grey collar worker

As it's nurses' week, I was thinking about how nurses aren't totally blue-collar workers but also not white-collar workers. That seems to put us in the category of grey-collar workers. Has anyone coined that phrase before?

We are expected to act like professionals but aren't necessarily treated as such. We clock in/out like fast food workers. I suppose many workers are in this no man's land.

I worked ER for my last stretch. still have avoided most of the CSU/ICU. much less stress that way. I suspect I just lost my edge at some point. Cutting back hours and working the float pool means I'm just not really there enough to stay confident. These photos are a combo of Hatcher's Pass, Gold Cord Lake hike and Gustavus trip. 

to catch up a bit from the last post. I did get called in for Jury duty. This keyboard bites. very sticky keys. sorry. Anyway, Jury Duty was a one-day affair as it turned out. went into the courtroom with a group, but they sent most of us away after much questioning. People, as a rule, have little patience for alcoholism. 

kittens. I recently finished up with another litter. Well, actually two litters and two moms. Very fun having them all here. The moms were so sweet and perfect. The kittens were a variety of colors. so cute. some extra toed kittens, orange, Siamese, grey and white, tab and white, two black and whites, and a calico and dilute calico. They were all brought in together. The moms were working together on the kittens. No clue which kitten went to whom; however, one mom did have extra toes, and two kittens did as well.

It was a bit messy with that many cats, but so fun.  They eventually met weight and headed back to the shelter. They are all in new homes.  Thankful to my friend GT and her daughter, as they sent a friend over to look at kittens. they eventually adopted two of them.  i met them at the shelter so they could directly adopt them. the other kittens took a few more days to find home. i returned and played with them as they looked scared.  i left toys in their cages and one on top of the cage to encourage potential adopters to interact and see how cute they were.

Did an overnight trip to a public use cabin with friends in April. Bore Tide Cabin.  It's in the Bird Creek Campground. close to Anchorage, great first trip out.  The weather not bad out that day. We still have not gotten over 60 degrees F., probably not over 60 since last September. We had a lovely cold winter.  

Also, found the conditions at Portage optimal and ended up grabbing a friend and heading out there. We take precautions, and I had brought two pairs of these spike things to help with self-rescue if that were to happen. The conditions were actually the best I've ever hiked out to the glacier in. I'm sure they deteriorated pretty quickly. Lakes still have ice now, but nothing stable, and the edges are open, so it feels safer with the dogs.

I did make the trek to Homer.  I stopped a lot. The weather was varied. roads good though, rain, snow, hail, but mostly wind. The tides were low, but the pools were murky. got pelted by hail and then the schools bused in loads of kids. I eventually just booked to the spit and tried to find stuff there. less wind on the one side. Not my best tide pooling, but still loved chilling in Homer and enjoying some beach time and beautiful sunsets. The drive to/from is always beautiful. did see a big grizzly on the river's edge near Coopers Landing.

We also made our next trip out to Tonsina Public Use Cabin. We caught a short water taxi out and back.  It was supposed to rain the entire time we were there, but we did get some beautiful breaks and sunshine at times. The tides also went out further than I expected so that was great for walking.

No bear sightings, but I did have a coyote run across the road on the drive home. saw a bear and her cub crossing the road a few miles from here, up Campbell Airstrip Road. I've chilled mostly at the dog park these past weeks. weather wet. Spring is a bit slow to arrive this year. Today was beautiful this morning. felt like a bit of spring.  

Below is where we stayed the first night in Gustavus.  cute little cabins

When friends leave Alaska, I get their old rain boots. I turn them into planters. So my friend AR is leaving, so I got her old Xtra Tuffs. off to Lowes to get some stuff to start some flowers. I bought a few plants just to get some boots planted. They always look so cute.

Another friend is also leaving. SJ worked with me in Ketchikan back in the '90s and then again here at Providence. The last several years, he's lived in Hawaii and flown back to AK monthly to work a stretch. We met up almost every month he worked up here for dinner. We have also done several kayak trips and other adventures with friends over the years.  All the best to him and his wife as they move towards total retirement. an amazing friend and mentor. He was like a big brother. My other friend is also loved and will be missed. I need to find a new board member to replace her, won't be easy.

