dog park in the ash...

went to the dog park yesterday with the girls. i attempted to put on thier doggles, but they had those removed before they hit the curb from the parking lot. they seemed fine though. my eyes are dry and sore from the ash and i was oddly exhausted after the walk which i thought might be from the ash inhalation as well. who knows? after blossom lost her tennis ball to her swimming session in the creek she started wrestling with rio. i just thought this picture was funny as her leg looks freaky. you can see all the grey ash in the snow in these shots. people came out to the dog park as the day wore on. i think the town was pretty quiet in the morning. below blossom takes a little swim in the creek. she hadn't noticed that her toy had sank. her dog buddy, naughty, had destroyed the tennis ball. he can pop one in a second. it's kinda annoying actually.

here is rio at the dog park in the ash covered snow. below is the moose from the other day that was freaked by the wind at prospect heights trail....the picture below that is just another ash shot...well, i'm off to meet friends for the monday walk...more exciting news later...

redoubt ash in anchorage...

above is the ash that fell to the windshield wipers thru the night. my before and after pictures got swapped...sorry. can't figure out how to unswap them.

so the picture below is taken from my bedroom window saturday evening about the time that redoubt was blowing yet again. we were under ash warning til at least 1am and i retook the picture this morning and you can see that one above with all the color changes from the ash collected through the night. i thought it was pretty impressive for being 100 miles away from redoubt.

again..my before and after are swapped so above is cat prints in ash covered snow..below are mufasa's prints in the regular snow. he is a pretty old and thin cat so he only ventured outside for literally i minute before opting to return to the relative warmth of the house. i say relative because i've kept the thermostat set at about 65 F all winter to save on fuel costs. i do have a little space heater by the couch that has come in handy.

another day another vocanic eruption...

so the volcano, mt redoubt, continues to be very active. more on that later...today we walked at the dog park. the ducks hang out on the bits of lake by the creek. blossom likes to go take a dip in the water as well. silly dog. it was snowing,but pleasantly warm...almost 40 degrees. it's break up...we are there. break up means dirty snow melting everywhere and very large pools of water on the roads. the snow is unpredicatable...you start walking and end up postholing. it's a great time to get out of town. i always find it funny that you hear the shovels in the neighborhood as many try and rid thier driveways of the thick slab of ice that has formed. not sure if it's just our desire to end winter or if it's so warm out that we all just want to enjoy temperatures over 30 as much as we can. i occasionally will take a whack at the ice on my driveway as well, but i'm more of the opinion that eventually the ice will just melt. does that make me lazy or practical...hmm?
another phenomenom that one must be mindful of during melt is what i refer to as "poop soup". this occurs when you neglect to keep up on your dog poop in the yard. it may also become an issue if you put alot of frozen poops in your garbage and then the temperature increases before the trash pick up. i learned my lesson my first year in this house. the garbage men put a tag on my garbage can and refused to collect my garbage that week. at first i was a bit miffed and then i lifted the lid of the trashcan. words cannot describe the horror found within. i do not fault the poor garbage dudes and now am a very careful poop collector. i'm outside often in very low temperatures chipping frozen poops out. it is easier to just wait a few hours til the poops freeze...no odor and less mess....unless it all melts. enough on the poop.
this time of year i end up doing more neighborhood walks and will soon begin to avoid any bodies of water for fear that blossom will try and walk on it and the slush will break through. besides...the bears are out. the sign below is more often seen in summer. the fish and game folks put warning signs out on trailheads with recent bear sightings and especially for bears that have been a problem already. apparently, this bear has been tracking people and showing no concern. the moose are also coming into town in droves. the are chipping away at whatever bark they can find to feed on. if i ate bark only at this time of year i'm sure i could easily lose the 5-10 pounds of winter weight that seems to collect. of course, i've noticed that this weight doesn't drop off in the summer as readily as it did a few years ago. hmm..so not fair.

i need to head to the gym tomorrow and sign up for a few months. the shower will be out of commission here so it will give me and excuse to work out and shower.

thought i would post a few pictures of mt redoubt eruptions. these volcano pictures below were not taken by me. all the other pictures on this blog so far have been. i can't see the volcano from my place. i guess we are getting some actual ash fall today. the volcano erupted a few times today quite powerfully. the airport keeps getting shut down because of it so travel and goods may be a tough thing for a bit. i didn't notice any ash today when i was out, this evening when i looked at the chugach range it did appear to be grey instead of white. the sky was darkening though so hard to tell if the dark clouds were ash or just snow clouds to me. i'm sure there is plenty of ash floating around anyway. it's blown so much and so high this week. we'll see what daylight brings tomorrow when i get up. so these pictures were all found at the avo website (alaska volcanic observatory) if anyone wants to see and read more. it's a very interesting web site. i was chatting with my sister and i think she was qutie fascinated checking it out as we chatted.

okay so the above shot was taken from the kenai peninsula, i think within the last 24 hours. looks a bit like an atomic event to me. very pretty though.

the picture below i found very cool. never occured to me that the power of the explosive eruption could cause it's own lightning storm..so what you are seeing is a combo of lightening and ash.

the above picture shows all the ash fall on the cliff glacier...i think that's the name. it also shows that a river has formed down the middle of the glacial melt i suppose. i think the blue colour of the glacier just looks cool with all that ash on top. below picture shows the pattern of glacial melt working it's way down the valley. there are some large oil storage bins much further down that everyone is watching very closely. so far they are holding the some 6 million gallons from the flow that surrounds them,but if those break from the pressure we will have a major environmental catastrophe in addition to the ash issues.

i'm suspecting work will get crazy now with all this ash in the air. anyone with respiratory issues is at risk. one co-worker said that she hasn't had an asthma attack for 10-15 years and has had 2 this week. i explained to her that it was probably from the ash in the atmosphere. i think people think that since we hadn't had ash landing we were clear. i figure when ash blows some 60,000 feet into the atmostphere it's everywhere. so far for me, i've just had some issues with dry eyes. i've been putting drops in today and had to on monday as well.

this picture i loved because it shows the ash coverage. these mountain tops were all covered with clean white snow before these eruptions and now they are covered with ash.

now this one shows perspective. this is taken from a satelite. these eruptions just seem huge to me and as you can see it does seem fairly large from space, but really i thought it seemed amazingly small when seen in this perspective. we really are just dots out in space. i'm always fascinated how an event such as this in alaska can impact area's around the globe. these ash clouds will travel on the wind so all ends of the earth. see we are really a small place....we're all in this together.

