if you hate beautiful sunsets on the beach...don't look....

so the sunset pictures are a bit scattered, but i think they are enjoyable all the same. my friend natalie was late getting to laguna but not too late for us to enjoy this beautiful evening on the beach. first we went to the sawdust festival, winter version, then we headed back to 1000 steps beach. i was hoping the tide had gone out a bit more, but it hadn't really. we still enjoyed the scenery. i think any beach would have brought these spectacular scenes.

i love beach sunsets, something about the waves and the smells...there just comes a peace that takes any care you may have away. all you can see is the skies before you.

the light was perfect for picture taking. we did see one couple out there with what looked to be a professional photographer. i'm sure he was happy. doesn't get much better than the light we had for picture taking.

today i slept in, then i kinda felt crappy, but realized that it was after noon and i hadn't eaten anything. i often forget to eat. i get hungry and then get busy with something else and forget that i was hungry. eventually, i ate and headed out with the pups. we just did some loops through north bivouac. ran into my friend jill and her pups. she is one of my trail friends. her dogs figure out if i'm out there and take off from jill. she just has to follow and then eventually she sees me and gets why her dogs bolted. she has two labradoodles.

overall i feel better. i have all my meds and i'm hoping the antibiotics kick this thing out of my system. still coughing, my voice is sketchy and i still feel a bit run down, but i'm on the good end of it i think.

these next several are of me and my friend natalie took advantage of the light to snap off some pictures of me. these were the ones i liked. i was wading, she thought it too cold.

today is pearl harbor day. i wanted to find some historical show to watch on television tonight and couldn't find any. it was mentioned on the news, but sadly, years pass and all events, big and small, fade a bit with each passing year. as those who were there and remember the events pass on so does their story. eventually all history becomes a blip in some history book, a film clip and those always water down and soften the events. the horror that each individual endured goes to the grave with them. it's sad. what is that saying...if we don't know history we are doomed to repeat it. we always will though. thier pearl harbor was our sept 11. in 69 years will there be just a mention on the news, flags put to half staff...and in 69 years will anyone mention pearl harbor at all?

the big battle in congress presently is over this don't ask, don't tell thing in the military. i've always thought it funny. in practical sense, those who don't want gays to serve are actually protecting the gay community. the loss of life is then all heterosexual. i just always thought that ironic. like they don't really see the bigger picture. gay or straight, i think all should be allowed to put thier lives on the line for our nation. anyone who is willing to do that....who am i to judge. i feel the same about adoption issues. love is not as common as one would think in this world of ours. any love should be rewarded, not punished. if there are people willing to take in kids and give them love, hope and home. go for it.

i really liked the silhouette. thought it came out cool.

so my thanks to natalie for those pictures of me.

we got lucky and had a few dolphins swim past us as we enjoyed the sunset.

always a sign of good fortune...at least that was what one local told me. good kharma i believe is what he said. i'm always happy to accept good kharma.

one discussion that has come up several times with my one brother is regarding raising kids and learning morals/values. he is of the opinion that one must have some semblence of organized religion to give one a base of morals/values/ethics and such. i see nothing wrong with utilizing all the things that are available to you in teaching your kids. i have no kids so usually my opinion is determined to not matter. my feeling is that much of these values you get through your parents. organized religion is not necessary to raise kids with ethics/values and such.

i have friends who had no religious upbringing and yet they are very ethical and moral members of our society. no matter how much a church drills into your kids to be honest and not lie, if they see you lying all the time that will impact them. strangly, kids from the same parents will often end up coming to different conclusions regarding parents behaviour. an example financial dealings. my mom was not very organized about money, my parents seemed to always be on the verge of financial disaster. we seemed to muddle through. for some of my siblings. they have taken this as a lesson to be very careful financially. thier homes were paid off early and they have savings accounts. for others, we probably are more like our parents, living on the edge of financial ruin. in truth we all have roofs over our heads and have food on the table.

have friends who came from divorce. some will divorce themselves, other will be very cautious in thier marriage choice and do fine. i guess i'm just saying more comes from our parents, and our experience with our parents. my dad was always honest to a fault almost. could i say my mom followed all that religious teaching to the letter. she hid stuff from dad and involved us in that. overall, i think we've all turned out to be honest. some of us are more like dad, honest to a fault, others more like mom, willing to fudge some stuff if needs arise. we all were raised in the same religion but we all pick and choose how closely we follow any religion. we decide which rules we think are valuable and which ones we just don't think matter that much.

in the end i decided that god isn't that much into rules. in my opinion, jesus came to the earth with a pretty simple message. the religions have come in and mucked around with the message and made it complicated again. do not judge, love another....

when i look at the things like pearl harbor, sept 11, aids, rapes, starvation....does god really have time to deal with the petty stuff? i'd rather a god be there to help in those times where help is really needed. the idea of god caring about my sex life or if i had a glass of wine with dinner or what underwear i have on...i mean really??

