each day an adventure in alaska: chasing shrooms and fall...

time constraints the past few days because i actually had social engagements...odd i know. I'm really not anti-social, just socially absent. i don't hate people i just am not into life being too peopelly. today i did the bigger loop from the airstrip around to the homestead and back through the cross trails. always pretty.

yesterday i started out heading out Spencer Loop. i didn't get more than a mile and a half...so almost up the big hill. there were no cars in the lot when i pulled up and some moments i can get myself a bit bear'd out...so that was yesterday. i wasn't done walking though so i headed to Girdwood to play on the Winner Creek trail-cross pass end and hunt for mushrooms.

saw more today on the back trails...there have been some late growers...though i think they did have an ok crop in Girdwood...still nowhere near the normal mushroom numbers.

these are both lichens. I'm a fan of lichens as well.

last night as i strolled around Girdwood it came to my attention that a gathering that i got in my head started at 7 really started at 5...you see why i have social issues. anyway. i made it there in decent time and it was fun to see several co-workers i have not seen in some time from peds/picu! a great crew.

one of our co-workers just retired...she will move back "home" soon...though this has been home for many years now.

the pups were both sitting in the front seat and i thought it was super cute how their feet and tails were all mixed together.

tonight i met friends for the mayonnaise (matinee) but my phone called it mayonnaise. haha. we watched "Downton Abbey" it did not disappoint!! if you are a fan of the show, it is a must see!

look at all these cute mushrooms!!

saw this horse on the trail today. the dogs behaved! they have been quite good all week...they are pretty well behaved in many situations. not perfect, but i am pretty proud of how they are turning out

this is the lovely view from that back trail i love so much. pretty sweet

this little split in the trail is actually on some small trails in the woods around Winner Creek. i was exploring all the small trails. would have explored more but my social life called.

after the movie tonight we ran into a co-worker from several years back who also worked float pool but before i did. she floated to peds/picu and icu so our paths crossed often. we ran into each other again at a restaurant near the theater so in the end...as fate would have it, we all ate together and caught up.

tomorrow i get to visit the urologist and try to figure out why i am leaking blood in my urine. my guess is kidney stone...i have no symptoms or that or a uti though so not sure. figure it's stones or some cancer right...so I'm going with stones. there are others in my family with stones so that seems more reasonable.

of course, i just read about our retired CEO's daughter having kidney stones, getting septic and losing her legs and some of her hands i think...it was in the paper...so that makes kidney stones sound more serious. i will keep you posted. hopefully, it is not a big deal.

I'm almost done with the list my general MD gave me to do. have to re-make the ob appointment as that got cancelled. I'm guessing I'll have to add either a CT or US with the urologist though. the list continues. I'm supposed to get on a Calcium supplement but since a high percentage of kidney stones are calcium based i figured i should wait until after the urologist clears me.

otherwise, i cleaned the cat litter, did laundry and dishes...very exciting life i have.

saw a commercial on TV by the Saudi's trying to encourage businesses to come over and start up over in Saudi Arabia...my thought was perhaps they should not torture and kill people if they really want to get more companies to come over. state sponsored murder complete with body dismemberment is not really screaming come hither.

F on the left is the new retiree!! best of luck to ya!!

the GOP are yet again making excuses and screaming fake news on this latest scandal. a whistle blower was very concerned about...well it is appearing to be trump/guiliani and who knows who else, trying to sucker Ukraine into digging up dirt on Biden. yet another conspiracy theory. the folks on the right eat those up, believe em and regurgitate them back like they are real.

maybe they can excuse one thing or another, but this constant deluge of scandal and corruption...it's gotta be getting old defending this fool. i still figure at some point he will push one of his own too far and they will take him out...Moscow Mitch seems quite capable of either killing him or finding a path to have him taken out. he's been tolerating him i suspect so he can cram judges in....his life time goal. if trump becomes too much of a liability or becomes useless, i could see Moscow Mitch snuffing him out. i would have thought Bolton capable of it...any of those generals, but none so far.

