went moose sighting a bit then headed to Lake Hood to check out the planes. always fun.
these were from my drive on the other side of the airport where the moose hang out. saw several moose but they were closer to that first parking lot after earthquake park. not a lot of great spots to pull over.
so i watched planes for a bit. some of the Alaska Air planes are painted cool...this one passed by as i sat there. Gnat and i chatted tonight about air travel and ebola. it seems that the virus doesn't really pass that easily until people are more ill from it. when they have blood and fluids pouring out from everywhere. hard to contain so much easier to spread.
my feeling is that sitting on a plane with someone in those early stages is not overly risky. overall, i think people should avoid flying in general until this is more under control. i wouldn't plan any new trips right now. i'm not saying that as a panic thing, just the less people moving around the less likely the virus gets transported.
work seems to have started ramping up on their ebola plan. our hospital wouldn't have been any more prepared than that Texas place. they just got unlucky. for those thinking that your local hospitals have a ready supply of hazmat suits in stock they don't. they probably will now, but i have never worn a full hazmat suit as a nurse. we wear a simple gown to protect from obvious stuff that you may contact running in/out of the patients room. we have gloves on and for some bugs a mask. we throw those gowns off and on with great rapidity.
our usual won't cut it for this one. my opinion is that the cdc screwed up. they should have gone to that hospital and either made sure they were had all that they needed to care for this patient or they should just have system in place to take every ebola patient to their central locations for cares. seems like that is the newer plan. the two nurses with it have been sent to one of two centers. primary hospitals should have a primary plan in place for isolating the initial patient and then a system of self quarantine for those who came in contact with the patient. after that...the cdc should take over.
denali above and mama moose below
kept busy at work this week. the first night i was sent to the nicu. of course, they had planned on me being the lone crrt nurse down there and had changed the filter 5 times the night before. i made a bit of a stink and said it wasn't safe for one person to be down there running this. they listened. i felt mildly guilty and wimpy but there is no way the ACC charge can deal with all the usual ACC stuff and attempt to help change multiple filters in a unit across the hospital. besides, you can't just run into nicu....2 minute scrub past your elbows to enter...anyway. Dr G saved me and said that we shouldn't be down there by ourselves...that for one nicu crrt there should be two ACC nurses. of course, a policy needs to be written...i told him crrt should be 2:1 acc staff if kid under like 25-30 Kg.
i can be quite verbal and stand up for myself...this doesn't always happen. most nurses are pretty annoyed that people are blaming those Texas nurses. i doubt it would have run any different in most hospitals in that same time frame. hopefully, their lesson has become one for all hospitals. prayers for those nurses who were brave and took care of that sick patient at risk to themselves. i'm sure they were extremely careful but just weren't given the training or equipment needed to care for this patient. as a nurse though, you have a sick person and you just do what needs to be done.
have a phone interview on Sunday with that public radio station in Dillingham. need to make a list of talking points, just as a resource. little stuff done for WARIS this week. the desk is cluttered still, improving but there are always more things that get added to the pile.
chatted with a friend in the brown building. great to have support there and it was a good talk. i guess there used to be some sort of account that people could donate to specifically that fish and game could draw from. you would just have to specify for it to go to Round Island. that would be ideal and allow us to avoid writing a grant and all that. told him to look into that more.does it still exist? what little piece of paper did i write that on....dang!
my new chair arrived and tonight i finally got to stretch back in it and relax...took a short nap which was lovely. before that the cats seemed to believe it was a gift for them....NOT.
2 nights of ER. i'm there quite a bit but they all seem to like me and are always supportive so i'm part of their extended ER family. they put me in the acute area for 8 hours last night....way more fun there. thanks Alyssa!
the first night it got totally slow in the wee hours. ended up actually going home an hour early. they'd given me another resource pool nurse to orient to ER. not many patients though. hopefully i gave her some good tips. of course, as there was time i pulled up my article for them and then the sasquatch thing came up so i had to find a video clip. pretty funny...we were all laughing.
it wasn't quite sunset yet but the light was still pretty cool. debated hanging out til sunset or hitting Potters or something but i was feeling sleepy and hungry and all that. haven't really eaten a meal tonight. snacks.
not many float planes still sitting in the water. a few planes have actually traded out their floats for ski's. not many yet though.
thought several of these plane shots turned out pretty well....love planes.
after i woke from my slumber i grabbed Blossom and we did a nice loop at North Bivouac. beautiful day. some clouds have rolled in now. we shall see what the weather is like tomorrow and decide what to do with my day. that to do list is long, but i think monday-tuesday will be filled with errands. tonight i may try to do the business license for WARIS online. check that one off the list.
apparently several of our mailers went to the Dillingham fish and game office. hadn't noticed that, but i guess TJ would have many of this people use that address and pick it up there when they were from out of town. the box was full of several returned envelopes that weren't deliverable. i'll make note of those on the master list and then eventually give that to Speedy. eventually we will have a membership list...grandfather in those who donate.
loved the bright red color with the snow capped mountains.
we reached 100 likes on our facebook page. yippee!! was thinking i may need to create a twitter account. i've never done the twitter thing but it may be another way to get out there. social media is cheap...i'm always trying to save money.
