work, walk, gym, sleep...

 yes, it's a rather exciting life.  if i had a social life i may be upset with it, but my social life is not all that active.  seems to get less and less active.  work is my social life most of the time i guess.  at the gym everyone wears ear buds and speaks to no one.  i wear the buds as well.  onto week 7.  will plan to re-evaluate every 6 weeks.  above is Cheney Lake

 today i took off from the house, north on Patterson, streets over to Cheney lake and then back down to the bog.  the other day...several other of these pics i went out the Campbell Airstrip and then to Homestead Trail and back down the connecting back trails. getting my steps in.

 sadly, each day the steps go away and you start fresh.  i like to see the averages being high though.

 today i made it to the gym . not much sleep of course, but long lovely walk, then gym for elliptical, rowing, biking and swimming.  had to lay down for a bit after i'd fed myself and Blossom.

 this is why i am awake for a brief period at 1:30 in the morning.  haha.

 a few of these others are from the between work shift walks in the bog.  love my bog walks.

 work was pretty busy.  i was pretty shocked that i wasn't in Peds/picu all week.  they seem to be super busy and call me on my days off.  seems odd that when i was there i wasn't needed.  this week i was in adult ICU and then PCU for 2 nights.  felt like i was running

 half tempted to see if i can get an early start tomorrow and head to Portage. not sure though.  do have to hit the gym as well tomorrow to get week 7 completed.  doing great, do think i need to make sure and do my little home mini elliptical or bike and stuff on my off days from the gym.

 cute young squirrel in the bog the other day.  yes, Blossom saw it and ran towards it, which sent it scampering up the tree, then it just watched us.

 my new sasquatch cap arrived the other day. i ended up opening in in the morning and was terribly disappointed to find no sasquatch design in it...i wrote the etsy lady who sent it a note saying i had ordered a sasquatch cap and hadn't gotten one.  as soon as i hit send i realized that it was a sasquatch cap. an optical illusion...i'd only seen the white bits, suddenly the light hit it differently or my work haze cleared a bit.  i wrote the lady back a never mind and thank you note.

 i'd seen it on a Gilmore Girls episode and did a search.  it is pretty amazing now that you can find pretty much anything just that easy.  probably bad too if you are a major shopper i guess. i don't see myself as a shopper but i have a lot of crap.  crap collects in most households.  crap we really don't need.  it's always good to have a good purge session.

 this is the airstrip above.  it's kind of a spare, emergency strip.  pretty big. i think in a pinch they could land the big jets here.  our major Anchorage airport is built pretty close to the waters edge...liquifaction zone in the event of a big quake i'm thinking.  hopefully, that doesn't happen again anytime soon.

 this was the sunrise the other morning.  this is my view from my bedroom.  sweet!!  i do miss my Ketchikan view.  the cabin i rented was right on the water.  amazing.

 that night i'd had one of those work dreams.  those can be disturbing and stressful...then you wake up and realize it was just a dream.

 Cheney Lake was packed with skaters. seemed to be a party out there.  we watched a bit and as you can see below i took some pics of the skaters.  a little pick up hockey game was in progress.  fun to see all different ages out there playing.

 of course, a bit risky as well.  a puck went flying right in front of Blossom at one point.  all is well though.  no brain trauma for either of us.

 these are from the side trail between Homestead and Rovers.  below is Flattop in the distance, a well named mountain..very popular. i think they now do tour vans up so people can hike it.  it's not really all that easy of a hike, but it's not that far and there are great views.

 had asked folks to sent notes to Fish and Wildlife investigators about the walrus that got poached.  no idea if it was related but there was finally a blip in the paper about it.  just saying it's ongoing and the laws around the collection of walrus.  starting to think these laws should be altered.

 i hear far too many general, incidental tales of how people will go shoot the walrus and then leave and return later to "find" these dead walrus and be able to harvest the ivory.  too many loop holes. not enough of a trail as to where the ivory trinkets come from.  i have ivory...i had assumed that if it had that Alaska Native insignia it was for sure a legal harvest  and all of the meat was used to feed locals.  now i'm getting less convinced and it's doubtful i would purchase any more of these art pieces until a better system is set up.