She and her family are moving to Florida. 

so a bit of a sad week, losing two of my Alaskan friends.

inside the Gustavus cabin.

loads of huge bear breads or shelf fungi in Gustavus.  southeast. i do still want to plan a trip to Yakutat. will want to find a time in August maybe to enjoy mushroom time and a lower tide to enjoy that as well.

it was a treat to be in Gustavus in late August.  

whale skeleton

The only thing I have planned at this time is another run to Homer. may repeat that in August. enjoy low tides and wild flowers.  We shall see where the gas prices go. The idiots in our government! feels so hopeless at times. So many are still blindly following. clueless as to what is real and what is a crazy conspiracy. I had a co-worker the other day who, out of nowhere, started talking about Obama being in prison and that she hopes he gets the firing squad. I was working on the computer, not talking to her at all. So random and weird, this is what we are dealing with. people who aren't connected to reality at all. She's a nurse too! omg!I just walked away. crazy.

I did attend the "no kings" rally #3, so that is 2/3 for me, plus the two rallies while Putin was in town. Until we can get these idiots out of power, they are doing nothing but anything the orange idiot requests of them. He's so clearly incompetent and a havoc to the entire globe, but here we are. I'm the terrorist, though, because I am against fascism. It's hard to even believe how quickly this nation has been destroyed.  checks and balances only work if there are people in power who respect checks and balances. instead we have lunatic christian nationalists. the racism of the days of slavery were never vanquished and here we are, fighting old battles.

We had our Walrus Advocates of Round Island Sanctuary (WARIS) event. Not a packed house, but several folks came, and great support from REI and Fish and Game. I made the walrus cupcakes.

My life is settled and calmer. I've pulled back from family and pulled myself out of a group text. It wasn't bringing me peace. It's all about peace now to me. The one brother just seems to insert himself in there more than I am willing to accept. It's nothing offensive, just I have no interest in having him have that access to me. I do not need to know these details. 

The current politics is a factor as well.  It's really difficult to separate the things.  Most of them support this administration and what they are doing. I find what they are doing abhorrent. I really just can't look the other way as others support this or remain silent about it all. There are just too many attempts to cover up the pedophile reports, and too many distraction attempts.  Horrible things are happening in our names, and I will not stay silent or associate with those who support it. You have to draw a line in the sand. You can't just go around making sure people feel safe and comfortable in their views, especially when their views and those they support are causing death and suffering.

let the chips fall, so be it, right?

In the meantime, you do have to try to live as normally and peacefully as you can. You cannot allow these idiots to destroy every aspect of life.

barnacles and muscles. 

a life well lived is finding balance. 

I'm much more comfortable being me. I pay more attention to who wants to be in my life and how much they want to be in my life. People have other things happening in their lives. It's not always a personal affront. It is what it is. 

I also spend less time stressing about what is happening.  I can only do what I can do. At some point, things will find their way back to a new normal. What that new normal is, well, I'm hopeful it will be better than the old normal. better for more people. I feel like this is the last hurrah for these white supremacist, Christian nationalist fools. How many thousands of years can they keep predicting the return of Jesus?  thinking they will somehow rise to heaven while they joyously watch the suffering and death of others without repercussions? 

all they are really doing is destroying the religion they claim to follow. making a fool of the teachings of the man they claim to follow. they are behaving like cult members. not sure how we deprogram so many people? the fix has to come from the right in many ways.  they have to find shame and remorse. will they? 

The orange idiot has only moved me further and further away from Christianity.  Most of these churches feel like corporations that are just as greedy as the other corporations are. They probably help even fewer people in many cases, especially the evangelicals. 

It's all been exposed as a fraud. The child molesters seem to be predominantly born of this faith. Strange sexuality lurks in religions that force a certain life on everyone without any ability to bend. It just leads to secrecy and depravity.

I write less because I have less need to write. peace does that. I feel good in the place I am at. The boundaries I have set. 

Find your peace, find your people. Do what makes you happy. Speak out, do not give those who support this peace in that support. make sure they feel it. 

get out in nature. 

beautiful views from the plane.

this glacier looks like a whale tail.

