getting busy

 a pair of magpies were busy in the yard the other morning collecting dog hair. thought it was cute and snapped a few photo's before said dog hair owners chased the birds off. hopefully the fur makes a comfy nest for their babies.  spring brushing done on the back deck...nice to see it benefits the local fauna.

 the University Lake Dog Park is melting.  there were a few open areas so the dogs got to have some water play time.  even a little swimming.  i kept stomping at the ice...this cylindrical ice now laying on it's side is what is left over all over the lake at this point. it just shreds of in shards like broken glass.  really quite pretty.

 I'm still a kid at heart so i was having fun breaking it off and then trying to snap a few photo's.  i realize it's not the inside of a glacier, but after my work stretch I'm not always up for the big hike.  i really should get over that though.  still there is beauty to be found pretty much anywhere.

 in between shifts the other day we headed for the loop at Campbell Airstrip.  the airstrip itself was clear, just this piled up snow at the end of the runway.  the trails heading back were still pretty coated with the leftover sheet of packed down ice.  no falls though.  pretty easy to manage

 both days the dogs got some nice long off leash time.   again they got compliments both days for their great training.  always a proud moment...usually happens right before Ivy Rose leaps up on me.  pride goeth before a fall, right.  still they are more good than not I'd say.  we are making strides. i have even braved trips into Home Depot with both dogs these past weeks. 

 this weeks outdoor project has continued to be the fence.  it's looking great and is over half done...i think. bought another can of paint the other day so I'm ready for the next good weather day.  nice to finally have the color uniform. next will be deck staining. haven't decided if i go for the same color as the fence or not.  hmm. 

 it was beautiful the other day after I'd worked Wednesday night in ICU.  my body decided i was not to sleep.  i woke at about 11am.  eventually, after tossing and turning a bit i opted to just go paint the fence.  after i went through that can of paint i attempted to take a nap.  the dogs got loads of play time outside, but no walk.  sleep wasn't really happening though and i was thinking it was going to be a long night at work.

 i got put on call and never got called in.

 i pretty much headed to bed and crashed. 

 the swimming hole.

 above is my pups all settled in for me to go to work.  Rio had issues with being separated from me.  i had learned to leave the dogs with a snack, it does make my exit more calm.  i sit down on the couch until both dogs are laying down like this then i just quietly get up and walk out the door, no fuss, no drama.

 it's actually pretty rewarding to discover i can repeat the good training techniques i learned on other dogs.  it wasn't just that Blossom and Rio Catalina were brilliant dogs.  part of it was actually me training them well. 

 the dogs had fun running after the tennis ball over the snow berm.

 last night at work i was also in the ICU.  post open hearts.  spent a great deal of time chasing the numbers with various drips.  it's a dance you do in the ICU.  with a swan though you have a lot more numbers to deal with. 

 was talking to my one co-worker about tweaking drips.  I'm a tweaker.  some nurses do more grand sweeps with the drugs.  i spend my first years in ICU in a very small hospital in Ketchikan. being alone in an ICU like that i felt i learned to move my drips slowly...i had limited back up and so it was wise to exercise more patience when titrating all those drips.  prevents major swings in vital signs.

 often joke that because i am basically fairly lazy i work hard up front to stabilize my patients so we can cruise through the rest of the shift.

 suppose it's in the back of your mind that you are often literally keeping people alive just by how you work all those drips. i think the dance of it all has always kept me interested in ICU.  adding/subtracting drips, finding the right combination to keep the body working, it's fascinating.  watching all the minute changes on your monitors and reacting and intervening. 

 these are back in Seward and on the drive back home

 random bald eagle nest.

 people often ask me what my favorite unit is.  i think my home base in my heart is ICU.  i do like PICU and ER, but PICU is more scary and emotionally draining and ER is in many ways a bit less of a challenge, which i really like too.  ER is just more tasky, which is a nice break from the others.

 when i went into nursing i assumed I'd be an ER nurse. I'd really enjoyed ER as a vet tech in Los Angeles so i just figured that was where i was heading.  since i had gained my instructors confidence i was sent to the ICU to follow a nurse.  that nurse allowed me to jump in a bit and i just recall taking an immediate liking to the minute by minute management of the patient. 

 i think it's technical.  often i think ICU nurses like the technical aspects....the dance of the various drips and the bodies reaction to the job we do.  how you can inch a critical patient back to life. our patients are often teetering between life and death.  there is no place to go, either you get better and transfer out or you don't and you die. there was always a comfort on the floor...the race was on to get the patient transferred to the ICU. 

 there was something satisfying knowing you had made the right calls and moves to get  the patient transferred when you heard the code call from the ICU.  i recall, many ICU nurse blowing you off and treating you like you were clueless when you handed them off your patient.  i did vow to not be such an arse to the floor nurses who sent me patients in the ICU.

 by the time they get that patient shipped to the ICU they are usually hopelessly behind on all their other patients and often the worst of the crisis has been averted due to their strong work. 

 when you work ICU, the buck stops here. people also expect you to know your shit.  they don't always.  i don't always.  in nursing, i find we are going to fail so you just pray those times you fail will not cause any harm.

