Be Patient

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
~     Rainer Maria Rilke

Officially an E-M-T! ... almost

I passed the Alaska EMT state exam with 91% on Friday

& the practical exam today!

Practicals consisted of six stations:

Medical Assessment & Exam,

Trauma Assessment & Exam,

AED operations,

supine back board,

bag-valve-mask with Oxygen,

OPA & NPA (oral & nose airway openers). 

Thankfully, I got those in one shot too.  We're allowed a second chance.

Now, I have to wait on my application to go through.  Then, I can start volunteering at the Fire Department.

* Too boot, I met a couple of paramedics on Saturday.  They  said all I have to do is fill out a waiver & I can be on call to go on the Medivac flights.  These flights go out to villages where there is no hospital access.  Exciting!

12 Minutes

I woke up at 8:17 a.m.

- let the dog out

- brushed my teeth & washed my face

- got dressed

- fed Baker

and 

made it to work by 8:29 a.m.

3 Blogs

In case you've forgotten, I have three active blogs. 

Lately,  
Tess (a.k.a. b-e-s-t possible little sister ever) 
& I have been updating our blogs more.

You can see my other blogs
by clicking the profile link on the side bar --->, 

or connecting to these links:

Mission: Run

Artsy-Fartsy... Zam

Listen Up

You may have seen my Tunes & I post.  That took about 10 days to: intermittently import disks, label songs from mixed CDs that weren't in the registered database, download Album Artwork, & back-up iTunes on several devices.

Now that I've finished that task, my next aim is to listen to all of the songs I haven't heard in a very long time.  If I were to listen to all of the 5598 songs in the main Music area it'd take 15.2 days.  Remember there are 420 songs in the Playlists too. 

I've heard all of them before, but they deserve to be listened to again.

This is exciting!  It's like getting a present, just because.

On call !

Every first and third Tuesday the Fire Department has meetings in order to keep EMT skills fresh & everyone updated on Standard Procedures.  Tonight I attended my second meeting since starting the class in September. Burns was our topic.


Once I'm an EMT, part of volunteering includes attending at least one meeting, as well as two 12-hour shifts, a month. (They're optional right now.) Being on call is part of the gig too, but I'm not sure what the protocol is besides being available when they need more people.


Much to my surprise, Captain Howell informed me that I will be issued a pager, which means that when a tone is sent out for more EMTs needed, I can go to the scene.


As I was leaving, Fred informed me that no student has received a pager since he's been there.  He's been teaching since 1989.  So, I blushed & said, "Thank you." Then went out the door & clicked my heels!

I drank the Kool-Aid

It took 9.5 years, but I finally did it.

I bought, and I'm wearing, Carhartts.

Now I feel like I'm back in the North Carolina hills
working on a farm, instead of in Bethel.

And a new, warmer, coat to boot!

Baker's telling me how pretty I look.




Sorry these are so fuzzy; the photos were taken with Photo Booth at night.

 =====================================================

This week's forecast.  Brrrr...

Did I mention it was 47 degrees in my house
when I got back from class at 10:00 p.m. tonight? 
I think the filter in my Toyo needs to be cleaned.

Who's Right?

I need to post these so I can laugh a little bit rather than feeling sorry for myself.

In due time... I'll get you, Mr. Right!

Tunes & I

A new project: Uploading my CDs into iTunes.
After my computer crashed the last time, I didn't re-upload everything. Do you know how long it takes to upload 4000 songs? Days. Then, I got into buying music on iTunes. I love the nostalgia of sliding a CD into a player... It's nowhere close to the touch of a needle on a record, but still. Often I listen to the iTunes DJ & I've been missing out on listening to my greater collection. So, slowly, it will finally be back together again. I'm excited to find out how many songs I have now & to hear the oldies mixed in with the new.


