Blossom and I visited the fresh snow!!

 there was just us up at Powerline and one skier.  apparently not everyone wanted to play in the snow today.  Blossom will take fresh snow any time of the year...so will i it appears.

 turned out to be a beautiful day out there.  my knee was a bit more sore again today.  walking didn't seem to make it go away as much as it usually does.  went a total of just 3 miles.  enough for Blossom, and enough for me considering we were trudging through 3-4 inches of fresh snow.

 i later hit the gym for bike and row machine time.  i think those did help some.  i do best moving.  appointment next week, i can hang til then.  got over 10,000 steps each of the last 3 days and 4/5 past days...so back at it.

 also got the Thank You notes written for WARIS with speedy's help so hopefully we can get those out in the next week.  still need good contacts for Annenberg  Foundation and for one more donor, but nearly done.  need to get our color logo set up with the writing and put that on our letterhead, cool picture needs to pop!!

 always more to do, but it's not as pressing now that we have funding and the crew is headed out.  i can go back hopefully and work on other things like new bumper stickers for 2015 and our web page hopefully.

 finished a book i was reading and have started a new one.  also started on a shredding quest.  so much paper accumulates in houses, no annoying.  so i'll shred loads of it and get it in the recycling.

 gotta watch that Russia.  they would like to lay claim over all of the arctic and are indeed doing just that.  they seem to be on a land grab or even ocean grab mode...nobody seems to be concerned about it, but i think the world should be. one of their ships landed in the Northern part of Norway, Svalbard. it's a territory of Norway.  they are encroaching beyond approved borders by ship and by plane.  testing the waters it seems like.  planning for a future where they command the entire arctic.  there is not much of a defense in those regions if Russia should come in and just simply take over.  Greenland(under Denmark, Iceland, northern territories of Canada, Norway, Sweeden. not a lot of military in those regions.

 a man was found partially submerged in a pond really by the library, midtown.  sounds like life had been going well, but his wife died and he started down the path of alcohol, becoming one of the homeless. his family was unable to locate him in the late fall, sad story really.  he is gone.  sounds like a tourist is missing already, only the canoe upside down was found.

 a Sitka dog owner has her ring back.  apparently, her dog got a hold of her wedding ring and it was found in the dogs poop in a local ball field.  happy that someone was picking up her dogs poop, right?  haha.

 have also been catching up on my Nat Geo reading. always great articles in there.  easy to get behind as you want to really devour each one.

 Blossom is nicely worn out tonight.  we chilled on the deck a bit this afternoon.  i rested and read.

 there was sunshine.  trying to train the cats to just go outside on the front deck.  so far that seems to be holding breezy back from exploring out the back.  she had that one really bad experience outside when she refused to come in and i finally went to bed after 2 or 3 and left her out there.  she tore up the rubber insulation stuff and flew into the house when i woke up the next morning.  she was drenched as it had been raining all night.  that cat seems to have learned a lesson that night.

 some bonehead is planning at this late date to cut summer ferry service by 15-20 %!!  that is a massive amount really. those boats are generally full all summer.  would be a huge hit to the local communities and to tourism in those areas.  there is no way to redirect people who have bought tickets already.  the Alaska Ferry System is officially the highway system.  those are our roads, it would be like shutting down 15-20% of the major highways in the lower 48...you can't just do that!

 an iditarod dog that got loose after the race has finally been caught and is on it's way back to Fairbanks.  seems like Sarabi was headed north anyway.  the dog was found 100 miles north of Anchorage where it went missing.  happy that the outcome was a good one.  the dog actually looked quite good considering it was on it's own for over a month i think.

 a few from the drive back down the hill.  wanted to try out the knee in the safety of the gym on the bike before i ventured out again outside. it felt pretty good on the stationary bike though so i think i could try for some rides here soon.  maybe much more than the few summers past.

 always a matter of organizing your day.  i always want to get the hike in and then there are other things that need to be done in life as well.

 anyway you can get outside though is good.  why waste days like today.  sometimes it's nice to just sit on the deck and read though.  i often feel this pressure in the summer to make use of every hour of daylight as it will not be there in the winter.  it gets almost stressful, this go, go, go sort of mentality.  gotta have plans, action.  sitting outside today was nice.  working out at the gym this evening was also nice.  just have to go by what your body and mind seem to want and then release any guilt you may put on yourself.

 the city has branch bangs!!

 and of course sleeping lady...

 even finally got my bike rack on the car!! i think i still have to do a few finishing touches, but it should be good to go and i don't even think i swore getting it together.  next step will be figuring out how to get my bike secured on there and heading out to play!! i like it cause it can fold down and away so i can still open the back hatch if needed.

to the end of another day in Alaska.  i am always grateful and have enjoyed ending each blog post with a few things for that day to be thankful for.  we all have so much in our lives and when i think of the big world and the trauma's and trials that so many others must endure, it's easy for me to find things to appreciate.  A.  that i live in relative peace here, i sleep without fear of war and bombings, or being carted off and tortured/killed/raped....real concerns daily in some parts of the world.  B.  that i live in one of the most beautiful places on earth.  so  much to see here still but i am grateful for the opportunity to explore and take it all in.  C.  that i have people in my life who i can depend on in a crisis.  yes, some days i wish there was that one person, but i have so many and that really does make a difference.  nice to have a safety net of people who would be there, or take turns being there.