mish mash of photos and stuff today. above is mufasa's first spring trek out into the relative warmth of spring. it's been lovely and in the 40's, the sun is out for longer and longer and the snow is begining to melt. lots of slush and puddles. several very enjoyable walks with friends this week. that is my major social interaction, which works for me. last monday i met with kelly for the bivouac walk and this monday was with tanya. i think this was the last official "monday walk of winter". it went great so i do plan on starting it up again in the fall sometime next year. it's just been an assortment of people who come and just worked well i think. tuesday i walked with my friend maria at the dog park (university lake). i'll have to avoid all bodies of water for a time as the lakes are thawing and i'm always paranoid that blossom will walk on the ice and break through. so the walks will tend towards neighborhoods around me more. the bog by my house is good still, but soon the water there will be gross and then the mosquito's will kick in. plant life is still a ways off though. the ground is frozen under the snow that still covers a great deal of the city. 
life at home has been very exciting...got flowers from rudy today (he's my mom's widower...though that seems a strange word to me). very sweet of him to send flowers. i know he misses my mom dearly and i do as well. i used to call her frequently and she was always interested in the mundane details of my life. i guess that how mom's are. of course, my cat, sapogi, was more excited about the box the flowers came in than the actual flowers. that is a cat for you. i just have a few more pages left in the book i'm reading, "infidel". i've really enjoyed it. so two books back to back almost dealing with womens issues. i could relate to her journey away from her religion. the author will probably be killed one day for her beliefs and for being outspoken about how the muslim culture negatively impacts women. she has issues with people saying islam is a peaceful religion as in her life and experience it just isn't the case. i think she has been a bit naive at times in her life, but i do know that being raised in a rather protective religion can make one naive when they enter the world at large. i know when i left mormonism i had a great deal to learn about this world i had lived near, but never really in. there was much trial and error involved but i think i've made my way and it sounds like she did as well. i think i just love reading about people's journey's emotional and mental. so many never make those journey's and simply follow what is comfortable and known. change is scarey and mistakes will be made, but change can be a wonderful thing and growth occurs at all levels.
so much of my week was spent at work and when i wasn't at work i was walking the bog by my house. the guy above was in the tree's in my backyard. nice to have trees in my backyard now...last year they were beyond the fence. i love to watch all the animals that co-exist with us. the squirrels often are rushing about. i saw a stellar jay the other day in the bog, which is the first i've seen of the season. magpies stay all year, but stellars tell me the spring will come. we also spied a few bald eagles at the dog park the other day and then of course...there are always the moose. saw 4 as i drove towards home one morning and one the next day as well. i walked down my road with the dogs one morning to check out the moose in the field off tudor road and i think i'll post that pic another day. really moose look the same, but i still feel the need to take thier pictures when i can. fascinating animals especially being that they are really large and just cruising around a city as large as anchorage. trail etiquitte dictates that you let those you run across know of any moose they may encounter. i find most alaskans very friendly on the trails. below is another example of trail etiquitte (no doubt mispelled, apologies). anyway. one generaly picks up hats, mittens or booties found on trail and hang them in tree's so they can be found by thier people and hopefully not get buried. there are always things haning up on branches. below is a dog bootie. i just thought the red looked pretty.
some friends moved back to anchorage this week so got to meet them out for a quick meal the other day. they got lucky and thier flight got in despite the volcano having a little burp a few hours after they landed. i guess mt redoubt blew like blazes on saturday again. the kenai got the bulk of that ash. from the pictures it looked pretty impressive. i haven't has much time for the computer this week so i'll have to check out avo before i crash tonight. anyway, i was happy that lesley and her family made it in, she has a toddler and a newer baby so being hung up in some town without any lugguge would have really been a drag . another friend was happy to have a trek canceled due to the volcano. people have gotten trapped all over.
those are bunny prints in the snow in case you were wondering. cute, eh? work...it was quite busy for this girl this week and pretty stressful. i run the continuous dialysis machine on critically ill patients in the adult unit on occasion and occasionally we get a peds kid in who they put on it...then they are excited to have me be so flexible with adults and peds. so i was supposed to work adult icu last week adn instead was sent to peds icu to run the sledd on an almost 1 year old who had coded. i found this situation most stressful but i'm best thrown into situations and i find that i do just fine. last kid on sledd was 14 so i just did the kid as a 1:1 as we would do in adults. with such a tiny baby though i was happy to just run the machine and let another nurse be responsible for the rest of the deal. sadly i ended up in the room with a new nurse who was too tired and it was quite frustrating and i was very annoyed at the situation. anyway, she was a little less tired the next night though still frustrating and finally on the 3rd night my dear melissa took over and we had a good night working together. i gave report to a new frightened adult icu nurse each morning. a baby on sledd is totally not in anyones comfort zone, but the baby was too ill to fly her out and she needed it...so what are you going to do? she is more stable now but we'll have to see if she has any anoxic injury. time will tell. i'm a bit wary that it won't be good news for the cute little thing. my last night they had stopped sledd, lucky me as i heard she is back on tonight, so i took care of the resident kid on a vent (was born in our hospital and now is over a year and still in the hospital) and i got another baby in, less than a year with a badly fractures skull. she was having neurologic changes and seizures. not pretty and obviously, nothing good could have happened to cause this to be her situation. so work can be a little stressful for me, but i do combat it with exercise and walking.
