sunshine and puppies!!

 seems like i've been chilling more with my dogs than humans aside from work.  today we did mix with some humans as i hit the dog park.  there was a 13 week old great dane pup there today. pups are so fun!! haven't looked at pics from playing with this new little camera on these short walks i do between shifts.  bog, up to creek, dog park...got fresh ink and am printing off more letters to finish up on the mailer.  not looking good for non-profit rate at this time.  minimal donations coming in at this time as we still wait for the IRS to come through.  stamps it is though.

 these are from walks last week.  powerline pass and hatchers pass.  so many beautiful places to walk up here.  was lunching last night and a travel nurse walked in.  she probably hasn't left the Anchorage bowl yet and seemed disappointed in what she'd seen so far in Alaska.  hard to imagine, but i did have a brother who got a basically free trip to the Galapago's and when i asked him how he liked it, his reaction was, "it was okay" not really his thing...something like that. would be a dream trip for me, but not everyone sees the world the same way.

 work this week..ER, Peds icu and then back to adult icu to run a continuous dialysis.  it's never dull at that place.
soon after i got to the ER i needed to get a patient ready to send up to the floor.  as i was trying to remove stickers and monitor stuff i must have given a tug.  this lady curses, "dammit that hurt" and then begins to pray for forgiveness for swearing and then apologizes to me repeatedly. now i started dropping the f-bomb myself in 4th grade so dammit doesn't even really qualify as a swear word.  i think i said something like, "no big deal, don't worry about it" cause i hear swearing all the time!!
this lady then says, "no you don't understand, I'm Mormon, we don't swear!"  i wanted to say i grew up Mormon and i heard the word dammit come out of plenty of Mormons mouths.  but i just again said there was really no need to apologize for saying dammit in my presence...at this point she insisted i forgive her for saying dammit....so you are forgiven...turn back roll eyes.

 the next night i had a kid that needed spine precautions. these are things that go much smoother with adults...for the most part.  i mean if i tell you as an adult that if you flail around the bed you may do further damage and never walk again...you will probably lay pretty still.  this is not the case with small children...with them spine precautions are more of a suggestion...which is what i said to the neurosurgeon the next day when he stopped in...he laughed.  he knew it was true.  all is well though. kids are great recoverers.

 i have a memory of dropping the f-bomb to one of my brothers...who then said something about girls not saying words like this...which i felt was a bit sexist.  i mean yes it was a bad word, but why would it be worse for a girl to say it than a guy.  it was my earliest memories of some feminist leanings. not sure that i called him a male chauvinist pig but i do know it wasn't too long after that i did call my father one.
this wasn't appreciated by my father though and i believe this was a rare spanking that i received.  this was my reaction to my father taking my male siblings to yet another sporting event...this time the Lakers.  in retrospect it really had nothing to do with my desire to go to a Laker game, it did have everything to do with my desire to spend quality time with my father.  that didn't happen and instead i got a spanking.  i've never been to a Laker game in my life.  fyi.

 not sure where i learned the term male chauvinist pig.  my thoughts is that this had been directed at Archie Bunker in an old show "all in the family".  who says television isn't educational!!

 cosmetic surgeries can be great at certain ages.  i haven't had any..a near 90 year old woman is an example of why i'm nervous about many of these.  like the 90 plus lady who was wearing spanks...this woman was thin as a rail.  i thought she had a growth under her arm but it just was very perky breasts that had migrated to an area closer to her arm pit than the top of her chest.

 a few of Blossom and a selfie with my girl.  Rio skipped this hike, but did go to Hatchers.

 i didn't wear my knee supporter this week.  my knee still feels stiff but i feel like i need to make an directed effort to walk with my usual swagger.  find yourself walking off when you have pain and a brace and it seems no matter what you should try and walk your normal way.  found myself using my arms more and my legs less so this week i've been trying to do more stretches, deep knee bends and yoga poses through the day.  joint feels stiff but better...so just doing my own PT and hopefully i'll have good results.

 will need to start the Monday walks soon.  maybe the second week of October. wanted to play a bit more before i commit.  a few folks have been asking . we do seem to start in September most years.  always fun times though.

 love the lichen and rocks covered with lichen out there.

 a volcano erupted in Japan.  there was so much ash!  there was no warning it seems and it appears to be a very popular hiking area.  the rapid moving plumes of smoke sent hikers running for cover.  there were at least 30 that succumbed probably to the ash cloud.  many others holed up in a building over night and were shaken up by overall ok.  i imagine that would be very scary.

 of course, i think we say some of the first reports in the wee hours last night.  the story read a bit odd.  31 people found unresponsive, not breathing and without pulses...a medical examiner would need to determine if they were dead...
i'm in Alaska and from that sentence i can tell you those poor people are dead...you don't need a medical examiner for that diagnosis.  the original article went on for many sentences/paragraphs in this vein.  it doesn't appear they are breathing...not sure if there are fatalities at this time. strange but i wish i'd printed it out.  we are sick i know, but it was pretty strange and funny.

