nope...i didn't take the above picture. fish and game did. they have heat sensing cameras set up on rovers run. i've been on this trail many times. they caught this picture of a mama bear and her 3 two year old cubs this summer. i thought it was a great shot and pretty impressive. can you imagine coming down the trail and running into this group. this trail is less than a 5 min drive from my home. does give you pause. 
back to my pictures for a bit. there are mushrooms coming up all over. they tend to start in the late summer to early fall. definitely a sign that summer will soon be coming to an end. kinda funny saying that when it is still july. we have had quite a bit of rain this past month of so. lots of folks complaining. rain is part of alaskan summers. some years you get more, some less. this is working out to a more rain kinda summer. 
i ended up working 5 nights this "weekend". the calls started early monday morning. sledd on a baby. the renal doc seems to think i know what i'm doing. he was very happy that i showed up to run the sledd. i had back up as it was a very sick kid and they'd gone through 4 filters on days. the thing clotted off minutes after i arrived. things went sour after that. i was home by 2am. very sad....always sad when a baby dies. we'd also lost a young mother in the adult icu this week so a emotional week for all. i ended up working all three of the icu units in the hospital this week. i worked the adult icu thurs-fri-sat then off to the nicu to take care of 3 "feeder/growers" then the overtime night in pediatric icu. i guess that makes me versatile...or insane. hmm...will have to ponder that. 
got a special treat today as i walked the dogs in the baxter bog by my home. i heard a strange bird call and when i looked around i saw this pair of sandhill cranes. i've never seen them in the bog here so it was pretty exciting. not that i'm any sort of official birder, but i do enjoy birds. i've always really liked cranes and herons. love all those long, tall delicate birds. very cool. the call was very cool and it resonated through the bog. i've got video but i have no idea how to make that smaller so that i can load it. any tips? i took tons of pictures of the cranes today. they must be a mating pair and they were quite flamboyant out there. squawking and calling and jumping all about. the above bird kept picking up this stick and tossing it all over.
here the one bird is chasing ducks around this large puddle. at first i thought the stick was a fish...but no.
loved watching them dance about. it was a great gift after a stressful night. we had a really good crew on last night and that always helps. the baby was staffed pretty much 4 nurses:1 baby. sometimes there just isn't much you can do.
my night in the nicu was the best i've ever had down there. they opened what they call "the annex". the place has an actual window or two in it. the main nicu here has no windows and it's just so stiffling. i think i feel claustrophobic in there. it was just me and a nice nurse so we took care of our 6 babies and chatted all night.
had another head injury lady in the adult icu. she was super wild and i got kicked a few times to the side of the head the first night. nothing to solid got me, but i don't like getting kicked. she was less nuts by my third night with her. i also had a very sweet older lady. the goal is really just to get her well enough to go home where she will have some time with family. her husband is sweet and there was a cute picture of them together as young adults. she wrote me the saddest note....it just said "give up". it was the only thing she wrote all night. just broke my heart. it's rare that i have the same 2 patients 3 nights in a row down there in the adult unit so it was pleasant to be able to do that...
here the one bird is chasing ducks around this large puddle. at first i thought the stick was a fish...but no. 
loved watching them dance about. it was a great gift after a stressful night. we had a really good crew on last night and that always helps. the baby was staffed pretty much 4 nurses:1 baby. sometimes there just isn't much you can do. 
my night in the nicu was the best i've ever had down there. they opened what they call "the annex". the place has an actual window or two in it. the main nicu here has no windows and it's just so stiffling. i think i feel claustrophobic in there. it was just me and a nice nurse so we took care of our 6 babies and chatted all night. 
