Proud of my puppies!!!

 these are from my trek to Homer...so the start of the sea stars really.  haha. 

 a few of the baby caribou that were out there the day i cruised past.

 and of course, the young bear they have that loves to sit in this tree of his.

 saw 5 moose on the way down.  tonight i drove around and only saw one.  she had a baby but she had it tucked in and was laying down.  i suspect she had a busy day in Kincaid so i had no interest in disturbing her peace....but so sweet.

 worked ICU all three nights.  they are short so i am there.  my one patient kept me very busy the first two nights.  it can be exhausting being a nurse.  it's crazy, it's for sure different every day in some way.  i have some amazing co-workers in all the units i work in that i am grateful to be able to rely on during those stressful, busy nights when you are working hard to keep people alive. my second patient was different each night. 

 my night was all lined up last night just doing the finish work. clearing pumps,emptying foleys...things change rapidly though and one of my patients coded just after 6 am...so a well organized ending to my shift was altered immediately. we pulled the patient through, gave report. thankfully, i am pretty organized so i was only like a half hour late getting home. 

 in these situations i don't think I'm the only one who goes back over the shift and the what could i have done better, were there any signs that i should have acted on...you grill yourself so falling to sleep can be difficult.  we have a stressful job, we have lives in our care.  i think most of us take that care very seriously.  was talking with a co-worker about how if you aren't scared some times in this job you probably shouldn't be there.  no matter how long you are in this work there is always going to be moments that are unexpected and you just have to ride through it.  much easier dealing with codes of patients of other people.  just a different deal when it's your patient. eagle nest above

 earlier i had been telling a few co-workers about another late night conversation I'd had with other co-workers...it was during the Olympics one year.  we had decided that our lives would be more fulfilling if everyone were to do those gymnastic finishes...after every thing we did.  loaded the dishwasher....gymnastic finish...changed the dirty diaper...gymnastic finish!! so of course, last night in the wee hours we did our own renditions of Olympic finishes. we all agreed there would be far fewer angry people and far fewer mass shootings if Olympic finishes could become the norm...try it!! it does give you that extra pat on the back that we all so rarely get. 

 i crawled into bed, tried to decompress and drifted to sleep. 

 i awoke after only a few hours to two dogs who were determined to awaken me and alert me to something. dogs have different sorts of barks and you do get to know them i guess.  i looked out my window to see flames shooting up across the street.  by the time i threw something on and ran outside some others in the neighborhood were banging on doors and had called 911.  turned out to be a green house in a backyard.  thankful it was nothing worse.

 texted my direct neighbor and saw Ramsey...the neighborhood watch guy...out wandering so i returned outside to check on him after the fire trucks left.  the fire looked like it came from his back yard.  i guess it was the one behind him, but the firemen went through his fence to get back to the fire. 

 we talked a bit...i didn't really get back to sleep so i just walked the dogs and then ended up back in bed for a nap.

 so not much accomplished and my body is a bit tired from the two adrenaline rushes of the day.

 pretty impressed that my dogs recognized the danger and found a way to alert me

 love to watch the stars "walking" on their tiny "legs". 

 they also position themselves in such cute ways.

 ran into a dog park friend last week...he is also a nurse.  i met him at the dog park though.  I'd heard he was ill so running into him allowed me to catch up on how he is doing.  appears he is slowly on the mend.  sounds like it's been rough.  we just never know what is brewing in our bodies.  be grateful for each healthy day on this earth.  the star above does seem to be celebrating..or doing it's own Olympic finish! anyway, best to my friend and best wishes for the recovery process...

 more stars walking.

 another mass shooting...so frustrating that we are held hostage by the GOP and NRA while lives are lost over and over and all they are willing to offer the families of those lost is "thoughts and prayers".  they look the other way as lives are lost over and over and then these same gun rights advocates claim that every life is sacred and are doing all they can to stop all abortions. some of the states they are trying to stop abortions in have nearly third world track records in caring for pregnant women and the children they bring in to the world..so this idea that they care about women's health is totally laughable.  they care about controlling women...they don't actual care about the fetus...all their other actions prove otherwise. 

