Easter Sunday..

 or really for me, Sunday.  the pups did allow me a little Easter fun photo shoot. we hit gasline/powerline/tank between shifts yesterday.  i had gotten out of work from PICU a wee bit early.

 this was last night.  i worked in PICU the first two nights...well the first night i started in ER, stayed a bit, then did a 1:1 for a bit there and then i was moved to PICU.  i brought the rabbit ears thinking I'd use them if i was in PICU again.  i was in the adult ICU though.  my one patient was not really able to speak but her laugh worked great when she saw me come in with these rabbit ears.

 it was totally worth it for that 3-5 minute reaction from her.  Ivy often looks like a kindergarten kid to me.  just that excited face, so eager to please. 

 so not a bad week at work at all.  the ears did bring a lot of smiles to co-workers and some others in the hospital that just gave me those, "you are a freak" looks.  i pity those who are unable to let their weird selves out and therefore become annoyed with others who happily and easily be all freaky.  the world would be a better place if more people could just relax and not worry about every thing they do and how it will be seen.

 i recall in my twenties i was house sitting for a friend at her house.  i had a date over to watch a movie.  when my Mom caught wind of that it was all what will the neighbors think.  they will assume this or that.  i kept saying i don't know the neighbors, nobody i know besides me friend knows the neighbors. i just couldn't figure out what it mattered.  it didn't.  i recall i was also told i wasn't to hold any drink if i was at a non-Mormon event..even if was water it could be assumed i was drinking alcohol.  my mom was in to that appearance of evil thing.  it was pretty rare that i would have received any sort of non-Mormon invite to a party though. i was not one of the popular kids.

 was thinking as i walked today in North Biv of the oddity of things in our world right now. 

 these are the pups on my favorite tree in Kincaid. i nearly headed down there today but i woke with a headache and it took a bit to get moving. 

 faith, how does it shape people?  in our nation people seem to find it more and more rational to not trust our government.  i mean they often claim they must be able to arm themselves in order to protect us against our own corrupt government. 

 in other nations, Israel, Switzerland...for example, they arm themselves to protect against enemy intrusions.  why are we more afraid of our own government than attacks by others.  is it because we have had little experience with attacks from others on our own soil?  is it because our nation was created and continues to be a place where people come from all over to be safe from religious persecution.  this does continue.  many of our immigrant population want to practice their religion in peace

 smiley face out of moose poop.  that's a normal thing to do right?

how does faith, the concept impact ones other belief's.  there is a blind faith, which actually seems redundant because faith is in itself a somewhat blind belief.  you must just trust that what you believe in, is real to some degree.  you can't prove God through science so you must have trust that what you believe is true. trust that those who lead you are telling you truth.  does this make you susceptible to believe other things more easily since you have spent a lifetime believing those clergy or other religious leaders. people claim to know the truth of that which they believe but in truth, you can only really "know" in your heart.  you believe, you trust, you believe you know....many others think very differently or see their religions also as truth.  so everyone believes or "knows" their particular religion is the truth. 

 that always seemed odd to me.  everyone is not possibly right.  I've felt for years that all have some truth and all have some untruths.  you believe what you want to, live how you want.  you can pick and choose from all the various spiritual paths and find a path which works for you.  if you believe in a God it's all God.  it's not really a Christian God and a Muslim God....it's just God.

 all things become corrupted to a degree...big corporations, large government entities, non-profit's and religions.  it just seems the more organized and large something becomes, no matter what the original goals were the more at risk they become to be corrupted.  humans are susceptible to all sorts of temptations.  at this stage for myself i guess i find myself doubting truths of any organization that gets too large.  they seem to lose sight of their values in their quest to keep control, to organize,  to maintain.  you must do the research and ask the questions of all whether it be government, religion, corporation or non-profit.  faith is great but it has to be backed with some personal research and suspicion really. 

 good intentions often get lost in organizations.  how do you control the masses, how do you keep track of it all. 

 these are out at Oceanview Bluff Park.

 one friend suggested that those with strong faiths are somehow more programmed to believe what they are told by sources they trust.  that this was why so many seemed to transfer their faith to the current iitoo and those around him. they take what they read and hear on fox and conservative talk radio nuts and are so willing to have faith in what they are being told.  they have spent their entire lives being told what to believe.  they can question it, but not really...as the answer must always be that they believe what they have believed all along because there isn't another option in their world.

 it was a point of great frustration for me as i pondered all things religion.  you were simply told to fast, pray and read the scriptures and if you didn't not come up with the answers that this church was true you were then commanded to fast, pray and read more. it was a never ending loop.  the answer could only be that the church was true, if you didn't get that answer you needed to start over and repeat until you got that answer.  there was no exit strategy.  if you didn't come up with the answer you were supposed to come up with you were a failure.  there was no way out of it....except to just walk away. 

 for me, when i did walk away, i had to start from scratch.  i had to question everything i had been told to believe.  read everything and try to find a new way to believe, one that felt more real for me.

