Sam's Ridge & Hazel River - SNP

On Saturday I went out to SNP to hike! I'd again planned to hike on the AT to work toward finishing the central district, however I called ahead and Skyline Drive was closed due to ice storm damage. rats. Luckily I discovered this while still at home and could re-group. I decided to hike a smallish loop - 7 miles - in a region of the park that is typically called "Hazel Country".

Reaching the trail head involved winding back up into what West Virginiaians would call a "holler" - a single lane dirt road and the trail branched off from it. Finding parking would be a challenge as it seems that the majority of the people who own property that bumps up to SNP are crotchety rednecks who aren't fond of hikers. I'm sure there's good reason for this, but it's frustrating for one who truly wants to just park, hike, and leave. I'd love to buy some SNP boundry property someday and create a welcoming place for hikers to park and maybe offer snacks and stuff too...but I digress...

I ended up driving all the way down the road and turned around - I only located the trailhead because another car had parked there and the occupants were getting ready to hike. Luckily there was room for me too so I pulled in. I gave the other hikers a head start and I never saw them again until they arrived back at their car about 5 mins after I arrived back.

Part of the loop I was planning to hike went along the Hazel River - in fact the trail crossed the river 4 times. The guide book had warned hikers to be prepared to wade if the water was high. We've had a drought but it's also rained a lot lately so I had no idea what to expect. I opted to go up the ridge first and then hike along the river at the end, that way if I got wet I'd be almost back at the car!

I headed up the ridge and was glad that I'd did it first - it was quite steep and I would have hated to have to walk down it! Besides I enjoy the uphill much more than the downhill! (I know, I'm crazy). The trail had wonderful winter views of the surrounding mountains, not many that were photo worthy though. Hard to capture the mountains through the trees!





The area I was hiking through had burned in November 2003. It was the largest forest fire in SNP. It was actually 2 fires - one that started on Old Rag Mountain and the other started in a picnic area on Skyline Drive. The two fires converged and a huge section of the park burned. I saw the fire from Skyline Drive as it was coming down the mountain behind Panorama - it was awesome to see. While the area burned it is not dead - the picture above shows a burned out tree - it was only one of a few reminders of the huge fire!

The sun was forcast to make an appearance and it did, but only for a few minutes. I believe that this mountain is Mary's Rock on Skyline Drive, but I could be wrong.

The last mile and a half of the hike I walked along the beautiful and senic Hazel River. The Hazel River is your typical mountain river with big boulders, rushing water and lots of moss! I had to cross the river 4 times. The first time I stayed dry. The second time I got my right foot wet. The third time I got my left foot wet. The fourth time I got both feet soaked. My right foot was so squishy I felt certain that there was at leasy of cup of water in my boot and I considered taking my boot off to dump the water. At this point I was quite happy I was less than a mile from the car as I would not have wanted to hike 6 miles with soaking feet! It was about 50 degrees outside but I really wasn't cold....again though, I'm glad I was close to the car!

The picture above is one of the cascades in the river. My dad had been showing my how to change the sensitivity on my camera and change the sutter speed - I slowed it down for this picture and it mad ethe water blurry! Pretty cool!

Another shot of the Hazel River.

I returned to my car tired, but thrilled that it was only 4:00 - I thought I'd be able to get home and do something with my evening. I thought wrong. Very soon after I got in the car my typical post hike headache got going. This happens almost everytime I go hiking in SNP - it didn't happen in Alaska, Glacier, the Tetons, etc.... By the time I got to Warrenton, about halfway home, I took some Tylenol - it did nothing and by the time I got home I thought my head was going split open. I showered and crawled into bed before 8. I woke up at 3am and my head was still pounding so I took some Advil and when I woke up the next morning the headache was mostly gone.

I have explored various theories on these headaches - dehydration, not eating enough, allergies, asthma. On Saturday's hike all those things were controlled for. My new theory is that when I hike I'm getting migraines triggered by leaf mold and other outdoor allergens. I'll check with the doctor next time I see her. I did buy some Advil Migriane today to try the next time I hike. We'll see. I hope it works because I love hiking and I can only enjoy it in winter as it is!

Drew's End of the Year Meme

My friend Drew posted this on his blog and asked anyone else who wanted to to participate....it's a random list of favorite from 2007....I added a few categories as well..

