planning next weeks fun!

 may try to hike Rabbit Lake tomorrow and then i head back to work again for three more.  these are again back in Valdez.

 on Valdez Glacier...well actually we are back on the water at this point, others are around town in the afternoon after this day.

 it was odd to not have my dogs with me but it was also fun to explore dog free for a few days.

 my pet sitter appears to be lined up for my trip to Denali National park in late August.  filling up days in the summer is always fun.  never feel you see all you want to see.  looking back at the photo's you do see that you did get in some cool stuff though even if you didn't do everything you hoped you could.

 i have the Hunter Cabin booked for the nights of July 30-31 if anyone wants to join in those nights. let me know.  it's in K'sugi campground.  looking forward to the hike we took last year out of there.  great views.

 thinking i may try to head to Chicken first as i have a few days off prior to the cabin...then maybe do the cross over of Denali Highway.  if i plan and pack it could work. it's been a few years since I've  been to Chicken and it's always a fun spot.  maybe drive to Eagle out there. never been there.

 want to purchase tickets to see "the book of Mormon".  my niece has said i must see it.  the show will be here Oct 19-28....I'm off the 19-24th so let me know if you want to join me and we will get tickets.  there is also going to be a Moth  night....that sounds fun...long way off, but i would love to be there.  Feb 13, 2019!

 that is the fun coming up.

 i suspect i will still be working on my kitchen when the Moth comes to town...sorta kidding i think..i hope! don't want to jinx it though. 

 there was this passage that went really far back into the glacier that we paddled back into.  there was a point where we all thought there was a little channel so our kayak went through the main pass as the others went down the other one...they did not connect.  the two of us went super far back. it was almost a bit spooky. so quiet.  always strange to be so near town and yet you are still a million miles away some how.

 i think the guide got a little anxious about the split.  all was fine though and we had a nice little paddle.

 first we ducked into this tiny ice trail...you can see the guides yellow paddle above.  then the couple we were with, she wanted to check it out for safety and was knocking loose rocks off the top so they wouldn't fall on our heads.

 we mostly bumped off the glacier getting in.  below you can see the little cave we were checking out

 when i handed the guide my camera to snap photos of us, it switched to black and white. 

 sort of miss the deep blue beauty in black and white...oh well.

 still cool to snap a few in black and white.

 off we go into the glacier

 it's pretty amazing paddling in the ice.  a nurse i worked with has done some of those several month long paddles in the far north of Canada and other places as well.  mountaineer...I'm pretty minor explorer compared to others.  I'm not too big on heights or being out there for months on end i guess.  we all find our place of comfort and venture out in our own ways.  fun to hear her stories though.  part of me wishes i was that adventurous. 

 i do enjoy a shower and indoor plumbing in general. 

 back to color.

 work went by fairly well for me this week.  my nights IMCU, ICU then the last night i was in ER with an ICU patient who i eventually moved up and then added a second ICU patient. i didn't go up to the actual ICU until around 3 am.  it was funny as at some point after than i was walking by and the nurse stationed next to me gave me a really strange look.  she came over a bit later and was all, "have you been here all night?"  she feared she'd totally ignored me all night.

 the ER was pretty crazy. i stayed in my little room dealing with my trauma patient...the patient had 6-7 MD's on the case within a few hours so...that tells you something. that one wasn't even the worst of it.  i like trauma.  those ER nurses rock a trauma though.  I'm more the ICU nurse. amazing how different we all are in some ways.

 most of my nursing career has been in ICU's so i think that is always my most comfortable place. i love the dance of all the drips...the controlled madness there.  ER is more uncontrolled madness. they all come in on a patient and do the initial cares in rapid sequence. i think with how crazy it was they were happy to turn over the one patient to me.  i could feel the switch inside myself once i got into the comfortable room in the actual ICU.  not sure why that is...it's just more of the home base for me. 

