that was a long week...

 tough just having that one day off in the middle.  felt pretty wiped out these past 24 hours. hopefully tomorrow and the next several days off i can enjoy more

 of course, it was raining today as well so that made it a great day to sleep.  watched the final of this last season of Great British Baking show.  so fun!

 the swans are always close to shore when i don't bring my real camera.  the swans have not seemed concerned with the dogs. they swim towards them when the dogs are out getting their tennis ball. not sure if they are more interested in the dogs or the ball.   no birds, dogs or balls were injured out there.

 attempted a simple costume on Ivy Rose. she looks adorable but i soon took it off as she continues to be fearful of the costumes...so odd.  other people put shock collars on their dogs, all i would need to do is flash a costume at her. maybe i should carry one on walks and then wave it anytime she looks to be debating a leap!!

 here she is going after the cat

 did get quite a few trick or treaters in.  i did one last pumpkin carving to round out the season.

 this last part of my stretch i worked CICU, ER-which morphed into ICU and then ICU again. kept myself fairly busy.  this week I've had young lives that were altered dramatically in short order.  always a reminder to appreciate the health that i have...all those little complaints just mean less when you are dealing with others who have had their lives very dramatically impacted.

 the heater guy came by and did the exam on the heater system.  so far so good.  the water heater seems to be holding out for the moment.  it's getting fairly old though so i keep waiting for disaster.

 my sister in law started a family group me...always seems like a good idea. I'll bite, but i suspect the same people who i already communicate with will be the ones who chat on there.  fences only get mended when people want them to.  i don't see that happening at this point no matter how many social media sites are added in. some people in this world keep in contact, others don't. at some point those who don't bother really can't expect others to continue to do all the work and make all the attempts.

 my sister was terrible for some time. it was actually around Thanksgiving one year...once again i was making the rounds making calls to family members who rarely, if ever, bothered to call me...but this time,  i let her know that i was pretty over being the only person in this relationship. she had a choice, participate or not.  thankful that she has chosen to participate.  things have been much better.  we have grown closer and I'm happy that i spoke up that day...even though we both ended up in tears...

 when the texts and calls are literally one sided for years...well, in those cases you really just have to give it up.  what are you wasting time on? 

 people like to paint rocks and leave them places...so this alien rock was in a tree at the dog park.

 they are showing a movie that was made on Round Island and other remote sites on Nov 15th i believe. fish and game will have a table outside so i will hopefully be able to join them and have some pamphlets and stickers to hand out. 

 it's just time to save yourself from further pain really.  when it comes to one, i have very few memories from childhood of him.  i have more memories of his friends interacting with me.  i was just never on his radar. i get that when you are young and there is an age gap...but as you get older you do make a choice about who you include in your "family" and who you don't.

 I've always been grateful i was given a love of animals and a stream of great pets.  I'm not sure i would have made it otherwise. the world can be a lonely place. dogs do not care if you are social awkward.  they don't care about religion or politics.  they don't even care if you are feeling down or up...they are just present.  humans are a tougher nut to crack. 

 i have found the current politics depressing.  that people i know and generally respect can have views that are supportive of what is going on is depressing and disappointing. i know we will not have the same views, but there are so many things that they have chosen to either look the other way on or accept. 

 the media on the right has been very powerful and so many just follow the gibberish that is pushed on fox and other similar sources.  this potus was running scams long before he entered politics.  this is just one big scam.  sadly he has many who are willing to climb on board, no matter what damage happens to our form of government. it's been years coming.  the right smartly selected a few platforms and then made a whole panic mode about the liberals.  they will steal all your guns, they will open the borders and they will kill all the babies...it's crazy but it worked.  no matter what other bull the gop does, they will stick to them like glue for those three things and look the other way at the rest...

 in the meantime they look away while the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. 

 they look away while this fool does the bidding for a foreign power, one that is generally our foe.  they look away while he abuses his position of power to bribe and coerce weaker governments to do his bidding.  holding state visits and military aid over them until they do. 

 every person who speaks out is suddenly branded as unpatriotic, no matter how many medals they have on their chest. no matter how many years they have served. if you are not 100% trump you are either a libtard or a never trumper...a member of the deep state.

 the rest of these are in Sitka.

 it is to deny common sense to presume that anyone who speaks out is a member of this crazy deep state...which is yet another conspiracy theory.  they can't seem to see that they are believing as truth a mountain of lies and conspiracy theories.  so much so that i doubt they will ever be able to see past the lies and realize that they have been taken for a ride on Mr Toads wild ride of farce.

