the bears are out there...

 

so i did get brave and headed to the Campbell Airstrip trailhead. look what i saw as i pulled into the trailhead. i enjoyed these bears from the comfort of my car, unlike this biker. they got fairly close to the biker. no harm done. after, i headed to the dog park in shame.

did hit Kincaid with friends the other day and will try the airstrip again tomorrow but with a friend as well. crowds are better.  rain the last two days and work so i just hit the dog park. 

more homeless to add to the trail woes of late. they handed them all tents and sent them out into the neighborhoods. my cab driver is originally from Mexico City and says they have very few homeless there...that they offer no services to them so they do not have help to exist as homeless people. 

i really have no idea what the answers are. i know many do have legit issues, but there is also just an abundance of addiction/alcoholism and the villages kick out unruly citizens because they can't deal with them there...so the bigger cities get the brunt of it all. 

fire island would be good. send them there with their tents.  start a reality tv show...they could use the notoriety to make money i guess. my compassion does get low on this population admittedly.  being single hiker and female already comes with risks...adding in a crap ton of homeless with their issues and garbage...that also brings in more bears by the way.  last year i think 3 bears had to be killed due to interactions with the homeless, who did not take cares with their edible garbage/stuff. there was also a lot of garbage at this trailhead scattered about, post winter. 

humans are crap. that is the truth of it.  the only species that behaves in this manner. we are an embarrassment to the animal kingdom really. 

this week of work i was a sitter and worked holds in the ER.  last week...let me think.  i believe i was in the ER doing holds, which was much busier than this week and then i was in the ICU. i had an orientee so that was great.  not a bad week. i will either pay for it another night or i have paid for it in the past. 

my last night started a bit nuts but quickly settled in. the cath lab...well, they were a bit ridiculous. got report, went to look at the patient, who was still fully clothed. the plan was cath lab around midnight...but then the charge comes and says they are ready for him.  so we quickly got him ready to go so she could get him there. i went out and called cath lab to give a quick report, the charge answered and quickly hung up saying he was on the way and they were fine. the phone rings and it's a nurse over in cath lab wanting report..then they blasted off saying the patient had arrived..as i was talking to that nurse, there is an overhead page for me. the charge was calling asking about a medication i guess. they were now angry at me...a person who had the patient for literally 30 minutes. they did not like the responses i gave. luckily the person i got report from was still there and grabbed the consent form they wanted....it was already scanned in though. anyway...they were rude and flustered and it was all unnecessary. 

did get my rain boots planted for the front deck. will do more planting when i get back from Homer. gotta pack a bit tomorrow, pay bills, cat litter...the usual stuff. 

people have been backing out of the trip so mostly, i will be chilling with the dogs. will do a walk with my friend who lives there. K is still going so hopefully we meet up some. it will be a laid back Birthday but should still be nice...i love Homer.  always happy there.

only bummer is there are crap tides.  no really good low tides.  boo. 

had a good chat with one of my brothers last week.  more open about the religion than in years past...so the second conversation that wasn't impossible. i'm actually more blunt now than i used to be.  we all used to just dance around it as it was a hostile subject.  not sure what is changing.  i think several of them now have kids who are not 100% on board with the church.  maybe that is adding a different perspective for them.  maybe they are seeing that how they treated me and the end result of that is not what they want to happen with their kids and grandkids.  

it started a bit iffy.  i just have little tolerance for the church's crap at this point.  hard to be enthusiastic about things especially related to money.  i know they all just seem to look the other way at the financial dealings of the church...but they did just get fined over 5 million by the SEC for their practices. i hardly think that makes them trustworthy.  they have these kiosks that i guess is really only going to be a Christmas thing but they supply the kiosks and pay the fees but the money donated goes to the various independent charities they have in the vending machine.  sounds great but as i said, i don't trust the church. they seem to always have a work around.  i think free advertising for sure. free labor, proselytizing despite emphatically saying they aren't...they will have missionaries stationed there. 

i think there is also some fine print that says they can allocate funds as they see fit so what you think you are donating to is not 100% sure.  also, i suspect they can get credit for donations without actually having to donate from their vast holdings. can they claim it as part of their charitable giving? anyway.  i do not just have a blind trust in them.  i would questions all from the church.  

but anyway...we did have a reasonable conversation eventually. it's odd to me that they can't always see the oddity of their own religion while noting the oddities of other religions. spirituality and spiritual experiences are universal.  nobody has the corner on it at all.  many have believed they have had spiritual experiences when in starvation mode or on mushrooms. spiritual experiences have a pretty long and varied  history. drugs, nature, disease can all lead to spiritual experiences. 

was laughing because over the years there's been some presumption that i have been actively attempting to influence the nieces/nephews to leave the church.  i haven't. i moved far, far away.  partly because i already saw that i was the scape goat in the making.  partly because, i just had to go and find who i was without all the influences that i'd grown up with.  brilliant move by the way. 

