each day an adventure in alaska: Curry Ridge....

these are from the hike out Curry Ridge. as you can see it was a pretty nice day out there!

today was beautiful as well. ended up just out at Kincaid. cruised over to Potters Marsh after. trying to focus on the kitchen this stretch off...tough with the days being so beautiful though.

a bit melancholy this afternoon.

believe it has to do with it taking over 24 hours and over $20 to get one screw out. was starting to work on another cabinet to remove and was having a heck of a time getting to that screw as well. those things are in there!! so the good news is i was able to salvage that large cabinet and hopefully i can salvage a few more for garage storage. hoping to get this one up so i can move stuff from the remaining cabinets in kitchen over to those. would just be easier.

sad to say goodbye to the comfort of the functioning kitchen even though it's been a poorly functioning kitchen. it will be great once i get to that finished project.

doing it, i suppose, is that reminder that i am alone. when you are trying to lug a heavy cabinet around, trying to get a silly nail removed. thing did slam down on the very tip of my finger. hurt too much to even swear i think, but so far it's not even discolored. i can feel it as i type though...is it still called typing? it is a keyboard.

as i walked today i thought of that biblical passage or maybe it's just a passage religious folks say...i think it's in the bible though. I'm sure my more up to date church going friends will be able to tell me. anyway, it's one that i have some issues with.

people always say God never gives you more than you can handle....and i always just say, "well there is suicide, clearly those people were given more than they could handle".

i believe if it's scripture it must have been translated incorrectly...it really should read, sometimes God will give you more than you can handle. in those times you need to swallow your pride and ask for help. for those who are currently able to handle their load, you need to be on the look out for those who are not able to handle their load and give them a hand.

otherwise, the other way, it's like if you can't handle everything happening in your life you are some sort of failure.

i believe we are supposed to help each other. that we weren't meant to carry all the load in our lives. as a singleton, you have to carry more on your own. i know my other singleton friends have tough days as well. days when you wish there was someone to help you get the dang screw out of the wall or drag a cabinet through the house. i will need help lifting it up and attempting to get it on the wall. there are just things you can't do alone.

i also believe helping each other doesn't stop at people we are related to or friends. helping each other isn't limited to those within our borders or our socioeconomic status. it's easy to go out of our way for friends and family, but i do find it can be harder to stretch that to strangers.

have always loved the saying, "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless beauty". I've been trying to randomly complement total strangers, their hair or their shoes, anything. it brings a smile to their faces. i take the puppies into stores like Home Depot and Lowes. today, there was an older guy who just kept circling back. finally, he just came up to me with photo's of I'm guessing his daughters dog? it looked like a goldendoodle...that puppy is going to be huge. i can honestly say, i did not understand all he said in his broken English, but that is one of the things i love about the United States and Anchorage especially. diversity. we were both smiling and laughing and sharing a positive moment talking about dogs...dogs are pretty universal.

we all are just living our lives, finding our happiness. we all have things in common despite the obvious differences. kindness does not and should not stop at our borders. i have no idea of this mans story, how he came to be here. we all belong here though.

i think this is one thing that makes me so sad right now. this animus towards immigrants, legal and illegal. our nation is wealthy and yet right now those in power do not wish to share the wealth and freedom with others. they give tax breaks to the rich and then claim they must cut spending on the poor and middle class. they want to close borders and limit immigration and refugees. i understand that there need to be some limits, but our nation has always tried to welcome others. embrace them...it's not easy some times i know. the fact is, we need them and we are screwing ourselves over for years to come by our actions.

God will have been expecting us to do what we could for as many as we could. to use our wealth not just to fortify our military but to take care of our citizens, old and new.

this is a different nation than the one the founding fathers started for sure. in that nation only male landowners had the power. so yes, things do change.

i have often found in life that people take change poorly at times.

change can be scary, but it is also good. if you never allow for change, you will severely stunt your ability to grow...that is true for a nation as well.

thanks to KR for taking some family photo's. Ivy got comfy.

our nation is changing, too fast for some I'm sure...some would like things to stay the same, always. we have had a lot of change fast so i can understand that for some it's just been overwhelming. they may have been given more than they can take...that does not mean the change is wrong. Women should have control over their bodies, Blacks should be free to drive without fear of randomly being pulled over because of their color. Gays should be allowed to have freedom to be with partners they love. people who have lived here basically their entire lives and are productive members of society should be given an opportunity to be granted citizenship. these are things that are just the right thing to do, the fair thing.

fear of the unknown, fear of things that haven't happened yet. one friend in South Dakota told me never to cross bridges before you got to them. something like that anyway. basically, don't freak out over stuff that hasn't happened yet. it may never happen at all.

it's like people freaking over school shootings and then wanting major tax dollars going to security for each school. i mean really. how many schools do we have in these United States, then how many school shootings? I'm guessing the actual percentage is low. the same folks who keep cutting funding for teachers and actual education seem to have no issue at all paying for security....I'm guessing this is like a few million per school. these are also the same people who claim they are the fiscally responsible types...this is just not fiscally responsible. these are also the same who want no new restrictions or very few restrictions on assault type weapons.

buy back the weapons, destroy them and if they are found after levy heavy fines and limit other arms ownership...soon those weapons will be turned in. gotta start somewhere...then we can try to spend education money on students and teachers and actual education again. paranoia and fear are expensive ways to live. in truth it is exactly the plan that the terrorists had in mind...and we have played right into their hands. we have allowed our fears to destroy us.

guess it's after 1 am.

guess i should ponder wrapping this up at some point. haha.

just watched, "Wonder". a good movie. good crew of actors, good message.

a pair of loons on the lake up there on Curry Ridge. they had a crew out there. the plan, i guess, is to make this connect to K'suegi Ridge. I'm sure i spelled that wrong.

many don't seem to care about spelling anymore. my mom was always a bit of a stickler on spelling, all these tweeting and texting misspellings would have probably drove her nuts. i am often tempted to correct it, especially when people are arguing on sites...to me, I'm clearly a snob, but if you are arguing a point but you can't spell or use basic grammar, it really just invalidates your point. suddenly, that is all i see. i see the person as fairly illiterate and therefore less believable.

our current iitoo is seemingly very illiterate at times. despite being given the opportunity by wealthy parents for a solid education he seems to have missed all the classes on spelling, grammar and speech. clearly, he skipped the history classes as well. one has to wonder if he just skated by because his education was paid for...as long as they bill got paid, he just got passed along.

couldn't see Denali today from the trail. i did little Campbell lake.

this trail always baffles me as does the cabin. it is a bit of a drive up the road to the campground, but it's just odd how Denali seems to flip from back to front. when you drive up to campground the mountain is behind you. when you get to the cabin suddenly the mountain is seemingly on the other side of you, then you hit this trail and the mountain jumps back again.

these are heading back from the lake

it's a well traveled trail. the few times I've walked it i haven't seen any bear scat out there.

for sure saw some today. there was some pretty fresh stuff that i couldn't tell if it was bear or moose. i think it was bear though.

we made noise.

just pretty views from the top of the ridge there.

pretty lucky to live in such an amazing place and to still be healthy enough to get out and enjoy it. not as fast as i used to be and the uphills take their toll more.