i know vs i believe...

 

quick blog before i head to dentist and make the trek to Homer. yes, i'm headed to Homer again.  the tides were low and were calling me.  it's just so easy and we all love it so there it is. 

headed out with SH on a fundraiser cruise for Alaska Geographic on Saturday. we had great weather and low wind so we enjoyed puke free beauty for all. i had taken my 1/2 tab dramamine just in case. we saw a pod of killers and a humpback. it's early season and we were only out for 3 hours so i think we had some great sightings. we also enjoyed some porpoises playing at the bow as we slowly moved forward to enjoy their antics. they are way too fast to catch on film for me

the day before i woke up early to meet my friend QL for a walk and early dinner.  we also bathed the dogs.  we hit the beach at Kincaid. another great weather day.  

i have the dentist so i'll get in late tonight but the sun is staying out later so that makes that drive much easier. we will stop along the way as usual. 

this week i worked RCU, PCU and then ER.  i got to leave a few hours early from the ER my last night, which was perfect for meeting QL. 

was getting slammed with patients in the ER. they kept giving me a spare and it was just me in the back with two hold nurses who don't work ER so it was all me. they were not simple, basic care patients either.  several were admitted. i put in more than the normal amount of foley catheters. things go that way. 

the one patient was impatient and cranky as the Dr was backed up as well. the Dr wrote on his discharge papers that he was feeling better due to his very gifted nurse who cared for him.  not saying it totally correctly but it was appreciated that he made that little dig at the patient and his care givers who did little to actual assist with care giving. 

knowledge is based on facts, logic, research.  faith is based on a belief.  religions often confabulate this two which i suspect is one reason we have so many believing conspiracies and fantasy information as opposed to being able to focus on facts and truth. 

we had testimony meetings once a month at church.  people were up there stating they Knew the church was true. it always annoyed me.  say you believe the gospel but to espouse absolute knowledge of truth of anything that is faith based is disingenuous. 

my whale shots weren't the greatest.  there were some big lenses on that boat.  haha.  it was a new boat. Matanushka i think?  it was with Major Marine and the Captain did a great job i thought.

liked that this humpback was by this little waterfall. 

so another week of work is in the past. my stretch off goes too quickly.  will be nice in July to hit a few of those days off with going to part time.  in the meantime, i will enjoy my usual days off. 

the car is packed.  will need to make stops to walk pups and pick up some snacks for the road/days.  last time i bought stuff for salads and that worked really well. 

there will be chocolate and chips as well.  :-)  the cooler is packed.  so i can book right after the dentist. 

wasn't planned, just last minute.  it's always good to get out of town when you can. perhaps some camping this summer, overnight treks to closer campgrounds. just to change it up.  have tent will travel. 

above is the landslide. it is pretty massive when you are boating past. will be some time before treks to Lowell Point  

we also saw this group of mountain goats. how did they even get down here.  crazy climbers. 

little white specks

more shootings. the sanctity of life folks believe in their sanctity to have guns more than the sanctity of life but we all are aware of their fetus love and that being where their love of life stops.  take a breath and it's over kid.  the right will no longer protect you or demand protection for you.  

the fetus is an easy victim to fight for.  they demand nothing, they have no past, no history to judge and make them tarnished yet...although some of those fetuses are not the preferred skin tone...they haven't really found a way around that.  we know they don't love those fetuses equally as they don't love humans equally. the clump of cells have no skin yet so perhaps that helps them be even more sympathetic. 

maybe God will come down and make them white...since i was taught in church that God made people black because of the sins of their fathers or whatever. so many ridiculous crap comes from these organized religions and yet they remain popular.  people cling to the craziest of beliefs without batting an eye and then turn and believe the craziest of conspiracy theories pushed by the far right....no real shock there i guess.

on to the orca's. 

they move a bit slower in the water but still not great shots.  super fun to watch

that is really the most important part actually.  getting out there and enjoying all the beauty of this earth.  people are frequently so bogged down with the routines of their daily lives. all the obligations

one of the great perks of single life is the ability to flit around and enjoy what is out there.  to take off at a moments notice. 

no soccer games for me. 

this one is pretty nice.  got it's white facial colors.

