Lost Lake and a chat with the Capital...

 We had an absolutely beautiful day at Lost Lake. we lingered as long as we could and as long as we could stand the bugs out there.  the breeze was finally starting to pick up in the afternoon.  we ate lunch by the lake. it really was this pretty.  there was no need at all to enhance any of these pictures.  besides contrast and cropping i really don't do anything to my pictures. i'm too lazy to shoot in raw and i'd rather be outside than sitting at a computer...

 though with all this WARIS stuff i've been on the computer way more than i have ever been.  i should have been writing down the time i spent on WARIS stuff all along, but i have for sure started to now.

 took two vacation days this week and they have pretty much morphed into WARIS days. Hoping this all settles a bit once i have the basics done. tonight i've been working on the web page.  i took a break to write the blog as they have downtime at web.com so it seemed best to not fight it.  i'll have to try again in a bit.  trying to hook our new bank account up so people can donate.

 Katie met me at the bank and we opened an account.  WARIS has $10 in our account!!  go team.  my thanks to my childhood friend, Marcia, for the $10 donation. she sent it for my birthday.  seemed fitting to open it with her donation.  as a young kid she innocently asked me a lot of questions about all kinds of stuff, including the religion i was being raised in.  we had long conversations. she wasn't trying to sway me, just curious as she wasn't raised with any specific religion.  all that questioning helped me to see the world differently than the one way i had been taught.  eventually...well...here i am.

 Today i got a package in the mail from another friend from my days in Ketchikan.  another donation arrived along with a gift and a sweet note.  it's great to get encouragement for this thing i am taking on.  this week i have felt somewhat overwhelmed and anxious about what i embarking on and the kind and positive words are really helpful.

 people want to donate and they want to help.  it's time for me to set it up for them to do just that.  it's all set up i just need to get it on to my web page and then introduce the web page...to everyone.  it still needs a lot of work and i'm learning as i go. the page will hopefully improve over time.

 my neighbor did indeed come over in the wee hours of the morning and sprayed the wasp nest.  many dead wasps around it and i could see the nest is melting like and hopefully the larvea forms i see in there will die as well.  keeping dogs far away from the area so they don't get sick from the crap that kills the wasps. tried to just take them for a walk after i fed them but they didn't like that idea. Rio just wouldn't pee, Blossom kept sitting down.  they are creatures of habit.

 as long as they were in the side yard and i was out there with them i let them be in the yard.

 i made a dent in the chickweed situation.  day was nice out so i took to the garden with vigor!! at least it rips out easily.  the idea is to get to the bottom and then spray weed killer i think..more toxins for the dogs to avoid.  should just hire someone to re-do the entire yard. it's a lot of work.

 in between that i checked for email responses/wrote more emails and spoke to the legislative assistant to our senator Mark Begich.  he had called while i was out at Lost Lake and we had played some phone tag.  Bob King has been to Round Island and seems to be on board with not wanting the staff off the island.  i think he was getting ready to fly out...the phone cut off and that was that.  hopefully we will be in contact again.  i wrote a note through the senators website.  kinda cool though that one of my emails got noticed and responded to.

 chatted with my oldest brother, Ross, for a bit.  got to tell him about my call from the Capital...that is what comes up on the caller ID.  he's in New York on vacation.  sounds like fun.  guess everyone is headed to Texas again for Thanksgiving.  we'll have to see.  had fun last year, possible.

 also chatted with my friend, Carla, she finally has a smart phone. i was her first text and first phone call.  always fun to chat with her.  it was a quick call while i was waiting for Katie at the bank.

 funny...it was easier to get a bank account than a PO Box.

 Boddhi was enjoying some water time which is i guess unusual.

 couldn't stop taking pictures...it was just so beautiful.  takes your mind off of the bugs.

 Malaysian Air had another very bad and sad day.  a passenger jet with over 200 passengers was shot out of the air over Ukraine.  not sure who is responsible, so sad.  supposedly several of the passengers were Aids researchers who were on the way to a conference.  great loss for the world and my heart goes out to the families.

 who knows who is responsible and what if anything will happen.

 Israel has increased in their push into Gaza...it's full on war at this point.

 kept my wide angle lens on all day.

 Boddhi...he's such a handsome guy.

 Indy was more interested in swimming.

 my friends...everything is cooler in Black and White.

 Rio went to the vet for a check up. her tail is still slowly healing.  she still needs to have a bandage on her tail and the sutures are still in.

 we just walked around Kincaid today with the dogs.  it was looking like it could rain on my side of town but over there the sun was out and everyone was biking and enjoying the day. thinking tomorrow i may just hit the road with the dogs for a day excursion.  head north...not sure where yet. we shall see.

 lots of tarn action up there. love tarns. great word..kinda like taiga, another northern word.  further north there are pingo's.  gotta love Alaska!!

 after this i shall head back and hope i can get the web thing ready to at least get started and then...bed!!

 may try and organize all these papers and read more on my self learning books...how to start and run a non-profit.

 this is a tarn...not big enough to be a lake...too big to be a pond i think...also seems a thing that shows up in the higher elevations.  never heard the word tarn before i got here.

 Rio for sure gets more tired walking in the summers than the winters and more in general than in years past.

 baby tarn...or little pond?  i'm still gonna call it a tarn.

 this month is flying by fast!!  that is how summers go.  crazy!!  you feel totally wasteful on a day like today if you don't do some big thing,  but you still need to clean toilets, pull chickweed and wash dishes every so often.  my yard is a mess..this seems to happen every summer though.  i'm not one who wants to be bothered with yardwork...i'd rather be out enjoying this great place called Alaska!!

 soon winter will come and the yardwork will change to shoveling snow.  the chickweed will die off.  i really should just hire a lawn service..i say that every year.  i haven't gotten any projects done this year...i guess WARIS is my project this year.  next year i'll have to take on a home project. the fence no doubt...as i doubt it will last the winter.

 it's just so open,so vast out there.  this place is beyond beautiful...anytime of year really.

 cooked a turkey breast tonight.  i'd bought it the other day and looked at it yesterday and thought i had like a week to use it...today i realized that the date on there was really today and that i had to cook it today.  my brain wasn't getting that July was almost half way over.  nuts!!

 we took our time that afternoon returning to the cabin.  the wind had picked up, the bugs were a bit less and the dogs were pretty tired. Blossom and Boddhi kept wanting to break.  Indy seemed full of vigor but after we got back to the cabin he was the one that seemed the most sore.  i think he just didn't want to let on that he was beat...

 my desk is a mess...both of them. haha...really do need to sort that out a bit.

 yes...i never made it to the gym today...again!!  grr!! feel like i need to get this done though. then the next phase begins.

 Blossom and I

 the family...

 a few more of the lake before we headed  back to the cabin.

 Blossom gets nice and soaked...i should have brought her tennis ball out to the lake.  she is so funny...doesn't really get swimming without a ball to chase.

better get back to it and then head to bed... thankful fors: 1- being busy...it's good to feel productive and be engaged in something bigger than yourself. 2- to be healthy enough to  be able to get out and enjoy amazing places like Lost Lake 3-  cool friends who make me laugh