reasoning with a 120 pound dog is not effective..

 and yet i often find myself trying.  talking to her and reasoning with her to no avail.  she doesn't want to be left home alone but doesn't want to load up in the car.  i suspect she wants to just sit on the front deck...who knows though.  for sure a communication gap between the dogs and i.
swans are here and the geese and more birds show up every day it seems.  this par was out at University Lake.  so pretty.

 growth along the Turnigan Arm trails too.  spring is arriving earlier than usual but i haven't heard anyone complaining.

 headed here with Blossom before i started my 3 nights of work.

 this day Rio opted to stay home.  or maybe i helped her opt to stay home.  can't recall.

 work went fine.  first night i got to leave work early.  ER didn't need me and neither did the house so i was home and in bed before 4 am.  so maybe this walk was actually that next day.  hmm...

 amazing how days blend together.  who knows what happens what day. i'd say that i should be worried about dementia, early onset, but i've been forgetful my entire life so i really don't think it will be easy to spot those early type signs in myself.  hopefully i never get dementia or similar.  i think we all hope our brains hold out the longest.

 the next night i worked in Acc.  took a patient out, got a patient in and then in the morning both my patients were headed out.  transferred one and then got one ready for cath lab. so a busy morning but i got out a few minutes early that day as well.

 last night i again started in the ER.  was only there half of the night.  in the end they needed to call in a nurse to PCU, transfer a PCU nurse to ER to take my patients and then i went to Peds and got admits there.  honestly, the ER could have done without me or another nurse so that seemed a bit silly, but i don't make those decisions. i just go where they tell me to.  i try to avoid being in charge of anything but myself.

 was able to average out to over 10,000 steps/day this last week.  i was about 500 steps short last night, but was way ahead other days .  i had the music on and i was dancing but i ran out of time before midnight hit before i could get all the steps.  slept a lot yesterday.

 the other day between shifts i cruised the bog then took the hood up to Patterson and down.  with the app giving me distance and time and stuff it's fun to check out the various routes i take and see how far they are.

 these are my birds for that walk . geese and woodpeckers.  the woodpeckers have been very active in the hood. i wake up hearing that banging away each day.  so funny.  what a strange adaptation.  the world is a crazy place.

 have been trying to check the news. Horrible earthquake in Nepal, they also had avalanches after on the Everest so more deaths.  i remember reading interviews about Everest and the stream of bad luck they seem to be having up there. a lot of deaths these past few years.  many sherpas have lost their lives and more have again, along with climbers.  the death toll for this earthquake is still not tallied...over 4000 at this point for sure.  many villages just haven't even been gotten to.  these huge earthquakes are just amazingly devastating.  i'm always shocked by what a difference it makes in these places with no building codes as opposed to a place like Alaska or California.  i'm not saying we can't get trashed by a quake of the same magnitude but when you look at the damage, ours is generally much less. my thoughts go out to those of Nepal and the surrounding areas.  i know they must be terribly scared and devastated.

 i've noticed along Patterson Ave that people will put their own chairs at bus stops that have no bench.  this was true for over a year at a few bus stops further up the road and now they actually have benches put in.  now this one has chairs...funny too as these chairs have names on them.  so cute.  wonder when the city will switch them out for a bench. i'm sure it is nice for folks to have a place to sit and wait for the bus.  many who ride the bus are older.

 i think the quake was around an 8.  so very large. many avalanches and mudslides.  they are having a difficult time getting in to help folks and then large aftershocks keep occurring which worsens things.  saw a video someone took of the avalanche on Everest.  read that those who took refuge in their tents were some of the worse off as they became trapped in the tents and were picked up and slammed down.  folks from all over the world go to Everest and the surrounding area.

 in that article about the Sherpas and Everest. some in the local villages seemed to be saying they felt that the mountain decides if it wants to be climbed and they thought the mountain was tired of all the people up there.  probably of all the trash being left behind as well. they are trying to get helicopters in to get folks out.  it is a wee bit ironic to me that all these climbers can't find a way to climb off of a mountain?  supposedly the ways out are covered and unstable though. the air is thin and there is limited supplies i'm sure for experimenting with routes.  they are flying out the injured first so those who haven't been physically injured must wait.  there are many above the avalanche area who are trapped up there.

 they haven't had a quake that large in many years.

 i enjoyed watching these swans out there on U-Lake yesterday....everyone seemed to be enjoying the pair.  they don't often chill here.  lots of dogs out there too.  my pups were pretty tired by the time we got home.

 we were for sure not winning any speed races out there.

 have my appointment today to get my knee checked.  we shall see what the doc says. plan to walk dogs after and maybe see if there are any more swans out at Potters.