Best Album: that's a hard one as I don't listen to whole "albums" anymore....iPod killed the album star! I never really did before though either... I did really enjoy Dave Matthews Band's Crash this year.
Best Non-Fiction: Words Their Way by Marcia Invernizzi and others and Forever Lily: An Unexpected Mom's Journey to Adoption in China
Best TV Series: Deadliest Catch, The Office
Best Fiction: Water for Elephants and the Stephanie Plum novels
Best Kids’ Music: Free to be You and Me
Best Movie: I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - prob not the best but likely the ONLY movie I saw in 2007
Best Sign of the Apocalypse: This website: Rapture Letters
Best Come Back of the Year: hmmm....not sure on this one...

Ok my categories:
Best Old TV show you are just getting into: Northern Exposure
Best Hike Anything in Denali National Park
Best grocery store: The New Harris Teeter
Best Summer Vacation: RVing in Alaska



Ok....I'm tagging everyone who reads this blog...you too Drew...add your own best of categories and share the events of the year!

Check out my Slide Show!

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

Mr. Deity

Need some offbeat "Christian" humor in your day?
Go here click on "shows" then on Mr. Deity. Funny Stuff.
Enjoy!

Christmas Meme

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
I like a combination.

2. Real tree or artificial?
Artifical - we have always had a fake tree so that's just the way it's supposed to be. Also, I have serious allergies to all things outdoors so can't have a real tree.

3. When do you put up the tree? I usually don't. For the last 5 years I haven't put up a tree. I'm not home for the holiday and I just have to find time to take it down and put it away.

4. When do you take the tree down? Never b/c I don't put it up!

5. Do you like eggnog? I'm not a huge fan - a half a cup with some fruitcake or sherry cake is nice. Susan makes a great homemade egg nog.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
hmmmm...so many....the year of the Cabbage Patch Kid rush my mom arranged for me to get a homemade Cabbage Patch Kid. It was also the year I stopped believing in Santa. She wanted to make things more fun so she hid all my gifts in the living room and tied string around each one I had to follow the string - rolling it up on a toilet paper tube as I went - to each gift. The Cabbage Patch Kid was last, along the way there were Cabbage Patch accessories and it was making me mad b/c I thought I'd never really have a Cabbage Patch doll for them and couldn't figure out why mom had gotten me all these things.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes, I have one that I cross stitched - it's 10 stand up figures that I cross stitched and had professionally finished. It stays out year round.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
My mom and Dad - they usually just go buy whatever they want so it's hard.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
The kids on my list - Alex, Evan, Brandon - they are little so prtty much anything works...or just wrapping paper and empty shipping envelopes.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Not that I recieved but last year my grandma was given a box set of Hee Haw DVDs. Guess what we did Christmas afternoon? That's right. 6 hours of Hee Haw. Funny at first, annoying 6 hours later.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards?
I haven't done any in recent years, but I do love recieving newsy letters with pictures and stuff!

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
Hands down A Christmas Story. Cracks me up every time. No I don't watch the entire 24 hour marathon on Christmas eve but I usual tune in to parts of it.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I don't buy much, I start when I see the 1st present I like for someone - I don't buy "random stuff" I try to make sure the gift matches the person and if I can't find anything then they might not get a gift!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Oh my gosh yes!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Peanut butter candy, fudge, sherry cake, fruit cake, christmas cookies, crandberry layerd jello salad...everything.

16. Lights white or colored on the tree?
white lights - although Mom had a tree when we lived in Cincinnati covered in colored lights and it was pretty. colored lights get obnoxious fast.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Anything that is a carol - I'm not a big fan of Christmas songs that don't mention Jesus.

18. Travel for Christmas or stay home?
Travel - I usually get my grandmother in Fredericksburg on Christmas eve or the day before and we go to my parents house in Williamsburg. No kids involved so it's usually very low key.

19. Can you name all of Santa's' reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph!!!!!!!! I teach 1st grade - this is basic information!

20. Angel on the treetop or a star?
My mom made an Angel when I was young - I used to think she was the most beautiful thing ever. I saw it the other day in a box in the attic....she's looking abig ragged.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas Day - with no kids involved we usually sleep in, eata leisurly breakfast and then maybe around 11 or 12 mosy into the living room and open presents. We go 1 person at a time and show off what we got usually takes 2-3 hours but we chit chat and break for cofee and stuff...

