each day an adventure in alaska: 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. ;-)