Monday, November 26, 2018

fog and ice

 these are from sunset at Basher Trail and from a Thanksgiving day trek down to the beach at Kincaid.
 only attempted this one under ice shot with the new phone....turned out pretty good.
 above is a random bald eagle shot from today at the dog park.  the town is ice at this time, which is a drag, but i do try to get out there and enjoy the beauty that does come from that. the beach was super fun as it was frosted out there and i liked how the cold causes ice crystals to form as the tide recedes...that is kind of crazy.
 this day on Basher i was above the fog to enjoy the sunset with the fog...always beautiful....especially when you can get above the fog
 Redoubt in the distance.
 and zoomed in.
 Denali in the distance, zoomed as much as possible
 that Basher trail head is a favorite winter spot for me to watch sunsets...they are happening so early these days.
 met with my friend Scott for dinner tonight.  it's time to attempt to get organized for some of the Christmas stuff. i  do have my cards and calendars so that will  be a fall back this year i suspect.  with the kitchen still not back together the house just seems to cluttered to attempt to put up decorations.
 painted the mantel the grey/white tonight..will need to do some touch up on the wall right around it and the mantel i suspect as well.  covering the brown I'd painted with the lighter grey/white may take a little extra paint.  i also bought some quarter rounds for trimming out the exposed beam so i painted two of those tonight as well.
 saw some dog park friends out at the dog park...one pup that looks fairly sickly but he seemed happy to be at the park. the dog is only 5 but is a large breed, Deer Hound? i think.  sad...these big dogs just don't always get the longevity. 
 my little pups are still looking quite young.  Ivy has been on a leaping run.  i was making some headway on the way back up the hill from the beach.  calling her over and not rewarding her until she sat in front of me rather than jumping at me.
 fun week at work since i was sent home a few hours early each night this week.  so i clocked out between 4-5 am each day, which is nice as i get up earlier and can do a longer walk.
 some errands as well today. 
 hopefully, my handyman will be digging in tomorrow and i will see upper cabinets finished and lowers put in so i can get the measurements done for the counters and get that on order.
 put a few happy words on a few benches out there the other day.  always fun..and good photo ops as well. 
 wood pile, but it looked cool because of the frost that day.
 wet/frozen days ahead.  we do want snow...that is the Alaskan way...we love the cold and the snow.  it's one of the reasons we are here.  it's another good season to get out on the ice though so far and to enjoy all the crystals that form.  there is amazing diversity even in the ice crystal formations
 once the snow coats these old fallen leaves this opportunity ends so i figure just enjoy what nature brings.
 headed down the side trail to the beach, the views come on.
 liked the frost on the knots
 my nieces daughter should start at her new school tomorrow/today i guess if i have remembered that right. hoping all goes well. i would imagine getting back into a routine would be helpful for kids.  just hoping everyone makes her feel welcome.  they have all  been through a lot, not just my niece and her family but her entire community.  happy they do have each other to lean on as the whole community mourns the loss of their homes and town.  it sounds like they have all been treated kindly, which makes me happy....the worst of times often can bring out the best in people.
 one SIL was talking and again brought up this all possibly being signs of the second coming of Christ.  i just don't have any reason to really respond i guess.  i guess that is an easy way to look at things.  out of your control...gives us no responsibility or course of action if all the bad stuff that happens is part of some big plan that includes the end of the world. 
 i can recall my mother talking like this every time there was terrible news out there.  guess it makes me think about all the decades of doing nothing waiting for the second coming.  i mean if all the lives lost in WWI and WWII were not the signs of the second coming or i guess Christ didn't appear at that time, why would the current weather patterns be.  i keep going back to why not believe the science?  over 90% of scientists world wide agree that we are in a warming trend that is being hastened by man's choices/actions. they have global agreement on the science so to me that takes away the liberal plot idea.  all of science did not get together to make this crap up.  the oil companies have known for years their own impact and actually hired scientists to disprove the other science in order to prevent increased limits and restrictions on drilling and exploring for oil. there are things we could do to slow this but for some it's easier to pretend it's a liberal plot and ignore science and instead just believe that it's all just part of Gods big plan.
 there is some pancake ice forming on the beach.  we had lots last year. for sure the warming trends are more obvious in Alaska and places north.  it's gotten warmer.  the natives communities know this far too well and it is impacting them.
 these next two you can see ice crystals are forming in the mud itself..pretty cool looking i think
 zoomed in for more detail..my feet give you a size perspective
 lattice ice formed as the tide went out and the water crystallized.
 just a small layer of fog remained, but i think it did return.
 more inter tidal ice crystal formation
 pancake ice
 Ivy on pancake ice.  it's very flaky ice.  not sure why that is, is it the salt in it?  not sure.  so many different ways water can crystallize though.

 i came home from work early this week and groomed the dogs, brushing them out....i think they liked it.  i wanted to try not to get them too excited, feed them and head to bed

 frost on rocks on the beach
 ice crystals formed as the water ran down this rock below with the tide receding...thought it looked cool as well.
 made a small ice covered rock cairn. 
 the beach...the grey areas are frozen sand, the darker areas are not frozen
 loved the lattice work that nature formed out there. the tide time was perfect. 
 another Monday walk tomorrow.  hope the roads aren't too bad out there.
 small ice chunk out there on the beach
 Denali was peeking out from layers of fog
 you can see i was a bit obsessed with the frost and crystals.

