Eclipse, Homer, Break up....changes coming

 

need to get the trash and recycling out to curb.  early still.  plenty of hours left. more day light for sure. 

recovering from this long and bothersome bug. worked one of my 4 shifts this last stretch.  felt guilty but my eyes were still crusty, weepy and red.  clearly the antibiotics were not working.  it was a viral pink eye.  just a little dry eyes at times now and slight crustier than usual in the mornings. that one night was a bit tough as the eyes were dry and light and computers did strain a bit. 

worked PICU and right off the bat my one patient's medications, and the kid had a lot, were not right.  so i was trying to do little kid medication math, feeling anxious. you gotta still be a bit anxious when you work in these areas.  i am always nervous about people who are too sure of everything at the bedside. there just seems to never be a time when you should totally feel like you have it all under control. 

that being said...having this long stretch off i gotta say.  no anxiety and no heartburn.  hmm...interesting.  all just signs to me that the big changes are coming for me.  feeling it's time more and more. my thought is cut back this summer and just take a reboot. towards the end of summer really get focused on a different job. either at the hospital for a few more years but in a less stressful position or just retire from the hospital and find a different job to chill in for the next several years.  get some benefits but also collect retirement. 

the house projects are growing.  as i walked in today from the dog park i noted rotting wood on the boards attached to the garage on the deck.  there is a rotten board on the deck, the shed of course.  that is a mess. am getting excited at the idea of renting a big trash bin for not just the shed remnants but maybe some of the other projects.  carpet in upstairs bedroom, tile in upstairs bath and floors downstairs.  just rip it up perhaps...force myself to do some of these much needed repairs. 

will have to see what insurance does with the shed.  

good to be feeling better overall. just the little leftover eye bits and cough/sinus remnants as well.  that is how all viruses seem to work.  my covid test was again negative.  so far...no covid. 

there was a total eclipse enjoyed in a part of the states. of course, the religious nut jobs were screaming second coming and conspiracy theories.  nothing happened besides the usual total eclipse.  in the end it was enjoyed by many.  no eclipse in Alaska though , so i opted to watch a movie that highlighted an eclipse.  Dolores Claibourne.  it's a really good movie part of it takes place in a total eclipse.  seemed fitting.  

i never think about the ratings of the movies i watch. i'm adult so i just watch movies that interest me.  i did text my sister that day to say i was watching that movie as we were talking eclipse. it hadn't occurred to me as i texted it that she may have never seen the movie.  i looked and it was indeed rated R. 

i'm not sure how far my siblings abstain from this stuff.  i don't recall there being a huge thing growing up about many things that now my siblings seem much more concerned with.  i think many have missed out on some really great movies if they follow this rule.

we played with cards, which some members were against.  my Mom drank her Tab, which at the time, you would be side eyed if you drank any caffienated drinks. i didn't dare!  had my very first coke product at age 19. still, i really felt like my parents were fairly chill compared to many other Mormon families. when we spent weeks in the summer at Laguna, i really don't recall us going to church on Sundays except on a rare occasion. i'm wondering now if that was more related to if my Dad had joined us in Laguna.  i don't recall my Mom being too strict about no swimming on the Sabbath, for sure we hit the stores on Sundays.  we went to baseball games on Sundays. 

i'm thinking my Dad may have been more about the rules. i recall him allowing us to go down to the beach swimming one Sunday. felt like it was a kind of big deal.  what do we remember really though.  we forget a lot of that stuff.  i just don't remember that stuff being really drilled in to us. it does feel like my siblings have held on to that iron rod much tighter than my parents ever did. the church, in my mind has changed.

i guess they now don't want to be called mormon, but considering their views on trans folks and their refusal oftentimes to accept then and not dead name them...well, i don't worry much about it.  never liked the whole, you do what i demand but i won't take a step towards anyone else because of my religious views. just don't feel like it should work that way. 

i skipped the temple, other than baptisms for dead people. more and more of that stuff is out there on the internet.  really bizarre stuff, cult like stuff.  at the time i would have been going through they still had people naked except for a sheet where a temple worker would then touch you under that sheet? also something about blood oaths. the outfits, it all really just freaks me out and i didn't even go through it all. 

having skipped that part of the indoctrination did make me a bit clueless for years.  my friend said it took me over 20 years too long to accept the reality of some of these relationships.  i was raised with family first, though i quickly understood that it was family first, after the church. i don't think i fully grasped the degree of church first it really is. 

