the frog survived..and other stuff

i realize that it isn't spring yet...we had loads of snow today as a matter of fact. i was too lazy to put pictures in from the camera so i thought i'd put some warm appearing spring shots. i need a little spring in the winter sometimes. the snow is great though. i love to watch those huge flakes come down. it was very light snow so it was easy to shovel. my neighbor seemed to appreciate that as well. he and his wife just had a baby girl last week. i am very lucky to have nice neighbors on either side of my place.

anyway, the flowers above are from various walks in the summer. lupine are very common up here and they just really make for a spectacular landscape. the other is a local wild rose. also quite common. i'm amazed each year at how quickly everything grows here...then just as quickly it's all gone and winter sets in.

i'm on call for the adult icu tonight. really should have just said i'd rather work as i was already dressed, but it's just so dang easy to stay home if given the option. so i'm getting paid 4-5 bucks/hour to sit around doing absolutely nothing. when i was young i got paid a buck/hour to chase small children around peoples homes. this is a much better deal indeed.

was in the peds icu the last 2 nights. super sick kid with dka. well, not as sick as the kid i had last week, but these kids really can look like crap. dka is caused by diabetes that is out of control it's frequently how we find out a kid is diabetic. it really messes with your electrolytes, ph...brain. i had the paraplegic girl as well. trying to get her well enough to start her rehab. that really is the goal....get to rehab asap. work was quite fun, good crew on. no crazies. makes all the difference. it is funny to me how different people are drawn to different area's of nursing. the nurses in peds/peds icu are just super nice, kind people. they can be very coddling to the patients and anyone they run into. the day charges tend to give me kids who have grown obnoxious due to their kindness so that i can bring them back to reality. obviously, i'm more of the adult icu sort of nurse. that doesn't mean i can't be kind or compassionate. i just tend to be more technical. adult nurses are more like machines. you kind of have to be as the case load is always much tougher. in peds it's more fluff and adults it's just mechanics. you have 2 bodies on vents, with lots of drips and lots to do...15 minute vital signs, blood sugars every hour, drips to titrate...strange though

the best part of my week was that my friend from cordova, scott, popped over and helped me fix my toilet. i'm sure i could manage it, but i have an aversion to the crawl space and spiders. he went down there and turned off the water and fixed the leak that has been a bother for weeks. i've been doing lots of towel loads trying to keep up on it. now i really need to get going on the bathroom tile project. eek! i just have dreaded it cause i knew that one thing will lead to another thing....

finished reading a great book that just sucked me in. khaled hosseini's "a thousand splendid suns". i had read his first novel, "the kite runner" and was excited to get my hands on this one. i actually liked this one better. i think that is probably because it focused on life in afghanistan from a female perspective. many women across the globe are in such dire straights. thier lives are controlled by the males that they are matched with. they have no power, minimal education, minimal respect. my life is a gift in that i have had so many opportunities and freedoms so rarely given to my female counterparts in other parts of the world. yet...as this book illustrates, despite all the horrid treatment these women recieve,they manage to find thier own little piece of happiness, of hope. though powerless in so many ways, they find the will to go forward, to offer hope to the children thier raise and the other females they coexist with. the taliban is so restrictive of women and they are still trying to regain power in afghanistan. what makes these men so fearful of women that they feel the need to overpower them and control them. in general religions aren't always very empowering to females, seems many are used as a means for men to gain power over women. i always just find it fascinating. anyway, the book is rich and rewarding for any who take the time to sit down and sink in to the words. i also was able to watch a really good movie the other night. it was called, "the namesake". it was about a family from india who settle in new york. the man has already settled into new york and returns to india for a wife. they are introduced in an arranged setting and marry. she is beautiful and the love that grows between them is sweet. the story is about thier son and the name they have given him and how he grows to understand his parents and his place in the world from learning about his name and it's meaning. another kinda surprising movie like "once" was for me. sometimes you just have no expectations for a film and then it just sucks you in and you really come out loving the simple themes and story line.

have had some nice walks this week. not too many moose sightings. rio sniffed out some stuff but i never saw what she was seeing. i'll post some tracks i took pictures of tomorrow night perhaps. i love looking for tracks in the snow from the local critters. we did a big loop on wednesday...maybe just over 5 miles...gasline trail to tank trail to moose meadow loop. we repeated the gasline to tank loop the next day as those days were blue skies and sunshine. it's great in the winter to just have the sun beat down on you and then get views of the city and of denali to the north when skies are clear. today we just did the bog as i did yesterday. it's the in between shift walk. so easy since it's right by the house. they are doing sled dog races this weekend through the dog park so that is a good place to avoid. sled dogs and off leash dogs do not mix. sled dogs are so cute. i love watching them cruising around....they just look so happy. the trucks have special dog holders filled with hay. some people get quite imaginative.

blossom is barking and i should try and nap in case they do call me in. i always sleep poorly when i'm on call though as i fear sleeping through the call. that would be bad. i just started a new book and may watch an episode of bones before i try to sleep.