Fata Morgana to start and a few sunsets...

 you can pretty clearly see the fata morgana in the above shot. below a bit as well.  i'd never heard of it before i moved up here. it can happen anywhere.  it's a type of mirage.  i didn't notice it until i put the picture up on the computer.

 Christmas week is upon us.  some years are better than others.  i tend to be nostalgic for childhood and being surrounded by family.  you can never return to those days or replace them by trying to re-create it.  you just have to remember those days of Christmas past and be happy in the memories you have of them.  the days when your parents were alive and the family hadn't all grown up and moved out and on.

 probably much tougher to do this when you are alone.  yes, i am alone.  i have many friends, i still have family scattered about but they have people.  i come home to my dog and cats. it's just different.  Christmas tends to make that more real.  some days it just makes it sad.  i do miss living in a smaller community like when i was in Ketchikan.  something about being remote makes everyone family.  everyone knew you and you were just part of the bigger community.  you had invites for Christmas eve and Christmas day.  everyone was included.  we all needed and depended on each other.  it makes me yearn to return to a smaller place again and live that more simple and peaceful existence.

 when i did return to Ketchikan a few summers ago, i felt myself wrapped back in that community.  i could easily return there i believe.  it draws me in some days, that yearning, that desire to return.  occasionally i look to see what houses are going for there.

 it's expensive though due to the remoteness and i'd miss the moose and the roads and the variety here.  the convenience as well. perhaps one day i will return though. i often laugh that when i'm elderly i'd rather be someplace where medical help isn't so easy to get to.  where you can die in peace and not end up in the torture chamber that has become the ICU so often.

 these are a few more from yesterdays trek at sunset to the 100 stone project.

 today, Blossom and i headed to Kincaid. we walked down to the beach access and enjoyed an afternoon at the beach.

 i actually had 2 walks lined up for today but both fell through.  holidays are busy, life is busy.  does make me wish i had that guy in my life some days.

 i know that i am quirky and independent and i can be very shy when it comes to dating.  it takes time and in this world nobody takes time anymore.  that makes it even tougher for girls like me.  we need time, we need to be drawn out.  i know i'm totally worth it, but if a man isn't willing to take the time to get to know you and build an actual relationship, it's just not possible.  thank God for dogs, right?

 Rio keeps showing up in these memory pictures from facebook.  i share these old pictures of her, it does feel a bit like she is channeling facebook to let us know she is still with us.  i do miss that big pup.  it's quiet, the water bowl is less slimy. there are less water bowls, i still avoid the areas where the water bowls were.  in the kitchen i stand a bit away from the counter as if the bowl were still there.  strange.  she really was a sweet dog. i have been very lucky, dog wise.

 below you can see the statues lined up.

 pancake ice below

 the tides are pretty high this week.  today as i stood on the beach i could hear the water coming up beneath the ice right in front of me.  i stayed in an area that i could get up higher in case it was a really high tide.  i let Blossom chase her tennis ball but i did have to be watchful to keep her from going towards the water.  she looked longingly over at it several times. just not safe with the ice out there.

 the days are good, usual. short i guess but that has never bothered me really.  evenings though are long and a bit lonely this week.

 a moose off in the distance today in Kincaid as i started my walk towards the beach.

 there were patches of fog out there but it was clear when i was on the beach.  they say there will be more fog out there tonight.

 i love the fog.  so beautiful.

 a few of my favorite tree out there.

 fish and game sent a brief synopsis of the happenings of Round Island this past summer.  the full report will be out in January sometime.  sent a message back asking if i could share it.  the full report is public so i'll be able to post that. i suspect he'll be okay with me posting this as well.  if so i shall post on our facebook page and at the explore page.  liked the pictures showing the camera mounts.

 opened a bottle of wine.  a glass each night will no doubt make this week pass a bit more quickly.  went to the pet store with Blossom so i could fill the pets stockings and put some pet toys under the tree....there should be something under the tree.  haha.

 also went to Target and bought a few things to put in my stocking. chocolate mostly.  generally i don't bother with filling my stocking, but it seemed like a good idea.

 seems growing up in our household once you figured out the whole Santa thing you were made an elf.  how i discovered the Santa thing was i happened to wake up and see my elf siblings taking wrapped gifts from my folks room, where the wrapping was taking place, down the stairs to put under the tree.

 my mom always made sure that tree was packed with gifts.  it got tougher for her as the siblings got married and had kids i could tell.  she had this sense of fair play and she wanted to keep giving everyone loads of stuff. i think it got pretty spendy for her at Christmas.  Money was never as free flowing as she hoped, but she seemed to make it flow at Christmas...much to my fathers dismay i suspect.  gifts were just cheaper in those days as well.  all these electronics are nuts with the money families must be spending on the holidays.

 i opted this year to make gifts for my friends close by and i always do my calendar with my pictures from the year. i have extra's if anyone is wanting/needing one.

 doubt i'll make calendars again for WARIS.  they turned out nice i think...just they have an expiration date.  that adds more stress.

 rocks covered with ice crystals, looked pretty cool

 i love these smooth sheets of ice as well.

 a husband/wife meth team ended up in a shooting match with a client.  2 dead and the wife arrested.  all i can do is shake my head.  love, you fall in love and sell drugs together.  nice!

 looks like 25 murders for Anchorage this year so far.  much better than the 7-8 average murders per day in LA county when i moved away.

 it was a pretty day out there again today. nice to have the sunsets so early.  works well with my walks.

 dang i love almonds.  so tasty!! i have my little snacks to go along with my little glass of wine.  cheese, almonds and chocolate.  can't leave that out.

 yesterday it was cheese, peanuts and chocolate.  these are staples in my diet.  three major food groups shall we say.

