meltage and sunshine...

a warm and beautiful day out there. must have been upper 30's. i walked with the dogs out at prospect heights. the trail is already getting a bit mushy. i was down to a t-shirt on the uphill portion. blossom kept laying down in the snow to cool her belly. in the summers here it rarely tops 70's, when it's up to that hot temperature though, we sure feel it. i'm always amazed how hot 70 can feel. i grew up in california. would be tough to return to the heat down there again. i avoid summer trips there partly for that, mostly i just avoid leaving alaska in the summer. why would anyone want to leave alaska in the summers. of course, last summer, it rained quite a bit so i suspect many people were ready to pack it in. i quite enjoy winter though. i do love the longer days of summers. with these long days the snow is melting at a rapid rate.

before i walked the dogs i met a friend, maria, for brunch at ihop. haven't lunched since before her second baby was born. fun to catch up. her little girl is very cute. she has developed alot of personality since last i saw her.

after the walk i killed some time before picking up the kitten. miss chatterbug is doing pretty well post op. definitely more quiet than her usual. lays about. when she got out of her box and home, she was very happy to be here. she will be really ticked when i box her up again tomorrow for her new kitten check at the vets. the dogs greeted her as soon as she was out of her box. she was giving rio the rubs. not sure what rio thinks of that. mostly, she just looks confused.

the skies were mostly cloudy but the sun kept bursting through and the blue skies came out for a bit. felt great and looked beautiful out there.

wanted to keep an eye on the kitten's recovery so i curled up with my kindle for much of the evening. the book i'm reading is actually annoying to me. a kid with aspergers who is accused of murder. he goes nuts and gets overly stimulated and anxious at changes and in those situations his mom has to hold him down and she gets beat up a bit, yet, she is sure her kid would never harm anyone. there is too much of that in our nation at present. too many people who don't discipline their kids and yet are shocked when their kids do bad things and instead of acting, they react by going into denial. so for me the book is just annoying. i just want to finish it in hopes that the next book i start will be an improvement. the to be read pile is still a bit thick. i do have 2 bags of already read books that i need to donate somewhere. probably just take them to work. like the kindle as these novels won't collect in the house. a perk of computers...though somehow i don't think the clutter has diminished in my life yet. hmm...

was very happy to read an article in the anchorage daily news. so often atv's destroy the delicate boggy land of alaska. a yup'ik community of hooper bay has done something about it. they have built an environmentally friendly trail for atv's to use. the plus side is that it is also allowing and encouraging those in the community to use to for walking and biking or whatever. the trails are made from rigid recycled plastics...good for hooper bay. looks like their positive experience with this is encouraging other communities to plan thier own trails. this will do a great deal to heal the lands that have been damaged by current atv use. just does a heart good to hear about these sort of projects!!

while waiting for the kitten to be ready to pick up i stopped by fred meyer. oddly i ended up stocking up on the easter candies. i now have several bags of mini cadbury eggs. i always stockpile those and take them on summer camping trips. always a good treat. of course ,i was looking at my food supply and in the event of a disaster...my diet will consist of various chocolate varieties. not sure that was what the red cross had in mind in the preparing for disaster storage.

my dad would have had better cooperation with us kids though if he'd stockpiled chocolates instead of wheat and green sea salt. our church always encouraged families to keep a years supply of food and water and such. that is good advice, but my dad would buy all these containers of wheat. we never ate any of it and what would we do with all that wheat in an emergency anyway? my dad would cook up wheat for himself on occasion in an attempt to prove to us that it was edible. the green sea salt. i have no idea where he got that, but none of us wanted to use green sea salt. that stuff sat on the shelves in the storage area for years. i dare say my mother would have been more on board with chocolate storage as well. i'm sure she had at least a week supply in her purse at any given time.

also stocked up on the wine today. i like the robert mondavi, meritage of late. they say a little red wine is good for you. who am i to argue with the experts? of course, now that i write that i will have wine and chocolate in my years supply. i could become quite popular in the event of a disaster!!

blossom enjoyed her day of tennis ball chasing. rio is happily sleeping and snoring off and on. life is good today. simple and good!!

work has called me to beg me to work pretty much every day. i really should sign up for some more overtime. have taken a bit of a break from overtime of late. those paychecks are sure sweet though. will have to get back into the swing of it. pay for all my summer fun and i also want to get the floors done in the upstairs bedrooms, hall and stairs.

the snow is melting, the birds are returning, there are signs of the seasons changing. this place is ever evolving.