all the leaves are brown, and the skies are grey....

 another day another walk in the rain.  it wasn't pouring though so all is good.  had a somewhat productive day, at least by my standards.  i'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow night.  feels like i haven't really had a stretch off.  how do other people work so much.  i hope i can continue with 3-12 hour shifts/week until i retire some day.  above is cheney lake.  there is quite a bit of snow in the background on the chugach.  we are on a crash coarse towards winter.  lots of geese on the lake, getting ready to fly south no doubt.  they were quite active when i stopped  by.  debated taking the dogs for a second  walk.  probably should have.  it's always pretty on the lake there. i had just run a few errands and was on the way home.

 yesterday i kinda felt a bit like crap again.  i'm coughing more so it's probably just phase 2 of the bug.  that is how it usually works.  initial virus, then it tends to meander down to my lungs.  so far just some coughing.  i sat at the computer a bit working on legalzoom.com.  i do hope it's not a rip off.  just wanted basics taken care of.  in alaska if you are not married, have no children and your parents are passed if you have no will when you die the state gets whatever you have.  not that i care too much, but i'd rather have people i know go through my crap and be able to sell off or keep what they want.  so i did the whole basic will, living will, durable power of attorney and a extra document to hopefully cover my pets in the event i die.  none of us like to see ourselves as not living, but it is a fact of this life.  each state has different rules.  my near death experience this summer on the boat and a past near death experience on a plane.  those near death experiences seem to be adding up.  i could have died several times and so far it just hasn't been my time.  i'm happy about that.  i'm hoping to have my health as long as i can and to be able to enjoy all the beauty that is out there.  still would like to write that dang book.  this winters project i have promised myself.

 did finally get out in the rain with the dogs.  we just headed out to the right after the bridge at campbell airstrip trails.  ran into some lady and walked with her a bit.  chatted with a few others, then ran into another regular trail walker.  you get to know the regulars when you walk as much as i do.  i've known many people for years just from walking.  this little bridge was covered with a few inches of water.  i walked safely across it.  a few young mothers with smaller children turned back rather than risk it. water is just powerful.  it's a good thing to never underestimate it.  the waters around here are high and running fast.  it's not impossible to slip and fall and end up in a predicament.  i opted to avoid the little short road trips. partly due to poor weather, but also do to all the flooding that is going around both north and south of me.  we did turn around not too far past the bridge as there were loads of trees down still that hadn't been cut up.

 watched, "i am sam" this evening.  that movie always makes me cry.  have also been curious about why when one drives around you frequently will see one shoe on the side of the road.  why? do people randomly toss out one shoe?  are people walking and don't notice one shoe falling off. i see these single shoes all the time.  very curious.  with all this water it's not too surprising that a person that has been missing a few months washed up.  sadly her boyfriend of 22 years was the one who found her.  apparently he's been going out every day since she disappeared looking for her.  sweet and sad really.  she was 63 and she used to walk all over anchorage.  one day she never made it home.  at least her body is now recovered and hopefully, it will shed some light on what happened, at the very least her family can have some closure.  always harder when no body is found i would imagine.  there are still 2 others lost this summer who remain missing.

 it's legal again to sit downtown.  i'm not a fan of our mayor, he had put this one out there, it originally passed, but the vote was reversed tuesday.  he's not a fan of the homeless.  seems like there are better ways to deal with the homeless than to make laws making it illegal for them to sit downtown.

 today lena joined us for a walk of rovers run.  rio still had the under obstacle.  she did much better today.  could be the added help of having lena there.  they obviously haven't been able to get to these trees yet.  a few more were down that weren't down last time i went.  the dogs are tired so a successful day out there.  i got some appointments made so again, a somewhat productive day.

 blossom got coated with mud, many puddles out there.  we went to this one creek, which oddly was the one creek in anchorage that appears to be at it's usual water level.  i tossed the toy in hoping she would get cleaned off a bit.  lena and i laughed though as it turned out she looked even dirtier when she came out of the creek.  i must have tossed the toy right into a muddy patch.  lovely.  tonight she was sleepy enough that i was able to trim her face a bit and clean out the ears.  she hates that part.

 had some show on in the background.  something about breastfeeding in public.  one guest had been asked to cease in an applebee's.  the baby she was feeding was almost 2.  the other lady was a professor at a university who fed her baby as she gave her lecture.  she said she had let the students know she would be doing it and covered up.  still some complained.  i'm chill about public breastfeeding in the first case, though i really don't think it's too much to ask to toss a blanket over the baby.  i accept that this doesn't always work, but seems reasonable to me to at least try.  the lecture hall though is no place in my opinion.  it's just not professional.  it's kinda like texting while driving...you can't focus on the task at hand while nursing a baby.  would you want your air traffic controller breastfeeding on the job?  womens lib is to make things equal not to allow one to breastfed while attempting to do their jobs. i would find it distracting just having a kid in the lecture hall let alone having the lecturer stop to feed the baby.  the kid just doesn't belong in the classroom.  if the kid is sick, then you may have to make other arrangements or just call out sick yourself.  the professor should have prepared ahead for the possiblity by pumping and having a bottle available, but really the kid just shouldn't have been in the lecture hall at all in my opinion.

 off my soapbox i guess.  i'm sure there is more in the news but i'm good for the time.  i like funky news items rather than getting into the meat of the current political crap.  people get too crazy over it all.

another day has passed, i'm alive and happy to be able to live this easy, breezy life.  off to snuggle with a few dogs and cats that always seem to enjoy homo sapien attention.