rain here this weekend, snow in the valley. the clouds did rise today and i could see the snow had come down and thickened on the chucagh range quite a bit. it closed back up pretty quickly. lucky for us...a few blue skies appeared as we did our monday walk. i thought maybe it would just be a few of us if it rained, but we had a nice group. tanya, andrea, lena, pj and amy joined me and i think we had 8 dogs amongst us. these first pictures are the last of hanging valley hike from back in september. fall pictures should be now ready to become winter shots. time to settle in...winter is about here. 
the first picture was of boddhi, he's quite photogenic, and this is miss blossom. i thought i had cut back on her food and i had altered what i stuffed in the bones when i left so that there would be less calories...alas today i weighed her and she hadn't lost a pound, in fact she had gained nearly a pound. my little puppy is 80.8 pounds!! yikes! in all honesty, the dog doesn't look fat to me at all. she is perfect. she just has a fluffy coat and some might think that makes her look larger. winter is coming and a girl should have some meat on her bones to stay warm. that is my excuse as well. 
great week for work and sleeping. i always sleep great when it rains. my brain knows when the weather is nice and the sun calls to me as i sleep. 
when i went into my confused patients room the first night he told me he'd seen his parents. given his age i was sure they weren't live, but one can't rule out that he really did have a visit with his folks his heart rate got pretty low that day. the patient told me further that he almost went with his parents but now he wasn't sure what was going to happen. his heart rate did get a bit low on me again that night, but he hadn't joined his parents when i left the other day. it is strange, this death stuff, often people can seem to control when they leave. they will also talk like this when they have come close to death and returned. as a nurse i've looked in patients eyes and felt that the soul or whatever you wish to call it was absent...only to look again later and feel that entity had returned. hard to not believe there is something more out there than just us. i think it's comforting to feel that there is some control to all the madness that happens on earth, that somehow all will be sorted out in heaven and that there will be some justice to those who seem to escape it on earth. also hard to imagine that a just and loving god would allow such horrible events to take place and not step in.
i haven't given up asking those questions but i accepted that i didn't have the answers and that those answers aren't ever answerable in this life. it's all a matter of faith. it takes faith to believe that there is a god and faith to believe there isn't one. i'm cool accepting that i do not know. either way i prefer to try and live a life that would please the god i imagine. often i look at things and i think...if i was god what would i think of this...or that? often people use thier religion as they please. they follow the rules they want to follow and find some justification for why the rules they don't follow won't matter in the end. a person felt embarrassed because she'd offered a guy who is jewish pork chips. it's a well known fact that this guy had an affair while his wife was preggers. my mind goes to really, he can't eat pork chips. if i was god i'd say eat the chips, pathetic morality vs chips...eat the chips. is god going to meet you at the pearly gates and say...job well done my child, you refrained from eating the pork, that is so impressive i'll just forget that little affair you had.
was happy that i got to come home early last night. my assignment was to assist with a sedation procedure. these are usually done on days and so i'm not used to the medications and methods that they use nor am i familiar with the charting. of course as soon as i arrived the impatient doctor was itching to go already. with kids, nothing can be rushed. that is probably the biggest difference between adults and peds. with adults you just say, we're putting in an iv or ng or a foley or we're going to get an xray or an mri or a ct and then you do it. with kids...each one of these things can take 10x more time to get accomplished. it doesn't help to have an impatient doctor. we had our moment and i have learned from past experience to just give it right back and then i think all was fine after that. adults can be bully's too. best action for a bully is to be strong. bully's like weakness. this same doctor had snapped at me on the phone a few weeks past. the rt heard my end and started laughing. i had to call her at like 2am with labs, before i could start speaking she snaps, "just the facts...". so i said, "do i often call you at 2am to chat". it ain't worth the aggravation. my reward was that as soon as the kid was awake, i got to come home and crawl into bed.
when i went to work thursday my thumb was killing me, i had a thorn from a plant imbedded from a few weeks before i think. i got a needle and started digging it out as soon as i had a break, it was in deep so i thought i'd soak it in hot water. julie, our charge that night, stopped by, saw my issue and grabbed my thumb and squeezed the crap out of it. in short order the thorn popped out! pain and then relief! thanks to her for that and thanks to cathy for staying late last night and helping me sort out the charting and all for the procedure. great to have cool co-workers!!