Better crash. Maybe tomorrow will be another spring-like day. snowed on the Kenai this last weekend. 

grateful for A. all the stress and difficulties that moved me to where i am. it's not been easy, change rarely is, but i'm so happy to be on this side of history. B. the peace i have in my life. C. the friends and pets who lift me up and nature.
 

the days are getting longer, lovely warm weather...! 30's

 

i'm really behind now in these blog posts.  it's okay. that generally means my brain is calm. calm is good.  

these are still from July last summer with my nieces.  Matanuska glacier, Orca Island, walk to Gwenich Glacier. it was a real Alaskan holiday. 

this lake, like all others, is frozen.  we have had warmer weather.  it started the day after we paid to have the roof shoveled off. that is how it goes. today the road crew came and widened the street, hauling off tons of snow. it was mostly a one lane road. this has happened so many times this winter.  neighbors are great at taking turns passing.

we are all enjoying these warm temperatures though. 20's-40's F. 

i thought i'd get at least 24 hours notice on the roof crew.  instead i found out they were coming just as i was leaving for work.  ended up in the ER. it was such a crazy and strange night. we started with 23 holds, people just kept getting rooms but the waiting room was packed. oddly, the place cleared out and by around 4 am we only had like 5 holds left? anyway.  i got to come home early.  so between 5am and 6 am i was charging up the Element and digging it out. had to have the cars out of the driveway.  

sleeping was impossible. i slept a few hours before the crew was supposed to arrive.  woke up as the dogs were not going to just allow a crew to walk around the roof and not let everyone know about it.  they finished by afternoon.  i think i slept another hour or two. then went outside to try and make it so i could put both cars side by side again.  no go.  too much snow.  got cars back in the driveway though. Element battery is dead again.  oh well. 

at that time i also discovered that so much snow had been shoveled in to my side yard that i had two dogs looking down at me from over the fence.  i started to dig a moat and lower the level of snow on the other side of the fence. i needed to get ready for work so i had decided i'd just shut the dog door rather than risk having the dogs escape. 

i think for maybe the first time i called work and requested an on call. some request on calls all the time.  i just take them when they come my way, which is not usually very often.  glory...they gave me one and again the next night.  lots of digging and no call back either night. i was sore from the digging anyway by the next night. 

my next week was a split of peds/picu and icu. not bad nights...i mean other than one small patient attempting to code at one point. i was quite happy to switch assignments at 1 am and hand that kid off.  the kid did get worse again the next day so happy to have missed that. 

haven't worked ICU for some time and i got to do a road trip to the MRI...currently outside the facility in a trailer.  a bit tricky with ICU patients. at least it was warmer than last time i had to go out there.  remove all metal and then put a coat and hat on...it was well below zero last time. i think the noises have kept the moose away...but in truth you could have a moose cruise through as you are trying to load a patient into the trailer. there is a lift outside for stretcher patients. a bit crazy.  we still have months to go before the new MRI facility is all up and running. 

getting my walks in mostly. good with the step counts.  mentally doing pretty well.  minimal anxiety.  no real need for prn's of late. just taking the magnesium and so far it seems to be helping. 

dogs had to put up with mildly cranky me today.  not sure why...just woke on the wrong side of the bed i guess. think we all have those days. we all took two walks.  Sunny Boy had a vet appointment.  got medicine in his ears.  hope it's not toxic since i had to keep stopping Ivy Rose from cleaning his ears. he was a hit at the Vets.  he charmed them all and got loads of compliments.  he really is a great puppy. 

we hit the dog park first. did a nice run out there.  a few moose. one sleeping on the lake, easy to avoid and another surprise one back in the woods. Sunny did make a run over to meet the moose.  thankfully, he returned after i called "leave it" and "here puppy".  whew!

after the Vet appointment we headed to Ruth Arcand.  the rocks are starting to show up again.  i'd cared for a patient that i know i've met out there so i was kind of avoiding the area for a bit for the patients comfort.  eventually, we may run into each other. it's a pretty small state human wise for how big it is. 

i had forgotten to grab any rocks but i had a pretty snail shell in the car so i exchanged a rock for that and then that gave me a rock to trade with.  came home with a kitty rock.  :-) always love a kitty rock. we didn't see the patient, any moose or horses so a good day. 

the moose have been busy out there.  as winter moves along they appreciate our plowed streets and trails more and more. saves them from having to trudge through the deep stuff.  they are getting tired and cranky though. there was a great video of a woman at the costco i frequent.  she had the trunk open and a few carts filled with goods.  there was a moose that walked up and was "shopping" in her carts.  you can here here talking to the moose, requesting he leave...promising him some food if he leaves and then scolding him for putting his ears down...a sign of irritation in moose. 

