winter has returned for the moment

 

it's snowing today and a little the last few days.  the good news is that the snow has now mostly bonded with the ice below making walking less scary. the dogs are good. did the airstrip yesterday and today just the dog park since I was meeting a Ketchikan friend for lunch. the dogs just want to get outside. they love their walks. I do miss them on occasion but not that often really.  their doggles arrived. we have a volcano that is predicted to blow ash in the next weeks to months. the ash can be like tiny shards of glass. hopefully, the wind is blowing away from Anchorage when Mt Spurr erupts. it's about 75 miles away. 

not cold enough to make ice hearts these days, yesterday I carried my heart shaped snowball maker though and put some little snow hearts out there. not as pretty. was at the dog park last week and someone recognized the dogs from posts with ice hearts on fb. one post went fairly viral. sadly, I had to leave the group and delete my posts since it appeared to be hacked. suddenly different names were showing up on a photo with Ivy and a heart. just my name was cut off. fb password changed as well. any hint of strangeness, change those passwords. 

sounds like Elonia and Krasnov have collected all our information and probably handed it over to Rus anyway. we are so far gone at this point. still fighting. according to the Simpsons they will all get theirs, sooner than later.  it's sad that we all grasp for whatever positive thing we can find. someone flipping coins or reading tarot cards...I'll take it. I need good news.  if someone were to, I'm not suggesting they do and I can't really condone it but if they did....wine would be drank and dancing would happen

my work run was ER and ICU. one patient, clearly right leaning started going off on science and scientists.  when he was at a lull in his rant, I just looked at him and said that everything in the hospital that was helping him was based on science and scientists. I then asked if there was anything else he needed and left the room. these folks are not always hateful people they are just stuck on a terrible track with no clue at times that they are the victims or horrible disinformation. still, enough real information has gotten to them that they have denied or called fake news that I don't believe they can ever really be let of the hook. you allow yourself to be taken down the path of a cult or of disinformation, because you want the truth to not be true and the lies to be truth. for many at the age they are it would be a massive devastation to discover they were fooled so easily and so completely.... what else in their lives might they have been fooled by. 

I started to work on a poem. I've always found poetry to be a great outlet.  felt it may be time to release the words again

you say you aren't racist, 

but you voted with the racists,

with the white supremacists, the KKK.

you say you are Christian, 

but you voted against the least of these,

voted against the poor and the needy.

you are a parent,

but you voted against education,

you voted against gun safety,

you voted against healthcare.

you say you love everyone,

but you voted against the immigrants,

the refugees, the lgbqt.

you say you support women,

but you voted against their rights,

their bodily autonomy,

their protection from violence.

you say you support freedom,

but you voted against free speech,

you voted against voter rights, 

you voted against religious freedom if it wasn't your religion.

you say you support veterans,

but you voted to gut their healthcare,

you voted them out of jobs.

you say you support officers,

but you voted to allow those who violently attacked officers go free,

you rooted for those who were violent on January 6. 

you claim to be against big government,

but you voted in a wanna be dictator, a king.

and now,

you remain silent as he destroys our laws, our freedoms and our government.

you are not who you claim to be, 

it's not possible.

that is a first draft, i guess. 

these are some of the hearts I left out there. 

this was a sunset downtown. I went to see the snow sculptures. dirtiest ones I've ever seen due to our low snow year. the artists used that to their advantage in some cases, I think. the dirty snow used in the design. 

I've booked a few Homer trips for April and May. nice low tides. one will come right after Tonsina. I'll just head there from Seward. 

even though the kittens all got homes as did the mom cat, I still stalk them, just in case they get returned. so far it looks good for them. you know I'd run down there and scoop them up if they returned. 

the Iditarod is still ongoing. less than 35 teams this year. I opted out of the long drive to Fairbanks. I'm sure I would have enjoyed the trip to Fairbanks, but it is a long drive. Jessie Holmes won this year. I admit I haven't followed it all as intensely as I have some years. the downtown excitement just isn't the same. less of the big names. I still suspect the admission of gps changed the sport. change can be good and safer for sure, but it also can change the spirit of the sport. it's just a different event now. in some ways less of a challenge because you can just push a rescue button. it's good, I get that but it's also a dramatic change from a person and their team in remote Alaska on their own. the risk is what added the excitement level and the stories.

it's still snowing but it's also still fairly light. love the longer days. summer is coming. we have our gathering planned at REI. need to try to find folks interested in coming. fill the room. the other night at work, it came up and my brain could not remember our new web page name. just went blank. walrusadvocates.org.  that is it. it was the wee hours after doing holds. one guy looked like he was going to deck me, life in the ER. he was soon put right with a drip that calmed his arse down.

