thongs, politics and life in the hospital..with a little walrus thrown in for good luck

 discussion with a patient took a humorous turn the other night.  something about thongs...do thongs and leggings increase risk of females getting a uti?  not really sure they would...but i will say that i have never been a proponent of thongs. seem silly. i know i sound ancient and prudish....i mean everyone wears them i guess.  do they like them or are they just another beauty gone bad thing.

 do find it ironic that girls go to great lengths to convince all that they are barely wearing underwear...God forbid someone see your panty lines....while the males in their same age bracket go to great lengths to share their underwear with the whole world. their pants are down around their knees...it's not like they spend more money on these under things that they so proudly display, yet a girl may be spending a good chunk of cash for their nearly there thongs.

 as i told the patient i have always felt like underwear were created to catch the stuff that falls out of the holes in that region and i highly doubt thongs are up to the task at all times.

 so that is my thong lecture.  haha.  my hair was given complements...the highlights of my hair with that bit of grey-- beautiful.  and this by a trained hairdresser. so far people seem to approve of my new hair style and overall people seem to be unanimous in feeling that i am a bit nuts to have cut it myself.  apparently, that is not common to do.

 this week was variety week.  PCU-ER and then PICU.  kept myself busy all three nights.  there were apparently Russian trained fighter monkeys on the attack in the PCU.  not my patient but in the area i was working in.  i was verbally threatened with assault by a man confronting the monkeys in his wheelchair.  i did not get in his way and saved  myself any physical harm.  best to stand down in these situations i find.  hallucinations are real...to those having them.

 we are often confronted with situations in hospitals where we could come to harm.  thankfully, systems are in place to handle the day to day situations and we have access to powerful drugs.  that doesn't mean we are not at risk.

 love working 3-12 hour shifts per week.  8 hours in nursing would be horrible.  my brother felt that nurses should be working 8 hours as it would be less disruptive to their families...sure that works great for the 1/3 that would then be working 7a-3p, but 5 3p-11p or 11p-7am shifts can be extremely disruptive.  this is a job that we need to get away from.  most people have no idea what our job actually is hour by hour.  besides you can never seem to get stuff done in 8 hours, constant flux...whereas 12 hours is enough time to make an impact.

 these first are from Hatchers Pass up at summit Lakes.  this one is Aprils Trail??  some month i think.

 was hoping to wake up and hit a trail today especially since it was really nice out.  this morning Rio was set on taking a nap outside though so i opted to join her on my lounge chair in the sun.  didn't really sleep but enjoyed the sunshine and reading out there.  that meant that i ended up sleeping much later than i expected.  missed a gathering too. hate missing any social gatherings....there are so few opportunities.

 of course, in all honesty, i had gotten it in my head that it was actually happening saturday afternoon or i would have set an alarm and been more on it i think.

 my brother and i don't agree on much in this world sometimes.  we do have some overlapping views on these police issues.  if a police officer asks you to do something and it's not unreasonable or illegal, well, it's probably best to just do what you are asked.  i've been pulled over many times...well over 50 in my many years of driving....i consider myself a bit of an expert.  of course, i am white so i suspect there are some bad cops out there who would have treated me differently if i hadn't been white and female.

 i have been asked to exit my vehicle when i was in work out clothes (years ago when one would want to see a younger me in work out clothes)  the only time i balked at obeying the police officer was one that did follow me and pulled me over without cause and in my mind unjustly. i had just moved to South Dakota and within a week this guy was following me...he finally pulled me over and it was the middle of a cold winter storm.  he insisted on my getting out of my car and in to his.  he then wanted me to close the door. i refused.

 he gave me a ticket for not having changed my license plate to a South Dakota plate.  i was suspicious only because i had California plates in South Dakota in the middle of winter.  the same cop followed me for miles again a week or so later and finally pulled me over again.  this time because i had only changed the back plate over and hadn't gotten to the front one yet.

 my point is that not flipping out is the way to go most of the time to get out of the ticket...i have gotten out of over 45 tickets so i think i know a thing or two about this as well.  if i was a smoker and had been asked to put out my cigarette, i would have done so.  as a nurse, it's best to find ways to de-escalate situations not add to the fire.  i had that a few weeks ago. right before report my one patient became agitated and was threatening to leave.  i was able to talk him down a bit and as i gave report he was sitting/laying on his bed with his monitor removed.  the nurse i was giving report to was freaking out that he wasn't on a monitor and got up and marched in there to insist he put that back on.  she was totally escalating the situation, which i pointed out to her...and had been attempting to point out to her at the desk.

 the only person we control is ourselves.  our patients are not prisoners.  don't get into stink matches with people...it never goes well.  find a way to walk away, let the situation chill and re-approach.