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
That you couldn't go to the mall if you wanted to. Radio stations that play holiday music that isn't even religious. That EVERYONE, including the Muslim children at my school, celebrates Christmas - it seems to take the meaning out when it's a mass holiday that is celebrated irrespective of religon.

23. What do you love most about Christmas?
The songs, the lights, the cold weather - the snow (here's hoping for more!)

I have gotten this survey through e-mail several times but posted it back here and feel the need to tag people....if you are reading this and haven't posted this to your blog....you are it!!! :) Post away! :)

Thanksgiving with the Family

Dad's side of the family - Thanksgiving Day - Ditchley

On Saturday, we got together with Mom's side of the family to celebrate my Grandmother's and my Uncle's birthdays!

The Blind Doggie Cronicles: Part 1, Blind Doggie goes on a trip

A few weeks ago I discovered that my dog was blind. I debated leaving her in a kennel for my anual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Williamsburg and Glouster VA, however decided that she'd rather stay with me, blind or not, and that she'd prob do fine. I'd decided that I'd keep her on her leash while were at the family gathering at Ditchley so she wouldn't wander off and get lost or otherwise get in touble.

My great Jessie (my dad's aunt) has a house on the Ware River near Glouster, VA - it's an old plantation house and there's lots of land. Every year at Thanksgiving the entire extended family gathers there for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. We have anywhere from 10-50 people - this year I think we had 30 or so. It's just a dinner event - we all show up, eat ourseleves silly, and leave. Dogs are an integral part of the event - sometimes out numbering the humans! One year my great uncle George commented that he knew more dogs than people!

So anyway, Daisy and I left Woodbridge around 8:15 am on Thursday and zipped right down to Williamsburg, arriving by 10:30 am. Daisy Mae did just fine on the trip down and when we arrived at my parents house, she explored and sniffed, and checked the floor for any dropped food, finding none, she curled up and went to sleep.

When it was time to head to Ditchley, she let me pick her up and put her in the car and she did great on the trip out. When we got there, I decided to tie her to the tv table so hopefully she'd be out of the way and not get into trouble. We'll she didn't like that much and insited on pulling the leash as far as she could and was in everyone's way. Since it was so lovely outside (it was 75+ degrees) we all ate outside so I took her outside and tied her to my chair. This worked, except that I couldn't get up!

Late in the afternoon I decided to take a walk out the pier - I hadn't been out on the pier since before Hurrican Isabel destroyed part of it 5 years ago! It was sunset and the sky was really pretty. Daisy and I were strolling down the pier, I was taking pictures of the sunset, when all the sudden I felt a tug on the leash, then felt the leash slide out of my hand. I looked behind me and Daisy was gone! I looked down and there she was in the water! If you know my dog you know that's NOT a swimmer. She won't even go out in the rain! The good news is that she did know how to swim. The bad news, she started swimming the wrong direction! She was swimming AWAY from the shore and out into deeper water! Oh no! My dad and I were thinking we were going to need to go in after her. I was about to, but I knew I didn't have any extra clothes so was thinking I'd have to skinny dip. Not exactly the thing to do at the family thanksgiving gathering. Luckily when I started calling out to Daisy she turned around and swam toward my voice and she was able to follow my voice all the way to the shore! Pretty amazing!


When I got her out of the water we walked back to the house, I dried her off and put her in the car - she was safer there!

The rest of the trip went well. Daisy did a great job of learning a new enviornment! Took a lot of trust on her part since she really had to rely on me to guide her and trust that I wasn't going to let her get hurt. The biggest challenge at my parents house are the steps going up stairs. They are hardwood with a runner up the middle. If her feet aren't on the runner she slides all over. She uses the wall to guide her down the stairs at home, however at mom and dad's she can't get to the wall because there is no carpeting there. Going up she does ok, going down is a big challenge.

We got home a few hours ago and she's been sleeping it all off! I can tell she's much happier being home where she knows where everything is!

What doesn't the Warranty Cover?

Everything that was actually wrong with my car. Car rental - free, getting the car repaired - crazy expensive.