Super Bowl sunday has come and gone.  i watched the puppy bowl for a bit before heading out.  there seemed to be a lot of drama.  the conservatives are angry with Taylor Swift for encouraging her fans to sign up to vote. they are also mad because her latest boyfriend was playing in the super bowl and her going to games has been difficult for the right to deal with.  that makes me happy...haha. the boyfriend bought her and his/her families a box...cost of a million for one game.  the cheapest seats for the game are apparently $10,000 each seat. omg...that is just insane to me. 

so much drama about her being there at all. guess she's brought new fans and more money to the sport so the right should just shut up but they hate everything and everyone they are told to hate and faux news is spewing taylor hate at this moment. they just always have some one new to hate or some group to hate. it's all hate with the evangelicals.  they wonder why people are leaving christianity. it's the lack of Christ in Christianity. if Jesus walked in to faux news station they would totally trash him and easily convince all their evangelical viewers to hate him and call him anti christian, or the devil, a communist, a socialist, tree hugger, libtard....you name it. 

got my first look at her new boyfriend through the million tiktoks out there.  seem like a real football player/frat boy.  you never get to have everything in life so she is in love and getting love bombed for sure...he has a bit of a short fuse.  there is a clip of him bumping his over 60 coach and screaming in the guys face to put him in. then right after they win he gets the mike and just starts screaming viva las vegas.  ironic since the girl he's dating is magical with lyrics and all he can do is scream viva las vegas.  

then there is a parade in Kansas City...which is in Missouri not Kansas (like the orange idiot believes). anyway. the boyfriend was totally drunk and sang a garth brooks song.  falling over. i think this was pretty early in the day....then there was a shooting.  the place was swimming in cops but a few bystanders that weren't armed took down one of the shooters.  one dead, i think 20 injured, many kids. thoughts and prayers i'm sure from the right. i guess Missouri has some of the least strict gun laws.  the team did not change their dinner celebration plans after the shooting. seems like a family friendly parade should be a place to tamp down the drunk celebrations but football players i guess are given every excuse to be drunk in public and scream at their coaches.  so many excuses out there.  Taylor had flown off to Australia to perform to more sold our crowds.  she is rocking life right now so she seems happy with her football player.  not sure that guy will be the one but you never know. people and relationships are not that easy to predict, love makes people do unpredictable things. 

it's been lots of swift drama as the grammy's were right before all this and she got the album of the year award.  once again, there was someone who believed the award should go to  Beyonce. years ago i think with one of her first awards, Kanye came up on stage as she was accepting the award and literally grabbed the mike from her and said Beyonce deserved it. this time Beyonce's cheating husband used some random award he was given to just say that she needed to be respected and be giving the award.  i think she already has a crazy number of grammy wins...just hasn't gotten the album of the year. a bunch of rich spoiled fools from my view point.  

whining and carrying on about not getting awards, screaming and getting drunk when they win a game. the rest of us just go in and do our jobs and don't get any big awards or wins.  we just show up day in and day out. get paid much less, scrap by and these wealthy spoiled brats are never satisfied or just act the fools. 

guess that is my rant for the week.  i actually did watch the ERA's tour on Amazon.  the cost was nearly $20.  no crowds though.  so a perfect way to enjoy it.  she did put on a great show and i do like that she gives back...way more than any of these churches do from what i have seen.  she donated $100,000 to the family of the woman lost to gun violence at the parade her boyfriend attended. that was kind of her. 

the politics and election run is bonkers.  as the orange idiot battles to delay all these court cases, he's had a few losses of late. he won't go to the supreme court to argue that he should have total immunity because he was potus. he got fined $355 million+interest i think in the fraud case in NY. he also got fined in the repeat case over smearing the name of the women he raped. 

his friend F-ER Carlson went to Russia and gave put a long platform. put even mocked him. right after that aired. Navolny ( the guy who put jailed for trying to run against him, after the guy survived put poisoning him) he died suddenly in prison in some remote and brutal prison.  he'd actually been in a court room the day before looking pretty good so hmm.  put kills people all the time. they need to send all puts held money to Ukraine. it's sitting in banks in Germany i think.  they also need to pass the damn bill to send money/supplies to Ukraine. it passed the Senate but the new idiot in charge on the house refuses to even vote on things. they just want to waste time trying to impeach people.  their star witness was just found to be lying. of course, they followers are so in the bubble that they never hear any actual news. 