a singer just came out recently and left the church.  he just released a song.  basically, he had feared his family would not accept him, but instead his Mom left with him and said if you are going to hell, we will go together.  of course, many Mormons responded with things like Mormons don't believe in hell or heaven...they have different levels.  you must be a member and a temple goer, garment wearer, to get to the Mormon level. if you left you will be dropped down a few levels.  the sentiment is there.  she walked away.  family meant more to her than the church ultimately

that core truth is the part that i didn't really grasp. that many in my family see the church as above all.  even their own spouses and kids.  i really never held much of a position at all. their views of family are just different than what i assumed for decades a family was. 

ultimately, you can't be angry about that.  you just have to accept you complete lack of a position of value in their lives. the church will always come first.  what was that scripture, was in regular scripture or mormon scripture...can't recall. but God had apparently commanded a guy kill his own son and the guy was going to do it.  God supposedly stopped it at the last minute.  this level of faith....it's pretty unfathomable to me.  so i guess it's not that surprising that i didn't grasp the level of nothingness i have held in their lives. it is what it is.  

i still feel tempted to call.  i never stopped caring about them.  we were raised together. many shared experiences.  it's just that at some point you have to back away from people who have already backed away from you. we had a common childhood experience but we've now had decades of very little common experiences. 

it's extremely tough to find common ground.  this isn't to say that i won't hear from any of them ever. they will probably still call me on the rare holiday or Birthday. i do not have any hate or anger at this point towards them.  do i save that for the church, yes. i do have some anger towards a religion that takes money and controls people.  it's very cult like and the temple is proof of that aspect.  special handshakes, blood oaths, special clothing and church ordained underwear.  these are not normal things.  there is so much more though. 

many do not even question any of it.  if they do they quickly find some excuse or reason to step back in line. hold on to that iron rod.  they will never let go.  have thought a lot how strange that concept was to me. i was simultaneously taught that we had been born under the covenant with all the advantages that brought because we had fought against Satans plan, which was that we should come to earth and do exactly as we needed to so we could return to God...so we fought that plan only to hold tight to the iron rod, Satans plan, once we got here. so taught we had freedom while being taught to not use that freedom for fear we would be sent to outer darkness or something. 

there are a lot of hoops that many in religion, not just Mormons need to jump through in order to make things work in their heads.  so much you need to brush aside and try to ignore...that is the history and polygamy stuff in Mormonism, also the racism and homophobia, poor treatment of natives....so much.  

i just was never good at the hoops we were jumping through and i had friends more and more on the outside, that questioned stuff.  in the end, as i've said, it's really not that difficult to see once you get off the merry go round.  if you are on it though.  you age and the merry go round just goes faster and faster and it makes it tougher for those questions to even get through. 

these are Iditarod shots.  ceremonial start.  didn't end up going out to Willow.  first time in a bit for that. not that many teams. long drive. 

speaking of long drives. i headed off to Homer for a few nights.  there was a low tide and so i had planned the escape.  the weather seemed to cooperate for the drive down and back. the roads were very clear.  i guess there was a bit of a blizzard the day before i headed down so there were a few patches of ice in Homer. it's all melting pretty quickly at this time. 

my yard is still super packed with snow. can't get to shed to try and recover anything yet. 

i got very little sleep after i had worked that one night. my back has been a bit sore. i woke at some point with two dogs and a cat and i was squished in a ball. 

gave up on sleep and just packed and headed out. 

the dogs and i both loved the little escape.  we were wiped the day after we returned.  still managed a street walk.  

today we just hit the dog park.  last week we hit the dog park and Sunny once again chased down a moose.  he's gotten within 15-20 feet and then came when i called...or when i started yelling like i was nuts and waving my arms as i ran the opposite direction. he may end up on leash more and more.  the bears are coming.

trails are a mess, but the beach....it's cleared off twice daily.  the lowest tide was -4.5 maybe.  saw a few stars, anemones...not many stars out there. i headed to the spit to look for sea stars there at low tide but i saw zero stars there. we napped a bit at times.  wandered. it was relaxing.  the next day we slowly drove home.  a little snow and clouds. the roads were a little wet but not icy so that was good. 

my summer tires are buried under snow still. luckily there had been one cooler i'd been able to sneak out of the falling down shed easily. 