The verdict: After a mere 36,000 miles the brakes on my car were gone. Nothing left. All parts that could get worn were worn. Needed the front brakes entirely replaced. Of course this is a wear issue, not covered by the warranty. The reason they wore out so quick? Likely overuse. Welcome to DC traffic hell.

There were a number of other things that needed fixing so I just had them fix it all. Ws considering keeping the free rental car! It was cheaper! HA!

The good news? They got it all fixed today and I picked it up this evening! The pick-up was much easier - I was able to return the rental to the Saturn place and the cashier was there until 7:00 so I didn't have to rush!

I was super efficent and stopped at Thomas's Pizza (the best pizza in the area, right by the Saturn place) and ordered a pizza on my way to the dealer and it was ready when I came back though! :)

Praises to the Extended Warranty

When I was on my way home from SNP on Saturday I noticed my car making a strange grinding noise when I applied the brakes. It kinda reminded me of the noise the car made when the I had a flat tire (which incidently had happened in the exact same place!), but stopped when I wasn't pressing on the brakes. I kinda ignored it b/c when I turned the radio up I couldn't hear it and I didn't have time to deal with it.

Well the problem quickly escalated. Last night I went out to dinner with a friend and I drove and had the radio off - man it was a loud, awful, grinding, screching sound. Sounded like something was caught in the brakes and dying or something. The car still stopped and all but it would shake a little and make SOOOO much noise.

The bigger problem was that I didn't have to deal with this - I'd had a thing after school on Mon, then Tues was our family literacy program, Partners in Print, that I'm in charge of and that took all my planning time so I didn't have a spare moment Mon or Tues to even call to get an appointment. I almost called in sick this morning to stay home and deal with this, but my classroom was a disaster because we just tossed all our materials from Partners in Print in my room - I didn't even know where my attendance was, couldn't have a sub in that. So then I thought I'd leave early - um no, I had a parent coming at 4:00 for a conference that I'd already rescheduled once.

So this AM I call the Saturn place to see what the latest time I can come is. Well, if I want it looked at today I had to be there by 4:00 - not going to happen. If I wanted to drop it off and get a rental I had to have it there by 5:30. Probably not going to happen.

So now I'm thinking I'd just wait till tomorrow. Well, tomorrow is just as crazy - it's our Thanksgiving Lunch which is just pure chaos, can't leave the kids with a sub for that so I thought I'd take the afternoon off - I tried to call it in to the sub computer and my cell phone battery was dead and I couldn't get my pin number out. aghhhhh. Maybe I would just come in late - call in and say I was having car trouble and come an hour or so late.

Oh and as a complicating factor, I HAVE to go get my allergy shots tomorrow - I already missed a week and can't go any other day. AGHHHH. So getting a friend to drive me to school was out - and depending on when it's ready (if it's ready tomorrow) I'll have to double back or leave early or something...

After school the parents I was meeting with showed up on time and we talked for about 20 mins then I hightailed it out of there. Left school at 4:30 and rolled into the Saturn dealer at 5:30 on the nose! WOW! The service guy checked me in and called the Enterprise people to "pick me up".

The best part....I have an extended warranty on my car so the car rental is "On Saturn"!!!!! YEAH! I hope the repair falls under the warranty also - I can't remember what it covers, if something broke it's covered, if it was damaged I don't think it's covered.

So by 6:30 I was crusin' in a Merlot Ford Tarus boat - I think the 80's left this car behind - it has a tape deck! I think they stopped making tape decks in cars in the 90s! The "cigarrette lighter" doesn't power my iPod (b/c this thing was built before iPods were invented I bet)so tonight I dug through my shoebox of cassette tapes - like a trip down retro lane! I'd thought about pulling all my tapes out to see if there were songs that I wanted to download from iTunes so now's my chance!

The Cable Company

About a year ago I posted this rant in my MySpace blog:

Our local cable provider can provide it's customers with high speed internet, DVR, on demand movies, and hundereds and thousands of TV channels. They are the internet, they are technology.....what they cannot do however is send your bill electronically. WTF?

Not only that but the bill is ALWAYS due at the end of the month and it never arrives until the day AFTER I have paid the bills for the month as a result I'm constantly a month behind on my cable bill. I have called, I have explained that if they'd like their $ on time they should send the bill at a different time in the month and they have said that they can't move it. Now that I have switched over to online bill pay though I just direct the bank to pay them when I pay the rest of my bills and it has been working better....just can't believe the "the internet company" can't send me an e-bill like all the other utilities!

