bike to work day...if you don't mind biking in the snow!!

 we officially have the record for longest winter!!  not sure everyone around here is altogether happy about that.  there it is though.  our first snow this season was sept 29, 2012 and today may 17, 2013 makes for a total of 231 days.  it could snow again tomorrow and extend that record.  i'd be cool with it just warming up and melting away.
many people did brave the weather though and participated on bike to work day.  i tend to be a fair weather biker myself.

 i did sleep like a rock though.  nothing like weather like this to help one sleep soundly.  it rained all night while i was at work last night.  did get called in soon after i wrote my blog note the other day.  went to the emergency room to help with a trauma coming in.  was going to follow the patient up to the icu, then was going to go home then i was staying in icu and getting another patient.  easy night for time and a half pay so worked out great for me.

 took me awhile to get motivated to get out on the trails today.  got the girls out finally close to 5pm for a stretch at campbell airstrip.  we took the main trail then looped  back down a musher trail.  wet snow fell the entire time.  it was doggy nirvana for a pup like blossom.  snow and puddles...just a happy combination!

 later i met my friends out at the bear tooth for dinner and to discuss next weekends trip out to holgate cabin.  got the cilantro fries for appetizers and a root beer float.  bought a growler of broken tooth root beer to take out to holgate.  mostly we discussed the food! i'll take the growler and one of those ice cream balls to make us some dessert.  i'm also now obligated to make chocolate chip cookies as they put these fries on bob and tanya's tab and he said that was the payback.
we went out to holgate 10 years ago with a larger group of fun friends...much discussion of that fun trip and how we will miss those who won't be joining us out there again this time.  hoping we get the weather window.
earth is still frozen up here.  no planting for a bit.  summers are short, but the sun shines enough to make up for the shortness of it.  always amazing how fast the place fills up with greenery once it gets going.  i may have to take some hourly photo's one day to show that you can literally watch the grass grow up here.

 wanted to get a better picture of the broken tooth bottle..this is my last growler, empty of course!

 one of my patients was confused last night and getting pissed off.  she started kicking at me and dropped the f-bomb on me a few times. i let her know that i was from L.A. and i'd heard it all.  then i just distracted her by suggesting that she was already in her car and that she was at a drive in movie theater...showed her the tv screen was playing classics.  she settled in with her speaker on the car window and was soon back to sleep. there should be a rule against lab waking patients up who have dementia in the wee hours.  seems a cruel thing to wake up a confused person and then walk away.
i believe i got written up the other week for asking the lab to return at a later hour as my patient, who hadn't actually slept in 2 weeks, was asleep and i didn't want her disturbed.  when i came back to work that night there had been a complaint about nurses not allowing lab to awaken their patients to draw labs.  i said it was probably me and i would do it again....they could write me up all they want.  haha.

 rio came along as well, but she just plugged along behind me.  she doesn't share blossoms love of snow all the time.

 did have my follow up ultra sound on my leg the other day.  all looks good.  hoping after spring actually shows up i can get my walking amped up and get back in hiking shape.

 blossom got her tennis ball time in today.  we weren't the only ones out there....lots of folks in anchorage get out in whatever the weather has to offer to enjoy the outdoors.  just another thing i like about it here.

 just 4 days off then i have 2 days next week and vacation days until the 29th i think...will have to check on that again.  always nervous that work will call looking for you when you don't think you are supposed to be working..not that this has happened often to me or anything.

 the sled dog that attacked the little 2 year old has been listed as a level 5 dog.  this means the animal control office is recommending the dog be put down.  the dog is a 1 year old male named wizard.  it is owned by iditarod musher jake berkowitz.  he actually came in 8th place this year.
sounds like he will fight to prevent the dog from being euthanized.  looks like this whole thing could get pretty ugly.  the parents and berkowitz have all lawyered up.  was reading the article in the paper and cringing as berkowitz's lawyer was inferring that the parents should have been watching the kid more closely and that the child shouldn't have been there at all.  probably not a good idea to be so indelicate when i kid is still hospitalized with serious injuries.  makes me wonder if there will be loss of sponsership for this musher in the years to come.  it's all just looking like it's going to be a sad and ugly mess.  no winners. injured child, possibly euthanized dogs, severed friendships.

 another news story that caught my attention was angelina jolie getting a preventative bilateral mastectomy. apparently, not diagnosed with cancer at this time.  my first thought was she wanted a boob job and this kills two birds.  that is a pretty bold move though, taking off healthy breasts on the off chance they will become cancerous.  i'm not really one to rush into any surgery.  seemingly unnecessary surgery would not be a choice i would make.  most of those cancers can be caught early enough and they aren't recommending total mastectomy's as often as before even in the case of cancers being found.  i smell cosmetic surgery....just saying.

 several rivers in the state are breaking up.  this can cause ice jams and then flooding when those ice jams release.  the large chunks of ice can also cause damage to anything in there way.  the eagle river and yukon river are both running again.  can be a mess...break up.

 paw art in the snow.

 more snow art.  this is just wet snow that landed in puddles and these cool designs resulted.

 pavlof volcano near cold bay is erupting.  our little polar bear cub is now in buffalo at a zoo there where he will get to play with another young cub..not sure if it's another polar bear cub or something else.  that's cool for the little guy.  i remember feeling bad for him and thinking he needed a buddy so this should be good. my brother and his family live in boston area so i was talking with them today and said they should make a trip out to buffalo to see the baby!
a local guy was trying to elude police capture yesterday by walking out onto cheney lake. the ice is very unstable.  the police just surrounded the lake and waited. he eventually walked back off the lake and into custody. he was lucky he didn't end up in the drink.

 just a few black and whites at the campbell creek.

 they've been having kids out there already for fun science camps.  maybe not today.  i think this sluices are set up for gold panning activities.

 despite our snow today, i'm sure that spring will find it's way to anchorage, the rivers will melt and the trees will turn green.  flowers will bloom and mosquito's will swarm.  the bears are out the birds are here...

better crash for the night.  who knows what tomorrow brings, but i do want to wake up early enough to enjoy the day should it turn lovely out there.