each day an adventure in alaska: ready to enjoy some days off of work...

trying to get the holiday spirit going. worked on my project this year, wreaths. this is the one i did for myself. kind of a tester wreath. the green stuff at the top is sponges i found on the Kenai this summer while beach combing. i then dyed the sponges green and red.

our snow turned back to ice but i enjoyed a day of ice exploration. when life doesn't make snow, make ice fun! i do love all the cool ice formations that we get and the perk to having these freeze/thaw sessions is that we get the ice all over again.

these big bits of tree have clearly met those tiny mushrooms. such brilliant color!!

got my repeat Shingles vaccine the day i headed back to work. i worked ICU. through the night i started to feel those same symptoms i got after the first vaccine. chills, body aches, exhaustion. got through the night okay but ended up calling out sick. the symptoms didn't last as long this time though so after one night i felt ready to return to work.

ended up in Peds that night. you can get pulled into drama pretty easy on that unit if you allow it. you can also be the punching bag/scape goat for tired and frustrated patients and parents. the situation we all dealt with was frustrating for all and stressful. all may be well that ends well but i ended up totally knotted up and waking up today with a lousy headache.

view out my bedroom the other morning, complete with a bald eagle.

did not walk the day after the vaccine...didn't do much at all that day. no shower, hit and miss sleep. the body aches kept bouncing all over and i couldn't get rest. the dogs next door were barking like crazy and the neighbor on the other side texted to apologize for the noise over there as her washer flooded and now her floors are all trashed. had to rip those out. poor thing...that sucks.

the next day i felt better but my hair was all birds nesty...major knots. so that took some time to work out before i hit the shower.

now I'm off for a bit so that is great.

i had decided to get my Christmas Tree today. so after our walk today that is where i headed

of course, today's walk out Rovers Run got doubled up...young bull moose was on the trail and appeared to have zero intentions of relocating or moving along. i opted to just turn around. added some mileage but the dogs never complain about that.

the bubbles and ice designs were fun. i just had to snap photo's before the dogs stomped all over them. their interest remained with the tennis ball.

though at one point a shrew took off across the ice and the pups gave chase. the thing booked under the ice. a few before that happened i saw what looked like a shrew running or swimming under the ice...hard to tell...do shrews swim? i have no idea.

since i was in the area of Cabela's i called to see if Santa was there for photo's. it's good practice for the dogs, they did well. these bows didn't cooperate all that well.

i like the Bass Pro Santa and bought fleece to make them Santa scarves so I'll make my way over there for a photo op as well.

made it to the post office for another run of mailings. always great to get shipping out of the way. cards mostly done. some addresses i still don't have. house is as decorated as i plan to make it .

i mentally debate the fake tree thing every year. i still really enjoy that real tree smell though. fun to have the twinkling lights back up. i have too many ornaments i guess, many favorites. so some did not make it on the tree this year. it depends on the year and the size tree i end up picking up. this one seems a bit smaller, trees are much more spendy than when i was a kid.

Dimond has their trees hanging to you can easily twirl them and get a good look all around. it always just makes me happy twirling all the trees and it smells so great!

i hear there is some sort of sink hole on Northern Lights Blvd? haven't driven that way yet. best to avoid i guess.

not sure which trees we will use for our Monday walk Christmas Tree decorations this year. not sure the pond is all that frozen. the side bits are still open so that doesn't bode well.

usually all frozen by now so odd.

just watched snippets of the Judiciary committee. the GOP members just act like such asses.

it's looking more and more like he will be impeached despite their tomfoolery. he won't be removed of course. Moscow Mitch was just on faux news i think saying he is working closely with trumps lawyers to protect trump basically...way to ignore your duties in order to protect your party and leader over the rule of law.

all the screaming and carrying on annoy me and make them look so ridiculous in my mind. it allows faux to snip it up for lovely sound bites that will please trump and his base. they have long ago given up on truth and facts and instead seem to revel in drama and absurdity.

so we are now the United States of Reality TV

some bubble sightings...silly me had my good camera but never pulled it out.