when i was a kid my dad was the guy to get the splinters out. i remember he had this magnifying visor thing with a light. not sure when or where he'd obtained this, but i think he was pretty excited to have a splinter to work on. he was also the one who would mix salt in water and have me swish and spit that when i had canker sores. other than that i think i was a pretty low maintenence kid as far as medicine needs were concerned. i do remember burning my butt once. my neighbor and best friend marie had told me she'd sat on thier heating vent and it hadn't burned her and dared me to do it. i ended up with criss cross burns on my arse. just surface, no scars. years later i ran into marie at our 10 year reunion from high school. she informed me she had lied and had never actually sat on that heater. all those years i'd believed her.
watched a good flick from my netflix the other day. i'd put it off as it seemed to be too serious and you just have to be in the right mood for that sort of movie. it was called, "for my father". a palestinian who was good at soccer gets into a bind with the terrorists. in order to save his families name and prevent the terrorists from killing his family he straps on a bomb and enters into israel. they have the bomb rigged so that they can blow him up if he fails to do this himself. the bomb fails and he convinces the terrorists to wait until he gets it repaired. he befriends a few locals over his short stay. he does his best in the end to save the lives of those around himself, but he is eventually blown up by the terrorists. it's interesting to watch the relationships of those he meets evolve. we aren't all as different as we think we are.
had a massage the other day. love a good massage. i was quite knotted up the previous week so it was great to get some of that worked out. i could feel the headache dissipate within a few minutes of arriving. many years ago now i woke from an upper endoscopy with a winging scapula. i suspect that my dog babyhuey had aggravated or weakened the area, but i woke up in horrible pain. this is caused by nerve damage. the nerves that tell the muscles to keep your should blade flat on your back fail, your shoulder blade wings out. at the time my shoulder blade was a full 90 degrees off my back. the ortho doc that saw it asked if he could parade his staff through to take a look as it was quite impressive. in the end, other muscles attempt to do the work to keep the shoulder blade flat on my back. they are less than successful and i get loads of knots in my muscles which then cause knots in my neck and thus headaches. i think my massage specialist was impressed. usually, by the time i make an appointment the knots have somewhat sorted themselves out. of course the next day i was walking in the bog with the dogs enjoying the relaxation when blossom took off like a rocket after a "kitty cat". i thought i got whiplash.
will have to schedule another massage....
lots of bog walks over the weekend. last week amy, tanya and i also did a loop in kincaid. we saw a large bull moose. walked past it really. rio didn't sniff it til we'd passed by. the bulls are out everywhere right now and can get a bit twitchy. none sighted today on our monday walk. above is tanya, lena and andrea. enjoying a rain free day!
the monday walks have been well attended and fun this year thus far. it takes time, but friendships are being forged through the walks. women just like to have groups and gatherings i think. some to book clubs, knitting groups, ours is walking.
nash slept through much of the walk.
the dogs all had a great time. i think rio even enjoys herself. she's a bit slow, especially with all the roots out there. soon the snow will cover the roots and she'll be able to enjoy the walks more.
last week i stopped by the zoo for wildlife wednesday. through the winter, starting this month, the zoo puts on a lecture series the second wednesday of the month. various wildlife biologists and such will come and cover a topic. i was supposed to meet a friend for dinner but she was unable to join me so after my massage i went and ate at china lights, then headed to the lecture. china lights was decent, had the buffet to save time. it was pricey for someone like me. i never seem to be able to eat too much at one sitting. there were a pair of mormon elders near me eating the buffet so i'm sure those boys ate more than my portion of food so at least it's a wash...kinda like my money went towards their meal.
i haven't given up asking those questions but i accepted that i didn't have the answers and that those answers aren't ever answerable in this life. it's all a matter of faith. it takes faith to believe that there is a god and faith to believe there isn't one. i'm cool accepting that i do not know. either way i prefer to try and live a life that would please the god i imagine. often i look at things and i think...if i was god what would i think of this...or that? often people use thier religion as they please. they follow the rules they want to follow and find some justification for why the rules they don't follow won't matter in the end. a person felt embarrassed because she'd offered a guy who is jewish pork chips. it's a well known fact that this guy had an affair while his wife was preggers. my mind goes to really, he can't eat pork chips. if i was god i'd say eat the chips, pathetic morality vs chips...eat the chips. is god going to meet you at the pearly gates and say...job well done my child, you refrained from eating the pork, that is so impressive i'll just forget that little affair you had. 
