non-eventful, eventful week....

just finished up the 4 night stretch. all went pretty normal after my rough start. looks like the schedule was messed up for my next run, which has been corrected. in retrospect i should have just kept it that way and gone to the peds party, but i'll leave it be so that i don't have an on/off schedule. with nights that can be too taxing. shouldn't use the word tax around this time....it's nearing tax season. did sign up for my permanent fund check. if you aren't aware there is a divident account from the oil revenues that gets dispersed to all alaskans each year.
above was from the university lake dog park. we've had some fog out there and tonight when i went to the grocery it was fogging up pretty good. love all the frost that occurs with the fog though. fog is not unusual for anchorage. apparently the same happens in nepal. had a nepalese patient. kept meaning to try and look up any cultural aspects that would help in caring for the nepalese.

despite anchorage being a relatively small large town we have an amazing amount of diversity of people. i really do like that. i understand that our k-12 grades have over 100 languages represented. it's nice to have all the variety and culture that goes with such a blend of people. overall,i think everyone gets along quite nicely. as a nurse, it's important to try and understand cultures and mores so that you can best take care of people from different parts of the world. always interesting though.

above is blossom in a bright sunlight at the bog. love my bog!!

the moose sightings about town are increasing. generally see at least one driving home from work in the mornings. there are tracks in the front of the house. we do need a fresh snow as my driveway is a sheet of ice. still need to get the kicksled out. all that ice begs for the kicksled to be played with. we have computer classes at work this month and tomorrow i also have a class to go over the new machine for doing continuous dialysis. dr gitomer has assured me it's much more user friendly. i do hope so. i actually enjoy sledd/crrt patients, but this machine is such a bother i've wanted to avoid it.

did several online computer classes...our hospital is finally going to all computer charting. it's going to be a huge learning curve. they say we'll have extra staff to help with the transition, but it always seems like everyone in the community gets sick at once when you try to fluff up staffing for such projects...murphy's law i think. it's also the heart of rsv/influenza season for peds so i don't hold out much hope of nights where we can focus on the computer charting. we'll see..one can hope.

the beavers have continued to be rather busy at the university lake dog park. in the summers the beavers have been known to attack dogs. i'm not that impressed with the production end of these beavers....they are very adept at the destruction, but the trees seem to be laying about and the beavers don't show much interest in the building end of thier life. can't imagine the above tree will be standing much longer.

came home from work saturday morning to the flat cat, mufasa being at the end of his nine lives. he has been enthusiastic for every meal until saturday morning. came home to a great deal of emesis in the bathroom and a weak and distressed cat. i knew his time was near, but still i wish that it had happened on a day when i wasn't between shifts. as it turns out my regular veterinarian was not open that day. having worked with animals for years it is really odd to be among strangers for the end of life care. i went to the local emergency place and they were all nice about it, but they charge more than i expected. also oddly enough, they said if i wanted a paw print that would be an additional fee. when babies die at work, we generally get a hand/foot prints and a lock of hair and such. we would never be so tacky as to request an added fee for such things. i think you just do this as a kindness. it just felt a bit like being taken advantage of when you are in an emotional state.

my co-worker takes her pets there on a regular basis and called them to voice this. i guess her friends that are there at nights went ahead and made a pawprint for me at no charge.

mufasa wasn't my favorite cat, but he's been with me for over 16 years. he was probably at least 18 years old. pets are just such a part of your day to day life, the routine. it's so odd not having him here. the other cat, pogi, doesn't seem to know what to do with himself. he's meowed a bit more and hangs at the door like he's thinking mufasa has just gone outside. (as he does from time to time in the summer). pogi comes to eat but he's so used to mufasa pushing him aside and eating all the food that he just takes a few bites and doesn't know what to do.

i am happy that for animals life can end with dignity. euthanasia is very humane. they put an i.v. in him and then i held him while he quickly fell asleep. he was down to just over 7 pounds when they weighed him. i'm not one to break down at such events. in general i'm just tired. if i cry it's usually weeks down the line over something totally unrelated. i'm also not one for public displays of emotion. sometimes i envy those people who have no issue expressing every emotion as it happens. i knew it was coming with mufasa, but still he lived so many years past the expected that you begin to believe he just wasn't going to ever die. i often joked about my flat cat, but i know i will miss him. he had a very unique personality. i wrote my regular vet a note to let her know mufasa had passed. she always liked him and i was bummed that she didn't get to be there with him in the end. there was no way he would have made it til monday.

didn't get much sleep that day. i had the dogs loaded and after mufasa was off to the bridge i took the pups to n. bivouac for a little loop in there. the sled dog get up in front of me is a typical winter scene in alaska. looks like there were some races that day at the tozier track...it's just bit up tudor road from me and those mushers run through n. bivuoac trails so i sometimes just walk to the musher trails and watch the teams go past. you can see some fog, but it was in the process of lifting. don't think i even caught up on sleep this weekend.

the pups are passed out at this time, rio is snoring...

always enjoy the frost...it's for these iceles that i want to get some close up lens. i just think it would be cool to really get the details of the frost.

today was the monday walk. i set my alarm in the morning when i crawled in bed...apparently i forgot to turn the alarm on though. i felt bad as i was totally late. tanya finally got ahold of me. luckily i had put the cell phone right by me. her friend chris came again, they took off with plans for me to catch up. i guess chris and tanyas dogs got into it pretty good and there was some blood shed. sandra was going to ski, but it was way too icy. once we got together, chris took off and tanya, sandra and i did the tank/powerline/gasline loop. a bit abbreviated. it was a beautiful day out there, cold but pretty. the little creek runs through and we enjoyed looking at the frost and ice out there.

much of the little creek is frozen, but there are openings. a bit hazardous for rio, but she did okay.

still haven't showered for the day. i had all these good intentions of doing the walk, then settling dogs in and heading out for a swim and grocery store run. instead i came home and crashed out on the cough. several hours later it was a bit too late for a swim.

the steam would have felt great today. when you get so chilled it's great to get in that steam room, it really does warm you top to bottom.

big shooting in arizona this week. an attempt was made on a representatives life. i haven't really had time to get all the details, but apparently a lunatic shot and killed many people and shot his intended target. she's in critical condition and probably will never be the same. it's sad to see these sort of issues post election. seems like this sort of thing happens in other nations with more unstable governments. i think of our election up here when miller just wouldn't concede defeat and still hasn't from what i gather. these actions do tend to have a negative impact on the community as a whole and can lead to violence. i think it is related to the hatred of politics at this time. i'm sure there has always been some discourse, but it just seems like there is a great deal more anger these days. no doubt the economy woes put folks more on edge. the irrational do not need much incentive to slip over the edge.

recall reading schindlers list and another book about the violence in rawanda. it occurred to me that there are many out there just waiting for an excuse to kill and destroy. leaders have a great responsibilty to help maintain decorum in society. i'd like to see a peaceful transistion of governement continue in our nation. events such as the one this week in arizona make one unsure of the future. in the end one person has again taken many lives. the why can't always be answered, it's just sad and my heart goes out to those who perished, thier families and those who remain in hospitals trying to recover.

the walk was late, but we still all enjoyed each others company. we stopped off at the coffee house post walk.

this frost was on an evergreen.

back to the creek...

baby pines display thier frost. guess i should head to the shower and then try to sleep. flip for a few days anyway. hopefully, tomorrow is a more productive day. the to do list continues to grow.

the little frosty pine cones are cute too, eh?