 pretty hike out this way...tomorrow is the dog job which i like to try and attend.  the folks who put it on are the ones that save Rio.  i like for her to make an appearance.

 after that i may drop her at home and then try and do that longer walk that i had planned for today

 beautiful views up here from this trail.  would for sure do a repeat on this one.  i left Blossom behind for this to keep Rio happy.  doesn't take long, i'd totally take Blossom up there. Rio...well they all seem to be a bit much for her now.

 switchbacks to the top with some drop.  i did okay with the trail though.  wasn't sure how i would handle it..it gets better for me though and not worse.

 had a patient encouraging me to take the helicopter run over to Little Diomede.  we got to chatting. he's been all over the place in Alaska so super fun.  actually gave him my card as he had a pet sitter he was willing to share with me.  his wife called and left a message with her number today. super nice. love talking Alaska with patients.  you learn so much.

 Little Diomede is really only accessible by boat and helicopter.  there is no runway.  very few people and it's built on cliffs.  very unique community.  still immersed in the old ways more than many communities.  he spoke of a pit that they tossed the leftover walrus meat in...they let it go rancid like they do with fish heads...then they eat it.  Big Diomede it's sister village is actually under the control of Russia.  so from there you can see Russia.  they are only 2.5 miles apart.

 after WWII Russia took over the Big Diomede island for use as a military base...the natives that were there were relocated onto the mainland of Russia...they never saw their relatives on Little Diomede again apparently.  any little native boats that wandered too close to the other island were taken captive by the Russians and held for several months. the locals are very careful now how far they and which direction they boat.

 seems to be many vying for the Republican party nomination for President in 2016.  that is going to be a drag year with such a major election and so many crazy people out there.  just hearing all the crap from Trump...OMG.  feels oftentimes like the big parties are imploding.

 the bigger Summit Lake.  i let the pups swim before we headed towards Willow on down the road

 Blossom was quite happy with that.

 we need a new party...i'm starting it right now.  haha. it's called "The Rationalist Party"  anyone interested.  it's for rational folks who see the world is not black and white as many would wish us to believe but is instead shades of grey. people who see both sides of issues, the good and the bad and work together to find rational compromises.

 have been waiting for my sticker guy to give me a number for our new WARIS stickers. hope to use those for the fall donation push.  also need to sit down and put together a walrus/WARIS calendar for 2016 to push to sell.   will probably look into doing this through vistaprint or shutterfly.  vistaprint will probably be cheaper. i think  speedy can make a deal for us if i can just sit down and make the calendar.

 means i also need to work on the web page so that we can open it up for sales this fall.

 if we can get the world wearing and sharing all things walrus....we can really help Round Island!!  GO TEAM WALRUS!!

 beautiful views coming down into the valley.

 been awhile since i was in PICU. had to get myself back in baby mode...had to do so quickly.  always a bit frightening those first couple hours.  i don't go often but when i am there, i am often given a rather critical patient.  does keep me on my toes though.

 i do have some added pride since working in the float pool.  not a lot of nurses can do what i do...quite the mix of units i am  more than capable of working in and to do so without anxiety is pretty cool.

 donations trickle in to WARIS.  names i have never heard before, people i don't know.  not that i don't appreciate donations from people i know, it's just that it's kinda cool that our message is getting out beyond my circle.  it's what we have needed to do and will need to do to really make more of an impact for the good.  pretty exciting.  still a long ways to go but WARIS is another source of pride for me. it just feels good to want to make a difference, take action and actually see positive return.  many thanks to Annenberg and the cameras at explore.org.  people are falling in love with walrus and Round Island.

 from here we switch over to my hike out towards hidden lakes.  always so pretty.

 the flowers were amazing up there the day i went.  already the flowers around town are fazing out.  life moves super fast up here.

 you are away a week and so much will change.  when i return from Barrow the mushrooms will be starting to explode as the flowers whither away.

 Blossom isn't always sure why we keep stopping.  photography is lost on her.

 i did finally break down and bought a new lens.  my 300 zoom is getting pretty beaten up.  i got a tameron lens.  my first non-canon brand lens.  about a third of the cost though.  seemed a more rational way to go.  this one is 16-300 i think it was so it will be a bit more versatile.  a bit less changing of whole cameras to get different shots...if it works out.

 took it to the dog park today to do a test run. haven't looked at those pics yet.

 will need to do a good long walk tomorrow to get my steps back up.  the nearly 20,000 step day is in the past so my averages dropped.  need to try and do one of those/week to keep those averages up.

 working ER saves me during my work week.  PICU really makes it drop off.  i did get some education stuff done....really all of it.  so steady night there, but really not too overwhelming of an assignment.  love drugs!!  adding in a paralytic...:-)  started to get a bit chastised this morning for how i ran the case...running it the docs way quickly turned ugly and right before i left i had that doctor approaching me and thanking me for taking such good care of her patient and keeping the little one safe.  guess she doesn't like sats in the 40's.  that is what i do not miss about peds....kids crump fast.  they can appear lovely and sedated one minute and then BAM...all hell breaks loose!