was happy that i got to come home early last night. my assignment was to assist with a sedation procedure. these are usually done on days and so i'm not used to the medications and methods that they use nor am i familiar with the charting. of course as soon as i arrived the impatient doctor was itching to go already. with kids, nothing can be rushed. that is probably the biggest difference between adults and peds. with adults you just say, we're putting in an iv or ng or a foley or we're going to get an xray or an mri or a ct and then you do it. with kids...each one of these things can take 10x more time to get accomplished. it doesn't help to have an impatient doctor. we had our moment and i have learned from past experience to just give it right back and then i think all was fine after that. adults can be bully's too. best action for a bully is to be strong. bully's like weakness. this same doctor had snapped at me on the phone a few weeks past. the rt heard my end and started laughing. i had to call her at like 2am with labs, before i could start speaking she snaps, "just the facts...". so i said, "do i often call you at 2am to chat". it ain't worth the aggravation. my reward was that as soon as the kid was awake, i got to come home and crawl into bed. 
when i went to work thursday my thumb was killing me, i had a thorn from a plant imbedded from a few weeks before i think. i got a needle and started digging it out as soon as i had a break, it was in deep so i thought i'd soak it in hot water. julie, our charge that night, stopped by, saw my issue and grabbed my thumb and squeezed the crap out of it. in short order the thorn popped out! pain and then relief! thanks to her for that and thanks to cathy for staying late last night and helping me sort out the charting and all for the procedure. great to have cool co-workers!!
when i was a kid my dad was the guy to get the splinters out. i remember he had this magnifying visor thing with a light. not sure when or where he'd obtained this, but i think he was pretty excited to have a splinter to work on. he was also the one who would mix salt in water and have me swish and spit that when i had canker sores. other than that i think i was a pretty low maintenence kid as far as medicine needs were concerned. i do remember burning my butt once. my neighbor and best friend marie had told me she'd sat on thier heating vent and it hadn't burned her and dared me to do it. i ended up with criss cross burns on my arse. just surface, no scars. years later i ran into marie at our 10 year reunion from high school. she informed me she had lied and had never actually sat on that heater. all those years i'd believed her. 
watched a good flick from my netflix the other day. i'd put it off as it seemed to be too serious and you just have to be in the right mood for that sort of movie. it was called, "for my father". a palestinian who was good at soccer gets into a bind with the terrorists. in order to save his families name and prevent the terrorists from killing his family he straps on a bomb and enters into israel. they have the bomb rigged so that they can blow him up if he fails to do this himself. the bomb fails and he convinces the terrorists to wait until he gets it repaired. he befriends a few locals over his short stay. he does his best in the end to save the lives of those around himself, but he is eventually blown up by the terrorists. it's interesting to watch the relationships of those he meets evolve. we aren't all as different as we think we are.
had a massage the other day. love a good massage. i was quite knotted up the previous week so it was great to get some of that worked out. i could feel the headache dissipate within a few minutes of arriving. many years ago now i woke from an upper endoscopy with a winging scapula. i suspect that my dog babyhuey had aggravated or weakened the area, but i woke up in horrible pain. this is caused by nerve damage. the nerves that tell the muscles to keep your should blade flat on your back fail, your shoulder blade wings out. at the time my shoulder blade was a full 90 degrees off my back. the ortho doc that saw it asked if he could parade his staff through to take a look as it was quite impressive. in the end, other muscles attempt to do the work to keep the shoulder blade flat on my back. they are less than successful and i get loads of knots in my muscles which then cause knots in my neck and thus headaches. i think my massage specialist was impressed. usually, by the time i make an appointment the knots have somewhat sorted themselves out. of course the next day i was walking in the bog with the dogs enjoying the relaxation when blossom took off like a rocket after a "kitty cat". i thought i got whiplash.
will have to schedule another massage....
