taking it easy kind of day

 love old trucks and planes....so lots of those around Lake Hood.  went moose hunting by the airport and saw none so on my way over to take Blossom for a walk i cruised through Lake Hood. I never tire of the sites around there.

 cloudy day out today.  maybe snow in forecast,  maybe not.  the way it's gone this year, i'm going with not.

 wanted to take it a bit easy today due to my vein procedure yesterday but Blossom didn't get walked yesterday so did want to get her out there.

 just figured out that my gatorade powder that i have works i scoop into the 1 quart bottle i have. perfect...easy math.  it's the little things that make a girl happy.  so i have my snacks and a drink for my Blogger needs.

 today's snacks...Ritz Crackers and Cheese and a few chocolate kisses...and the gatorade.  Glacier Freeze!!

 wearing these silly hose is like wearing spanks...i feel like i've lost some weight but it's really just all a bit more squished together. never been a fan of regular hose.  hot, hot, hot!!  i know i woke up several times last night either too hot or too cold.

 tried not to complain as this weekend a friend from high school mentioned on his facebook page that he was going in for a pacer as he had passed out due to his heart stopping.  made my little vein thing seem pretty trivial.  so much easier to deal with your stuff when you are reminded that others are going through much more stressful stuff.  he is reporting that he is doing well and is at home!  happy for him and his family who must be relieved and happy with that.

 i lost a great deal of yesterday anyway.  10 mg of oral valium wipes me out.  in my memory the procedure lasted like 10 minutes as that is all i recall.  i think i was in there for a good 1- 1 1/2 hours.  i remember some uncomfortable needle sticks and then nothing.  Thanks to Katie for being my driver.

 have been  doing my knee exercises as i lay about.  some i have done way more than they requested, others less than requested.  hopefully, it will be enough to improve that last bit and "graduate" from PT.  i want my cool drinking cup dang it!!

 spoke to TR from SeaLife Center.  she's always super nice and listens.  she sent off a note that Bruce Dale seems to be sending out looking for funding.  sadly, it does say they seem to have no intention of putting Round Island in next years budget either but are looking for help to fund it.  wrote him a note as i had also written the new habitat guy a note....at least that guy wrote me back.  at least the tone of the note sounded more positive and like the guy at least wanted to come up with a solution.

 so that is at least tons of improvement from the wall we were dealing with previously.  it's an uphill battle though.

 also left a message with the local WWF office here in Anchorage.  our petition is less than 100 signatures shy of 8000 so not bad for under 3 weeks.  will try to keep building that up.  build up the interest in walrus to the point that they can't be ignored.

 the BBNA/Walrus Commission leader cc'd me on a note about a post walrus hunt meeting.  not really sure what that means?  can we attend, should we get a package off to her with information about us and requests for help with funding...?  gotta figure that out.  she is a master of vagueness.

 woke up and noticed that my yakima had shifted quite a bit in the wind out in Palmer.  someone had posted a picture of a semi that had flipped on it's side...apparently it was a bit more windy than i realized.  took some work to get the yakima back straight.  it had gotten itself wedged in pretty tight.  so thankfully it didn't blow off.

 Sunday i was out at Prospect Heights.  wanted to get some stuff done around the house.

 Had my vein procedure on Monday.  was a bit less nervous about it since i'd had it done before so uncomfortable but at least a known thing.  hopefully all went well.  time will tell.  right now i have some lovely bruising and i'm wearing lovely support hose.  so comfy.

 still a bit windy and chilly Sunday out there.  Monday i have no idea.  the dogs got taken care of but not much else happened.

 guess a decision was made...no willow restart for the Iditarod this year, it will run out of Fairbanks.  i have some time off that week so i will see what i can arrange to get to Fairbanks that week i guess.  we shall see.  they have only done that i think one other time before.  that time they did have the ceremonial start here and then i think they waited until Monday to take off from up north...we will have to see as more details emerge.

 more tales of glacier melt.  there are glaciers outside of Dillingham in the Togiak park which will soon be a thing of the past.  Montana's Glacier National Park is expected to be without glaciers by as soon as 2030.

 always so annoying to read articles of Government spending that is totally wasted...especially as i work hard to get so little money (relatively) to the walrus on Round Island.  recent report of nearly 28 million bucks spent on some program that was later just abandoned.  infuriating!  another article same page was about film subsidies.  we have no money but then again we have spent so much of it without much thought at all.  

 austerity...tightened market due to shortages of consumer goods...i always see that term and never know what they are referring to...so i finally pulled out the websters.  apparently in Greece this has become so bad that there is a high percentage of fake nurses out there.  only about half of their nurses are licensed, or real nurses.

 a 33 year old drunk driver got 32 years prison sentence for losing control of his truck and killing 2 teenage girls.  that seems a longer sentence than has been handed out in the past, perhaps times are changing and we will start to have longer sentences.  just seems too often the drunk drivers get these sentences that don't seem to match the damage they have done....many are repeat offenders too, which is even more frustrating.

 floats are left to wait for spring.  many never switch and i guess just don't fly all winter.

 just like we change over to winter tires, the planes get winter ski's placed on them.

 more float planes waiting til spring thaw.

 nice to walk with a few humans today...it's been awhile.  i made a quick decision to go to Conners Bog.  i rarely go there but i was right there so i turned in to get Blossom out for  a stretch. her toy was quickly stolen from her and some poodle type began humping on the poor girl.

 i was prepared for a less than pleasant walk with the many dog/walkers that frequent dog parks with totally untrained dogs.  always a pet peeve of mine. personally i feel dogs should be well trained before they are unleashed in public...or at least pretend you are in the process of training them.

 i had extricated myself from the untrained masses and was out on some trails pretty much alone. then some work friends came along. nice to wander with them.  a few new babies and of course this little gal who keeps growing up into her toddlerhood.  love that people with kids get them outside.

 Laika jumped on my once.  thankfully, i saw her coming and she always jumps on me for some reason.  i'm far enough out of knee surgery that it was okay since i was prepared for the leap.  she is big and can take me out.  generally she does that one leap and then that is it.  strange.

 Miss L stayed in the pack for much of the walk but got out to stretch her legs.

 babies are bundled in those body carrier things and then packed inside their mom's parka's...snuggly warm and both were sleeping the whole walk.  so cute.

 Miss L took the littlest dog for a walk.

 all bundled up and fashion forward for winter.

 the big mountains off in the distance from my walk on Sunday.

 guess there was some pretty cool fata morgana yesterday but i was sleeping.

 pretty much all i did was sleep yesterday.  lost in that valium haze.  takes a bit to get out of your system.

 felt pretty good today though.

 black and whites out at Lake Hood.  some old gas cans lined up.

 my brain is still kind of blank.  bear with me.

 liked the bright red blanket on this plane.  the colors can be cool, even if i do choose to shoot in black and white some times.

grateful for:.  1.  recovering, always good.  2.  options for medical care.  in other places chronic pain just worsens over time without any options to try and reverse the cause.  3.  planes, trains and automobiles.