more fall photo's

 have gone to bed early and woken up early.  strange for me.  was sucked into a book.  easy to do.  Celeste Ng's "little fires everywhere". need to attempt to read some actual books.  easier in the wee hours to use the ipad for reading though.  have plenty of books here that i need to read and then shift into the little library

 actually got in touch with the guy who had been working on the bench and other section to my library and he says he will be back in town after Memorial Day and he'll try to get that done for me.  would be nice to have the extra space and to keep books separated for kids/adults. 

 he has much of it built and it's in a storage facility.

 stopped by Lowes for another can of paint, not too much of the fence left to paint.  i need to look up some numbers tomorrow for getting the fence done on the other side and see if we can get a few quotes.

 then I'll have more to paint.  i just do it one can at a time.

 hasn't quite warmed up enough again.  i should have used that time to start sanding the deck, but i vegged with the book instead. 

 these are the airstrip to homestead to the back trails and on to rovers run and return. 

 from September again.  walked similar today and yesterday.  today Speedy joined me and then we went for coffee and had an abbreviated WARIS meeting. 

 she was working on our second version of our pamphlet so that got finalized and she ordered it tonight. 

 we also popped open her mac and worked on a few tweaks to our web page...

 while doing that i noticed that the cliff cam has gone live!! there were a few walrus on the island out there.....so hopefully soon the main beach cam will go live as well. 

 played devils advocate on my one brothers fb page.  some post on the second amendment.  i can assure you i would not get any support there.  fun to toss out bait.  he's done it to me for years.  so it was kind of fun to be on the other side.  no doubt they all just think I'm a crazy liberal.  it's the life i am getting used to.  being the liberal freak of my family.  my cousin and i have been emailing a bit. nice to have the like minded view from time to time. 

 was just reading about another kid who has been declared brain dead who has been given permission by the courts to be maintained on life support.  the family believes it's God's will and this is becoming a freedom of religion battle in courts i guess.  this a 13 year old that was in a house fire.  i guess New Jersey is the place to go if you are in this situation.  that other girl from California is there as well being kept going artificially.  i think she's going on at least 3-4 years.  crazy.   sadly, these kids are becoming science experiments on how long we can keep body's going. doesn't seem very respectful to me.  some call if love, i call it selfishly hanging on.  in my mind it's going against God's will.  these kids were taken and yet the family, with the help of science have reached into heaven and have hold of their souls by a thread. 

 we've all known this day was coming.  in addition to preventing death to happen, the end result will also mean many will die waiting for organs that will no longer be available. nothing will be viable to give to others after months and years being on machines.  many won't care about that outcome, but it will be a result as more and more people are allowed to opt out of compassionate withdrawal of care.

 just a few on the correspondence dinner.  not a big fan of any of these events, but the base of this event is to raise money for scholarships to help kids who are going into journalism.  i still wish that more journalists would major in history rather than journalism.  i believe that was the more common route before they created journalism degrees. many now seem to have law degrees as well, which does seem helpful in our litigious nation. 

 people were complaining about how mean the comedian was to some of the apologists for the current iitoo...actually these folks lie for him on a regular basis so i really don't have a great deal of compassion or sympathy for them.  the guy they are protecting says far worse things on a daily basis and tweets horrible things as well.  they don't have much room to bitch. 

 overall, I'd prefer the they go low we go high attitude though.  it use to  be good humored fun but at this time the current iitoo has done all he can to denigrate our free press. 

 we need a free press, i support a free press.  many put their lives at risk and i believe today in Afghanistan many journalists were targeted.  11 killed i believe.  10 at one site as they rushed in to cover a bombing a second bomb went off.  another was killed at another site.  journalists are jailed and killed on a regular basis, some are currently being held at this time.  you may be annoyed by them and by all means insist that they speak truth and seek out sources that are credible. 

 get your news from a variety of sources and check those sources, do your homework....but journalism can be a noble profession and it is of vital importance to our freedom.  screaming guns rights and then trashing free speech...doesn't fly.  both have their merits and both do need some limits.

 love all the leaves...when they are are fresh and colorful

 these are on a walk out at Kincaid.  Jodphur to the dunes.

 Ahmad Shah was killed in those attacks.  he was 29 and worked for the BBC.  this makes a total of 5 BBC workers killed since the '90's.  he was on a bike so he was the one journalist killed not related to the blast.  Afghanistan is listed as the 3rd most dangerous nation for journalists.

 the BBC report I'm reading now states 9 journalists and photographers and 4 police were killed in today's attacks. the second blast was deliberately targeting the journalists. 

 love the big trees in this section of the trail.  every season, a new beauty emerges.

 as usual, the dogs have no appreciation that i have noticed for the changing seasons other than happiness at the return of puddles or the return of snow.

 these past weeks, when they find a patch of snow, they feel the need to jump on, roll around.

 bright leaf above and below moose track in the mud.

 they are starting to get more dirty again, but I've been enjoying the last 24 hours of clean dogs.

 they were pretty wound up last night.  did some training, which is usually a good way to calm them down a bit . we did quite a bit last night.  worked on "huggies" and "settle" and puppy push ups.  spins, giving fives and then i started training them to crawl.  on the trails all they want is the tennis ball so hard to get them to do much of that out there.

 over looking the water.  had debated hitting the beach yesterday as the tides were good, but the idea of  them getting all muddy....i needed a day of clean anyway.

 soon we will be back to green . noted some green sprouting up last time i did this trail.

 once it gets too full of plant life i get a bit more anxious out there.  thin trails with drop offs...not a great place to run into bears or moose.

 just love the contrast on these.

 cute pup hiding in the tall grass

 storm in the distance.

 love that the beach grass also turns colors...

 not too much excitement today i guess.  peaceful day.  simple day.  simple life really.  can't complain too much.  house is messy, too cluttered.  really need to get crazy and get rid of stuff.

 always feels good just throwing stuff out.  the in seems to build up much faster than the out. 

 the days end and i always have more on that to do list.  life goes on i guess. 

 the walk is the highlight of the day.  pups wake me up ready to go.  they wait for me to open my eyes.  as i head down the stairs to start the day i am greeted with tennis balls. that is what i am to these guys....supplier of food, driver to trails and tennis ball thrower.

 they are easy to please.  for all my failings i don't often fail them.  for all my inadequacies, i am never not enough for them.  my aging, my plumping, my wrinkles, matter not at all to them.  can i feed them, can i throw the ball....we are good.

 dogs greet you any time you leave the house like you have been gone for ages.  such happiness is hard to muster in fellow humans

 my dogs find my every move fascinating.  it's all potential...i may toss a tennis ball, i may reach down and pet them.  i have fans.  they do not care if i am a snowflake liberal or what else i think about the issues of the day.  life is so simple for them.  so complex for us....we make it so.  we add junk to our lives and clutter up our heads.  dogs keep it real. 

 they find the puddles and jump in them, they find the snow and roll.  they find the crazy stuff to sniff and feel the wind on them.  they chase squirrels because they can and run through the woods, leaping and chasing each other.  life for them is pure joy it seems.  may we all have as much happiness as our dogs have.

grateful for: A.  those who remain true to truth, who fight for truth and who risk their lives for it.  B.  those who strive for ethics in government despite all that tempts them away, agenda's are not worth the loss of our moral compass.  C.  happy, well adjusted dogs