some huge rocks have been falling on the Seward Highway. i think they blame the wind and rain...but i have felt that the area was all made more unstable by last years earthquake. i have avoided all those trails since the big quake...seems at risk for a rock slide on a good day....

the pups with Santa...Ivy looks suspicious...not sure she believes in Santa anymore...i do believe i heard her requesting lots of tennis balls and treats though...just in case. :-)

i am not a fan of full face tattoo's. the message it sends is generally not a good one. there is a pretty horrible guy on the loose in the Fairbanks area. he kidnapped a woman and held her captive for weeks, beating and raping her. the woman overdosed and died before the trail so they no longer had a witness or enough to hold him on...so he's free. that is a pretty terrifying thought.

speaking of terrible folks being let loose...a GOP governor from Kentucky has pardoned hundreds after he lost his office. 428 pardons...many to violent criminals. so for those law and order Republicans...thanks for releasing child rapist and murderers. raped a 9 year old...and for those Republicans who are fighting so hard to prevent abortions...one of those pardoned gave birth and tossed the baby in the outhouse.

i do believe that impeachment is a must even if he isn't removed. it places in the record some of what has happened and it also places in the record the GOP total complicity and foolishness. new information comes out every day it seems and it's mostly not good. the iitoo is fighting to the supreme court to keep his financial secret...this the man who loves to claim he's the most transparent president ever...he also vowed to release his taxes after the election and after his audit, that wasn't really preventing release...

i don't think he'd be fighting to keep them hidden if there wasn't some pretty damming crap in there. if this were any Democrat or Independent the right would be shitting themselves screaming that no one is above the law and that this is obstruction and all the Dems are doing and worse...i mean they are much more ruthless than the left is.

a judge has blocked the plans to snag 3.6 billion from the military to pay for the border wall. yet another show down. at the same time a deal was met to allow the Space farce in a bill that includes federal paternal leave...i really wish we would get rid of these deals that put random crap together. neither has anything to do with the other. just compromise on one thing at a time without adding in bull. this is both parties..it's how dc works but it's one thing i think would be a good thing to change.

the task force to look into Native women disappearing comes as they also refuse to pass bills to protect women of domestic violence, refuse to limit gun access to men who have been accused of domestic violence. cut funding to assist those who are impacted..the tit for tat makes it hard to believe there is any real plan to help anyone. i guess that makes me pretty jaded but i just fear this is some ruse to put money in their buddies pockets, make up this scene about helping but in the end do little to nothing to actually help.

a Chilean Hercules aircraft on the way to Antarctica has crashed, no survivors.

this tree below may currently have a bear sleeping inside. i stayed quiet as i walked around...don't wake the sleeping bear.

the hanging, twirling trees.

a Bethel Principal was arrested...details not clear yet as far as i have read...child exploitation. those villages have been hit hard over the years with abuse of children. often by outsiders who should be there helping but instead use the community to feed their sick desires. the Catholics have a history of just shipping their molester Priests to Alaskan villages. out of sight out of mind...but sadly, nothing in their habits changed, just the location brought them a new group of victims and less over sight.

Thunberg was put on Time magazine and it's riled the right. they really can drum up hatred for anyone they desire. their followers fall in line with the hate sadly. hate is just a bad place to govern from. trump is the 7 deadly sins all rolled in one. not clear what they see in him honestly. he spews nasty and negative constantly....there is zero incidences of positive inspiration. no words of comfort...it's all negative all the time. i really just do not see the draw.

when running errands Ivy some times takes over my seat. it's a bit of a battle to get her to move. she usually just moves over and sits on Tusker.

look at all this cool ice. it's after 1 i think i should be headed to bed soon.

a volcano, Shishaldin erupted for 3 minutes the other day. very small community nearby was not impacted except for feeling the ground shaking for the duration. the wind blew the ash out to sea. the ash did shoot up over 20,000 feet. reading it's a very active volcano, though most of it's activity is not too dangerous. several died in New Zealand from a recent eruption there.