heading to work...

 headed that way last night.  ran into a coworker in the parking area who was going home on call and not too happy about it.  i volunteered to take her place and happily never was called in all night.  it was my first full day wearing these hose so kinda nice to get out of them for another 12 hours.  i'm not a girl who was ever into hose wearing so it will be strange.  at least it's cold outside.  does take some time to work my way into these things,but i must say the girdle effect isn't too bad.  i look a bit thinner.

 yesterday i took the chance and headed to get the tires changed over.  my studs are pretty bad but i will try and get one more year out of them and then decide whether to go for studs again or some other sort of snow tire next time.  hopefully these are safe through this winter.  while i waited i took the girls to the park by the library.  the geese are gathering there and will soon book.  the local lakes are freezing up fast, won't by many places to get to water very soon.

 hundreds of geese and ducks there actually.  fun to watch them all do loops out there everytime they got spooked.

 wasn't hit by any poop which was good.  as you can see, it was high risk.

 so a somewhat lazy day overall.  have been doing a lot of sighing. looked up excessive sighing on the internet, it's a sign of anxiety.  i do recall being in stressful situations and sighing so that seems conceivable.

 todays paper showed people ice skating out on potters marsh.  this is not something i would do alone.  i did figure that blossom and i could check out the coastal refuge and maybe get some nice photos.  it was nicely iced over but we did hit one spot that blossom fell through.  luckily, the water out there is not very deep.  blossom needed my help to get out of the hole created when she went through and the water below is stinky and mucky...as you can see below.  i had cleats and was able to get to her for a quick rescue without any concerns really.  blossom was happy to turn around and head back to the car at that point though.

 so i took her to the dog park to get her the walk she needed. i'd already stopped at the pet co for a new chuck it for her.  i'd left without it and since i had rio settled i didn't want to return and disturb her...i know i have very spoiled dogs.  if these were human kids i would never have been so accomadating.

 the lake is nearly frozen over itself.  blossom is still not to be trusted in these nearly frozen areas so her play time was curtailed and she was mostly leashed.  dogs don't always learn from lessons taught by nature.  oh well.  i did play with the chuck it on the sledding hill at the refuge so it wasn't like she got no exercise.  

 so not many photo's these past few days.

 more geese.

 hopefully, i'm not too hot tonight in my digs.  i know i've been a bit anxious over this stuff, i guess i'm a wimp and it probably doesn't help that as a single gal there really isn't anyone in my life to offer support and comfort. that is the down side to single.  in truth there aren't really many downsides.  as you get older though it does get harder to make new friends i think.  i mean people that you really relate to and people who you can depend on.  i think that is true for everyone.  many people i see have made their kids their main friendships and as their kids leave and move on with their own lives, those people get lonely.  i have a lot of people in my life, but i miss having a main person...a best friend as it were. it doesn't help that i tend towards being a loner.

 this guy above cracked me up, he's like that aflac duck. so cute!  a goose with personality!!

 the white ducks are no longer at university lake.  hopefully, they were finally rounded up and taken to a more appropriate home.  someone had written in to the paper that it was ridiculous that people were worried about these ducks when so many humans suffer.  i think people find it easy to rally for animals because they are generally in their situations due to humans or it is by no fault of their own.  these ducks have been bred by humans to lack flight skills, thus making survival unlikely, they were also dumped in this situation by humans.  i'm happy they have been rescued by kind hearted humans.  one wonders how many people the writer of that note has actually helped.

 my phone just rang for another on call.  i really shouldn't take them, but it is a good possibility i'll get called in tonight.  that means overtime.  i rarely get on calls so i'm going to enjoy this mini vacation while i can.

if i don't get called in, the weather continues nice and perhaps i can try for a better walk tomorrow with more photo ops.  these past few days were kinda a bust photo wise, but still got some stuff checked off that list of mine.  a few things go off, a few get added on. made it to the post office to mail a package.  of course, as i arrived all but one clerk took off for some break i guess, then the line grew.  postal workers are in no rush ever and don't seem at all concerned with customers and customer satisfaction.  the quiet grumblings in line were that they should be getting worried about job security, post offices are closing down.  of course we made sure to pretend we were in no hurry, if you act at all upset at the situation it seems they slow down even more...if that is possible.  off to feed dogs, make some dinner and perhaps carve a pumpkin while i have a chance.