frosty monday walk.

 not sure why i didn't notice how cold it was out there today. it was so "warm" and pleasant yesterday.  there were signs.  my seatbelt doesn't want to click in place under zero and the doors stick and there was lots of frost both inside and outside my car windows.  not to mention rio zipped out this morning, pee'd on the deck and zipped back inside.

 driving in the sign on tudor said 6 below zero.  my end of town and especially the area up campbell airstrip road are well known to be even colder.  so i'd guess it was somewhere between 6-10 below zero.  i actually wasn't chilled.  you get pretty used to the cold.

 i think miss syd got a bit cold though.  she had a monday walk meltdown about half way through.  i know speedy felt bad, but that kid does awesome every walk we go on.  she was bound to have a meltdown one of these times.  she was dressed and bundled, but once you get cold, in those temps you stay cold til you are someplace warm.  it was never dangerous.  no children were harmed on the monday walk.  is she'd stopped screaming and wasn't asleep then we would have had to worry.  screaming kids are always a better thing than quiet kids.  quiet kids are either really sick or getting into trouble.

 in my work in the peds icu we rejoice when a kid feels well enough to cry.

 it was another absolutely beautiful day out there.  i was happy that i was out there yesterday with my camera's. i felt no obligation today to get the bigger camera's out.  i just used my point and shoot.

 we were a bit slow getting out of the parking lot.  lena joined us even later.  in the end we probably only did maybe 2 miles.  it was pretty slow and shorter than usual.  which i guess is actually usual when it gets extremely cold.  the trail was fairly well packed down so even though lena brought snowshoes she took them off pretty quickly.

 we had lena, speedy, karen, myself and shell.  so three dogs.  i think the dogs had a great time as usual.

 syd was actually pretty happy when we arrived, her usual. love all her pink and purple.  so cute.

 kids don't do the walking which is also a good way to stay warm.

 i had planned on hitting the pool.  my gut wasn't feeling great tonight.  nothing major, but i decided to just lay down for a bit.  never napped, just watched some ted talks and relaxed.

 so pretty out there!!

 i have been going pretty solid for several days and i'm generally fairly lazy. i suspect my body just needed some down time.  i really need to get it together and finish up those last christmas things and make one more run to the post office.

 did see that i wasn't nuts.  there were post office trucks around town yesterday despite it being sunday.  apparently they are delivering packages the last two sundays before christmas to keep up.  strange.  when i was at the post office this past week, there was more than one person at the counter and the dude that can be kind of cranky was all friendly.  is something happening at the post offices?  i was out in 20 minutes.

 i put together a few cookie bags this morning.  didn't get all the baking i had intended, but it was fine.

 my gut is probably a bit unhappy due to eating cookie dough for breakfast.  that was not an issue when i was a kid but your gi track gets less tolerant of bad food choices as you age. it tastes so good though.

 the water on the pond had been a bit soft yesterday. probably was a soft spot over some ice.  i didn't risk it yesterday.  with the deep freeze today i felt pretty safe

 my circles and words were still there.  not sure what people think when they see them.  probably couldn't make out the words.  hmm...

 still fun to play out there.

 one of the talks i watched was the graduation speech steve jobs gave at stanford.  as successful as he was it is funny that he never graduated from college.  he dropped out.  success doesn't require a degree, it requires desire and passion.  not that he was knocking them for having gotten a degree.  he just impressed upon them to find their passion and to go for it.  to not be afraid to look foolish or to fail.  to love what they do.

 do i love nursing.  i'd say it's something i have grown to love.  i wouldn't say it was my dream job or a passion i have.  what i love about nursing is that i make a difference in the lives of the other humans on this earth, 12 hours at a time.  i love what it gives me in my life, time.  time to get out and enjoy the woods, to play with my camera's and my dogs and to blog.  it gives me an appreciation for each and every day, each sunset, each snowfall.

 jobs touched upon that.  live each day like you may be dead the next day. you may be.  my job is a constant reminder of this as well.  i see patients all the time who have had their lives changed in an instant.

 not every job in this life is a dream job and i'm  not sure we can all follow our passions 100%.  sometimes you just follow the life that comes to you and find passion in that life.  the world needs nurses and garbage collectors and sewage processors and morticians.  not all jobs that are glamorous and therefore jobs people dream of becoming.  you can find value and purpose in anything you do though. you can do any job really well and have pride in it.  i think we forget to send that message.  it's always some rich and famous person who is sitting in their amazing house saying follow your dreams, they do come true.  for every outlandish dream that came true there is some poor ice skater or singer or actor who fails despite having a dream.