had another head injury lady in the adult icu. she was super wild and i got kicked a few times to the side of the head the first night. nothing to solid got me, but i don't like getting kicked. she was less nuts by my third night with her. i also had a very sweet older lady. the goal is really just to get her well enough to go home where she will have some time with family. her husband is sweet and there was a cute picture of them together as young adults. she wrote me the saddest note....it just said "give up". it was the only thing she wrote all night. just broke my heart. it's rare that i have the same 2 patients 3 nights in a row down there in the adult unit so it was pleasant to be able to do that...i stopped by monday night when i was taking the dialysis machine back to the adult unit and was happy to see they had been able to extubate the little old gal. her husband was very happy to see me and we chatted for a minute. it's so great when we can get people home for thier final days.
these birds were really dancing. hope you aren't bored with cranes yet...
got to the gym today and amazingly i had the lane to myself the entire time i was there. got in 72 lengths. so a good day really. the condo place is re-doing all of thier fences. not sure, but it still looks like they plan on closing themselves in. will mean more moose sightings on my street i'd guess...maybe bears as well as they no doubt have been using the corridor behind the house. i have no gate on my back fence so for now it's open. hopefully, it gets closed back up quickly. my neighbor called and the fence folks will finish off her front fence with my gate so all is well that ends well. the best part is that really the condo place, unbeknownst to them is pretty much paying for our fence jobs as he's just throwing it in and charging us each a small fee. kharma can come quickly sometimes.
this is how i'll feel when this re-finance crap is over. it's just a process and it's a bother. will be good in the end i know. i'm currently paying 6.2% and i'm locked in at 4.7%. i always find these big changes stressful. i just feel so clueless and so it's stressful just not knowing if you are really getting ripped off. i feel like that whenever i buy a car as well. i mean everyone always thinks they get a deal with these things, but the truth is we all get ripped off and manipulated into believing we got the great deal. i'm too jaded to believe we really do, but i know in the end a lower interest rate will benefit me so off i go....
i was very excited about the cranes, luckily i'd taken my big camera. luckily it was kinda sunny out. i called my friend tanya as i knew she'd be excited about the birds as well. she's not a birder either...not that there is anything wrong with that. we just like nature in general. we were all in st paul and as soon as we got off the little plane from st george (the one we chartered by the way) we were asked, "are you birders". it was my first introduction to birders and i'll tell you...when we said we weren't birders those folks just got cold to us. apparently it's not good enough to have seen, photographed and appreciated the various bird species we were required to keep lists of those seen and recognize them by thier calls and such.
isn't he pretty!!
while i was walking the birds flew over me and moved to where i could admire them again. so the pictures below are actually taken in the first spot i'd see them. first i heard them and they there they were. of course, this first spot also was home to a great many mosquito's and i have several fresh bites to prove it .
thought several pictures turned out real nice. hopefully, now that i know how to download the pictures so that they are easier to load i can try my hand at a few contests.
since it was raining and i was working several of my days walks were either, bog or patterson road or both.
obviously...the bog
the girls in the bog and an especially rainy day.
my lillies are now blooming like crazy in the front yard. sadly, my chickweed is also out of control. a few days of rain prevents you from keeping up with the mowing. i really have to mow a few times per week as things grow so fast. on the plus side, winter is coming and it will all go away anyway. right?
lillies are my favorites....though those ladies slippers look pretty cool too. i'll have to try and hit hte aleutians at the right time to catch a few of those.
had a treat coming home from work the other morning. a mama and calf were cruising down patterson road. i got this lousy picture from the car as i was driving past. they were a bit spooked being so close to the road and the traffic, but you get the idea.
i also had another wonderful surprise. my moms widow, rudy, occasionally sends me flowers out of the blue. he's done this since my mom passed away. it's very sweet. it was especially sweet this week as i was totally thinking it was my nastygram about the gate from the condo association that i've been expecting. so it was a great and happy surprise to find that not only was it not the nastygram...it was beautiful flowers.
we had a few sightings of blossoms new friend the labradoole of patterson street. she is really a cutie.