work was very slow for me. sunday i was called off, my overtime wednesday shift i got overstaffed...i was actually happy as i wanted to watch american idol. i know..people seem to think that is no not a show i'd watch. anytime anyone at work hears i watch that they seem to go into shock. i think they don't know that i'm a sometime songwriter/singer. that is probably why i enjoy watching it. i "worked" the last two nights, but had one relatively minor patient to follow each night. i mostly chilled on the computer at work playing "bookworm" a new game that a co-worker introduced me to. it's quite addicting. it's like a more active boggle. i love that game. i did watch the netflix movie wednesday as well. it was "perdition". it had reese witherspoon in it. it wasn't a movie i tend to expect to see her in,but i liked it well enough. dealt with a somewhat illegal holding of her husband, a egyptian born american green card holder. so interesting storyline and such. not one i'd rush out and buy, but i enjoyed it.

i'll probably just turn in early today.

more pics from kayak island...

the name kayak island is a misnomer. it is not a good place to kayak. the island is in the shape of a kayak. every spring every grey whale passes by the tip of the island. we were there in april so we could see dozens and dozens of spouts off the tip as we sat there. the above photo is taken from the pinnacle. must be part of an old volcano that has been worked away. the mountains of the island are precipitous and you can see that many rock slides have occured. the lighthouse looks pretty tiny from here. it was mostly cloudy the time we were there.

we went for a walk out the west side of the island. (we'd walked in on the east side)...i tend to be a little dyslexic so i may have to switch that. hmm....anyway...this is a view of the pinnacle from the west side. there were whale bones scattered about on this side which was fun.

the above picture is of deb and i in the lighthouse. we were the only people on the island so we had access. it is still a functioning lighthouse. there is a helicopter pad in front of us and the coast guard stops by to maintain. below are more shells from tidepooling.

our walk today was a bit abbreviated. we went up to prospect heights trailhead. it was a little breezy when we took off, but soon it became quite blustery. soon the wind was really blowing. within a week or two it will be impossible to walk there....teh snow is soft and i was starting to post hole when i was walking. still i was dressed okay and kept walking..until..i saw a moose bolting ahead of us. animals get really spooked in the wind. i can understand that, and this poor moose was really freaked out. some guy got the hell kicked out of him on the coastal trail a few years back. he was running and it was windy. that is a bad combo. he never forgave the moose or the city for not going out and killing the moose. after he healed he up and shot some random moose that he ran across in kincaid park. as a human,i think we are the responsible party. moose get freaked in wind...so i turned around and left the moose to the trail.

a few pictures from kayak island...

so i wanted to just add a few pictures in every so often. kayak island was the second trek of betsy's island adventures. you can read all about it in a previous post. all the adventures have a post.....without pictures so i'll try and add some pictures of these amazing spots. my labels are either "just talking" or "alaskan adventures" so hopefully that helps make these easy to find...

anyway, kayak island is 60-65 air miles south of cordova. we took a little plane and landed at low tide on the beach. it was quite the trek. the island has a lighthouse so you stay in the boathouse. it's pretty primitive,but there are some perks. the wood stove, propane stove already there and a bunch of old left behind stuff so you could survive quite awhile if you get stuck out there.

the above picture is of a friend stephanie. i was posing them. these odd rocks were scattered everywhere. they often looked like cabbages. if there are any rock sorts out there i'd love to know how they were formed. i'm guessing a volcano was involved but not sure. it's just a 2 mile walk to the lighthouse, but it is rough going because of all the rocks/logs and flotsam all over the place.

the tidepools on the island were amazing. i love to hang out in the intertidal zones. it reminded me of all my days tidepooling in ketchikan. i lived there for 6 years and my cabin was on the beach for half of that. used to get off work in the mornings and just have a look around. they had huge sunburst seastars out there. on kayak island there was all the usual stuff, stars, urchins, muscles, limpits and sea anenomies. i took several courses in the universities i attended on oceanography and marine biology. i love to learn...just not very good at getting degree's. my friends got to learn about intertidal zones. i think they quite enjoyed all the wealth of my knowledge..haha! below is the actual lighthouse....st elias is it's name. lots of history about it. i think the island got slammed pretty hard in the '64 tsunami, post quake. there is an old lighthouse keepers house there and i guess it was a pretty lonely existence as it's quite remote and the waves can make it tough to get to the island. even as our little plane landed the winds were blowing a good 40-50 miles per hour and we had huge gusts i'd put near 70 while we were hiking to the lighthouse. our sweet pilot just gave us that alaskan pilot smirk when we asked him about the conditions upon returning. it was no doubt a bit dangerous...but that is part of the life of alaska. he was very excited that our group was headed out there. only 2-3 groups actually make the trek to kayak island/year. it's quite remote that way. i'm happy that we got to enjoy all the island had to offer. i'll try and add more pictures later with details...i really must get moving and walk these dogs. not sure where to go yet. maybe up to the prospect heights trailhead. it's a little higher elevation, perhaps the bears won't be rummaging about as much. lots of sign posts at campbell airstrip trail yesterday about a rouge black bear without any fear of the humans it crossed. we stayed on the main trail and avoided rovers run where the 15 year old was attacked last summer. then i just opted to run errands and take the girls to university lake dog park. i've seen bear there too, but they aren't as common. it's grown popular with the dogs since being made official so i think the bears avoid it...as do the geese. no geese yet...still waiting. that is the sure sign of spring...well break up as it's called here. spring seems to come after break up.

just another day in alaska...

a volcano erupted and we almost got charged by a moose. went for a nice long monday walk with friends. the monday walks have been fun..i never know who will turn up. today friends from the peds unit arika and sandra came along with a new friend sandra had met. so we had 5 dogs. arika had her new baby, sasha and her two bulldogs, one french, one english. so it was quite the crew. all the dogs were polite and got along well. blossom got to chase her frisbee the entire trek. she is totally wiped out presently and has been since we got home this afternoon. she carries several extra pounds on the walks in fresh spring snow as she gets large clumps of snow on her. no moose sightings til near the end of the walk.

as you can see we eventually met a moose. i turned around to see that i was within 15 feet of a moose. rio walked on ahead and almost walked right into the moose...luckily the wind tricked her and she turned and followed where the moose had been instead of where the moose was. this led her away from the actual moose! she got within maybe 10 feet though. lucky for me she was blind and didn't notice where the moose actually was. i handed off blossom and went to fetch rio in the woods. that moose looked ready to charge us all. believe me....they only get bigger as they get closer.

after the walk i attempted to get some official volcano eruption photo's. i did manage the doggles on both dogs, but was unable to get the bandana's on them. picture did come out cute. i think this was the first shot...we got lucky...! other attempts failed miserably. apparently the dogs aren't too fond of wearing the doggles. hehe.