 would love to see any "found" or illegal ivory going to Fish and Game or Fish and Wildlife to be auctioned off.  the money would then be used for Round Island and/or walrus research.  i'd also love to see a better, more transparent tracking method for how any and all ivory ends up in a shop for sale.  if it's a legal subsistence hunt then it should be traceable.  if not...then it should be easier to ascertain the history of any and all ivory. there is fossilized ivory as well.  i'd recommend looking for that.  it's one of those things, i was here, the art is beautiful  and i purchased it...the more i know though the more concerned i am.

while walking the back trail between Homestead and Rovers i saw the above moose above in the distance.  i was watching the moose and trying to figure out if the trail i was on would bring me into a too close place or if it would take me further out. i was also watching moose to see how it was reacting to my presence.  as i contemplated all of this...

 suddenly there was a loud noise beside me....another moose, that i had not seen was about 25 feet from me.  she had clearly been laying down and jumped rapidly to a standing position...ears back, ready to charge...not a good thing to see.

 Blossom and i back pedaled to put some distance between me and the annoyed moose.  eventually, she chilled and finally lay back down facing away from me.  i took that as a good sign and slowly made my way along the trail.  past one moose at a time.....

 the rest are Cheney Lake.

 catching up on my water intake.  obviously a bit dry after my work outs today.

 cute blip in paper about this older guy...mid 80's who still does these ski races around the country..winning in his age category.  he is generally the only guy in his age category out there (it's 85-99 years)..but he still beats out a great deal of others out on the trail much much younger than himself.

 he started skiing 80 years ago...on homemade wooden skies with shoes nailed to the wood.  he used to make ski poles out of broom sticks.  he said he was age 50 before he ever saw a groomed trail.  he got married 11 years ago and his wife got him into biking so now they do both i guess.  always love hearing about active, healthy elders.  it's what you hope for yourself...of course, at age 50, there are probably many younger than myself that think i'm a fairly active elder..i'm not that elder yet though.  haha.  with some luck and determination perhaps i will be.

 driving the other day they were interviewing an author.  the author was the mother of one of those teens that were responsible for the Columbine killings.  i'm sure she is still trying to figure out what happened.  i guess i feel badly for her but worse for all the others who lost loved ones by her sons act.  she seemed to be focused on the whole murder/suicide...but more the suicide element.  personally, i'd have to be assured that any money made from the sales of a book such as this went to the victims and their families, not to anyone related to the killers.

 i'd watched a movie not too long ago and it was about parents of a kid who kills himself after doing a colombine type shooting.  i'm sure the guilt just compounds the grief.  you try to be compassionate but you also find yourself wondering what was going on, what didn't they notice...what could they have done as parents...how could these kids so conceal this other part of themselves from their parents.  what signs weren't they reacting too..could these parents have prevented this tragedy.

 one loan ice fisher out there.  he's opening a new fishing hole above.

 Pope has been in the news this week.  he seems to be relaxing the use of contraceptions in the zeka virus regions.  interesting.  he is also pissing off a candidate.  so random and bizarre to have a Pope weighing in on this crazy election crap.

 love all the cute video's out there.  this one had a kid at a party, he had the stick and was supposed to be beating the pinata...he just couldn't and when someone took the stick to hand to someone else this little kid walked over to the pinata and gave it a hug.  that is one compassionate kid, right?

 was talking with a friend and we were saying that one thing this generation does have in it's favor is that when they have an interest in something they can so quickly explore it.  options are open to them.  the internet makes learning easy and fun on any subject that may interest you.  of course, some of those subjects can be harmful...building bombs and such, but there is a lot that is good as well.

 enjoy the hockey action!!

 temperature did seem to have dropped a bit these past 24 hours.

 the burn bin at the edge of the lake was nice and warm.

 you can see the whole game below. of course the nets aren't secured so that does make it a bit tougher or easier i guess.  hmm.

 well, i think i shall turn in.  it is after 2 am.  save reading the paper for another day.

thankful for:  A.  health  B.  long walks and exercise...listened to classical music at the gym today..so relaxing and filling for the soul.  C.  that my job reminds me to live to the fullest, appreciate what you have and to exercise so that you do not ever need to be placed in a bariatric bed.  :-)