Solstice...Make it Merry!!

 just finished my dreaded 4 night run at work.  the work wasn't bad at all, it's just tiring to do those 4 days in a row when you are not used to it.  the older you get the more you like to break it up..at least i find so.  i'd like to stick to nights though, despite how bad it's been for my social life...or lack of social life.  at least i can try and convince myself my lack of social life is related to working night shift.  if i switched to days and then discovered i still had minimal social interaction, well, that could actually be depressing.

 the picture above and several others in this run of pics today are from an art installation here in Anchorage.  i had wanted to check it out before it gets too destroyed.  it's pretty destroyed already.  it's called the 100 stone project.  the artist apparently made casts of 100 people who suffer with mental illness. i looked it up...had thought it was related to depression and suicide.

 these shots here in the middle are from walks out bicentennial park.  i think these are from the day i did my slide down the ice and twisted my knee all to hell.  still a bit sore from that.

 anyway, these art pieces were placed i think around the time i headed to CA or right after. at first it appears they had scattered them all over the beach.  seemed a bit nuts considering the tides and the fact that there are huge ice chunks that move all over in the tide. these pieces were mostly damaged when a big wind storm came up.  the tides also took a toll on them and will probably take them out this week as i hear Christmas is a full moon which also means big tidal variances.

 it does still have an impact on you seeing these pieces out there.  in one sense it's just a bit creepy...they are in various states of destruction but i suppose in the end for a piece on mental health issues it does follow what those folks have to deal with in their lives.

 it is a bit of a visceral art exhibit and i i will admit to feeling truly depressed when i got home and now i'm wondering if that wasn't just my reaction to the art.

 Blossom was thrilled with the beach art and enjoyed all the smexting that had been going on out there...for those of you not aware.  smexting in my world is "smell and micturate" for dogs...their form of texting.  every dog in Anchorage who has been near this art installation has left a message.

 lots of folks out enjoying the sunset this solstice day. always a happy day in my world. i find summer solstice a bit depressing as it means the days will begin to get shorter, winter solstice means that the darkness of winter will now slowly turn to light again.

 mostly, i was tired. i slept too late to make a Monday walk..which didn't happen.  a few of us did manage to meet up for Kaladi's and then i headed with Blossom over to Point Worzonof where the art installation is.

 swung by our decorated tree a few days back and it's been eaten up.  there are a few popcorn bits on the strings but the bird seed ornaments have all been nibbled off and all that is left is the ribbon.

 these are from Rovers Run.  it had been cloudy and then as i started to walk the sun seemed to break through and it was beautiful

 Blossom takes a winter dip in the creek.  she is never shy of cold water. on the beach today i kept her on a leash and did everything i could to keep her out of the water. it moves too fast and there are far too many big chunks of ice that would be dangerous.  so i can't say today was her favorite walk ever,  but i think she was still happy to be out and about .

 it was a bit chilly for me and i should have worn the better gloves that i left in the car.  oh well. i can feel my thumb again so all is cool.

 worked PCU 3/4 nights this week. can't complain.  that place can be nuts but i really had 3 good nights there. i'm sure i'll pay for that another day, haha.

 one of the nights i started out in ER and was moved back to PCU at about 10pm.  the first night i was in ICU.  peds must have slowed back down again. the census in hospitals can change rapidly.  folks try to avoid hospitals during the holidays....but that also means that often folks come in super sick right after the holidays as they have ignored symptoms and delayed coming in. some probably will have also gone off diets, skipped their inconvenient regular meds and partied a bit too much.

 i'll be working Christmas and New Years so i don't expect to have easy days the next few weeks. haha.

 did get a Daisy award this week.  apparently, this is a non-profit that was created by a family who had a loved one who was frequently hospitalized and eventually passed away.  they had felt it wasn't all that easy to really recognize specific folks who had gone above and beyond in caring for their loved one so they wanted a way to be able to do that.

 it was actually someone from OB who put my name in for the award.   they had been impressed by my care of a critically ill OB patient who was in PICU. i do recall walking into a unit that was very stressed about this admit.  it all worked out...i did work hard that night and in a way saved the day as nobody really wanted to take on this patient...she didn't fit into the boxes we all get used to.  since i don't fit into the boxes either we were a good fit i guess.

