goodbye beloved pool table...

 many fun times with friends and just chilling out there hitting those balls around...haha.  but alas, it was time to take back the garage. perhaps one day i will once again own a pool table, but i may be loving parking inside the garage this winter!! what will that be like?  the guy seemed pretty excited.  a few disabled veterans that will be totally sore tonight after hoisting this beast onto the back of a pick up.  i made him hand me the money before any hoisting began.  :-)  supposedly it's a gift for his brothers birthday.  they have a man cave that has an old, crappy pool table.  he was pretty excited to gift this to his brother and thus all the friends. he said his brother has adopted 6 kids?  lots of kids in the house plus Friday night game nights with the boys.  the table will get a lot of use and attention.

 loved this moose's mane...some winter coat that had not fallen off yet...but it looked pretty fancy.

 saw her on the way back from Homer.  then i saw her cute little baby as well.

 you can just see her behind her in these two.  sneaking out of the woods.

 aww...

 bummed about losing the pool table in my life, but i bought it for $800 and sold it for $700.  if those bills are fake, i did write down their plates...such a trusting individual.  they had a special needs adult with them.  he honed in on my little pile of stuff that i had collected for the next sunny days free pile out front.  i had the last of the old cassette tapes there and the guy was pretty excited.  so he was thrilled when i said they were his.  he picked up some dog poop in the front yard and then i gave him a chain of prayer flags that he had offered to purchase for $100...needless to say he was over the moon with that gift!  all in all, everyone was happy. well, not me so much as i did really love having that pool table.

 they do take up a lot of room.   i enjoyed it while i did have it and it brought back many memories of days as a kid.  we had a pool table in the basement and we played all the time.  great memories of my Dad giving me instructions on how to hold the cue and how to hit the trick shots. though, i really don't think he got down there playing himself as much as he would have liked.  wonder where he got started playing pool?  our old table was a Christmas gift to the family one year.  it was used, but in great shape...like the one i just sold off to these folks.

 this week of work was ER for holds, followed by ICU for a few nights.  both pretty easy nights.  last night i had no patients for a few hours...they had so many house convenience patients and it sounds like many got rooms at the end of the day shift so loads of dirty rooms and not enough house keeping staff...better get used to that.  hospitals run because we rely on a great deal of immigrants.  cut those and your wait times will greatly increase.  not only is a high percentage of our housekeeping and cook staff immigrants and refugees for that matter...

 our nurses and docs have a large percentage of immigrants.  only a fool would be trying to prevent people from coming to this nation.  it's how societies have functioned for thousands of years...

 crossing the street....

 saw a moose crossing behind my car the other day on Northern Lights. no way to catch a picture though.  he moved pretty fast and there was traffic...everyone stopped for the big guy. 

 quick trek to the dog park this afternoon.  i slept til pretty late. tend to be pretty tuckered out after 3 nights, probably more than previously.  the guy getting pool table was working to get a buddy with a  truck to help out so the times changed a bit. i got home way before the time he was to meet but they were already here.  he said they rarely come in from Wasilla so he wasn't sure how long it would take.  that pool table is slate.  super heavy.  well built. 

 he picked up the table, tilted it and then the other guy backed the truck up underneath it.  it was a bit hairy i must admit.  they will have all hands on deck at the other end to get it off the truck and into the man cave. knowing Wasilla, the old table may soon be used as a base for a bon fire.  sounds like it had bubbles all over the felt surface...this new table should be a huge improvement for the boys.  I'm bummed but happy it will go some place that it will be used and appreciated. the guy and his wife have taken in a lot of kids...so at least for me it's good to know it's appreciated.  now to find a happy home for the drum set. another item that i have loved and hate to part with. 

 just a few more from the drive back from Homer.  nice scenery.

 stopped to let the pups play a bit. 

 so many wildflowers in this area.

 the pups always like a few breaks along the road.  we have a cabin coming up in a few weeks.  summer is flying by.

 watched a bit of the Strzok circus.  the gop members just wanted to lay him out. i think they looked like assholes though.  just a bunch of bullies who are no longer kids and therefore their childhood tactics don't work, they only make them look like dicks. the guy wrote texts, i talk crap about patients all the time but i still do my job.  flippant remarks in texts in no way determine work behaviour.  often for me, it's how you do your job.  you have friends and you release the frustrations and political views and such and then you jump back into doing the work.  no bias. 

 they are so convinced there is a deep state conspiracy working against them...they are their own worse enemies though.  the guy pounding into him about lying to his wife while having an affair...really?  your beloved POTUS lies many times every day. he's had multiple affairs on multiple wives and is accused of groping women without their consent, crashing in on wardrobe changes because he can and was on tape bragging about groping women, again because he can.  the nation is not at all convinced that the GOP is any party of morals or ethics or values.  watch what they do, not what they say. 

 i thought Strzok held himself quite well under the day long pressure.  he was smirking, I'm sure only because it was pretty clear to any sane person that the GOP had an agenda of attempting to use him to trash the Mueller investigation...more indictments came down again today.  that is over 30.

