late night meanderings

since i've decided at this late hour to post i'll do a rare dinner sighting. my friend maureen offered up some king salmon. tis gold indeed. so after i swam my laps at the pool i headed off to meet her at rei for some fresh king. king and silver are the best in my opinion. so truely a treat. i broiled it with my favorte and very simple recipe. butter, brown sugar and lemon juice with a light salt and peppering. so above is before broil and after below.

it was rather tasty. i'm sleepy, but my movie selection of the night got me back out of bed. i did work last night, but had one pediatric'ish patient in the icu. i transferred him to the floor at 6:30 and went home a few minutes early.

my early arrival home confused poor blossom. i don't think she was quite awake enough for her breakfast and all that, but she finally obliged. i slept a few hours and then woke up as i had to get the house cleaner for the appraisers visit. that lasted all of 15 minutes. seems a short time for the impact it could have, but they do assure me now they take the information back to the office and do the complete work up.
took the pups to the bog and then around the neighborhoods and down patterson. blossom hasn't been as high energy as i expected so i hope she's not feeling ill. she almost seems bummed about all the rain. she looks sadly out the back door and then just turns back inside. i fear she wouldn't do well in ketchikan.

mushrooms are coming up everywhere and since i just bought this cool pocket guide i may have to try and identify a few. of course i'm having difficulty finding the above one in my book. not to worry, i won't eat any mushrooms based on my poor identifying skills. i had some shaggy manes in my front yard, which are supposed to be decent eating, but they shrivel up quickly and i missed my chance at a picture. there will be more no doubt.

the day before i headed to campbell creek trailhead for a walk on real trails. we seem to be walking in the bog and streets with all the rain and i do notice blossom perks up when she's on a real trail. harder to find people to join me in inclement weather and with the bear activity so high i get a bit chicken.

rio did spot these horses and tried her dangest to say hello as we passed by them. there were six of them.

loved how the rain had collected in this mushroom. could be a blewit or poisonous paxillus...wow i bite at identifying these.

this one is for sure a fly agaric. it's poisonous. the more dramatic and beautiful a thing is the more one should fear it....could be the same with humans.

i passed rovers run. was happy to see they actually put a picture of the bears spotted there to encourage folks to avoid the trail. they also put up gating but hadn't shut it. our current mayor is an idiot. just my opinion, but seems like every decision he makes pisses me off. he should just let those who have run fish and game for years do thier job and not politcize everything.

as you can see the salmon are still running up the creek.

i'm getting tired so i won't even try to id these guys.

cheney lake from the other day.

blossom helps me show off my lettuce. oh by the way. i'm all back fenced in. good to have that overwith. my neighbor has a new gate as well. looks nice. my yard looks like a jungle...i fear the chickweed has won this year.

new poem....

-

oh that is lost,

in love,

all forgotten of,

the simple touch,

gone the days,

of yearning,

tis why,

we flounder much,

tis sweet,

to read,

a well thought note,

or sneak,

a simple kiss,

an hour spent,

in tortured bliss,

has all been,

left behind,

oh what is,

romance,

in this new world,

for all the lust,

our hearts remain,

unfilled.

-

just watched "bright star". a movie about john keats, the poet. it's based on love notes he wrote with fannie before he died at a young age. would be nice to just write poetry all day, of course, he died thinking himself a failure. can't be a failure though if you follow your dreams.

it made me think of romance and how in days past so often couples were very restricted in thier ability to show any affection and thus they had to sneak in a moment here and there. how now, people know each other a few days or a few weeks and give away the most precious parts of themselves. people spent hours agonizing over how to express themselves. love had a chance to mature more. people got to know one another. it's all bass-akwards as they say now.

i am tired so i shall part....the rain is falling, drip, drop, drip,drop...

tiny life....

tiny life,
weep we will,
for now your heart,
is still.
-
tiny life,
pain we feel,
all our efforts,
but we cannot heal.
-
tiny life,
empty arms,
your mother cries,
we silence alarms.
-
tiny life,
we had no choice,
we wanted to stop,
but silence was our voice.
-
tiny life,
you no longer cry,
but you'll be heard,
til all tears run dry.
-
-
can't sleep...combination of the death of the little baby last night and that horrid "jesus camp" movie i watched. so i wrote a poem...it always worked in the past as a way to clean out my head. good night...