more stolen pictures...okay borrowed. my friend gail hiked the chilkoot trail with me a few years back and she went with another group of co-workers this week past. when we went we had fog coming up the summit so i asked her to take pictures for me so i could see what i went up. we generally just had 30-40 foot visibility. it was a perk in a way as you couldn't see how far you had to go or how far you could fall. you simply looked for the next orange stick and headed toward it. so no perspective. she could see much more on this trip so i put in a few of her pictures..she's cool with it.
the first two pictures are from after the summit on the canadian side. we just didn't have the views like this...it really is quite beautiful.
this is the boulder climbing/crawling up the last section called "the stairs". called the stairs as the original gold rushers climbed often in the snow and there was a series of steps kicked into the snow that formed stairs. when you get to the top of those rocks that isn't really the top of the summit, but a false summit. there are a few more after that. you can see everyone appears to be crawling as it's so steep in that area and the rocks are loose.
this is looking down at the trail heading up towards the pass and summit. you can only really see a small section that is actual trail, the rest is bouldering and snow feilds.
lastly, looking down from that first false summit you can get a feel of the pitch of the mountain. i don't really like heights so i'm kinda happy i couldn't see this. it sounds like they had a good trip, without incident, which is always good and they had decent weather.
a few other co-workers and friends are headed up the trail this week so i'll get to hear more stories. it's a popular destination. it's a 16 hour drive to skagway from anchorage and then the trail is 33 miles long. you catch a train back. at the summit you enter canada's yukon territory.
these birds were really dancing. hope you aren't bored with cranes yet...
got to the gym today and amazingly i had the lane to myself the entire time i was there. got in 72 lengths. so a good day really. the condo place is re-doing all of thier fences. not sure, but it still looks like they plan on closing themselves in. will mean more moose sightings on my street i'd guess...maybe bears as well as they no doubt have been using the corridor behind the house. i have no gate on my back fence so for now it's open. hopefully, it gets closed back up quickly. my neighbor called and the fence folks will finish off her front fence with my gate so all is well that ends well. the best part is that really the condo place, unbeknownst to them is pretty much paying for our fence jobs as he's just throwing it in and charging us each a small fee. kharma can come quickly sometimes.
this is how i'll feel when this re-finance crap is over. it's just a process and it's a bother. will be good in the end i know. i'm currently paying 6.2% and i'm locked in at 4.7%. i always find these big changes stressful. i just feel so clueless and so it's stressful just not knowing if you are really getting ripped off. i feel like that whenever i buy a car as well. i mean everyone always thinks they get a deal with these things, but the truth is we all get ripped off and manipulated into believing we got the great deal. i'm too jaded to believe we really do, but i know in the end a lower interest rate will benefit me so off i go....
i was very excited about the cranes, luckily i'd taken my big camera. luckily it was kinda sunny out. i called my friend tanya as i knew she'd be excited about the birds as well. she's not a birder either...not that there is anything wrong with that. we just like nature in general. we were all in st paul and as soon as we got off the little plane from st george (the one we chartered by the way) we were asked, "are you birders". it was my first introduction to birders and i'll tell you...when we said we weren't birders those folks just got cold to us. apparently it's not good enough to have seen, photographed and appreciated the various bird species we were required to keep lists of those seen and recognize them by thier calls and such. 
isn't he pretty!!
while i was walking the birds flew over me and moved to where i could admire them again. so the pictures below are actually taken in the first spot i'd see them. first i heard them and they there they were. of course, this first spot also was home to a great many mosquito's and i have several fresh bites to prove it .
thought several pictures turned out real nice. hopefully, now that i know how to download the pictures so that they are easier to load i can try my hand at a few contests. 
since it was raining and i was working several of my days walks were either, bog or patterson road or both. 
obviously...the bog
the girls in the bog and an especially rainy day. 
my lillies are now blooming like crazy in the front yard. sadly, my chickweed is also out of control. a few days of rain prevents you from keeping up with the mowing. i really have to mow a few times per week as things grow so fast. on the plus side, winter is coming and it will all go away anyway. right?
