count down to Christmas begins!!

 walked with new puppy George out in Eagle River today.  Briggs Bridge.  a bit icy but we all survived. loved these tiny ice crystal stars in the mud.  we saw several of them.  can't say as I've ever seen fairly large stars like this...they were 1/2 inch to nearly 1 inch in diameter maybe.  so fun!!

 some of these are meeting George after the Monday walk last week.  he's gonna get big!!  1/2 malemute, 1/2 aussie i think. super cute.

 the size difference will change dramatically over the next few weeks/months.

 finished my last night of work on Thanksgiving eve.  slept great after a night in ICU.  kept fairly busy.  then i woke at 1 and realized the Friendsgiving meal i was attending started at 2pm not 7 pm.  oops!!  booked in to shower and hit the road. 

 it was a very fun and relaxing night of fine eating and game playing.  before i realized it the time was after 10 pm!!  the dogs got to attend so there were 4 dogs and 6 humans!  8 hours of play was great for these tykes.  they were tired but ready to romp again today. 

 we played Mexican Train dominoes. is this politically incorrect.  it was discussed but thankfully, there were no battles or anyone offended.  it was just a comical conversation....like can one build a wall? we also played another card game that i won, but can't recall the name of.   i have always enjoyed games and feel like we should all be gathering for game nights more often. 

 headed to Potters to watch the sunset.  it's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow i think.  there is a good low tide at sunset tomorrow so perhaps a run down to the beach would be fun. 

 we had a pretty powerful wind storm the night i was working.  i was worried about fences and limbs coming down at the house and dogs escaping.  the dogs were fine when i arrived home so i was happy.  the dog run was all tweeked from the wind and a few items had been moved around in the yard but no damage.  whew!!  i did see lots of limbs and fence sections down on the drive to dinner last night and when i was cruising around today.

 from reports there were gusts over 100mph.  so pretty strong.  seemed like the Hillside and Turnigan areas were hardest hit.

 that took away almost all the snow and left patches of ice...since the snow packs down on the trails, that means the trails themselves all become ice skating rinks...as well as the side roads and side walks.

 we all took turns holding the baby...knowing we may not ever have that chance again.  he's already getting too big for it.

 today was a great day to get out there and pick up the dog poop! that is an exciting day in my world.

 my brother texted hoping i could fly down and watch his teens for 10 days while they cruise.  i would have easily done it if i lived closer...and i did do it for many of my siblings...well not 10 days, but i did do a lot of baby sitting in my younger days when i did live closer.  i will see if a partial could work out but flight times, dog care here and not having enough vacation days will probably make it unlikely....i feel badly as these are the days when you do wish you lived closer...but overall, i love life in AK and am really happy i landed here.

 i did laugh as in his text, he generously mentioned he'd pay airfare and that i could bring a friend, girl...he specified.  nice that he thinks i may have flocks of men who would desire to travel with me...or even one man who would, but at the same time it also gives me a glimpse into how i am viewed and always will be viewed. 

 i mean i did have my fairly slutty days but i would never have and never did behave in any way disrespectfully when around my family.  i left the church but that in no way made me become a terrible person.  in some ways i think it's just naivete on their parts....or they really do think I'm some wild, sex crazed maniac. was friend that's a girl also mean that i shouldn't bring a lesbian lover?

 another sibling had called me when his daughter and her husband were coming to visit to warn me that they are very conservative...i had to ask him if he thought I'd be doing lines of coke in front of them? what is it they expect from me.  i mean i rarely drink anything but milk and water. i have never actually tried any drugs and my sexual encounters were always within the confines of a relationship...granted my relationships did not always last an extended period but i am pretty dull really.  to have people assume the worst of you and feel the need to point out correct behavior is odd to say the least.

 it just shows me that no matter how old i get or how many years i am out of the church i will always be seen as someone who left the church and is therefore suspect.  how can we ever have normal relationships if they can't ever just accept me for who i am?

 if they go out with business associates and they order a beer with the meal i presume there is no issue.  that they would not make a request for them to not drink.  if a business associate had lost their home in a quake or something would they tell them that they are welcome but their live in partner is not? 

 always love train tracks.  no trains went by as i was there. i am always careful

 it was cloudy everywhere else but we did have this patch of blue skies.

 after i headed over to Bells Nursery...they have a tiny Sees candy store inside the nursery.  sadly, they don't have any milk chocolate patty's...my favorite.  i had them create a box for me...what is Christmas without See's. :-) 

 this is the big snow plow and this is the view you would have if you were on the tracks and one was coming at you.  I'm sure this plow took out more than a few moose.  looks like a bad way to go!

 more of these cool ice stars.  you can see the pine needles for size comparison. 

 view from Tudor Rd.

 i stopped by the shelter, always like to see what animals are there.  there was a boxer looking dog which began to bark immediately...nope!! one kitten, it was already getting a meet and greet for a home.  one big malemute/shepherd cross out being walked.

 got the bills paid and a few errands run so it was a fairly productive day.