so yes...our volcano erupted several times through the night. i believe the last i heard it had erupted 5 times....some 50,000feet into the sky. lucky for anchorage the wind direction was north and west of us. so far so good. we are ready...except the dogs aren't necessarily willing.

we went for coffee after...well i got hot chocolate...never have acquired a taste for coffee. the girls were due for a vet appointment so off we went. rio loves to visit at the clinic...blossom is quite wary of the vet and those needles that come with it all. she won't take a treat from the vet and i wonder if she would take a treat from her on the trail as we do run into our vet on occasion out on the trails. we may have to test this. rio takes all the treats she is given and despite the fact that the vet always says the dogs should lose a few pounds she always loads them with treats. does she feel guilty or is it just that they are so darn cute you just want to give them treats. it is funny that the vet that was almost angry with me for not taking rio to surgery and instead getting her the brace is now recommending the brace to other clients and very happy with how rio is doing. blossom also got some meds as she has had these reverse sneezes and i guess that could be allergies but could also be some kind of nose mite...ick!

the vet also mentioned that friends were at the trailhead when the guy who got tree'd by a bear came out. apparently, the bear had ahold of his foot and chewed up the boot. the people with the dogs had a gun and perhaps this bear would have been a good one to destroy...it didn't have any cubs and there was no cache associated with the attack. it's always a tough balance having bears and moose in a bigger city like anchorage. i love that they are here, but we did have several people really hurt by bear attacks last year.

chatted with my brother jeff for a bit. always entertaining and then met up with sandra for a movie. after last nights crying movie i was ready for laughter. we selected "miss march". it was crazy, stupid, silly and just sick and wrong...but we laughed our arses off the entire way through. can't say i'd recommend the movie, but if you just like sick humor and want to laugh rent the silly thing.

it's after midnight so i guess i should finish paying the bills...and then get off this addicting computer!

redoubt may have just erupted...

heard it from a bird. okay...not really. saw it on a friends facebook. i'll have to check it out. wind must not be blowing towards anchorage as i don't see any ash on the new snow we got last night. looked to be 5-6 inches. snowed the entire night i was at work. love watching the snow fall. it's just the calmest thing. complete silence. i love rain too though. the sound of rain is mesmorizing in it's own right. i put a few pictures from round island on here. round island was the first of "betsy's island adventures". in order, round island, kayak island, pribilof islands, churchill, skagway to hike the chilkoot trail and last years shuyak island. still much to explore. loads of birds. i'm not a birder, but i do enjoy watching the birds of alaska. i have a book called "guide to the birds of alaska"..i know original, but i tuck my pictures in of the birds i've caught on film...or digital nowadays. i'm always hoping my pictures come out better than the books have. above are horned puffins. they are the cutest little birds. impossible to capture flying as they are so quick. they also "swim" underwater. they have them at the sea life center in seward and i love to watch them underwater in the tank there.

these next birds are murres. they hand onto the cliffs and hold a big blue egg in place. the sound they make is like the sound of laughter. i remember my friends and i couldn't help but join in while we were on st george island walking the cliffs. there are just thousands of birds out on those islands. i must say...i never got pooped on. i guess that is quite an impressive feat.

sunset on round island. it's always just a sight to see the colours of the night come on. of course, this is over solstice so this was probably after midnight. you could get in your tent at night after midnight and still be able to read a book by the natural light. it's hard to imagine...you just have to experience the never ending days of alaska.

i'm on call for work tonight. i'm happy i got the call as i ended up with a migraine. i watched a wonderful movie while i writhed in pain and took breaks to puke...ah the joy of the migraine. anyway....i did feel a bit better after puking and could enjoy the last of the movie. it was quite moving, i must say. i was crying...so after it ended i just pushed play again. i cried just as much the second time through. the movie was called "speak". it was just powerful to me...a movie filled with the angst one feels when they have been violated. it was about a girl who is raped. she tells nobody. that is fairly common. they say 1:4 girls has had some sort of sexual molestation in thier life. i believe it. i also believe that this ratio may be far greater in some of the native villages of alaska. i doubt this even begins to show the abuse women across the globe have suffered over the centuries. just started reading "infidel" by ayaan hirsi ali. i'm sure that will be quite the read. my friend kelly loaned it to me.

not sure how some females get selected for abuses more than others,but it does seem to be the case. i think part of it has to do with self esteem and a feeling of empowerment. i've had several things happen in my life. i've been flashed more than i can remember. i just always seemed to be there when some strange freak wanted to show his goods off. the first time it happened i was 15 and walking to school. a man pulled over to "ask for directions" all the while jerking off. i told nobody. when i was house sitting with a friend we went to bed only to be awakened in the wee hours of the night being fondled. i remember the message from that entire experience was that i was to keep quiet about it...these were members of our church...we wouldn't want to embarrass them. basically, the message was that i was not worthy of action being taken over being violated. i think i could just relate to the angst of the girl in the movie and to her eventual empowerment. in the end you have to find your own worth. you have to value yourself enough to know that you are worthy of action against your perpetrator.

i see how much these lesser transgressions against me impacted me and i think of those woman who have suffered more. especially those women in societies that totally restrict thier ability to have any voice.

my other 3 nights at work were fairly busy. i had a patient on sledd for 2 nights. that is a continuous dialysis, 24 hours/day, for patients too fragile to handle a regular dialysis run, which usually lasts 2-3 hours. that patient was only 28, they stopped his sledd on my day 3 and gave me a second patient. they were both a bit confused. the 2nd patient was a 36 year old with some sort of lesion on her mid brain causing all sorts of neurologic changes. so both patients were trying to get out of bed. i took a break at some point and the girl who was supposed to "keep an eye" on my patients didn't really...i came back to find the one dude almost out of bed with several lines pulled on/out. i suspect that is what caused my stress knots and thus my headache and subsequent migraine tonight. little me trying to keep a large 6'3" man from doing what he thinks he needs to do. they never mention wrestling in nursing school..but you do your share of it. he actually seemed to be a gentle giant kinda guy and i didn't get the impression he would hurt me....a few weeks back...well, that guy i thought would possibly deck me. that guy was a little guy. very hypoxic. i just kept trying to rationalize with a totally irrational person and call for help. eventually help shows up....eek! anyway...i had to put a new feeding tube in, check my central line, get xrays, wake up a radiologist and...it just takes some time and can be very stressful. this is why most icu nurses will tell you they love a sedated/paralyzed ventilated patient. i say if they are an orphan, even better. that is always the joke anyway. i must say the families of my patients were great this week.

i'm feeling better about the shamrock green. i got a coupon book from cost co with the same green colour and i have had the accent tile sitting on it...it's quite nice really.