lillies are my favorites....though those ladies slippers look pretty cool too. i'll have to try and hit hte aleutians at the right time to catch a few of those.
had a treat coming home from work the other morning. a mama and calf were cruising down patterson road. i got this lousy picture from the car as i was driving past. they were a bit spooked being so close to the road and the traffic, but you get the idea.
i also had another wonderful surprise. my moms widow, rudy, occasionally sends me flowers out of the blue. he's done this since my mom passed away. it's very sweet. it was especially sweet this week as i was totally thinking it was my nastygram about the gate from the condo association that i've been expecting. so it was a great and happy surprise to find that not only was it not the nastygram...it was beautiful flowers.
we had a few sightings of blossoms new friend the labradoole of patterson street. she is really a cutie. 
more stolen pictures...okay borrowed. my friend gail hiked the chilkoot trail with me a few years back and she went with another group of co-workers this week past. when we went we had fog coming up the summit so i asked her to take pictures for me so i could see what i went up. we generally just had 30-40 foot visibility. it was a perk in a way as you couldn't see how far you had to go or how far you could fall. you simply looked for the next orange stick and headed toward it. so no perspective. she could see much more on this trip so i put in a few of her pictures..she's cool with it.
the first two pictures are from after the summit on the canadian side. we just didn't have the views like this...it really is quite beautiful.
this is the boulder climbing/crawling up the last section called "the stairs". called the stairs as the original gold rushers climbed often in the snow and there was a series of steps kicked into the snow that formed stairs. when you get to the top of those rocks that isn't really the top of the summit, but a false summit. there are a few more after that. you can see everyone appears to be crawling as it's so steep in that area and the rocks are loose. 
this is looking down at the trail heading up towards the pass and summit. you can only really see a small section that is actual trail, the rest is bouldering and snow feilds.
lastly, looking down from that first false summit you can get a feel of the pitch of the mountain. i don't really like heights so i'm kinda happy i couldn't see this. it sounds like they had a good trip, without incident, which is always good and they had decent weather. 
a few other co-workers and friends are headed up the trail this week so i'll get to hear more stories. it's a popular destination. it's a 16 hour drive to skagway from anchorage and then the trail is 33 miles long. you catch a train back. at the summit you enter canada's yukon territory. the movie of the night is "jesus camp". it's a documentary about a fundmental christian summer camp. it's a little scarey actually and i've had to shut it down. it's like they are using the muslims as example...the muslims start training thier kids at age 5 according to these folks and they thing our kids should be trained as our own warriers of christ. i've read the bible and i really don't see jesus as the sort to approve of the message these folks teach. to see children spewing out such crap is so sad....
i'm sure we all are brainwashed to some degree as children, but this level of cultish behaviour is frightening.
always strange too that they use the name of god to destroy the earth. the people in this camp feel that god gave us the earth to use and that since god is returning soon there is no reason to conserve anything.
so a long week at work, with highs and lows. rain and more rain, with some blue skies, cool wildlife sightings. life can be tough but it's good.
old poem...
don't let me die in winter,
body buried under snow,
it'll make my frail bones crack,
simply a lousy time to go,
please lay me down in summer,
layed out on a sunny hill,
my bones will warm my cold, dead soul,
and bring life back to me,
in summertime the weathers fine,
for all to come and cry,
upon my grave the flowers lie,
a perfect time to die.
-
though truth be told i'd rather be cremated and scattered out to sea, like in prince william sound or off on a trail where my feet have often hit the ground. hey that all rhythms too!!
new poem...
-
there are those,
whose life,
is cut short,
who will not partake,
of the joys and highs,
but they will also miss,
the sorrows and pains,
it's not for us,
to comprehend,
the reasons,
for thier early end,
we should however,
find some way,
to live a little more each day,
knowing the gift
of another day spent,
may help our hearts to mend.
-
peace to the family of the little girl who made an early run to heaven last night, may they have comfort in this time of pain. she suffered much in her short time on earth, but she suffers no more.
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