 the ice is pretty thin at U-Lake.  birds are so light though these swans can easily walk on top of the thin ice. not too worried about Blossom out there now.  she would just crash through this thin stuff and be fine getting back to land. the edges were open anyway so she'd have to swim pretty far in to be in any trouble.

 still need to make breakfast and it's nearly 1 pm.  took a late nap last night then lay around lazily watching a movie. so to bed late...movie and dancing at the same time.

 always love the swans they are so beautiful and graceful.

 they are working on the camera's out at Round Island.  the crew arrived safely. we are getting thank you notes out to the organizations that donated.  otherwise a slow week for me WARIS wise.  hand out my card at work, carry them around and then start up the conversation.  i'm always open to talk about walrus.

 little beaver swimming around.

 back to swans.

 and..then there are the mosquito's.  a few swarms of them out there yesterday. it's that time of year as well.

 the first bunch have hatched and are out and ready to attack and suck blood.

 quite the swarm of them out there yesterday.  no bites though.

 not as bad as the swarms i saw in Nome when i was up there. hopefully i won't get attacked up in Barrow this summer. they have daylight all summer so i chose late July/August.

 swans and grebes...the grebes are often spotted out there.

 there was also a huge and devastating volcano in  South America this week.  the earth is never shy about showing that it is more powerful than us all.

 guess i better get my day moving along.  do want to hit the gym later today for a swim and some rowing/biking maybe.  looks like we got some rain last night.

 maybe more coming.

thankful for:  A. buildings that have some earthquake resistence.  you can't always beat mother nature but i'm happy to live where we at least try a bit B. being needed at work, it's always a good thing.  needed and appreciated.  C.  that the swans are back..welcome spring

thought i'd pop in a few more of nome.

 the must take photo of me in the huge nome gold pan.  couldn't find anyone who would step up to take my picture so i put the camera in the hands of a goldminer statue.

 eventually as i drove home for the day i ran across the herd of musk ox.  more on those later. that last day of freedom i drove out the coucil road past the safety roadhouse and then returned to wander around town after enjoying the musk ox for a bit.  later that night i drove back out council to enjoy my favorite nome beaches past the roadhouse and to look for a headless walrus i'd heard about.  never saw the walrus, saw a whale, but didn't get a photo of it.  these two are from around the musk ox..below is baby musk ox poop.

 i see myself as a bit of a poop expert.  seems a better way to view my world considering how much of my life seems to be taken up by stool.  at work it's human poop, at home it's dog and cat poop.  on the trails i'm watching for bear poop and trying to keep the dogs from eating moose poop. in my previous careers i worked with veterinarians and that opened me up to a wide variety of poops..often seen under the microscope.  i was also a volunteer zoo keeper at the los angeles zoo for years.  so you see, i am a poop expert.  there are people who make a living at being a poop expert, my interest is incidental.

 there are a lot of bars in nome.  it is not a dry town.  there were quite a few churches as well.  as i wandered around i snapped photo's of a few of the local pubs.  i didn't spend much time inside the bars though.  i think if i'd been with a group i may have explored the bar scene a bit more.  i do not feel i missed out on anything by skipping the bar scene though.

 also took a few other signs that i found interesting.  i like how the local animals are highlighted.

 not as many cool murals like dillingham has, but there were a few cool arts about.

 got an early morning text.  i'd forgotten about the local dog jog today and a friend reminded me.  that meant racing out of bed, taking a quick shower and getting the dogs off to the walk to support this local animal rescue group.  this is the same group that rio came from.  i try to get out there a few times.  the lady that brought rio over to the house seems to remember her.  rio has been with me for 7 years now.  she's a good girl.

 she was pretty slow out there on the trail.  they do have a short mile walk but once we hit the turnaround for that i decided to just do the 5 K walk.  i knew we'd be last in, but rio kept walking.  in the end we were neck and neck with a little chihuahua.  it looked for a bit like rio would beat the chihuahua across the finish line,but in the end the chihuahua pulled into the lead.  haha

 this seemed to be the big tourist shop on the main strip.

 saw a few people i knew out there.  i thought it was a pretty decent turn out.  lots of water for the dogs, several booths set up.  it was cloudy but not raining so that was good, not too hot for rio.

 i've been pretty lazy the rest of the day.  needed to nap when i finally got home.  ran a few errands first.  since it wasn't too hot yet to leave the dogs in the car.

 this sign is always photographed....seemed like a must take photo

 this is the general mode of travel in nome and most villages up here.  liked the pup chilling underneath to keep cool.