the dogs....walks, walks and more walks. kelly and i got the dogs together thursday...there have been bear sightings and i saw bear tracks last week so i was happy to have someone else there. i guess a guy got tree'd saturday in the area..so those bears are out. lucky for him someone came along with dogs and they chased off the bear. moose sightings almost daily...it's that time of year in anchorage. the moose get hungrier and head into town to find what they can. we got another dump of snow so no spring thaw yet.

well...my headache is finally gone so i should head to bed...doubt the phone will ring at this time...if i was on call for the adult icu i would never be safe til after 6 am...but peds icu generally will try and make due in the wee hours rather than wake you up.

shamrock green...

i hope i was influenced by it being st patricks day. i've just ordered the tiles for the bathroom. the yellow i had wanted wasn't available anymore...procrastination! oops. so my cool tile seems to pop more with the green or the navy blue. i feared the blue may be too dark for the entire shower stall. so i went with the shamrock green. i hope it turns out good. this bathroom project could be too much. want to cut some costs so i will get the tub reglazed and all that and see if i can just put a new counter top on and paint the cabinets. guess i'll paint the walls a yellow color. the floor will be mostly the navy blue with a green tiled in "floormat" with the accent tiles put in that. will my vision turn into a dream or a nightmare? will whatever people buy the house after me one day be horrified or intrigued? they are on order. i guess at this point anything is better than a hole in the shower wall.

dont' think i mentioned the tracks i saw yesterday were bear tracks. no wild tracks today,but i was with other humans and dogs so probably not as focused on the world around me. turned out to be a lovely day. it took me a few hours at the tile place. i'm sure i drive them nuts despite the fact that i'm a pretty small job. i tend to do that. i know i worked my real estate agents for far more than they earned off of me. it took me at least 6 months to settle on this place. i have a little issue with commitment. hehe.

was a bit bummed today. across the street from the floor place is the dog wash. it's been a great place to take the dogs for self service dog wash. it's closed. they were always busy and just remodeled so it was really shocking that they up and closed like that. they turned away dogs for doggie day care as they were so busy. very odd. i called my friend quinton and chatted with him a bit...we both have used that place lots. he moved to wyoming. i hate when cool people move away. he was always just a good and dependable friend. we just got each other.

got this nasty canker sore. it's driving me nuts this week. those stupid things really hurt. keep trying to numb it, but it only sorta takes away the ache. such a bother.

from myspace...chatting....

some pictures i took today. the license plate...these are the coolest plates i've ever seen. these can be found in the northwest territory of canada and now also in nunivat of canada. they are in the shape of the polar bear and are pretty hard to come by. hard to even get vehicles up to those northern places.

below are my flowers in full bloom. very pretty. it may be winter outside,but it's spring inside!

these two pictures are from the hike today. the moose has a bit of the snow on her. she was just chilling. luckily, the wind was right and rio didn't notice her. blossom is only interested in me throwing the toy and could care less about moose...usually anyway.

blossom got lots of snowballs in her toes today, but chased that tennis ball for the entire trek. happiness is a little yellow ball!

i finally did watch schindlers list. thought they did a really good job on it. i especially loved that they took survivors past his grave. rewards don't always come in this life for good deeds. it does remind you that you touch people even when you aren't aware you are.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007
HAPPY HOWLOWEEN!!!! Current mood: contemplative
yes, another howloween has come and gone. it's been a busy week here...well not really, but busy for me. blossom turned 2 on saturday and she was made dog of the day on dogster that same day. i know for most that would seem silly, but that is a fun site and i figure there are worse places people waste time. at least there i connect with like people and actually help people from time to time. i knew something was up saturday when my yahoo mailbox had over 60 messages. well wishers from dogster sending gifts and pup pal requests. tonight we had agility class again. agility is fun, but the instructors in this class are way too serious. oh well. you'd think we were training our dogs for the agility olympics or something..but i guess everyone needs thier passion. mine is the dogs, but not agility per se. we had loads of trick or treaters stop by tonight, despite being gone for an hour for class. i think it was because it's unseasonably warm. it was rainy and windy this morning and i jsut wanted to lounge in bed and read. still reading that schindlers list. it's a bit depressing so i have to switche to something else before i really am trying to sleep so i don't have bad dreams. i just can't imagine so much hardship. it's like the world is full of serial killers and a crazy person like hitler allows them to live out their dream. like as soon as they could legally kill people all the closet serial killers rush out and readily start gunning people down. it's scarey that there are so many people in any society who are willing to kill each other if given the opportunity. i always think about pets too. no doubt many animals were heartlessly torn from familes and killed as well. these reigns of terror seem to recur in our world. they continue today...it's just so hard to imagine when we live in such relative peace. we are at war in afghanistan and iraq and yet so few of us really are personally touched by that. we can live our lives out daily with little thought of what goes on over there. i remember after watching that movie about daniel pearl just driving home and realizing what a blessing it is to live where people in general follow traffic laws. i mean people speed and all that, but in many of these countries, just trying to drive on the roads is a battle. our lives are orderly for the most part.
so anyway....another halloween passes and we are here awaiting our first real snowstorm. i have yet to get those tires changed over...oops. my life is simple, with simple problems that i have created myself. i am blessed and i'm grateful for all that i have been given and embarrassed sometimes at how little i have given back, how little i have accomplished with all i was given. not that i will beat myself up...just that i am human, with my own flaws and with a desire to do a little better each day. i always loved that saying "practice random acts of kindness and senseless beauty". sometimes being kind is the best gift we can give each other. a smile, a laugh, giving is a cheap and simple gift.

from myspace..kayak trek of harriman fjord

just a few pics from the harriman trek. we had great weather after the first day. of course, that made for scarey moments near glaciers. the black and white is after we were safely out of the water. you can see the wave that was created by a smaller calving. there was ice everywhere and the waves...it was totally frightening. we still talk about it all the time. overall it was a great trip. the beauty out there is astounding. you can never forget the power of water, no matter what form it comes in.

as for today....took the girls for our usual 4-5 mile stretch in far north bicentennial park. out in the back woods i began to notice tracks in the snow. they were probably from yesterday as they were partially covered with the fresh snow that was coming down. i tried to take a photo, but don't think it showed up at all. i know what i saw. we also ran into a moose. it was laying down in the snow so i wasn't too concerned. took a few pictures...just what i need, more moose pictures. now i'm just feeling lazy...

