snow fell all day...so we played!!

 finally made use of my snowshoes.  Blossom is beat but she had so much fun out there on the trails.

 roads must have been a bit of an issue for some.  huge pile up on the Seward.  i had no issues but only went to trailhead and back and then to gym and back.

 so today felt great.  3 miles of snowshoeing followed by elliptical, rower and then 25 laps in the pool.  it was nice and warm in the pool today.  calm, relaxing swim. gotta love it!!

 the snow really makes its way into Blossoms fur coat.  puddles upon rewarming and thawing out.

 in between i made headway on the ACLS on line portion.

 i'd guess we have gotten 8-10 inches...finally!!  supposed to warm up tomorrow i guess so may be some puddles all over.  as i drove by the bear tree, there was no sign of them. probably ducked back into their warm hallow tree.  people do seem surprised that bears would den up in a hollow tree..but it occurs to me that Winnie the Pooh bear lived in a tree.

 the red lantern team for the Iditarod is closing in on Nome right now.  was going to watch, but their live feed is all messed up at the moment.  she looked like she had 3 miles to go.  will probably go pretty fast.  the red lantern award goes to the last team coming in to Nome.  they close out the race

 overall another great year...aside from the obvious drunk snowmachiner idiot.  14 scratched or left the race.  only one of those was withdrawn...she just had gotten to far back from the back.

 i'm actually finishing posting pics from the ceremonial start and starting the pics from the restart.  i'll mix those in with current photos.  don't want to skip sharing the dog pictures though.  always love the dogs

 i love dogs....that doesn't mean that i will take in your dog if you just bore of it or find it inconvenient.  i always find that annoying.  my feeling is when you take on a pet you take it on for the duration of that pets life.  really hard for me to relate to pets being treated like items of furniture...when you bore of it you simply ditch it.  it's so traumatic to the animal to have their world flipped when they get ditched. i know sometimes there are situations and circumstances that do merit this decision...but most of the times people just aren't willing to take the extra effort and that ticks me off.

 haven't heard anything about the deaf dane.  not sure how this rescue group works.  he may already have a home.  i just figure when the right dog comes along it will work out.

 the throw away dog thing happens up here at times at the end of mushing season. i understand shelters can get crowded with dumped sled dogs. there is good and bad in all things it seems.

 apparently even more dead Murres have turned up...so sad.  still no real reason for this massive die off...thousands and thousands have been lost.  they have been found out at Lake Iliamna.  it's the 8th largest lake in N.  America.

 the POTUS election circus continues.  what a mess...it's pretty depressing, and disgusting and embarrassing.  candidates talking dick sizes at a debate!!  just when you think it can't get any worse...it does.  the Republicans seem to be scrambling.  in a general election i can't see this going their way with this candidate.  makes one wonder if this guy really set out to sabotage the party in the first place...?  is this pure self entertainment? it's a circus, that much is for sure.

 perhaps we will all have to just do a write in vote...is there anybody out there? up here, i could vote for sheldon cooper...this state goes Republican in the big elections most of the time.

 there were 9 from Norway in the race this year...there are always teams from other nations.  these are Norway fans!!

 while i was rowing today i could see the news clips pass by about the guy who joined ISIS and then figured out that was maybe not such a good idea.  of course, it was fox news and they were saying the liberals would just want to slap his wrist.  hate that "news" station...it's less news and more opinion.  they seem to create news rather than report it.  i tend fairly liberal and my feeling is anyone who leaves here to join one of these groups should be relieved of their citizenship..and/or tried for treason.

 crappy reporting in our nation is a large cause of the anger and unrest in our nation. facts are not checked or really corrected when wrong.  i always blame the 24 hour news shows for turning news from fact to fiction.  they sensationalize for ratings and also they harp on the same crap over and over.  there is plenty of news on this earth to fill 24 hours a day without them following the same 1-2 stories over and over, trying to create angles and drama that doesn't exist.

 i still prefer newspapers, more in depth and you know when something is opinion and when it is fact.  i'm also a fan of BBC and NPR overall, at least you hear about the other news going on in the world.  getting news from a variety of sources probably helps. there is a lot of crap out there though.

 Lance Mackey...he scratched this year.  have to wonder if this is the last come back for the comeback kid.

 this guy uses any gathering to bring out this fox get up.

 a young girl got drunk, drove, killed a bicyclist, left the scene and got only a 1 year sentence.  they are deducting time served...she'll be out in no time at all.  the justice system can be pretty unjust at times.  just can seem so odd how one person kills a guy while drunk and gets such a low sentence and someone else who does a seemingly less devasting infraction can end up in jail for years.  did she have better legal assistance?  were deals made?  feel badly for the family of the man who died.  they can't feel that justice has been served.

 31 of the 52 service men who died in a plane crash in the 1950's have been identified.  the plane crashed into a glacier.  they originally found the wreck but before they could get out to it, the crash site was lost in the snow and became a part of the glacier, really.  recently, the wreckage became visible again and efforts have been made to recover those lost.

 memorial in downtown Anchorage for fallen soldiers.

 a few random shots, westchester lagoon below

 this one is out at Campbell Airstrip.

 these are in Willow at the restart.

 the main lake where all the action is

 official start zone!

 fun to watch them before they start although this year it seemed more difficult to really see what the teams were up to.  always interesting to see what and how they pack the sleds.

 i suspect i would over pack as that is my nature.  always wanting to be prepared for every possibility.  i'm a bit on the scattered side in life sometimes.

 was laughing today as myself and the guy across the street were both shoveling snow this afternoon.  he was very organized in his pattern of shoveling and i was very disorganized and random in my pattern of shoveling.i redirect myself often. i do this with housework and other aspects of life..it's like that whole dog thing "squirrel" they always do.

 like Mackey's design for his kennel.

 fun to read a story of a younger couple who revamped a 1975 VW camper bus and took off from Anchorage on a year long journey to the tip of South America.  they said that everyone was friendly and helpful to them on their journey which they believe is because everyone loves those old VW vans!!

 apparently Bolivia has the worse roads. the bus is not for sale..

 here was one team we could see packing the sled up

 #53, Patrick Beall.  he had time being in the middle of the pack as far as starts.

 made an appointment for Blossom to get some pool time.  that also gets us a bath.  she'll be all fluffy again.  :-)

 this must be another of Martin Busers sons.  guess it thought Rohn was down with his brother who was in that bad car wreck.  someone said he has 3 sons.  certainly has those Buser dimples.

 he started the run with pneumonia and his thoughts remained with his son down south. it was more of a camping trip in the end than a race.  he got to Nome though and i'm sure he'll be back down south soon if he isn't there already.

 a few different sorts of dogs end up out there, not on the trail but many mushers have pet dogs as well as sled dogs.

 just some dog faces.

 catching up on some reading as usual.

 nice to sleep last night.  i think i got 10 hours...catch up day i guess.

 more scenarios for ACLS and get some packages ready to mail...hopefully get out and enjoy more snow as well...before it all melts.

 the scene before the race.

 the dogs just chilling in the sunshine before taking off.  do they know?  i'm sure the ones who have done this journey before have some memory of it.  i'm always amazed at what dogs do know.  they seem to notice turns you make with the car, or is it smells that mean you are heading for trails.

 time is ticking and i'm getting tired.

 with this shot....the official restart is just about ready to begin and this is my spot for watching

thankful for: A.  snow, beautiful snow!!  B.  being able to use my snowshoes finally this year C. being healthy enough to exercise, indoor and outdoor. the pool felt so relaxing tonight.  :-)