beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

 ain't nobody beholding this beauty.  looks a bit like a mug shot.  Sunday was cleaning day for me.  my niece is staying here this coming weekend so it was a perfect opportunity to give the house a bit of a spring cleaning.  i took the dogs for a loop in Baxter Bog and then went to work.  i looked up and saw my reflection in the mirror...it wasn't a pretty sight so i had to get some selfies.  i liked this one the most.  after my long day of sorting through cupboards and shelves i cruised to Point Worzonoff to enjoy the sunset...and it was lovely.

 the leaves are out and green which is always a favorite week of mine.

 work was pretty demanding.  mostly because i worked peds icu and sedation is managed a very different way there.  this means that there is a great deal more wrestling with patients and it doesn't matter if they are 2 or 17 and huge...you will be wrestling them.  it's one of the reasons i am happy to not work full time in peds.  after wrestling this kid all night i woke the next day with knots and a bit of a migraine.

 i was given the patient back the next night. i was admittedly a bit of a whiney, cry baby titty mouse as i call it...apparently this dates back to some nursery story of days gone by.  i still had a headache and the situation had not improved...because it's peds.  in adults you don't wrestle patients for long.  they get sedated. dealt with this situation and a headache the second night.  no walks between shifts as i was just trying to deal with the knots and feel better.  i started to feel the headache ease after 4 am i think and my demeanor improved a bit at that point.

 i did make the request for a patient change the next night if i did return there...i believe i was more clean with my request than i had been the  night before...this time i mentioned that if i saw my name by this room again upon returning to work i would immediately stick my finger down my throat and begin to vomit.

 these means were not necessary.

 have been on a paper shredding binge as well these past few weeks...my shredder died  though so i went and got a new one...they have improved dramatically.  i had a great time shredding away the papers in my life.  so rewarding.  my friend NF was telling me i should mix some of it in with my soil (or better yet compost piles)  supposed to help make good dirt.  i may put this box of shredded paper in the garage and hold off recycling it until after i have gotten the garden up and running.

 stuff just collects in your house and it feels so good to have a few days of purging it all.  i still have way more crap and piles of crap than i need for sure, but at least i won't be asked to be highlighted on any hoarder shows.

 this sign, which does not belong in the bog, had disappeared but has now reappeared.  i should call and see if the parks folks can get it back to the shore where it belongs.

 these little grass mounds topped with greens looked funny to me.

 the mosquito population continues to bloom.  soon it will be miserable to come to the bog for a bit.

 got the glass to recycling today and last night as i headed off to this sunset i hit the value village with several bags of clothes/shoes and such.  donated my old suitcase as well.  it was bulky and the zipper was broken.  figure they can fix it...other than the zipper the thing is a really good suitcase.

 always amazing how active we all become in the town that now never sleeps.  the light is out later and later and as long as it's light out there are people out doing and going.

 the sun is setting close to 11 pm now.  i debated going off and seeking out the sunset again tonight but i still had stuff to get done.  groceries, shredding.  :-)

 looks like another big earthquake just hit Nepal area.  a 7.2 or close to that.  what a mess.

 it was nice out at Worzonof.  love watching the planes coming in and then last night there was an added bonus of a barge coming in pulled by a tug boat.  Anchorage is not like Ketchikan.  Ketchikan was always nuts with boats and little planes.  the water ways local are not all that busy. huge tide changes probably prevent too much activity.

 once i get the inside of the house spring cleaned it will be time to head out to the yard and tackle the flower beds and lawn.

 still might see if i can find a crew to come in and do most of the heavy work.  the yard is due for a good work over.  i need to get some estimates for doing a renovation to the upstairs front room and re-roofing.  we are overdue.  it may end up just being the roof.  would love a big walk in closet though...maybe a tiny 3 piece bathroom.  it's a dream

 wouldn't mind just getting some prices and ideas if it's even really possible.

 barge and tug...sweet with the sunset

 there are some people at work, not many but a few who are seemingly only busy when someone is asking them for help.  that was my other annoyance for the stretch.  you hear the chit chatting while you are running around like nuts and then when you ask certain people for help you get the, oh i have all this other stuff i need to do response.

 speaking of different times.  it seems like it's way easier to be a lazy worker now than it was in previous generations.  we would have only considered getting a personal call  from home in the event of an emergency years ago, now everyone is constantly texting or even taking calls.  it's out of control in many work places i'm sure.  don't think there is any way to get that back.  people are so attached to their phones now.

