just finished my 4 day work stretch. wasn't too bad at all. did run the slow continuous dialysis machine for 2 nights so getting some experience with that. lots of big heavy bags to deal with and it takes some work to break the inner bag and mix all the contents. anyway....thought i'd continue on with some more pictures from the two fun weekends i had before my work weekend.
above should be a mountain called moose's tooth. there is also a bear tooth so i'm not sure which is which. these were taken after my friend left me up at byers lake. just me the pups and my camera gear. read my book, watched the big mountain, played guitar, watched the big mountain. 
it was clear as a bell all afternoon, just amazing. 
haven't taken too many long walks this week. lots of those errands on the to do list that i've been working on. today did more on getting my rooms cleaned out and prepped a bit. may have a home for the old bed i've had for ages. will be nice to replace it with some sort of day bed/trundle for guests and make that spare room a room for photography, music and reading. put the tester colours on the wall. i like the blue/brown combo but the brown/orange is too dark. the orange is too orange. may use the other colour that was on the little colour palate i'd picked up. that or some yellowish colour. 
will be trapped at home so a big prep day for me then. gotta take the car in for it's bumper exchange. get it over with. eek! hoping the rooms get done before i go for my trip. hate leaving the house like this for a pet sitter. jana has said she will take care of the house/critters. there are a few friends from california that wanted to get away and are contemplating coming up here and taking on my pets. could be fun to make them an itinerary of daily hikes and things to do close to anchorage. not holding my breath on that one yet though. everyone wants to come to alaska, but not many actually do. those that do never regret it though i can assure you of that. 
the manager and supervisors in the adult icu have all given thier notice so in a few weeks that unit will be without any leadership at all. not sure what is going on. obviously, some anxiety and anger underlying. there have been complaints about the current manager for years. she is great, but has very poor people skills. she is very skilled and very task oriented. she gets focused on the details. in many ways it's great in that those things are getting done and the patients have gotten great care. unfortunately, it's also left the unit and staff on edge at all times as she will not see all the hard work you do day in and day out, but instead only sees the one thing that was missed and she'll come down on you for it. no atta boy in this unit. i learned many years ago that the best thanks come from the patients and families. they don't always take the time to write a note, but you can tell that you have made a difficult situation less painful and that is where i get my atta boys. for me, it matters less whether management loves you, and more that patients feel grateful, safe and cared for.
kinda funny/sad/ironic these past few days as you can tell she, (the manager) is a bit hurt and angry that those above her didn't see all the good she did, but instead focused on her lack of people skills. sound familiar. how she feels right now, that lack of support and loyalty from the uppers is how she made her staff feel. if she had not made the staff feel the way she seems to feel now, she'd still be doing the job she was actually good at and loved. she'd been there for this company for years, supportive and loyal. sadly, most companies have no loyalty for thier staff anymore and i know it's disappointing for her after all she has sacrificed for this company. i'm looking forward to working with her again as a regular staff member. i did in the past and always enjoyed it. will be nice for the other staff to see her in a different light. we shall see if she's able to step back from that role as manager. that picture above is sandra in her little paddle boat. we walked on to the cabin and she blew up the boat and paddled over.
can you see the face in the mountain? just to the right and above the tallest tree. thought it looked like a face.
there it is again.
think i got unfairly accused of getting my panties in a bind last night. i rarely get on calls so if they have extra staff and say they may have to send someone home i'll generally raise my hand to offer my services in this matter. usually someone else is there overtime or whatever and i don't go. last night in peds the charge said the emergency room was booking and i'd probably get some peds patients so i figured i'd be staying put. this girl had wanted an on call anyway, that was who they sent home. there was no easy way to divide up her patients except for me to give up my one lovely patient and take those two so i ended up just taking all three. it was actually a pretty breezy assignment and we all compared iphone apps. my obsession of the week is fruit ninja and pocket god. had to show my co-workers the latest games.
so i never thought i'd be going, nor was i ticked that i wasnt' going. just usually, you figure the easiest person to leave with the least amount of patient disruption. felt bad in the morning as unknown to all of us the girl who left had arranged for a day shifter to come in early for her shift to accomadate her need to leave. so she came in early only to find that the person who she did this favor for wasn't even there. some people think only of themselves. the same girl had been annoyed earlier as my patients alarms were ringing. small kids get more upset when you go in/out of rooms to fuss with alarms and silencing. figured i'd just let the parents settle him back down. i had to wake him every hour so he had much reason to be fussy.she was annoyed at the noise and just wanted me to turn off the alarms. in the end i was happy this less than pleasant co-worker went home early. our night was very pleasant at that point.
