warm day made for a lazy day...

 

not sure why some days are just harder to get motivated than others. it was warm and sunny so that should make me rush outside to pretty places. instead i just wanted to chill. 

these are in Hatchers Pass. always a pretty place to go.  had i been more motivated today perhaps i could have ended up here again. 

lots of yard time with the dogs...and one Covid Cat.

i had an appointment for the CR-V this morning so i headed there to get the trim fixed and drop off one of the tires to be made into a full spare. i also arranged to get new lights in the dash for the Element.  it would be nice to see how fast i'm driving once winter hits and it's all dark.

now that the car is functioning it seemed like a good idea to fix this as it was on my list before the engine went out. 

isn't this little guy cute. 

never made it out for a real walk though.  poor pups. they are so tolerant of me.  i pulled some weeds and put in several of the button things on the stairs.  many more to go.  i may do a bit of stencil work. i like to combine actual work with play work.  gotta keep my art side happy. 

all work and no fun is not something that works very well.  still plugging away at the little piles of things that collect.  need to look at the weather.  should have put some stuff out with the free sign this weekend.  

did chat for awhile with my niece in Texas. always fun...and enlightening.  she is wise.  :-) 

Covid Cat just ran in from outside.  seemed in a bit of a rush.  

watched a runner today.  she fell and was in last and just booked right back to the front of the pack to win.  then i saw her race again and win again.  some people are just crazy fast.  i was never any good at running.  

of course, my early memories of attempting to run in my neighborhood in L.A. are of a guy pulling over to "ask for directions" while jerking off. oh i was so innocent back in those days...and i got flashed more than the average person i'm sure of it.  i recall being in college and we were at McDonalds and a flasher showed up. i knew exactly what was up.  they were all shocked..i was just shocked that they all weren't getting flashed as much as i was. not sure what vibe i put out there that made men flash me, but there it is. 

now i just see naked bodies all the time.  i suppose even if someone flashed me now i'd hardly notice.  perhaps all that flashing was to prepare me for a career as a nurse. 

it is getting darker earlier.  that is how it works.  we start to think about northern lights though.  there is always something to look forward to. 

up north i am hearing that the catapillars we saw at Byers are actually extremely abundant.  if you hike up more you will be "attacked" by them.  if you sit they are on you.  folks are complaining of getting rashes where they touch.  i never touched them thankfully.  there were a few crawling on stuff we left outside, but in higher elevations there were hundreds of them. i guess they tend to have population explosions every so often and these explosions will happen for 2-3 years. so K'suegi Ridge/Curry Ridge may be out for a few years

speaking of bugs, one just dropped down on me.  not sure what it was or where it went. i just looked in the mirror and i do not see it on me at this time. i am not a fan of bugs.  for as many mosquito's we have up here...at least each year the bugs  almost completely disappear for over half of the year.

will be disturbed by the thought of some bug crawling around the rest of the night now.  

back to work tomorrow again.  just far too many idiots out there who will refuse to believe Covid is real to their death. i've heard people deny they have it even when they are symptomatic. the level of stupid that exists is beyond embarrassing.  

who knew people could be so easy to manipulate. it just makes some historical things that seemed impossible more possible sounding. 

guess i foolishly believed with all the information that is out there these days finding the truth would be easy...but for many they refuse to believe anything from anyone who isn't in their same toxic and ridiculous bubble.  those people just have to be loud and scare them...and they will believe anything.  fear is a great motivator for idiocy. when people do not understand stuff, or are overwhelmed they want to have someone and something else to blame...at this point they are willing to buy into whatever crazy notion you push on them just so they can blame someone else. 

bug found and killed!!

i'm not totally convinced that there is only the one bug.

the rocks have been modge podged.  i'm liking to do two layers now so i'll let this one dry. not sure the rock grinder i bought survived the first round...never made it to the end.  it keeps stopping when i try to restart it.  that was quick.  

won't replace it...seemed like a fun little hobby though. 

is there an olympic medal for procrastination?  i'd be a star for sure.

came on to tweak the first paragraph i wrote in the last post.  it seemed to make no sense when i re-read it later. 

it was late at night. 

the Dems are still trying to work with the GOP...seems fairly pointless. wish they could get the filibuster at least tweaked.  sick of nothing getting done.  the GOP is a disaster.  a party of conspiracies and lies and people who are addicted to those conspiracies and lies. 

always love the cotton.  i was reading that you could eat it? not sure i'm willing to try that out.  didn't read what part you would eat in a crisis. hopefully i am never put in a position of having to survive on this plant, though i really do like the look of it out there.

starting to feel like another trek to Nome would be fun one of these days. so many beaches.  love all those big stretches of beaches.  miles and miles of beach combing....empty. 