Today the rant gets longer. Due to Comcasts billing issues I usually simply pay them a round sum of money every month with out even looking at the bill (as I could find the paper bill amidst the other papers). I think the bill is generally about $61 so I just round up and electronically send them money. Last month I actually looked at the bill and it was over $100! I must have been late a few times or something - so on October 21st I paid them $120 - thinking I'd just run a credit for a few months - no big deal. Tonight I got a phone call from Comcast - regarding my payment. Apparently they were perturbed by my overpayment of their bill. I asked what exactly the problem was - I'd paid my bill. The gal said that was fine and told me to have a good night. WTF? I asked her about why I couldn't pay the bill online like all my others and why it's one of 2 paper bills I get that cannot be turned into e-bills - she told me to call Comcast directly - so this gal was some telemarkter person.

Oh and an added rant about Comcast - in June, the last day of school to be exact, Comcast rearragned ALL it's channels - suddenly my favorite channels were not what they used to be - not only that but whatever they did it did not register with my TiVo (which usually knows everything) so for like 3 days I recorded soap operas in Spanish rather than King of Queen, Will and Grace and Friends. When I discovered this I had to go in and manually change all the channels so TiVo would know what was what. Further, Comcast has still (almost 6 months later) not been able to post the channel line-up on the web so my TV downstairs is permanently on Lifetime since that's the only channel I know the number for that has shows I like - the TiVo is the only one in the house who knows what station is which! Aghhh!!!!!

Snow on the Mountain!

I finally had a free Saturday! I had big plans to head out to Shenandoah National Park for a long awaited hike! It had rained a lot last night and was still cloudy and dreary looking this morning, but I was going hiking and I didn't care that it wasn't the prettiest of days. I'd gone to bed super early Fri night and woke up pretty early Sat morning so had time to get myself together, get the sheets through the washer and the dryer and update my iPod before heading out about 10 am.

I had a hard time deciding what to wear - mostly I wasn't sure if I should wear my Helly Hansen Polyproplyene long underwear top. The only other time I'd worn it was when Dad and I hiked to The Harding Ice Field in Kenai Fjords NP and I was so hot I nearly drowned in sweat. I finally decided to go ahead and wear the shirt - it was forecast to be 46 degrees here and I figured it would be a bit colder on the mountain and 46 was going to feel pretty cold.

I gathered up all my winter hiking clothes - my gore-tex pants, 2 fleece tops, 2 prs of gloves and a fleece ear warmer and headed out. I decided to stop at Harris Teeter in Bristow to grab lunch - as an added bounus I had a $10 coupon so it was almost free! :) I arrived at the park around Noon - there was a line at the Thorton Gap entrance station which surprised me because it was such a dreary day.

I'd planned to hike a portion of the AT from Pocosin Fire Road to South River Fire Road which was at about mile Marker 60 - I was at about mile 30. At first there were no views from Skyline Drive - just fog and clouds where the mountains should be. Then as I traveled further south and gained elevation - there was snow!!!! And then there was fog. It was a heavy wet snow that stuck in every nook and cranny of the trees creating a beautiful winter wonderland! The fog I could do without - in places you couldn't see 2 ft in front of you.

Due to driving conditions I quickly ditched the idea of going all the way to Pocosin Fire Rd - opting instead for Whiteoak Canyon. It was closer, and I figured that there would be lots of people there. I pulled into the parking lot and I was one of 3 cars! 3 cars in the Whiteoak Canyon parking lot at 12:30 on a Saturday. I couldn't believe it. Yes, the weather was nasty - but it wasn't snowing or raining. It was cold though - it was 30 degrees when I got out of the car. I was instantly glad that I'd worn the long underwear shirt and brought all my winter gear! As I was getting myself ready to go another car pulled up and I started chatting with the people who were in it - turns out Skyline Drive had been closed up until just a few minutes before I pulled up! :) WOW - amazing timing!

