Color Run 2 and a beautiful double rainbow...

 seems fitting on a happy fun day to end it with the double rainbow.  always spectacular.  was thinking i should do a search of double rainbows.  not sure how common they are and if they are more common in certain places over other places.  i've seen many double rainbows but they have all been in Alaska...so it makes me think some places must just be more likely to have them.

 another pretty day today so a friend, michelle, joined me for a little walk out in Hatchers Pass.  Rio opted to join us...she didn't want to be left out of the fun once Michelle came by.  so we just did a total of 4 miles.  don't want to wear Rio out too badly. she really is a trooper, but she is snoring pretty good at present.

 traffic was pretty slow coming back due to construction. it is the season.  happy i stopped by subway i guess to grab some food. i would  have been hungry had i not.  it was clearing up right as i was getting past it.  just my luck.  they were stopping the work i think or moving some place else. not sure.

 we wandered around Independence mine for a few minutes.  we were there anyway.  haven't looked at my pictures from today.  still had these to post and i got busy with bylaws tonight.  above, group getting goofy, maddie, Tanya and I.

 and of course Sasquatch, had to get that photo.

 at some point i took a video and then didn't get it flipped back to photo mode...so several super short video clips as i thought i was taking photo's.  i blame my color coated eyes and camera.  tough to know what was up. we had fun and that is really all that matters.  the ground looked a sight towards the end.  the colors were pretty though.

 fun to just chill in the sunshine and dance and laugh.

 that was mixed in with explosions of color.

 my friends got much better pictures of this.  i may post theirs one of these days...just cause they are cool.  more pictures of yours truely as well.

 happy to at least have a first draft of the bylaws.  will go over them with others and tweek i'm sure.  see if there are other things i should have or need to have.  i had several other groups examples so i followed a mixture of theirs.

 also wrote a few follow up notes to some i've corresponded with in the past to give them updates on our progress. meeting new people via the internet.  also have wanted to get a hold of another biologist that was out there for years and let her know what we are doing.  haven't had much luck so i just wrote an email to the alaska mountaineering school in Talkeetna and see if they will pass it along to her.  Talkeetna is a small enough town, hopefully they will.  

 try to think of who i should inform of this group starting.  would love to have some contacts in Dillingham and Togiak..this place is in their area and i'd love to have their support on this.

 i still have my Happy tattoo on.  i'm sure i could rub harder or put oil on it or something to get it off.  i don't work until thursday so i'm not in a hurry. besides, i find you really feel the need to be on your best behaviour when you have Happy prominently written on your arm!!  perhaps  we should do this on the prison population. give them positive tattoo's and see if crime goes down.

 Rio got her usual array of attention and comments.  never owned a dog that got so much attention.  always cracks me up.  i know one guy we met today was really excited to meet a fila brasilliero. sounds like he's wanted one, but seems anxious about the breed too.  seemed very worried that Rio was some sort of attack dog.  his kid seemed to pick up on her sweetness.  she asked if she could pet her and of course i said yes, he  seemed surprised that this was okay.  sometimes the leash makes people think she is not a nice dog....then i just tell them she is blind and they relax.  he asked if he could pet her too.  she loves all the attention of course.

 Blossom was happy to be out walking.  lots of dogs out there today.

 trying to intice Pogi to play..no go.

 just a few of the bouncing crowds.

 i laughed as one lady come walking over with a toddler on her shoulders...that kid was screaming...so clearly somebody wasn't happy out there yesterday

 note how smeared speedy's sunglasses are...this is why photography was a challenge out there.

 my little camera seemed fine today though.

 lots of gliders out in Hatchers Pass today.  looked pretty cool.  we shall see what pictures came out of that. a few moose, but no pictures of them.

 there were lots of kids at the happy run...clearly nobody was too worried about all the powder.

 confetti too...what a mess!!

 matt and alicia getting into a confetti/powder battle as we walked away.  i had told alicia we should book before they brought out the brooms and made us clean up.

 red beard has been sighted!!

 back at touchdown jesus for our after shot.  he got a bit green, but michelle went back and cleaned him up.

 lovely selfie at home before i showered!!  just in case anyone wonders why i'm still single after all these years...haha!!

 happy, happy double rainbow!!

 this was from the middle of my street.  which reminds me i've got to get my trashcan out.

 flowers in my garden...despite my lack of gardening this year these guys all showed up.

 as we left hatchers today a few motorcyclists were in a hurry.  there are bumper stickers all over to watch out for motorcyclists and i try to do just that, but shouldn't they not do stupid things?  these two crazies were in such a hurry they were passing car after car on the left across double yellow, no crossing lanes.  after they had passed 5 cars in this manner they pulled right into a gas station and stopped....?  baffling!!

 who couldn't smile seeing this.

 the rainbow took some time to develope into this cool double rainbow. kept coming and going, then suddenly it was there and stayed for quite awhile.

 from my deck with my flowers

 and with the flowers in my front yard.

well, WARIS has worn me out for the day and it's almost midnight anyway. last day of June!!  crazy!! thankful fors:  1.  sunshine and blue skies in Hatchers pass, it looked like it may rain and i forgot my raincoat and forgot my fleece. 2.  such cute and lovable dogs..many kisses and treats for them both 3.  to have that first draft of bylaws completed!!

Color Run 2014

 had skipped this last year because i was a bit worried about all the powder and breathing, but nobody seemed negatively impacted last year and speedy was creating a group so i signed up.