 Guiliani has operated a shadow foreign policy..this no doubt started over a year ago.  in fact there is a new article that it appears they pulled this same act over javelins in exchange for not cooperating with the Mueller investigation.  soon after Guiliani visited over a year ago, the cooperation ceased and investigations in Ukraine regarding their dark money there (that included Manafort on the ledger) stopped.  within a few days the meeting was arranged as were the javelins.  so they just repeated the same scheme this summer to try and get fake dirt on Biden.  just to make them say they were investigating publicly was going to be enough. 

 how many other nations have these guys been playing these games with.  who directed it all...Put would love to see Ukraine all fall back in his hands...how much pull is he having directing trump to do his bidding.

 there is so much more...it's getting out...the gop is working hard to blur the truth.  trashing any one who speaks out.  trashing the process, even though it is all above board.  lying about having no access...do you know why they aren't leaking what is going on in these interviews...probably because it doesn't look good for trump and friends.  the gop is in there and they have time to ask questions.  i suspect the questions they are asking are stupid questions...attempts to find out who the whistle blowers are, attempts to discredit the witnesses. screaming about processes, storming in rooms and eating pizza i guess.  they will all look like fools, they already do. 

 Moscow Mitch is working hard to pack the courts with partisan hacks..will this be successful when it comes to the court cases against trump and his fools? if all our courts become party over country then our nation is done really. 

 the house has passed over 400 bills along with working on the impeachment...they have all pretty much stalled in the Senate because Moscow Mitch won't take any of them up.

 the GOP fools in the house all voted down the vote in the house regarding process for the impeachment...it sounds almost overly generous to trump and his fools. 

 always love all the green in the rain forests of Southeast AK.  so pretty.  we had fairly wet weather but a great time.  these are all from a hike we did up, up, up into the rain forest.

 the fires are blazing in California.  my heart breaks for them all.  my niece is headed back up to live after they lost their home last year in Paradise.  i hope the fires aren't too difficult for them to bear emotionally.  i don't think any are super close to where they will be though so hopefully, they are safe and spared any fire activities for many years.  best of luck on the next move...so happy you will all be together again. 

 loads of steps on this trail...which my friend had wanted.  my knees are still hurting me...i really need to just get back in the pool...swimming is always the best for knee swelling i find.  I've been away from the pool too long.  it's time i think.

 no snow on the ground at my place yet.  a late year.  unseasonably warm weather . rain and darkness.  i prefer the snow as it brightens everything up. 

 may try to hit a few bazaar's tomorrow. always fun.  need to make the Christmas gift list.  i do already have the calendars and Christmas cards made.

 a hiker was apparently bitten by a bear on the Chilkoot trail.  we saw a black bear when we did it.  this is fairly late in the season to do that trek i think.  bitten in the leg...doesn't sound too bad however.  that is always good news.  this time of year the bears can be a bit bad as they are in hyperphagia...trying to fill up on food before they hibernate.

 the report on a plane crash last summer has come out.  it's a haunting report in that the pilot lived long enough to speak to another pilot at the office..."we've run into the side of a mountain....do you know where i am?". he told him he did know and help was en route.  the call was sketchy and then was lost. 

 the pilot in the office tried repeatedly to get back in touch and did manage to again for roughly 2 minutes.  "we are all injured.  i am wedged in the front of the plane"  they lost contact and they were never able to recover the bodies or the plane. it remains buried in snow. it  took around 36 hours for them to even be able to get out to where the plane was wedged high in the mountains, in a glacier, 14 miles from the summit of Denali. 

 the plane sits at about 11,000 feet on Thunder Mountain.  weather conditions were not bad but evolving.  things can change up there fast.  another pilot had seen the plane flying at the time he said Thunder Mountain was obscured by clouds.  some turbulence.  due to weather they were only ever able to hover over the crash site with a guy dangling out of a helicopter.  at first they confirmed no signs of life, pilot and three dead, they returned once more long enough to confirm a 4th passenger dead.

 the plane was pretty destroyed and wedged into a hanging glacier...it has since fallen along with up to 6000 tons of ice and rock.  when i was up in that area camping there were rock falls heard all the time all around us in the amphitheater. 

 there are crashes of these planes on a regular basis, some just stick with you.  this one does i think because of the fact that the pilot survived long enough to make those calls.  i just think of the other pilot at the office talking to him. realizing there is no way they can get any help there.  knowing he was speaking to someone who would soon be dead, not being able to raise them again....it's gotta haunt that guy every day. 

 after millions have died no doubt from CF...there is finally some hope out there i guess. 

 i got nearly all the way up the mountain before i turned back.  i knew I'd be slower coming down and there wasn't going to be a view up there anyway.  my other friend ran down from the top...no way the old knees could do that. 

 Bolton resigned, Morrison resigned, now another cabinet member is resigning. it's been a revolving door.  they have mostly been pretty tight lipped.  Bolton wasn't too happy with his ending...was he fired or did he resign.  i know he's working on a book.  nobody wants to speak under oath if they can get out of it.  they know the goose is getting cooked...how long can they hang on.

 why are they all so loyal to this fool? 

 a train fire in Pakistan killed 74 people. i guess it took 20 minutes to stop the train.  many jumped..to their deaths it sounds like.  the train was moving very quickly.

 this dark weather does give me the opportunity to share some of the summer photo's. 

 it is a gift to be able to get out and about in this state. 

 the wooden trails of southeast are always pretty cool.  i was in much better shape then...i suppose i would still be if all i had to chose from as uphill wooden steps, haha.

 well, i guess i should get off the computer. 

thankful for: A.  a long week done B.  sleep, glorious sleep  C.  tolerant pups