 Greenland is losing it's ice at a fairly rapid clip.  they have a lot of ice but the northern hemisphere has taken more of a hit with the warming than the southern it seems. Antarctica is somewhat protected by the fact that it's colder overall.  raise the temperature there by  a few degrees and you really are still in an icebox.

 love the ice on the rocks.  looks so cool.  ice is just amazing. so many forms of how stuff freezes.  i love living in the cold.

 another porn shop is lost in Anchorage.  poor new owners had to clean all those little sleaze rooms out...ick. it had peep show booths and all the grossness that goes with that.  i'd wear a hazmat suit for that.  it will be turned into a coffee shop/book store it sounds like.

 have wondered why these shops survive at all.  i mean you can now get all that sleeze on line in the privacy of your home, why would you venture out to a place like this?  still a need for live nude chicks i guess.

 a woman in Fairbanks did a pretty lousy job covering up a murder there.  i recall telling someone as long as they stayed away from love, drugs and alcohol they had nothing to fear from the violent crimes that plague Alaska.

 suppose in many ways that is true everywhere.

 another Fairbanks woman was found a week or so ago by the side of the road bleeding.  she'd been stabbed over 20 times. they didn't say much else about that, not much information yet.

 Blossom rests on the ice.  she had a great day.  she loves trips to PetSmart as well. everyone is friendly and she gets loads of love and treats!

 some kid in Texas got a light probation sentence after driving drunk and killing people.  he got that by claiming his wealthy upbringing prevented him from fully understanding his actions.  really...what a joke Texas?  had he been a rich black kid would this defense have worked? i doubt it.  now he and his mother are both gone.  well done.

 apparently a huge landslide happened in remote Southeast Alaska.  nobody was harmed due to the remoteness.  new seismic systems can determine quake vs landslide.  pretty impressive.  this one was over 200million metric tons of rocks that slid.  that sounds like a lot to me.

 rockslides of a large magnitude are fairly common i guess in the Southeast region.  scientists suspect the warming of permafrost and receding glaciers are partly the cause.  the tidal waves created by these massive and rapid slides could have been huge and very dangerous had anyone been in the area.  the closest tidal monitor was pretty far away in Yakutat for this particular slide and measured at 1 foot i think.  they suspect the wave at the onset could have been up to 100 feet high.

 we had waves of at least 12-15 feet to contend with (probably larger though) when we were paddling in front of a glacier in Prince William sound.  while we were in our little boats pretty much the entire face came down in front of us.  huge waves headed towards us. i have really no idea how big they actually were. i just remember keeping the kayak facing them, making sure we weren't near any large ice bergs and seeing only blue sky as we went over wave after wave.  the waves then crashed on the shores and then started coming at us from all sides. it was pretty scary.

 think i will pop in "it's a wonderful life" tonight. always a good Christmas watch. always good to remember too that we all have value in this world.  we impact often without knowing the impact we have.  it's an easy thing to forget sometimes.

 it's easy to start believing just as he does in this movie, that the world would be...well maybe not better off without you, but that it would go on without you pretty easily.  in truth we all are mostly replaceable.  i mean people die and the world does move on. where we aren't so easily replaceable is more on a person to person basis.  we impact those around us.  our lives are intertwined with the lives we deal with on a daily basis.  it may just be a kindness timed right that impacts a stranger or in the case of Rio a dog who i rescued.

 just reading again a story about this one guys struggle as a kid.  he grew up in a remote cabin in Alaska. he lived to  100 years old so it makes you realize how much tougher life was back then.  his father had taken off to pick up the elder kids up the river and he was just 5. he had a 3 year old brother and a baby sister still in diapers.  his mother fell ill and then died.  it was a few weeks before anyone found them in their predicament and at 5 he had to learn fast to take care of his siblings and go into survival mode.  the mother had died in the open doorway.  the mosquito's were nuts and he tried his best to cook oatmeal and they had canned milk.  him and his 3 year old brother had to drag his mom into the house to try and keep the mosquito population from eating them all alive.  he said they knew she was gone but as kids still hoped she'd wake up. they tried for hours to wake her.

well, this ends yet another entry to this blog.  i suppose it's really a pointless thing, me droning on these nights, but for me, it's always good to clear my head and feel i have a voice...even if nobody listens. i can convince myself i am heard.  grateful for:  A.  the beauty of Alaska and my health to be able to walk out and photograph and share this scenery.  B.  the occasional glass of wine.  it really can do a soul good.  i have maybe 1-2 drinks every 3-4 months, but they are enjoyed.  C.  chocolate, cheese and nuts...probably in that order.  :-)  night