walks and work...

since my old printer/scanner died recently i purchased a new one. bought a canon from costco. less than $100 bucks so that was doable. had to set it up and test it out. was hoping for a longer/bigger hike, but my boggy brain and need to accomplish a few things won out. university lake, the local dog park is pretty brainless. blossom is happy because she just chases her tennis ball and swims, rio is happy because people tend to bring treats there and she knows who they are.
above is a picture of deer mountain and the harbor in ketchikan. scanned a few from an old album. probably a shot every cruise ship passenger has of ketchikan. not sure why i was on the water that day. typical ketchikan though. do miss life in the small alaskan town some days. this one is also a scanned shot from that same ketchikan album. i was lucky enough to live on the water in a tiny rented cabin in ketchikan for 6 years, loved the water views. this is the moon on the water. so amazing!!before i went back to work for the week i met up with lena and amy for a hike of spencer loop. killer butt workout. i know that night as i squatted over and over at work for various things i moaned on more than one occasion from the thighs screaming. it was overcast mostly, but we didn't get rained on. nice breeze which is a perk on a hilly loop like this. amy demonstrates how one feels when they finally get to the top of the main first hill. lena will no doubt make her boys do this loop again this summer. she hadn't been before but i think she liked it. it's a great local trail for getting in shape. pretty muddy still. may have to head to the arm for a hike out windy tomorrow...hmm....we'll see how the weather and my brain feel tomorrow. the malemutes romp. we did run across this interesting footprint...could we have crossed paths with yet another yeti?? could this be the next photo that gets me noticed. have no idea, looks like one of those running shoes, although that heel part is awfully skinny looking. sasquatch wanders the trails of alaska? wondering minds want to know. guess people who track sasquatch are called squatchers? that is what someone said...am i becoming a squatcher? i think my last night on the regular peds floor was busier than my nights in the adult icu. pain meds are great, but sometimes breathing is an issue if you get too loaded up. it all worked out in the end, several phone calls later.
the trees mostly all decided to go green, the others will follow soon. so wonderful to look up and see green leaves more and more. my little attempt at getting my veggies and flowers growing early seems to be doing poorly. no green thumbs here. seeing the ski jumps and lifts lets you know you are done with the bulk up the up hills and will soon be going down on spencer loop. we weren't alone out there, though we never spied the bear who left these tracks we seemed to follow it's muddy tracks for a bit. people have been sighting a grizzly out on the turnigan/seward highway. looks pretty chunky, some are wondering if it's the one that escaped the refuge down there. pretty well fed for a wild bear in spring. also doesn't seem to fazed by the human attention. it may be another bear year. read in the paper that there has already been one bear attack just north of here in eagle river. always have to be careful in the spring and summers. campbell creek. i had plans to get in a swim and perhaps a bikeride this pm. got sucked into a show about johnny carson though. he started working the tonight show in '62 so before i was born, worked it for 30 years. i remember seeing his show many times. interesting to get a look into the man who made it rock. i always hoped and felt that letterman should have been the successor not leno. sounds like they didn't really care too much about who he wanted to take over. always loved carson though, he really was great at that job.just getting started.spring comes and with the thaw, all sorts of stuff shows up...like all the keys lost in winter. not sure if you can really see the mosquito's in the photo below. there have been swarms of them all over at university lake. they can drive me nuts. they don't seem to be biting much right now. maybe after all these years i've become immune. doubt it...mosquito's usually adore me.got lucky and the rain didn't really start coming down until after i left sunday. rio did a sleepover at co-worker michelles place. she has graciously agreed to take rio while i kayak. lena will have blossom. that first trek away from the dogs can be tough after a winter of being with them every day. rio seemed to do fine with her slumber party. ms breezy snuggles with her girl blossomthis sign was on the door heading out to the parking garage at the hospital as i was leaving from work. another sign it could be a busy bear year.my brain entertains itself and today i found myself laughing thinking that french dogs may sniff a bit different that american dogs. i mean would they sniff on either side of another dogs butt or do they sniff in the same style of american dogs? i mean one would think european dogs would be more sophisticated! do they eat other dogs poops? did get the things done on my little brain list that i wanted to get done, that always is great. not bad having that amazing range to look at as you drive around running errands. someone posted a little video about that university of alaska, anchorage student that got lost for almost 3 nights in the woods. he'd taken a friends perscription meds out there. another university runner from kenya like himself had killed himself the year before and he'd kinda blown off the guy when he'd asked to talk and then the guy killed himself. the uaa runner, also from kenya, had horrible frostbite to his feet, which had to be amputated. he also had frostbitten hands. they showed pictures of his feet/hands before. such a sad story, the guy feel asleep within a mile of the hospital. lucky to be alive and he seems fine. i personally think we have one of the best dog parks in north america...look at those views! blossom will vote in favor of that! but don't tell or more dogs will come! as i was rio got briefly attacked by a pug. when it's a small dog that growls and snaps the owners often act like, my dog is so small and yours so large, no way my dog could hurt your dog. i'm not worried about a pug killing my 120# mastiff, jsut that poor rio is blind and that must be frightening to have some dog that you hadn't noticed yet come after you. it's not like rio can tell how big hte animal is. my other errand was to try to start the process of chaning out my hall/stair carpets. eventually, those will be the only places with carpet. someone should call to set up an appointment to get the space measured for an estimate, then i can set it all in motion. i'm not a fan of carpet in general, but i think the stairs and hall will be pretty cheap and so easy to replace. with the dogs i think those stairs can be more challengling without the carpet. could just do a runner, but really, in this area carpet should work.another stretch done, back wed/thurs and then my schedule gets all crazy for june/july. i'll have to watch the schedules and make sure i show up when i'm supposed to. brain is sleepy, good night.