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there was some pretty strong wind coming back along the coast. attempted to stop for a walk at Deep Creek but it was pretty brutal winds and Sunny kept trying to tuck his head under my jacket.  pee and run for the dogs.  we found it a bit more protected at Ninilchik so got a walk in there. i'd debated stopping at Nikiski but again the wind was really blowing. 

enjoy laying on my bed with the windows open feeling the sunshine on me.  summer is coming eventually. short but amazing

no matter the family situation. i am happy i walked away from that church/religion.  i'm happy that i can just watch a movie that interests me without fretting over it being a sin or whatever. freedom is great.  it doesn't mean that i am a bad person.  people don't generally leave to sin. once you take religion away you take away sin really.  what you have left is people who just try to be decent humans not out of fear but because it's the right thing to do. i don't feel you should only do or not do things because of some fear of hell. live for this life we have here. nobody really knows what the next life brings, if it brings anything at all, but we can know this life.  it's tangible.  we can be grateful for all that is here.  

we can embrace the beauty, look for kindness, help each other.

more and more i do see and understand that trying to create what isn't possible is just an emotional energy zapper. things are the way they are.  sometimes people change but mostly, people stick with what they know. it makes them comfortable. my road hasn't been easy or comfortable.  it's been a battle, but i find battles, change, the scary stuff in life is often how we grow the most.  

religions often stunt growth in my views.  pushes back on those who question things.  encourage people to not reason and think for themselves but instead to just take what is told to them and obey.  

you can only grow so much hanging onto the iron rod.  if you want to really embrace all that a life can offer you have to make the leap off the straight and narrow path and take the roads less taken, hell take no roads at all, just trudge courageously into the abyss. we are capable of much more than we ever imagined and we can never reach the heights of who we can be if we aren't willing to get uncomfortable.  to get scared at times. 

it's not easy, sometimes it's not fun.  it can be terrifying but as you come out of the darkness and see the light return you are much more full than you ever thought possible. 

obedience is fine if you are two but even at two, it's best to live and learn a bit.  climb that tree. scary things done with some safety net. 

guess it's why i debate the leash, no leash thing. how much freedom in my dogs short lives do i want to curtail because i fear a bad outcome.  

fun things coming up....colonoscopy next week and then a public use cabin.  

better get some more stuff done.  blue skies out there today. 

grateful for : A.  that i have taken the road less traveled, heard that poem when i was a kid and yes, it has made all the difference.  B. safe travels to/from Homer.  C.  recovering from another bug

Iditarod time...

i still have to look at a few from the Ceremonial start in Anchorage. the big camera. it was -7 with a wind chill down town.  i wandered around until they started to run and then i headed closer to home to a turn that tends to make for some great crashes. 

there wasn't a big group headed out the next day and my back has been a bit sore these past weeks so this was the first year i've skipped the restart in Willow. only 38 teams so the drive i think kept some folks from wanting to go. Dallas is back in this year.  will he get another win...he's hard to beat. 

i get the Iditarod insider on their web site so that gives me access to videos.  last night i watched the restart in Willow. not too exciting.  one dog seemed to get loose as the team took off.  never heard anything about that so they must have got it caught and back in line.  another time a guy, who was helping hold the team, got pulled under the dogs as they were getting excited to take off. as the dogs took off he got pulled out the other side by other crew.  no mention of that.  the announcer seemed to be doing this for the first time.  she had difficulty pronouncing some of the names.  i mean names of veterans, she was just reading.  she'd even start with "this says...". oh well.  hopefully, a new generation of crew are getting installed.  the race has changed over the years...like most stuff, kinder, gentler. less wild like it once was. more safe for dogs and humans overall. always a risk though

the moose are always a risk. near where i was it looked like a moose held up the teams for the ceremonial start.  i suspect it was the same moose that i encountered later that day at the dog park. that is where i have my spot. right by the park. i went home grabbed the dogs  and headed back.  Sunny took off...there was a moose. that moose was annoyed and Sunny got charged a few times. i yelled and ran the other direction which got Sunny to come back. he was leashed the rest of the walk

every so often i question...should i let them run free or should i leash them. dogs have short lives and i really do not want them to have an even shorter life. it makes me nervous any close encounters like this, in the summer there are also bears out there. i lean towards more off leash fun for them than not.  more in winter than summer. the bears...they can kill me to. those dogs run much faster than me. i suspect humans have these sort of issues with human kids.  how much freedom? when do you protect, when do you let them learn?  i would be heartbroken if anything happened, but i think their lives would be less joyful if i let fear of what may happen limit their activities at all times. 