pretty flowers...

you chase them and then you chase the mushrooms, the fall and then you chase the ice.  that is just how it goes here. blink and it's all changed.

never excited to head to work. i can't say as i was ever really excited to go to work as a nurse but i had made peace with it as a career. covid has really made it more miserable.  the staff do stick together. we try to support each other i think. it's going to get worse for sure because of the misinformation and refusal of so many to deal with the reality of this.  so many will refuse to vaccinate or wear masks or distance. they just move from one conspiracy to another in some sort of strange denial. 

so far the dogs are still safe. was thinking of starting a rumor that all you have to do to avoid covid is pick your nose and eat the snot...just put crazy shit out there and see what people do with it. they would rather take snake oil treatments than treatment plans derived over time for this. they have been convinced to not trust science, doctors, medicine, the cdc, the government at any level, any media that isn't bat shit crazy....they are boxed in. 

there is another segment of the population that isn't political about it all but have chosen to not look at any information at all.  it's going to be a slow painful trudge to herd immunity...if we ever get that. 

when will we need a booster. Israel is already giving a pfizer booster to those over 60 i hear.  at what point will we be offered boosters? that remains to be seen.  

the fall could be awful.  

comfy cat. he can be a bit of a snuggle cat.

these guys do need me to get them out more.  i've been too lazy and it's time to reboot and get myself back to basics. 

3 nights of work then another stretch off.  i live for the off times. work is just more exhausting than it used to be.  back to having to wear the n-95 more of the shift..or just leave it on. 

there is this cutie again.  there were two but the other one booked whereas this guy seemed more curious.

this was a between shift walk in the neighborhood....they are on leashes and harnesses.  they are not fans of the harness.  

it is much easier to walk them harnessed up though. 

this is the remnants of the beaver pond.  that middle green patch was the beaver den and just the green stuck out of the water before.

so this is Gold Mint Trail.  

still some swimable water where the beaver dam broke

and back on the main trail

well, hopefully i made more sense tonight.  i am headed to bed.  

thankful for A.  family and friends who like and accept me. B. people who get vaccinated and believe truth over conspiracies C. that the dogs could care less about any of it and just live each day. 

we all get the twisties....

 

dealing with the whole Simone Biles thing.  i suspect sports like gymnastics are often mostly younger folks as they still have no fear. they haven't had pain that lasts very long.  the older you get the more you remember the pain and the recovery.  the more you get hesitation.  

we get that with every aspect of our lives. our own twisties. i can feel it when i go out walking. the other day i arrived at the Campbell Airstrip trail to be greeted by signs of a recent grizzly bear charge...i went to another trail.  years ago i would have just walked knowing that bear wasn't just sitting there in wait for me.  they move constantly.  a sign yesterday doesn't mean a  bear today, but our past experience comes back to haunt us.  

i'm no doubt that way with relationships and with work.  you know what can happen and it's harder to ignore it. 

mostly i feel badly for the person who didn't make the team...i imagine this is very difficult for them to watch. the possibility of being at the Olympics and now watching the person that earned that right over you not participate.  i do kind of wish that Simone had made a choice to be in or out rather than this daily attention over it.  it distracts from the team in general.  will she, won't she.  it doesn't take away from her overall career as a gymnast.  you really can't take that away.  it is a sad way to end though.  always in life it's good to know when to step back.  when to let others take their turn in the sun.  it can be a tough choice to make either way.  who wouldn't want to have one more opportunity.  

i don't think i'll ever do another cartwheel...something that as a kid you just did without thinking.  now you know it will come with some possible pain and even a chance at injury. 

i always enjoy the Olympics.  so many amazing stories in there.  covid, has of course, had it's impact on this as well.  some may see the fact that family and friends aren't there as a total negative, but one thing i think has been a positive is that i think the old olympic experience has returned somewhat.  the athletes are meeting and interacting with each other more. they are in the bubble together.  many were skipping the olympic village all together and staying with family/friends away from the other athletes.  i suspect most are staying with the other athletes and have become a support for each other.

many on the right are once again seeming to tarnish this with conspiracy and negativity.  we all can choose what we focus on.  a few personal moments of protest vs the overall positive Olympic experiences. there are many out there now who could take a room full of butterflies and find some conspiracy in that. 

if the side you are on is mired in hatred and negativity...you may be on the wrong side. 

i fear that like everything else...add the Olympics to the things we can't speak to each other about because it's been made into a divisive and political pawn. there are no safe subjects anymore.  

three nights of work down.  2 and 1/3 night spent in the ICU and 2/3 of one night spent in the ER. 

