another beautiful alaskan sunset...yawn!! HEHE!

 the usual debate as to where to walk today.  sometimes i think of texting around to see if anyone wants to walk and then i just don't.  they could text me some time.  funny as one friend i used to walk tons with i haven't heard from forever.  i thought of texting today, but then i get that line that generally applies to dating but i think also applies to friends some times.  they just aren't that into you.  if they wanted to be your friend, they'd be more responsive...so i grabbed the dogs and my gear and headed out.  life is funny...i ran into that very friend on the trails.  we stopped and chatted.

 i really don't know what makes people just seemingly disappear from your life.  i tend to blame myself, but the fact is it's generally not related to you, these things. it's probably pretty egotistical of me to assume it is really.  the city looked totally cloudy except for a pocket over bicentennial park. brought rio along and by the time we'd walked just a bit the clouds moved off and it became a beautiful day out there.

 it was nice to catch up for a few minutes with my old good friend.  life just gets in the way.  if you don't see each other or have similar schedules you fall off the radar.  there are many friends who are still friends but i do miss the time together.  i tend to prefer having a bestie of sorts to chill with and gab with.  i've had a series of besties in life and many have fallen off the radar, always bums me out though.

 things are exposed now that generally aren't exposed.  i am happy i ran back inside to grab my ice bugs with the cleats as it was a much easier walk with the cleats..i got a blister though.  haven't had a blister forever. i  grabbed my short cleats and not the boots which i've worn much more.  moleskin to the rescue.

 not much to take pictures of out there right now.  trails are a mess...waiting for the snow to come again and make it all normal.

 just baked some pumpkin bread.  haven't tasted it yet.  it's cooling.  place smells good though.  it's with the pumpkin that i had frozen.  hope it tastes as good as it smells.

 after our walk, which was a slow walk, thank you rio, i headed down to potters marsh for the sunset.  the sunsets are the best things for photography right now.

 i moved around to different places to get the sunset from different angles.  stopped on the road, then went up a road behind the marsh and then cruised the road behind but next to marsh and then back to the train tracks.  no trains came by thankfully.

 it really was another beautiful evening out there.  getting later too, the sunsets.

 rio has her surgery tomorrow.  i was debating today calling it off.  thinking it's drying and may just heal from the inside out, but it is super vascular and bleeds really easy.  ran into some people on the trails, they have a lab with a ginormous lump on it's rump...poor old guy.  they were talking about these vascular tumors that look like fatty tumors but that a dog could bleed to death from.  yikes!!

 i tried shaving around it tonight and cleaning it up, but it started to bleed again so i think it's best to just get it removed.  always nervous having a dog have any sort of surgery, no matter how small it seems.  she's big and she's not young.  anything can happen.  her labs were good and she is seemingly in good health.  it's just that much more stressful for her though with her blindness and seperation issues.

 these probably all look the same...still pretty.   you can see the semi frozen marsh in the foreground here. the sky was really reflecting back.  very nice.

 they did remove that poor woman who was brain dead from life support today.  they did it before the court ordered deadline.  my heart goes out to the family and the caregivers as i can imagine it was stressful for all involved.  may they all find peace in their hearts now.

 the clouds were moving pretty fast so that kept changing up the scene for me anyway...may be hard to tell from these i guess.

 reading my newspaper today i did find that all the rescue stuff at gold mint was related to an actual rescue.  the news said that there had been a snowmachine accident and a rescue had been involved.  they were doing training up at independence mine as well.  that looked like avalanche rescue training.  hopefully, whoever they flew out will recover.

 liked the clouds reflected in potters in these.

 always have to give the trees some time.  love a sunset through the trees.

 back down to the waters edge.  when i got there the clouds were dark as you moved past potters so i just stayed in potters, they were changing fast as well.  i was ready to get home though so i may have missed the last bit of the sunset.  i think i got enough for one day

 not sure if i'll be able to do the monday walk tomorrow.  just depends on how rio is doing.  i have to drop her at like 7 am so not clear when pick up will be.  i may stick around for a few in case they have trouble with her...she's very sensitive.  sounded like they'd do surgery early.

 will try to crash early.  i'm already feeling sleepy anyway.  was feeling lazy today.  wanted to sleep all day. dogs are great motivators.  it's not like blossom gets all wild and crazy, she just gives you that please wake up and take me for a walk look...who can resist that?

 many parts of the marsh were open water..or it looked like it to me.  could have been water on top of ice i guess.  i wasn't walking out to check it out. looked too unstable for that. i mean, i'm a bit of a chicken, but this doesn't look like ice skating conditions to me.

 but...there were two skaters out there. they were zipping around too.  could be they are out there all the time and have watched where the weak areas are, who knows.  i never saw them go in.

 looked like fun...again i'd be chicken to be able to relax and have fun in these conditions.  it's pretty warm out by our standards but taking a dip in that cold water just doesn't sound appealing to me.

 the dog was out as well. i'd follow the dog, it probably knows to not take a dip..of course, blossom would be the opposite and find the water so she could take a dip.

 at one point when i was on the tracks i looked back and that dog was up on the side of the road.  cars and trucks zip past there super fast...they were able to call the dog back.

 so these are the last shots of the evening before i headed home again.

 had to take a few of the skaters.  the ice was super clear so nice reflections of them i guess.

signing off.  enjoy your day and keep miss rio catalina in your thoughts as she goes under the knife as it were.