waiting for bombs to drop....

 NK dropped another missile outside of Japan, i can only wonder how they feel.  at some point they will hit some ship that is just passing by.   the GOP and this administration is heading us all to war.  they are the most irresponsible ever.  they have gutted the state department.  gutting everything. they are incompetent and unprepared.  always increased anxiety knowing  we could become the victims of one unhinged dictator over a tweet from our own unhinged dictator.  don't know where they find the most inexperienced, ill equipped people but the GOP seems hell bent on taking us all down with them. 

 on the plus side, apparently, the whole of the US is now within range.  not sure why that brings me comfort but it does. it's not just us and Hawaii and is it Guam as well. 

 Skelly enjoyed some time inside this evening.  had to find a way to distract myself from the hell that is our government at this time. it is an adult day care, sadly, the madmen control the most powerful military in the world and they will no doubt get many good men and women killed.  the lies are told daily and believed by all on faux news.  he really could shoot someone and his followers would smile and say he's doing a great job and even if they saw the video they would believe it was fake news or believe that since it was a liberal that was killed it's justified.

 tried to have a relaxing day but it is tough when there is some idiot out there blowing off bombs and a bunch of idiots in DC without a clue how to manage the situation.  Tillerson is a business man, an oil man.  that is it.  what he is doing in that position is clearly only about oil...they are all buddies with Put...so what is really happening is any ones guess.

 we walked out at Prospect heights trail head.  it was  kind of eerie at some point.  could hear either wolves or coyotes howling/yipping in the distance.  hard to tell how far they were.  i was going to take a loop further up, but then the idea of meeting a pack of wolves, not too exciting.  they have been known to take out dogs and even the occasional human. death by pack of wolves does not seem appealing to me.  better a shorter walk.  the dogs had fun and were tired out. 

 we got over 4 miles in so that works.  i had a headache so i opted to just return home. 

 worked on some Christmas projects.  got addresses for some nieces and nephews that have apparently moved.  some i knew had moved, a few, well their cards will go to their old addresses.   it's an old habit, sending cards. i know many don't bother with it.  i think it's nice though.  we age out of this world at some point.  things change, we adapt but at some point i can start to see how the older folks are ready when it's their time.  their friends and family have been leaving them and the world just changes. 

 of course, we may all just get killed off...i suspect there will be a big die off, human induced...or in our case, GOP induced. 

 not exactly sure what their end game is.  the party itself doesn't seem to know what it's end game is either as it seems there are different factions wanting different things in the GOP.  you have the Bannon sorts and then the McCain sorts.

 i head back to work tomorrow night again.  we had a bit of a quake i guess yesterday.  i think it was centered in Whittier though.  5.3. i didn't feel it.  always good to have a few good shakes.  i always feel like some slippage keeps us from having the bigger ones. 

 the iitoo felt the need to deride Warren in the middle of an event honoring the native code talkers.  there are only a few left.  it's all so bizarre.  he's again on the birther stuff and now saying his voice was faked on the bus tapes last year.  the man is nuts! i mean certifiable.  he also says the Rus stuff will be wrapped up soon....i think it's all freaking him out.  they will find out that the emperor has no clothes.   that his fortune is not what he bragged it to be, that his negotiating skills are a farce, that he isn't as smart as he keeps claiming to be....it's all a big lie.  he's been a salesman for years and finally the truth will come out that he is nothing more than a failure dressed up in success.  that he has had to deal with the devil to get by when none of the American banks would loan to him.

 DISTRACTION...look here, look here. 

 there are those who are not so easily distracted and keep looking at facts.  Flynn...we shall see what happens there.   who else? 

 will the truth come too late. 

 some right wing group tried to trick,  the Post i think it was,  by sending a fake roy moore accuser...they didn't bite. they did their job, checked the facts.  quit screaming fake news when it's really the right that is the only ones caught in fake news scams.  the main news is checking their work, checking it multiple times.  they don't want to be caught giving misinformation. 

 journalists, true journalists are around the globe reporting.  risking their lives to get the truth.  respect them, thank them.  they are the difference between democracy and dictatorship. support them before we are lost.  quit screaming fake news...listen to them, they speak truth. 