perhaps the day he decides to drop bombs on Iran?

they claim to love all he does but i suspect they really just don't know what that fool is really doing....his private meetings with Put and his private calls. most transparent, my ass.

the GOP won't have state primaries, not really that unusual for an incumbent. in this case though, a few debates would probably be good...the Dems are getting a lot of debate practice in...trump was pretty lousy at debates to begin with. they think he's an easy win....I'm not so sure of that. he won because Hillary was hated. I'm not sure the GOP can drum up as much hate for anyone else like they have for her...maybe AOC, but she's not running for POTUS....I've always thought it funny that they hate her so much. she is a Jr congresswoman...not really all that powerful.

the ferry to Cordova for the winter has been cut out. bastard Dumbleavy and his henchmen. for many Alaskans the ferry is their road. it's a huge transport of goods and services but they can't see that.

some American tourist decided to propose to his girlfriend while underwater. he'd written a note and dove down to the window of their underwater room? i think that is how it went...he never got the answer though, he drowned in the process.

sad that people feel obligated to make these proposals more and more elaborate...

a sad story.

this ferry stuff is really irritating...having lived in Southeast AK where life is dependent on the ferries. i know what they are dealing with. the GOP looks long when it comes to judges and their terms in office, but they fail to see the future for regular Americans. they really could care less actually. guns, abortions, immigration and judges...that is what the GOP is at this point. oh...and being totally beholden to corporate greed so they can get their bonus checks .

the trade war is not going well. trumps answer is to keep giving money to ranchers and farmers...sadly, most of these bailouts often end up going to large corporate ranchers/farmers and not the smaller ones...there has been a great loss and a fair number of suicides from the smaller ranchers/farmers.

i guess the latest game was seeing how fast the new trump wall can be climbed...it's apparently very easy to scale....well done trump and friends. so great that this fool pulled money from the Pentagon projects for the military and from FEMA to fund this fools errand.

that above is called Termination Dust..it's that first snow on the mountains. seems to be sticking a bit up there.

Ukraine seems to be in a bit of a horrible position. the investigators don't want to investigate Biden and son because they have looked into it and there is really nothing to see there, but trump and Guiliani want them to investigate....he had held up military assistance to them for months before suddenly releasing it recently...conveniently around the time the whistle blower story was made known. Ukraine may have a Dem Potus to deal with sooner or later(hopefully sooner). they risk alienating one party over the other since trump makes everything about himself rather than about our nation...he is only the leader for the GOP party, not for the nation as a whole. he seems to go after states that did not vote for him.

so prayers in local government meetings...be careful what you ask for. so the local Christians wanted prayers in the meeting and made it a rule that those who prayed had to belong to official organizations with a presence on the Kenai. well this left out a few folks, who opted to take this battle to court. so i guess this rule excluded a satanist, an atheist and a Jew, who took it to court.

the odd bed fellows won and so a Satanist gave one invocation and recently the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster said an invocation. it was given by the Pastafarian Pastor. he formed his church to battle those who were fighting to have creationism taught in the schools. they "believe" that "an invisible and undetectable monster made of spaghetti and meatballs created the universe after drinking heavily, and that his noodly appendages hold great power" there are apparently other churches of the same name across the globe...he ended his prayer with Ramen....instead of Amen.

this is a cup fungi. a different form of a mushroom. i could start a religion dedicated to mushrooms and walrus!! I'd have to have a great dog in there as well I'm thinking. if it's like many of these bogus churches i could really rake in some cash!! the Fungiwaldog religion?

we believe that dogs rule the land, walrus rule the seas and the fungi are the connective tissue to all.

the little article was hilarious!!

a growing shelf fungi

a new ski area will hopefully open i guess this winter in Hatchers Pass. I've long heard it talked off, but i guess they are actually getting it done. a lift is going up and a large yurt that will be the office/ticket sales/hang out area. should be great for the Valley folks.