 a few others walking at the beach. it really was peaceful out there.  feeling a desire to wander a bit further out.  have done many of the usual trails these past few months, hoping to start branching out.  need to buy plane tickets and find a pet sitter for March.  takes some time, should be fun, though always tough for me to leave my pups
 Tusker enjoys a run on the beach.  tennis balls have flown out of the yard a lot this week.  I'll need to get another bag or two....or sneak over to the neighbors and collect a few I'd tossed over there
thankful for: A.  ice in all it's forms  B. going home early this week C.  dog and cat snuggle time....so sweet

Friday, November 23, 2018

where are those slippers...?

 I'm not sure, which makes me think they may have been relocated to the outside.  that particular pair had already been made into air conditioned slippers by the pups.  that is how they are.  dogs, friends, family, we always hope they accept us for who we are and we do our best to accept them for who they are. we are all a bit nuts, quirky, strange, difficult in our own ways....thankfully for the most part we are all lovable in our own ways as well.
 thankful to have dogs, friends and family who do accept me for who i am. who see the good in me when i often can only see the bad.  also thankful to friends who share holidays and cook for those who have no kitchen at this time! clearly above you can see the pups were pretty hopeful and thankful for the Thanksgiving meal as well.  I'd never had a fried turkey...it was a treat!!
 love the color scheme that is showing up in the kitchen. i may still paint the mantel the same as the rest of the trim.  i have at least one vote for, anyone else have an opinion? will probably wait until i get the fridge back in the kitchen and do the rest of the trim on that wall. 
 Ivy still carries around her favorite toy from when she was itty bitty.  it's seen better days but she brought it to me today when i woke up.
 i worked ER last night.  just have tonight off and then I'll head back for the next two.  the eve is the OT pay night so i worked the eve and took off the day of Thanksgiving.
 here is the final color scheme for the kitchen.  there was the sale on the solid surface counter tops so i went in there with cash and paid for it.  they will still have to do a final measure once we get the lower cabinets in, hopefully next week as i got a text from him saying next week should be a good work week for him on my place.  :-)  then it takes another 3-4 weeks to get the counters in and installed. hopefully then it will just be connect the new sink and put up tile.  fingers crossed.  there are things that can be done while we wait for counters i guess.
 bought the pups some new sweaters for the season.  Ivy was not happy with hers at all though i think she looks adorable.  she just stood there like I'd put a straight jacket on her....but wait....will this keep her from jumping?  it may be worth a shot!! 
 i am embarrassed to say that at the gathering both of my dogs made a leap in an attempt to land on the dining table!!  WHAT?  they have never done this at home.  i know they do like to say hello to clerks at stores but leaping on tables?  Tusker lost a few clumps of hair as i grabbed him mid air to prevent him getting on top of table...which is clearly an easy task for both of them. 
 not sure if i put this in yet...thought it was pretty cute of Ivy...Tusker was not compliant with this particular photo op
 she for sure looks happier above than below.
 a dog pack may also slow her jumping.  she did a few leaps on me today on the ice of the bogs...that could be very damaging...it's a full stop, not acceptable.  still haven't really found a way to instill this in her. 
 i walked 5 miles today so they for sure did double that. i wanted to do what i could to help them behave this evening.  overall good, despite the table leaping attempts.  i think only Jake got a lick of pumpkin pie!!  Tusker was very tempted by the tray of meat though.  i was gifted some meat and i am sure the pups are willing to help me consume it.
 we were in/out of the fog today.  it's been foggy off and on for several days.  i attempted the coastal access at oceanview the other day.  it's not quite frozen yet, and potters had open water due to our little warming trend this past week.
 today it was gasline to powerline to tank to stumphenge to bogs and back.....creating super athletes vs wearing them out.  i probably create super athletes with these daily walks.
 not sure what happened but when i tried to look at photo's from the camera this whole one drive thing came up.  took me some time to unlink that.  in the old days that would have taken hours and i may or may not have shed a tear, I'm learning from those younger than me.  look crap up, push buttons...
 my generation were the computer guinea pigs.  if bad things didn't happen we heard all the stories of how bad things could happen.  in the end it made us hesitant to push buttons.  we took no computer classes.  i took basic typing on real type writers.  the first papers i wrote on rudimentary computer programs were mostly frustrating.  entire papers deleted when you attempted to just delete a sentence. 
 i am both grateful for the modern computers and fearful and sad over them.  it is good to get away from them but there is also a lot of good stuff on them.  they can be a time suck and a time saver.  shopping in remote area's, plus. computer charting, eh...it just means the people in the office can find more and more ways to make us chart the same things over and over so they can find their little bits easier for them. orders are more clear since you no longer have to decipher the Dr's handwriting. that helps.
 as far as photo's....i am grateful for all the ways we now save them.  i suspect my niece will be as well. with the loss of her home came the loss of photo's.  many of those will be retrievable on social media or blogs or other means.  that is a big perk to computers. i do need to take time to scan more photo's from the film days in to share with others.