lots of hot air out there too

who knows what i packed. i can pack pretty quick for these trips now. i take off so often.  many times the car just stays half packed. 

there were a few groups of the orcas that came together to give us a lovely show.

well, i had better get my butt moving.  i think that silly kitten is outside. will have to see if i can convince him to come back in.  he loves these pretty days though.  

young and older. 

no soccer games for them either.  

i think Ukraine had a good week.  it's a lot of lives lost.  so pointless. that damn fool putin.  he's getting so many people killed, for what?  his ego.  it's so depressing that one person or one small group of people can dictate how lives and who dies with a demand. ass, jerk, prick. it's those people that make you hope there is a hell.  we all want to believe there is some punishment in a next life as far too often there is little to no punishment on earth.  nothing can be punishment enough for the thousands of lives lost, those tortured and/or raped....it's sickens us all. 

off i go...have a good week. 

thankful for A. this beautiful place that i have been blessed to explore. B. my overall decent health that gets me out there.  C.  a career that has given me the ability to live and enjoy like a do. 

black bear and orca cruise around in holgate.

 this is the guy we saw from the kayaks. i  think it was tanya that spotted it...she is great at spotting wildlife!

 i love the intertidal zone.  it was another one of my career possibilities...marine biologist.  i am very well educated but not well degree'd. i changed majors and colleges/universities a bit often.  my total is 6 for education institutions.  i learned that it's a bother getting transcripts from multiple places.  wonder if it's gotten easier with the computer age?  may find out this fall when i really start debating a run at bsn from adn for my nursing.  dreading...

 strongylocentrotus purpuratas...that is purple sea urchin.  i was trying to help maddie memorize it's scientific name but she wasn't biting.  oh well.  memorized name after having to write it over and over for a project during one of my marine biology classes.

 tidepooling is still a favorite hobby and i do miss that about living in ketchikan.  the last 3 years i lived in a cabin on the beach and when i got off work i would often walk the beaches collecting stuff and just enjoying it out there.  what a treat to live there!

 barnacle.  am looking forward to going to ketchikan as a tourist next summer.

 didn't take many bald eagle shots.  as i drove out to kincaid today i checked the nest out near there and the eagle was chilling on a branch above the nest.  didn't stop for photo ops and when i returned the bird wasn't there.

 enjoyed looking at all those waterfalls out there.  should be great in ketchikan next year as well.  the ones in misty are even more dramatic than these.  there is a beautiful one out in harriman, at least when we paddled out there anyway.  they diminish as the snow melt subsides.

 more rainbows in southeast alaska.  never saw so many in my life.  saw several double rainbows as well.

 was hoping for a rainbow out here after our day of rain, but never saw one.

 more from the lunch break on the other side of the bay.  these are again, canon rebel photo's.

 i think maddie was enjoying the sunshine.

 hiked alone today.  took dogs out to kincaid and did the loop around beer can lake.  nice hills, lots of sunshine.  didn't get lost this time, there was still a big pond on the trail, but it's much smaller and i could work around it.

 called to get an estimate for someone to get me a lawn back.  see about a few yard projects as well.  they didn't call back.  work called a few times.  i heard there is a kid on the continuous dialysis machine.  not sure how old.  arc of anchorage and big brothers big sisters called to ask for pick up.  called arc back as i am getting calls from one or both of these places almost daily. it's so annoying.  couldn't get through to big brothers to try and cut off the calls.  my phone had yet another message from one of them this afternoon so obviously asking them to stop calling isn't very effective i fear.

 worked in the garden a bit.  not sure if i'm just way more inept and slow at the whole garden process than others.  seems to take more time.  i think this year i just feel so far behind from the usual. i planted one of my raised beds.  i filled it with lettuce.  if it grows nicely it's nice  to pop out and make little salads in the evening. almost finished the planter along the driveway.  2 years ago it rained like crazy, last year i think i was just a slacker so i had to totally dig it all out and basically start over.  i'd planted a few shrubs several years back that now look pretty bad.  i think it's best to just yank those out and start over.  i'm new to this gardening stuff.

 i ate lunch in the sunshine today just like we did there in holgate..okay not as nice of scenery. it was nice to be eating out on the deck again.

