dead frozen whales still stink...

 seemed a fitting headline for the post.  it's a truism. thinks that you do not always know living a day to day life...but something i am now experienced in and can share with you.  the dead whale remains down on the kincaid beach and it does indeed still contain a potent odor.  seems odd that it could still. it's entombed in ice bergs but some parts are still sticking out. 

 Monday walk.  just LS and i.  we booked it.  finished earlier than usual.  joined speedy at the coffee house.  i still got a chill though it was really actually nice out..in the teens.  attempted to chill on the couch for a few but still felt cold and Ivy and Tusker were not making relaxing easy so in the end i headed upstairs and got under the heated throw.  i crashed...guess i needed the sleep.

 below you can see the difficulty of chilling on the couch with Ivy.  it is funny.   she helps me limit my screen time.  she recognizes that those little screens divert attention from her and she will find a way to gain back that attention.  i must say it's really quite effective.  if you have kids with screen issues you may attempt this.  climb on top of them and then begin a play fight with another family member..in this case Tusker.

 clearly, we did not come close to wearing her out today...  i average 4 miles on my days off which means they do much, much more as they run all over the place.  still not enough.  the pool day was the last day i felt i really wore them out...that was 2 separate walks and 1 hour of swimming in the pool. 

 day looked a bit gloomy to start but it cleared out.  i had debated heading out somewhere to watch the sunset...but then the nap happened.  good bye sunset. 

 lots of news this weekend.  our government is really pretty insane at this time.  always amazing how one side thinks this administration is doing great and then the other thinks they totally bite.  I'm on the totally bite side, obviously.  I've never been good at  hiding my viewpoints on things.  it will get me killed if there is a civil war.  that mouth of mine...but still, I'd rather die saying my peace than hide as a coward.

 in this world you live in fear or you live in truth. your choice.  so far it's worked out pretty well for me.  conventional is not my way and I'm OK with that.  i see the negative impacts of living in fear.  it's not pretty and it's actually pretty sad to see folks who never get out of situations that bring them misery because they live in fear.

 the dead whale can be seen in these two pictures. it's a humpback.  i suspect the spring bears will make a feast of this when the thaw happens or a big spring storm will carry it away.

 those are ribs.

 the rest are out at the Campbell Creek Estuary. 

 did make it for that sunset. every day i have such high ambitions and then...well, i walk and nap.  i did read some too so i guess that is an acceptable way to waste time. 

 watched a good documentary last night. "unrest" i think that was it.  it was about severe cases of Chronic Fatigue.  i would have to say i have often been of the mind as well that perhaps some of this is in their head.  clearly, i have been wrong.  there are some really suffering. i have a niece that got this in her teens. my apologies, i never really gave it much thought. i think that is easy to do because these are not people who end up in the ER's over this. 

 this a disease of spectrum.  some will resolve themselves over time.  seems they all start with a flu like event.  some just never recover from it.  they have good days or bad days.  they often have sensitivities to light or sounds.  i suspect because you tend to see them on their good days it's easy to think that it's not a big deal.  research money does not come to them.  our system is terrible as far as this goes.  if there is not possibility of great monetary return there is no incentive for  companies to research meds.  at this time i suspect research for diseased through the government will be slashed.

 the GOP of current does not show much interest in helping their fellow man.

 the government shut down did end today and that ended with the CHiP being refunded for another 6 years i guess.  sadly, the GOP has held this hostage...should have been taken care of long ago but they opted to use it as a bartering chip.  the Dems opted to take this one on this shutdown and work on immigration issues over the next 3 weeks...before the next shutdown showdown.

 i was told i was misinformed...i can take it.  i wasn't.  i am aware of the actual vote tally for the shutdown and I'm aware the potus doesn't actually vote...these things are not as simple as a numbers game...much more involved.  even the GOP were frustratingly mentioning that they really can't tell what the iitoo wants....it changes.  i know at least one felt that miller was playing some cards..of course, they are all learning to use media to get to iitoo. he watches a lot of TV and if it sounds like any of those around him are getting the air time above him or if it appears they are running the show...well lets just say it gets easier to manipulate the idiot.

 clearly, his moods and desires change moment to moment and day to day.  his surrogates just do their best to cover their tracks.  they pretend the iitoo is competent and put on the big show for him on the media as well.  the truth is the emperor has no clothes and nobody wants to tell him.

 the GOP couldn't get enough votes to keep the government open..they couldn't even get their own votes...with some negotiation they may have done the deal since there were moderate Dems who did cross over, but with out the help of their commander in chief they do their best i guess.  he wanted to be off in Fl celebrating his one year.  instead he stayed in DC tweeting.

