windy...brrr...

 took blossom to the beach today.  rio stayed home.  just too chilly out there for her.  it was below zero, but out at kincaid there was a wind for sure and that meant wind chill.  you can see blossom getting a bit blown away from the breeze.  wind and skin do not do too well.  it also sucks the life out of batteries.  my phone was totally dead after i'd been out there walking and chilling on the beach.  my camera was close to dead.  had pondered heading out to eklutna to take some pictures, but with all the dead batteries i opted to come home and reheat.  for sure had first stages of frost bit starting on my fingers.  finally took a soak in a nice hot bath.

 it was pretty out and though i couldn't bear the cold too long i still think i got a few nice photo's for the day.

 blossom was happy except that with the wind blowing it often changed the course of the tennis ball and eventually it got lost so  not as much tennis ball chasing as she would like.

 low tide while i was out there.  just seemed like miles of ice.

 liked that this ice had a moat around it.

 this is blossom waiting on the hill.  it was a bit slick especially in some parts.  i mostly slid down on my arse on the way in.  getting up wasn't so easy.  well, it was easy for blossom.

 my heat seems to be hit or miss tonight.  not sure what is up.  was it just that i was so cold that i kept messing with the thermostat and made it reset way too many times.  thought i was going to have to call out heater dude.  the house temperature this evening dropped down to 55 degrees....still over 50 degrees warmer than outside, but i'd hate for the pipes to freeze.  have a trickle going but the heat seems to have sorted itself out and i've left it alone.

 sleeping lady

 i called klebs who wanted  $230 just to come out plus over $200/hr on top of that.  the service dude wasn't very nice sounding so i called moore.  the guy was very nice and helpful and the service costs were lower than klebs.  i believe those are the only two companies that actually have parts for my heater.  his advice was to call tomorrow morning and save the money.  after that, the heater kicked in so i suppose i may just call and have it get it's annual check.  supposed to do that in the fall, but never got around to it.  my heater always seems to go a bit nuts every year about this time when the temps drop down.

 hot tea, honey crisp apples and cheese...a lovely snack.

 this tree above is always my favorite tree on this trail down to the beach.  i'm sure i have many photo's of it.  it's just got the coolest trunk.

 since the beach was so chilly we walked the coastal trail a bit. not too many folks out, but it is always amazing that up here on these chilly days i am not alone on the trails.   the anchorage folk seem to all be a bit nuts just like i am.

 got on a facetime call with my brother jeff and his family.  we all got to chatting.  facetime is fun!!  by the time i got off i'd missed my window of opportunity for the pool so instead i put a fire in the fireplace, soaked in the tub and freaked myself out about the heat.

 i always like this star effect on the sun. i  suppose i should get a filter or some gizmo or setting to make it look more like a sun, but it looks kinda cool like this.

 pomegranate green tea.  a lovely blend.  a little caffiene.

 social day tomorrow.  not thinking it will be much warmer than today.  seems like this winter is a winter of extremes.  either we are bitter cold or too warm.

 nothing ruins snack time more than the big old mastiff farting right next to you...thank you rio catalina!!

 couldn't decide if i liked the black and white version of this picture of the colour one above.  you decide!!  i'm just such a fan of black and white.

 got wrapped in a heated blanket and turned on the tv while it was so cold here.  sex and the city the second movie was on...started to watch as i'd never seen it.  i only lasted like 5 minutes.  it was so stupid!!  tried to bake cookies but i need to go grocery shopping and when i found a recipe i had all the ingredients too i discovered my brown sugar was all crappy and unusable.  oh well.  should have gone shopping today like i'd planned on.  i was just so cold!!  when you get that cold you just want to get home and reheat.  the thing is, i never feel that cold outside, seems like 20-30 min after i get into the car or home the chills begin to kick in.

 i'll probably just pop a movie in soon and hope the night passes with the heat working.  it's always warmer upstairs and i do have that lovely electric blanket to heat me up.

 sleeping lady in the distance.

 more scenes from the trail.

 and a few last shots of the tree trunk that i love so much.

so happy i didn't need to pee on that cold beach.  the wind chill would have frozen my tutkus for sure...not sure how one spells that.  is it even a real word?  wish me luck with the heat tonight. i 'll sleep soundly no matter what i guess.