 i have enjoyed dominoes the few times I've played.  we always had dominoes at the house, but we never played.

 we played Nertz, Gin, Hearts, Spit, Uno and Mile Bornes? what was that one? we also played Life and Sorry, occasionally Chinese Checkers. lots of solitaire...oh War of course. Yahtzee. it was usually myself and my two older brothers for most games. 

 no computer games since we didn't have computers...we did get pong when it came out.  it was pretty dull so it did not interest us for long. we were pre Atari and Nintendo and Wii. 

 we had a pool table and ping pong tables seemed to come and go.

 the rest are Homer pictures..

 the fire weed was nuts so i was driving up roads checking it out .

 so beautiful!!

 that is the spit in the background.

 wish i had seen a big moose in the fireweed...would have been cool pictures.

 you can see a sea of pink on the mountains all over the place.

 better in this one below.

 photo's never really show how amazing it all is but i sure had a fun time with all those flowers.

 many months to go before this happens again. 

 do need to start planning treks for next summer.  want to finally hit Katmai bears and the land of 10,000 smokes. have never been to King Salmon so it may be fun to take that route out to Katmai. 

 maybe i could do a little walrus viewing with that, weather permitting of course. walrus permitting as well. 

 maybe i will start to work on Christmas cards...though i see a stack of cards from last year that i never got addresses for.  it's becoming a lost art. 

 hoping everyone had a lovely holiday. 

thankful for : A. no slips on the ice  B. puppies...who doesn't love puppies  C.  the great food of Thanksgiving, great company...so relaxing. 

will the phone ring or won't it?

 i'm currently on call.  on the second stretch of the long run.  was happy to take call though i probably shouldn't take all this call. i was in RCU last night and i had one of the flirty/grabby patients.  kept grabbing at me, said he just wants to cuddle.  grabbed my ass repeatedly.

 pups tired after a walk the other day.  no walk today.  i slept and then made a run to  Great Harvest for some bread for Thanksgiving. above was in the bog, caught the sunset the other day.

 walked every day since the lazy day until today.  i do tend to skip one day a week or every other week.  we now have ice under snow.  so until that gets packed down it's a bit dicey.

 some cool ice formations at University Lake the other day....all covered over with snow at this time. wasn't going to go out on the ice yet...not quite stable enough for my liking.  now the temps have dropped down.  the real freeze will happen.  will it stay cold, that is the question i guess.

 we laugh about old men like that, but it is annoying and does effect you. just the way it was and remains in some ways i'm sure. men just assuming that they can grab and flirt and that if women are the least bit put off by their advances we are deemed to be frigid or some other non-flattering term. 

 can recall many times over the years having that flip switch when advances were pushed back on...it's just how it is for women.  more when i was younger.  it's what other men just don't get.  it's a constant...or it was when i was younger.  you always have to watch out for yourself. you can never just walk to your car or anywhere.  you always, and i mean always have to be on alert. 

 random strangers waiting at a store and a conversation started.  this woman who was older said that she won't park in a parking garage.  a guy seemed shocked by this...i mean you could tell that he was all thinking she was old and why would she need to worry about being attacked.  she said that now that she is older she is even more vulnerable.  she uses a cane, harder to defend herself for attacks.  it never really ends. 

 an 82 year old in NY had an intruder come in to her house...what that intruder did not know was that she was big into weight lifting. she grabbed a table and took him out. i remember hearing of another elderly woman who had a guy come in and try to force her to give him a blow job...she bit the crap out of his dick.  see...it never ends.  women of all ages are taught by other women how to defend and protect themselves.  when we walk we are aware of every potential hiding place.  we move through the world on alert and on guard.  men just have little understanding of this because they move through the world without a care for the most part.

 last week i did a night in RCU as well. it's been ages since i worked up there.  last week i was preceptor to another resource nurse so she did most of the work.  i have gotten some of the lingering education stuff done so that is good.  one more to do. 

 then i worked ER and ER again.  the second night was oddly slow.  i stayed until around 3:30 am and then was able to head home. 

 got a dog walk in at University Lake...it looked like it was going to clear and then the snow just hit.  really came down.  it was beautiful.  i was worried the roads would be bad...and they were.  people were sliding all over the place.  a fatality accident happened...

 i was fine though. i was able to get downtown to a bazaar.  i was pretty sleepy though so wasn't really in a spending mode.  i bought a few small items...then i ended up heading over to meet a friend for dinner.  so  i was happy i got all the stuff done on my list for that one day off.

 i never feel safe on call until after like 3 am.  we shall see. 

 every day brings more news of the crap that is happening in this administration.  i get the feeling a dam will break.  not sure the most loyal supporters will ever abandon trump, but i suspect there are GOP folks in DC who would not be sad to see him go.  they won't be brave enough to stand up to him though.  there is that whole anonymous writer.  wrote and op ed, a book and now has done an interview.  it is funny that they are freaking out more about the whistle blower than the anonymous person.  anonymous is still there with them from what it appears.  plans on coming out before the election in an attempt to take him down?  who knows.

 it is becoming more clear that he was aware of the whistle blower which was what caused the funds to be released to Ukraine and for him to then go all over saying no quid pro quo over and over. you know he had no idea of that terminology before the whistle blower report came out.

