sanpeters, at least many of us, already feel like we’re in the “Promised Land.”

It was mainly the weather plaguing us. At times it felt like it was going to be the death of us. I quoted the old saying that gets used around here by some people: “If you don’t like the weather, stick around!” I think we experienced what seemed like all four seasons over a few days.

On Friday, we drove to Capitol Reef National Park. After we traveled there, we picnicked appropriately at the picnic grounds. We watched the buck deer, with their antlers in velvet, graze contently. (It’s only the deer in Sanpete that are considered a plague to me as they treat my garden like a salad bar.)

Inappropriately, after lunch, we set out on a hike in Grand Wash. It’s a nice hike. It’s not rated as a high level of difficulty. The inappropriate aspect of the hike was that we were out in the wilderness in the heat of a very hot day.

There’s a song, written by Noel Coward, titled “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” that was appropriate for our hike. The refrain of the song is “Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.”

The first lines go,

“In tropical climes there are certain times of day

When all the citizens retire

To tear their clothes off and perspire.

It’s one of those rules that the greatest fools obey ….”

It’s a clever, fun song and worth going on the internet and finding it on YouTube. Give it a listen, if you’re interested.

Being out hiking in the desert in the midday sun is neither clever nor all that fun. Just ask my wife about it. Of the four of us, I wasn’t too worried about her health on the hike. (I’m the old guy. I worried about me.) As it turned out, on the way back to the trailhead, she was the one who started overheating and got a bit of a case of sunstroke, I believe.

She made it back on her own power with the help of some extra water provided by a “Good Samaritan” family from Arkansas. They must have been “Englishmen” because we were the “mad dogs.”

Ironically, there was an ambulance waiting in the parking lot at the trailhead. We jokingly asked some of the emergency people, “How did you know we needed you?” They were busy preparing to go out on a rescue, presumably on the Cassidy Arch trail.

After hydrating and rejuvenating, we saw some of the other sights in the park. But we didn’t do too much additional hiking.

We got back to Sanpete that evening to find that the county had been in “Hurricane Alley.” Half the county was in the dark. Power lines were down. Trees were blown over in some places.

Then, on Saturday, it was a different world again. Temperatures had dropped like a rock and it felt like we were going into winter. Torrential rain hit and some people got flooded.

We had bundled up our guests and had taken them to Provo Canyon for a ride on the chairlift at Sundance Resort. The lift was shut down on account of the weather. It was beautiful — and chilly — as we walked around the resort and took pictures.

We ended the day by having dinner at The Hub in Heber City. It’s nice to be able to dine in again at some of the restaurants in Sanpete and elsewhere. I feel like the few places I’ve been in so far have been very careful and good about following the safety guidelines.

So, I guess the moral of the story today is that Mother Nature is still in charge. There’s not much we can do about the weather. We can choose to go out into it or not. Unless we’re well prepared, it may just be better to observe the heat of the day from the inside of an air-conditioned vehicle or building.

When it comes to unseasonably cold weather, the same principle applies. Be well prepared if you’re going out into it. This “mad dog” is going to try to remember this advice. Enjoy our changeable seasons!