surprise in stumphenge...

 had to do some of the business of life so got out on the trails late, 1:30.  change cat litter, pick up dog shit in the yard, fill bird feeders...yes, my life is an adventure.  haha.  did a loop in north bivouac.  took the big field then looped back to stumphenge and the other field before coming back down the tank trail.  cloudy as you can see so a smidgee warmer than yesterday...only a smidgee really, but 0-5 is more tolerable than negative 15.

 rio came along.  felt i better get her out.  want to keep her body in walking shape.  with an older, large dog you run the risk of letting the arthritis win if you don't keep em exercised.  that goes for older people too.  she is a bit sore this evening but i think she enjoyed her walk in the woods and all the sniffing that goes with it.  she always loves when a moose is in the area and she gets a good scent of it.  we ran into one in the woods.  it was about 200 feet off and in between trees so not photo attempts.  rio was catching the scent as well, so best to just move along.

 legs seem to do better on my days off.  seem to require more recovery after my work stretch.  2 months down, 1 month to go before my follow up appointment where i can hopefully schedule the ablation.  really hoping that makes a difference.  the hose do help immensely.  much less pain though these last several days now that i'm off from work and just doing my usual walks.  back to work on thursday though.

 always fascinating how you can walk the same area's over and over and yet they can change dramatically.  stumphenge has clearly  flooded and refrozen and the whole area was an ice rink coated with feathery frost.  pretty and a bit treacherous.  i didn't get the big camera out.  feared i'd fall and knock my head...i've done that in the past...besides i had rio and her being large and blind requires more attention to get her safely through.

 got packages ready to mail and even went online to pay the flat rate fees.  hopefully, that works.  it was my first time.  i can just drop these off tomorrow at the post office and skip the line!!  the ink in my printer was drying out so the last label is a bit less legible...fingers crossed.  a few more cards and calendars to mail out, organized the local stuff so i have a clearer picture in my head of what is left to shop for. thought of hitting stores today, but i'm happy i got more organized.  good to get some of that home stuff done on my days off. i try to catch the yard crap at least once a week or more if snow is in the forecast...everything to avoid spring poop soup!!

 the aftermath of the school shooting....debates over gun control.  as always i tend to see the world in gray's. i understand the reasoning behind allowing individuals to own guns, but also wonder why the average person requires machine guns and such.  the bottom line is he had access to the guns kept at the house, they were legally obtained, but poorly monitored from my guess.  another part of me wishes that principal would have been packing a gun or had one in her office, just in case, and was trained to use it.  you can't plan for horrible events like this, you can only react.  lock down is useless if it means kids are locked in with a killer.

 these horrible things do happen and while some things may change, i doubt much will.  mass killings, mass suicides....sadly, it's part of what happens in this world of ours.  thankfully, it doesn't happen often.  all the attention does make me think of all the kids that get killed around the world every day that seem to go by unnoticed.  our bombs have killed thousands of kids no doubt.  those mothers and fathers ache just as badly when their kids die.  civilian causalties are just part of war.  it's a loss though that just takes your breath away...when kids die in events so tragic such as this.  they are innocent and helpless and we, as a society, are responsible to protect them and give them the best chance we can in life.  in this situation we all feel we have failed and we all vow to do more, to give more and that seems to be what is happening.  hopefully, the families are given peace to grieve.  our curiosity gets the best of us in these times, in this nation and the media is all to happy to oblige through probing questions and generally being a pain the arse.  i try to just turn it all off.  

 cleaned blossoms ear out.  felt badly as the one ear was lovely and clean, the other ear was packed with wax and crap.  poor girl.  she generally hates the ear stuff, but i think she knew it was needed.  she really is a sweet dog.  she got a good brushing as well.  her reward was a day in the park chasing her tennis ball.  kids and dogs are both amazingly easy to please.  happy comes easily to them....

 then they grow up and people screw them up or something else happens and then...well...

 it's after midnight...again.  how does that happen?

 guess i'll settle in and read.  another photography magazine showed up...clearly a gift...from who?  anyone?  thank you...

watched a favorite movie last night, "mostly martha", not the american version, which i hated.  off to bed and will wake and see what tomorrow brings. i suppose i should spend some time worrying about my future, but i don't know how to do much except live for the day.  each day...seen too many people waste too much on days that never end up arriving.  life is good, life is simple, simple is life, good is simple.