the really f'd up thing about all these assumptions of me attempting to influence is that in truth my two oldest brothers were brutal to the church.  every chance they got they bashed the church.  this was when i was in my teen years. my oldest niece was also exposed a great deal to this constant debate and banter...so really if anyone influenced people to leave it was them. 

my oldest niece and i hung out a lot when she was a preteen/teen and i was in my 20's i guess. there is only 13 years between us. i commented to her that don't recall us having deep philosophical or religious discussions.  we were more likely to be talking about hockey stats and which players were hot. it's kind of hilarious that anyone believes i was cornering my nieces/nephews into deep religious conversations.  i had friends for that.  i had books i looked into.  no access to the internet.  clearly i didn't need tons of information to see the major cracks in the doctrine. 

she was telling me that her daughters softball team is putting scriptures in their batting helmets, it's a Christian school. everyone except her daughter. i told her she should show her Songs of Solomon. i always liked 8:8. my parents would be so proud that this is one of the few scriptures i still know by heart. haha. "we have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for". lots of crazy scriptures in there. like so much else.  most Christians opt to ignore anything that makes them uncomfortable or would bring shame and doubt to their faith.  some of those things are in the books they hold up as prefect word of God. songs of solomon is full of fun stuff. 

her daughter also got a kick out of that idea. not sure she will do it but perhaps she will entertain herself with some songs of solomon. 

mostly, i avoided religion talk and still do.  i'm here and if anyone wants to talk i'm available. otherwise. i am just the aunt who left the church and is headed for outer darkness i guess. once you are pre-determined for outer darkness you no longer stress yourself out over the next life i guess. we were always taught that those who had the church and turned away would be far worse off than anyone who never knew of the church.  would have been better off never hearing about it really. that seems a no brainer to me. i think i saw a cartoon about that. 

have been trying to focus on not being lazy getting up.  with my knee pain i think i just have gotten into the bad habit of using my arms instead of my thighs. have felt like my thighs are weak.  i think it's easy to start thinking you can't do stuff as you get older and you just have to remind yourself that you can. saw a video of a guy trying to remember how to skip.  it's not conscious really.  i haven't done a cartwheel for ages. you just stop doing stuff. well i know there is like a 90+ year old gymnast out there so clearly she's still doing cartwheels. 

these are the bear shots.  i just had my cell phone.  a little reminder that in summer you should always carry the bigger/better camera. zoom is crappy on my iphone i think.  

the rest are from a few summers ago. 

we are greening up nicely.  quicker than expected by me really. 

look at that pretty star.  i don't expect to see many this weekend.  i'll have more time to explore i guess though. 

it's always a great escape. i tend to prefer to just keep myself busy over Birthdays. when you are single, it's not always the big party or anything.  people don't celebrate everyone or i guess not everyone have lives that are celebrated. i carried around this "you are special" plate my Mom gave us all for years but when you are single...you aren't really special or it seems strange to eat off of a you are special plate. just getting it out feels strange.  as they say, if things do not bring you joy get rid of them. i know my Mom thought i was special..

don't need the plate to prove it. 

will be nice to just hit the road.  make many of the usual stops i like to make. drop off some rocks perhaps.  take some photos, walk miles on the beach. wear the dogs out...you never know what you might spot out there. 

below is the tracks of a sea star. they don't move fast but they can migrate a bit. adult sunflower stars  can move one meter per minute ijust read. they have 15,000 tube feet. they can also bounce. 

i think i read somewhere one mile every 5 days or so movement if desired. 

we shall see where we end up exploring this trip. hoping no flat tires.  did just get the tires changed over the other day.  will leave the winter tires on the Element.  don't drive it far enough to worry about it for these short months/miles. 

so cab rides to/from tire change over.  

such sweet faces. love these pups. 

Sunny is getting braver in the water but he really has little natural talent at swimming. 

more stars. will just have to enjoy other aspects of Homer and hope for more low tides another time. it's funny i really didn't find the big star hide outs until fairly recent.  there is always so much more to discover out there. you never will find it all, never see it all.  

watch these travel nurses come up here and think they have seen it all by doing their little contracts. i know they are barely scratching the surface of the amazing things up here. you really can just go to the dog park day after day and watch the changes. it's dramatic. i love the drama of Alaska. 

summers pass fast but each day/week things are changing. the greenery is busting out.  i can see some flowers starting to work their way to bloom. 

star and anemones, closed up for the low tide.

many of the stars down there have 6 legs. stars generally come in multiples of 5. have written to my old marine bio teacher, retired now.  he wasn't sure what that was all about.  many of these stars here have 6 limbs. 

this guy is a standard 5 limb star. 

i better go crash.  reading a few novels right now. one on the phone and one on the ipad. grateful for A. the drama of Alaska and the beauty  B for another year of experiences and possibilities on this planet. C. the people who accept me for who i am and the critters who adore me despite my imperfections.