always love the moose in town.

 so the first half are from local walks since i returned and the rest are leftovers from holgate.  this ends the powershot photo's.  still have a few left from the rebel so i'll add some of those in later along with some of the newer ones.  this bull moose was right off the road...eating food right by the road i guess.  he's a big guy so no doubt that rack will be quite impressive by the end of summer.

 these are of that adorable little baby lena and i saw out spencer loop.  we had to make a bypass as the mother, below, was a bit wary of us and was giving us the eye...we knew she'd be running us over if we came any closer.

 they can be like that this time of year.  i had a pretty close call in the bog last spring and would rather avoid repeating that.  thankfully, most of the time you are not worth the energy to do more than run at you and scare the shit out of you...but i can assure you they look bigger and bigger as they come at you.  there is some trembling post charge that can last for an hour or so.

 this other moose was off the side of the road near the bull moose.  spotted them on the way home from spencer.

 today i hit powerline pass with the dogs.  there was plans for others to join, but last minute changes had me hiking alone today. could have gone to eklutna, but after all the texts and confusion it seemed easiest to just hit powerline alone.  the dogs went with me.  was surprised that the mastiff jumped up to join us.  i really thought she'd bow out.

 luckily there was a nice cool breeze and water everywhere for the dogs.  even some pretty nice snow patches on the trail.  i'd thought about trying for hidden lakes.  with all the snow patches i crossed before i even got to the bridge i decided not to even attempt hidden lakes.  better not to push it with rio.  she will be 9 here soon, which is getting pretty old for a large dog like her.  she did great today though. always the trooper.

 didn't get much else accomplished today. oh well. back to work for three tomorrow.  got my schedule fixed at least so i can get to that cabin in july at lost lake.  excited to hike that one.  also want to hike out ptarmagin lake as it's been several years and then the exit glacier hike that goes up to the harding ice field is one i've never hiked that i'd like to.  a bit of an elevation gain and the dogs have to sit this one out.

 nice profile shot...actually kinda looks like a mug shot of the guy.

 was happy we got some clouds today.  i'm a fan of clouds.  the 70's without clouds every day is too hot for me!! clouds just make for prettier pictures anyway.

 these are from potter to mchugh.  just a few of them.

 flowers and speedy's daughter.  she's such a cutie!  she did great out there on the trails that day.

 love that the flowers are begining to show up.  not sure how the flowers by eklutna are doing.  there is a spot where the irises go crazy about this time of year.

 baby ducks in baxter bog by my house.  the mosquito count is going up but not quite at the hell zone yet.  they love me, always have.  if you want to torture me for information just put me in a room with mosquito's and no way to defend myself.  i'll talk, i swear, anything you want to know!! i think the military could use this technique...not that i condone any sort of torture.

 read that there are so many mosquito's in the north slope that the caribou up there each lose about a pint of blood/week.  it was some crazy amount.

 the mosquito's do die down by the end of summer, but i always feel ready for winter after these summer months of dealing with mosquito's and bears.

 love all the babies this time of year, they are so adorable!!

 our mayor, whom i'm not fond of, is saying he's going to run for another office.  he won't say which one yet as he wants to see who else is running for different ones that he may be interested in.  so annoying. he is trying to see if alaska can make a bid for the 2026 winter olympics.  long ways off and hopefully, he won't be in charge of anything by then.  would be fun to have olympics here, but it's spendy and doesn't always pay off.

 this adorable baby moose was with it's mama at the university lake dog park.  love these.  was battling both dogs, watching the dog traffic and keeping and eye on mama who has charged at several dogs already.  kinda laughing to myself as people were saying the mom was agitated. i  suspect she got agitated after people let their dogs harass her.  she was actually looking pretty chill when we were there and we were less than 50 feet away.

 there was a picture in the daily news the other day of a dog chasing a moose.  someone wrote a letter to the editor about it, which i had a mind to do myself so i was happy someone did.  he was just saying that this dog should have been under the owners control and that dogs chasing moose is not really a good thing to put in the paper like "oh isn't this cute and funny".  what if some kids had  been outside playing on bikes.  that dog ticks off the moose and the moose stomps the kids.  you can actually be fined here for harrassing the wildlife.

