each day an adventure in alaska: RAIN and packing a bit.

trying to squeeze in what i can adventure wise before the snow falls. should be some decent fall colors out there if i can find them and if the rain isn't falling too badly. my crew at the back of my car to say hello to my friend Scott. they are a pretty adorable trio i must say!!

with the rain, the Iphone got the photo ops today. i'm charging batteries for my run across Denali Highway this week. fingers crossed that the weather is decent and the bears don't find my tent.

a friend called this goats beard and says they eat it. i don't eat any of it...

the rain does always bring out the colors in things.

above is a lichen.

just finished a 4 day stretch. i move around a bit..first night i was in the ICU for all 12 hours if i recall correctly. the next night i was in the ER until around 3am and then i was moved to ICU to pick up a patient that was looking worse on the floor. ended up intubated by the next night . freaking out over the mask the night i had that patient...didn't have the heart to inform the patient the tube in the throat would probably be less pleasant.

i did get bit by a mosquito today on my forehead. buggers...your season will soon be over!! weather everywhere looks pretty bad until fri/sat, but i work friday sat so i'll have to deal with less than ideal weather and hope for a few rainbows. :-)

Homer looks good, Fairbanks not bad. snow in Barrow, but i'm not headed that way.

was put on call Sat night but got called in pretty fast, just 2 kids on peds. not bad. they called me and put me on call again Sunday night but this night i never got called in. fitful sleep until it got past the wee hours. hard to sleep when you expect the phone to ring. will have to put in call time though. so annoying all this being online. had just gotten use to others handling this. i still believe it's part of the corporations plan to nickle and dime it's workers out of money by ommission and then be able to blame us since they have put it in our hands to do our own.

of course, i have long felt like they were undoubtedly ripping us off by making the pay stubs so confusing you would need a masters in finance to figure out if you are really getting your wage.

came across this super red bit and walked the dogs over for some photo's. thought they looked pretty cute in the colors of fall.

my trio!!

there were also several bits of raindrops caught in webs. thought that was pretty cool as well.

humans up here have been eating salmon for over 11,500 years...also apparently ate dogs at some point. probably was just practical in some times.

the news remains grim worldwide. as ice ages and heat waves come and go so does the populations of humans...sometimes we are controlled by natural disasters, but more often than not we tend to take each other out at alarming rates. the earth can only hold so many of this species or that species. humans are more resourceful but decimation often times, but even that only goes so far. at some point humans rise up in anger at unknown forces, blame the other guy and then the wars escalate.

our lives here are really not so horrible, imho, but many seem to feel they are not getting their fair share...all i heard growing up was that life was not and would not be fair. some will always have more and some will always have less. the funny thing is when those who feel they have less rise up...they are eventually the first ones killed off. those who have more and have access to more will always be in control and they will put the have nots up against each other in battle to determine who controls whoever is left of the have nots.

this moose, a young bull, was following a female moose...they are getting frisky for the rut. the pups came too close to a female on the trail today with a calf. no body got charged and they did return to me and i was able to get them leashed up and take a wide off trail path around this moose..

some of our issues in this nation seems to be this fairness thing. of late the have nots feel entitled to everything the haves have. is this made worse by media of all sorts. probably so...it does have a tendency to make more of a public display of all that the haves have and therefore the have nots see the unfairness of it all too often and in too much detail. they want to have what the haves have...

some wish to have those things without the work that it takes a have not to get to a level of the haves in this nation. this is made more difficult by the increasing cost of a higher education i presume. perhaps as well...many of the have nots find themselves working more and more and having less and less. like all, i think we all try to have all the things. the house, the car, the electronics. those things cost money though...money we want now and are not willing to wait for. so many want their lives to look like those we see in all the media...we feel it's unfair that we don't get that same life..it's not fair...but as i said and as generations have said rightly before me.....life is not fair.

more from mushrooms....

so you have the haves, the have nots and the accept what they do have and have nots.

election is depressing still. funny commentary piece discussing those who are endorsing Drumpf, including raves from ISIS, N. Korea, China and Russia. lets not forget the KKK. brilliant....not much else to say on that front. will just leave it as depressing. there is no winning for the next 4 years. i do have to laugh as his campaign has been trying every which way to knock on Clinton...even saying she isn't healthy enough to run...most folks in his camp seem to wish her dead anyway so i would think that could make her a more viable candidate. if you could promise me his health is failing and he wouldn't survive long in office it may make him a more viable candidate. haha. of course, for many months that has been my hope....that this folks die of natural causes before any harm can be done in the white house. one POTUS only survived like 30 days before dying from Pneumonia. we can hope...

Gene Wilder passed away. quietly of Alzheimers i believe. so sad. "young Frankenstein" was a favorite as was his version of "Charlie and the chocolate factory".

we are on track to having a pretty bad year for murders in our fair city of Anchorage. more victims found on trails. we are all supposedly anxious about walking on the trails. i guess i haven't gotten that memo yet. i have always been a bit less than overly cautious out there i suppose. walking with 3 dogs has to help a bit...but then they don't really look like killers. all dogs can do harm though, even if they look cute, if you try to harm their human, right! hopefully i never have to test that out.

these are more from the mushroom class. i need to make sure i'm not doubling up on these. it got all out of order in August.

signs of fall even in the early days of August.

so i apologize if i have doubled up. will need to go back and look at previous posts. i think i had mostly put in pics from my iphone.

totally funky rock

Jen and Libs searching for specimens

to find them one must look high and low, under and over.

i'd flipped to black and white...these came out kind of cool though.

one of our guides from Alaska Geographic

it appears i have successfully worn out the canines in the family. the feline has been much more snuggly with me of late. she's also making inroads in her relationships with the canine crew

these tiny but brilliantly colored mushrooms have become my favorite. i have been seeking them out and finding them more and more. saw some more today.

those are the shrooms responsible for turning old rotting wood that blue color. pretty amazing considering how tiny they are.

these are both lichens.

i recall many years ago a person ran into someone while driving. the poor man had gone through her windshield and was struggling to breath. she never stopped, but instead drove home and parking in the garage leaving the man to die in her car. we were all shocked and horrified at this. how could anyone do this...it happens more and more though. hit and runs seem to be more and more common. i suspect people are under the influence and decide there would be less punishment if they leave the scene now and are found later without the alcohol or whatever in their system....or there are just more idiots out there who care very little for the other humans out there.

a 19 year old ran over a guy and promptly left without stopping at all. she was later found with the other two folks who were in her car claiming the guy had jumped on her car and showing more concern for the damage to her car than the guy she hit. this is the state of the world these days. does this just happen when populations get too large. people feel they won't get caught at all i guess.

watched a few minutes of American Ninja Warriors. there is a guy in there from Unalakleet. the guy rocked it...finished it but was a second or two late. bites. he did great and i'm sure his participation was a huge ego boost to that small community.

more pics of those tiny blue mushrooms.

another 19 year old in Florida murdered a couple and then started to bite off their faces, eat their faces?? not sure. i think there was some thought that he was high on something at the time. bath salts perhaps. it's all so twisted and bizarre...

some good news..Mother Theresa got sainted. are there any young saints in the making out there? can they please show themselves and make the positive impact they are meant to make. we could use a few pre-saints in these times