just finished 4 nights of work, it was rainy/breezy out and so we took a neighborhood walk over to cheney lake to check on the baby ducks and baby geese. love to watch them growing up. they are just so dang adorable. lots of them out at cheney lake and it's a pretty busy little local lake so they are used to all the activity so easy to photograph. these guys weren't much put out by rio and blossoms presence. if off leash blossom would surely have chased the heck out of these guys in and out of the water....she isn't given the opportunity though.
as i returned home a neighbor pulled aside to let me know that there is a black bear roaming about the neighborhood. was almost home so i never saw it, perhaps he's in the bog. 
it is strange that it's lighter outside than inside. at 2 am i noticed the light returning already. should be asleep at 2am but after 4 nights of work apparently my body is liking the night. was feeling exhausted this afternoon after the walk and while i ran errands. have obviously gotten over that. i spent my evening painting in my office here. the one wall is a colour called pine bark, which looked alot like melted milk chocolate as i painted it one. the other walls are a colour called green grapes. turned out realy nice. i know that my house has loads of green in it and i was going to try and avoid more, but i do spend some time here and hey...i like green. i find it a relaxing colour. i already love my office more. still more crap to move out, just the leftover bits that i should just toss. my flooring is in, they probably left that message at my house as i was at lowes picking up my paint.
that is a loon above. they do hang out at cheney lake. 
for this home project i decided to use lowes for most of it. my own little thank you for their crew being brave and kind and on the ball and potentially saving a life. it is no easy thing to call in a case of suspected neglect. in a work context it's part of what we do at our work, but out in the real world, it is always difficult to know if a situation merits a call to the police. it's so much easier to just not get involved. mostly i think we convince ourselves that we are over reacting or just wrong. it takes some courage to make a call on a total stranger, but i think we have that gut instinct that tells us when something is not right; in general i find anytime i follow that inner voice, it leads me in the right direction. 
i'll try and pick up my product in the morning..i realize it actualy is morning right now, but you know what i mean. it has to sit here for a few days anyway before they put it in so it will still be put in when i return no doubt. highly unlikely they will just be waiting for me to call and pop over and drop it in friday. i leave saturday for the trip. will be good to set it up for right when i return though. that and a massage...both seem like a good plan.
ended up in the adult icu the entire stretch. got floated back there for my fourth night. week went fine. was in the older part of the unit which i haven't been in for awhile. i like it better as you are more able to work as a team in that older part. we lovingly call it "the ghetto" but we have been discouraged from using this. i get so sick of politically correctedness. when did the dang world get so sensitive. 
think this is a poppy. saw them at work on my way out to my car one morning. they do have lovely flower beds around the place. below is from a walk in the bog on one of the days between shifts. mosquito's were abundant, but not as bad as they were a few weeks ago. could just be time of day though too.
watched a movie from netflix, "walk to beautiful". really more of a documentary. follows several women in ethiopia who go to the fistula hospital in hopes of a repair. i had always figured the fistulas happened primarily because the women were married off so young. apparently, those girls out in the remote places are hefting 5o# jugs of water on thier backs and such by the age of 2-3. with their poor caloric intake they are tiny women, short in stature and thin even in adult ages. add to this being young and they are often not physically able to pass a baby through thier birth canal. lack of access to medical care means these women/girls may be in labor for 5-10 days even before they get any help. at that point the dead baby is removed and they end up with fistulas from thier long labors. 
leaking urine and/or feces makes them quite undesirable in thier villages and they are put out and shunned. thier husbands if they have one drops them off at thier parents home and leaves them there. their families may build a small hut for them to stay safe from hyena's, but away from the main family living space due to thier odor and constant leaking.
there is a fistula hospital and hopefully more are being built as many of these women live very far from this hospital. i believe it's all funded by donations. the one doctor stated that she and her husband came to ethiopia as gynecologists in '59 and were told that the fistula cases would break thier hearts. ultimately, the cases did break thier hearts and they created this safe haven for care, compassion and hope. still many women never have the opportunity to have a repair done or don't even know it's possible. most of the women they spoke to had felt that they were the only ones with this issue.
the cats were entertaining me when i woke one afternoon and the camera was handy. pogi above and ms breezy below.
documentaries like this one i saw are such good reminders of how grateful i am for the life i live. i live in a beautiful place, have a home that most people i share this earth with could never afford. i remember a friend was looking at homes and kept complaining about how terrible all the places she looked at were. we always seem to want more in this country and we forget to see things in terms of the rest of the world. my little home could easily house 5 families in another nation. the idea of running water, plumbing, electricity would make this house a home only the very wealthy could afford. my dogs live better than many humans on this earth. it's all very humbling. not sure why i am here and they are there, but i always figure lessons are learned and ways are created to aid is the process of learning the things we have come here to learn. 
it's also easy for us in the land of prosperity to assume that people who live thier lives in huts with no running water or electricity are somehow miserable. that having those things would make them happy. people living all sorts of various lives have happiness and joy. who are we to decide what brings happiness to another. their lives look difficult and indeed they are challenging. our lives have thier own challenges. i suspect that once your basic needs are met there are other challenges that come from not being so focused on hunting and gathering, finding shelter. i suspect our society has many of the issues it does have because we haven't evolved enough to cope with having our basic needs met. now what, who am i, what does it all mean....these are things that i suspect don't come up very often when you live in a desert and are struggling to find food and water. 
these last few were taken at a school along my walk. they have remoded and updated this grammer school. loved all the pretty lilacs they planted. lots of flowers. looks nice. have always thought it funny that these measures come up all the time in elections. upgrades to our schools. not that i'm opposed to upgrading schools it's just that the educators talk like having a pretty building and equipment will educate kids. then i see children in villages in africa that are having lessons in places where walls may be missing on the classroom. yet, those kids seem to know the value, they dress up and are very focused on the task of learning. they seem to have a sense of the value of getting educated and what it could mean for them and their families. learning doesn't need a pretty building to occur. it needs willing participants, it needs parents who are supportive and involved. this school did need an upgrade by our standards as does another school in the other direction. looks like that one has started to get some work done as well.
when i get annoyed is when the schools get vandalized by students. irkes me to no end. my tax dollars go to making these changes and the place looks lovely then you hear some kids have trashed the place. too many of our students do not respect their education, thier teachers, the buildings and supplies. too often parents do not instill that into thier children either. hopefully, this building will not fall victim to vandalism. if you notice there is an rv on the property. actually i saw two out there. this is very common in anchorage. not sure if this is what other communities are doing in the lower 48 but there are often rv's at schools and trailheads. lots of folks live up here in rv's over the summer, they have a place to park thier rv's and the schools and trailheads get a human presence to disuade unlawful acts. i think it's a great idea.
perhaps i will try to go to sleep again. it's coming close to the official sunrise and i do have a long list of stuff to accomplish before i head out of town this weekend. good night....
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