 Bolton has a book deal and seems pretty poised to scream.  will he though? 

 trump was doing his usual with Guiliani today..he plays the distance game.  either i hardly know that person or i have no idea what they were up to...the games he plays are not complicated or anything, they are clumsy and haphazard.  that is how he has lived his whole life it seems.

 being from money has always given him a way out of any trouble he's gotten into.  i laugh because i would wager that there are some non-disclosures with women out there who had abortions and were paid off by his fixers.  i have no doubt that the image he's putting out for those evangelicals is so far removed from the reality.  Bannon had one thing right...those who stuck by him after the access hollywood tape were going to stick by him through anything.  they will ride the train off the tracks, they will fly on the plane in to the side of the mountain. 

 these berries looked so beautiful after that snow. my pictures couldn't do it justice...and i was just driving and pulled over. 

 the shed and back fence art look really cool in the snow. it was a great day for a warm fire.

 animal cruelty is now a Federal crime...that is good news.  luckily he gets a few things right.  sadly, as he does this he also tries to take land for use in mining and oil/gas.  he allows elephant tusks to be imported and has made an assault on the endangered species act.  hard to look the other way at the many things he does wrong.

 when i was in Barrow a guy who was showing us around was talking to us about the ice cellars that were there and with the current warming trends these are often times failing.  these are huge storage areas for meat through the summers.  the permafrost is melting.  this releases gases as well. 

 some court cases...trump got a bit of a reprieve in one...the supreme court will put a hold on releasing his financial records...he's really putting a great deal of energy into preventing those from getting out there...one must ask why?  when they do finally see the light of day will it be for ego that he didn't want them out as his bragging of financial success is perhaps way over blown or will his finances show him to have been up to his rears in loans to questionable foreign governments...you know Russia, Saudi's?  so it's a hold up but not a win yet. 

 his old White House counsel McGahn has a case pending as well.  that didn't go as well for trump.  the judge basically said, trump is not king, he is not above the law, people must comply with subpoena's.  will have to see how that shakes up.

 Nunes may be getting deeper into the muck...or should we say he's getting more swampy. it's been reported that he was meeting with the old corrupt Ukraine prosecutor about this whole Ukraine/Biden conspiracy theory.  those GOP fools and their conspiracy theories.  it's been proven over and over that Russia did all they could to interfere and still is at it...but still they waste time chasing down these already debunked conspiracy theories.

 for those GOP members bitching about money spent investigating this extremely corrupt administration you can bitch at yet another investigation by the GOP on the left, which has been constant since Clinton was Potus.  was it embarrassment over Nixon...he looks like small potatoes next to trump...and both of them tower over the clinton sex scandal.  Graham has started a probe into Burisma and Ukraine...we all know Burisma= Biden. 

 just Lindsay trying to be the first lips attached to trumps ass.  i mean there is quite the race at who gets that position.  i'm still convinced a few of them have kissed his ass so much they have been sucked in. 

 we may never see them again.  they are forever tainted by this fool they have put their faith in...Perry was even on faux news saying that trump was literally sent by God...so many of them have opted to buy into this tomfoolery.  i mean trump!!  sent by God....it's hysterical.

 these are all in Homer.

 baby birds....all have flown south that are flying south by now.

 the harbor.  always beautiful watching the boats coming and going.

 old boats are always a favorite.

 my latest pair of slippers had a good run.  Tusker took one out tonight.  that is what i get for not walking the dogs.  destruction.

 so i'll have to do some slipper shopping again tomorrow i think.  the grocery the day before Thanksgiving should be fun.  haha.

 i am also a fan of old cars.

 the fireweed was crazy this week that i was down there.  so beautiful.

 caught it just right and it was amazing.

 love the fireweed.

 so i took extra time before heading home to cruise around looking for photo ops

 again, photo's never really do justice to the beauty of this place but it's fun to try. some folks really do a great job capturing the beauty...some days i get lucky. it's fun though

 i'm really blessed to live up here.  there are sacrifices to living far away from the family but overall, i have loved the life i have had here.

 fireweed lines the streets

 first comes the lupine and later the fireweed.  every week of the summer is different.  it's magical and you run around like crazy trying to see every thing you can in the short time you have.

 these are just some side roads i took.

 fireweed was as far as the eye could see in some places.

 i shall head to bed and see if i can rest...or if i get called in.  it's still pretty early.  figured i'd take a moment and put in some more summer photo's along with some proof of winter photos now that we have snow!

 Happy Thanksgiving!!

thankful for A.  all those fun holidays i had growing up.  we always had lots of food and family around B.  having a steady job which is fulfilling and a constant reminder that i have health and that is a huge gift. C.  healing family members.