hopes everyone likes sandhill cranes....

nope...i didn't take the above picture. fish and game did. they have heat sensing cameras set up on rovers run. i've been on this trail many times. they caught this picture of a mama bear and her 3 two year old cubs this summer. i thought it was a great shot and pretty impressive. can you imagine coming down the trail and running into this group. this trail is less than a 5 min drive from my home. does give you pause.

back to my pictures for a bit. there are mushrooms coming up all over. they tend to start in the late summer to early fall. definitely a sign that summer will soon be coming to an end. kinda funny saying that when it is still july. we have had quite a bit of rain this past month of so. lots of folks complaining. rain is part of alaskan summers. some years you get more, some less. this is working out to a more rain kinda summer.

i ended up working 5 nights this "weekend". the calls started early monday morning. sledd on a baby. the renal doc seems to think i know what i'm doing. he was very happy that i showed up to run the sledd. i had back up as it was a very sick kid and they'd gone through 4 filters on days. the thing clotted off minutes after i arrived. things went sour after that. i was home by 2am. very sad....always sad when a baby dies. we'd also lost a young mother in the adult icu this week so a emotional week for all. i ended up working all three of the icu units in the hospital this week. i worked the adult icu thurs-fri-sat then off to the nicu to take care of 3 "feeder/growers" then the overtime night in pediatric icu. i guess that makes me versatile...or insane. hmm...will have to ponder that.

got a special treat today as i walked the dogs in the baxter bog by my home. i heard a strange bird call and when i looked around i saw this pair of sandhill cranes. i've never seen them in the bog here so it was pretty exciting. not that i'm any sort of official birder, but i do enjoy birds. i've always really liked cranes and herons. love all those long, tall delicate birds. very cool. the call was very cool and it resonated through the bog. i've got video but i have no idea how to make that smaller so that i can load it. any tips?

i took tons of pictures of the cranes today. they must be a mating pair and they were quite flamboyant out there. squawking and calling and jumping all about. the above bird kept picking up this stick and tossing it all over.

here the one bird is chasing ducks around this large puddle. at first i thought the stick was a fish...but no.

loved watching them dance about. it was a great gift after a stressful night. we had a really good crew on last night and that always helps. the baby was staffed pretty much 4 nurses:1 baby. sometimes there just isn't much you can do.

my night in the nicu was the best i've ever had down there. they opened what they call "the annex". the place has an actual window or two in it. the main nicu here has no windows and it's just so stiffling. i think i feel claustrophobic in there. it was just me and a nice nurse so we took care of our 6 babies and chatted all night.

had another head injury lady in the adult icu. she was super wild and i got kicked a few times to the side of the head the first night. nothing to solid got me, but i don't like getting kicked. she was less nuts by my third night with her. i also had a very sweet older lady. the goal is really just to get her well enough to go home where she will have some time with family. her husband is sweet and there was a cute picture of them together as young adults. she wrote me the saddest note....it just said "give up". it was the only thing she wrote all night. just broke my heart. it's rare that i have the same 2 patients 3 nights in a row down there in the adult unit so it was pleasant to be able to do that...

i stopped by monday night when i was taking the dialysis machine back to the adult unit and was happy to see they had been able to extubate the little old gal. her husband was very happy to see me and we chatted for a minute. it's so great when we can get people home for thier final days.

these birds were really dancing. hope you aren't bored with cranes yet...

got to the gym today and amazingly i had the lane to myself the entire time i was there. got in 72 lengths. so a good day really. the condo place is re-doing all of thier fences. not sure, but it still looks like they plan on closing themselves in. will mean more moose sightings on my street i'd guess...maybe bears as well as they no doubt have been using the corridor behind the house. i have no gate on my back fence so for now it's open. hopefully, it gets closed back up quickly. my neighbor called and the fence folks will finish off her front fence with my gate so all is well that ends well. the best part is that really the condo place, unbeknownst to them is pretty much paying for our fence jobs as he's just throwing it in and charging us each a small fee. kharma can come quickly sometimes.

this is how i'll feel when this re-finance crap is over. it's just a process and it's a bother. will be good in the end i know. i'm currently paying 6.2% and i'm locked in at 4.7%. i always find these big changes stressful. i just feel so clueless and so it's stressful just not knowing if you are really getting ripped off. i feel like that whenever i buy a car as well. i mean everyone always thinks they get a deal with these things, but the truth is we all get ripped off and manipulated into believing we got the great deal. i'm too jaded to believe we really do, but i know in the end a lower interest rate will benefit me so off i go....