on that note i always get annoyed that people put themselves in a position to need an on call. i work 3-12 hour shifts a week. that leaves me with 4 other days a week to plan stuff. not many people have that sort of flexibility and still nurses often plan flights or other things in such a way that they are tight and think they must leave work early or whatever. in my mind an on call or overstaff is just a lucky day. many seem to have some sort of sense of entitlement to it. they expect to get them. if you are scheduled to work you should just plan on working. nobody should have to jump through hoops on the day of to accomadate your poor planning, least of all the patients! and that is my rant of the moment.
blossom was a bit disjointed that sandra was out there in that little boat. have no idea what was going through her head about it, but she was whining and anxious about it all. we just laughed of course. poor blossom. she walked out there a few times and sandra pet her,but then she'd get anxious again. goofy dog.
great day though. i was extremely pleased especially considering the forecasted rain.
loved the reflections in these. sandra enjoyed her paddle. forgot to ask her if she made it back to anchorage in the time she'd hoped to meet up with a friend. she's always got something planned it seems.
poor miss maddie got her tonsils out today. i texted tanya at nearly 8:30 this morning to wish them well, but it was already done by then.
have had some fun walks around the neighborhood. cute baby ducks and goslings out there. never tire of baby animals. so adorable. will post those pictures after i've finished with these from byers and halibut cove.
they found the lost musher, melanie gould. she just appeared, tired and hungry but seemingly okay. her friends rallied behind her have said that whatever happened is only her business. apparently she saw those seeking her out and purposely avoided them. this is not normal. a normal person would have let them know she was safe so they could stop looking. even if she had no idea they were looking for her i'd say a normal person would still try and find out what all the fuss was about. you could then be alert to whatever the situation was. my personal opinion is the chick flipped her lid. she left over 10 dogs without plans for thier care. that in and of itself needs to be addressed. she certainly should be docked from competing in the iditarod for her poor dog care...and one wonders if her dogs shouldn't just be taken away and given to more responsible pet owners. my friend went kayaking this weekend and i was unaware of this so when i called her wondering where she was i asked if she was pulling a melanie gould? does the public deserve an explanation? i believe they do. many volunteered to help or just were worried about her and upset over this all. doubt we'll ever know what really happened, but i'm still going with mental health issues that we were unaware of.
loved my cabin view. will return here again.
the rest are from halibut cove trip. actually i think these are all from a walk i took on wrights beach at low tide. the beaches there go on forever at low tide. wandered quite a ways, enjoying hte beauty of the day.
not a whole lot of tide pool activities, but did find an area with some stars, barnacles, muscles and even a few anenomies. never tire of exploring the seashore.
my yard is growing without me. i really need to get out there and clean up the beds up front before winter returns. there is still time, but it all grows so rapidly, it's crazy. have a new himalyan poppy to get put in the ground. love those. they are simple flowers but the colour is just amazing.
long stretch of beach! nobody seemed to want to join me on my walk, but when i returned and told them what was over there they all took off to explore it themselves.
small tide pool. below is an anenome. if you look at the water you can see tiny little floating creatures in there.
the rocks were quite fascinating down the beach from our yurt. various colours and the rocks all twisted in various directions.
happily, i did make it over to the pool this evening for my swim. they still haven't fixed the sauna yet. no signage anymore. who knows what happened. one of the cleaning staff was in the pool cleaning it. must be a nice change of pace from her regular duties. hard to get my pool hours in, but will try and get there more regular. summer schedules and activities make it more difficult.
loved that there were these odd white rocks in the middle of all the darker rock formations. not a geologist but thought it was odd. got a bit crazy taking photo's...any geologists out there with explanations. rocks are cool, but i'm pretty clueless about it all.
i'm pretty clueless about alot of things, the older i get the more clueless i realize i am. i'm cool being clueless though.
macro's
looks like some creature coming out of the sand, don't it?
a lady pulled her car over today while i was walking the dogs. this does happen at times with rio. people ask questions. this time the lady asked if she needed water as she had noticed she was walking pretty slowly. she tends to walk slow all the time, she is 7, with some joint issues. we were almost home i told her, wanted to tell her that her pace would pick up dramatically if she smelled some sort of moose or bear. she wouldn't look tired at all in that case.
