old and the new...

 am not doing well flipping over to day shift this week.  seem to accomplish more in the wee hours.  or waste time better in the wee hours more like it.  the warm chinooks and rainy weather are not helping me be motivated to get out there.  finally made it out for a loop of rovers run today. not much to take pictures of.  melting snow, ice that isn't overly photographic...

 and always the tree's.

 tomorrow is new years eve.  i'm believing a hockey game will suffice for festivities.  sounds good to me.  my brother sounds like he'll be getting to the rose parade with his family.  i'm a wee  bit jealous. it is a fun parade...the best really.  i grew up in south pasadena so the floats would meander down our street in the wee hours to get to the parade route.  we sold rose parade programs as a fund raiser for our church.  i'd go door to door or i'd join others at the float buildings where the tourists would gather to watch the finishing touches being put on the floats. i also sold programs on the parade route the morning of the parade.  it always was so cold out there.  i do recall one year being on one of the bridges.  when the big bands marched across the bridge it was impressive.  as i got older, i spent the nights on the parade route with friends.  it was a 5 mile long party.  other friends would cruise colorado blvd in their cars and we'd hop in for a spin.  one of those friends was greg.  he's gone now.  aids.

 was so sad to hear of his passing.  it was a few years after he had passed away.  we'd always suspected he was gay, but we were all still mormon, all on the verge of leaving. none of us brought it up because we knew he wasn't wanting us to bring it up.    we lost track and then he was gone.

 aids was a bigger deal in those early days of it.  not that it's not a big deal now, but people were in the hospitals, dying from it.  there were many unanswered questions. lots of fear.  it's pretty rare that we have anyone in for aids anymore.  mostly, they are in for other stuff and it's just part of their history to be hiv positive. around the globe the disease is still killing like it was here, but here, it's mostly controlled.

 greg and our on the verge of leaving the church gang had a lot of fun.  we spent many evenings at this comedy club in pasadena.  the ice house.  it was a small joint.  we saw brad garrett there on several occasions.  met him a few times.  he was hysterical...we always went when we heard he was playing the club.  greg cruised colorado blvd on new years eve and we'd take turns riding in his convertible car. i'll try and get up early to watch the parade.  i spoke to my niece, claire, today as well.  she was planning to take her kids to the parade. i told her jeff was going with his family so maybe they can all meet up somewhere.

 on occasion i pick up some old cd's from my film day and load them on the computer.  this way i can load them on to my shutterly account and save them someplace besides my house.  so these are from the 3 cd's i loaded today.  the bears are from mcneil river. i went there in 2005.  i really should check into going again.  it is a pretty amazing place.  it's time to start thinking about next summers plans.  cabins are going fast.  will try for byers in august i think this year.  hopefully the bugs will have died down a bit by then.

 i was cool watching bears at mcneil river.  wouldn't want to have those close encounters on a trail anywhere else.  still need to get to katmai one of these days.  i have also not been to wrangell /st elias park.  it's supposed to be awesome.  there is just so much to see in this state.  want to spend some time in homer this year. it's been awhile since i just hung there without crossing over to kachemak bay for a paddle.

 my friends and i are all itching to get back to the ice for a paddle so  hopefully we can make that happen.  there is just something cool about paddling near those massive glaciers.

 met up with sandra to see that "guilt trip" movie.  it was a nice laugh.  want to see that les miserabe, but wasn't in the mood for that heavy of a flick today.  this weather seems to have driven many to the movies tonight.  parking was hell. had a headache so i skipped the pool and took a wee nap.  i know i suck.  will be better in 2013 i swear!!

 also managed to write a bit more on the book. very slow going.  i loaded what little i have on a cd and will send it to my brother, who has kindly offered to be my editor.  perhaps, my editor will be able to nag me into writing more.  i should probably just take a few minutes and write when i get home from work.  then that stuff will be clear in my head.

 a mama bear and her cub.  teaching it how to fish.  it was funny seeing how the different mama's would use different fishing techniques and then you could see that her babies would use her techniques.

 lots of fish out there and the seagulls and bald eagles were all too happy to do clean up for what the bears left behind, which was quite a bit.  they get selective with the fish they catch and eat the best stuff then off for another fish.

 just the scenery at mcneil.  we really never got much sky.  cloudy and rainy for our permitted days there.

 it's pretty out there.  was kinda happy i didnt' go at prime viewing.  we wandered around more since it was the end of the season and less bears were about.  early and end is more meandering.

 more old pictures.  this is my old lab, baby huey. the brown lab is my friend kelly's dog.  still a pup at this time. mandee.  she's an old gal now.  huey used to carry this old sled around all winter and i'd toss it like a humongous frisbee.  he'd carry that thing 5 miles some days.

 these are in kincaid park and around the park.  moose in the fog.

 more fog shots.

 mama and calf in the fog. went with several friends  and dogs.

 and a few that were clearly taken the last day of this particular kayaking trip.  we went to dangerous passage and icy bay.  it was a super wet trek  out there.  the only trip that was wetter was out to blackstone bay. that was miserable really.  at least in both cases the water was calm.  these were the only mountain sightings we had. otherwise the clouds were almost on the water. we saw nothing.

 the next year other friends asked if i wouldn't mind returning to this same place even though i'd already been.  i was happy to return being that i saw nothing that first time.  we went the next year and had beautiful weather.  i think that was the trip though that we underestimated the high tide and were within inches of being swamped in our tents with no place to retreat to because our camp was set up by the cliff.  lucky for us a boat didn't go past and creat a wake.

 as we went to meet our water taxi the blue skies finally graced us with their presence.  everything we had was soaked.  i had a great tent but had brought my crap one. i didn't want to risk damaging my good tent.  i slept with puddles in the tent the whole week.  i gave the tent away for use as a dog tent after that.

 so these pictures on this dvd were deceiving of the trip. we never made it far as the ice chocked up the bays with the glaciers.

 here i am...drying out i'm sure.

no talk of work or drama....nice, huh.  work is what i do to live the life. it's a good life!!