lots of bog walks over the weekend. last week amy, tanya and i also did a loop in kincaid. we saw a large bull moose. walked past it really. rio didn't sniff it til we'd passed by. the bulls are out everywhere right now and can get a bit twitchy. none sighted today on our monday walk. above is tanya, lena and andrea. enjoying a rain free day!
the monday walks have been well attended and fun this year thus far. it takes time, but friendships are being forged through the walks. women just like to have groups and gatherings i think. some to book clubs, knitting groups, ours is walking. 
nash slept through much of the walk. 
the dogs all had a great time. i think rio even enjoys herself. she's a bit slow, especially with all the roots out there. soon the snow will cover the roots and she'll be able to enjoy the walks more. 
last week i stopped by the zoo for wildlife wednesday. through the winter, starting this month, the zoo puts on a lecture series the second wednesday of the month. various wildlife biologists and such will come and cover a topic. i was supposed to meet a friend for dinner but she was unable to join me so after my massage i went and ate at china lights, then headed to the lecture. china lights was decent, had the buffet to save time. it was pricey for someone like me. i never seem to be able to eat too much at one sitting. there were a pair of mormon elders near me eating the buffet so i'm sure those boys ate more than my portion of food so at least it's a wash...kinda like my money went towards their meal. the subject for the lecture was musk ox. they last lived in alaska over 100 years ago, then they disappeared. not sure exactly what killed them but no doubt overhunting was a large factor. they are easy to round up as they naturally do this anyway. once rounded up they are easily killed. they were re-introduced i think in the 30's-70's..in a time when fish and game just would make the decision and drop animals where they wanted. now there is much more red tape and negotiating involved. we have a herd of buffalo waiting at a local wildlife refuge to be introduced. the years are dragging on and they are still there.
andrea demonstrates alaskan wear! it was chillier than she expected...probably just damp from the rain.
pj joined us with her dog saffron again. great to get to spend some time with her and her dog!
when all the playing is done the dogs don't want to seperate and it's hard to get them all back in thier proper cars.
they'd rather just play for another few hours.
driving to the coffee shop today we drove past several people out practicing for ski season. this town is crazy with cross country skiers. classic and skate skiers. these are skate skiers. on skated ski's. i suspect they are from the local university as uaa has green and yellow for thier colours.
i always make fun of the lycra folks. some of them can get a wee bit too serious about thier sport. they are fit, but sometimes you think all that competitiveness can knock the fun at of a thing. i don't have a competitive bone in me for the most part so i really just don't get it. i always laugh that nowadays everyone must get a ribbon. you can't just ride a bike or swim or walk because you enjoy it. you must have a goal and all the proper gear. i don't need no stinking ribbon.
tanya took a moment to help nash with his walking while we had coffee today after the walk. he looks pretty happy about it.
andrea demonstrates alaskan wear! it was chillier than she expected...probably just damp from the rain. 
pj joined us with her dog saffron again. great to get to spend some time with her and her dog!
when all the playing is done the dogs don't want to seperate and it's hard to get them all back in thier proper cars.
they'd rather just play for another few hours.
driving to the coffee shop today we drove past several people out practicing for ski season. this town is crazy with cross country skiers. classic and skate skiers. these are skate skiers. on skated ski's. i suspect they are from the local university as uaa has green and yellow for thier colours.
i always make fun of the lycra folks. some of them can get a wee bit too serious about thier sport. they are fit, but sometimes you think all that competitiveness can knock the fun at of a thing. i don't have a competitive bone in me for the most part so i really just don't get it. i always laugh that nowadays everyone must get a ribbon. you can't just ride a bike or swim or walk because you enjoy it. you must have a goal and all the proper gear. i don't need no stinking ribbon.
tanya took a moment to help nash with his walking while we had coffee today after the walk. he looks pretty happy about it.
after the coffee i swang by and picked up sapogi, my cat. he had a check up and vaccines due. he was terrified at the clinic and is quite happy to be home again. my cat has gained a pound. that is like 50 for a human...okay i really have no idea, but he is way too fat! my poor fat cat. blossom is too fat as well and i decided to save rio the embarrassment of a weigh in. i think i'll avoid scales just in case.
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