boxed in...

 

so my neighbors getting their counters installed and the truck has my driveway blocked...has all day.  i'm sure i could get them to move but it's raining so it's just been another excuse to get the day started slowly. i did sit on hold for a bit so that took some time and was always going to.  my pet insurance was auto deducted from my paycheck and that is going away so i had to get that transitioned back to auto deduct from my regular account. so i had time.

still enjoying the fall colors. had debated a quick run to Talkeetna today but i was up late last night.  

many of these are from the colorful run up Arctic Valley. 

thank you Great British Baking Show for making the next season happen.  the first episode was available so i watched that. they had the contestants just quarantine to be on the show. 

i then finished watching the Anne of Green Gables series. don't know if there will be more of that.  it's fun though she really can be annoying at times since she constanting acts before she thinks.  way too emotionally liable for my liking..haha. 

i finished another 3 nights in ICU with the same two patients all three nights.  that is not usual. staff is down.  

i suspect staff is down across the nation as people get tired of dealing with all this covid crap

i'm getting acne from the mask wearing.  haven't had acne for years...so that is annoying

did manage little walks between shifts.  Cheney Lake and Baxter Bog.  yesterday i was beat.  i finally did manage a dog park walk. 

my two patients kept me very busy...very tasky as we would say.

now i laugh to myself about what an easy job i have...some would even say simple...haha!! yes apologies were made after that conversation. it's just a sign of how little people actually know about what we do. a little disrespect as well of course. 

i suspect some of that thinking is it's "women's work" or was seen as such for years. so if women can do it, it must not be too difficult. if it was then it would have been man's work all along. the same could be said for other jobs that were mostly viewed as female jobs...even being stay at home parents.  must be easy, right?  haha. 

i laugh as well because i work in the intensive care units and ER...not units known for being easy or simple but the perception is what it is i guess. until you are a patient you may never really get what your nurse, male or female, does for you. 

we have a steady group of Covid admits on any given day.  what i've seen is that patients with covid, especially the really ill ones take up a bed/vent for weeks and weeks.  for those places that get inundated with covid patients they fill up and can't empty out to take in new cases.  it stops up the entire system.

wearing the masks and face shields is a bother to say the least. 

i had bruising from my massage.  she really had to dig in on those knots.  i've also probably taken a bit more exedrin than usual with the headaches i had.  

there is a study that we were offered to be a part in.  it was to get antigen testing for covid.  i signed up and got that done after i'd worked the night.  i think they had over 1500 signed on when i arrived. the results came back the same day and i am negative. i wonder if they will re-test us at intervals and see if we change. perhaps a testament to the masks and shields.  

nobody i spoke to had tested positive yet...but that was just a small number.  everyone had commented they kind of hoped they would have.  just so we can be like, oh good we already were exposed and we are ok. no such luck

our nation should have been doing wide scale testing months ago.  this administration has screwed this pandemic up so badly and the right just keeps making excuses for them.  they keep moving the goal post as to how many deaths is acceptable and their followers just repeat whatever crap they say.  we are now at over 200,000 deaths and counting. 

since they feel a bit uncomfortable with that number the next move is to victim blame basically....all that died somehow deserve it because they had pre-existing conditions. or they just say fake news...which to me now just equals saying i'm an idiot trump cult member.  they also try to act like the deaths are not real, are something else, are over counted, part of a conspiracy...anything to not put any blame on trump and his sycophants. 

so not only is my job not easy or simple on a regular day it's been made more difficult by this virus and then even more difficult by the constant denial on the right about this virus. not just difficult but disheartening as you struggle with this pandemic reality while others think it's no big deal. 

the latest out there is the New York Times has another big report about the trump financial quagmire.  it sounds like it is worse than we knew.  he owes over 400 million or was it billion to who knows who.  he hasn't paid but like $1400 in taxes over the last many years and has instead gotten millions in tax breaks and refunds.

all these Republicans that support this while claiming they support fire/police/military/infrastructure...we pay for these things with taxes. yes we all like to pay as little as possible but that is very different from doing all you can to use fraud to steal money from your fellow citizens who depend on these services. we all depend on these services. he has not only paid but he's grabbed what he could and continues to use his current position to get even more.

the next thing those on the right like to say is he donates his salary...well, he can't legally not accept a salary in this position so this is another lie.  he takes the salary, now he's made great show of donating one or two, but i bet not all of them and i know one of those he gave to the national park system at the same time he took millions from them so that is like cleaning out my bank accounts and then handing me a few pennies in return. 

this is the second big report on his finances that has come out from them.  they have multiple fact checkers and sources. still trumps followers won't give an inch.  they are beyond reach of sanity at this point for the most part...those cyber trump cult followers.  how do we deprogram 30+ % of the population. 

views from the top. 

not sure where i'll take these pups.  

i think the sun may be coming out so the delay may have been beneficial. 

powerline pass will start to be good moose viewing in the next weeks.

i really can't believe that September is almost over!!

raked up a few bags of leaves yesterday.  as a two dog owner it helps to get those leaves raked up so i can find the dog poops and avoid poop soup. 

the dogs just barked....the crew is packed up and my driveway will be clear in a minute.  

making the most of the delay. 

the local reds are fading fast.  

i can chase fall for a few more weeks perhaps but soon we will be covered in snow.  there was a little termination dust on the local mountains this week. 

this place is always amazing to me.  it's constantly changing.  i can hit the same trails week after week and see very different things. 

i have three more nights of work starting tomorrow night, will i be in ICU for a third week.  always strange to have the same patients three nights in a row. that is just rare these days.

there have been holds in the Er pretty regularly again.  we shall see what the flu season holds. if people mask and distance at least some we may have a lighter flu season which will make it a bit less crazy with the covid.  still hoping we can avoid the worst of it up here.  

the tourist season is over, what little we had this year so now we can hunker down hopefully.  of course, on the flip side we are inside more, which is what happened during the pandemic of 1918 ( i think i have the year/time right).  in winter people are in close quarters which can lead to increased transmission. we shall see. the numbers in the villages has already shown an increase.

some of these are from a dunes walk.  

these leaves are probably down by now.

much sad cases in the ICU this week.  i had two of them.  

off to walk and then hit the grocery store i guess. 

in between shifts i don't always get much done...the Skelly crew has been ignored as well.  time to get them redone...maybe a Halloween theme...not sure if the massacre will be able to happen.  boo.  i already have a few pumpkins here so a massacre will happen just not sure if i can have friends over.  

there are still a lot more leaves to come down out there.  love the smell of fall.  decomposing never smelled so good. haha.

as long as Covid Cat doesn't bring anything inside to decompose!!

thankful for A.  fall and all it's glory  B. to not be a Republican ( laughing as at one Thanksgiving we went around the room saying what we were thankful for and my Mom said she was "thankful to be a Republican)  C. having a job, despite the stress involved some days. may we all get through this and come out more decent and kind on the other side.