chatted with rudy for a bit. always a pleasure. he has been very sweet since my mom passed. i think we both just miss her. he sent me a pretty boquet of tulips and spring flowers the other day. they are in bloom now. just beautiful. also tried to call my friend martha. usually when she doesn't pick up it's because she isn't feeling well. well...guess i'll see what else is on the old myspace. i'm still mixed. it was fun on there that i could see how often the blog was checked out. with this one i can't tell and don't know how you would even search it out.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007
kayaking harriman fjord, prince william sound... Current mood: creative
there were 12 of us on this trek and so we had split up on the water taxi....i was so happy i was able to catch the second boat run out...i guess the first group got pretty beat up by the weather, it was calming by the time the second run got dropped off. we took this trip in 2004. i was really excited as my good friend kelly decided to join me in the double kayak. we had been walking pals since i arrived in anchorage. we met at work, she was my preceptor for orientation to the icu. soon after that trip she was leaving with her husband, jon, for school in minnesota. luckily they are back now, but it was a drag to lose one of my favorite people, even though i knew it was a great thing for her. so it was especially cool that we could have this time to hang out before they left. i think we had 4 double kayaks on that trip. me and kelly, scott and his dad, christine and deb were in the second boat and we got dropped at a beach right out of the fjord. all the stuff on the beach finally fit into the kayaks. the fiberglass kayaks have less room for stuff, but are lighter. they are horrible for prince william sound...just not as hardy as the plastics.
the waterfalls and wildlife are always spectacular in prince william sound. the usual bald eagles in flight and seals. we always are anticipating the first icebergs...the water was flat and calm that first day as we paddled. we were to meet the other half of our group under toboggan glacier...each night we slept with a different glacier. the other six on the trip were ted and nancy, stephani, bob and tanya and john...a strange friend of ted and nancy's. on the boat trip out the water taxi guy from lazy otter, mike, told us this guy is well known in the water taxi world, never on time, never at the place he's supposed to be. he wanted to make sure we controlled him so he didn't have to deal with his antics.
with so many people we kind of did our own thing in camp...set up, meals, but we always got together for the campfire. we did get a fire going despite the rain of the morning. we were rewarded as the next day the sun beating through the tent woke kelly and i up. it was sunny weather the rest of the week. our goal paddle for the day was to get to harriman glacier. i know many of us like to get up and out on the water as soon as possible. for me, that is the most fun part. being out there on the water. ted and nancy are more into the food, relaxation and inbidement. :-) kelly and i found our backpackers meals a poor choice when we saw what they brought and ate. they eat like royalty out there. there wasn't a cloud out there and the water was flat. amazing paddling day. i think we all started on our sunburns that day. even though you wear hats, the sun reflects off the water and your lips and face take it in the shorts when you aren't paying attention. we always stop for a refreshing lunch on a beach that may come or go very quickly with the tides and you always have to watch your boats to make sure they don't get swept away with the rising tides. harriman is still a tidewater glacier. harriman fjord is a popular tour boat destination so we have to deal with the wake of these boats coming and going and also we get photographed by the tourists which is always a funny thing to me. you become part of the alaskan scenery. it was a beautiful place to camp. few bugs and nice wood. of course, the warm, sunny weather doesn't ever hurt!! it does get pretty cold when the sun dips below the mountains...the fire helps.
the next day we crossed in front of harriman glacier...we got to crash into all the glacier ice...always a blast!! it feels great on a hot day too to be in all that icy water. we lingered in front of the glacier before heading off to our next camping destination...surprise glacier. i love to hug the shore and see all the life at the edge. the water can be so clear you can see all the tidewater treasures as you look over the edge of the boat. looking up you can see nesting birds and of course the birds and wildlife is everywhere you look.
by afternoon we headed to the face of surprise glacier. lots of calving due to the warm weather. the wind blows more as you get closer to the face of the glacier. there were several seals hauled out on the ice in front of surprise. we were not in any hurry at all.
we finally arrived in our digs and settled in. the sounds of calving echo'd through the fjord and the mosquito's introduced themselves. i can't stand bugs!! if i had secret information the best way to retrieve it would be to put me in a room of flying mosquito's...i'd spill in short order. luckily, i think everyone brought mosquito hoods...a staple in alaska.
by the next morning it was apparent our faces were fried. we looked like bandits on ice the next day as we had to sheild our faces from further damage. we had a long paddle planned for that day to blackstone beach. it's on the other side of the 3 glaciers that come into the other end of the fjord from harriman. i remembered them as "brian"'s "cascade"ing "cox". those were the three...now you know how my brain works. the ice got thicker as we neared these glaciers...several sunny days make for alot of glacial calving. we passed a most spectacular water fall heading into these glaciers and we had to find our way safely through the ice pack. many larger bergs were seen and those are unsafe and to be avoided. the wind picked up a bit as we crossed over the fjord. before that though we stopped for a great lunch and hairwashing on another beach that had some great little waterfalls. showers for hot campers...though not warm at all!!
here is where it got scarey...the beach we were to land on was covered with large chunks of ice. crazy john had gotten there before us all and we have no idea how he made it to shore. as people landed they tried to clear a path through the ice..the glacier was totaly calving and this was causing wave action where normally none really is. kelly and i and tanya were the last ones out in the water. as tanya approached the beach the glacier before us decided to calve off almost the entire face...this creats an almost tidal wave...the boys on the beach screamed at tanya to get out in the more open water for safety. all we could do was get as far away from the larger chunks of ice, face the kayaks forward and pray we weren't killed by the boat tipping or ice bergs taking us out. they can flip and take a small kayak with them. we were all terrified out there. the waves came towards us...the waves were so huge that we could no longer see those huge glaciers in front of us. after the waves from this began to hit the beach they started to come at us from the sides as well as the front. it was terrifying and we were still going to have to get to shore somehow...the glacier kept calving and in a moment where the waves were diminishing we all made a run for shore. the guys got beat up by the ice helping us in, but we did all make it in. i think i was shaking for several hours after this. it was amazing to watch the face calving later from a safer spot and the waves hitting the beach after these calvings were well over 10 feet. these huge calvings continues for several hours. we watched in amazement from the safety of this big rock. the taxi was scheduled to come the next day and i was pretty elated that i may not have to get back in the kayak. we really weren't sure if the taxi could get to us though with all the ice in the area. we'd have to wait and see. once the sun settled the calving calmed and it was a lovely day overall, despite feeling like my life was in danger for that time. a few mixed drinks on glacier ice did wonders to relieve our frayed nerves.
we had lots of visits by these adorable marmots. of course, we had another campfire in the evening. we celebrated solstice!!we took goofy pictures in the morning on the huge icebergs that were dropped off by the outgoing tide on the beach. we again had to attempt to clear a path to get our stuff down to meet the boat we hoped would be able to pick us up.
we saw mike from lazy otter off in the distance. he had to go very slowly through the ice and it seemed to take forever for him to get to us. he did though and we tried to load the boat as quickly as possible....not quick enough though as again the sun was out and the glacier had yet another huge calving. scott, bob and those who were left on the beach stood in front of the boat in the waves physically trying to keep the boat from getting grounded on the beach by the enormous waves that were forcing it in. with thier aide we were able to get back out on the water. it was sad leaving them behind on the beach. we heard they did make it out when mike returned, but he was in such a hurry to get them off that beach he backed that boat right onto a huge rock. i know it did some major damage to his boat and i'm sure he was downing a few beers that night. alaska is always an adventure and danger always is there. we take risks and most of the time we come out alive. each year though people die up here. it only takes one mistake in alaska to meet your end...we still must face the danger for the beauty is too great to be missed.

