a day of pink...

 or so it seems.  this is what happens when you wake up late. the sun sets so fast around these parts that there is that lovely pink glow.  i woke around noon and the sun of course was just over the housetops in my neighborhood.  still such a strange thing...the sun just coming up over the horizon and then slipping back down.  this was my favorite photo of the day.  i took blossom to point worzonoff and then over to lake hood to walk a bit.  i'd never done the beach access here and was curious.  the tide looks to come up super high but was going out when i went.  that just meant that there was ice everywhere.  it was pretty, but not much of a walk like the other beach access points in anchorage.  that is sleeping lady in the background...otherwise known as susitna i believe.

 yesterday i managed another trek to university lake. the temperatures had been lovely and warm in the 20's the other day.   i worked on that igloo in just a fleece.  yesterday the temperatures dropped back around zero or less.  no more work on the igloo has been attempted.

 anchorage from the viewpoint.

 the other thing hindering my igloo progress is soreness...who knew igloo making was so much work.  i didn't notice in my igloo building glee, but yesterday i woke up sore!!!  feeling better today, but man i must have worked harder than i knew.  watched a you tube about igloo making.  the natives can get one built in like 30 minutes.  they fit the cut ice together nearly perfectly...amazing.  other yahoo's building igloos smashed snow into the holes.  the eskimo's have to holes. what little i did took me like 2 hours.  so clearly i suck at igloo building, but i still had a good time before i realized how bad i was doing.  ignorance really is bliss!!

 the planes from the main airport in anchorage fly right over this point.  pretty cool watching them right overhead.

 tried to get some shopping done the last two days.  packing and mailing will be a different story. i do have a few things ready to go, but one i got ready will wait til after christmas as that brother and his family are off to california for the holiday.  better to not mail stuff to an empty house.

 rio managed the dog park yesterday, but i do tend to avoid taking her these days when it gets super cold like this.  just doesn't seem like much fun for her.  she's delicate!

 today i just managed REI...of course, i think i bought more gifts for me than for others.  that is how christmas goes some days.  hehe

 you can see a bit of the pancake ice out there.  large flat slabs that slowly pass by you.

 after my little trek down the hill i drove the "restricted" road behind the airport.  didn't drive it for years as i moved here the year sept 11 happened and i guess that was the year they put up the restrictions.  apparently that didn't last too long.  so the next four are from that short drive.  last year this is where lots of owls were spotted...none seen so far.

 the chugach range in pink

 things we do so we can locate fire hydrants in the event of a fire.  looks kinda festive i think.

 pretty view in the rear view mirror.

 trees on the road headed back to town, i turned off and cruised over to lake hood.  in the summers it's buzzing with float plane activities...in the winters many planes sit idle while other planes just get their floats changed over to ski's.

 have wanted to get there when the sun is setting. i was slightly late for the actual sunset, but the pink hue was pretty anyway.

 i think blossom enjoyed a more hardy walk.  we didn't get too many miles in though.  saw a few moose out. they were between trees so i wasn't going to try for photo's

 the little float plane spaces often have little huts that people have built over the years to store their plane gear i'm guessing.  some of them are pretty cute.

 having a bit of the mikes hard winter berry.  so tasty.

 was lazy this evening after i got home.  settled in to play with the new ipad.  went through facebook pictures and loaded them onto it, then selected a few photo's for the ipad screen and set up the keyboard.  i bought a case with a keyboard.  those always come in handy.  since i was spared the original cost i figured i could splurge!!  got that working.  yeah me!! i'm not very techie.  better than some i'm sure. fun looking through old photo's.

 the roads around there are shared with the local planes.  one crossed as i was passing through.  they have the right of way.

 a few other walkers out there.  it's a nice place to walk.  i really should get out there more often.  so many great places to walk in this town.

 just a few plane shots.

 watched the last two weeks of "the big bang" had to catch up.  always funny. sunday mornings are great for relaxing late in bed reading the paper. i do always wake up at 8 as the dogs seem to have this uncanny way of getting me awake for their meals.  i tend to return to bed though and get in an extra hour or two before my day really starts.

 the moon is up high.  it's higher than the sun even at noon it seems.

 liked this shot of the empty floats.

 these were with the rebel.  denali was readily seen at the point worzonof today.

 the little mountain next to it is hunter.

 liked the graffiti on the big water thing.

 denali again dressed in pink and another shot of sleeping lady below.

 lots of pictures of the victims of fridays school shooting.  happy to see the papers focus on the victims and not the lunatic.  one report said he was home schooled due to aspergers.  i suspect something a bit more than aspergers was going on.  such a sad event....those poor families. guess when school does start again the kids will be sent elsewhere.  read there is an empty schoolhouse not too far from town so they figure that is where they will go.

 if this were another country those kids would have no other option but to return to the same place, where it would remain bullet ridden and a constant reminder of the day.  for many though, they have to look past the day to day violence that comes with life in their war torn nations and strive to get the education no matter what obstacles seem to be in their way.

 one issue i find that exists in our nation as opposed to others is a loss of respect towards education and all that goes with that.  it seems i'm always hearing of some destruction at our local schools.  it would help if teachers were given the respect and power they deserve in the classroom.  it seems lacking.  i'm a proponent of kids being required to wear uniforms to class and to be taught to treat their education as a job.  may help with what also seems like withering work ethics.

 clearly, not saying these are related...just saying.  we seem to have gotten away from understanding the value of an education.

this school act was a random act.  who knows what was going through the kids head, we never will know.  we can beat ourselves up trying to understand, but the truth is some people just flip out and if guns are available they will use them.  some guy apparently flipped out in china on the same day, but he only had a knife available.  not sure if that is the truth...should go look it up on bbc or something.  i'd heard it was younger kids as well.  sometimes it gives me some peace to see that these things actually do happen in other nations as well.  it's not just america....people be crazy everywhere.  still...i hate when people with problems take them out on innocents...kill yourself, kill the people who made you crazy if that be the case, but leave everyone else alone.  my compassion is overwhelming i know.