 saw a piece about a journalist Waad Al Kateab, a free lance journalist...won an award for journalism.  she has exposed the truth of Aleppo.  at great risk to herself.  was thinking again of Daniel Pearl.  when we call these brave and real journalists fake news we lose a bit of our freedom.  information is freedom.  now if people don't like what they hear they just call it fake news. just because you don't like to hear the truth doesn't make it fake or untrue. 

 it is my friend Val's birthday today, only she is no longer here to celebrate her birthday.  Hope they are having a party in heaven for you...do they celebrate Birthdays in heaven? 

 all nurses, like all good dogs, go to heaven i say.  :-) 

 above is the top of Denali showing at sunset and below is Susitna. 

 i need to figure out what has happened to our WARIS web page.  i thought we just weren't getting any donations, but it could just be nobody could give a donation there.  a friend tested it out today and it isn't working.  hopefully i can get that figured out and working again. 

 now i lay me down to sleep, and pray to God no bombs fly free, may we wake another day, may no war start we pray. 

 another of Denali.  no bombs will take this mountain out. 

 one day we will have a day of good,no great news.  we will hear the truth, we will have a potus that doesn't lie multiple times/day.  one can dream....

thankful for: A.  distractions of my own to prevent insanity through this  B. howling in the woods...but no close encounters C.  puppy snuggle time. 

fog envelopes the city...

 pictures to follow.  a smathering of pics from today and then some from other walks around town.  Took the pups into Bass Pro for training and ran into this guy.  well, good ol St Nick was not too busy...as a matter of fact the elves were drumming up business so we got to chill with the kind bearded dude for a few minutes before a real live child showed up.

 the polar bear in the store was decked out for the holiday as well.

 above is the trail condition out around Stumphenge.

 Tusker and Ivy enjoy gifts from their bark box.  what...!!  no santa, no nativity scene with a squeaky in it!!  nope just some fun winter hats and gloves with squeakies.  i do think it's funny that some extreme right folks get totally bent over these silly details...  i really don't care if a staff member in a store says Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.  when i was a kid we would hear both and nobody gave a crap or took some huge meaning that liberals were somehow trying to rid the world of Christianity.  quite a few liberals are actually Christians it turns out...GASP!!  it's true.  i'm actually happy when anyone says anything nice to me at this point.  i pull my dogs to the side of the trail when bikers/skiers pass.  rarely do i hear thanks or anything.  they just go past like they believe they own the trails.

 imagine people who want to help others and protect the earth could also believe in God.  of course, i've felt for years that if there is a God who created this amazing earth, that God would be pretty ticked if we didn't protect it.  i figure a place with so much attention to details really must have mattered to God.  if all of this diversity was here just for the use of Man then why make thousands of types of butterflies or wildflowers?  why not just plop down a bunch of cows and chickens and rows or corn.  clearly there is more to it all than that.  a God who created this would surely expect us to use it in moderation and protect it and preserve it.  then i watched, "Jesus Camp" and that terrified me.

 apparently, there is a segment of extreme Christians that believe they can destroy and take from the earth because when Christ comes again the earth will be re-created.  what?  really?  yikes!!
dogs above are my newest group of buddies..my niece sent me the middle one...so cute, thanks SH!!  and i got the other 4 at Pier One the other day.he needed some buddies

 Tusker models one of the cool squeaky hats in the bark box!! a few above is my little kichy art.  it hits me on occasion and i feel the urge to paint and glue stuff.  above is a footstool later my little jewelry box.  made some gifts to hand out as well.

 these few are from today...the phone.  it's cold out there.  we had fog, which i find totally cool.  the hoar frost on the trees and well on everything can be pretty amazing.  we hit pt Woronzof.  there was nobody there when i got there so the dogs and i stretched on the beach a bit . tide was coming in so i wasn't keen on them being off leash once we hit the beach.  that tide moves super fast!!

 i did end up making a little cairn and leaving some ashes here.  when the mood strikes me.  it was pretty out. Blossom always loved it near any water.

 another of the Bass bear and my little box below.

 the iphone pics always load oddly.

