good evening...welcome to another exciting day in my life. all goes well at this end. was outside enjoying the lovely 10 degree weather. blossom, rio and i took a walk on rovers run-moose meadow. only one moose spotted. it was a baby, never saw the mom, which is always a good thing. rio sniffed out the baby or i probably would have walked right past that one too. blossom was chasing her frisbee. it's good exercise. she is a pretty amazing catcher. we chilled at the dog park all weekend. rio is adverse to german shepherds as am i. i think they are beautiful dogs,but they seem to always get nippy. they scare blossom as they insist on trying to herd her. she got bitten by one a few years back....so she's not too fond either. otherwise, the dog park is always a good experience for all. rio loves to lean on all the people. yesterdays monday walk was just me and margaret. she has no dogs. she used to work in the unit, but ended up with back issues. she is inspirational though as despite her medical issues she gets out and keeps active. many people use medical issues as a means to sit around doing nothing. in between shifts is always a bit tough to get out too much, but the dog park works great for all of us. the bog is right by the house and we walk there alot. 
i kinda felt like crap today. i took care of a patient who was really sick with influenza a this last week. the first night, we had no idea that was the issue so i was exposed to it in close range all week. i did have my flu shot so i think my body is fighting it off,but i felt on the verge today...body aches and exhausted. it could just be because i worked my buns off taking care of this guy all weekend. he got viral induced cardiomyopathy....he got shipped south to seattle for a possible heart transplant on saturday after getting even sicker and requiring near code, swan and balloon pump..! he's pretty young really, 45, so i hope he does okay. i'm happy that i was at least able to hold the phone up so he could talk to all his kids before he got more hypoxic and confused. i had to wrestle him back to bed a few times. it was a crazy, crazy night the first night. second night, still crazy, but slightly more controlled. the third night dude was gone so i could actually feel caught up on my patients. the fourth night i was in pedi land with rsv + babies. they were both quite cute. it's a nice change to get the kids.
watched some of the westminster kennel club dog show these past two nights. love to check out all the dogs. the sussex spanial won. very cute dog. i'm always hoping that a mastiff will win. they never do. i was hoping tonight for the deerhound. they just never pick big dogs, unless it's a poodle. not that i'm against poodles or small dogs, it just seems like the big dogs never win. they said a labrador retriever has never won at westminster. that is crazy! labs are great. mastiffs are amazing dogs too. i never realized how great they were until i got rio. they can be a handful. just noticed a dogue de bordeaux is available at friends of pets. she is very cute. it said she'd be better in a single dog household so i suspect she didn't get along with the other dogs in the house. never know if that is the case or if the owners just didn't know how to train well. really, if i do get another dog i want it to be more of a playmate for blossom. rio can't play as much as i think blossom would enjoy. they also have a cute poodle mix available. not that i really need another dog. i always can have my hands full watching these two! not to mention going through 20 pounds of dog food per week.
other dogs i like....from the show and otherwise. well who knew there were so many mastiffs, but i love those neopolitan mastiffs as well. they just have so much skin...it's cool looking. great danes, burnese mountain dogs, irish wolfhounds, borzoi, saluki, afghans. there are lots of cute little dogs, brussels griffon, king charles spaniels. i love lots of those amazing long hair dogs. they just look cool walking in the show with all that hair, but doubt i'd want the work that goes with owning one.
entered rio in the humane society contest to benefit dogs. it's a spay program. i am one who does believe that spaying/neutering is very important. there are far too many dogs in the system and cats, if more people would simply neuter they pets the world would be a better place. it's frustrating that people feel like thier dogs need to have a litter. a girl at work just had another litter of dachshund. both litters have been accidents. this sort of irresponsible breeding is why there are so many dogs in the shelters. not sure what you are supposed to say to these people. i'm sure they all believe that the puppies they bring into the world do not end up in shelters. too often though the puppies are also not neutered and they have puppies and so on and so on...of course! or like rio....they become unable to breed due to medical issues and are dumped back at the shelter. responsible, registered breeders can get crazy the other way, but at least they are trying to keep things under control.
here is another picture of the quilt. gail had given it to bj who agreed to finish the quilting stuff and it came out great. she went ahead and finished off the edges so this quilt got put together in i'd say record time. gail and i were able to take it over to martha's yesterday afternoon. we also took dinner over. i think she really loved the quilt. she teared up a bit. i just want it to be a fun reminder that she can accomplish more than she realizes. she's on oxygen now, sounded better than she did before. she is thin and tires very easily. her husband, jon, said to keep it short several times once he knew we were stopping by so i kept it down to an hour. i hope we didn't tire her out too much. she really tries to put a positive spin on her life. i have to admire her positive attitude in the face of such insurmountable health issues. anyway, i hope the quilt brings her a smile on the difficult days. our bodies are tricky. you just never know what is brewing inside. i'm very grateful for my health. work teaches me that on a daily basis. i watch the suffering of others, how thier lives change so quickly and so dramatically. my life is just as fragile. each of us has an expiration date on us. my aunt glenna passed away this week. ross called last night. apparently, it was pneumonia. sounds like she opted to not allow more invasive treatment and instead pass away without the usual suffering. she didn't want to suffer like my mom did is what ross told me. that actually made me happy. that is how it should be. people should have choices at the end of life. death shouldn't be such a terrible and tragic thing. i suspect my aunt had lived her life and was satisfied with how her life had been lived. too often, in our country, we force people to suffer because we fear death. we can't let people go, it's selfish really. death is just another step in the progression we all go through. the best we can hope for is some sort of peace in the end of our life. i'm not saying i'm in any rush to die. just that i hope when that time comes, i'm not put through some medical hell in some misguided impression that being alive in any condition is better than being dead. ending my years in some nursing home for a decade really isn't life. guess that is everyones own decision, but i just suspect that many people don't understand what they are losing in thier quest to live at any cost. we didn't spend much time with our aunts and uncles in general growing up. i liked glenna and koyle. they weren't the usual folk. they lived in alaska for a bit while they searched for gold so they were always interesting to me since i always loved alaska. i do have some memory of visiting thier home in bonners ferry idaho. it was my first memory of any sort of farm life. i loved the garden and horses. anyway, my aunt has moved on.
better get off the computer and hope this publishes. looks sketchy and i'll be ticked if i just spent all this time and lose it. just watched "charlie bartlett" as i wrote. it was okay. not one i'd say anyone should rush out and see.
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