okay, i became obsessed with these rocks, but who can blame me.
just realized i have like every light on in the house. it's almost bedtime. must set my alarm for way to early for me in the morning.
they have those news blips on line. one was talking about marriages, do we have too low of expectations or too high? i do think expectations play a role in unhappiness of people in general. this whole soul mate thing has gotten out of control. i never got the impression that finding a soul mate was a common occurance, however it seems that every couple that gets together has found thier "soul mate". it's mostly hooey i think. i suspect those soul mate matches are a very rare and special thing indeed and that most marriages are functional and if you are lucky you care deeply for each other and live with happiness and respect. not sure it was decided that marriage would be exciting. in truth it's the safe path to take. you have someone to lean on, build a life with. being single is therefore exciting due to the fact that there is no back up when things go bad. there is less stability. life is choices and you just can't have it all. you must accept that each choice you make means you choose away something else.
need to do some shopping. have some friends/family with birthdays coming up. have admittedly been terrible at the whole birthday things of late. do like that facebook reminds you of birthdays. nice to remember people and be remembered on those days.
more of the rocks. alaska had many rocky beaches like this.
amy sends sandra and val off for an evening paddle. it was just too sweet of an evening to pass up. great to get val out in a single kayak while the water was calm. you can see homer and the homer spit in the background.
parting ways with halibut cove. still have a few more pictures from there so will post a few more tomorrow perhaps. goodnight.
can you see the face in the mountain? just to the right and above the tallest tree. thought it looked like a face.
there it is again. 
think i got unfairly accused of getting my panties in a bind last night. i rarely get on calls so if they have extra staff and say they may have to send someone home i'll generally raise my hand to offer my services in this matter. usually someone else is there overtime or whatever and i don't go. last night in peds the charge said the emergency room was booking and i'd probably get some peds patients so i figured i'd be staying put. this girl had wanted an on call anyway, that was who they sent home. there was no easy way to divide up her patients except for me to give up my one lovely patient and take those two so i ended up just taking all three. it was actually a pretty breezy assignment and we all compared iphone apps. my obsession of the week is fruit ninja and pocket god. had to show my co-workers the latest games.
so i never thought i'd be going, nor was i ticked that i wasnt' going. just usually, you figure the easiest person to leave with the least amount of patient disruption. felt bad in the morning as unknown to all of us the girl who left had arranged for a day shifter to come in early for her shift to accomadate her need to leave. so she came in early only to find that the person who she did this favor for wasn't even there. some people think only of themselves. the same girl had been annoyed earlier as my patients alarms were ringing. small kids get more upset when you go in/out of rooms to fuss with alarms and silencing. figured i'd just let the parents settle him back down. i had to wake him every hour so he had much reason to be fussy.she was annoyed at the noise and just wanted me to turn off the alarms. in the end i was happy this less than pleasant co-worker went home early. our night was very pleasant at that point. 
on that note i always get annoyed that people put themselves in a position to need an on call. i work 3-12 hour shifts a week. that leaves me with 4 other days a week to plan stuff. not many people have that sort of flexibility and still nurses often plan flights or other things in such a way that they are tight and think they must leave work early or whatever. in my mind an on call or overstaff is just a lucky day. many seem to have some sort of sense of entitlement to it. they expect to get them. if you are scheduled to work you should just plan on working. nobody should have to jump through hoops on the day of to accomadate your poor planning, least of all the patients! and that is my rant of the moment.
blossom was a bit disjointed that sandra was out there in that little boat. have no idea what was going through her head about it, but she was whining and anxious about it all. we just laughed of course. poor blossom. she walked out there a few times and sandra pet her,but then she'd get anxious again. goofy dog.
great day though. i was extremely pleased especially considering the forecasted rain.
loved the reflections in these. sandra enjoyed her paddle. forgot to ask her if she made it back to anchorage in the time she'd hoped to meet up with a friend. she's always got something planned it seems.
poor miss maddie got her tonsils out today. i texted tanya at nearly 8:30 this morning to wish them well, but it was already done by then. 
have had some fun walks around the neighborhood. cute baby ducks and goslings out there. never tire of baby animals. so adorable. will post those pictures after i've finished with these from byers and halibut cove.