The trail itself was a winter wonderland and I had it all to myself! Whiteoak Canyon, the most popular trail in the park, and it was all mine on a Saturday afternoon! And it was covered in snow to make it even better! The silence of the forest was just amazing. As I descended to the upper falls there was less snow and the temps were rising. At the upper falls there was no snow and the trees were alive with fall colors!

At the overlook there were about 10 people, most of whom had hiked in from the bottom since the drive had been closed when they arrived. They were a bit pertubred to learn that the drive was open and that it was covered in snow! :)

It only took me an hour to hike down to the falls, but I was anxious about getting back to the top since they close the drive at 5:00. It took me about an hour to get back so I was back at the car in plenty of time to get off the drive before I got locked in.

I'm so glad I was able to get out today and enjoy the dueling seasons - one minute it was fall and the next it was winter!

Check out the pics below! :)

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

When I got home this evening I checked the weather...the temp is going down to 29!!!! FINALLY! The 1st freeze. The freeze that kills the pollen! No more pollen until March when the trees get going!!!!! YIPPPEEEE!!!!! :)

We now do the dance of joy!

Alex and Evan

Over the weekend I went to my friend Rachel's wedding! It was so much fun! A beatuful setting and great friends to see! I have a few other pictures but let's get started with a few of my favorite "little people" - Drew and Brenna's kids Alex and Evan.....



Alex - age 2 1/2 - grinning in the sun on the deck after Rachel and John's wedding.



Evan - age 7 months - contemplating life.



Alex and Evan with their Daddy.



Alex exploring the water glass.



Alex enjoying the ice cream - he also enjoyed the cheese, grapes, bluberries, tomatoes, cucumber, chicken, french fries (or are they just fries?), and cake - the boy can eat!

I'm the only me!

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Pushing Daisies

A few weeks ago my friend Susan posted about a new show on ABC Pushing Daisies so I decided I'd TiVo it and see for myself.

I just watched it and oh my gosh it's hysterical! It's a totally psychedelic crime show - it's the love child of Scooby Doo and CSI. There is a whole pie motif as well that makes me think of Twin Peaks...remember that one?

Basically the gist is that this guy - the Pie Man - has a gift - he can touch dead people and they come alive, if he touches them again they die forever. If he keeps them alive for more than one minute something else must die. He uses his gift to solve crimes, he wakes the dead asks who killed them and instantly solves the crime bringing justice to the dead. He has brought back his childhood sweetheart...only catch is that he can't touch her, b/c it would kill her.

It's a totally hysterical show and I encourage everyone who is reading this, although Susan I think is the only one and she already watches it, to watch it so it doesn't get cancled! :)

Blind Doggie

My doggie, Daisy Mae, has been having some issues. She's old - at least 10, maybe even older and lately she's been wetting the bed everytime she lays down. She had peed on all her beds and herself. That was my big concern that lead us to the vet today. It stinks. It makes a mess. And I had no idea why it was happening. I'd noticed that she was having trouble on the stairs in the mornings and so I figured her arthritis was getting bad and she was stiff in the morning. I'd also noticed, fairly recently, like in the last week - week and a half that she was bumping into things. Mostly in the morning when I let her out she'd miss the sliding glass door and walk head on into my antique-painted-by-my-great-grandmother coal hod by the fireplace. One morning she got stuck behind my desk attempting to go out the wrong side of the sliding glass door. I'd sorta chalked this up to the fact that she's not a morning dog and maybe wasn't quite awake yet. This morning when I fed her she walked over to her dish and walked right into the wall before before bending down to eat.

I took her to the vet early so she could get a bath before the appointment. The whole staff at the vet's office noticed that she was running into things. The vet was quite concerned, esp since this was so sudden. Turns out Daisy is blind. I'm not sure if it's total blindness at this point or rapidly deteriorating but she def can't see well at all. My vet has referred us to a Veterinary Opthomologist to investigate and fully diagnose the problem.

This is why she has a problem with stairs. Suddenly she can't see them. Maybe this is why she is incontinent all the sudden - she can't see to get downstairs when she has to go.

The dr gave us some pills for the incontinence, but the sudden blindness was a much bigger concern.

I have surfed the net a bit and there's actually a lot out there. It's sounding like this is a permanent situation, but I don't think it will be that bad - of course it's likely the beginning of a downward spiral for my senior doggie. :(

Calling all Deadlist Catch Fans!!!!! The final Armchair Traveler Reviews!