covid, covid, covid. work is more exhausting these days.  is it the covid or am i just getting older...probably both. 

one patient absolutely flipped out over the mask, left against medical advice and common sense but that is how it is.  strange to watch someone lose their crap like that, but more common now.  it's the stuff of video's but there are no videos of the crazy crap we see every day in the hospitals.  it's a constant snapshot of the bizarreness of humans, especially in these times.  nobody could possibly comprehend what medical staff see day to day.  shocking really. 

fountains of shit flying out of an arse....death shit really.  entire family units being mass covid spreaders.  hospitals are currently understaffed and burn out is high.  how many rounds can we go through before we break. it is frustrating to watch the people come in, unvaccinated, putting us at risk.  some are making some sort of political statement, others just are clueless. 

it's hard to have sympathy some days, especially for those who are hard core right who are listening to fools and end up sick and still sticking to the idiocy that has brought them to their current situation. they are willing to go down with the ship for fools who could care less about them.  it's nuts really. 

back to the usual situation in the dogs car.  today we walked N. Biv.  just a smallish loop.  starting to see some mushrooms popping up.  

i did get through some stuff this week. may toss a load of free stuff out front tomorrow.  doing late spring cleaning a little at a time.  started putting those buttons back in the stair rail. also have some stencils that arrived so i may do some of that tomorrow. 

projects, always the projects. 

i took a nap this evening.  met with my friend for dinner.  good to catch up.  he won't be here for several months again so happy we could meet up today.

when i got home i tried to mow the lawn.  got part way and the mower has been acting up. i put some oil in and some gas in and then the thing started totally smoking.  i left it out in the yard in case it caught fire.  did i put the wrong oil in, was that not really a place for oil?  it has been making a lot of noise the last few times  i used it. i have appeared to have killed it though.  i have enjoyed having a real lawn mower over a push mower so we shall see what i can do...replace?

these are mostly from July. 

this was my other project. the card table is gone....!!  does look so much nicer now. i had wanted to find a corner desk...but in the end i recycled the old butterfly computer desk into a corner desk. i still have a few things to sort through in here and then on to the guest room to sort that space out as well. 

clutter weighs in on you from time to time and you just have to get through it.  there is always more clutter and more to get rid of.  we all just seem to collect crap over time.  

i don't really like her being in such a precarious position, especially post op. i'm becoming a fan of having them more safely in the back. i do love having the element for dog walks.  just will be less wear and tear on the new car.  supposed to go in tomorrow and get the bit fixed that fell out.  will try and see if i can leave the tire there to be made into a full spare as well.  also need to ask about the other side of the trim which is not secure and will no doubt fall out as well. 

overall i am happy with the new car.  loving the new vanity plates.  

building the desk below. always happy when i complete something that i wasn't too sure i could handle. 

always love the daisies.

they are all over now.  the fireweed is exploding as well. 

some of these are from Hatchers Pass, Independence Mine. 

it's already August...summers always go so fast.  i will do the Kenai Fjords trip to see whales twice this month.  never tire of seeing whales though!

my friend just booked a cabin at Eklutna so that will be a nice get a way as well.  

my niece and her family come up later this month so lots to look forward too this summer still. 

another friend may come up early September. 

i am starting to get tired again.  

those evening naps make me stay up odd hours.  i try to go with what my body needs though.  if you are tired, sleep.  

perhaps we will find a nice hike to take tomorrow. 

may stop the element off to just get oil checked and fill the tires.  

so much to do, so little motivation to do it. 

i am pretty lazy at base.  working nights takes it out of you a bit though.  can't imagine dealing with all those extra people on days though.  way too peoplely and too many upper administration...i have way too big of a mouth to deal with those folks.  hopefully i can push through for a few more years and then happily retire from it all. 

live a life with puppies and kitties

i would still like to try and get that Spencer Glacier trek in. 

pretty out there

it's pretty everywhere up here. you really can't go wrong. 

unless you meet the producer of this stuff below.  bear poop. 

supposed to be another blue sky day

i actually do not do well on hot days like today...i know hot is relative but i'm not a fan of hot. 

so not a bad week but much of the same...it is all busy and tiring. 

from the last trek to Homer. big star but missing some of it's legs

sunset that first night.  any sunset is great, but a beach sunset is always sweet.

finally, the amazing fields of fireweed.  many are headed to Skilak Rd to see this amazing sight. i had posted my photos on an Alaska FB page and got well over 1000 likes.  always fun.  

thankful for A.  the Olympics and the hope it brings in a world that can feel hopeless some days B. the lessons we all learn through the good and the bad times of this crazy life C.  those who have gotten vaccinated and those who will do so...