i was very excited about the cranes, luckily i'd taken my big camera. luckily it was kinda sunny out. i called my friend tanya as i knew she'd be excited about the birds as well. she's not a birder either...not that there is anything wrong with that. we just like nature in general. we were all in st paul and as soon as we got off the little plane from st george (the one we chartered by the way) we were asked, "are you birders". it was my first introduction to birders and i'll tell you...when we said we weren't birders those folks just got cold to us. apparently it's not good enough to have seen, photographed and appreciated the various bird species we were required to keep lists of those seen and recognize them by thier calls and such.

isn't he pretty!!

while i was walking the birds flew over me and moved to where i could admire them again. so the pictures below are actually taken in the first spot i'd see them. first i heard them and they there they were. of course, this first spot also was home to a great many mosquito's and i have several fresh bites to prove it .

thought several pictures turned out real nice. hopefully, now that i know how to download the pictures so that they are easier to load i can try my hand at a few contests.

since it was raining and i was working several of my days walks were either, bog or patterson road or both.

obviously...the bog

the girls in the bog and an especially rainy day.

my lillies are now blooming like crazy in the front yard. sadly, my chickweed is also out of control. a few days of rain prevents you from keeping up with the mowing. i really have to mow a few times per week as things grow so fast. on the plus side, winter is coming and it will all go away anyway. right?

lillies are my favorites....though those ladies slippers look pretty cool too. i'll have to try and hit hte aleutians at the right time to catch a few of those.

had a treat coming home from work the other morning. a mama and calf were cruising down patterson road. i got this lousy picture from the car as i was driving past. they were a bit spooked being so close to the road and the traffic, but you get the idea.

i also had another wonderful surprise. my moms widow, rudy, occasionally sends me flowers out of the blue. he's done this since my mom passed away. it's very sweet. it was especially sweet this week as i was totally thinking it was my nastygram about the gate from the condo association that i've been expecting. so it was a great and happy surprise to find that not only was it not the nastygram...it was beautiful flowers.

we had a few sightings of blossoms new friend the labradoole of patterson street. she is really a cutie.

more stolen pictures...okay borrowed. my friend gail hiked the chilkoot trail with me a few years back and she went with another group of co-workers this week past. when we went we had fog coming up the summit so i asked her to take pictures for me so i could see what i went up. we generally just had 30-40 foot visibility. it was a perk in a way as you couldn't see how far you had to go or how far you could fall. you simply looked for the next orange stick and headed toward it. so no perspective. she could see much more on this trip so i put in a few of her pictures..she's cool with it.

the first two pictures are from after the summit on the canadian side. we just didn't have the views like this...it really is quite beautiful.

this is the boulder climbing/crawling up the last section called "the stairs". called the stairs as the original gold rushers climbed often in the snow and there was a series of steps kicked into the snow that formed stairs. when you get to the top of those rocks that isn't really the top of the summit, but a false summit. there are a few more after that. you can see everyone appears to be crawling as it's so steep in that area and the rocks are loose.

this is looking down at the trail heading up towards the pass and summit. you can only really see a small section that is actual trail, the rest is bouldering and snow feilds.

lastly, looking down from that first false summit you can get a feel of the pitch of the mountain. i don't really like heights so i'm kinda happy i couldn't see this. it sounds like they had a good trip, without incident, which is always good and they had decent weather.

a few other co-workers and friends are headed up the trail this week so i'll get to hear more stories. it's a popular destination. it's a 16 hour drive to skagway from anchorage and then the trail is 33 miles long. you catch a train back. at the summit you enter canada's yukon territory.

the movie of the night is "jesus camp". it's a documentary about a fundmental christian summer camp. it's a little scarey actually and i've had to shut it down. it's like they are using the muslims as example...the muslims start training thier kids at age 5 according to these folks and they thing our kids should be trained as our own warriers of christ. i've read the bible and i really don't see jesus as the sort to approve of the message these folks teach. to see children spewing out such crap is so sad....

i'm sure we all are brainwashed to some degree as children, but this level of cultish behaviour is frightening.

always strange too that they use the name of god to destroy the earth. the people in this camp feel that god gave us the earth to use and that since god is returning soon there is no reason to conserve anything.

so a long week at work, with highs and lows. rain and more rain, with some blue skies, cool wildlife sightings. life can be tough but it's good.

old poem...

don't let me die in winter,

body buried under snow,

it'll make my frail bones crack,

simply a lousy time to go,

please lay me down in summer,

layed out on a sunny hill,

my bones will warm my cold, dead soul,

and bring life back to me,

in summertime the weathers fine,

for all to come and cry,

upon my grave the flowers lie,

a perfect time to die.

