Homer, Misty, Hikes....

 no on calls this week at work.  ACC was totally short staffed and busy. i had a pretty decent assignment so i was happy.  my part of the unit was quite chill...the other section,which is larger, was crazy!!  one poor patient coded 4 times in 12 hours!!

 loved this old boats on the spit in Homer with the lupine...so beautiful!! don't feel like i'm getting as many photo ops this summer.

 not sure what to do with this backpacking trip coming up.  i don't have care for Rio and she is still post op and a bit freaked out from the Homer trip..well, perhaps i'm freaked out more than her.  i just feel bad that all my ducks weren't in a row and she had those moments of being scared.  don't ever want her to feel that way.  she is clearly too weak to make that long hike to lost lake though.  need to talk to the kid next door and see if he and his sister would be in town to cover her.  maybe combined with the other neighbors...not sure.  don't want to miss backpacking though.

 sat down tonight with the 1023 papers. i'd gotten myself a bit befuddled over the whole pubic vs private non-profit wording.  ended up just reprinting the 1023 and going through it line by line with the guide supplied.  turns out many of those back pages on the 27 pages that printed were only required if this or if that...so my form was really more like 12 pages.

 meeting with the board tomorrow night to go over any changes i should make to the articles and bylaw's...then just print/copy/write a big check and mail off to the IRS.

 made sure that Walrus and Alaska were written out on the envelope...hoping that makes it stand out and get taken care of sooner.  i guess you can request an expedited processing but when i looked it up, our situation really wasn't covered under their non-profits that qualify for expedited service.

 many of these are from the drive back to Anchorage from Homer...so beautiful.  actually it would be beautiful and then occasionally i would be in a downpour.

 today is rainy.  was happy to have a rainy day to just feel like i could hide away with my 501(3)(c) papers.

 now i'll write a list of all the stuff we need to do next and see what anyone is up to helping out with.  ordered some books on running non-profits on Amazon and we will for sure need to look into Kickstarter...sounds like that works great for getting some early donations.  several people have said that we just need to let them know when we are ready and they will donate.  i think i would feel better once we have some word on the IRS papers so we can give them a way to deduct their donations.

 anyway...sorry lots of WARIS talk tonight.

 stopped at the conservation center on the way back.  needed to stretch my legs a bit, it was a nice break.

 tons of baby wood bison out there...all babies are cute.

 today Rio bowed out of the walk .i think the rain convinced her.  she is a fair weather walker.  took Blossom to University lake.  i think she was pretty happy to just be out there with me.  not too crowded as i don't think i got there until close to 4pm.

 yesterday we walked Baxter Bog and the day before we cruised up Patterson rd.  Rio seemed very tired both walks.  she's been a trooper.  i only put the collar on her when i'm sleeping or working.  i haven't seen her make any attempts to get at her tail so i feel bad putting it on at all, but i'd feel terrible if she ripped apart the dressing and incision and had to have any more surgery.  she goes in tomorrow for a dressing change.  she is not keen on me touching her tail so figured it was best to let them do that. i will have her wear her collar though, i think they will get a kick out of it.

 this is from one the recent walks up powerline  pass, have done that a few times the last few weeks.  it's a nice 4 miles, pretty easy but pretty as well.

 i picked up Tanya and she joined me out there one day last week.

 bought some hamburger buns the other day so i'm on a hamburger kick for the week.  don't want to waste those buns.  i rarely eat those.  i think it was the fourth of July...seemed obligated i guess.

 i worked 4th of July. no fireworks for me.  we did have some beautiful sunsets...about 11:30 pm.  it was already coming back up by 0300.  nice working nights on these days, fun to watch the light fade and return.  it never really gets that dark and the sunsets up here seem to last until they just have to be called sunrises.

 this day at powerline was a mixture of folks.  Libby, speedy, Flo and I...i think that was it.  often i can go days walking alone, this day several folks must have been available...felt rather popular for the day...haha!!i think everyone enjoyed their day out there.

 always seem to roll my eyes on facebook as so many people seem to take these silly quizzes.  personalities.  like..i took this quiz and it turns out i'm just like Mother Theresa...when you know know that person is totally nothing like Mother Theresa.  any and all of those silly quizzes can be manipulated to end up how people want to think people see them.  it's just funny to me.  like whatever...

 i know we are all curious at times as to how we are perceived of by others.  you rarely seem to get any feedback...except when you have totally pissed someone off.  we all want to know what people are saying behind our backs if anything at all?

 did discover that in my neighborhood at least i am referred to as the "single lady who keeps to herself".  at least it's not as the crazy cat/dog lady....or even more thankfully not the 800 pound lady that never leaves her house.  i really should stop eating these M&M's though.  hehe.