 i am thankful for so much this year.  at this moment i am most thankful that my niece and her family and pets are safe despite their loss of a home.  not to belittle the loss of a home, but in the end it's the people who live in the home that make it the home, not the stuff.  that stuff does have meaning and it will be missed, favorite toys, old art pieces, art work purchased....  it's also expensive to replace the things we use in our daily lives...but it sounds like hanging on to life was a bit touch and go for a time and i am grateful that no lives were lost in this sweet and loved family.
 always thankful for the animals in my life.  my life would be lonely indeed without them.  they have been my day to day companions for years, dog by dog, cat by cat.  life doesn't always go according to plans, so we all have to adapt.  i have mostly found that the changes, though tough to adapt to have made me stronger, happier and better able to cope with the next thing. 
 thankful that i was willing to make changes, to make leaps into the unknown.  being comfortable is nice but i have grown so much more when i was willing to take the chance to listen to that voice in my head that will direct you to new adventures in life.
 my sense is many have a very difficult time with change. i suspect this is one reason there is so much rage in our society.  things have been changing, they always do, but there will always be those who become very uncomfortable and fearful in times of change.  who do not have faith that change can bring you closer to what you fear you may lose through it. forward or backwards...you are generally best moving forward...forward generally means change.
 life doesn't stay the same though.  you can try to prevent change, but it happens with or without you.
 the current iitoo is seeming more unhinged each day.  not sure how folks can find it in them to make excuses every day for the latest bone head move or words or tweets.  he is an embarrassment. 
 he will not be told no, he demands loyalty that he refuses to give.  if you speak out against him he will attack you...this is true of the military, the judiciary, his foes, his friends, the CIA, the FBI...no body is safe.  it is not healthy for our nation, it is dangerous for our nation and our norms.  he must be held accountable.  he must be capable of rebuke and he's not. 
 as was known before the day of inauguration, he does not have the temperament or intelligence to hold this position. 
 you can see the fog was following me around out there.
 made a few snow cairns....not sure if folks find these as offensive as rock cairns? 
 there are those who will always find things to be offended about.  live your own life, do good in your own ways and then we leave it to the creator to judge us on the lives we live...  it is not our responsibility to determine the lives others lead.  it is our responsibility to help our fellow citizens on this earth
 God does not abide by borders, those are mans borders.  we are not to use borders as an excuse to look away to others suffering while we spend money on bigger and bigger guns while they starve.  God would desire us to raise up those we can, at least that is what i believe.
 the message is pretty simple, man likes to muddle it up and complicate it.  make themselves feel self important. make them feel right.  we do not need to be right, we only need to be kind. if we are kind, we will find ourselves in the right. 
 i suspect many are seeing how wrong this iitoo is. there have been a lot of fear put in their hearts as to what others would do to this nation.  fear is a good motivator but not a good thing to live by. our fears will lead us to be reactive. they will lead us to be unkind.  they will lead us to abandon the basics of kindness and goodness. love one another....
 it doesn't say, love only those who think as you do, it doesn't say love only those who love as you do, it doesn't say love only those who look as you do, it doesn't say love only those who speak as you do, it doesn't say love only those who believe as you do...it simply says love one another.
 thankful also for my health, both physical and mental.  i see the torture of addiction and mental health issues as well as physical ailments.  there are many who suffer greatly from these things.  our nation is doing a terrible job with these populations and will continue to.  our refusal to aid our citizens medically appears to be adding to our homeless issues and to our high violence rates and also to our prisons being more full than they need be.  why a Christian dominated nation refuses to give aid to the needy and weak is a mystery to me. i have read the words of Jesus and i do not see a scenario where he would have applauded not giving aid to the sick, food to the needy or shelter for the poor. 
 this ice below looked a bit like a paw print i thought.
 on the ice.  there was a woman who walked out with her skates...I'd fall over too much but it does look fun.  the bog is always a cold spot in town.
 i had clearing skies here.
 as the sun was looking to set, after my walk we headed to Basher trail head to capture a bit of the sunset before heading to my friends for dinner.
 it was beautiful as the fog was still covering the city but the sun was above the clouds still
 when i left i descended back into the soup of fog
 more cool ice formations on the bog
 my sweet pups, both of whom are super chill tonight.  Tusker napped in my arms on the couch at my friends, so sweet.  Ivy did a bit more wrestling before finally calming after a wine incident.  brat!!  i think Morgan would have approved of her wine being shared with the dogs ....shared in flown about the room...so not a total waste of very good wine.  ;-)
 waiting for me to throw the tennis ball.  fog or not, the ball must fly

 lots of cracks in some places, but the ice held
 much to be thankful for in this life.  remember the gifts and let go of the things you hoped for but didn't get...it's not part of your lesson plan. 
 it is getting late so i guess i shall wrap this up and head to be. 
 got some laundry started anyway...overall a lovely day. 
good night all. Happy Thanksgiving to all.  thanks for reading and being in my life.  thanks for accepting me for who i am, quirks, opinions and all.