-

though truth be told i'd rather be cremated and scattered out to sea, like in prince william sound or off on a trail where my feet have often hit the ground. hey that all rhythms too!!

new poem...

-

there are those,

whose life,

is cut short,

who will not partake,

of the joys and highs,

but they will also miss,

the sorrows and pains,

it's not for us,

to comprehend,

the reasons,

for thier early end,

we should however,

find some way,

to live a little more each day,

knowing the gift

of another day spent,

may help our hearts to mend.

-

peace to the family of the little girl who made an early run to heaven last night, may they have comfort in this time of pain. she suffered much in her short time on earth, but she suffers no more.

eagle lake trail back to the trail

woke to a beautiful day. of course, it was cloudy at times, but i think the clouds just made it more beautiful. these pictures are all loaded backwards...as usual for me. i can't seem to comprehend this whole loading thing. it's the same as backing up a car with a trailer. i just could never go in reverse. the pictures are loading much quicker. i had originally thought i'd watch just part of my netflix movie. honestly, i feared it would be too scary and i'd shut it down. in the end i quite enjoyed it so i just kept loading. of course, that means it is once again almost 2 am. the movie, by the way, was "the exorcism of emily rose". i love movies that delve into religion. this one is based on a true story. a girl presumed to be possessed and the priest who attempted an exorcism on her. she died several days later and he was put on trial for her death. he was convicted. the family supported him and believed as well that emily was possessed. she had a vision before she died whereby she claimed to have been given the choice to go to heaven and be free of the demons or to carry on in misery for the benefit of christiandom. she had the marks of the stigmata, which would make her a saint eventually.
the above picture was a parting photo from todays walk. found out that my friend maureens scheduled walk fell through. so i asked if she wanted to walk with me. we walked out to eagle lake. probably a good 12 miles round trip. before that i had walked rio and blossom a few miles so that i could settle rio in and leave her here. i knew 12 miles would be too much for her. the picture above shows another off shoot trail from the one we did today. it's called the hanging valley trail. looks cool. supposed to be a small lake in the back of that one.

this is one final shot looking back towards where the edge of the valley and the lake are. occasionally we had sunshine and breezes. it was a lovely day. not one drop of rain fell on us.

even managed a swim on top of it all. ended up only doing 20 laps. i was tired and few joints were sore..namely my usual right hip and left knee. oh well...i was also late getting there. we didn't leave anchorage for the trailhead until after 1pm. i was home by 8pm, but still had to feed the dogs and get a bite to eat. the jacuzzi felt wonderful afterwards.

blossom seems to be doing well so we took off on this walk. she was tormented by these ground squirrels. she can hear them and see them, but those things disappear rapidly if she got anywhere near them. below she looks baffled again. poor blossom.

there is a smaller lake/pond right before you really enter the moraine...a fancy word for alot of rocks. the moraine is what is left behind when a glacier retreats. this whole valley was carved out my glaciers. kinda funny to see the first part of the trail and realize that it was once just covered with the same boulder fields. now you can see remnant boulders, but the earth has covered it over and plants have filled it in.

the glacial silt leaves the water this beautiful colour of blue. it always amazes me. we were wondering today how long it takes for the silt to be absorbed into the earth and for this colour to leave the lakes/ponds. i called the above pond mini me as it's attached to the big eagle lake by a small creek.

blossom rests after bouldering. i've had other dogs that wouldn't or couldn't really walk on the boulders. i always fear for thier pads. blossom actually did quite well and maureen and i finally figured out that if we followed her she would lead us through the boulders on the best path available. listen to the still small voice...even if it belongs to a dog.
some young men cruised past us in the boulder field en route to a fishing hole. obviously a place they frequent as they just booked it. we didn't get all the way out to the symphony lakes, that would be better as an overnight. though, i really don't think i'd want to do all that bouldering with a bigger backpack. there were boulders for as far as we could see and each time we reached the top of the boulder field, there was more.