 still gotta get those trashcans out to the curb and change the cat litter.  happy that the papers didn't take as long as i thought they would tonight.

 seems like tons of trauma's of late.  all this sunshine...makes people get out and often that leads to some loss. Alaska seems to be a place of death to younger folks.  it's always pretty sad.  a great deal of suicide, seems to touch everyone.  at least with the 4 wheelers and stuff peope were having fun.

 one of our Anchorage police dogs was injured in the line of duty.  poor dog, MP was stabbed multiple times. a guy was being pursued by the police as he had a machete and was being threatening with it.  he pulled a smaller knife out with the dog though.  the articles have said the dog is being treated locally so hopefully poor pooch heals up.

 a strange and rare occurrence was written about in the paper today as well.  over 40 years ago a bush pilot came upon this scene of over 50 caribou dead.  there were no signs they had been chased or signs they'd been shot or had a predator take them down.  he let fish and game know and they went out to investigate it.  these caribou were totally remote.  i guess from the air they noticed a "Lichtenberg figure"...i had no idea what that was but apparently it's like fanning out from a bullseye... it was lightening that had killed them all.  it had landed in one spot and then radiated out from there,killing all those animals instantly.  strange.

 sad story about a 5 year old that went missing in Girdwood and was found sounds like a half hour later the victim of drowning.  the story goes on to say they did cpr in the field for 3 hours? can't see that going well, but kids and cold can change outcomes.

 flat top on the left of the above picture. very popular trail here in anchorage.  lots of scree and rocks...looks pretty easy to climb here, but they seem to deal with a lot of injuries from this place.

 even though i was working for the big Independence day do not think that means i do not appreciate being a citizen of these United States.  It's a rough world out there.  we have our issues, for sure, but it's been a sweet life for me here compared to what i see others across the globe dealing with on  a daily basis.  freedom of speech, freedom to complain, freedom to pursue your life as you see fit for the most part. with freedom comes responsibility and expectations and many have a tough time rising to the freedom they have.

 my little makeshift WARIS station in my office here. bought a desk lamp as i returned from University Lake today.  helps to see what you are writing.

 the rest are another batch from the trip to Misty.  figure i'll just put a few in on occasion.  really was beautiful that week.

 our guides...!!

 the big Mount Marathon race happened in Seward. as far as i know there were no major injuries or disappearances of runners.  one guy was never found a few years ago...?  i'm not sure i'd even want to walk that trail.  i'm not big on heights and scree.  in the Junior heat a girl won, Allie Ostrander, 17 years old..they compete all together and a girl has never won!!  the sun was out in force as were the people.  i walked the dogs and then turned on the tv to see the winner of the mens heat coming off the mountain.  Eric Strabel.  no idea what his face looks like but i was pretty impressed with his body running down the street in the video feed.  wow...those thighs!! no fat on that boy we'll just say.

 Holly Brooks won the womens division.  she's also been to a few winter olympics as a cross country skier.

 our gas prices are said to be increasing by over 40%...thanks Enstar!! thankfully, right now i haven't been using much gas...we hit 70's and 80's last week.

 shark attacks off of California beaches...don't recall being too worried about shark attacks when i was a kid out there swimming all the time.  my mom was more concerned about rip tides.  i remember her giving us reminders all the time about what to do , how to avoid them.

 sweet to see this beautiful mountain ahead of us out there. quite impressive.

 mosquito's and biting flies have been doing well these past weeks.  thankfully, their time in Alaska is short lived.  i am counting the days.  :-)

 tents going up

 sandra above, Janet and Scott below and Bob and Tanya below that.

 may eat and then sink into the tub...dang...still got cat litter duty and trash to curb.

 always a bit beat after 3 nights of work.  good rest overall between shifts.  need to kick start my exercise program too.  that pool calls me and i want to get there and then other stuff stops me.  once you get out of the habit it's so tough to get back in. it's a matter of commitment and i just need to recommit to the program.  at 50 it is important to take care of this body i've been given.

 still hard to believe this was southeast Alaska...so sunny!!

 view of punchbowl from the tent.

 signage to let you know the trail is here to punchbowl lake.

off to do some of those things that are waiting for me.  litter, trash and bills mostly...then i will drop off for the night. well, perhaps a movie would be a nice relaxing ending to the day.  thankful for 1- each person who likes our facebook page, it really does encourage me to continue doing what i'm doing.  2- rain,it's good for the earth and gives me a great reason to get other stuff done. 3- warm comfy place to rest and recuperate.   good night