it's just all sorts of insane. you can't possibly keep up. 

as for Israel and Palestine...omg. it's just brutal.  what happened on Oct 7 was horrific...also a lot of the crap happening in Palestine is horrific. it's all just bad. Hamas still has hostages, many of those hostages have now been reported as dead. i think like 30 of them.  the people of Gaza just seem to be pushed from area to area.  none of the surrounding nations want them or hamas. they say it's because those refugees would never be allowed to return...so i guess they are okay with them just being slaughtered as well. that seems fairly telling.  it's a huge disaster that we are sucked in to. of course, biden gets trashed for helping Israel but you better believe the orange fool and his followers would happily drop a nuclear bomb on gaza.  something about the second coming and zion...i don't know.  it's all way too out of my brains ability to comprehend it, but it's all horrific and brutal. death all over. so much hatred out there.  

from my viewpoint all religions cause so much hatred.  ours is better than yours attitude...when all along it's just about money and power. where ever you are born, to whom you are born...that is the religion you mostly stick with. they can't all be right but for sure they can all be wrong. 

should hit the beach tomorrow.  haven't been for a bit.  this is a snow crust heart i made.  

frost...now all melted

i have one more 3 day run then i'm down to 2 shifts/week.  may try to pick up one shift randomly or eventually just find a second job to pick up some hours in a much less stressful environment. wanting less coding kids

i'd rather have less drama in my life and enjoy the drama of others...let them have drama. 

they make more money so they can have the drama that comes with fame and fortune. 

a little tidbit from an old prophets journal.  Wilford Woodruff.  he apparently would have dead single women sealed to him for time and eternity on his Birthday each year.  "single women" could include children who had died. 267 ? total number of brides to be enjoyed in the next life. the upper leadership have been gifted a second annointing so they can do no wrong as their place in heaven is assured before they die...that is the doctrine and practive.  the second annointing stuff is pretty hush hush.  can you imagine gifting yourself with dead wives.  sick perverts is all i can say to that. 

also ran across an interesting quote...lots of truth in it though.  "if your absence doesn't bother them, your presence never meant anything to them". 

bill paying, laundry and dishes...just doing the stuff that always needs to be done. 

i try to always tuck in silly stuff though. 

i should book some homer fun and start to really look at summer stuff. i also want to get some rocks painted.  that is the goals for this stretch off. 

my niece has graciously offered to help get the web page up.  thank you J and S H.  so grateful for the help. 

communicating with my REI and fish and game contacts, make sure we are getting set up for our walrus lecture. didn't see it up at REI so hopefully that goes up soon.  if you live in the area. it's March 19th, 5:30-7:30 pm at REI. they have a lecture room and they allow us to do this at no charge. 

cute shot of Sunny Boy. the dogs are tuckered out.  had a few signs of visits from Rio Catalina (i turned off the tv and went to leave, as i was shutting the door the tv turned back on) also found a tennis ball, which i always view as Blossom stopping by.  not sure what Tusker would do if he visited.  i like to think the dogs stop by. i'd like to discover that after i die a bunch of animals would be there to greet me. saw a cartoon years ago.  it was a guy at the pearly gates. the guy managing the gate tells him if he doesn't mind throwing tennis balls for eternity they had an opening in dog heaven.  i'd take that job for sure.  haha. 

i'm sure i have rambled on tonight, my apologies. 

my brain can't pull up images but it does have a constant dialogue. 

oh, i went to see hockey with the H's. that was fun. haven't been to hockey for ages.  it was super bowl sunday...so instead of hockey i met friends from ketchikan for dinner and then hockey.  the aces are long gone but we enjoyed the local university's team.  we had front row seats. pretty cheap. i think $8 as opposed to the $8,000+ for a super bowl seat. way more fun.  i'm still shocked by that level of spending.  

with Snowzilla and more snow hearts below

i'll crash fairly soon.  

grateful for: warmer temperatures, a plowed road and finding rocks at Ruth Arcand today. always fun.