 picked up some magazines on kitchen remodeling.  figure before i call in someone to give me design ideas i should have a file of ideas of what things i like.  planning is kinda fun...actually doing the remodel will be annoying and scary.  on those design shows they always find some catastrophe that needs to be fixed and it adds thousands of dollars to the cost of the project.

 we had another bear sighting on our beach when we were out there with our tourist friends. it cruised about 200 feet from our campfire.  didn't come any closer, but it did head up the hill towards our cabin so bob and i made a trek up to the cabin in hopes of preventing a bear break in.  the bear also came back that night around the tents i guess.  lucky i'd given them bear instructions and bear spray.  they didn't use the spray, but were able to get out of their tent and give the bear a scare off.

 i much prefer black bear encounters to brown bears.  those big brownies are dominating.  the whole attack by a bear thing sounds pretty terrifying be it brown or black..and a polar bear, well that goes beyond terrifying.  they just see you as prey, no question about that.

 this guy was just cruising lazily across the mountain side near us.  we were in our kayaks.

 not as many tour boats out after the holiday weekend.  we were happy about that.

 should go out and water the plants i just planted. luckily we have lots of light.  i also have one of those new hoses that i kept seeing advertised.  fred meyers has an aisle that is dedicated to those tv commercial items. the hose expands and then retracts...of course today it occurred to me that it's almost penile.  turn on the water and the thing gets firm, turn off the water and it goes limp. no kinks though and so i am liking it so far.  will have to get a longer one to get to front yard easier or else just add another section.  so far i love my new penis hose!!

 tanya on the water enjoying the views.  they were spectacular.

 i'm loving all the greens in town though.  nice to see stuff grow and have the hope of stuff growing.  we shall see how long it takes for my little lettuce seeds to sprout.  i still have my other bed to plant, but i'm trying to shore it up.  it's tettering and i'm not sure how long i can keep the thing together.  maybe scott will have a few minutes on his next trip in to check it out.

 we were wondering if this area was where we lunched all those years ago.  it's mostly just a hanging glacier over there where we once all climbed in and took pictures in the ice.

 didn't see any flowers in kincaid today.  very green though and i think those flowers will bloom soon.  lots of moose tracks, no bear tracks or scat.  the road down to beercan lake was blocked for repairs so i parked at raspberry trailhead and walked around that way.  nobody fishing in the lake.  nice to let the dogs play and not worry about disturbing folks.

 have kept meaning to hop on my bike or get to gym for a swim.  between the walking and the gardening though i feel pretty beat.  of course, a swim might feel great after gardening.  i always feel like i have little bugs crawling all over me and sometimes you do find a passenger after working in the garden.  slacker is what i do i guess.  i need to be working on my book as well.

 more glacier ice.  love that blue!

 dogs are tired...that is the most important thing of the day.  blossom chilled with me while i was out front working on the garden.  rio seemed happy on the back deck.  then it occurred to me that she had probably pushed open the back door and that the cats were probably running free in the yard.  my cats are indoor only cats so i headed out there and sure enough that is exactly what was happening.  so the cats got a little outdoor time.  they have the outdoor shelf and i need to get their outdoor play area up and working again.  i want to put in like a cat patio with bricks so that the grass in their run doesn't get out of control, besides i think i could more easily level it all out and make it easier to slip the summer addition in/out.  that probably doesn't make any sense to any of you out there.  the shelf has a trap door that can be opened to a wired in play area .

 noticed this heart in the snow across the way from our cabin.  sweet!

 bob with a stuffed puppy of maddies.

 more beach life.  sea weed

 seaweed on a rock.

 great roots and branches out there as well.

 scott chills on the beach after a lovely paddle

 mosses on the tree's

 seems so southeast alaska to me.

 our last day we had a visitor near the glacier while we were paddling.  this orca whale, looks like a large adult cruised in.  he went under the water and i never saw him again.  i was a wee bit nervous to be in that little boat in the water with that killer. was hoping it wouldn't mistake my boat for some meal

 pretty cool sighting though.

 reflections of the seaweed at low tide.

 lupine sightings.  so great to see flowers out there.  i guess the lupine come out pretty early, but wow!!

well, it's 10:30, should get out there and do some watering.  i could keep doing yardwork easily as it's light enough out there.  probably should settle in though.  back to work tomorrow night for three.