Dallas had another run in with a moose rather quickly on the trail to Nome.  i guess an angry moose was giving the teams grief out there. one musher slugged the moose in the nose.  makes me think the moose was close but passing. Dallas much have had a more dangerous encounter. one of his dogs ended up having to be shipped to the ER in Anchorage.  Dallas shot the moose.  the rules are that you dress the moose out i guess. anyone that comes behind helps. the moose blocked the trail anyway.  

the dog has been discharged from the hospital, the moose...just discharged. 

i won't have nearly the number of photo's of dogs like most years.  i have a lot of dog photo's.  it is fun and hopefully, next year we have a bigger crew for the restart run.  this week i start doing 2 shifts/week so that may help my general aches. slowing down on the heavy lifting.  

will ponder some other job to make up a bit of the money loss perhaps, or i could pick up random shifts.  we shall see. i'm not that excited to pick up more shifts overnight. 

it may be nice to do some totally different work.  no clue yet. just getting more and more ready to wean myself off of the hospital work. 

enjoying reading more. getting my steps/walks in.  yesterday felt more lazy.  thank you LS for stopping by to help me get the outside dog kennel back up after the wind had blown it over and snow had covered it up.  i did get the dogs out for a leash walk...which is good training. 

not sure what i'll do with my extra free day tomorrow.  probably be terrified that they will call and say i didn't start the two day week and i better come in to work. i'll probably look at the schedule again tomorrow morning to make sure. 

i did manage to get some days in Homer scheduled for April, May and July.  so that will be good. the web site has been strange. sometimes just saying no rooms available, when i called them, there were rooms available.  also room 12, sl cheaper before the season starts wasn't listed. anyway, the call got me sorted out and she said they would check the computer site. make sure there aren't glitches. so we have 3 escapes for low tides at the Driftwood. 

watched a series about these "schools" for difficult teenagers.  many of them are by the same guy but he rebrands them and restarts them when the cruel and abusive stuff gets places shut down.  the girl who did this series was at one that's been shut down. they just walked away from the place and so this girl and others who had been forced into this place have gone in there and removed records and video. crazy it was all just left behind. 

anyway. there is a bit of a Mormon connection in that the family/guy who seems to own a large number of these programs is or was Mormon? there are 100's of these programs/schools in Utah. these guys donate a lot to Republicans mostly. there has been a lot of abuse of all sorts.  one guy was breaking down about his treatment.  he started a riot, ended up in prison and said prison was a cake walk compared to the cruelty of this "school".  their education was not accredited and so those who ended up graduating had a worthless diploma. Utah is like the point of origin for much of it.  the programs cost little to operate as they often feed very little, use the kids for labor, have poor or no training programs for employees. it's a cash cow.  now they are even doing programs focused on adopted kids/foster kids so they can get government money. 

it's almost like the parents are duped. sounds almost like the parents are the cult members, believing all the hype of a fix.  giving over power/control of their kids. not being allowed to really have much contact/visits.  the kids are just the victims. often the kids get taken from their homes by staff that literally kidnap the kids.  strip searches, violence, abuse, which is mental, emotional, sexual and physical. 

lot of post program suicides, drug overdoses. so whatever "fix" they say they give is generally temporary. these kids later will be hesitant to get help since the help turned out to be a hell. anyway, i think it was called Program, con, cult...something like that.  interesting. 

today was beautiful.  i ended up going out to N. Biv and doing the big loop. then i just took a drive down Turnigan Arm. turned around after Girdwood.  just a pretty day.  lots of reflections.

as the weather warms and the roads improve...it's a great time to wander a bit further from home.  we all get a bit of the cabin fever.  some fly out, hit some warm places when it's cold here.  this is one of my favorite times. still snow and frozen lakes, more light...lots of fun things to do. 

spring seems to come rushing towards us once the fur rondy is done and the dogs take off to Nome

mostly, right now, it still looks like this. 

i like the white stuff so i'm okay with that.  it warmed into the 30's today.  

Portage Lake is still frozen from reports...tempting to head out there tomorrow. who knows.  depends on what i feel like doing tomorrow. what the weather looks like.  i tend to go where it looks best. 

these guys could care less.  i also want to avoid too moosey areas after Sunny's last run in.  that really does stress me out though.  brat. 

later i dropped an empty bottle near him and he about flew out of his skin...so that terrifies him but charging a moose and having said moose charge back...fun! 

luckily he does move fairly quickly...but so do the moose. these are from the Ceremonial start.  the dog park is about 100 feet behind those viewers.  this corner is action filled. 

lots of spills and near misses. also you can watch the experienced teams take this curve with ease and skill. 

i took lots of video's. fun to catch them flying. 

this one above is from todays drive. the pictures get all mashed once i put them on the computer. 

this team is stopped because there's been a spill. 

above is again from today's drive.  look at that reflection! wow!

this is Ivy attempting to retrieve a tennis ball.  down there deep is a small creek. the ball was not recovered, but she did give it a valiant effort. she always does

this shot below was supposed to load first.  can't always tell what will happen when i load shots. 

grateful for: A. all the fun Alaskan experiences like watching these teams every year. B. friends to hang out with. C. dogs, dogs and more dogs.