Tuesday, July 24, 2012

round island 5...

4 days of work done. relaxing day today. yeah!. finished looking at all the pictures i took. will take many entries. so many cool shots that i want to share though so i do hope you enjoy the journey to round island. sadly, i doubt i'll ever be able to go again so these will have to last me. there was an area near the flat rock lookout where the wildflowers were just totally lovely. i sat out there relaxed, took photo's, met up with the fox for a photo session.
i'm not that skilled on flower identity but i believe these are wild poppies?
you can kinda see all the various flowers along the path here.
as it rained or was just damp from the near constant fog the dew was permanent. we all stayed a bit damp all week. each day i was sure that that day would be the one when the fog totally lifted to a beautiful sunny day. we saw some blue skies at times, but the only time the island cleared off was the day the boat came and then it was already getting socked in again before the last boat left. great to see the top of the island though.
had fun making attempts with the macro. in general it's best to use a tripod with the macro lens...at least that is what i read, but though i own a tripod, taking one to round island seemed a bother and i tend to just skip it. in addition the wind is pretty much always blowing at least a bit out there on the island so it was hard to get the flowers to cooperate with my photo ops. the animals are more apt to stay still for longer periods.
the fox like to collect eggs to snack on. ran across a few shells that had been crunched up by the fox.
the flowers were incredible.
did finally make it to the gym for a swim. this past month i've just been on the go so much. i had in my head that today was the day to hit the gym. as i was getting ready to head out a friend called and asked if i wanted to join them for dinner. the gym was just calling me though. was great to get in the water. i took it easy and just did 15 laps. i can feel my muscles reminding me that it's been a few weeks. all my lap training would not have been helpful at all in that sea last week. we would have just gotten sucked under by the large waves and that would have been that. drowning doesn't seem pleasant, but then there are so few pleasant ways to perish unplanned. at least drowning would be quick i'd quess and the cold water temperatures would have made your brain lose it pretty fast. still good to swim for the exercise of it all. my calve is a bit sore. kept it up at work last night when i could....i only had one pretty easy patient so that was a good deal of the night. i have a few ugly variose veins and on a rare occasion it's like the thing breaks and it gets hard/sore then eventually there is a huge bruise and then it all goes back to it's regular ugliness. perhaps i whacked it out there on one of the dingy transfers or something. who knows. of course, being in medicine makes you medically paranoid, always suspecting the worse.
blossom got a much needed brushing today and i cleaned out her ears and trimmed some of the hair around her face. she was cooperative, but i know it's not her favorite. she's so adorable and it's nice to see her eyes again.
tried watching the two netflix movies that have been here for weeks, one turns out was damaged and the other just didn't really interest me though it was a big box office seller. "inception" in think. just way too much thinking for me today. hard to follow and do other stuff so i'll just send them both back and let netflix know of the damaged one.
below is lupine. not tons of that out there, but it's always a favorite. walked with the dogs up to and around cheney lake. a break in the rain had occured. it was a pleasant and relaxing stroll. adorable little baby ducks out there. love the baby ducks and geese. a few loons as well. will have to toss the big camera back in my day bag now that i've finished loading the pics from the trip on there.
i'm an analyzer by nature and it's easy for me to get my brain busy trying to figure something or someone out. my friend amy says stuff is usually not about you, as i tend to take stuff personal. i think she's right. some people and some actions really just don't make sense no matter how you try and it is best to just let it go and realize that people have issues that they live with that you will never gain insight into. would be good to be a mindreader i guess so it would be easier to understand. some actions just are to forever remain mysteries. people are a strange lot. i know i have my quirks and strange habits as well. is there anyone out there trying to analyze me? of course, they could just come here.
lichens
more cool plant stuff.
just sneezed about 30 times. i get those sneezing fits at times. so annoying. i think i'm done for now. anyway, settled in with a subway sandwich tonight after the swim and watched some pre-trial olympics. diving. those mens diving swimsuits are so tiny. they have these gorgeous musclular bodies and then these itsy bitsy bikini like bottoms. it's kinda a wonder their stuff stays in place. quite enjoyed watching the pre-qualifying. sad that all those years of work seem to come down to one day of events to determine if you go to olympics in london or not. so many train but so few will actually get the opportunity. was kinda happy that all my summer trips would be completed before the olympics start. i do enjoy watching the games.
was remembering one of the first olympic memories i have. i was about 8 in '72, the munich olympics. that was the year the israeli team was held hostage. i think we've all lived in fear of another horrible event such as this ever since. of course at age 8 i remember being very confused. why would gorilla's be holding hostages, how did they get out of the zoo? it was all so incomprehensible to me. i must have clued in at some point when there was tv coverage that actually showed some of the guerilla's moving around outside the building i think. they looked like people not gorillas. not sure who finally explained to me what was going on. will have to say a special prayer for the safety of those who train so hard and are blessed to be olympians. hopefully, they can just focus on thier sports and not thier safety.
lots of my macro's ended up deleted, but i got a few i liked a bit.
so nice to be on digital and not have to worry about taking too many shots and running out of film.
guess i missed my 30 year high school reunion. would love to go to one if i lived closer. this far away, it's a bit too much of a trek. hopefully all are doing well. did get a few friend requests on facebook when i returned from people from high school. i was confused at first but i'd guess that makes sense after one goes to a reunion. i think the only one i even went to was the 10 year. can't believe how old i'm getting. yikes!!
loved the little plants above. just great colour.
more cool lichens on rocks.
just a few from the in the flowers fox photo op. he kept circling around me. eventually i used my macro and will post those in one of the next few posts here i suspect.
a foggy day is a good one to look at the flowers and plant life and take fox photo's