 Rus should be condemned for how it attempted to impact our election and continues to meddle, however Put is the iitoo boss now for whatever reason...hopefully Mueller and team will find out one day what Put has over this iitoo.  they have a secret meeting, just the two of them...perhaps some translators...as someone said, those translators should get their food checked before they eat it.  hopefully, one of them carries a wire or some one has bugged the room they will meet in.  "ok boss, what next?".

 thank you to the kind folks in England for the lovely protests and the large baby balloon.  we are in need of assistance and it's good to know you have our backs and understand that the idiocy is not universal in the US but is limited to a group of insane iitoo followers.

 Kim played the iitoo and no doubt put will as well. this is not business, this is diplomacy...it's not the same.  he is so clueless and therefore unteachable.

 baby grebe with parent.

 these grebes were sitting on their nest still last week.  i should stop by and see if those eggs have hatched.

 should call the handy man and see if we can arrange a time to see what he can do for me.  want to get the window out.  seems like a good first start. the table is gone which will give me more storage room for the cabinets. 

 plane crash out of Ketchikan.  thankfully, all 11 on board survived and it sounded like a pretty harrowing rescue operation in foggy conditions.  thank you coast guard!!

 a fisherman fell over board somewhere in the cook inlet.  he was not able to be revived. 

 some bears also lost their lives.  they have taken a grizzly with two cubs out near where the man was killed and another attacked.  there had been continued encounters in the area.  they will have to wait on DNA tests to discover whether this was the bear that did the killing. 

 these pictures are out at Reflections Lake.

 a black bear was taken at Glen Alps trail head after it got into cars looking for snacks. great photo's of the guy hanging out drivers side window before he got killed. will be another interesting insurance claim I'm sure.

 the court ordered reuniting of children under age 5 with their parents has not been met. the bumbling idiots did not keep great records or have any sort of plan to reunite these kids with their parents.  it's embarrassing to be living under the rule of fools.  sadly the fools are not only inept and incompetent they are also cruel and inhumane. 

 the national debt keeps going up and up and up as well...just another area of words and no action..the GOP constantly call themselves the fiscally responsible party and yet the national debt sky rockets under them.  make it feel good now, hope nobody is looking at the fiscal disaster you are leaving for the future...in the future when the other side is trying to mop up the fiscal disaster they are left with, the GOP blames them.  he who blames most is usually the one who is the cause.

 little kids are great at this...blaming siblings for stuff when it's pretty clear to the adults in the area who actually did the bad thing.

 some good news...some rhino poachers were hunting for rhino and ran into a pride of hungry lions...that went better for the lions then the poachers. the lions apparently took those poachers apart...literally.  they only found like a skull and a hip bone and a few shoes here and there.  they know it was poachers as there were tools in the area of the leftover bits of poachers that were clearly tools of a poacher.  my heart does not break for them.  much of the poaching money goes to fund terrorists operations. 

 another reason to want to stop sales of ivory and the killing of rhino's and elephants...it funds terrorism. our iitoo made it easier to import ivory however. he really does great things though...at least that is what some folks think. 

 wild irises.  always so beautiful...abundant in early to mid June

 several walrus were killed and only the heads taken in Brevig Mission.  this included 6 calves.  total waste.  they should be prosecuted to the fullest, including having their ability to hunt at all revoked.

 not sure if any one has been caught on this case yet, i suspect not.  usually, someone knows and eventually someone tells.  it hurts everyone in the village and the hunting community every time this poaching happens. 

 the pinks and purple colors were everywhere.  so pretty.

 catching up on my newspaper reading.  ended up taking an evening nap this afternoon.  kind of awake now.  should have set an alarm and started day early i guess.  usually, i just figure if i need sleep i take it. 

 our new Gold Medal winner, Kikkan Randall was just diagnosed with breast cancer.  sounds like it's pretty early so hopefully a good outcome. from Gold Medal skier to Chemotherapy...life brings all sorts of challenges to us all.  hoping the best for her and her family as they go through this.

 they have arrested the woman who assaulted a 92 year old man because he accidentally bumped into her daughter as they passed.  she yelled that he should go back to his country....he's a naturalized citizen...people have lost all decorum and all decency.  what is wrong with the citizens in this nation?  bring shame back...we need shame to control this horrible behavior.  it just keeps getting worse.

 we walk out to this creek which fills and empties with the rising and falling tides.  it was high tide at this moment.  the pups enjoyed a little swim time.

 they always love their swim time.  just hit the dog park between shifts this stretch. it's easy and the dogs love it there.  hopefully, tomorrow we will try for a longer stretch. 

 a few less bears i guess out there on the trails...but still many.  it's just part of the season.

 banning of plastic bags. it's a good idea.  they have become a huge pollution problem.  it is funny though how easy our society makes the choice to ban plastic bags...but assault rifles...?  not so easy. just saying. 

 well, i guess i shall turn in.  haven't looked at the weather.  like the idea of rabbit creek tomorrow..or reed lakes...both are great options.

thankful for: a.  those occasional easy work weeks.  b.  the good times i had with the pool table and the good times some one else will now have with it.  c. tennis balls...chuck it.  what would i do without those!