irish dancing and polar bears...

okay, so really those two things have nothing to do with each other. i was finally able to upload pictures again today...but only one at a time and it didn't always take. computers can be annoying, but today i didn't get annoyed, i just read the sunday paper while i waited. yes...a real newspaper! i still love to chill with an actual paper in the mornings. in the summers i take my paper on the back deck in the sun, in the winter i usually crawl back under the warm blankets and read til i fall back to sleep. winter can be a time of many naps. i go with the flow...summer light, stay awake, winter dark...sleep.

so these were just some of my favorite pictures of the bears. they are just so cute rolling around. i was obsessed by those huge feet. they left huge round prints in the snow. of course, i'd hate to have those claws coming at me. polar bears are the one bear that actually views humans as a potential food source. grizzly's will occasionally eat human, but they really don't see us as prey. we are a last resort. i suppose polar bears food sources are so limited that it's always last resort. was yakking with a seal biologist on st george island and he was telling about the time he was in the far north of alaska studying seals. he had a native guide with him and his crew and they had traveled by snowmachine (apparently in the lower 48 these are called snowmobiles). as they started working on a seal he noticed the native guide kept jumping on the snowmachine and looking all around. he asked why and the native guide told him they weren't the only ones looking for seal. after that, he said they all were looking around a bit more carefully. becoming polar bear feast sounds rather unpleasant.

this last polar bear is curiously checking us out on our tundra buggy. he's got his paws on the top of the tire. the tires were 5 feet tall.

as to the irish dancing. my friend tanya's daughter was going to be in this show. i figured it to be one of those little recital type things. how long could it take. they gave us a program and there was an intermission scheduled. i knew i was in trouble. how much irish dancing can a girl take. it's kinda cool, but probably more fun to dance than to watch. i'm sure the older girls were quite good. they were very focuses so it didn't seem that most of them were enjoying themselves all that much. plus they dance with these stiff arms. reminded me of the seinfeld episode where elaines co-worker didn't move her arms when she walked. i kept thinking of that episode as i sat there watching these girls dance with stiff arms. just seemed so bizarre to me. then the other oddity was that they all wear these silly curly wigs. it's part of the get up. my friends group of little kids was fun to watch. kids on a stage...you just never know what they will do. that is always entertaining. so the show was 3 hours long. i had planned to get home and make some phone calls. i was invited out to dinner. this was good, just a much longer evening than i had envisioned. pictures weren't allowed in the show as they feared loss of choreography. silly.

luckily, we taken the dogs for a nice walk. it was so pretty out today. we walked up at prospect heights trailhead. seems everyone in anchorage was out enjoying the nice day. all the trailheads i drove past were packed and the sledding hills had much activity. blossom and indy wrestled quite a bit.

mackey looks like he'll win the iditarod again. a few friends have flown up to be in nome for the end of the race. that actually sounds like a blast. one day....i have enough to plan for this summers trips. i'm excited though. road trip to deadhorse, another roadtrip across the denali highway with kelly and of course, a ferry ride from kodiak island out the aleutian chain to dutch harbor! i'll be broke, but it will be worth it.

i'm sleepy....

okay....so i think this proves that it is definitely blogger that is having issues with the photo downloads. i hope they get that fixed soon. i was able to get two pictures here, but i had to load them one at a time. then i tried a third and it didn't load up. i was getting meat ready for marinating...will make some lo mein tomorrow night for dinner. it's pretty fatty meat, but hey it was only 5 bucks. i get cheap about meat at times. i do love a good filet minot at a restaurant though. anyway....the other day i was thinking about the native craft sale at the dimond center. i skipped it to save bucks but these are examples of some of the native crafts i've purchased. the above basket is probably out of the aleutians. they tend to weave grass baskets. these can get very tiny and intricate. the craftmanship is amazing. they can be less than 2 inches tall, but take time to make and can get a bit pricey. the natives to the north often will make baskets from the baleen of the whale. i love that they use all that they can of the animal they kill. the baleen is probably a more involved process and those baskets are spectacular and expensive...! hopefully, one day i'll have a nice example of one of those. in southeast baskets were often made from birch.

the natives also craft much from ivory. above is one of my favorite pieces. i just loved the look of this walrus. i tend to look for walrus or polar bears. i don't have many pieces, but they are really pretty. anyway....perhaps i'll try to load a few more pictures tomorrow. i have the next 5 days off. i think tanya wants to ski tomorrow and her daughter has an irish dance show...we'll see if that is still the plan.

another day at the dog park

trying to post some pictures for this blog for days. for some reason it keeps saying i'm not connected to the internet even though i am. it's quite frustrating. the blog is much more fun with the pictures i think. it may be an issue with blogger and the connection. i just posted the pictures i'd tried to post here to my facebook without any issue so...i wish i was more of a computer expert!

oh well...sorry. i really think it's the blogger website. i'm quite sleepy today. just finished 3 nights. peds was crazy, but i had sweet assignments both nights. i had one cute baby the past 2 nights. she has rsv...a typical winter ailment for babies.

decadant....i bought ben and jerry's chocolate macadamia at the store today. i love macadamia nuts covered with chocolate or fudge...not sure i like the crunch of nuts in ice cream though. tasty though..can't complain. shopping when sleepy can be problematic.

