each day an adventure in alaska: and there goes the knee...

hoping it's not too bad and that rest and elevation along with ice and all the usual will improve things.

i was enjoying my nights working the door, checking temperatures..the best way to get through the covid crisis i think. i never touch anyone and i wear a mask the whole time. also no charting is a bonus...

only I could injure myself going from a sitting position to a standing position. so now i'm off sick. went in the next night after but by morning the swelling was a bit out of control as was the pain. things did begin to improve with the usual rest, ice, elevation stuff, but it re-tweaked so now i'm hoping i am on a better track. i did pick up a more comfortable and supportive knee brace thing so hoping that will help. also able to walk nearly normally up the stairs now again.

i think i counted at least 6 moose on the curve at Muldoon coming home from work the other day.

a newer toy has been met with high praise by both cats and dogs. this one has a laser light in it as well. it's easy to play with as i rest and ice the knee.

the poor dogs have been neglected of walks...as have i. walks are really a good way for me to decompress mentally.

these days with break up snow and ice conditions are probably not great for an unstable knee anyway. today i did manage to take dogs to a local elementary school so they could run around without concern for cars and other dogs really. i have been either throwing their tennis ball out the back, which is muddy....or going with dogs in the street out front and giving them some longer runs that way. either way it's a pattern of rest/elevate/ice then try to get a few things done around the house and toss the tennis ball and then back to rest/elevate and ice.

i've been watching old reruns of "Northern Exposure". reruns are easy as i don't have to really pay much attention and i can fall asleep.

the schools play ground is all taped off to prevent play and spread of disease. i know we have a lot of Trump fools up here so the concern is that once we get a little bit of clear they will all be out in mass or they will get rebel against this. when you look at comments it's clear that they are closely following the fools on right wing propaganda media so they do not believe this is a big deal. ultimately that will hurt healthcare workers, ems and police as well as all the trump cult followers who will come down with this in the next round. you can almost guess who is totally trumpee when you are at the grocery...who is wearing the masks? though i have seen at least one trumpee co-worker wearing a mask. so some must believe enough of what science says to at least be concerned. must be a tough rope to straddle...when you are in medicine and you are a trump fan.

he continues to use the daily press briefings as his personal rally for re-election. he lies, self aggrandizes, passes misinformation, blames anyone and everyone. he will never accept any responsibility....it's still so odd that the supporters can't seem to remember the crap he said a few weeks ago and seem to go along with the blame game. i guess he has now said he will remove funding from WHO...fools don't get that if this virus stays alive and well across the globe in poor regions it will just rear up here again. the second wave of the 1918 pandemic killed more than the first.

the apparatus just looked kind of sad out there...

he's also insisting that all the checks that get sent out to help those hard hit must have his name on them so that he can make it appear that these checks are coming directly from him and are not our own tax dollars.

this whole pandemic has been made worse at every step due to his lies and incompetence. i do wonder when someone from his own party will finally have had enough. it seems they are all willing to go down with him though. their quest to be in total power and have their way in all things has led them down the path of no return.

my sister's Birthday is today, yet, i was the one who got a gift from her. she made masks for me from the material that she had left over from scrub tops she made for me. so sweet. these selfies do not do the masks justice as i have just gotten in from work, post shower in this one and my knee is no doubt killing me.

this is from the last trek to the dog park last week.

our numbers in Alaska are now at around 300 of the few tested. we've had 9 deaths, though i think 2 actually died out of state.

the iitoo continues to attempt to as Palin once said, put lipstick on a pig...we had some fairly heated discussions in the middle of the night at work when there weren't many folks entering the facility. if you can believe it, i was not the most outspoken of the group.

he keeps talking of reopening the economy. speaks of having absolute power....he really seems to believe he does have absolute power and sadly, many GOP members seem willing to turn over absolute power to him...so much for their states rights platforms they have claimed...kind of like their fiscal conservative ways, fake and their whole sanctity of life lines, bull.

the abortion topic came up. i love how those on the right feel the need to call those who are against getting rid of the abortion option baby killers...like we are all personally responsible for each abortion. these same folks vote to prevent the poor from getting healthcare and meals and/or help financially...which puts these kids at risk for malnutrition and death...perhaps we start calling them children killers, see how they like that. this co-worker was against any and all birth control and feels people should wait until after marriage to have sex...that is not going to happen in this world. babies have been born outside wedlock in even the most restrictive societies.

sanctity of life....they believe life begins as soon as the egg and sperm fuse and create an embryo....i should have given her a scenario...there is a test tube with 5 fertilized/viable embryo's...on the other side of the room is a 7 month old baby. there is a fire and you can only save either the 7 month old or the 5 embryo's. if all are the same then they should clearly select the 5 embryo's...i highly doubt anyone would though. that alone is proof that deep inside they know that there is a difference.

this was the door last week. i may never be on door duty again...:-(

i wish i could hit the pool as that generally helps the knees. they are all closed. the last time i heard of that happening was during the polio epidemic before i was born...our government during that time seems to have worked much better than our current. you now have all these Republicans saying basically, so what if all these people die, according to one past fox host....those who are dying were on the way out anyway basically. so the same folks who screamed about the possible death panels with a more socialized medicine are now willing to lose 100,000 fellow citizens rather than risk losing any ground on the economy. that is i'm sure the choice God would prefer, money of human lives..but there it is....the supposed God party willing to look the other way at lives to save dollars.

it really should be a proud moment for all of them.

the right is for sure using this pandemic to further their battle against the abortion rights laws...it was specifically included in many states as something that is elective and can be delayed.

to ventilate or not to ventilate...there are some very high death rates for those placed on vents especially in certain areas. like NY right now. i've also heard horror stories of nurses caring for up to 14 patients....with short supplies and poor ratio's one has to wonder if the high death rates are partially just indicative of the overwhelming overload of patients. you just can't properly care for that volume of critically ill patients. nurses for years have advocated for safe patient ratio's...often to no avail. now the ratios that were more acceptable have been tossed aside. so is the high death rate related to that or is ventilator support over used or ineffective.

the federal stock piles are nearly depleted...something trump likes to blame on Obama...but it's been over 3 years and that is long enough that this is blood on his hands, not obama's. so the iitoo demands that state governors get their own supplies and then the federal government swoops in and steals the ones the states do get ahold of.

Covi Kitty enjoys his views from the upstairs window.

raining out there again. great to see rain again though. i do love a good rain...though it does mean more mud will be tracking into the house.

kitten is growing pretty quickly. he is a hungry kitty

i did have a conversation with my Dr. my anxiety hasn't been as bad this past week but i did get a refill and was able to make a plan in case i get this. she said she is getting a lot of calls for anxiety through this.

Tusker enjoys the kitty toy as well.

my old state South Dakota has not made mandates to protect against covid spread. i guess now they have had a pretty big outbreak in a hog factory. many GOP run states have been super slow and non-reactive to this pandemic, following the fool in the white house...it may come back to bite them. places like that are like AK, we would be overwhelmed super fast with a crap ton of cases. hell quickly ensues.

here i am at work. i attempted night two. i got through it but it was super sore and swollen. as i hobbled around checking temps in the morning many asked about the knee. i conjured up a tale about the Easter Bunny being difficult to get a temp on as he hippity hopped all over. my co-worker and i greeted all with Happy Easter and i often told folks to Hop on over to get their temperature checked. nobody actually hopped though. haha.

look who's adult canines are coming in. he is 6 months old.

thankful for these sweet furry faces. they make all much easier to cope with.

as i hobble, i fear i will be irritating other muscles...leading to more tweaked muscles. can't wait for that to happen. it's about time for another rest time.