a few steps closer to destruction of Democracy....

 but there is a percentage of citizens who still believe it isn't happening.  the party that claims to stand alone in protecting the rule of law is rapidly taking an ax to the rule of law for their own benefit.  destroying respect for and independence of the judiciary branch.  this is not new this attack was began before the election.  iitoo laying seeds of doubt in the judiciary branch. 

 even more sadly is how the current GOP has turned over the legislative branch by folding almost all of their powers to the iitoo and his stooges.  Nunes is the latest and largest stooge of late...Ryan for just sitting back with that smirk on his face. Nunes for this bull memo which was created by himself, his aides and members of the white house team.  this irresponsible act was done with the sole purpose of clouding the investigation into the iitoo.  to those who believe he has any intent on "cleaning house" in the judiciary branch, you have been duped i fear.  the points are incomplete and taken out of context.  Carter Page had a fisa on him long before iitoo was a candidate.  this had nothing to do with the dossier.  further, there is no way to have continued the fisa over and over without continued proof coming forward that showed a need to. 

 thank you for giving Put more intelligence and details...clearly, he has a direct link to this now that his ultimate stooge, iitoo is in place in the white house.

 our Democracy has been weakened by the presence of this administration.  the memo will not stop Mueller from finding truth.  if the GOP and those who voted for this iitoo were true patriots, as they forever claim to be, they would want Mueller to go full steam forward in this investigation in how Rus attempted to interfere with our election and how he will again.  if this leads to members of the iitoo party and/or administrative team than a true patriot would want all bad seeds out and to protect our nation and all branches of power. 

 forget about HRC for Gods sake....it's over. you tried for nearly 20 years to find the "goods"on the Clintons to no avail...either there is not that much there, they are amazingly gifted at hiding the many crazy things attributed to them (who really believes they are?) or the Republicans are the most incompetent investigators  out there and can only come up with conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory....which seems to be enough for those that follow conservative media.  they don't seem to require any proof of anything if HRC name is attached to it.  well wake up...you have been sucked into all of this because hatred makes one weak and easy to manipulate.  it's how they suck you in..it's how hitler sucked in his citizens, it's how so many were killed in Rwanda and Serbia and how ethnic cleansing works.  those who hate are easy to manipulate to do anything...

 and believe me.....we, all humans, are capable of anything if we can justify it or rationalize it.

 there is no way Mueller, a Republican, would keep adding top lawyers onto this investigation if he did not believe there was something there.  this is NOT a nothing burger.  ignore Hannity...he and many others in the current conservative media are quickly becoming trump news..loyalty is not what is needed when it comes to media, conspiracy theories based on zero facts not needed.  follow the facts...

 iitoo and the GOP members so attached to protecting him at this time are being overly zealous for a reason.  they know what the facts will find and therefore, like Nixon, they will work harder and harder to protect the facts from seeing the light..even creating grossly doctored memo's. 

 want you to ask yourself why?  why are they working so hard to obstruct this?  if there was truly nothing there, there would be no reason to work so hard to stop it...it would simply be investigated and that would be it.  i also want you to think back on all the times HRC was put on the chopping block and investigated by the republicans...she never did anything near this level of shenanigans to curtail the investigations.  she cooperated...why?  was it because she knew there would be nothing to find?  nunes and iitoo are working overtime to curtail this investigation for one reason and one reason only...there is something there.  we don't know what yet.  i suspect Mueller and his team do.

 believe me, they will find ways to safe guard all the work they are churning up...no doubt they have been doing that all along knowing what they may be dealing with.  knowing this iitoo and the Republicans are working every angle they can find to stop this investigation from even happening...

 these are from a sunset the other night out at Woronzof.  always beautiful

 today i slept in as i was on call last night and so i rarely sleep until after 3 am or so...seems less likely to be called in after 3 am.  i stayed up and power watched "the paradise".  a series on Netflix that i have been enjoying.  sad to see it end.  wonder if they will do more seasons.