i may spend a few minutes tonight moving select pictures over to my shutterfly so i can get ready for this years calendar and christmas cards. less and less cards each year but still fun.
i post pictures of Walrus on the facebook page...every so often someone will write "yum" or something similar. not sure if they are trying to be funny or trying to bait people into saying something about hunting walrus or just testing us? i just ignore it. don't think it really puts the hunt in a good light, but people are free to write "yum" if they want. you really should always consider the audience before you post stuff like that though.
most in the lower 48 and in other nations may not really understand much about subsistence or hunting at all for that matter. i am not opposed to hunting( that isn't excessive and is done for food purposes) and i also know that there is a legal walrus hunt that was fought for and granted on Round Island each fall. i would only put that into question if it were to be found that walrus were being taken illegally at other times or if disturbances were causing stampedes and loss of life. i would think and hope that the populations of that area would have pride in this place and want to protect it to make sure that this fall hunt remains safe. hopefully, this is already done....that the take is altered to account for known illegal harvests?
it is a small risk of increasing awareness of the island...it may bring awareness of this hunt to some who would find it distasteful. something that the "yum" person could very well do. my first gut reaction when i saw it was that it seemed a bit flippant and therefore a bit disrespectful to the animal that was taken. mostly i think it is just someone being funny and not really taking the audience that may see this into account when they write it.
more pretty planes in the right light.
our governors first attempt to stop the progress of the gay marriages has failed...he has vowed to take it to the next level. he will lose again and just make himself look more out of touch with the reality of our world over and over. he needs to let it go. it's time to let it go...
people are stubborn though.
apparently they are now working on labeling the soaps at work...i saw no changes. hand sanitizers and soap dispensers are on either side of most sinks in the ER and the stuff coming out of them looks exactly the same....there was no apology for his rudeness to me nor was there any thank you for pointing out a potentially expensive and infection spreading error.
in this picture below you can see a loon...under the left wing out there. funny that any loons would want to live on Lake Hood with all the engine noise, even funnier that when we were at meetings trying to make Conners Bog an off leash dog park it was said that loons were very sensistive to the noise the dogs made and look at that guy out there.
the lake is pretty silent with the tourists gone and people winding down for the winter.
once it's frozen the ski's will be on planes and the noise will return.
loved the reflection
of course, when do i not love a reflection
the news seems to be ebola and gay marriage...
just reading about an idiot patient i took care of briefly in the paper....you see everyone in the ER. when i ripped out his iv he about cried like a baby...i'm all, "oh, did that hurt? ".
it's "rocky horror picture show" season. a cult film that now seems to only show at Halloween. pretty impressive that it's had such a long history. as i grew up the show played each saturday night at the Rialto in South Pasadena, my hometown. people lined up in costume with all their props and it was a wild place every week, packed. it's a classic and it's silly and crazy. actually met Tim Curry as he brought his dog into the animal clinic i worked at. his dog had accidently gotten into antifreeze (dogs do that). at the time we always kept a bottle of vodka at the hospital and we would dilute that into ivf and administer it to the animal. the alcohol would bind with the antifreeze. now they have medical grade alcohol for this. he was super nice and so was his dog by the way...who did fine.
there was a major blizzard and avalanche in the Himalayas...the death toll sounds like it could be fairly large. many are still missing.
no snow here in Anchorage yet, but it won't be long. the hillside has gotten some but it melted back. i should make another back yard dog poop run tomorrow.
Kaktovik had some polar bear excitement recently. the polar bear patrol got a call from an elder in the community. i guess she just said,"qanitchaq, nanuq" which translates to "arctic entryway, polar bear". they were sure who called, but in such a small community it's fairly easy to figure out i'm thinking. the polar bear was guzzling some seal oil from a drum she had in her entry. seems like a bad place to store that..but homes are no doubt pretty compact up there. hard to hide from a polar bears nose too. this elder had a run in not too long ago with another polar bear when it tried to nose it's way into their canvas tent..i think they were at a fish camp?
plane shots....
Miss Blossom is enjoying this cool fall weather!
my new chair in the background. the one i thought i ordered was a green color but they brought this one, which matches the couch so that turned out well. Rio stayed home today on the couch.
i tried to skirt some rocks across some starting to freeze up lakes. if you catch it right it apparently makes a very cool sound. someone caught it on video and it was cool. the guy was pretty excited about it. very cute.
i've been lazing about so not sure how much else i'll get done tonight. like to catch up on the papers this first night off work. it's after 1 am though. may have to settle in with a book and see what tomorrow brings
beautiful day out there.
blossom broke through the ice to find her beloved mud. it's still there for the finding. i start to avoid deeper bodies of water as Blossom's need to get in the water takes over any common sense she should have about the safety issues.
my adorable dirty dog...happiness is a dirty dog i guess.
stumphenge. well, i shall be off....
grateful for: 1. surviving my nicu night with CRRT, was so much calmer once i had a partner. 2. laughter with co-workers this week. my life has had some silly moments, happy those silly and crazy stories entertain others. 3. crisp fall weather. love it
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