 Blossom on the hill.  off to read my book and settle in for the night.i will set an alarm.  missing Monday walks and coffee.  ran into speedy at work this morning. she misses them too.  maybe when TO gets back we will find a coffee day!!

thankful for: A.  rapidly responding co-workers.  B.  that though kids crump fast..they can also recover fast.  C.  sleep. i feel guilty about "wasting" time but the fact is when we need it, we need it and our bodies just find a way to get it.

guess i'm a pit bull...

 who knew.  someone apparently commented to someone else at work something about the futility of arguing with me.  the funny thing is, in my family i felt like i lost most of the arguments.  of course, debate was the family way of life so i guess i shouldn't be surprised that i can hold my own.  highly doubt i heard the truth and nothing but the truth about that conversation.  i'm sure she didn't want to get herself sucked into a debate with me as it was clear she saw this as a thing to avoid herself.

 i now believe our family was unique in this debating issue.  i just remember sundays, especially, being a day of great debate.  mostly politics and religion.  probably more weighted on religion. being the youngest i often found myself wondering why these people continued to go to a church that caused them so much irritation and led to so many debates.  maybe we just saw ourselves as the intellectuals.  perhaps the surprise attack was attempt to thwart my debating skills...to no avail.  we always had to be ready to go at any time and in any place.  still is the case. though now i find i just try to steer clear of such conversations.  don't think i ever really enjoyed the debate that others found so stirring.  i just saw it as annoying and pointless.  if you are unhappy, leave or change.  simple.

 my 7th grade friend,  marcia, helped me see the futility of it all.  she wasn't argumentative but she was one to ask pertinent questions.  she was just curious.  her family didn't attend any churches.  her why's and strange looks helped me to find a different path in life.

 our family wasn't one where yelling happened.  just these seemingly constant debates and discussions.  it was tedious at times so i'm sure that at times i'm tedious.  on the plus side..debates with people who think totally different are helpful in that they assist you to form your own opinion.  to see the world differently.

 on another plus side, perhaps the fact that i am known to be able to hold my own helps me to be treated differently than others who would crumple in a debate.  so i must thank my family for all those tedious days of debating issues and counter debating.  i learned from it and am obviously a force to  be reckoned with.

 went to the beach today out of kincaid.  need to change it up and see what the beaches look like.  they can change dramatically with the tides and weather.  in the second picture you can see the shine of the ice on the trail.  michelle joined me and we both wore cleats to keep from slipping.  love when there is a darkness and then a sudden light that just hits one area.  we were in the area of the sunlight.  sweet.

 teva being more cooperative with a photo op than blossom was for me on this little hill.

 as i went to leave my house some neighbor had slid on the ice in her car and got it stuck on top of some berm.  pretty impressive really.  sadly, i knew my little element was not going to be the best car to get it off the berm.  some guys, including her husband i think, had showed up to help so  i went on my way.  probably lots of cars sliding on this nasty ice we have everywhere.  all the side streets anyway.  the main roads aren't bad really.

 the mail is so boring now that christmas is over.  no fun cards, no cool catalogs to get dreamy over...just the usual junk mail and bills.  tsk, tsk, tsk.

 loved the light going up this hill.  it's another access to the beach.  there are several.  some less accessible during the summer due to water/pond issues.  i take the multiuse trail down just over a mile or so and then cut onto a side trail to get to the beach.

 fire island in the background below.  some people walk to it at low tide in the summer.  not a good idea.  doable, but the tides come in super fast and if you time it wrong or something causes you a delay you could be stuck and then dead.  it's a hike i will avoid.

 we got to the parking lot at 1:30 and to the beach probably just after 2 sometime.

 as you can see the inlet is choked up with chunks of ice.  despite us being in the 30's-40's F this past week. there is some talk in the weather forecast of snow..i hope it is right.

 the tide was going out but again i wouldn't be jumping around these bergs too much.  as it was shell dropped through at one point.  just one leg, but it's a reminder that it's not the most secure of walking paths.

 tried to stay mostly up against this hill.  in the summer this beach is sandy for a bit before the mud takes over, in the winter it's just ice.

 blossom enjoyed chasing her tennis ball though.

 wasn't a spectacular sunset but still pretty.  i tend to leave before it really gets to the most colourful as there is still the walk back and on that walk it's rare not to run into at least one moose.  today we saw 3 coming in and the same mother and calf coming back out.

 sedimentary ice.

 shell took this of me sitting on the above chunk of ice with the dogs.  it was warm enough that i was wearing my rain jacket as i was worried the wind would be strong out there, it wasn't.