hearing about people being detained at airports who have legal documentation. they are treated cruelty in an attempt to get them to give up their visa or green cards. a college student attended a rally in support of Palestine and was picked up. he is legal but being held and called a terrorist on faux news. they just twist everything and turn hateful on individuals in order to make it fit their bull

he tosses out so many orders and decrees. sadly, the ICE folks are showing signs of a willingness to take things to a scary level. seems to welcome those with racist tendencies more than other authority driven positions. are they our gestapo in the making? it's all about hate and cruelty. 

below is one of those dirty snow sculptures.

still getting used to this new computer and new keyboard.  sticky at times. haven't set up my printer and I haven't gone back to the old computer to download the files I thought were saved to the external drive. 

mentally, things are still tough at times.  I sleep longer than I should, linger in bed, slow to start my days. I plug along.  stuff eventually gets done. focus is not always clear.  there is just so much bad news coming at us all.  how do we keep up. it's what the plan is. to overwhelm us all into just relenting.  we can't do that though.  we must continue to fight, call them out. it's exhausting. sad that so many relationships are damaged and destroyed in the name of these idiots, but it's hard to talk about trivialities when you know people are being harmed and harassed. we have empathy. the right is actually trying to trash the concept of empathy.  they hate woke, they hate liberals, they hate education, they hate science, they hate, that is what they do but they can't even see that. 

anxiety can come randomly. I've found better ways to cope with it but it's still there. I speak less and less to those who I know support this buffoon. how can you respect this cruelty, even if they do not intend to be cruel or hateful, those they support do intend it and as long as they remain silent, they bear that responsibility. 

the dogs are amazing motivation. I know I need to get them outside and outside is very good for me. even if it's icy out there. fresh air is good. have to find positive distractions more and more to get through this. 

decided to watch an old Rom-Com last night. "two weeks notice". then Krasnov's name is mentioned, then he shows up in a cameo. he destroys everything.

not at all happy watching my retirement account decrease, nor am I happy hearing how badly these jerks want to destroy Medicare and social security just as I'm about to try to retire. 

some of the resistance is working. tesla is doing poorly, and the fragile egos do very poorly with criticism. they can dish it out but can't take it. the world is against krasnov and this entire mess.  they do seem to realize that many of us are trying and not in support of all this. we support Canada and Mexico and Greenland and Panama and Europe and Ukraine....the buffoon supports putin. that is what it all rolls up to be. putin owns him. we all know it but so far nobody has come out with the connections needed to roll him.

this strange, warm winter will be over soon. wonder if the flowers will bloom early this year. hoping we don't have fires this summer

as you can see from reading this, my brain is all over the place.  was doing so great until this fool was put back in power to destroy all our peace. jerks.

my sweet kittens will always be this small in my mind.  had a dream the other night. was at a beach I think and one by one the kittens came out of the woods to me and I scooped them all up. 

having a kind heart can be a difficult thing. preferred over what the alternative is. I'll take the pain that arises from having empathy over the coldness of these jerks. 

come on Simpsons, be right. 

grateful for: a. each day i survive and the moments i thrive. B. that all the kitties found homes.  hope they are being loved and spoiled. C. the fresh snow. the place looks so pretty covered in snow

WEEK 8!!!!!!

 

a sure sign that we are hopefully nearing the end of this madness! we all want to get back to a normal life. Covid Cat is not happy with the snow load outside.  for sure this is my fault...that is the mind of a cat!

we had nearly 2 feet drop the other day and we are on our way to another 4-6 inches today again.  the view above is from my bedroom...the roof load is a  bit high, but hoping we will soon have a melt down.  spring is coming. 

i had to dig a path in the back yard so i could get Ivy out there to walk...figure that deep snow may stress her healing leg...so after i dug a path in the back i came back in took her for her yard stretch, put her back in the pen, fed and medicated her then headed out front to dig a path out there to the street. 

i was super happy that the road crew was already out making a basic path out of our street.  had to skip the bog for over 24 hours as the path was too deep to risk so i did have to shovel to the street, which was extended a good 12 feet beyond what is normal...the snow was deep.  after i walked them in the neighborhood i came back out to shovel more so i could eventually get to work. was so thankful a neighbor came over with her snow plow and did the section of heavy stuff at the end of the driveway where the road crew had pushed it all up. 

work was pretty exhausting this week.  the knee just gets tired after 12 hours. was so happy my last night was spring forward and i only had to do the 11 hours. 