If you love Deadlist Catch then you need to read these 2 books:

Lucy The Giant by Sherri Smith - I don't normally go for young adult novels, however I enjoyed this one! Lucy is a teenager growing up in Sitka, AK, who deals with much of the usual teenage angst - excaerbated by the fact that Lucy is overly tall, her father is a drunk, her mom ran away when Lucy was little and she doesn't think she has any real friends. Opportunity presents itself and Lucy runs away to Kodiak and joins the crew of a crab boat where she discovers community and friendship and life on a crab boat is much better than life at home. Lucy's utopia unfortuently is shattered by the secrets she was keeping. But the book has a happy ending!

Dead in the Water by Dana Stabenow - Dana Stabenow is "the Alaskan Mystery Writer" she has written lots and lots of books all set in Alaska any many starting Kate Shugak. Kate used to work in DA office in Anchorage, now she's unoffical, but she still helps out. In this book she is under cover on a crab boat to determine what happened to 2 crew members who met untimely and unexplained deaths the previous season. Kate quickly uncovered the true identity of the skipper and quickly figured out how the crew members died..it seemed as if every lead she followed turned into something important...which kept the book moving, but left me feeling that the story was very contrived. There were some surprises at the end of the story, however since this is one many stories starring Kate Shugak so you know that she survives no matter what and that took away some of the suspense.

The thing I found most interesting about both of these books was that it is considred bad luck to have a woman on a crab boat...yet both of these books have women main characters!

Both books made for good Deadlist Catch fixes and were decent reads about AK!
Not only that but I have now completed the Armchair Traveler Reading Challenge!!! :) Go me! :)
I really enjoyed the challenge...it was fun to read books around a theme and have a reason to blog about them....I'll be on the lookout for the next challenge....

2 hours...

That's how long it took me to get home tonight. Susan has blogged a lot about the horrors of traffic here in the DC suburbs but today took the cake. I left school at 5:50. I walked into my house at 8:00. That's more than 2 hours. It's less than 20 miles from my school to my house. The reason: A truck accident on I-95 south right at "my" exit. Apparently the accident happened BEFORE rush hour so that must have been like 10am - there's not much day that would classify as "before" rush hour. And apparently 95 south was shut down for awhile. Traffic was backed up everywhere! I know about 12 different ways to get home from school and I tried all of them. Every route I took I was greeted with lines of backed up cars. Many times I just broke down into tears I was so frustrated and feeling so clausterphobic about being literally being stuck with no way out. Kinda made me wish I was driving my little RV again...then I could have pulled off and watched TV or something! :)

Do you realize how far I could get in 2 hours driving the speed limit? Almost the whole way to my friend in Central PA's house. Williamsburg - which is like a whole other era so I could practically go back in time in 2 hours. The Mountains - Shenandoah National Park is less than 2 hours away. And it took me 2 hours to drive 20 miles today.

There are only 2 other times that I remember traffic being this bad...one was Sept 18, 2001, exactly one week after 9/11 - they re-opened some of the military bases and with the heightend security traffic backed up very quickly. I was interning in Southeast DC at the time and it took me 3 hours to get to work. I didn't have a cell phone either. There was a silver lining then though...I was at the top of a hill on I-275 in Washington DC with an amazing view of the Capitol, The Monument, and The Pentagon when they played the National Anthem in conmemortation of the one week aniversary. That was an amazing moment.

The other time traffic was this bad was the day a fertilizer truck over turned on I-95 and they had to shut down the road for the whole day and re-pave the road b/c the fertilizer ate through the asphalt! That was a big mess because there was no way to get south of DC and 95 was backed up from the Beltway to Fredericksburg. The silver lining there....I wasn't sitting in the traffic.

Today, no silver lining.
Drive safe out there folks...you wouldn't want the biggest back up in DC history to be your fault! :)

Book Quiz.....

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

You're West Virginia!

You are a true coal miner's daughter, or maybe even son. You probably
smoke, and your lungs are paying for it every day. While you're definitely willing to
separate yourself from the crowd for what you believe in, this policy has put you into
a state of unending obscurity and poverty. As a result, people only come to visit you
on foot, and usually they're just trying to prove that they can do it. Keep a canary on
your shoulder whenever possible.


Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.