 ER nurses are marvels at the crisis though.  they pounce on strokes and heart attacks and trauma's.  we recently joked that if you have any of those things it's better to have them and get to the ER than to be in the main hospital and have them.  on the floors there is at times delays getting to cath lab or other interventions that in the ER are just rushed through.

 chatted with a few family members today, always nice. 

 used to speak to my Mom nearly every day.  so that has been a big gap since she passed.  we just always checked in with each other.  made sure the other was OK i suppose.  hopefully, she is still checking in with me and keeping watch. 

 the rest are frost shots from February.  will have to wait for next winter for frost again... 

 always so amazing though.  ice comes in so many forms.  water is crazy amazing really. 

 delicate and beautiful like with this frost and yet deadly as hell and powerful. tsunami's, floods, avalanches....all water.

 haven't wandered too far from home these past weeks.  I'm sure I'll get the urge to cruise soon enough.  this time of year is always a good time for the projects. 

 finally got my router changed out. 

 the best part of the week was watching Hannity squirm when it was released that the iitoo's personal "fix it" lawyer was also representing Hannity.  haha.  OMG.  what a wreck and a nightmare this all is. 

 every time you turn around.  another person in this administration is misusing tax dollars or using their position to further their own agenda.  it will no doubt go down as the most self serving administration ever.  the crazy tax bill the GOP passed leaves a legacy of what is it a few trillion more in debt?  build the wall.  what a joke... the fiscally conservative party is dead.  the morally conservative party is dead.  this idiot leader killed them all...and the folks in leadership positions will go down in history as either morons or cowards, or both. they were supposed to be a check and balance but the forfeited that power it seems.

 don't think I've ever seen more opt to not re-run for office.  it's a mass exodus.  take the money and run really.  get the corporate dollars now before the nation finally wakes up enough to kill citizens united and put limits on the madness of lobbyist, special interest and corporations controlling our government.  this is not what the forefathers had in mind.

 the other amazing thing this week was the pilot and crew that got the plane landed with only one fatality.  listened to the pilot speaking with tower controls and she was so calm.  many of our best pilots started out as military pilots.  she clearly was one of those on this day.

 funny there was an article about Kikkan..the headline was something like, why i wouldn't want my daughter to be Kikkan Randall.  he went on about how she had given over her life to training, took time from family...as i read it all i could think is if this was a man who won a Gold Medal in the Olympics nobody would be bitching that he had taken time away from family to train.  her son is two, she will move with her family to Canada to live more normal lives i presume.

 this is the sort of differences that exist.  a man wins a Gold and it's all accolades, a woman does though and someone writes a judgmental article about how she spent too much time training and going for the gold...5 Olympics...how many people participate in 5 Olympics.  i can tell you that in all the years of Olympics only two members of the US Cross Country Ski Team have won Gold and only one other member has ever won another medal.  so 3 medals total for Us Cross Country Ski ever...great job Kikkan, ignore the haters and the sexist rhetoric.

 there was also a letter to the editor by a former teammate who sounded a bit jealous i thought writing that it's all great that Kikkan won Gold but that others should be remembered for their efforts.

 get tired of the everyone gets a ribbon attitude in this nation.  guess what some people do win and should just be applauded for their hard work.  that doesn't take away from people who beat the odds to compete, all are to be celebrated..but she F...ing got Gold. 

 funny just opened the paper that has a rebuttal opinion piece to the Kikkan article...he said the same thing.  this would not be said if it was a man. 

 Petit won the Kobuk 440 so he won all 5 mid-distance dog mushing races he entered this year...one of his awards is emblazoned with a photo of mine.  :-)  he got second in the Iditarod...second only because he lost the trail for a bit and therefore gave up lead position...crap happens.  well done.

 I've been reading Trevor Noah's book, Born a crime.  interesting read as he grew up in South Africa as apartheid was ending.  a very strange time to grow up.  especially to grow up the by product of a white male and black female...he was literally the illegal product of that relationship.  does make for some interesting observations.

 the geese and other migratory birds are making their way back north.  fun seeing and hearing them all return

 salad can make you sick apparently...better off eating well preserved food like items.  okay i guess not, but we have to avoid all romaine lettuce as there is an e-coli outbreak. was at the grocers today and all the bags of lettuce are gone.

 it's getting late, the papers are read and i really should turn in. don't want to spend tomorrow being totally lazy

 just love all the frost though.  bye frost...see you soon.

grateful for: A. the delicate beauty in the details of all that has been created on this earth.  may it live long, may we protect it all.  B.  co-workers opinions and help with critical patient cares.  C.  family, the ties that bind.