 sometimes a dream isn't all there is to make something happen.  talent for some things like art, music.  intelligence can hold you back from other things.  i mean perhaps i dreamed of being an astrophysicist, that in no way means i have the intellect to be one.  yes, with enough work and some fine tutors you may be able to get there, but sometimes the things we think we excel at we actually aren't as good at as we think.  or a path we believe is best for us isn't.  you follow your heart and your dreams, but be prepared to alter that path and be willing to find happiness down another path.

 as they say i guess, don't put all your eggs in one basket.  be willing to gamble, to try different things, to meet different people, to learn new stuff.

 i've had many dream jobs in my mind.  could i have done them, sure i could have.  am i happy they didn't work out.  yes and no.  i'm happy with my life...could i have been happier if i'd become a veterinarian or a marine biologist or a writer or a photographer.  who knows.  veterinarians need a lot more school, work long hours and i really wasn't keen on day practice.  marine biologist sounded great, but they are out in the middle of nowhere often in horrible weather and may be dealing with red tape and paperwork.  every dream job has it's downside.

 downside to nursing.  plenty.  poop..of course, since i was a veterinarian technician and trained as a zoo keeper i just joke with patients that i am a poop expert.  it's just poop.  there are worse things.  sometimes you see the bad side of humans or it's just draining to be there when people are emotionally strung out or dealing with chronic drunks or drug seekers and trying to stay compassionate.

 nursing has made me a better person though.  i think i'm much less selfish than i was, way more empathetic.  more kind, more giving.  not sure i would have gained the insights i have since being a nurse.

 sadly jobs passed away from pancreatic cancer.  when he gave this speech he sounded pretty sure that they had cured his cancer.  it returned.  some people are amazing to me in how much they do accomplish in the short time they have on this earth.  it does remind me that time is a wasting and i'm letting it waste.  so good to watch as a reminder that if i do want to do anything, it's not a good idea to keep procrastinating.

 also watched a short talk by boyd varty.  he's a great story teller.  loved that he uses his body and the entire stage to tell a story.  fun.  he's from south africa and the day he gave his talk was the same day nelson mandela passed away.  they called the talk, "what i learned from  nelson mandela" which isn't really what the talk was about.  he  is a wildlife activist. grew up on a game reserve it sounds like, became a guide and now is an activist.  he actually spoke of "ubuntu" which roughly translates to "i am, because of you".

 a concept of how we all relate to each other.  he bridged it to include the earth and animal kingdom.

 he did mention that he'd met Mandela, he'd stayed with their family when he was 9.  Mandela had just gotten out of prison and needed a place of solitude after being  inundated with press.

 so i guess my job as a nurse gives me that ubuntu.  helps me to experience my own humanity through others.  it wasn't like his speech was crazy inspirational, but that guy can tell a great story.  love a great storyteller.  we don't get the opportunity to hear stories in our modern world. i could have listened to him tell stories for hours.

 winter casts these long shadows.  pretty amazing.  not sure what i will do tomorrow.  may try and drive someplace just to see something different for a day.  not sure if i'll head towards hatchers pass or towards turnigan arm.  not too many hours of day light to play with this time so it may be better to head south than north.

  speedy...happy to be almost done walking.  haha. nah.  she's always smiling.  we still laugh as one morning a grumpy co-worker looked at me and kept saying she didn't buy it.  she thought speedy was faking her smiles.  i just remember looking at grumpy and saying, no, i really think she is that happy.

 we all have bad days, but i'm not a fan of making everyone you work with have to pay for your bad day.  some people seem to think that everyone should pay every day for they're bad life.

 these mugs have great lives!!  both humans and dogs got frosty today.

 always hard to capture the beauty of all that snow.

 it's pretty much lost on blossom.  she just enjoys the fun of it.

 she's pretty dang cute though.

 big sun

 a few from last nights ugly sweater party at sandra's.

 fun times. just a few without ugly sweaters. the fashionable making us all look bad.  haha!!  we like them anyway.

 maddie had a recital that afternoon and they all flew out for christmas today so i don't think they had time to do the full ugly sweater thing.

 these guys did a great job!!  i think sheila got the award above.

 everyone looked festive anyway and all had a great time!!

 alaskan's don't wear their shoes past the door.  i was laughing at this pile as i remember a certain "sex and the city" episode where she was forced to remove her fancy shoes and the piles of shoes were very different than this alaskan pile.

 home with my own cheesy ugly "sweater".  of course, i had to laugh as i wore the santa hat to the party and then cruised into barnes and nobel after the party.  after i'd been shopping a bit i remembered that i had on this santa hat.  oops.

 this is my mini ugly sweater...it now adorns my tree.

 puppies and kitties rest under the tree.  miss breezy chatterbug is blossoms constant companion when we are at home.  it cracks me up to see a cat so adorning a dog.  i remind the cat often that i am the one who pays the bills and feeds her, but alas, blossom gets all the love!!

i have wasted another perfectly good hour rambling.  good night.