 the word is entitled and sadly so many people in our society now feel that none of the rules apply to them and that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want.  their dogs and their kids are never at fault for anything.  it's quite annoying. just wish people would remember they are part of a society and take responsibility.

 a few grebes have set up a floating nest at university lake.  can't wait to see the babies!

 the rest are back in holgate.

 the cabins are pretty comfy.

 maddie fills out the log book.  always an important job.

 opened my paper the other day to see that one of my patients was highlighted in an article.  always fun to read about people you take care of in the intensive care units.  not too many hospitals here in town so frequently the news follows cases.  the guys face was shattered.  the reconstruction was involved.  the doctor apparently worked with the local university, UAA.  they used a 3D printer to make the ct scan 3D so the doctor could do the reconstruction first on the model and have a plan to follow for the actual surgery.  nice to hear he is doing well.  it's pretty amazing what they are being able to do.  that is a fun aspect of medicine.  it's constantly growing and changing.

 that same surgeon did the reconstruction on Dan Bigley, who was attacked by a bear years ago.  one wonders how different his results would have been with this current technology.  the article said he thought this guys facial fracturing and such were a bit worse than bigleys.  he just had a book published with his experiences.  interesting.  of course, being in medicine i found the ct scan shots quite impressive in both cases.  the before and after shots anyway.

 love all the pretty kayak colours.

 star fish on board.

 warm day on our last day....though as i look at this picture i think of a certain sienfeld episode...something about george attempting to alter a photo on his bosses desk to remove himself i think.  bob kinda looks like he was added in later.

 nails by maddie.

 was out at orso's for dinner.  we saw the latest copy of the local press magazine thing.  it said something about a restaurant being in hot water after a transgender situation.  was clueless but just saw a blip in paper that said there had been a complaint at a local ale house, humpies of a man in the womens bathroom. guess humpies gave the person the boot.  the person was transgendered.  they should just make them all unisex and just have stalls.  i mean who cares really who is in the general bathroom, especially in the womens as they are all stalls there.  that would also help level out the line situation...meaning the line is always a longer wait for the womens. if it was unisex in all public restrooms there would be equity and there wouldn't be this crap about is that really a women in the womens bathroom.  then you could also put changing tables in all.  i know this seperation was always a bit difficult for my brother who has a partner and 2 kids.  at some point she will be needing to go into the womens restroom and she might not be the right age to really want to allow her to go in alone.  unisex bathrooms would make this issue moot as well.

 packing up to go.  above is some bear bread.  a common growth on trees.  i think fungus?  they are pretty good sized at times.  there was an artist in ketchikan that would use that sorta flat part on the bottom to paint on.  i have one here, pretty cool.

 after that last paddle, maddie headed over to visit with her new 20 something friends.

 group shot...maddie, george, bob, scott, me and tanya.

 always takes a few attempts.  tanya should have a cute shot of us all, but she hasn't put it out there yet.

 saying good bye to our new friends from india.  they were totally nice and helped us load all our gear on the water taxi.  hope the rest of their trip went well.

 bob, tanya and scott on the water taxi.  ready to head home!

 the "night stalker" is dead.  satanic serial killer i remember from when i was a teenager or maybe early adult,  in los angeles area.  he died of liver disease.  death row since the late 80's i think.  i think he may have even married while incarcerated?  i'm not big on the whole conjugal visit thing for prisoners.  like sex is some sort of human right.  do we really need these people to breed?  maybe they could allow conjugal visits only to those who agree to be sterilized.

 sweet boat.  love when they have that drawbridge front for loading/unloading of gear..so much easier!!

 back in seward, my little element looks pretty small with those kayaks on top.

 i had thought of changing my personalized plate to "DOGBOX", but oddly, the other day i saw a truck with just that plate come cruising down my street.  personalized plates are pretty popular here.  i'm babying my element now that they have stopped making them.  love that car...so happy i got one.

 just a few pictures from the road...while i was driving.

 there is a crack in my windshield...really should get that fixed. i was waiting for the thaw to be over as there was more crap on the road.  figured i would get it changed only to have a rock fly up and break another one.  i have replaced quite a few windows over the years up here.  mostly from idiots at trailheads breaking in.

probably could pop in a movie or read for a bit.  back to work for three tomorrow.  may be running that dialysis machine again.  not sure...hoping they have taken the kid off or that he's strong enough for regular dialysis.