 the rest of my week was spend in the ER.  steady, some screaming and craziness, which is pretty normal in any ER. one guy came close to a take down...the other patients are always a bit horrified and yet kind of fascinated...aspects of our lives as nurses they had previously had no idea about.  the guy was either having a paranoid episode or his life really is in danger...some times it's hard to tell.  i try not to judge...reality...my reality may be very different from anothers.  hallucinations can be very real..but sometimes things you think can't be real are.  you just never really know what real is some days.

 tend to easily get my 10,000 steps in working ER.

 i have a scratch on my face.  want to teach the pups more tricks to pass time when they are rambunctious.  also, with Ivy having the leapies...seems like perhaps if i teach her to jump up on me to command and gently and then teach her to get off on command...perhaps it will stop the wild jumping finally.  Tusker is getting it down though it was his claw that gave me the scratch.  we do go longer times without as much jumping on Ivy's part, so that gives me hope.

 love the long light of winter sunsets.

 today we hit the dog park and then headed over to Oceanview Bluff park.  I'd forgotten to toss my cleats in the car so we didn't go too far out...plus the tides must have been pretty big with these full moon nights...there were some damp spots out there so it seemed fine to not venture too far out there anyway.

 as long as the pups are chasing their tennis ball they are happy no matter where we wander.  i just enjoy snapping some pics and being with the dogs.  very peaceful out there.

 they both seem pretty satisfied. 

 got the flaps to the dog door changed.  one was cracked.  it was cold out and the screws are a bit tough to screw in.  don't think i have the seal i had before.  should probably another spare flap just in case though. 

 quite a few folks this day wandering around the "beach" at Woronzof this day.  that place always gets packed at sunset. i suspect it was really packed the other night for the lunar eclipse/blue moon thing too.

 i was up late that night as well. i had set my alarm for about 4am...but at 3 am i was still awake and i peeked outside and it was just starting.  so i headed out to the front deck in my cookie monster onesie to watch and attempt photo's. 

 it was below zero too so that made it a bit more challenging.

 i also spent the evening getting Skelly and friends dressed for Valentines!  looking pretty good.  I'm pretty creative...something i never really gave myself credit for. 

 Skelly challenges me to be creative.  painting, writing...Skelly...he he. 

 was also able to work towards clearing off my WARIS table. have wanted to shift my files around and make space for the WARIS papers in the file cabinet....finally done!!  papers are such a bother...seems to be improving a bit.  love Pinterest for this. so many things i used to tuck away in a file and never view again.  now much easier to save and find later.

 perhaps one a reward one day could be a real office desk in this office.  i have a butterfly table for the computer and a card table for WARIS.  felt good though to get some of that paperwork filed.  if i were to croak I'd hope someone would carry it on.  took a lot of work to set up, would hate for it to just end....the walrus will be here after i am not...at least i hope so.  my hope would be that someone would want to continue to see them protected.

 would love to find another young, enthusiastic board member to bring to the team...would be doubly cool if they were great at the computer stuff.  our web page could use a gifted soul to help out.

 i skipped the sotu address...but then i will say it's not like i plan my life around any potus sotu address.  at least Obama was a great speaker so did enjoy a few of his i think.  I'm sure I've watched a few as i fixed dinner or prepped for work.  this current.....he lies constantly anyway and lives for ratings so I'd rather not stoke that ego. even if nobody watched he'd still say it was the most watched ever in the history of man.  he may be very similar to my paranoid patient the other day. 

 so much craziness happens every day in our nation...that address feels like it happened months ago.  we are hanging on in this nation. 

 wrote my cousin, wanted to see what she thought of everything going on.  as suspected we have similar views on much that is happening.  just good to hear from someone related to me that sees things more as i do.  I'm not insane, other people do feel the same. 

 worked my buns off the other night.  felt like i always had 4 patients while the person i was working with had just 2...why did they fill my rooms so quickly. the next night a co-worker mentioned that he'd heard i had made a comment about this...he let me know i was no deluded.  others often just don't clear their rooms efficiently so the folks in triage don't know they have empty rooms...whereas i clean and clear my rooms...so they just see that a room is ready and fill it. 

 what some people will do to get out of work.  good to hear i wasn't just imagining it.  obviously this has happened to this co-worker as well.  we are both onto it now.