and to think that god doesn't expect us to care for this earth when he put so much care and energy into this planet. the sunset could look the same each day, all the fish could be of one practical sort, the planet could just have cows, pigs and chickens. god for me is in nature, though i still would consider myself agnostic. my one brother seems to believe that means one who doesn't care if there is a god or not. i don't see it as such. i think you can be extremely spiritual and be agnostic. for me one can't scientifically prove there is a god, nor can one scientifically prove there isn't a god. it's all about faith.

i hope there is some god who will fix things when they go bad, who will answer your prayers, who will punish those who do really heinous things. when i see nights like the one in these pictures my faith in that possibility grows.

growing up they had fast and testimony meetings. people would get up and say "i know" this and "i know" that. in truth these are things one can only know in thier hearts.

the details can only be sorted out once i'm gone. it's best to hope there is a power who will bring control to the madness and justice for the unjust. for me, it's only really important that i try my best to abide by the message christ brought to the earth. that of kindness, gentleness and love for my fellow man and creature. you can forget all those detailed arguments. it comes down to what sort of person you are. not who you knew and what you owned.

above is my friend natalie.

maybe it's the cold medication...making me ponder too much.

didn't see too many friends this trip out. always tough to make those choices. some of it was made for me and those friends were out of town. some friends just fade a bit. you never stop thinking about them or caring about them, but in the end some people just put in more effort than others.

this i got from my mom. as i sit addressing envelopes to send out my christmas cards, i can so see my mom doing that year after year. hundreds of friends that she kept in touch with. she kept track of who she sent cards out to and who sent them back. i'm sure it made her sad when some friends, who had been so close once, just never bothered, but she didn't let it show. years later we would talk about it as adults. still, i find there are some friends that are worth the stamp each year just to let them know you still think of them. you never know what is going on in others lives and the impact you have or could play. often you touch people and have no clue. i know my mom brightened many a life. she was always a friend people could count on. she put the effort in, even for those who forgot to give the effort back.

year after year, she addressed those cards and wrote a little note to each person.

did her mom do the same, i never asked. it really doesn't take that much effort. i believe we make priorities of things in our lives. our choice.

to me, those things matter. it's all the sunset pictures...sunsets are great for pondering life.

i have spent many an afternoon quietly watching the sunset, the day wind down. can't say as i see as many sunrises...being a night owl...

speaking of which, it's almost 1am...again!!

did get quite a few cards done today. bought more paper and some stickers so not everyone has to endure my snowman drawings. no stamps so i'll have to rectify that and get these out in the mail.

i still want to decorate, get the tree out....

chatted with my friend scott. he loads his truck up with stuff for his family and others in cordova who know he's coming to anchorage. i guess he was supposed to pick up a christmas tree. apparently, the one lowes was out of trees. i redirected him to another lowes where i had definitly seen trees. i usually go to alaska mill and feed. wouldn't want them to run out on me.

always enjoy watching all the shorebirds. it made for some cool pictures with the sunset altering the light.

they had johnny depp on letterman tonight so i stayed down there to watch him. have always thought he was an amazing actor. he rarely actually watches any of his movies once they are made i guess. he likes the process, the acting, but never seems to like the aftermath of the movie making.

there are good actors and there are true actors. they can pretty much get anyone to muddle through a movie, be it kid, rock star, bimbo, monkey, dog, cat...but people like depp seem to have a gift that can be seen through the films he makes. take someone like bill murray. i like some of his movies, especially the older ones. he was a comedian and he acted in certain roles it worked. his last several movies he was seemed to me to be trying to evolve himself into a true actor...and he just isn't one. so to me he just looks silly. it's about knowing what you are good at and utilizing that.

depp is the gifted actor, murray the gifted comedian.

i was loving the initial light on the beach and how it came through the waves. looked so pretty.

no big dramatic tide changes....maybe next trip out.

i'll have to take another teaspoon of cough medicine and give sleep a try. only two more sleeps til i have to attempt work again. best to get as much rest as i can. i took a nap this afternoon.

hopefully, you have managed to ignore my rambling and just enjoyed the pictures.

on facebook, there have been postings on pictures i posted months ago. revival of sorts. kinda funny. was bummed they did away with this feature where you could click on an photo album and then click on comments. it would then show you all the pictures in the album that had comments, which made it easier to just see what was new. now you either have to go through the entire album picture by picture or check your email and then click on each comment and see which picture they were talking about. what a bother.

these web pages often change so much that they just wear people out with the changes and lose the base of what they had going for them. dogster seems to be that way. i used to love that site, but they have made so many changes to it that it's no longer as fun or functional. if it ain't broke, don't fix it i say.

there i go shooting into the sun again. my bad....

when we'd drive down to the beach house i was usally in the back of the station wagon on top of all our luggage/food and supplies. that was in the days before we were required to wear seatbelts. we inhaled the exhaust as everyone would get hot and they'd roll down the back window. anyway. on the side of this hill is a little lighthouse looking thing. i have no idea what it is really, but it can be seen as you come out of laguna canyon and enter laguna proper. we knew we were almost there.

here i am with natalie at the sawdust festival.

here is a display of shrooms that everyone seemed to enjoy. in the summer sawdust festival, each artist must live in laguna beach. the winter sawdust is open to all artists i understand.

i am now going to give it up and go to bed. i have rambled too much and am now beyond sleepy...