each day an adventure in alaska: On The Spit...

the spit needs no further explanation to those who live up here. we all love it out there.

it's really just a spit of land that stretches out in to Kachemak Bay, but it's full of fun and excitement.

of course, during the off season it's a quiet place for locals. and I'm sure the winds can get whipping pretty powerfully there in the winter.

it was evacuated after an earthquake recently in a tsunami watch. well, recent is less recent now. we felt a quake and then our phones pinged and we were all chatting on the earthquake page after that.

we are a big state and yet we are a small state as well. it's small in human numbers so you do tend to run into people or know people who know people.

i miss living in a smaller town than Anchorage. Anchorage is a great place to be though as far as getting everywhere else. cheaper living than remote. perhaps one day I'll get back more remote again

today was about Ivy Rose. she had her root canal done today. he said when he got in there it was already pretty rotten in there so happy we did the procedure.

woke up early and took her down to the vets. of course, it was a bit confusing for the pups. Tusker was not cool with being left behind so he came with and i left him in the car when i took her in. those two are thick.

later i met up with friends for a walk out at Campbell Airstrip. they are going to be spraying the airstrip for weeds i guess...does that mean all my pretty tiny dandelion relatives will be killed off? not sure. we can't go there for a bit anyway.

figured we'd lay low tomorrow for the most part and let Ivy recover....though i suspect she will believe she is recovered by the morning.

will need to feed her soft foods for 3 days and i think go easy on the tennis ball play as well. they did give us pain meds to give her. she was whimpering a bit tonight.

i finally made a decision today. i moved money over and will go pay for my new cabinets. now i really need to get rid of the pool table so i have a place to put all those cabinets when they get delivered in 6-8 weeks. the remodel is a major step closer.

the cabinets were 30% off at Home Depot. the guy has been super helpful. i will now have to tell the guy at the place the contractor had sent me to not to do an order for me. sucks for him, i feel bad. several appointments later and they get nothing. i felt better knowing an actual price though. the other place gives the contractor a discount and i just would pay the contractor, but i don't get in on the actual price.

so my cabinets won't be top quality but they will be good quality. they will look good and i think they will do fine. I'm pretty sure the cabinets that were put in originally back in the 80's weren't top quality and they are still hanging up there. wouldn't mind trying to figure out how to dismantle them and rehang them in the garage? hmm. can i do that?

the cabinets are $1500 less than the contractors estimate and i get more of them. I'll need the door handles and a sink and counters, lights, and the back splash. the cabinets were the biggest item though.

the remodel project really makes me feel the need to purge the extra crap in the house. sell some stuff, give stuff away. declutter. it can be freeing.

i think we hit 80 today...i know for most of you that seems like pleasant weather, up here that really feels hot as heck. i don't know why but it's totally true.

i did finish off the last stencils on the fence. perhaps tomorrow I'll paint more flowers on the back fence...make it collaborative with MO. our stuff blended on the little library.

Home Depot also had appliances on sale so i purchased a new fridge as well. where to put all this stuff! ack!!

this heat has given me a big ol zit...I'm always amazed...i mean really? a zit? still? at my age? i really believed that zits were for teens and that my zit days would end when i turned 20...they keep me looking young...too bad i didn't have this zit when i was in Valdez last week and the dude checking me out in line was asking if i wanted the Tuesday night special...which i guess meant the seniors discount!! what?! do i really look that old? i guess i do. zits keep you looking young though, haha...at least i recall some girl telling me that in a bar years ago.

it was super low tides when i was in Homer last. the beach went on for miles it seemed.

I'm guessing Homer is packed this week...for the 4th. everywhere will be packed i guess for tomorrow.

Ivy Rose must be feeling a bit better. she is back in guard dog duty mode.

the skies are a beautiful pink right now...yes, it's after midnight and the sun has recently set. sunsets go on and on and on up here.

4th of July fireworks are pretty lame up here really. can't see the lights due to the light, but they are still shot off. these guys haven't been too nuts with them over the years but they do get a bit antsy if i remember right.

things you find at low tide...no sea stars. i guess they are still trying to recover from the last die off.

our birds are also suffering losses. fish counts down. how much is cyclic and how much is due to other factors, human factors.

we are all over this planet. there are a lot of us. seems silly to believe we don't have a pretty major impact on all around us. we build, we tear down nature. we don't live in harmony with it, we shred it. I'm as guilty as the next. i do try to be aware. try to do a few things to minimize my negative impact, but I'm here, like the rest of us. I'm living so that living comes at a cost to the world around me...unless i go off the grid and live as much off the earth as i can. I'm not really built for that though. i wish i was. i envy those souls who are that hardy. humans overall, at the least the ones in industrialized communities are pretty unskilled at survival.

I'm sure I'm better at those survival skills than others, but I'm still pretty wimpy. there is a constant guilt as we can never do enough, we are always failing it seems. certainly though, we can at least vote for those who will do what is right to lessen the negative impact on our earth. i think it would seem obvious that the more chemicals and garbage we throw at the earth the more damage it will incur.

just finished a good book, "Before we were yours" by Lisa Wingate

there was a true story behind the story but the story itself was fiction. there was a place called the Tennessee Children's Home Society and the folks who ran it were pretty horrible. abuse, death...kids were taken from poor families to sell off to wealthy families. some emotional blackmail, threats to get more money from the wealthy. these adoptions for profit did not become totally outlaw'd until the 1950's.

people unwittingly signed over babies born in hospitals or the kids were just stolen outright on the street. their names changed, no records. estimates of nearly 500 kids just vanishing in addition to thousands who's records were so altered they could never possibly be reunited with their families...

so the writer follows one fictitious family of victims.

greed fuels a lot of awful behavior. it's amazing how long things can be covered up. no matter how defenseless the victims are. currently, this iitoo and his administration are committing life altering acts on asylum seekers. telling them they can leave or leave and leave their kids but they can't seek asylum here. this is the nation some want us to become so they are just doing it. turning a welcoming nation into a nation that turns it's back on the most vulnerable. what is worse is those that perpetrate this seem to believe they are doing it in the name of God.

will settle in and sleep soon. I'm in the middle of another novel as well.

shops on the spit...many just boarded up all winter long. they all open Memorial Day Weekend. tourists are coming earlier though each year...weather is usually good in May now.