 right after the vote to shut down the Dems got up 3 x.  once to stop the shutdown for another 24 hours, another got up to stop the shutdown until Monday and a third got up to request assurance that the military would be paid and that military death payments would not be held up due to the government shutdown.  the turtle objected to all three.  funny that the second idiot in command was speaking to military abroad trying to blame the dems and stating they would not bend on their immigration because of this...

 the really odd thing was that all around him the military was very multi-colored. i suspect many of them were first or second generation immigrants, perhaps even a dreamer or two.  you do not have to be a citizen to serve. best to really look at your audience before giving the rally speech.  this was not a group of citizens from a iitoo rally.  looked pretty uncomfortable to me for many in the group.

 loved all the bantering about who was winning with the shut down...i agree no party wins in a shutdown.  i don't see the dems have many other choices but to drag it out would tend to make it worse for everyone.  those clips of Mitch saying "i object" will no doubt be played repeatedly in campaigns across the state...him objecting to continuing the payments for military during the shutdown, no matter how short it turned out to be. they kind of boxed him in on that one.  sucker!

 i know how they feel though.  i am not overly competitive but i do love getting a good shot in even if i never win a game. 

 this administration continues with it's petty, childish ways...they changed the phone message for the white house. it goes on about how they are shut down because of Dems.  so stupid.  they all play a role in every shut down and the iitoo was quoted repeatedly during the 2013 shut down as saying it always is the fault of the POTUS as they are the leader and he would be there as a leader making sure it didn't happen if he was potus...right...of course, his followers simply say, well that was a different situation.  he gets a pass on absolutely everything..it's amazing, but that is what happens when you lead a cult.  everyone agrees with you and all the women have sex with you.

 one woman that apparently had sex with the iitoo got a pay off to keep quiet right before election i think it was.  a porn star.  the affair was right after his last child was born while married to his third wife...i always find men who would screw around at this time to be a special kind of disgusting.  yes, i realize that he probably screwed around with Melania on his second wife. i know she had to have known what she was getting into, but still to screw around when a woman is carrying your child or just had your child seems even more gross and contemptible.   she chooses to stay with him.  people make those choices for themselves.  everyone screamed about hrc staying with bill.  I'd like to think i would book but love and all that is never predictable.  i don't care if you are smart, dumb, rich, poor, pretty or not...these cases are never predictable.  tough to judge what anyone does in the face of it all. feel bad for anyone in this position...especially if you are in a high profile position like hrc, melania, jackie kennedy...you have a role to play that can be tough to just step away from.

 still this will be yet another query into this iitoo financial issues.  talking to my sister and she mentioned the media can't say anything nice about this iitoo...well he brings so much of it on himself. the truth is he lives for it. any attention good or bad.  he bitches but he needs it all.  all those crazy tweets just bring him attention.  he is driven to it to his own detriment.  he may have passed his simple cognition exam (believe me that is not tough) but that just means he probably has a psychological issue rather than a biologic one.  so his fix it lawyer paid her off and perhaps others, but where did fix it guy get the money and could it be construed as a campaign pay off.

 tonight it has also become known that Sessions was trying to get the director of the FBI to fire McCabe.  not only did he refuse he threatened to quit. more obstructive behavior from the GOP.

 the pawn Nunes had a secret group trying to trash the FBI...now they have a secret memo...which they wrote themselves that supposedly will take down Mueller...of course, there is no reason for them to not release it other than they really just want to muddy the waters and have nothing in the memo's of consequence.  the FBI has of course, demanded to see this and they have refused.  smoke screen....or should we say nothing burger.  it's embarrassing. 

 Neil Diamond has Parkinson's.  he will retire from touring.  always a tough disease.  my father had it and one of my brothers does.  thankfully, my Dad never lost his ability to reason, a blessing nor did he lose his independence which would have been really tough on him.  my brother battles bravely onward.  he just doesn't complain.  he is always an inspiration to me.

 everyone has their battles in life and I'm proud of so many i know and love that do fight bravely on no matter what hits them..be it Cancer, other illnesses or natural disasters.  we are strong stock as they say.  we are all stronger than we realize though. life sometimes just comes at you and you have to deal with it.  did a look back at a poem i had written when my brothers son Bryce passed last year. the anniversary of that is coming up and i just was thinking about them and how wonderful they were with that young man who shared their life all those years. some people take a challenge and turn it into an opportunity while others get pulled under...I'm proud to see so many in my family rise to the challenges of their lives and ride the waves rather than be pulled under...maybe it's all those days in Laguna.  we all did some time in those waves, rolling and rolling.  we learned how to get our heads back to the surface.

