just another day...

 starting to get anxious when the text pings off..time for a break i think. 

 these are all from a few days ago at the beach.  yesterday i slept in and headed to Prospect Heights for a pleasant loop.  looks nice out again today.  i had pondered a drive to Seward, but i have missed the window for the low tide. 

 no Monday walk takers yesterday.  most on holiday.  probably a good week to have a break from that as well. 

 life can be easier in your own little bubble with the dogs. 

 at some point as i left the church i remember recognizing little phrases that we had been taught/trained to regurgitate in certain situations.  things like, "i don't need alcohol to have fun". i noted that everyone around me in the church repeated the same phrases for social situations over and over.  it was a strange realization for me.  just a way to simplify a message and really keep everyone in line.  gave them the phrases to avoid social situations that were questionable i guess.  there were similar phrases for preventing sex before marriage.  well, similar phrases for every situation i guess. 

 sometimes i feel like i still run up against these sorts of phrasing.  a simple way to see the world, despite the world being extremely complicated. 

 was just texting off and on with my brother about immigration.  i was attempting to see if there was any line for him with this administration.  as we have another brother who is gay, married and has adopted kids, i wondered if any of those topics he felt some push back in order to show support for my gay brothers family.  i was also trying to open up a conversation about gays and transgenders in the military. 

 it is somewhat shameful to me that our family has not had any members in the military for maybe 60 years!!  how can we, who have not participated in the military and supported our own freedoms, justify not allowing others to serve with honor.  i also feel that those who have joined that are not citizens should be given the opportunity, due to their sacrifices for our freedom,  to become citizens.  that seems like a rational path to citizenship to me.  that only brought on a more general border wall issue.

 all forms of immigration are in no way simple.  it is an extremely complicated system with various visa programs, refugee programs, immigration issues of all sorts.  this is not an issue that can be simplified down to total open borders or totally closed borders. 

 our farmers/ranchers depend on the flow of workers to and from Mexico. our rural communities do not have enough Dr's to serve them without the flow of visa workers. it is not simple to just shut down all forms of immigration, do a reset and start over. it would be verging on disaster for our economy and health.

 our own education system is failing...or at least flailing.  we will require assistance from a strong immigration system to get us through and make a plan to pull our own citizens together.  we have far too many who are drug addicted and not making any meaningful contribution.  we need to buoy up our non white collar work force.  we have spend too many years acting like they are not making a contribution and putting them down . we have destroyed those programs in schools that worked toward bringing blue collar workers marketable skill sets.

 somewhere our society determined that the only way to survive in this America is to get advanced degrees. having a high school diploma means nothing now...having a basic college degree is also becoming obsolete.  time to alter the societal norms to include those who do not get advanced degrees...time to help them be able to survive with their families on incomes for these jobs. 

 immigration is like a huge Rubik's cube.  trying to sort out the various pieces and pull them together again will take some effort...sadly there are many in this current administration who would prefer if the Rubik's cube has more blocks of white than other colors. 

 immigration rhetoric on the right is like so much else...it is assumed that if you are not for the extreme view on the right you must then be for an extreme view on the left.  the truth is most of the citizenry is for a balance and common sense rules.  rational is no longer in vogue though.  you are either for few if any rules on guns or for removing every last gun. you are for either zero abortions or killing every baby in the womb you can find.  it's become so ridiculous...no wonder nobody can talk anymore.

 a guy was killed by a snowplow a few weeks ago.  darkness, huge plows.  pretty sad.  in other news a guy boated across the Bering Sea in an 8 foot dinghy.  he has a wife and son in China and hoped to land in China. instead he landed somewhere in Russia.  he has been deported back to the US.

 bought a shelf system for the garage. figure i would load it with the camping gear that has recently been in the spare room.  hopefully, i can then move things into that closet space and clear up clutter...while continuing to get rid of clutter that i don't need. the closet just has become a bother for packing for treks.  seems if it's all in the garage i can just load and go.

 we have far greater dangers than our southern border.  nothing has really changed there for years...well except there has been a trend towards less illegals crossing over and more refugees seeking out agents to turn themselves in.  we need a more streamlined case review process to get these cases through.  more workers, less walls.  drugs tend to come through at border crossings so again, more technology and/or search dogs over building walls where this isn't even really an issue.

 despite lies and exaggerations told by this administration, N.K is continuing it's program, despite the lies and exaggerations proof is that Iran has continued to abide by the international treaty that the iitoo pulled out of...i guess it makes sense in this new world of extreme right...can't tweak anything, can't build on anything, can't repair or improve anything...it's all or none. negotiation is built over time, a building block.  crashing down years of international affairs is less than helpful or productive.

