each day an adventure in alaska: the rock found and lost....

the downside to mixing with the other humans. haha. i did the big loop and the new to me shorter loop the other day. i must have been right behind this great rock artist, T. i found a beautiful snow leopard he had done. small rock, just the face, the eyes were amazing. i took that one and later i found the tiger that he had also made. it was also super cool. i didn't want to appear greedy so i opted to keep the snow leopard. after close to 5 miles walking i get to trailhead and run into another rocker who brings her two kids out there. the little girl had seen the snow leopard on fb and had her heart set on finding it.

her face just fell when i said i had already found it. she was gracious in the loss but she just looked so sad....so i handed her one of my prizes of the day. kindness won the day. i did come home with a very cool jelly rock. so no cats for me that day but i am hoping for some good rock karma on another day. the rocks giveth and the rocks taketh away.

there are some good personal lessons to be learned from this rock thing. in addition to getting me painting a bit and out of my own head. it's good to remember that they are just rocks and that there are others out there. greed, jealousy are not good traits so it's a good practice for all i think. the other day another rocker had the same happen. she'd gotten both of T's rocks on the super snowy day. then she met me. i was wearing my yeti snow hat while looking for the yeti he had painted. she didn't give up the yeti but she did give me the tiny lorax.

the rocks often get put back out there at another time. i doubt his do but others do...mine mostly. the mother of the little girl had some rehides with her...they were pretty much all mine. i laughed that what i lack in artistic skill i try to make up for in volume of rocks shared. there have been a few that have turned up later.

many of mine circle or return. my paddlers and a few others do seem to take flight on their own. there is some hope i'll improve in my painting skills over time...not T level but enough.

the best part is that the rocks get us all out there on the trails. the pups appreciate that. it's also a nice group of people who you normally just walk by but now you stop and chat about a common interest. another perk is the lack of politics...though there is one nasty akita woman who strikes up conversations with random strangers out there about all her conspiracy theory beliefs. she's become a bit of a joke in the group and rocks with peace and love have been created and placed out there in hopes of changing her attitude...or annoying her until she starts walking elsewhere to get away from all the liberals or libtards as so many like to refer to anyone who has any sort of view different than their own.

these often evangelical conspiracy crack addicts should really ponder the side they find themselves on. as they dish out hate and anger at such an alarming rate. hate and anger does not come from the side of the light, it comes from the side of darkness. who are they really aligned with?

so lots of walking and this week lots of snow shoveling. we got well over a foot.

i was on call that night and thankfully was never called in. i would have had to do some major digging out before i could work. we are now into the deep freeze. it was at 0 this morning.

today i headed out to the beach. there was a little fog, it was so beautiful out there though. the ice is forming.

the cr-v now has it's snow tires on. i ended up needing a cab both directions. a bit spendy but both of the cab drivers were super nice. one grew up very poor in Palestine and the other came over years ago from Pakistan. both love living here and have raised kids here, the kids were becoming very productive members of society. the first guy and i really had a lovely and continuous chat. exchanging our philosophies on things. we were very much alike in much of our thinking.

he was saying how so many freak about the masks and will refuse to enter his cab since he asks for a mask. they slam the door on a regular basis. so that led to a discussion of how spoiled and entitled so many are. he really appreciates every opportunity for him and his kids and people where he came from would be thrilled to even have access to masks most of the time.

the other cab driver said he worked nights for years so i said, no more nights now? and he said yes, no more...so i said, you must enjoy not having to shuttle around all the drunks. he started to laugh and then told started to speak about how Americans will do anything in the back of a cab. he said he can't even tell his wife what he's seen. that he would come home and she'd ask what is wrong and he just would tell her he couldn't tell her. sadly, he said it must be cultural. i wish i could convince him that not all of us are like the people he sees doing things in the back of the cab, but since he's seen so much who am i to refute the culture of our people.

the guy at the shop spoke at length to me. he was very excited about my license plate as he loves the Beatles...then he said, that is probably not why you have that plate though. it's not but i do like the beatles i told him.

these photo's Homer, Clam Gultch, Deep Creek and a rafting trek out of Spencer Glacier.

work this week. not bad at all for me. we have help for a bit. we shall see what happens in December.

i think this week i started on a floor with a terrible, nasty and difficult woman as a sitter. i pissed her off immediately. that didn't take much and it was going to be a long night so i was thrilled that i was moved to ER to do holds around 10pm. whew!

i was put on call the next night so that was great since it snowed so much. lots of digging the next day. i did short loops at Ruths because the snow was deep and i should have brought snow shoes. a few days later it was much better...or was that the next day? today is sunday. Thursday i worked PCU all night.

we went for a little rafting trek out at Spencer Glacier. pretty day as you can see. took us down the river. the only down side was not much time spent cruising around the glacier

you take a train to the lake in front of the glacier and then wander a bit and head down river where the train stops and picks you all back up.

there will be many rocks to find in the spring.

i have jury summons coming up in December. i need to let my boss know this. have gotten caught up on some education.

not sure what, if anything, will happen to trump and friends. most likely not much. there hasn't been much accountability of late which is frustrating. the other side doesn't even hear any of it since none of what does happen is covered on the "news " sources they will listen to. i've always popped over when news hits all the other main stream sources. you go to the fox type places and they could be talking about some hamburger crisis they have invented. it's always some way the world is doing the right wrong.

the whiners who seem to believe that everything they think or believe is absolute and correct and has Gods blessing and anything that doesn't fit in their box...well it's from the devil and is some sort of crazy conspiracy thing. no idea how so many can believe so many twisted tales out there but they do.

i mean it's nuts some of it. that JFK Jr is not really dead but is instead going to be trumps vp when he is returned to power. the whole election is not legitimate crap. there were even fools that went to the place in Dallas that JFK was assassinated on the anniversary of his death believing that JR would be there to announce the return of trump to office with his support as running mate. not just a few fools, hundreds.

also some from Kennicott.

i left a rock there in front of the house of a local. he had this whole set up with pineapples across the street, little signs and a whole scene set up. he was excited i had noticed it. so he popped out of his house, somewhat drunk, and began to tell me the whole tale of the scene he'd set up with the pineapples. who am i to stop a good tale so i listened.

the mine buildings looked rougher this time. they are doing work to attempt to shore them up. time will not do well by them though. the main mine building was added onto repeatedly over a short time so i'm not sure how well it was built to begin with.

my friend hiking back from the glacier. i stopped often to take photo's of course.

all the old mine equipment

tomorrow a few of us will walk. the official Monday walk seems to be on the back burner. people mostly have found other things to do on Mondays. tomorrow i have a thing to do. so i may have to just book ahead so i can make the dentist appointment. took months to get it so i had to go with what they had.

some are a different mine...Independence still

the drive out towards Glenallen.

and to Kennicott eventually as well.

the wrangel/st elias mountains

below is again the ice/moraine

the girls.

i had started to work on the calendar but i tried loading a bunch of pictures and what actually loaded were photos from several years ago so not sure why that happened. rather than become more annoyed i just took a break.