 often while I am at home between shifts, my name is bantered about.  units battle it out to get me for their unit for the night.  this night it was remembered that i was working and i was put in that patients room .  nice to be recognized and appreciated..so many thanks to the OB crew that night who worked with me and helped me make sure this patient had the best care possible.  they were super nice down there...for a brief moment i thought, maybe i should go work OB since they were all so nice.

 i do recall after working that night thinking to myself that if there was an Academy Award for nursing i had earned it that night. haha.

 of course, right after that award was given to me i had to sign a paper due to my extra absences.  oh how the mighty fall.  oh well.  i just shrugged and said, my dog has passed away so that should cut the absences.  she did account for some absences from work this year.

 i'm not a perfect employee, who is.  but i am a valuable employee.  not a lot of folks are as versatile as i am in a hospital and as willing to switch around to meet the needs of the hospital and patients.

 the light was so pretty out there tonight.  my cute puppy looks so pretty in the sunshine.

 i guess an embarrassing moment happened at Miss Universe...the MC called the wrong name as the winner.  that poor girl did her winner walk only to be told she wasn't really the winner and that after just a few short minutes she had to give up her crown and hand it over to another.  oops!!

 talking with a co-worker in the ICU the other night i discovered many flaws to my idea of sending our dangerous criminals to the middle east to fight the terrorists in exchange for giving up their citizenship...there is no guarantee that they won't book or join the terrorists or just go after the poor innocents in whatever nation we send them too.  they are often not the best characters and can't necessarily be turned over from a life of crime to battle the bad guys and not join them.  so yes, a few flaws.  bummer.  at least i can admit that i don't have all the right answers and that sometimes my brilliant ideas are nothing but crap.  haha.

 always love a rock cairn and this one looked cool in the light

 i will sleep great tonight i suspect.  i have a few walks lined up for tomorrow. Blossom should be thrilled and i should get my steps in again.  been a slacker this week. made it to Conners Bog and to Baxter Bog.

 chatted with a friend tonight for a bit.  always fun to chat with her.

 Japan plans on increasing it's whale harvest and hitting the Southern hemisphere to do so. protests are of course in order...they still claim to be killing hundreds of whales for "research" using this loophole to increase their take.

 at the same time i have read of a massive stranding of 337 Sei Whales on the Southern Chilean Coast.  337 dead whales.  cause unknown, though thankfully, it appears that humans were not to blame in this case.  that is a huge amount of dead whales though.

 loved the ice/frost covering this rock or was it another chunk of ice. hard to tell out there

 the tide moves so rapidly out there.  it was coming in still when i arrived but it was on the way out as i left.  will have to check tides for tomorrow.

 small chunks of ice piled up.  you can see a big pile above and closer view below.

 impressive light though. always enjoy days like this playing with my camera.

 a friend at work likes to quilt and someone was talking about paying her to do a quilt for them.  she wasn't keen on it.  we talked about how things like her quilting and for me the photography are ways we cope with stress and our concerns would be that turning it into a "job" would take something we love and make it stressful.  when you sell something you have to deal with expectations.  it's stressful to worry you will disappoint.  it makes you re-look at whatever you create and seek out flaws.

 this little message was scrawled at the bottom of this big post...this is related to the planes landing,  they fly right over Pt Worzonof.  lots of folks head there for the sunset and for plane spotting

 a big sheet of ice.

 now back to the sculptures.

 the white patches are where they have been destroyed.

 now instead of being all over the beach they are lined up as close to shore the hill as possible...and that will probably not be near enough with a big tide

 you can already see the chunks of ice pushing in.

 on the facebook site there were video's of these things in the water, loose,  being knocked by ice.

 just hope they clean they away and that these statues don't end up washing up on our beaches.

 always mixed...still pretty cool and i'm happy i headed down to experience it.

 i'm always a fan of sunrise and sunset...though i tend to sleep through most sunrises.

 guess i shall turn in for the night.  Happy Solstice!!

Grateful for:  A.  the return of the light  B.  to be recognized and appreciated.  it's nice  C.  my new fuzzy pj's