more denali highway and moose about...and of course, poetry

tonight i'm watching "whale rider". another favorite flick. chick empowerment. some people are beholden to alot of rules and those rules hem them in. life won't follow the rules and if you aren't open to change you will be carried away like the tide. left on some distant island drowning in all those rules you imposed upon yourself. the old man gets it in the end. paikea rides the whale and becomes chief, something a girl isn't supposed to do.
walked with my friend tanya up at prospect heights. we've had fog settle in to anchorage. the only escape was elevation. on the way to the store i ran across this little family of moose. love the power that shows in this first shot. check out those muscles!

the rest of the afternoon i fixated on the shed. it was clean out day. crap just collects and eventually i can't stand it anymore and i purge. i threw out a bunch and recycled and put a bunch in the front yard with a FREE sign on it. one lady was very excited. i took out more later and it was still there after my laps. i'll put it out again tomorrow unless it's raining and see what comes of it. otherwise i'll call for a pickup from big brothers/big sisters or ARC. i have old paint cans in the car and went down to the disposal place, but they only take hazardess waste on tues and thurs so i'll have to go back.

also i seem to collect boxes. much of my storage space was wasted in boxes. maybe it's from moving so often or a desire to keep perfect shipping boxes.

these moose are so cute. the males are starting to get amorous about now. the fall rut should be starting to get underway.

i've put in a last bunch from the denali highway. the sun is setting faster and earlier. boo hoo. this was outside of willow. below is the big mountain, denali, with the sun setting on it.

we stopped at the southern denali viewpoint. it's got a short walk for the dogs and the dirtiest outhouses on the parks highway i think. ick!

denali is the prominent mountain of course, hunter is on the left. beautiful evening.

after cleaning the shed i was sore and tired, but i went to the gym anyway. got in 60 lengths. i didn't go because i'm so dedicated, i went because i felt like i was covered in spider webs and thus there must be an arachnoid loose on me somewhere as well. the jacuzzi felt great too.

this is the bridge at hurricane gulch. a nice place for a suicide i guess...though for the life of me i can't see why anyone would jump. it's probably very effective, but eek! sandra thought we may be able to get a good picture. the gulch is extremely deep and the shadows hid the beauty below. the bridge is not set up for pedestrians and cars whiz by at over 65mph. i am not keen on heights so i didn't linger and there wasn't a good shot anyway.

you can see mckinley (denali) from the denali highway, but just the last bit of it. the sun was quite bright and my big camera seemed to be acting up. seems fine now. maybe the sun was too bright for the auto settings.

the road also seemed the worse at this end of the road, the cantwell side.

the scenery on this highway never disappoints me.

the pictures are a bit out of order...nothing new there, but the views are there in any order.

blossom is always monitering my activity. i always think it's rio with the seperation issues, but blossom is pretty attached.

just called the susitna river bridge, it's the big bridge on the road. when we crossed there was a porcupine who had mistakenly wandered out there. sandra was afraid he'd jump into the river, but no porcupine suicide occured. instead he dropped off the edge and wandered under my car...thus i never got any pictures of the big bugger. they are always much bigger than my head thinks they should be. i was afraid i'd crush him, but someone came up on the bridge behind me and let me know it was safe to move on. hte bridge is over 1000 feet long.

the same stretch that i ran across the more vibrant colours was vibrant again this year. so fall is earlier this year than last year.

i stopped and watched a few swans. we saw several of the pairs, but never very close.

sandra and i took turns being lead car. the last part was dry and dusty and i ended up getting a few miles behind her to avoid the dust blindness. she'd stop and wait up for me at intervals. my friend had thought it would be a nice road to bike and we saw a few bikers....i'm not sure it would be that much fun. i think she changed her mind after we drove it last year.

my love of reflections...

old poem...