 was happy my filter never clotted on my dialysis machine last night.  it wasn't a bad night over there. people often ask me where my favorite unit is to work.  i'd say no matter where i work, the ICU is still my home.  i do enjoy the variety and ER has become a fun place overall as well.  it's more tasky than brainy so it's a nice break...that being said, i dam good ER nurse will pick up on stuff pretty quickly and react. a lot of guts and instinct i think.

 as with many things medical..it's all about your medical team and in crisis situations some of that is just luck.

 pictures of bull moose in this area in the paper, it is about that time. this valley fills up with moose on the hunt for females to mix and mingle with and it also fills with photographers looking for good bull moose photos.

 i'm not opposed to legal marijuana...but i'm thinking we all sit back, relax and let Colorado be the test pilot on the whole thing.  i've never taken a puff of marijuana or even a regular cigarette.  i grew up in Los Angeles smog so i think my lungs have had enough.  if i i had cancer and nausea that wouldn't go away or needed an appetite stimulant i can't say i wouldn't give the weed a chance.

 as far as working in a hospital i see much worse outcomes from alcohol than i do from weed.  used to excess alcohol is pretty terrible to a body. those iv drug abusers do a number on their bodies as well.  all that stuff may be cool when you are young, but it ages the crap out of people.  i'm often amazed when i look at some people in the hospital and see their real ages.

 this are from the drive down turnigan.

 the only shot of the lights i took that one night last week. mostly i enjoyed the dancing lights....then i figured what the heck i'll go grab the camera.  took this before i could find the tripod and get it all set up.  hate thinking when i take pictures.  haha.  so this is pretty blurry light action.  several friends get out and get really nice pictures.  many folks in the area get pretty obsessed with the lights and will be out in the wee hours driving all over looking for the lights and the cool places to get pictures of them.  many of them are pretty successful at it too.

 our political races up here are brutal.  so annoying and a bit frightening...fear the wrong people will get into office and our animals and environment will suffer.  seems like too many running for those positions do not hold the beauty of Alaska dear and instead or more driven by money and power.

 back in beautiful Hatchers pass.

 a guy who had been fired returned and attacked a few of his ex-coworkers, beheading one.  i had just said last week to a co-worker that there was no doubt that in the not too distant future there would be a copycat beheading on American soil.  didn't take very long at all.  we are surrounded by crazy people just waiting for their moment.  a human life means nothing to them...notoriety does though.
was happy to read that the mosque that he worshipped in condemned this act and was clear that this behaviour is not a part of Islam teachings.  it is good to hear more and more people of that faith speaking out.

 in other news...apparently a group of students from BYU were  protesting on that church's ban on beards for their students.  they have in the past had a fairly long list of rules of conduct and dressing and such for their students.  i remember when i was trying to pick a college way back then the idea of going to a school where i would have more rules to abide by than i did living with my parents did not appeal to me. the beard thing does seem a bit silly, many of the leaders of the church sported beards, especially in the early days.  beards don't equal moral decay...i think it's all just a leftover from the 60's and 70's.

 the local shelter has re-opened after hours drop off cages where the animals will remain safe and warm not matter how cold it is outside.  it's meant for strays only, but no doubt people will use it to drop off unwanted animals.

 will do a bit of envelope stuffing before i hit the sack tonight.  still debating a drive to Seward...if it looks like this i will load up the pups and see what we see.  it's been so beautiful this week..don't want to miss out on a drive before the cold weather cabins us all up a bit more.

 the other day as i was doing the bog loop i noticed loads of firefighting trucks in the neighborhood nearby. i don't remember smelling any smoke but apparently there had been a fire and a few firefighters had suffered injuries.

 thursday morning i fed the dogs and returned to bed.  was hoping for some good sleep before heading to work that night.  i woke to cats flying and the house in a good rattle.  knew immediately it was a quake...a bigger one somewhere.  wasn't sure if it was just getting started and going to get worse.  it went on for quite awhile it seems and so i got out of bed and put my slippers on in case i needed to leave.  the shaking slowed at that point so i figured it was over and crawled back in bed, but then the shaking started up again.  turned out to be a 6.2 quake...i think about 80 miles from anchorage and then another 60 miles below us.  if it had been more surface it would have been pretty brutal.

 just had knick knacks fall over and the cats flying.  you never know when a bigger quake will hit though. guess we followed up with another 4.7 quake which was more like 30 miles deep, i think ithe same distance away. i was at work for that one, but never noticed it.

 best be off to stuff envelopes...keep looking outside to see if any lights appear.

thankful fors... A. puppies...they always make you smile B.  chicken saltimboca...yes, i actually made a tasty meal for dinner tonight.  C. chocolate...so nummy!!