 many thanks to Lena...some silly person decided plugging in the block heater in this cold vs plugging in my house lights for Christmas was a good decision.  this morning as i loaded to head to Monday walk i discovered my car would not start.  she came by and helped give me a jump. no issues the rest of the day.  i stopped and got more power cords and such...now the lights and the car are plugged in.  talk of it getting down to -15 F.  tonight.

 the rest are from a walk up at Prospect Heights followed by a drive down to the arm to watch the sunset.

 some nice Fata Morgana that day. always a treat.

 today we had some sun dogs...so you will see those soon.

 pups always have a great time running around and chasing each other.

 enjoying the views at the bench.  not as obsessed with benches as they were as wee ones.

 he is really getting to be quite the handsome doodle!!

 more Fata Morgana.

 a kid was killed out in the valley. it's turning out to have been several boys.  his friends presumably.  the word is the kid that got killed smoked too much of the other guys weed.  this apparently merits getting beaten to death.  i remember one person i met on the trails who had just moved here and said something about the violence. i think i said something like avoid, drugs, alcohol and love and you should be fine.

 Ivy was brightly colored as i think i had just colored her up...she's almost back to her baseline now.  just a bit of color here and there.

 liked her tail.  she really does look cute all colored out!!

 in these, Tusker saw a bird and watched it fly across the sky.  he seems to be more and more fascinated with birds.

 chased a magpie today in the parking lot.

 Blossom would chase those grouse.  scared the crap out of me several times when she'd flush them out of the brush...i'd thing some big bear was coming down on me.  one day Blossom actually caught a grouse.  she was as shocked as i was.  she immediately dropped it and then picked it back up again.  we got it away from her but it was injured so i ended up taking it to the bird rescue.  i suspect it did not fare well.

 blue skies unlike today.  we were above the fog on our walk and the fog hadn't gotten that far up the hills.  the coast areas had a lot of hoar frost.

 more dogs enjoying the views of Anchorage.

 doesn't Ivy look pretty!!

 my fair city...it ain't perfect but it's home.

 more Fata Morgana.  tried taking some in black and white see if i could get the mirage captured better.  hard to tell.

 off to watch the sunset.  that is Mt Redoubt in the distance.  it was smoking that day.  it's an active volcano and we have had an eruption since i've moved here.  not huge, huge, but there was ash everywhere.

 this one is from the trails still

 then i hit the coast.  worth the drive . i probably left a bit too early as the colors just kept getting better and better.

 reflection of light....

 the volcano in the distance

 and then zoomed in.

 have more packages ready to ship and then i'm pretty much done with much of that stuff.  a few local things to get sorted out.  then i can just chill and enjoy the music and lights and such.

 cards are sent out.  i decided yesterday to re-insert my new ink cartridge and now i think the printer is working again.  i think it just hadn't broken the seal.  so cards no letter this year.  no biggie i guess.

 my big prezzie for myself...i finally ordered my little free library. i'll have to get a post in the spring and put it out there for the neighborhood to enjoy. perhaps that will jump start me back into reading more again. i've been a bit of a slacker of late.  i do enjoy reading though. i want to get it decorated in a Walrus/WARIS theme so we can do a bit of education that way and make sure it always had walrus themed books in there to share.

 hopefully it doesn't get stolen or trashed, but sometimes you just take the risk and see what happens.  have a little faith in folks, right?

 so i'm pretty excited about that.  haven't heard from my fish and game friends....need to find out if explore came through with funding.  i suspect they did or they would have called me to put pressure on the powers that be.  we need to start thinking about an event again this spring to try and encourage folks to go out there and help advocate for the walrus and the sanctuary.  it went really well last year so would love to go for it again.

 i started to drive away as these colors really started to peak so i pulled over several times and took these.

 liked this with the tree.

 those poor folks in Alepo. they are just getting killed off.  it's horrible.  makes me so sad, so many suffer at the hands of others in fights they did not start, do not participate in and are only just in the wrong place.

grateful for:  A.  my simple life which has so far been rather safe and protected.  B.  beautiful winter sunsets like these, so inspiring.  C.  my sweet puppies who bring me joy and keep me out on the trails