-

He held the umbrella loosely,

His arm drooped at it's weight,

Drops of rain pounded him deeper into the sidewalk,

Drenched,

He wandered forward,

Oblivious to his wetness,

Only an hour before he had combed his hair,

And tried to look his best for her,

But she no longer cared,

His feet now walked behind him,

He tripped through puddles,

Collecting mud,

A headless shadow,

Faded into darkness,

Water slipped down his cheeks,

He sniffled and watched the sidewalk. '83

i took a poetry writting class in college at utah state university, the year i went there. i got A's on this poem and the one i posted the other day. encouragement wasn't something i got at home i must say so it was pretty exciting to be validated by a good grade in something i enjoyed. one of my worst memories of my dad was a day when he'd run across some of my poetry. i'd given it to someone else to read and that person had left them out. my dad, who thought he was being helpful, took a red pen to all the poems and corrected them. he never could understand why that upset me so much. in the end he was angry at me for not appreciating his efforts to help me. i've often said my dad was a great father, but not a daddy. little girls need a daddy. one who treats them like they are the world. my dad was well meaning, but i can't recall one single compliment that wasn't followed by a but....

for much of high school my mom worked full time and i cooked dinners. every meal i was criticized, i never got one right. it was torture for me....waiting for the "but".

new poem

-

the wall,

seemed taller than before,

and i,

smaller,

the bricks that made the fondation,

lay upon me,

forcing air from my lungs,

i was miniature,

people stepped over me,

without a care,

never knowing,

that i was there.

i have the websters here and i just opened it and found a word and created that one...the word was miniature.

often others can make you feel small, especially when you are young. eventually, you have to rise above it and prove them wrong. though my dad never gave me the compliment i hoped for i could tell he was proud. my moving to alaska brought out the daddy in him as much as he could give it. i know he was excited about that. i remember getting a pair of binoculars after i moved here for a christmas. i can't recall any more thoughtful gift from my parents. generally just the usual stuff, but those binculars said they knew me, even if it was just a little. my dad and i were finally able to talk, we only could talk about alaska, but it was a start. i'm excited that he made it up here for a visit once while i lived in ketchikan. he was so excited when we flew out to misty fjords in that float plane and landed on a remote lake. i knew then, he was happy with the life i was living. it wasn't the life my parents dreamed of for me, but he knew i was happy and he understood why.

loved these clumps of colour against the blue skies.

just another shot of the isthmus i had in yesterdays blog. just thought it looked so cool.

the mountains are the alaska range, the glaciers that are prominent on the drive are the west fork glacier, susitna glacier and the maclaron glacier.

love the miles of nothingness with just the road intersecting it all. the road was built in '57 and i guess before that the only way to the park was via plane or rail. the parks highway was built in the '70's?

wish this "tea party" would just go make it's own party of overly conservative, religous zealots. the republican party would be better off without them, at least after they figure out who they are again. lisa murkowski is talking of jsut being a write in candidate, not sure what that will do for the election, except maybe assure the mayor of sitka a spot on the senate. who knows. the worlds gone a little crazy and i don't see it getting sorted out anytime soon. what we need is a moderate party, not a tea party.

loved the sunshine on these fluffy plants. i'm sure the fluffy plants have names, but i haven't looked them up and i'm perfectly happy calling them the fluffy plants. :-)

i guess one of the hikers in iran was released. i've never understood why people do these things to begin with. have you no sense of danger when you just randomly go for a walk without paying attention to borders? often i fear americans think they are affored the exact same protection of the laws here no matter where they travel. they seem to think that the U.S.A will be able to bring justice to nations where justice doesn't exist for most. i'm empathetic, but baffled. i hope they let the others go as well, but there are many variables and the situation in iran is ever changing. they are truely at the mercy of those who hold them.

there was another news item today that i found annoying. it seems we are celebrating lennons 70th birthday. not to sound disrespectful, but don't you only collect birthdays while you live? lennon was murdered and so celebrate that it's the date of his birth, but don't posthumously age the man.

on that note...happy birthday lennon and goodnight all...