 Blossom dutifully woke me at 5 am even though my alarm was set for 6am.  when it did go off the radio station was playing "happy". which seemed like the right choice.  it is a happy run.  i wasn't sure getting up so early was really required for a happy run, but i made it to "touchdown jesus" by 7 am...this is speedy's name for the statue out front of our hospital.  above is our before shot.

 i wore an old white sweatshirt over the official shirt. both looked pretty cool when all was done. i soaked them in vinegar as told as i showered off all the cornstarch powder.  sadly, i tossed them in the wash with the shout colour catcher given to us in our swag bag thinking there was a reason they put the thing in there...that thing works really great and my clothes came out almost white.  clearly i screwed up!! oh well, thankfully, lots of photo's were taken.  as the saying goes...don't cry over spilled milk...nothing i can do about it now.

 took a bit to actually get started on this 5K run/walk.  more fun to walk it i think, though matt actually ran it twice and i think he had fun.  it's totally a fun thing, no winners, no times taken.  i like that about it.  they do good at making it fun.  i think there were just 4 color stations along the route and the rest of the color you toss all over each other with little packets they hand out generously afterwards.

 above, speedy, alicia, michelle, connie, tanya and maddie, below matt joins in.

 we were still virgins here...no color.  the return group was already coming through. we were towards the back of the back.

 there were many tutu's out there.  who knew people loved wearing tutu's..i always avoided them growing up. ballet was not for me.

 i got generously coated with blue.  the music helps and attempted to twerk towards the people with the powder also probably helps. basically if you act a bit nuts they have more fun and you get more powder...at least i think that seems to be how it works.

 the folks with the barrels of powder were all quite coated with their color.

 i think that would actually be fun.  i brought along swim goggles and a bandana but i found the sunglasses were enough. a few times at the after party with so many bags of powder i did lift my t-shirt up to breath through, but i never felt like i was having any difficulty.

 picture taking was a bit of a challenge.  the screen was coated most of the time and you were coated so tough to clear it off.  just aim and snap and see what happens.

 when i got home i stripped, but first blossom rubbed her face on me and so her face turned blue/green.  i didn't notice too much but when i later took the dogs to University Lake someone there noticed her colour.  there were a few dogs out there.  they looked pretty cool, but i'm happy i didn't bring mine, what a huge mess that would be.  i can just see blossom shaking all that powder everywhere before i could stop her.  eek!!

 Tanya got a great blue face coating.  could be tough to see out of those sunglasses as well

 you do learn fast to shut your mouth.  the stuff tastes not the best and doesn't feel good in your throat.  i know my spit and snot were purple/blue for a few hours after the run.

 plenty of police out there to keep the peace, but the peace was pretty easy to keep since it was like a hippie love in festival without the drugs or alcohol.  everyone was happy and the police and their cars got color coated. hugs and pictures with the local police department were not uncommon.

 we can see the pink section coming up across the park strip.

 my shower water was multicolored.  after i showered i took a much needed nap before heading out to walk the dogs.

 we got a little bit crazy with the pink.  we were veterans at this point.

 some were rolling on the ground there was like an inch of powder on the ground.

 very pink crew.

 great shot of Alicia in her pinkness!!

 lots of smiles and happy people...never anything wrong with that!

 we were laughing though as that song "happy" never seemed to be played.  seems like a song that should be played over and over at a run like this.

 here was the best colored dog out there.  very calm about his run.

 the walkers!! michelle, maddie, tanya, speedy and alicia.

 i think maddie had a blast.  they scored tons of leftover packets that maddie plans on using for next years birthday party.  we thought they could work in a pinata.

 we got a few temp tatoos in our swag bag.  it's lasting more than my shirt color...haha.  i guess last year speedy's shirt just turned out all brown looking after her wash.  so we are still looking for the best way to preserve the thing.  if there is a run next year, perhaps we will have it down.  you get the most color during the after party. worth hanging out for.

 this policeman has gotten a lot of hugs from the locals..i hope he has one of those shout color sheets...his uniform is a mess. haha...love it!!

 on to yellow.

 powder shooters having a good time

 love this one of speedy.  fun to see everyone's pictures.  i'll probably post a few of everyone elses tomorrow with the rest of mine.  everyone got some cool shots.

 Serrano's for dinner tonight.  always nummy!!

 i think we just had purple left.

 this guy smiled more after we left.  he just had a great purple coating on.

 Maddie and speedy got into a battle royal in purple with all the powder on the ground.

 we all got a little crazy. it's good to let your crazy out every so often.  too many people hold back too much and i think being silly is great mentally.  the color run won't let you be too serious...

 this afternoon i sat out in my chair and totally chilled watching a rainbow forming.  it was funny.  it kept fading and returning. super fast.  eventually a lovely double rainbow formed and it rained while that was out.

 we totally got lucky with the weather for the color run as you can see.  beautiful blue skies.

 the only thing we complained about was the early hour.  we car pooled to a pick up spot and took buses out.  we got dropped off at  "touchdown Jesus" and took an after shot.  of course, Jesus got a bit green...michelle went back and cleaned him off.  she said her catholic root and guilt made her clean up the mess.  better than having security come after us..i highly doubt the sisters of providence would appreciate us giving the statue colors.

 maddie and tanya above, me with speedy below.

 she does look happy!!

 matt rejoined us for the after festivities and powder tossing.  he seemed to be able to restock his powder supply endlessly.  i was given a bag of white powder which seemed wrong..since when is white a color?

 post powder shots...Alicia

 and matt

 more to follow. i may settle in with a movie and really work on those bylaws tomorrow.  have all my templates here, have new ink and i think i'm set up.  just need to figure out the details.

good night.  thankful for 1.  no respiratory failure secondary to powder 2.  fun times with fun friends 3.  that we live in a place where we are safe and just goof off sometimes rather than be fighting for our lives at every turn.