 another shot of the beach.  you can see that little hut made this summer by the cairn artist is still there.  has slipped some.  i wasn't for trusting it to stay up to get inside this time.

 for sure it's slid down some...and those rocks look pretty heavy.  wouldn't want them crashing down on my head.

 blossom lost a ball to the hold beside this ice chunk...she eventually retrieved this one, but it got dropped by a larger chunk that went deeper and so i called her away for fear she'd get hurt trying to get at it.  i had a few spare tennis balls in the pack today.  with the melt i've actually found a few tennis balls.

 teva attempts to help.

 more and more blue skies came out as we wandered the beach.

 there is some oil platform outside of kodiak that went aground.  they were able to rescue the workers on the thing, but the weather has apparently been crap out there.

 that is a huge piece of equipment to deal with.  what a mess.

 dinner at outback tonight.  i got ribs..you'd think i'd be stuffed still, but i'm actually getting hungry.  didn't eat much today.  was slow getting moving and then had to get booking so i just snacked all day really.

 dinner discussion turned to how thinner people eat.  i'm a snacker, i never finish anything, i see food really as just fuel that needs to be consumed for energy.  it can be tasty, but really eating and all that is more of a bother to me than the big pleasure that others see it as i guess.  i did finish those ribs, but really, it's not like i clean the bones at all and there isn't really much meat on  the ribs.  i had a salad with it and we got the bloomin onion to split.  sharon i were both hungry when we got there and had to wait for a seat.  we both dove at that bloomin onion like our lives depended on it.  luckily, they were out of ice cream so we had no dessert.

 the dunes with the cool sky background

 a tree i always seem to stop and take a photo of.  i suppose one day i could put them all together in some sort of tree montage.

 trees are cool though.

 back up on the hill looking back at the beach.  the white part is the big pond/bog area that the trail crosses over in the winter.   i avoided it today as we've had some melt.  i try to avoid requiring rescue.

 love this tree as well on the hike back.

 picture 3 is a photo on the way in just of the trunk, which is super cool.

 the mother and calf were laying by the side of the trail when we came through the first time.  as we walked back the baby crossed over to graze on this side of the trail while the mother remained on the other side.  this is not always a great position to be in...mom and calf on either side of you.  walking between mothers and their babies in the wild world can get you stomped on.  we actually passed pretty easily and after we crossed the mother crossed over to the baby.  i don't recommend it, unless you are experienced and crazy like me.
the branch in the center has been grazed on quite a lot by the local moose.  that is what they live on through the winter. looks pretty tasteless, but i'm sure moose would be aghast at some of the stuff us humans eat...like moose i suppose.  hehe.

 the rest are from the rebel camera.  just my zoom and the macro.  too lazy to change to the regular 50mm lens and i haven't bought a wide angle lens yet....

 i am looking forward to acquiring that one of these days and this beach would be a great place to test it out i think.

 the first photo of today was also taken with the rebel.  the rest are my powershot.  i shoot right handed with the rebel and left handed with the powershot.  that is just how it's evolved.  guess i usually am holding dogs or chuck it in the right hand.

 snacking on tortilla chips and a mikes....that should stop my hunger pangs enough to sleep tonight.  it's almost midnight.

 back to work for the next 4 nights.

 have had many readers these past weeks.  always fun...thanks to all those who wade through my photos and my words...for those who do that.  i'm cool either way...reading isn't required.  it can be quite juicy some days...other days...well...

 thought this profile of blossom showed her cool curls.  she's a first generation labradoodle.  you never know what you will get in the coat.  i'm quite happy with her coat.  doesn't require too much grooming, but doesn't shed much either.  some parts seem more poodly like her neck and other parts more lablike.  i just try to give her a good brush every so often.  she is a velcro dog as my friend calls her and everything sticks to her.

 she was a cheap doodle because she had, what was considered, an undesirable coat.  i like a bargain.

 she's been worth every penny and more.  she's pretty cheap considering the joy she brings to me every day. rio was even cheaper being a rescue dog.  she stayed home today.  she looks just as tired as if she'd walked several miles.

 some closer shots of the hut.

 more ice

 more trees...

 and of course, more irritated moose.  the ears are back on both..that is a sign of distress and unhappiness.  not unhappy enough to stand up yet though.  if they stand i move much quicker away...not that i am under any impression that i could out run these guys.  the trick is to find a tree and get behind it.  the moose kick forward.

 still driftwood out there, which i think adds to a picture.

 love the ice.  there wasn't any of the meltage like that one time where i took pictures through the icicles.

 liked this pyramid one though. cool shape.  ok, not really pyramid.  not sure what shape exactly that is.

guess i shall, go read and play inane games on my ipad as i relax from my so stressful existence and settle in for the night.