 GOP are against universal healthcare, against money for education or day care or for longer maternity leaves that are paid...in Canada new Moms get a year paid to give their babies a proper start...i can promise you no GOP rep will do that. 

 they also are not willing to spend more money caring for all the kids in foster care or help those kids when they age out of foster care.  they do not support making birth control available, which has been proven over and over to decrease the need for abortions.  sex education is also proven to decrease the need for abortions...in truth their draconian views on women and women's healthcare are the cause of many abortions.

 this was my first night in Homer.  late night low tide so i headed down to check my theory of where the stars were

 the dogs mostly were unaware of the stars. 

 they are currently sleeping.

 there was a large puffin die off..in addition to the loss of grey whales this year.  those are all just the ones that wash up and are found.  the puffins were the tufted puffins i believe. 

 our iitoo went to Japan and he and his administration are so petty and vengeful that they emailed Navy as they wanted to try to make sure the iitoo didn't have to see the ship named after McCain and his father and father before i believe...all who served. 

 sea stars have been having their own issues of late so it was good to see a returning group of stars....this was the only place i saw them. 

 when i went to Seward there were dead fish all over.  i think spawned out hooligans.

 not sure i mentioned that as i drove into Homer that first night i got pulled over for speeding.  no ticket though he did tell me it would have been 6 points and over $350 due to the high speed...i was all, really, i got my element to go that fast uphill?  i find that hard to believe.  he left without giving me an actual ticket...I'm still a bit concerned that I'll get something in the mail..my friend in Homer told me she thinks I'm safe, that she doesn't believe that Homer is that sophisticated.

 it's been awhile since I've gotten a ticket.  i have gotten a lot of tickets over my life time.  been pulled over a lot so mostly i have gotten out of tickets. i lost track at nearly 50 times pulled over. i know i went to traffic school 4 times when i lived in CA and you could only go once a year to fix a ticket.

 these days i drive pretty conservatively....probably the only thing that went towards conservative in my life.  everything else i tended to leave being conservative and head towards being more liberal...my driving slowed down, my "radical" views sped up.

 the day before i headed to work i walked with LS out at Campbell Airstrip.  we took some mushing trails back.  soon before we popped back out near the main trail head we had a black bear burst from the woods and cross in front of us at a lope. 

 don't think the dogs noticed, it was pretty quick.  we decided the bear looked a bit young and rather than find out where it's mom was or if it had a mom with it, we leashed up and back tracked away from that area.

 below you can see the tracks from the sea stars movements...thought it looked cool.  saw a few out there like that.  sea stars do not speed!!

 on my way out the spit to look for sea stars i stopped to text or take a photo...that same cop pulled up next to me to ask if i was okay...i just smiled and said i just stopped to take a photo. he smiled and drove on.  do they have other officers in Homer or just that guy? haha.

 these star tracks are nice...looks a bit drunken though. 

 attempted to go moose spotting tonight...figured a bit of exploring was probably good for my brain.  it was mostly a bust. i even tried going up Arctic Valley Road...that road is worse than any other roads I've traveled up here, i mean even those roads that they tell you to take a spare tire.  i turned around because i did not want to have to deal with a popped tire.

 I've had enough for one day.  maybe walking in a straight line is not very manageable for stars.

 but they always seem to look happy.

 even in pairs!!

 Ivy unaware that she is nearly stepping on a star. i tried to keep them directed away from the star so no stars were harmed

 hopefully, we all sleep well and there are no needs to alert me.

 off to rest...good night all.  remember to do your Olympic finishes...you deserve it!!

thankful for: A. the crew that came to help this morning. B.  a tight neighborhood that came to the aid and prevented a situation from getting out of control.  C.  smart dogs who can recognize danger and act upon it!!