this is the creek leading to mini me lake.

this is part of hte boulder field with eagle lake to the left. other than the bouldering the trail is pretty easy. the bouldering isn't all that bad either. the rocks are not easy to walk on but at least they are stable. not every dog is suited for it though so i'd be very careful about what dog you bring out there.

maureen crosses a small bridge to the boulder field. boulders and symphony lake are towards the right, eagle lake to left.

eagle lake is fairly large. you can walk to the back of it...again a good backpack trek.
it's also a beautiful lake...again with the colours of the glacier silt. that silt will totally gum up your filter if you want to filter water. just be careful what kind of water filter you take up there if you do backpack.

blossom looks out over eagle lake and rests on the rocks. the boulders are all sorts of cool colours as there is lichen and moss all over them. very cool.

this picture is from the boulder field looking back to where we have hiked through the day. we booked it back once we did turn around...and once we were out of the rocks.

is that colour spectacular or what?? this is still eagle lake...to the right it heads down to mini me lake.

you can see the valley that continues on with eagle lake.

a few group pictures of us at eagle lake. me, blossom and maureen in case you are confused.

in the interest of sleep i will skip the poetry tonight. do forgive. i work the next 4 nights so...maybe i'll have some new material.

we got occasional blasts of sunlight. excellent. a special treat after a week of rain.

sorry it was just really pretty back there. i took lots of pictures to try and capture the blue of the water. it's so clear as well. awe inspiring as they say.

since these are backwards this is probably blossom looking ahead or trying to convince us to follow her path. we were following the "piles of rocks" known by hikers as cairns. they mark trails...over the boulders they were just a rough estimate of a possible trail. you could really go where ever you want.

imagine that i'm hungry. probably burned a few calories today. only ate the last bits of leftovers tonight.

more rock pictures...hope you like rocks.

for a change this is a picture of some of the stuff growing on the rocks. some sort of lichen or moss i'm guessing. haven't ever found a lichens and moss of alaska book. hmmm....

picture of mini me lake. again...me obsessed with the blue water.

scenery heading towards the boulders.

looking back at mini me...took pictures coming and going so it probably all looks similar...my apolgies if you are bored.

closer picture of the boulders with all the licen/moss creating artwork.

more scenery...

lake mini me...kinda sounds like that lake minisomething from what about bob..could be i'm getting delirious. i really should wrap this up. i was obviously enthralled by the movie and not paying attention to the number of photos i was loading here. oh well. still pretty. :-)

loads of wildflowers out there. they change as the time passes. right now lots of wild geraniums out there. pretty little flowers. we also saw wild roses, paintbrushes, dwarf fireweed...

the skies opened up while we were over the rocks and had closed up by the time we were back near cars.

blossom looks at me lovingly....or it could be that treat i was bribing her with.

we also saw this one wild iris, crazy. seems a little late, but there it is.

closer picture of the wild geraniums.

took several pictures of this cute little song bird. has a sweet call. i'm not a birder so i won't try to identify it, though i know it's quite common.

this is "the rock". it's showed up in the blog before. it's about 4 miles in from the start of the trail. eagle lake is another nearly 2 miles from here.

looking up the valley to what lies ahead.

this is where there is a little bridge to cross over. this bridge is about 2 miles in from the parking lot. often people jsut walk in this far, eat lunch and head back. it's a pleasant enough day hike.

just another pond out there on the trail.

blossom took full advantage of every pond or bog she could. of course, when we returned to the bigger creek she didn't want to enter. generally that is a good place to rinse of said dog. it's running pretty high and fast this week due to the week of rain. i suspect she got a bit nervous when she went in on the way in and that is the reason for her reluctance.

just liked this picture of blossom....wish i was as photogenic as my dog.

did see quite a few mushrooms starting to pop out. they really show up in the fall in mass. the berries will also come later.

blossom and i on the bridge

okay...i'm done with my lovely blog for the evening. should get to sleep before 3 am...apparently, according to the movie i watched that is the demon witching hour. something about the godhead?? can't recall. good night. more poetry later.