 but in truth most people do not move from the belief they were raised with.  it may still be Christian but a different group of Christians.  the same with others.  they may stay Muslim but end up with a more conservative, more radical or less conservative, less radical branch of the same belief. it is not easy to move from what you were taught to believe.  for me because you must spend a period of time floundering a bit.  you also risk being ostracized by others.  leaving forces you to ask the really hard questions.  forces you to come to understand that those things that were taught to you as absolute truths may be not true at all.  it would have for sure been easier to just stay with what was comfortable, but ultimately, the most happiness for me i feel, came because i left and asked the questions...questions i continue to ask about all things.  life is not always comfortable...but in the discomfort we often find our strengths and successes.  freedom comes through struggle.

 are some of us just less likely to follow the herd and therefore more likely to take the path less traveled.  are we braver or just more awkward?  not fitting in anywhere so we just take off on our own.

 people continue to practice their religion, even in secret if needs be.  i asked someone once, what is it that changed for you during those 8 years with Obama?  what religious freedoms were lost.  i believe in this, it was admitted that nothing had changed.  their ability to continue to practice their religion wasn't altered at all. in truth, Gays getting married does not in any way impact your religious freedoms...just as for me you being Christian and living as a Christian doesn't alter my ability to live as i desire.  this is why so many of us fight to prevent any religion from dictating the choices in the lives of the others. in order for us all to get along we have to just allow others to live as they wish and we must support each other to have that freedom to do so as long as it doesn't prevent the others from living their chosen lives.   my religious freedom, my freedoms in general also allows for your religious freedoms or your general freedoms. 

 bear was out as i headed to the trail today so i stopped and snapped a few pics. there were several other big cameras out there.  i stayed back behind them, even though my lens length is not as good...better to have others in front of you and/or be able to run faster right?  it is a bear and it can kill you. the bear was out of the tree and at one point the bear made a little run back towards the tree.  camera folks moved pretty fast....but it would never really be fast enough if that bear really felt like taking out one of us. 

 sledding

 it is proof how tolerant and adaptable many wild animals are. it just takes that one time though.  bears get in bad moods too.

 moose near the dog park.

 the rest are from trek to Homer i think.

 Miss Breezy Chatterbug is freely wandering the upstairs without being chased...that is progress.

 just a few from Seward.

 then the sun starts to set as i near Homer that night.

 was trying to hurry and reach beach in time to catch at least the tail end of the sunset.  so beautiful out there.

 Homer is pretty, but in truth not many beaches up here have it on the beaches of Southeast AK.  Kodiak is pretty as well.  Homer, like all of Alaska it seems has pretty big tide variables.  low tide is cool on the beaches there with sand as you get all sorts of cool sand ridges

 i did stop at the lookout as you drive into Homer.  figured if i didn't make it to the beach i wanted a few sunset shots. 

 checked into the hotel really quick.

 below you can see the spit.  pretty tame at this time of year, in the summers that spit is nuts with people.

 there is some bill we are voting on at this time that would "force" people to use the bathroom of the sex they were assigned on their birth certificate.  impossible to enforce really.  are we all supposed to carry our birth certificates with us at all times?  will there be bathroom monitors in all public restrooms to check these certificates?  just make them all unisex.  people get way to bent over this bodily function.  go in, poop/pee and leave.  who cares? 

 people are born with both a penis and a vagina some times...anything is possible on a spectrum between the two sexes.  there are some cultures that just accept that there are these folks that are somewhere in the middle on the spectrum between male and female.  it seems foreign to me, i get that, but life is hard enough for folks like this without us all harassing them when they just need to pee.  everyone needs to just pee in peace. there would be shorter lines for bathrooms if everyone just did their business, minded their own business and got out of those stalls.  shared bathrooms could help with the lines that seem to always be longer for the women's restrooms.

 the veterans affairs chief was fired via twitter last week.  such a vial and unprofessional leader.  he doesn't even have the decency to fire people he appointed to their face.  this guy is not happy with his job loss as he was very focused i guess on helping veterans.  the GOP and iitoo want to privatize everything.  capitalism doesn't work for everything.  in prisons that have been privatized we are having some real issues.  some things should not be money makers.  companies shouldn't make more money by keeping people in prison.  our veterans fought for our nation and they should be taken care of by our nation.  reform, repair, improve...all fine. privatize, i think not.

 another of the spit in the distance.

 then on to the beach. 

 was going to attempt to change my router out.  i think it may be going rouge...last time mine did that, it still said it was secure but it really wasn't and i got charged a hefty fee for use from people who apparently used my wifi for who knows what.  better to change it out every so often than have that happen again.

 the tide was still fairly low as well when we arrived. 

 the pups were thrilled to be at this sandy beach. 

 they were pretty wiped out that night and the next day they pretty much slept all the way back home after more beach time.

 well, Happy Easter, i hope you enjoyed it no matter how you celebrated it.  as a singleton not much of a celebration like most things. it's often a bit better to just ignore holidays. i worked last night anyway. 

thankful for: A.  courage to be silly and that with age we all do seem to worry less about what others think of us. B.  wild animal sightings, always cool  C.  decent days at work.