china poot 5 and other stuff...

it was hard to go to work this week as the weather was lovely. often in the mornings and/or afternoons i walk rio and blossom up my street to patterson and then head up patterson. i clocked it on my car once and it's 0.8 miles each way so not a bad little morning stretch. lots of people in the neighborhoods walk up and down patterson. i walk to the bus stop as there is a trash can. there has always been a house with a dog that rio just must visit everytime we pass by now blossom seems to have found one as well. seems like a month ago we saw this doodle out there and then hadn't seen it since, but each time we go by blossom stops and looks for this dog that she so wanted to befriend. the other morning they got to get nose to nose and play through the fence. i so wanted to open the gate, but i didn't..not to worry.

co-workers come and go. i have met many great people in nursing. michelle(third in) wanted to move she and her family back down closer to family. so a goodbye party was in order. i just went to the dinner part at humpies. hadn't had a good hamburger for a bit so i ordered that and i also got some of their tasty steamed clams as an appetizer. really good turn out. she's been great to work and will be missed. in picture, tiffany, linda's daughter who i always seem to want to call the wrong name, michelle and meghan. meghan is great fun and she got stuck on shuyak island with us that one trip. i guess these guys stayed out til after 4am. i'm not too keen on late nights like that anymore. does that make me a fuddy duddy? as i say that it is 1am and i am awake. hmmm....

a better picture of blossom's new friend. i have abandoned the bog for the next few months til the mosquito population wanes a bit. those buggers just love to eat poor rio catalina. walked the jodphur trails on wednesday and spencer loop today. it's just astounding how rapidly stuff grows here. the brush have filled in everywhere and the wild roses are blooming everywhere as are the blue bells. was planning on going to gold mint trail tomorrow. not sure if that will happen at this moment....so far not sure if anyone is joining me. if they aren't i think i'll do a walk closer to home, plant in the garden and prepare for a little roadtrip. another michelle from work joined me in kincaid and my friend maureen joined me today. as we came down the other side of the loop we almost got taken out by a bike rider. i really wish people wore bells or made more noise. i turned one way, maureen turned the other, rio was on the leash in the center. the guy had no place to go and no time to get there. he must be a pretty good mountain biker as he stayed on that bike somehow. maureen thinks she could feel the pedal skim her calf. made our hearts race for a bit.
i ran some errands today and then lost track of time as my watch somehow stopped. since i worked the last 4 nights and only slept 3 hours i guess it shouldn't surprise me that i didn't notice how long it seemed to stay 4pm. felt badly as i'd planned to finally get to one of maddies birthday celebrations. it was too late by the time i figured out what time it really was.

thought i'd toss in some parting shots of china poot. i may have posted some before...who knows. i was watching a movie/documentary. it's called, "unmistaken child". if follows a buddhist who goes on a journey to find the next lama of the one he had served and lost. it was interesting to watch the process. you could tell it was difficult for these parents to give up thier child, but i know it was also an honor as well.

these eagle shots were taken as we ate some meal on the beach. this eagle kept hopping attempting to pick up some big chunk of something on the beach. he finally took off though i'm not sure i can tell whether it was with the chunk or not. i liked the reflections of course.

looks like he does have something in his talons.

just always great to watch those big birds in flight. amazing.

below is an immature bald eagle in flight. they have such a huge wing span and look so graceful in flight.

not sure i've looked very graceful of late, but i never was one who had grace. not sure i ever had charm either. oh well. i still get requests to do my model walk at work all the time. really they just laugh. hmmm...maybe i'm really not that good at it afterall. hehe. my laps have suffered some with the summer. but best to get out and enjoy long hikes. got 2 swims/week in these past weeks. will try and get better, but am trying not to stress out, just keep getting the gym and getting in the pool. i got 30 laps in wednesday and 26 laps today. i can feel a difference in my muscle tone. my new larger sized pants keep falling off so that has to be a good sign. may have to get out the other pants and see how they are fitting. between longer hikes and swimming perhaps i'm getting fit again.

work in acc was steady as usual. my assignment got switched for my third night. ended up wrestling a head injury. avoided calling a code grey ( where you have everyone running to save you from a crazy patient). i called the security crew and lift crew and anyone else i thought could help and we just pre-emptively did a take down. they'd previously let him attempt to get out of bed to try and pee, but he really wasn't getting that. head injuries can be a bit wild especially at first. i got slugged in the arm but not badly enough to do much, my aide got clocked across the jaw though. i hope she is okay. we sent her down to emergency for xrays.

i may have posted this guy, but he deserves another look. my last night i was placed on the regular peds floor but after 3-4 hours i got sent to the peds icu for more head injuries. we've been having a run on head injuries of late.

as we pulled back into the homer harbor we saw the now infamous "time bandit" boat of "deadliest catch". so there she is.

these are all just pictures from the ride from china poot back to homer.

we stopped off and checked out these islands with zillions of birds on them and around them.

sandra and jennifer both got nailed by a gull. jennifer laugher as did all of us, including the boat captain....well all except sandra who kept gaggin which kept us all laughing more and more.

lots of birds.

what kind of birds. lets see mostly it was artic terns, murres and some cormorants. i'm sure there were some other birds mixed in. those were the most prominent ones though.

i think this was those two checking out the birds before the shit happened.

it wasnt' quite the highest tide when the boat came to get us. luckily it was a lovely day out, but we all got a bit wet..in over our boots. we glided the kayaks out to the boat and that dude lifted those kayaks from the water onto his boat with one hand. we were all quite impressed. we made a chain gang line to get the stuff loaded on the boat.

as we finished out last days paddle we saw this cute otter near out beach. i loved his toes all curled up. sadly i took pictures of the otter when there was also a seal popped up right by him, but i think i may have accidently deleted that one. lots of wildlife out there though, suffice it to say.

more from the bird island from the way back. gulls and murres mostly on the top of rocks.

murres on the water.

closer in of murres.

red faced cormorant, murre, gull.

murre coming in for a landing.

the captain was explaining how the birds were leaving hte island to get nest material so you could look up and see the terns returning all had nest material in thier beaks.

parting shot of the birds.

hope i haven't bored you with china poot shots. i'm ready to hit the sack. i just got a new toy for myself for my birthday. i've been wanting the kindle. it's a little personal reading computer. should be fun. i bought a few magazines just so i could familiarize myself with it and one book, "the namesake". i loved the movie and had really liked the previous book by the same author.