more fall photo's

 have gone to bed early and woken up early.  strange for me.  was sucked into a book.  easy to do.  Celeste Ng's "little fires everywhere". need to attempt to read some actual books.  easier in the wee hours to use the ipad for reading though.  have plenty of books here that i need to read and then shift into the little library

 actually got in touch with the guy who had been working on the bench and other section to my library and he says he will be back in town after Memorial Day and he'll try to get that done for me.  would be nice to have the extra space and to keep books separated for kids/adults. 

 he has much of it built and it's in a storage facility.

 stopped by Lowes for another can of paint, not too much of the fence left to paint.  i need to look up some numbers tomorrow for getting the fence done on the other side and see if we can get a few quotes.

 then I'll have more to paint.  i just do it one can at a time.

 hasn't quite warmed up enough again.  i should have used that time to start sanding the deck, but i vegged with the book instead. 

 these are the airstrip to homestead to the back trails and on to rovers run and return. 

 from September again.  walked similar today and yesterday.  today Speedy joined me and then we went for coffee and had an abbreviated WARIS meeting. 

 she was working on our second version of our pamphlet so that got finalized and she ordered it tonight. 

 we also popped open her mac and worked on a few tweaks to our web page...

 while doing that i noticed that the cliff cam has gone live!! there were a few walrus on the island out there.....so hopefully soon the main beach cam will go live as well. 

 played devils advocate on my one brothers fb page.  some post on the second amendment.  i can assure you i would not get any support there.  fun to toss out bait.  he's done it to me for years.  so it was kind of fun to be on the other side.  no doubt they all just think I'm a crazy liberal.  it's the life i am getting used to.  being the liberal freak of my family.  my cousin and i have been emailing a bit. nice to have the like minded view from time to time. 

 was just reading about another kid who has been declared brain dead who has been given permission by the courts to be maintained on life support.  the family believes it's God's will and this is becoming a freedom of religion battle in courts i guess.  this a 13 year old that was in a house fire.  i guess New Jersey is the place to go if you are in this situation.  that other girl from California is there as well being kept going artificially.  i think she's going on at least 3-4 years.  crazy.   sadly, these kids are becoming science experiments on how long we can keep body's going. doesn't seem very respectful to me.  some call if love, i call it selfishly hanging on.  in my mind it's going against God's will.  these kids were taken and yet the family, with the help of science have reached into heaven and have hold of their souls by a thread. 

 we've all known this day was coming.  in addition to preventing death to happen, the end result will also mean many will die waiting for organs that will no longer be available. nothing will be viable to give to others after months and years being on machines.  many won't care about that outcome, but it will be a result as more and more people are allowed to opt out of compassionate withdrawal of care.

 just a few on the correspondence dinner.  not a big fan of any of these events, but the base of this event is to raise money for scholarships to help kids who are going into journalism.  i still wish that more journalists would major in history rather than journalism.  i believe that was the more common route before they created journalism degrees. many now seem to have law degrees as well, which does seem helpful in our litigious nation. 

 people were complaining about how mean the comedian was to some of the apologists for the current iitoo...actually these folks lie for him on a regular basis so i really don't have a great deal of compassion or sympathy for them.  the guy they are protecting says far worse things on a daily basis and tweets horrible things as well.  they don't have much room to bitch. 

 overall, I'd prefer the they go low we go high attitude though.  it use to  be good humored fun but at this time the current iitoo has done all he can to denigrate our free press. 

 we need a free press, i support a free press.  many put their lives at risk and i believe today in Afghanistan many journalists were targeted.  11 killed i believe.  10 at one site as they rushed in to cover a bombing a second bomb went off.  another was killed at another site.  journalists are jailed and killed on a regular basis, some are currently being held at this time.  you may be annoyed by them and by all means insist that they speak truth and seek out sources that are credible. 

 get your news from a variety of sources and check those sources, do your homework....but journalism can be a noble profession and it is of vital importance to our freedom.  screaming guns rights and then trashing free speech...doesn't fly.  both have their merits and both do need some limits.

 love all the leaves...when they are are fresh and colorful

 these are on a walk out at Kincaid.  Jodphur to the dunes.

 Ahmad Shah was killed in those attacks.  he was 29 and worked for the BBC.  this makes a total of 5 BBC workers killed since the '90's.  he was on a bike so he was the one journalist killed not related to the blast.  Afghanistan is listed as the 3rd most dangerous nation for journalists.

 the BBC report I'm reading now states 9 journalists and photographers and 4 police were killed in today's attacks. the second blast was deliberately targeting the journalists. 

 love the big trees in this section of the trail.  every season, a new beauty emerges.

 as usual, the dogs have no appreciation that i have noticed for the changing seasons other than happiness at the return of puddles or the return of snow.

 these past weeks, when they find a patch of snow, they feel the need to jump on, roll around.

 bright leaf above and below moose track in the mud.

 they are starting to get more dirty again, but I've been enjoying the last 24 hours of clean dogs.

 they were pretty wound up last night.  did some training, which is usually a good way to calm them down a bit . we did quite a bit last night.  worked on "huggies" and "settle" and puppy push ups.  spins, giving fives and then i started training them to crawl.  on the trails all they want is the tennis ball so hard to get them to do much of that out there.

 over looking the water.  had debated hitting the beach yesterday as the tides were good, but the idea of  them getting all muddy....i needed a day of clean anyway.

 soon we will be back to green . noted some green sprouting up last time i did this trail.

 once it gets too full of plant life i get a bit more anxious out there.  thin trails with drop offs...not a great place to run into bears or moose.

 just love the contrast on these.

 cute pup hiding in the tall grass

 storm in the distance.

 love that the beach grass also turns colors...

 not too much excitement today i guess.  peaceful day.  simple day.  simple life really.  can't complain too much.  house is messy, too cluttered.  really need to get crazy and get rid of stuff.

 always feels good just throwing stuff out.  the in seems to build up much faster than the out. 

 the days end and i always have more on that to do list.  life goes on i guess. 

 the walk is the highlight of the day.  pups wake me up ready to go.  they wait for me to open my eyes.  as i head down the stairs to start the day i am greeted with tennis balls. that is what i am to these guys....supplier of food, driver to trails and tennis ball thrower.

 they are easy to please.  for all my failings i don't often fail them.  for all my inadequacies, i am never not enough for them.  my aging, my plumping, my wrinkles, matter not at all to them.  can i feed them, can i throw the ball....we are good.

 dogs greet you any time you leave the house like you have been gone for ages.  such happiness is hard to muster in fellow humans

 my dogs find my every move fascinating.  it's all potential...i may toss a tennis ball, i may reach down and pet them.  i have fans.  they do not care if i am a snowflake liberal or what else i think about the issues of the day.  life is so simple for them.  so complex for us....we make it so.  we add junk to our lives and clutter up our heads.  dogs keep it real. 

 they find the puddles and jump in them, they find the snow and roll.  they find the crazy stuff to sniff and feel the wind on them.  they chase squirrels because they can and run through the woods, leaping and chasing each other.  life for them is pure joy it seems.  may we all have as much happiness as our dogs have.

grateful for: A.  those who remain true to truth, who fight for truth and who risk their lives for it.  B.  those who strive for ethics in government despite all that tempts them away, agenda's are not worth the loss of our moral compass.  C.  happy, well adjusted dogs

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.  :-)