I'm on D.
{Yes, I alphabetize my CDs. Just in general. I'm not like those crazy people who alphabetize to the second & third letters. It's just a hodge podge of the letter D. I swear!}

=================================================

Update:
@ H = 3980 songs
@ Z = 5005 songs
* w/ compilation CDs = 5485 songs
* 26 CDs were rejected (260 songs, at least)
& the 26 Playlist albums add up to 420 songs.
Grand Total (guess) = 6,165 songs

(Who cares?! In rural Alaska, we find anything we can to stay entertained. 
That's my only explanation. It's this, prostitution, or drugs, people.)

New Paint Can Make Everything Feel. New.

Then:






You get the picture. Even though the wall is partially covered, you can see that (below) the end result is so fantastic. Before the wall was tan, dirty & scuffed up, & just not mine.

My theme music? Loud. Blaring. Insane Clown Posse & Lindsey Stirling. Separately, of course.

& Now:

Clearly, Baker is practicing for his career in modeling. 

Is it for the paint? The pictures? The projector screen? Who can tell?

The next project: A contraption to hold my projector, 

& all of it's appendages, on the ceiling. 

It's going to have to be able to pull back, so that I don't hit my head all the time.

EMT-1

Bethel Fire Department










In September, I started taking the EMT-1 (Emergency Medical Technician, basic) course through the Fire Department here in Bethel. 6 credits. Classes Monday / Wednesday from 6:00 to 9 or 10:00 as well as Saturdays 9:00-4:00. Plus, there's additional homework & reading to do. It's challenging. I'm actually remembering a slew, & I love it.

Wednesday, we had our first dramatic "call." We practice scenarios all the time. The topic was trauma: head, neck, and spine. Our instructor, & captain of the F. Dept., said, "We have a patient in the building who might need an occlusive dressing. Go find him!" Our class of eight, found one of the EMTs in the hall with a nice fake raised bloody neck laceration. We worked as a team to go through the skills when assessing a trauma patient from BSI to treatment & transport. It was fun! Hospital photos, videos, & these practice scenarios are a far cry from real ambulance calls, but it's helping to toughen up my stomach & get me mentally ready.

Early December I take the state exam (150 multiple choice questions) & practical exam, like the drill on Wednesday but with 10 stations, a proctor, & a stopwatch. Wish me luck!

I sense a pattern here. --->





... diva. He may be trying to out "show" that fire hydrant.

It makes him happy, okay.

Straightening Out

It's been y-e-a-r-s, Quinhagak probably, since I've straightened my hair.

This is about as "straight" as it gets.

Little sister, how did you do this every day? ;-)

The "lake" is strong enough to walk on. Let's remember, it's really a glorified puddle at 2 feet deep.

The neighborhood kids have been ice skating all week!

Rhubarb pie

I put some of the rhubarb that Jenni let me harvest from her house in Anchorage to use & made rhubarb pie. mmmm...

My Little Prince

Golly, I love this dog!




And... two swans are back.

Swans Quintuple!

Three and a half months ago I saw two swans on the lake behind my house for the first time in three summers. Now they've returned quintuply and with their cygnets (sign-its). They - like many other birds, muskrats, & beavers - favor this lake because it's shallow and food dense. Every time I walk by the window I can't help but become affixed to watching them.

Swan factoids:
Male swan - Cob
Female swan - Pen
Young swan - Cygnet
Group - Flock

Sunrise

Farmer's Market

Deanna took this photo of me on our way back from Meyer's Farmer's Market this morning. Those are carrot tops you see grazing my hair.

Mush!

I'm puppy sitting Kia, the large black dog, for a friend. Baker & I decided to take her for a walk with Deanna's dogs. My part in walking took very little effort, because I had a steady pull. There was no time for me to fall down. :-)

Yes. They're all hooked to my waist.

Puppy Pin

This is my Pops making a gate for the back porch so that Baker can have a puppy pin. I don't have all the wood shop tools he has at home. So this required some hand chiseling for that diagonal support bar. He even measured Baker's head for the vertical slats.

* Stand by for a picture of the final product.