 i did get to go  home early the other day and was on call last night...lazy week.  part of me feels like packing up and heading out for a road trip with the pups!! an overnight to Valdez perhaps?  hmm...  tempting. clear and cold this week.  there are some pretty waterfalls on the way there that would look beautiful frozen.  also the lake/glacier by the airport there would be cool to visit in winter. 

 saw portage is frozen...but just frozen.  not thick.  I'll wait to make that trek til it's a bit more solid.  those low temps did freeze up a few places that weren't frozen before.  may be worth some wandering time out on the lake though.  will be that clear, freaky looking ice. bubbles maybe!! :-)  love bubbles in ice.

 people should be cautious when they post memes'.  who are you aiding when you do so.  a friend posted a meme that was something about white pride. even if you aren't racist and you make a comment to try and prove that point...why would you post something like this....who do you think a meme like that originated from?  we all need to be cautious in these times that we do not do the work for fringe groups...it may seem innocent but each like or share these fringe groups get benefits them.  in order to take back social media and start to unify our nation again we all need to fight against our urges to post political memes or negative memes.  there have been a few that i have posted and then later returned and deleted.

 we do have a segment of our population that is literally armed and ready to go to civil war against their fellow citizens. they have already decided that it's their way or no way.  they have already decided that there is no compromise.  they have already decided that it's not worth the conversation with people who see things differently.  i had a vision of being pinned with a big snowflake like the star of David in the times of Hitler.  it's not impossible. 

 i walk and i enjoy the peace of nature. i have been blessed to have lived a life of relative calm and peace.  where wars were fought on other lands but i have never had to actually deal with it...but i know that this is a gift that may not last my lifetime.  that no land is safe from war, that no people are safe from violence. 

 no nation exists without having major power struggles and disagreements from time to time.  civil wars are the fact of life in any nation, especially one like ours where we are a blended society...an experiment of diversity. i love the diversity.  it can be a challenge but i love that we live with so many who have come here to seek better for themselves and their families.  i love that we are a place that others see as a place of hope and possibility and i feel sad that there are members of our society that want to put a stop to that because they live in fear. 

 hate and fear and jealousy are negative emotions. they are powerful though and will destroy those who allow them too.  we all have these in us, but it is up to us to cap them, to control these emotions.  to control them we must first recognize them. 

 catching up on the weeks papers....little story about a 17 year old Romanian living in Ohio...kid is 7ft 7inches tall.  lanky as hell!  size 17 feet and an 8 foot wingspan!!  crazy.  height like this does come with some medical issues though...he's trying to get the basketball thing down...his height alone may not be enough.  he only weighs 195 pounds!! 

 witnessed a wipe out on the sledding hill today.  a family was standing in the middle of the sledding hill looking down...never a good idea.  these hills are pretty fast now that the snow is packed down.  i was walking up from the tide zone and of course, looking up, as sledders kept blasting past me and the dogs.  i wanted to keep myself and the dogs out of the way of the sleds...which i did.  this family though....they weren't watching.  thankfully, their kid, maybe 7, was fully padded and had a helmet on. i caught the dads eye and pointed up at the sled headed right at them.  i think he got out of the way, but the kid didn't.  that kid was like an animal caught on the grill of a truck.  he got picked up and dragged down the hill at least 5 feet.  his mom was on him fast.

 i suspect he got the wind knocked out of him, but he seemed okay.  that was it for them though.  day of sledding over. 

 so much ice...it's so pretty.  lots of areas of frost as well.  makes me want to wander in search of photo and walking ops.  we have longer days as well, which is great.

 ski for women tomorrow.  may try to stop by and snap some pictures of the costumes...maybe walk down to beach after....always good. and the tides are low for sunset right now.

 another work week is over and now i have a few more days to play...always fun.  Alaska is an amazing playground...

 i shall attempt to get to sleep before 3am tonight so i can get up and play!!

grateful for:  A.  health that allows me the ability to play  B.  that all is not lost, hope is eternal C.  entertainment by the puppies...always make me laugh