so much of my week was spent at work and when i wasn't at work i was walking the bog by my house. the guy above was in the tree's in my backyard. nice to have trees in my backyard now...last year they were beyond the fence. i love to watch all the animals that co-exist with us. the squirrels often are rushing about. i saw a stellar jay the other day in the bog, which is the first i've seen of the season. magpies stay all year, but stellars tell me the spring will come. we also spied a few bald eagles at the dog park the other day and then of course...there are always the moose. saw 4 as i drove towards home one morning and one the next day as well. i walked down my road with the dogs one morning to check out the moose in the field off tudor road and i think i'll post that pic another day. really moose look the same, but i still feel the need to take thier pictures when i can. fascinating animals especially being that they are really large and just cruising around a city as large as anchorage. trail etiquitte dictates that you let those you run across know of any moose they may encounter. i find most alaskans very friendly on the trails. below is another example of trail etiquitte (no doubt mispelled, apologies). anyway. one generaly picks up hats, mittens or booties found on trail and hang them in tree's so they can be found by thier people and hopefully not get buried. there are always things haning up on branches. below is a dog bootie. i just thought the red looked pretty. 
some friends moved back to anchorage this week so got to meet them out for a quick meal the other day. they got lucky and thier flight got in despite the volcano having a little burp a few hours after they landed. i guess mt redoubt blew like blazes on saturday again. the kenai got the bulk of that ash. from the pictures it looked pretty impressive. i haven't has much time for the computer this week so i'll have to check out avo before i crash tonight. anyway, i was happy that lesley and her family made it in, she has a toddler and a newer baby so being hung up in some town without any lugguge would have really been a drag . another friend was happy to have a trek canceled due to the volcano. people have gotten trapped all over.
i got some stuff done on my days off. i was rather excited that i had a few gift cards piling up and thought it would be nice to use a few. so i headed to barnes and nobel and it didn't cost me a cent to pick up a few new books, then off to rei to get my chucagh park pass for 2009. between my rei dividend and a gift card that cost me all off $5 so that was fun....that is my kind of shopping. i got a new cell phone, a razr i think. mine was deadening. so i'm back with gci on thier plan for a bit and got the phone for free. i just love free. then i joined the alaska club gym. time to get the winter weight off and besides, my bathroom will soon be torn up and i'll need a place to wash up. i used to be a member there. it tends towards the pricey side, but they have several nice gyms and i love,love, love the steam room. it's such a nice reward. they had a month to month deal going on so i signed up. i may record my progress as a way to goad myself into getting back into the gym mode. i've done the gym thing off/on and generally do well with it. will be better now that the dogs are older and more trained. i embarressed myself the first day as i had no pocket for my ipod. i stuffed it into my sports top. i thought i was all clear when i went to adjust the ipod but apparently i wasn't. there was a fellow weight lifter who had that shit eating grin on his face enjoying my little show. i'm sure i turned several colours of red and off i went to the target (another gift card) and purchased one of those arm straps for my ipod. it's worked out well so far. so my first week
day 1 row 8 minutes, light weight lifting
day 2 row 8 minutes, recumbent bike 15 minutes, light weight lifting
day 3 row 12 minutes, recumbent bike 30 minutes...steam room!!
i do have a few pounds that i'd rather not have so hopefully i can encourage them to remove themselves from my buttocks. i'm a saddle bag girl. such a bother. my eating habits tend to be discussed at work and my co-worker the other night looked accusingly at me and said, "you're one of those people who forgets they are hungry, aren't you". it was pretty funny actually. and yes, i am. i try to eat when i'm hungry and stop when i'm satisfied. she also was saying i'd tortured her with my little bag of dorito's. apparently, others just inhale such a bag while i just eat one chip here and there. she is on a diet and it drove her nuts to watch me.
those are bunny prints in the snow in case you were wondering. cute, eh? work...it was quite busy for this girl this week and pretty stressful. i run the continuous dialysis machine on critically ill patients in the adult unit on occasion and occasionally we get a peds kid in who they put on it...then they are excited to have me be so flexible with adults and peds. so i was supposed to work adult icu last week adn instead was sent to peds icu to run the sledd on an almost 1 year old who had coded. i found this situation most stressful but i'm best thrown into situations and i find that i do just fine. last kid on sledd was 14 so i just did the kid as a 1:1 as we would do in adults. with such a tiny baby though i was happy to just run the machine and let another nurse be responsible for the rest of the deal. sadly i ended up in the room with a new nurse who was too tired and it was quite frustrating and i was very annoyed at the situation. anyway, she was a little less tired the next night though still frustrating and finally on the 3rd night my dear melissa took over and we had a good night working together. i gave report to a new frightened adult icu nurse each morning. a baby on sledd is totally not in anyones comfort zone, but the baby was too ill to fly her out and she needed it...so what are you going to do? she is more stable now but we'll have to see if she has any anoxic injury. time will tell. i'm a bit wary that it won't be good news for the cute little thing. my last night they had stopped sledd, lucky me as i heard she is back on tonight, so i took care of the resident kid on a vent (was born in our hospital and now is over a year and still in the hospital) and i got another baby in, less than a year with a badly fractures skull. she was having neurologic changes and seizures. not pretty and obviously, nothing good could have happened to cause this to be her situation. so work can be a little stressful for me, but i do combat it with exercise and walking. i'm sure i've rambled enough for one day and i believe i will bore you no more and head to bed.
What a beautiful word photograph.
ReplyDeletethanks...
ReplyDelete