 naps are always good. i keep trying to get myself motivated to get back outside.  did some yardwork.  now i feel like there are spiders crawling all over me. i'm not a fan of spiders.  well, it's not that i hate spiders or wish them erradicated from the earth.  i just prefer them to not crawl around on my person.  in general i feel that way about most insects, if they would just keep their distance from my person i would have zero issue with them.

 i still may try to get out there and see if there is anything to see.  i should clean too though.  also i have a movie or two that may be fun to watch.

 watched a few ted talks.  always enjoy those.  one was just a woman who came over to the united states from the ukraine.  they were poor, homeless.  her husband also came from a life where he was homeless for a time. so too their dog had previously been abused, it had been used to bait dogs used in dog fights.  she just wanted to express her gratitude.  often people seem much more grateful for what they have when they had so little to begin with.

 i am a fan of gratitude.  it's sad how many people seem to forget all that they have in their constant quest to have more.  more than they need.

 these next photos were taken as i headed back out to do my last beach walk.  i saw what looked like a dust storm ahead.  as i saw no signs of it being windy i was confused.  soon i discovered what you see in these photo's are swarms of mosquito's.  happily i was in my car.  it was quite the impressive sight.

 the photo's really don't do the swarm justice.  there where zillions of mosquito's.  it was nuts.

 this is as i was rolling up the window.  i never opened them or stopped to attempt to get better photo's.  i'm no fool!

 the mosquito's went all the way out across all the grassy area's out to the water.

 the swirls were taller than the car by quite a bit.

 maybe this is the best picture of them.

 pretty cool really. i've heard of swarms of mosquito's like this, but have never experienced it.

 just happy i was in the car.  there isn't enough bug dope in the world to protect you from this!!

 this does make me take the local bug population in stride a bit more.  anytime they are bothering me,i just have to remember how it could be and i can move forward through the bugs.  soon the bugs will be gone.

 once i was on the beach the bugs were much less of a problem.  there were several miles of driving where the mosquito swarms didn't let up at all.

 it was raining by the time i returned to nome that night.  the first rain that fell all week.

 totally loved that there were miles and miles of empty beaches to walk out there.  it was awesome!

 back in town with the rain.

 these were taken earlier that day.  saw a few pairs of loons in different places.

 these were some gold miners working together.

 just some black and whites from council road.

 read my readers digest before i crashed this afternoon.  funny story about these guys who are about my age who still have a tag game going.  every february the game is on.  the rules have evolved to adapt to grown up lifestyles.  funny to read about these grown men playing tag still. they go to some great lengths to tag each other.

 another ted talks was kinda funny as well. the guy proposed changing the sex discussion from baseball metaphors to pizza metaphors.  of course, several comments from europe wondered why americans needed sex metaphors at all, why not just talk openly about sex.  he did make some good points about how baseball metaphors were limiting.

 another readers digest story was about a family who gave birth to a baby very early. in the end they were told the kid had no chance of survival and left with their baby in a room.  she held the tiny baby to her chest and it didn't die.  eventually, they began to treat this baby that wouldn't die and it's still alive. does make me think that it would be probably be good to do this with those baby's that seem to have no hope of survival rather than torture these tiny bodies.

 i know in the old days tiny babies like this were sent home with parents.  they were kept in dresser drawers near the hearth of the house and some of them survived. survival of the fittest. our nation is more and more a nation of survival of the least fit.  our health care dollars are directed to those who have little hope of survival and if they do survive they become totally dependant on others to survive...never to thrive again.  it's pretty sad.  eventually we will run out of money and people to care for the high number of infirm.

 more loons

 the dogs seem pretty happy today.  their little walk with a few hundred dogs seems to have worn them out.

 they have new bandana's.  they've never been bandana wearers.  people really are giving of their time.  must have taken some time to make all those bandana's.

 more birds

 no idea what kind

 earlier in the day i attempted to wander the grasslands and look for birds.  there were tons of mosquito's out there though.  i did find that if i stool still out there the mosquito's would settle back down on the ground.  anytime i moved though they all lifted up.  this was earlier in the day in the same area i ran into the swarms of mosquito's later that day. perhaps they just weren't ready to take off completely yet.

 i didn't see any birds that were too thrilling. i'm no birder though.  i did see several birder sorts wandering out in these area's for hours.  there was a book at the hotel with sightings and another book at the visitor center with sightings as well.

guess i should try to accomplish something more today.  it's still fairly early.  lawn is sorta mowed...i'm always leaning towards giving up on my push mower and invest in a mower that will really cut the grass a bit lower and get through the weeds better.  i think my push mower is getting dull.  i could just be getting weaker though as i age.  either way...soon the grass will stop it's rapid growth and winter will take over and my lawn care needs will be a thing of the past.  good night.