walrus-o-lantern again

 back to work tomorrow.  trying to get stuff done.  tonight i decided to carve one of the bigger pumpkins and make some seeds/bread before the massacre. i really should be doing a major clean of the house...I'm so like my mom in this.  i know other people keep a much more tidy house, but there are just so many other things to do that are much more fun.

 the other day i had opened up these two little guys and they are now out on the front deck with Skelly. we had some pretty serious wind tonight, i feared little Skelly and friends would be tossed about...but they are all well last i checked. 

 these are some local walks.   my appointment for the tire change over isn't until Nov 8. today with the wind came warmth.  so a melt happened.  looking not too bad for the next bit so i should be fine.  now i just worry someone will steal my new blizzies before i get them changed over....that would suck.  I've been backing in just so the tires are so obvious looking. 

 have kept mostly to the airstrip trail except for Monday walks this week.  roads were fine today in the end, but wind.  nice to have a big open area when you are walking. easier to spot moose or bears.  yes, they are still out there.  won't be too long but I'm still packing bear spray.  the old stuff since i had to get rid of the one i had after i dropped it and it sprung a leak. 

 got my puffins repaired on the little library.  it was bugging me so since it warmed a bit i slipped out this evening before the sun went down. 

 the house smells great because of the fresh pumpkin bread!  of course, i had to sneak some. will save some for Sundays Pumpkin Massacre. 

 walks have all been pretty uneventful thankfully. I'm always good with that.  tonight i watched the end of the Dodger game 2 of the World Series.  it went into extra innings, always good.  sadly, they did lose this game, but now it's a tied series. many great memories surrounding Dodger games. went to several with my brothers.  often we were in the bleachers, but sometimes our Great Uncle let us use his season tickets.  sweet! always fun. 

 listened to Preets podcast last night as i loaded pictures in my shutterfly account.  step one to getting calendars made.  love podcasts now. some news ones, npr, bbc and then there is stuff you should know and the moth.  all favies. 

 local news is an Iditarod scandal.  not sure what happened.  everything blew up. i do recall reading some blip about some dogs having positive drug tests.  i guess it was Dallas Seaveys dogs.  so they apparently announced his name the other day.  i saw his post first though.  that dude is squeaky clean so myself and it seems many others do not believe he would do this.  seems like the dogs had tramadol in their system.  high doses.  seems it happened post race in Nome, while they chilled in the dog yard perhaps.  no reason he would be so dumb...fear is sabotage.   PETA hates the race and so someone PETA or sympathetic is a possibility.  Peta has a rep for doing crazy stuff, even if it is harmful to animals to make their point.  seems counter to what they claim to stand for, but it does seem to be how they function.

 so that is the big story of late.  mushers are ticked and it's looking like some are pulling out of race in protest.  they feel the folks who run the race have screwed this all up.

 annoying that there is drama now in things that we usually just enjoy drama free.  that is the world we live in.

 so the big dossier that Steel shared with Comey before the election is still the big news grabber.  faux news is going crazy trying to spin and make folks believe the fake news again.  nobody said it was fake or the information contained wasn't possibly accurate. some of what is contained has been verified as true.  the DNC and Hillary camp were paying for the investigative firm to continue with this research to look for information on iitoo.  folks seem to think this is a big conspiracy.  apparently both sides do this and they tend to hide the money they spent.  does seem unseemly.  not sure that it is illegal however. 

 in this case it was someone or someones in the GOP who first hired this firm to do research into Drumpf.  this is information that hasn't been uncovered yet.  who in the GOP was involved in hiring these guys during the primaries.  was it one of the other, what, 17 contenders? was it higher up.  just curious. they backed off when drumpf became their candidate and the DNC/HIl took over.

 also curious is if Hillary and DNC were paying for this research why did they not leak/release it before the election?  did they not know what it contained?  did Steel see how big it was and deal with it as he did, bypassing them or did they decide it was too big?  it is curious though. you would think they would have totally found a way to leak that stuff out if they actually had the information.  maybe they never saw it? Mueller clearly sees the value in what it contains.  Manaford is looking at money laundering i think.  not sure what Flynn was up to.  Trump jr seems more of a bungling fool with his email and meet with Rus over "adoptions".  there are so many connections....either they were fools or there was some bull going on.  can't put much past Put. 