 the thinking previously was...i am at work, they are paying me to work, therefore, i shall work. now it's more of a i'm at work, i'll do the minimal that is required and they will pay me anyway. i'm not saying everyone is bad about it, some are way worse than others, but it is pretty sad how much that has changed.  it's not just the younger generation...many of the other generations have jumped on that phone band wagon.  they are happy to put off work to mess with their phones in any way possible.  with these smart phones there is so much that can distract people from the work.

 that being said i've never been a fan of busy work or trying to act busy when there is no work that needs to be done at 3 am or whatever. i've done this job a long time though and i know that there is never no work to be done those first few hours of any shift.

 you try to be open minded about this world we live in and i think in general i am.  still there are some bizarre situations that come up and you find your curiosity getting the best of you. what is an "alternative" family?  your mind immediately wanders to who is having sex with who?  you try not to, but it just happens.  eventually, it may well be that humans will all have alternative families.  you will have the workers and then you will have the people who group together to raise kids.  

 in general it's probably inefficient at best to have all these little family units each having just 1-2 kids. they were talking about asthma on the radio today and that possibly there are more allergies because we live this cleaner than clean lifestyle.  kids just aren't exposed to stuff. they did mention that kids from larger families have less allergies or less asthma i think.  less direct supervision and more germ exchanges.

 it's always amazing to me...in previous years people had much larger families and yet they did not have pampers or any sort of disposable diapers or wipes.  all the diapers had to be washed and folded.  wash clothes were used for bum cleaning.  there were these thick plastic "rubber pants" that went outside of the diaper in an attempt to keep the wetness in.  how did they do it?  all those diapers.

 my early years of baby sitting there were no disposable wipes/diapers. i remember if the kids went to sleep my task was to fold diapers.

 was thinking of a few differences from years past.  Mr Gruelich.  he was the principle in my grammar school at Oneonta.  he was really tall and bald and always carried a paddle.  that would never happen now but in my grammar school years spankings were a possibility.  i never got a spanking or even came close.  it was a bit intimidating to see him walking around with that paddle.

 another interesting discussion on public radio this past week...well i only caught a bit of it, but apparently Nixon was responsible for many environmental laws.  this despite the fact that he was no environmentalist at all.  he signed many huge laws into place...things like the endangered species act, the marine mammal act.  they were listing them off.  it gets forgotten in his impeachment.

 more changes that came to mind...bottled water.  when evian first came out we all laughed.  you could get water from your tap and your hose, who was going to pay money for water in bottles.  they have though, millions of dollars.  now some kids don't seem to even realize that they can drink water any other way . pretty crazy.  we we surprised that pet rocks sold at all but they did.  humans buy crazy things.  you just have to get lucky and market stuff right.  you never know what will happen i guess.

 velcro and fleece are pretty new items as well.  i'm a fan of both.

 tatoo's were just seen on bikers, military guys and thugs.  really nobody else had them.  now everyone does...grandma's get them .

 these are from my walk today.  not sure why i chose Westchester.  often it's a combination of where the sun looks to be, what errands i have and what dogs i have.  figured Blossom would enjoy a swim before/after the walk

 she did of course.

 big sky.  when i was headed back to my side of town there were some pretty dark clouds on the mountains and rain falling.  a rainbow was out though.  always love a good rainbow.

 we stopped in a park along the way for some tennis ball tossing.  Blossom seemed to want to linger on the way back so we sat on a few benches as we returned to Westchester.

 back to work tomorrow.  will stop by the ER tomorrow...a friend down there picked  up a walrus pottery item...it's totally cool.  she said she'd bring it in to work.  the artist is actually headed out to Round Island this summer.  she contacted me to ask about the funding situation as she really wanted to go out there. happy i could finally give her some good news!!

 Blossom laying down by me...sun and skies!!

 my niece has arrived safely. i texted that if i happened to see any lights or hear of any i'd let her know.  it's almost 2 am and the numbers looked pretty good.  she may not wake up, but if i see them i'll try.  always a cool thing to witness even if they are not the brightest this time of year or with the city lights.

 downtown.

 Blossom would have hauled out to the mud flats to get in the water/mud if she wasn't on that leash...look at her looking out there.  she is not to be trusted around any body of water.

 a beautiful day.  i got some stuff done at home, not as much as yesterday but the place looks more presentable and feels more welcoming.

 it was chilly downstairs when i got up..the cats know how to open their cat door out to their little cat sun porch.  silly cats

 just some scenes from today's walk.

 spring is still coming on...lots of road construction signs going up...a sure sign of summer in Alaska!!

 some sort of duck passing through no doubt.  not  one i see commonly in the area i think...though i'm no birder.

 a view of the lagoon

grateful for: A. beautiful days and walks B.  the feeling when you have purged crap that is just filling up the space in the house.  C.  that some shifts only last 12 hours.