they found the lost musher, melanie gould. she just appeared, tired and hungry but seemingly okay. her friends rallied behind her have said that whatever happened is only her business. apparently she saw those seeking her out and purposely avoided them. this is not normal. a normal person would have let them know she was safe so they could stop looking. even if she had no idea they were looking for her i'd say a normal person would still try and find out what all the fuss was about. you could then be alert to whatever the situation was. my personal opinion is the chick flipped her lid. she left over 10 dogs without plans for thier care. that in and of itself needs to be addressed. she certainly should be docked from competing in the iditarod for her poor dog care...and one wonders if her dogs shouldn't just be taken away and given to more responsible pet owners. my friend went kayaking this weekend and i was unaware of this so when i called her wondering where she was i asked if she was pulling a melanie gould? does the public deserve an explanation? i believe they do. many volunteered to help or just were worried about her and upset over this all. doubt we'll ever know what really happened, but i'm still going with mental health issues that we were unaware of.
loved my cabin view. will return here again.
the rest are from halibut cove trip. actually i think these are all from a walk i took on wrights beach at low tide. the beaches there go on forever at low tide. wandered quite a ways, enjoying hte beauty of the day.
not a whole lot of tide pool activities, but did find an area with some stars, barnacles, muscles and even a few anenomies. never tire of exploring the seashore.
my yard is growing without me. i really need to get out there and clean up the beds up front before winter returns. there is still time, but it all grows so rapidly, it's crazy. have a new himalyan poppy to get put in the ground. love those. they are simple flowers but the colour is just amazing.
long stretch of beach! nobody seemed to want to join me on my walk, but when i returned and told them what was over there they all took off to explore it themselves.
small tide pool. below is an anenome. if you look at the water you can see tiny little floating creatures in there. 
the rocks were quite fascinating down the beach from our yurt. various colours and the rocks all twisted in various directions.
happily, i did make it over to the pool this evening for my swim. they still haven't fixed the sauna yet. no signage anymore. who knows what happened. one of the cleaning staff was in the pool cleaning it. must be a nice change of pace from her regular duties. hard to get my pool hours in, but will try and get there more regular. summer schedules and activities make it more difficult.
loved that there were these odd white rocks in the middle of all the darker rock formations. not a geologist but thought it was odd. got a bit crazy taking photo's...any geologists out there with explanations. rocks are cool, but i'm pretty clueless about it all.
i'm pretty clueless about alot of things, the older i get the more clueless i realize i am. i'm cool being clueless though. 
macro's
looks like some creature coming out of the sand, don't it?
a lady pulled her car over today while i was walking the dogs. this does happen at times with rio. people ask questions. this time the lady asked if she needed water as she had noticed she was walking pretty slowly. she tends to walk slow all the time, she is 7, with some joint issues. we were almost home i told her, wanted to tell her that her pace would pick up dramatically if she smelled some sort of moose or bear. she wouldn't look tired at all in that case.
okay, i became obsessed with these rocks, but who can blame me.
just realized i have like every light on in the house. it's almost bedtime. must set my alarm for way to early for me in the morning. 
they have those news blips on line. one was talking about marriages, do we have too low of expectations or too high? i do think expectations play a role in unhappiness of people in general. this whole soul mate thing has gotten out of control. i never got the impression that finding a soul mate was a common occurance, however it seems that every couple that gets together has found thier "soul mate". it's mostly hooey i think. i suspect those soul mate matches are a very rare and special thing indeed and that most marriages are functional and if you are lucky you care deeply for each other and live with happiness and respect. not sure it was decided that marriage would be exciting. in truth it's the safe path to take. you have someone to lean on, build a life with. being single is therefore exciting due to the fact that there is no back up when things go bad. there is less stability. life is choices and you just can't have it all. you must accept that each choice you make means you choose away something else. 
need to do some shopping. have some friends/family with birthdays coming up. have admittedly been terrible at the whole birthday things of late. do like that facebook reminds you of birthdays. nice to remember people and be remembered on those days. 
more of the rocks. alaska had many rocky beaches like this.
amy sends sandra and val off for an evening paddle. it was just too sweet of an evening to pass up. great to get val out in a single kayak while the water was calm. you can see homer and the homer spit in the background.
parting ways with halibut cove. still have a few more pictures from there so will post a few more tomorrow perhaps. goodnight.
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