 ignoring the facts of a warming climate will not make it go away.  it will just make things so much worse down the road.  again pulling out of the Paris agreement rather than finding ways to alter it...but when you refuse to trust science and instead see all facts as some sort of hoax conspiracy theory there just is no rationalizing.

 trusting our adversaries over our own intelligence....there just are no words really.  how can this be supported by so many.  how can so many watch the iitoo have a long meeting with our adversary and then take the notes from the translator and not speak of what was said in there even with his own trusted staff.  it just means he trusts put more than his own staff.  what does it really mean? what is going on? where did the curiosity go on the right.  they questioned every thing obama did and yet this guy just gets a total and complete pass. 

 years of investigations of conspiracy theories have brought zero indictments and yet they continue to believe every theory.  now a few years of investigations have brought on multiple indictments and they see it all as a witch hunt, a conspiracy.  it just is baffling to me.  these are intelligent and seemingly rational people and yet, they seem to have looked away from common sense. 

 again and again i would say...either they are the most inept investigators there are or there just isn't as much there as they were led to believe.  which is it?  they often choose to believe that somehow the clintons and obama's have been protected and insulated...it would mean hundreds if not thousands of people who would have to be involved in the hugest conspiracy ever for this to be true..it's just not rational. 

 Rus impacted our elections and they will do it again.  monies allocated to investigate this and find ways to prevent this in the future have been held up last i read.  making our elections safe should be a priority..over the wall.  also, our power grids and internet are at risk.  China and Rus can hack in and create havoc at any time, these are huge priorities over the wall. 

 pups snuggle into the front seat despite having plenty of room in the back to stretch out.  my cute pups...i have a trip coming up.  it's always so tough to leave them behind.  i just spend so much of my life with them. 

 there is a supposed agreement on the budge/immigration that should prevent another shut down....of course, the iitoo has gotten more in the past and refused to sign so he is always a wild card..minute by minute.

 should be hitting the dog pool tomorrow. want to confirm so i don't miss it.  will be great to have them get baths too.  always a plus.

 these are all from the beach at Oceanview Bluff Park.  always a favorite. 

 Ivy keeps coming to me...it's time to walk these beasts.  no matter how much i wear them out one day they are up and totally ready to rumble the next day.  amazing.  i have created super dogs

 sunsets are getting closer to 6 pm now.  the days are getting longer. 

 pups on a decent sized ice floe at low tide.  where to walk today...beach again or powerline pass.

 ended up chatting with a teacher on the trail for like 20-30 minutes yesterday.  conversation started because she was impressed at how well trained the dogs were. moved on to other subjects. it is funny how sometimes you meet random strangers and talking just comes easily.

 loved the skies the other day.  above the sunset were all these blue skies and puffy clouds.

 i always love these trees...makes for a peaceful photo.

 catching up on my Anchorage Daily News. i guess my brother can add that to the long, long list of places i get my news and information from...somehow i don't see that as a negative.  the more places you go to get information the better....he didn't even come close to revealing all the sources i utilize..somehow he was trying to make that a negative...

 Virginia is a mess right now.  so many fools did stupid things...we just need  more women in positions of power.  those frat years prove many males have back grounds that come back to bite them.  Kavenaugh  and the iitoo are cases in point...of course, the right tends to forgive and excuse bad behavior in  their own.  the left generally seems more willing to take down their bad boys.  i suspect these fools will be relieved of duty at some point.

 stayed up the other night reading a novel..i think i finished at close to 4 am.  funny how bad i am at remember book titles when i read them on the ipad.  it was called "where the crawdads sing" by Delia Owens.  i do like reading on the ipad, especially as my reading eyes age a bit.  things i do like is i can change font size.  what i don't like is being able to easily look back at pages in the book and like i said...when you read an actual book i think you see the front of the book over and over. 

 love the beach in winter.  stark.

 heading back to the car

 could have done a few sledding runs...but it was our second walk of the day.

 I'd gone to a baby shower, which was kind of dull.  not that I'm really baby shower material i guess. been too many of them over my lifetime. 

 pups on ice...always cute.

 lots of selfies this day...I'm getting older and it shows, but i think you reach that tipping point.  i was never a great beauty so i guess getting older isn't as difficult.  saw a photo of someone who had been quite pretty and looking at her picture i thought, wow, she is not aging well.  it also looked like she'd had too much done to her face to try and keep that old look, which was making her look worse.  acceptance may be the best option. 

 we are born, we grow up, we live the life we choose too or the one that chooses us, we age, we die.  it's all pretty simple. 

 I'd like as many years as i can here on earth.  it's a pretty cool place, despite the people.  haha.  we make a mess of this place.  it's too bad really. 

grateful for A.  walks on sunny days B.  the dogs to join me C.  dogs in general.