 a few folks on a snowmachine up north ran into a moose.  it did not end well for any of them.  alcohol was involved it said at the end of the story.  so sad...

 a bunch of dogs were airlifted out of Puerto Rico and delivered to the mainland to find new homes.  life is still very difficult in may parts of the islands after the hurricane.  we have not done the best we could have there. there have been so many failures this year but at this point there is so much and the right just alters it all to make iitoo look like the hero he wants to be shown to be.

 another group of refugees from the Australia group have been flown here.  he's refused them but so far 2 groups have made their way here now with more to follow. 

 hopefully both parties learn to just work around this iitoo and finally get stuff done..it may be the best thing that comes out of this insanity..the two will have to work together in spite of him and the nuts he puts in positions of power.

 my photo's will probably be highlighted on the Tustumena 200 programs and such.  this is a dog mushing race on the Kenai.  no money.  not worth it really.  i just sent them a group to use.  always fun.  the professional stuff is a big bother with minimal return so easier to just share pictures on most of this stuff..see if as a charity donation really.  people have given me money before so if it's easy I'm not opposed to getting money but i see many who spend a lot to attempt to live off of it and they just don't make it.  I've only gotten payment twice i think.  the local paper and the Samantha Bee show. 

 so I'm never gonna survive on that. haha.   i tend to just look at photography as  something i was given to share.  it seems to make people happy and brightens the day for others and i think that should be enough. i really enjoy snapping pictures so i think part of me fears that if i do it for money it will suck the fun out of it. make something that relieves my stress, stressful. 

 Sam's are closing in AK.  i never went there.  try to avoid Walmart as i hear they are not the best company to their employees.  they made some big announcement that they would use their big tax break to trickle down to their employees...only there were a lot of stipulations on these bonus checks.  much was dependent on people working full time or for so many years.  the vast percentage of Walmart employees do not work full time because the company has zero interest in giving their workers any benefits if they don't have to.  then they turned around the same day and announced they were closing 63 stores...nice trickle down techniques...take the money and run i guess.  big surprise.  thankfully, Costco will take over the Fairbanks building.  Costco has a good reputation with their workers so i say good riddance Sam's and hello Costco.

 Anchorage vacant office space has doubled over the past year...loving all this winning!! 

 working on a date for another talk at REI.  spoke to my contact at Fish and Game. would love to get one of the rangers to speak. will plan to live stream it again.  hopefully, my skills improve with the livestream.  so i wrote to my contact at REI to see about a date in April...when the Ranger is back in town and before they head out.  EW says they already have 20 applications for visitors to the island. not sure if those are day trips or campers. hope the boat guy has an improved attitude and is less flaky but flaky can be normal in the bush.

 oh another story to watch on the investigation side...the NRA may have funneled money from Rus to the iitoo campaign. a Rus deputy governor of the Rus bank...so close ties to Put also has close ties to the NRA.  the NRA gave a crazy amount of money to fund GOP races$55 million...$30 million went to support the iitoo....this is triple what they invested the last potus election.  crazy amounts of cash...i personally believe these insane amounts of donations should be stopped on both sides.  it's insane what we spend on these elections.  it's a business and a pay off on all sides. it needs to stop.  all they do is take actions in DC based on the next election and the next election and who will give them money.  Ryan got some crazy amount donated to him within days of the big tax scam being passed from the Koch arses. 

 attempting to freeze some hearts in preparation for Skelly's Valentines display.  he will be dressed as cupid of course.

 loved the stark simplicity of this scene above. 

 9/13 members of the National Park Service advisory board have resigned.  no meetings, Zinke can't be bothered to convene one.  this administration and those who have been appointed are seemingly happily going about dismantling.  they have the full support of the more radical leaning right. 

 the sunsets on yet another day.  i have tomorrow and then i head back to work again for three.

 do need to plan a trek out of town...always good to start hitting the road with the pups as the light lengthens. 

 still a bit shy of the full day...but if i actually wake up earlier and get moving i can make it!!

 i suspect i have bitched as much as you can all take...i suspect most of you just look at the pictures anyway..which is fine.  i write to clear my head...to feel I'm heard even if nobody listens.  when you live alone there are only the dogs to speak to.  i need to feel humans hear me...even if it's only a mirage in my brain.

 the day ends....

 one can always hope that tomorrow begins again.  you never know.  life is fleeting and we are not often told when our time is up.  bless us all with another day!!

grateful for:  A.  each day of life  B. breathing fresh clean air  C.  puppies that make me laugh and laugh and laugh.