Ivy is doing great.  she has xrays next Monday so we shall keep our fingers crossed that she gets cleared to slowly return to normal. of course, she currently believes she should already to be returned to normal and is pushing the activity limits as much as possible. the other day a frisky golden came into the path and she escaped my grip on the leash and booked toward the dog and did some frisky pouncing around herself before i could catch up to her.  all seems fine.  she has also tried to start wrestle sessions with Tusker several times. 

when can she wrestle? when can she chase the tennis balls again? when can she freely use the dog door?  these are my big questions.

indoor wrestle sessions.  

yesterday i just wanted to sleep.  the schedule keeps looming large, especially between shifts.  that was all i got yesterday, the dog schedule..sleeping between walks and dog cares. 

today i got out with LS for a Tusker walk, hit the grocery and then grabbed Ivy for her walk #2. the step count is very good these past several weeks. 

it was probably a good thing in the end that i was a bit laid up with my leg or i fear i would have pushed ivy to be walking more than she should have...and she would have been a willing participant in that.  

we have slowly built up the walks to just a wee bit more than 10-15 minutes.  we stop a lot. Ivy takes breaks to clean out snow in her pads. just outdoor time really. i suspect we would have both gone nuts if we hadn't done that.

still some from the snow sculptures.

Dallas Seavey is again Iditarod champ...how many more will he win...he's still young so i suspect he will have a record that will never be beat. the most the best have managed is 5 wins so he is now tied with the best...but i don't think he is near done. 

love this flip around the head Ivy look. i think there was a moose on the trail that i had not yet spotted.

caught site of a barge leaving town last week.  always a fun site...we really don't get tons of boat traffic out there.  miss all the boats and planes from when i lived on the water in Ketchikan...

my first two nights were doing holds in the Er.  always keeps me busy.  

was trying to schedule a fit test for new n95 masks.  people seem to like them better, more comfy. i figured there would be loads of appointments but looks like i have to wait until April. 

the rest of life is a bit of a blur i must admit. 

i'm having zero trouble sleeping...so sleepy all the time. 

i peek in on Ivy when i'm at work...so happy to have the dog cam.  where will i aim it once this is done? the couch? 

there is loads of snow out there. i am so grateful that we have had snow as opposed to ice. if i do this again, i suspect that mid to late september would be the perfect time...avoid snow and ice maybe...it's always just a guess up here. 

Ivy is always happy to return to the pen area after her little walks. so she must still be more tired than i think despite her pulling on the leash. i have found the other walking harness so i may try that and see if i can slow her pulling down a bit.  tusker is so much better on leash with his special harness in place.

the ballerina is my favorite.

there were several that i really did like though. 

dreaming of new floors and a hot tub....those are on my list of next desired expenses...and of course, i really need to look at the next car thing. 

the truck idea is seeming more and more impractical, which is a bummer.  just seems like a bother getting a dog with knee issues in/out of the extended cab.  if i get a larger suv with a ramp option for the back that would probably work better.  just want one long enough i can sleep in the back as well.  

the same company ship that the barge was above. 

april is often tough walking which will probably further prevent me from over doing it with ivy for an extra month.

i've been watching the netflix series, "kim's convenience".  cracks me up. light and easy. 

have watched a few movies and just chilled in my between walk times. 

it's already after 3pm...where do the days go?

the neighborhood snow sculptures...what will they do with all this new snow out there.

have seen a young moose several times out there the past week.  

did manage a loop in there this morning...one morning after work the temperatures were soooo cold! 

i used to walk my dogs all the time after i got off work before i had a yard and dog door....i have gotten spoiled and lazy...i may never be allowed to return to those days as these two are enjoying that little walk before i go to bed after work now.  hmm....

i think this was that super freezing day. 

totally below zero.

more folks are getting vaccinated.  ran into a group in the bog..they happily announced that they were all vaccinated and i got to chime in that i was as well.  ran into another guy once i got back to the streets and he was making sure everyone knew that anyone over 16 can now get vaccinated in Alaska!

most seem to be good with the vaccines we still have a group that are not jumping on board.  

i got a massage last week which was great...the therapist said she will not get vaccinated unless she is forced to.  oh well. no point pushing anything at this point with anyone. 

there are those who will just continue to believe such craziness as trump didn't lose the election and those that stormed the capitol were really just antifa and blm....

there are people who chose to not believe that Germany killed all those jews under hitler.  some people just will never see the truth in things because they do not like the truth and what it would mean to their pre-ordained view of the world they live in. 

life in a bubble. sadly, the world outside the bubbles of these folks is quite vast. 

better get a nap in...guess i will return to my pj's...since i'm not getting fit tested i may as well get comfy. 

thankful for A. snow, glorious snow  B.  being healthy enough again to shovel all that snow C. springing forward...and the 11 hour shift...!