each day an adventure in alaska: so much to do, so little time!

time passes anyway. even if stuff doesn't get done.

back to work for two nights then my brother will be here for a week. will do some major driving and see what we can see.

i am often a bit stressed with guests coming. you want to make sure they have a great time and see everything they want to see. in the end. this place is beautiful but you can't always predict or control things like the weather and the animals. as they have never seen any of it...you just hope they end up happy with what they do see.

today i looked into a place for the first night of our road trip. i did find a place that allows dogs in Healy. always nervous with new places and hope it all goes well. we won't get to the hot springs in Fairbanks but this will get us two pop in's to Denali National Park and a stop in Talkeetna and Matanuska Glacier. it will also split up the long drives a bit and make it more tolerable.

i live here and i can't possibly see all there is to see. for a visitor they just see what they see.

just returned from an overnight up to Byers lake with friends. always a great escape. the wagon treks get a bit more work each time. this time we had big puddles to contend with. it rained off and on. it's looking like it will pretty much rain until it snows at this point. there were breaks though. i got one rain free walk in yesterday morning. the walk later we all got drenched. still pretty and the dogs had a blast and were wiped out by the drive home.

my work week was doable. my first night i ended up on call. never got called in.

the next night i worked the ER and in the end i got to come home by 5:30 am. so that is always nice. night 3 was RCU.

rainy walks between. lots of mushrooms this year. i was surprised because it had been so hot and dry the first part of the summer. all this late summer rain made the mushrooms explode though.

my friend had used a bark spray collar on Sunny Boy while i was in Utah. she said it had worked good. i bought one and charged it. took it to Byers Lake and it worked like a charm. she said she used it on her dog for like a month and it did the trick. he does bark more than he should. so i may be using that for a bit. for sure will take it on the road trip so i don't have to feel mean punishing him for barking at this hotels. so i'll charge it up tonight again.

the current administration is trying to find work arounds to protect womens reproductive rights. this battle is far from over. some believe "life" begins at conception. those fetuses are dependent....as usual i like the questions that pop up. if this is true and a soul enters at conception...then how do they explain identical twins? they are one until up to 14 days i think...does the soul split, does only one fetus get the soul. as with most things...it all falls apart when you start to ask questions. the way of the right is to just not ask questions, but that doesn't work for all of us.

was rolling my eyes internally the other day at work. a patient had come in with an elevated blood glucose. the nurse before me gave her insulin...when i went in to recheck and it came out more normal, she said she had prayed for a lower blood sugar. i'm sure thousands of Ukrainians are praying for their lives to be spared or for their loved ones to not be tortured and killed. i guess God only performs tiny miracles and says to hell with you for the big stuff. it's all so stupid really.

this is Denali Highway. the little cabin i stayed at with the dogs last summer. we are supposed to be in a larger cabin with a bathroom and twin beds this trek.

this was a bike shop in Talkeetna.

below is powerline pass

things are going a bit nuts in the politics. the orange fool was apparently holding some super top secret documents. anything you can't do, we can do...that is how the GOP works. it's all about Hillary's emails and Hunters laptop. in the end. rules that trump put in to try to get them locked up may come back to bite him. why did he hang on to these documents? was he selling them. he's always about making money, he's always the con man. the right is all up in arms, threatening and attacking the FBI. the law and order, we support the blue folks are more than willing to give up any and all law enforcement if their beloved idol is on the wrong end of the law.

espionage is the word being tossed about. nobody would toss an ex-potus house without some pretty major proof of something. the right is just digging in deeper. calling for civil war. all over this dumb fuck? really? it's just insanity really. how could so many people be led so far off by a total idiot?

remote gas station...what will the price per gallon be right now. prices have improved though.

these are from March. have been texting with my tile guy. i think i'll work on getting the upstairs bathroom floor redone,then the doors. the downstairs tile job will be more pricey than i was hoping...so i'll need to ponder the options more for that.

russia is having a not so great week. heard some of their thugs were taken out after they posted photos of themselves on some social media site that included their address in the photo. Ukraine has also taken to hitting stuff in Crimea..good for them.

winter scenes...will be seeing this again soon.

Democrats are getting some stuff through finally. they need to tout their wins despite the GOP constant blockade for over a decade. they obstruct any and all progress.

i probably shouldn't be blogging right now. i do have a list of stuff to do before work tonight. oh well. this is relaxing.

it clears my head. the dogs would have a different point of view. i'm always happy to be home. they are too. they slept hard in the car. i pondered stopping but in the end i kept driving as they were sleeping so sweetly.

i do enjoy winter still...i love summer too and all the various seasons. the dramatic change here is constant and always feels welcome to me.

we are heading to the peace of winter after enjoying the madness of summer and so much light and activity.

we still walk, no matter the weather. wind is generally the biggest deterrent to the daily walk. wild animals are less predictable in wind.

if, and this is a big if, trump gets charged...will he leave the country with more secrets to avoid jail time. my guess is he will never see a prison. i'm sure putin or the saudi's would take him in. everyone is guessing as to who is giving him up. who knows. he's got to have pissed off more than a few people....even his current spouse could be a possible informant. does he have more documents at his other homes? they are saying he brought stuff home to read...haha. that is a joke. he didn't want to read anything. refused to read daily briefings. his old lawyer said he never took any work home with him.

this sweet face....

a pile of rocks...need more rock painting days.

will also need to get Sunny into some more classes this fall. should start looking soon.

this pair do seem to be getting along very nicely. happy i made the decision to get a buddy for Ivy and a snuggly band aid puppy for me.

he's much taller than her now but he's long and lanky

will have to grab some rocks for the trek north. will be a packing quandry..adding a second person with luggage. may have to add the bag to the top rack. mostly just for emergency gear that will never be used...hopefully. a tent/sleeping bags and all that. always good to have when you are on road trips. that will spare room inside and hopefully, we will never need it anyway. perhaps tomorrow between shifts i will get that packed up and ready to load on top.