well, one dog perished in the iditarod within a few days. always makes me sad. i'm always a bit mixed on the race. those dogs do love to run and will literally run til they die, but i feel like everything should be done to try and ensure thier safety. i guess my latest feeling is that the mushers should be required to stay awake as long as they are in motion . i guess this is not always the case...i know it's a distance race and they probably get goofy from lack of sleep, but just seems prudent as a safety issue for the dogs. i guess the leader fell asleep the other day and ended up quite lost... he was able to get turned around once he backtracked and was still in lead. mackey looks like he will win again for year 3. i'd love to have an iditarod adventure. it's really a pricey endeavor and would take years of training a team. don't see that happening. just seems like an awesome way to cover this great land of alaska. dogs and amazing scenery. the stories from the trail are just so fun to read about. overall, there are over 1000 dogs running and so i guess it shouldn't be too surprising that each year there will be loss. it does get animal rights activists up in arms...and this could cut corporate sponsership and end the great race one day. i think they do try and make it as good for the dogs as possible, there is always risk to the animal and human athletes, just seems the dogs are the ones that really get the brunt. seems like any solutions should be entertained. a discussion at work got a bit heated last night. of course, this particular co-worker tends to get heated at strange times over odd things. she was in a bit of an argumentive mood last night. so the topic came up and i mentioned making a rule of no sleep on the sled while in motion and she didn't think it would make any difference and so what if a dead dog gets dragged down a trail cause a guy is sleeping, it's dead anyway. wow! wasn't expecting that. i mean i know it's true in some sense, but i would be horrified to see a dead dog dragged down a trail while the musher sleeps unaware. that seems like it should be the normal reaction. anyway...she then decided that this was the same as the local military doing training in thier lands that abutt anchorage and that when this happens moose move into anchorage and are at greater risk of getting killed in traffic encounters. i'm still not seeing how those two things are the same at all...eventually, i just turned away from this convoluted and silly discussion as i knew there would be no positive outcome. some people don't discuss, they just get pissed. better to jsut back off. so for me, overall i'm still a fan of the iditarod but i'm always a bit anxious for the dogs and sad when a dog passes. on a good note...they did find the one dog that took off and he is safe. kinda amazing that they can find a white dog out there, but happily they did.

just put in my movie for the evening. subtitles so i probably should pay some attention. it's called, "priceless" with audrey tautou.

okay...so it's later, the movie has ended. pretty good. i like audrey tautou flicks. in this one she is trying to seduce wealthy older men for security purposes and ends up falling for a common dude. ah...romance!

the weather today was amazing. when the sun was shining down you could even feel warmth. took the girls for a few laps around the dog park. always a favorite hang out for the dogs. i've been going so long that i know many of the regulars. there are some nice folks out there at the ol dog park. dog people...them's my kind of folk.

spring in alaska...groomed ski trails at thier best!

obviously, the %$#^& web page is encountering issues. i do hope my writing comes through. i've tried loading photo's twice and nothing came through....grr. computers are great, but can also be quite infuriating when they are slow or just quit on you. i was trying to put some polar bears pictures on here. they were from our first day out viewing. we got amazing bear action that day. you could just see bears in any direction you looked and that day they were hanging around "the mother ship" as we referred to it. we were elevated well off the ground in human "cages". a strange feeling really. the bears just romped and play fought with each other for hours and hours. it was quite entertaining. if a bear got sleepy it would just lay back for a nap, but eventually one of the other bears would just come wake it up for another romp. since polar bears are generally pretty solitary animals it's cool to get so much activity. the biologists said they were bored and building thier strength waiting for the ice to come in so they could go hunt for food. they dug for sea kelp and munched on that from time to time. what made me thing of the polar bears...was watching a show on national geo i think about that strange polar bear/grizzley hybrid that was killed on a polar bear hunt. it was very interesting as the hunter that went out with the native guide was potentially in trouble as his tag was for a polar bear, and the bear wasn't quite polar bear it was both. the biologists and the taxidermist were very perplexed as things didn't add up for either polar or grizz. i had to go to work so i missed the rest of the show. perhaps i'll run into it again. strange that such a thing could happen in the wild and makes one wonder if this is one way polar bears will survive the warming of the earth....isn't that what survival of the fittest is, morphing into something with more ability to withstand the ever changing environment.

discussed with one of the intensivists my thoughts on humans being the only species who as we become more evolved we have begun to practice survival of the least fit. i see this in medicine. healthy children are dying in third world nations of preventable disease while extremely unhealthy individuals are treated in every possible way to survive in an environment they have no capability to survive. what will become of the human species? will we evolve ourselves out?

work kept us busy dealing with those least likely to survive as their coping skills are lacking. is this another result of our evolving in some ways more rapidly than others...i suspect our emotions have not evolved to the degree that our society has and this causes all the mental health and addiction issues. another of my many life theories i've come to believe. cavemen had to spend thier lives hunting, gathering, keeping warm, finding water....even in non=industrialized nations much of the time of those people are spent still with basic needs such as food, water and shelter. in our lives those things are basically supplied. we go to the store and buy what we need. we live in warm houses, safe from wildlife and though not always sheltered from the worst of storms...our basic needs are taken care of...that leaves us with time to ask the questions of life, to ponder, to worry, to fret...

i'm just saying do they have people who are anorexic in the war torn parts of africa? i don't know...i just think there is more mental health issues here...or in europe.

so work was alcoholics for me. two patients under 60 who have totalled thier bodies with the stuff. i do like a nice glass of wine from time to time, but it's so hard to understand why people don't leave those partying days behind at some point. it's such a waste of all that we have to experience on this earth. one guy was totally yellow, even his tears, from liver failure...the other guy's electrolytes and sugars were all off as he's incapable of taking care of his diabetes...he was in withdrawls a bit..peed all over his bed and even made a puddle in the middle of the room...still not sure how he did that..he denied it of course, to which i started looking for the loose puppy in the room. i'm sure he didn't appreciate my humor. my last night was nice, regular peds. had both teens from the car wreck. improving...it was a pretty kick back night, just lots of meds.

oprah was about med errors. my job requires me to be 100% perfect 100% of the time and i'm human so that isn't possible...so you can imagine that work can be a bit terrifying at times...when will you mess up? you know you'll make mistakes, you just learn to hope that they aren't the ones that do permanent damage. shows like oprah seem to perpetuate the dilusion that if you put enough checks and balances in or enough expensive computer programs in mistakes can be eliminated...they don't realize that in many ways those things just increase error possibilities as they take added time and nurses already are taxed for time. people do need to be more involved in thier own care, ask the questions, be advocates for people they love..though that gets annoying as well. when i have a very complicated patient with alot of drips i just tell them that i'm not meaning to be rude, but that i will answer questions later...it can take several hours to really get on top of a complicated patient. i have to be systematic in my approach and people asking a zillion questions just makes the possibility of me screwing up greater.

weather has been chilly in the am,but warms up into the 20's and even 30's through the day. have enjoyed several great walks. met up with gail and tanya today for some loops in n. bivouac and with kelly and tanya on monday for the big bivouac walk. i was very sleepy on that one. one moose today, tanya's puppy has decided to run towards moose and bark. a really bad idea and one i hope tanya tries to correct. it can be dangerous for us all, and indie could easily get hurt.

