thought i'd pop in a few more of nome.

 the must take photo of me in the huge nome gold pan.  couldn't find anyone who would step up to take my picture so i put the camera in the hands of a goldminer statue.

 eventually as i drove home for the day i ran across the herd of musk ox.  more on those later. that last day of freedom i drove out the coucil road past the safety roadhouse and then returned to wander around town after enjoying the musk ox for a bit.  later that night i drove back out council to enjoy my favorite nome beaches past the roadhouse and to look for a headless walrus i'd heard about.  never saw the walrus, saw a whale, but didn't get a photo of it.  these two are from around the musk ox..below is baby musk ox poop.

 i see myself as a bit of a poop expert.  seems a better way to view my world considering how much of my life seems to be taken up by stool.  at work it's human poop, at home it's dog and cat poop.  on the trails i'm watching for bear poop and trying to keep the dogs from eating moose poop. in my previous careers i worked with veterinarians and that opened me up to a wide variety of poops..often seen under the microscope.  i was also a volunteer zoo keeper at the los angeles zoo for years.  so you see, i am a poop expert.  there are people who make a living at being a poop expert, my interest is incidental.

 there are a lot of bars in nome.  it is not a dry town.  there were quite a few churches as well.  as i wandered around i snapped photo's of a few of the local pubs.  i didn't spend much time inside the bars though.  i think if i'd been with a group i may have explored the bar scene a bit more.  i do not feel i missed out on anything by skipping the bar scene though.

 also took a few other signs that i found interesting.  i like how the local animals are highlighted.

 not as many cool murals like dillingham has, but there were a few cool arts about.

 got an early morning text.  i'd forgotten about the local dog jog today and a friend reminded me.  that meant racing out of bed, taking a quick shower and getting the dogs off to the walk to support this local animal rescue group.  this is the same group that rio came from.  i try to get out there a few times.  the lady that brought rio over to the house seems to remember her.  rio has been with me for 7 years now.  she's a good girl.

 she was pretty slow out there on the trail.  they do have a short mile walk but once we hit the turnaround for that i decided to just do the 5 K walk.  i knew we'd be last in, but rio kept walking.  in the end we were neck and neck with a little chihuahua.  it looked for a bit like rio would beat the chihuahua across the finish line,but in the end the chihuahua pulled into the lead.  haha

 this seemed to be the big tourist shop on the main strip.

 saw a few people i knew out there.  i thought it was a pretty decent turn out.  lots of water for the dogs, several booths set up.  it was cloudy but not raining so that was good, not too hot for rio.

 i've been pretty lazy the rest of the day.  needed to nap when i finally got home.  ran a few errands first.  since it wasn't too hot yet to leave the dogs in the car.

 this sign is always photographed....seemed like a must take photo

 this is the general mode of travel in nome and most villages up here.  liked the pup chilling underneath to keep cool.

 naps are always good. i keep trying to get myself motivated to get back outside.  did some yardwork.  now i feel like there are spiders crawling all over me. i'm not a fan of spiders.  well, it's not that i hate spiders or wish them erradicated from the earth.  i just prefer them to not crawl around on my person.  in general i feel that way about most insects, if they would just keep their distance from my person i would have zero issue with them.

 i still may try to get out there and see if there is anything to see.  i should clean too though.  also i have a movie or two that may be fun to watch.

 watched a few ted talks.  always enjoy those.  one was just a woman who came over to the united states from the ukraine.  they were poor, homeless.  her husband also came from a life where he was homeless for a time. so too their dog had previously been abused, it had been used to bait dogs used in dog fights.  she just wanted to express her gratitude.  often people seem much more grateful for what they have when they had so little to begin with.

 i am a fan of gratitude.  it's sad how many people seem to forget all that they have in their constant quest to have more.  more than they need.

 these next photos were taken as i headed back out to do my last beach walk.  i saw what looked like a dust storm ahead.  as i saw no signs of it being windy i was confused.  soon i discovered what you see in these photo's are swarms of mosquito's.  happily i was in my car.  it was quite the impressive sight.

 the photo's really don't do the swarm justice.  there where zillions of mosquito's.  it was nuts.

 this is as i was rolling up the window.  i never opened them or stopped to attempt to get better photo's.  i'm no fool!

 the mosquito's went all the way out across all the grassy area's out to the water.

 the swirls were taller than the car by quite a bit.

 maybe this is the best picture of them.

 pretty cool really. i've heard of swarms of mosquito's like this, but have never experienced it.

 just happy i was in the car.  there isn't enough bug dope in the world to protect you from this!!

 this does make me take the local bug population in stride a bit more.  anytime they are bothering me,i just have to remember how it could be and i can move forward through the bugs.  soon the bugs will be gone.

 once i was on the beach the bugs were much less of a problem.  there were several miles of driving where the mosquito swarms didn't let up at all.

 it was raining by the time i returned to nome that night.  the first rain that fell all week.

 totally loved that there were miles and miles of empty beaches to walk out there.  it was awesome!

 back in town with the rain.

 these were taken earlier that day.  saw a few pairs of loons in different places.

 these were some gold miners working together.

 just some black and whites from council road.

 read my readers digest before i crashed this afternoon.  funny story about these guys who are about my age who still have a tag game going.  every february the game is on.  the rules have evolved to adapt to grown up lifestyles.  funny to read about these grown men playing tag still. they go to some great lengths to tag each other.

 another ted talks was kinda funny as well. the guy proposed changing the sex discussion from baseball metaphors to pizza metaphors.  of course, several comments from europe wondered why americans needed sex metaphors at all, why not just talk openly about sex.  he did make some good points about how baseball metaphors were limiting.

 another readers digest story was about a family who gave birth to a baby very early. in the end they were told the kid had no chance of survival and left with their baby in a room.  she held the tiny baby to her chest and it didn't die.  eventually, they began to treat this baby that wouldn't die and it's still alive. does make me think that it would be probably be good to do this with those baby's that seem to have no hope of survival rather than torture these tiny bodies.

 i know in the old days tiny babies like this were sent home with parents.  they were kept in dresser drawers near the hearth of the house and some of them survived. survival of the fittest. our nation is more and more a nation of survival of the least fit.  our health care dollars are directed to those who have little hope of survival and if they do survive they become totally dependant on others to survive...never to thrive again.  it's pretty sad.  eventually we will run out of money and people to care for the high number of infirm.

 more loons

 the dogs seem pretty happy today.  their little walk with a few hundred dogs seems to have worn them out.

 they have new bandana's.  they've never been bandana wearers.  people really are giving of their time.  must have taken some time to make all those bandana's.

 more birds

 no idea what kind

 earlier in the day i attempted to wander the grasslands and look for birds.  there were tons of mosquito's out there though.  i did find that if i stool still out there the mosquito's would settle back down on the ground.  anytime i moved though they all lifted up.  this was earlier in the day in the same area i ran into the swarms of mosquito's later that day. perhaps they just weren't ready to take off completely yet.

 i didn't see any birds that were too thrilling. i'm no birder though.  i did see several birder sorts wandering out in these area's for hours.  there was a book at the hotel with sightings and another book at the visitor center with sightings as well.

guess i should try to accomplish something more today.  it's still fairly early.  lawn is sorta mowed...i'm always leaning towards giving up on my push mower and invest in a mower that will really cut the grass a bit lower and get through the weeds better.  i think my push mower is getting dull.  i could just be getting weaker though as i age.  either way...soon the grass will stop it's rapid growth and winter will take over and my lawn care needs will be a thing of the past.  good night.