 today i joined a friend on a walk at Campbell Airstrip.  wanted the dogs to have access to water.  the salmon are in the creek....and one super sized salmon head was on the trail near the creek.  this place is frequented by grizzly's when those salmon are running.  we didn't see any thankfully...but that left over salmon head looked pretty dang fresh.  we saw a few salmon in the creek making their way up.  these reds are huge i must say...i guess i can see why the bears would be pretty keen on finding them in there.

 after we'd finished playing around the glacier it was time to paddle back.  it was slightly more choppy on the way back.  felt it just a wee bit on my chest but it was a short burst and i could break often.

 back in town.  i went to purchase my tickets for the boat trip the next day and i heard that there was a black bear swimming in the harbor.  i never did find that bear but i did wander a bit in Valdez.

 always love all the colorful boats in the harbor. 

 every community has it's own style.

 like to find a boat with the community name on it.  plenty out there.

 still feeling a bit dehydrated.  i usually drink a few big things of water at work through the night. it was so busy nobody in the ER got any breaks.  i think i drank some water after 5 am finally.  my second patient came up around there.  in report i heard the family flipped out.

 the poor Dr got screamed at as did the nurse.  we tend to be the punching bags for a lot of emotional baggage that is expressed.   nurses have put up with far too much crap over the years.  you excuse much of it as stress related, but it seems to get worse over time. those nurses down there, like me, got no break so it sounds like they finally were chilling with donuts at the nurses station for 5 minutes...they were reamed out for being unprofessional and lazy. 

 i suspect most people have time to hit the can at their jobs or have a bite to eat. some people actually leave work and go to restaurants and eat.  nurses shove food down while thinking about all the stuff they need to get done when they are done shoveling in the food.  in the ICU you usually just walk away from your patients right after you've given a dose of pain meds or something and hope they are OK when you come back.  you hold your bladder until it's about to burst.

 hard to be on the outside and know what is really happening when you see things like nurses eating at the desk. believe me, they would rather have that 1/2 hour break and relax without a care in the back room...but that rarely happens really.

 working on the nets for fishing..liked the boss dog keeping watch.

 often hospitals will try to "force" staff to take breaks.  it's not that simple though.  we are taking care of ill folks who don't want you to just be gone for 1/2 hour or even a few minutes.  on the floors they have up to 6 patients i think in some area's.  that is 6 people making demands on you.  in the ICU you have only 1-2 patients but they are super sick and you are trying to keep them in a stable zone...can't really do that from the bathroom.  they want you to have your co-workers "watch" your patients but our co-workers are already dealing with their load of patients. so really unless they start having nurses who are assigned only to actually take care of peoples patient load...i mean actually do shit for your patients rather than answer the big alarms and code your patient if needs be...it will never work really.

 the harbor from the other side.

 found this cool stand of lupine...not sure what it would really be called, but it was pretty

 ended up sleeping good this week so did not get as much of the dog walking in.  lots of tennis ball time and hose time...so they were pretty happy to get in a walk with fellow dog buddies today i think.

 this section is the old town site of Valdez. 

 after the big earthquake of 1964 the tsunami that followed pretty much took out the community of Valdez...along with i believe nearly 30 of it's citizens. 

 after the community opted to move the entire town to a different area in hopes of having a repeat of this one day.  not much left of the old town but they try to give you an idea

 they put up photo's of what was in the area here.

 below i think was an old bar. 

 i took a stroll around the old town

 still some remnants but not much. 

 a politician stopped by the house today. they left a little flyer and i note saying they liked the deck decor...Skelly does like visitors.

 my free pile got whittled down to nothing but my old Xmas tree stand that was pretty destroyed...so i dropped it in the trash. thanks for the memories.

 the mama bear and cubs killed near South Fork trail head did not turn out to be the ones that killed one and maimed another.  the search continues and i believe the trail is closed at this time.  we've lost a few bears this summer.  they also took another mama and her 3 cubs i think over at a campground on the way out of town...they were getting into tents i think? 

 well, i guess i shall turn in here.  finished one book and starting another.  trying to read more actual books as i can then put them in the little free library. 

thankful for:  A. every walk/hike i do that doesn't end in a bear attack  B. my high energy puppies who get me out there walking C.  a warm summer!