 every day there is some news about the Rus stuff.  we do need to figure out what Rus is up to before our next major election.  we need to keep our elections as safe as we can...of course, i laugh as gerrymandering on both sides has been our own way of screwing up our elections. time for those to go for the sake of us voters.

 in the meantime, they did manage to pass something with Pen as a tie breaker.  of course, it's helpful to the big bankers.  so much for iitoo protections for the middle class.  he could give a crap about the middle class.  all he does is to benefit the rich.  he talks like he's all about the regular folks, but...not.

 the rest of the pictures are from Portage pass hike. 

 I'm tired.  not sure why.  took a wee nap earlier.  didn't get much accomplished really on this stretch off. 

 sometimes you just have to give yourself a break 

 looking down on Whittier.  this hike is up, up, up but great views both directions and it's only a mile to the top.

 the pups were happy.  i think they remembered there was little pools of water up top

 this is the first one.  you can see the glacier on the other side. 

 they have fun anywhere.

 they are great morning snugglers.  got some extra snuggle time with Tusker this evening.  he gave me the lean.  love a dog lean. 

 yesterday...i think it was yesterday.  i went into the shelter and got their dog tags renewed. it was just getting to be such a bother online so it seemed easier to just run down there with the paperwork. 

 the lady at the counter was super helpful and nice.  she even had me bring in the dogs so she could scan them and write their id numbers in their paperwork.  then she called our vet and got them the information there as well.

 she had me email photo's to them for their records.  i feel better in case something happened and they escaped the yard somehow.  it's not totally inconceivable.  if there is wind like tonight or an quake it could take down the fence. 

 hate to lose these guys .

 we have already had many fun adventures today.  the times add up fast.  so far I've kept them alive.  there are so many things that can happen. i think i get more cautious with my dogs as i get older. not sure if I'm more attached or dependent on them emotionally or just you see/hear what can happen and just get more paranoid. 

 i think most parents get more chill with each kid.  my parents were super chill with me. 

 the deaths of the dogs are for sure harder and harder to take. 

 we met another doodle up there. kind of an Ivy Rose look a like.

 this is another pond/tarn at the top of the trail. 

 i kept debating how far to go this day. you can walk another 2 miles down the other side to Portage Lake.  i had really thought it was like another 1 mile, but then it does seem much longer .  i went to a view point and then i turned around.  i really thought i had gone further and then there was this sign saying you had gone 1/4 mile.  what! i checked view then opted to try to hit the next tunnel back out of Whittier.

 this is a bigger tarn/pond on the way down towards the lake

 here are the views.  would look very different other times of years.  it's pretty brushy so i think i have usually returned to avoid accidentally meeting a bear.

 pretty...some winters the lake freezes nice and solid and you can walk to the face of the glacier.  it's over 2 mile walk on the lake.  it's not really a totally safe adventure.  there are cracks all over and those big chunks of ice can fall onto the frozen lake...this can cause open water, small tsunami's under the frozen part of lake...more cracks. 

 i read there were some folks out on the ice, back in 1964 when the face was much closer...they were out there during the big quake.  they survived, but it was apparently a pretty harrowing experience. 

 not very much left tide water at this point.  it can calve under the water as well as above the water though.  something to keep in mind...

 both times i have walked out in the winter...the thing has calved the same day i went out.  this probably hasn't helped me to be become totally relaxed out there

 the first time there was open water right up at the face.  the second time i stayed back further and there was fresh water that had pushed up through all the cracks out front of the glacier.  i stayed back much further than others...I'm sure they got better photographs.

 I'm cool with less cool photographs rather than having it calve when I'm right up on it.  these things are massive

 getting smaller and smaller though.

 amazing how much they have receded since i moved north. 

 one last dip before we head back down towards the car.

 too bad it's not a hot spring!!

 you can watch the cars line up to hit the tunnel on your way down  easy to keep tabs of the line this way.  guess i shall turn in soon.  probably should pay a few bills first. 

thankful for:  A.  a warm spell so I'm not driving on ice the next week or two maybe  B.  dog snuggle time  C.  tom for allowing some discussion on politics even though we don't see much the same.