a blustery day in the far north...

tossed in another swan picture from ketchikan. i just find swans to be beautiful and graceful birds. i'm no birder, but i still enjoy birds. eagles, swans, herons, chickadee's, puffins. the variety is pretty amazing.

the wind was gusting and the rain coming down off and on this morning when i walked the dogs in the bog. later i met up with my friend gail and we did a loop in kincaid park from the jodphur trailhead. i was a little worried on such a blustery day like today that the moose would be problematic, but it had cleared some over on that side of town and we never saw any moose anyway. blossom had fun playing with the tennis ball. gails dog, duke, is a crazy lab. sweet and a bit older now so he couldn't quite keep up with blossom on the ball chasing. above is blossom in a tiny puddle of water. she will lay down in any amount of water. turned out to be a lovely walk.

took this picture earlier to show the snow headed our way. our termination dust is a bit thicker this morning. we'll see if it sticks. may not. friends up north driving on the road in denali national park had great views on their drive in, but apparently woke to several inches of snowfall. at the end of the season there is a lottery for the road. usually you can only take the road in by bus, but on this weekend they allow the lottery winners to take the drive. i think they let in maybe 300 cars per day. it's over 4 days and you get selected for one of those days. in the past the lottery entrance was free. i used to put in myself and send off one for the dogs and cats as well. now it's $10/entry.

later on in the day, when i came outside to head to the gym...the sun had come out on these tree's below. thought it looked kinda pretty with the dark clouds and snow covered mountains behind. strange how the sun was just highlighting those trees.

the gym was okay. i was working on my breathing. i used the board as suggested by a co-worker to practice putting my head under and turning to the side to take breathes. i still bite, but i did a few laps with a more correct breathing pattern. it still sucks up my nose and i get all freaked out. it's a process. gotta start somewhere.

here is my vanity plate. drove to the gym with it on...worried that someone would misread it and think i'm in love with the dogs...they are just pets. i do love them, but i know they are dogs. i'm cool with dogluv, guess i'll get used to having them on the car and not thinking about what other roadies are reading into it soon enough. i like the new 50th anniversary plates though. not sure how long they'll offer those. alaska became the 49th state 50 years ago.

i'd heard the vanity plates were only $30/year so when i went to do the registration i thought i'd check it out. blosom wasn't available so i tried a few idea's...dogluv was so what the hell i figured. i could never remember the license number that came with the car.

just put in season one of "northern exposure". i like the show despite the obvious error's and the fact that it's filmed someplace other than alaska. the town is made up and is too big looking for the size the show makes this town to be. the tree's are way too pretty for alaska...most of our pine trees are scrawny suckers.

chatted with my sister and saw my brother jeff left a message...they are talking about coming out here for thanksgiving. sounds great, but i'm not sure they will really want to be here in our coldest, darkest days. hard to sight see with just 6-7 hours of light. i'll call him...i got to see if i can get it off anyway. i do get one of the big holidays off so that may be a good possibility. would be fun to have a thanksgiving with family in alaska. that's never happened before...i'd have to clean, that's for sure. haha!!