this evening i slipped out for a short ski...my house is 5 minutes from groomed trails and i wanted to check out my new classic ski boots. they had been giving me issues and so i took them to rei...i guess it's been like 5 years since i bought them....they still took them back! it was awesome. i felt a bit like i was ripping them off. they just have never fit right. anyway, with my refund i bought new boots on sale, new bindings and had the new bindings put on...all at a cost of $16 bucks. i will have to get out there more and enjoy these great trails anchorage has for the next month or so of winter we have left.

sunday i slept all day and monday i was totally sleepy as well. 3 hours wasn't enough. i got a bit of a headache and have loads of knots in my upper back, shoulders and blades...ouch! i need a massage. i watched "the savages" last night with phillip seymour hoffman. i actually quite liked it. quirky characters and a bit of a sad story line, but well done.

we had our winter fur rondy these past few weeks. i skipped most of the activities..i'll have to plan better next year. i generally go to the dimond mall where they have a native craft sale. it's a great place to go as many of the natives come in from thier villages and it's fun to watch them making the baskets and to talk with them about thier lives/crafts. you can also get some deals as they are getting low on cash about this time of year...end of winter. i really had no extra cash to spend so i decided i'd best stay away from those cool little crafts. my favorites are the baleen baskets and tiny grass baskets and the ivory peices are always cool. i also like when they do scrimshaw on the baleen and make boats and stuff with it. baleen are what whales use to filter feed.

i also missed the iditarod start. i really should take those as vacation days next year and just really enjoy it. though, apparently a dog died already today. at least one dog has died in every iditarod. the deaths have lessened, but they still happen. i love the race, but am always torn by the loss of life. i know they are doing what they love, but it's just hard to know they are risking thier lives for our entertainment, really. it's so awesome to watch those dogs run though.

it's late and i'm sleepy so off i go to bed. may try a third time to put some polar bear shots on here...wish me luck.

just another day in the snow...

this is one of two moose from today. the first showed up this morning when i let the dogs out for thier morning romp in the yard. she was just beyond the back fence. i brought blossom back in so the poor moose could use the trail easement without being pestered. this moose took blossom a few to notice and we weren't downwind so rio didn't pick up on it either...yet. she was in the bog by the house. most encounters are just pleasant. i have had other not so pleasant encounters where you turn a corner and next thing you know some ticked off moose is bearing down on you. that is alot of animal to have running at you. luckily, most wild animals seem to prefer to not attack humans. just a waste of thier energy. i also had a moose dream after the first encounter. all my family was here and for some reason i had a baby moose in the yard i was caring for. my eldest brother left the gate open and the moose got out so we had to round it back up and put it back in the yard. i often get back in bed after the first dog feed/yard walk. they are used to eating at 8 am...the time i get home from work. i'm not really happy with the 8 am thing, but i do understand what it feels like to be hungry. i can get cranky...they don't get cranky, but blossom does give me the stare and whine in the am.

so i often try to get pictures of blossom doing her frisbee catching thing. it's tough to throw the frisbee, grab the camera and focus in on a shot...so subsequently, i'm happy for the digital delete abilities. a few today didn't come out too badly. i'd love to get video. the dog really can leap. her back legs spread out as she reaches out for the frisbee. quite impressive. people often comment.

between throws rio seemed to need a photo moment. this is part of the park loop near my place. this is a big grassy field in the summer...well it can be a bit boggy, mosquito's, ducks and pooling water. this place is best in the winter. rio wore her horse coat today. it was the first coat i made for her. she seems to appreciate it on cold days.

after i settled rio into her nap i took blossom out for some skijoring. this is her harness and she is supposed to pull me on my ski's. i just took the regular cross country skies today. i've decided the boots are too small, will have to try and fix that issue. i'm just not talented enough yet at the skate skiing for skijoring yet. having blossom on the harness with the bouncy rope can be a bit frustrating. she doesn't get the pull thing for the most part and enjoys sniffing and visiting others who happen by on the trail. this is one of the main multiuse trails in town. these are lit up whenever it's dark and groomed for everyones pleasure. today there were walkers, joggers, bikers (they have big tires, spiked at times and down hand thingees on the handlebars) there were also lots of skiers, skate and regular and skijorers. it can be quite crazy out there...

i think she looks rather adorable with her harness on...of course, she is supposed to be facing the other way. you train the dog to heel and then ask them to pull...it's a bit confusing. so i burned a few calories today, but otherwise i must say it was a pretty lazy day.

was out for quite awhile yesterday as well. lots of snow this week. not in inches, but it's always fun to be out in the snow. i went to rovers run and partway through the trail i started getting calls from my friend kelly and we tried to make plans to meet up on the trail..that can be tough as the phone calls kept cutting off. i had almost finished one loop when we finally caught up with each other...the call before the last i thought she said "go on the groomed trail towards the bridge" i guess there was a "don't" before that that didn't come through. she figured out that i must be several hundred feet in front of her walking in the same direction and gave another call. so cell phones are great, but they can be limiting at times. all was well and we got a good laugh out of it all. so we did another loop. saw a moose on the second loop. rio didn't notice it til we passed...wind and smell thing. i was short a layer and spent the afternoon trying to reheat.

on the second loop we also ran into an older lady that i have chatted with on these trails since arriving in anchorage in 2001. embarrassed to say that i still don't know her name. she is really nice and kinda a hero of mine. she has got to be close to 70 or over 70 but she is totally fit. she was out skate skiing yesterday. i guess she had to put her giant schnauzer to sleep, epilepsy, and she's thinking she wants a labradoodle like blossom. i put my name and number on her car, but i think i finally cleaned the bulletin board over my desk and tossed the paper with blossoms breeders name. i found her original contract thing and called the number there, but it was a recorded message all jesus'y. very strange. not sure if that was him and he became born again or if the number has changed. it freaked me out so i just hung up.

must tell a great rio tale. was chatting with my friend sandra about the days plans. my recycling is all sorted and i loaded it up...she was impressed that i sorted it all and took labels off cans and all that. the element was packed as it's been well over a month since i went to the center....i put the dogs in for the monday walk and then thought i had time to go the auto car wash...it hasn't been washed since fall. anyway...that was really nuts. we get into the auto cleaner and the water is spraying the car and rio is trying to chase the sound all over the car...the recycling went everywhere...all my sorting was for not. all i could do was laugh. stupid dog...luckily i was early for the monday walk and andrea was late so i was able to let them out and clean up the mess in the car.

watched my netflix flick last night..."the waitress" it was strange, okay, not one i'd watch again, but not like i felt like i wasted my time either. guess i'll go read for a bit. i'm sleepy...back to work tomorrow night.