was lovely to go to the peds icu and not work to hard. the adult icu kicked my butt this week. great to sleep today and not have to wake up. i think my monday walk alarm either didn't go off or i totally slept through it for however long it attempted to awaken me.
me amongst the flowers.
not sure why but this one section just was bontiful with flowers! enjoyed my little flower exploration that afternoon.
as long as it wasn't raining i headed out. played cards and read when it did rain.

took some pics at the fish and game cabin of the bones they had there. on the plane ride back some guy initially sat next to me and just started to talk and talk and talk. he'd found a walrus skull/tusks on a remote beach. actually was finding the guy a bit annoying. wasn't wanting to hear about his bad relationship with his father. so i was happy when the lady who was from anchorage decided to take back her seat place and ship him off to find another seat on the plane.
most people are pleasant to chat with but occasionally someone just rubs you wrong.
fish and game folks were busy working on thier environmentally friendly outhouse guts. the toilet guy was suppose to come out on friday, but wasn't able to get there til we got our pick up. i think round island was way more complicated than he had expected and he didn't like the idea that he may not be able to leave for weeks. he was just slated to come for a couple nights tops. that isn't how it works out there though. stephanie is inside the container thing, tesla was new to the island and is there to get trained by stephanie and take over her job. the other one, well she works in the offices and i think she actually has some power in a higher position at fish and game. good thing she was able to get out there and check it out. hopefully she can be an advocate for the place. stephanie is right though the place needs a "friends of round island" group to advocate for the walrus and the island.
the rain gear on the line by the outhouse became my other weather forecaster. on saturday they flew off the line, i know the winds were gonna be bad.
walrus bones. pretty heavy. more photo ops with those later. always fun.
liked the gloves hung up in the cook tent. we all hung stuff up in there to dry but nothing was going to dry i can promise you. they looked cool hanging there. i actually never wore my gloves all week.
fox in the fog.
there were actually a few of them, chasing each other around.
another brief glimpse of blue sky. in ketchikan, when i lived there, we just called these "sucker holes". only a fool would believe they indicated a return of lovely weather.
view i woke up to from my tent.
jsut realized it's after 1 am. yikes. have noticed the sun is going down earlier and earlier. boo hoo! have also noticed the mushrooms are starting to show up more and more. loads of rain this year, more shrooms? we shall see. love shroom photography.
the wind tended to blow from the sea lion end of the island towards the spine so we often sat in the cook tent with the flap open so we could enjoy the view.
waves pick up at some point.
walrus numbers dropping off.

cook tent.
a few of folks just chilling in the cook tent reading/writing/whatever they wanted.
fish and game has a nice box with copies of articles written about round island over the years. i guess the log book is here in anchorage. no real visitors the last two years and they forgot to take it out there this year. i joked with ed weiss that we could just stop by the office in anchorage and fill out our log entry. saw our entry from 10 years ago. pretty brief, did have nertz scores on one page. one of the fish and games people on the island, mary i think, had played nertz with us. we never played this trip out. everyone seemed happy to wander in/out of the tent as they reheated.
apparently, terry, our boat transport referred to us as the happy people from anchorage. i'm thinking that is a good thing to be known as.
sue gets some appetizers. everyone pitched in on the appetizers. never got around to organizing any meals. bob seemed to have got the deserts for all.
thus to the end of another exciting blog entry. off to read three sentences and head to bed.

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