Alaska, The Great White North. Day Eight, Alaskan Landscapes.

Just landscapes in this post.

Alaska has so many different looks. Honestly, it was like looking at a different postcard every time I turned around. I couldn't stop snapping shots.

The Man kept saying, "Digital cameras are the best thing since sliced bread."

Look how small that {HUGE} cruise ship looks compared to the mountains next to it.

Alaska is a big state.

Literally.

So tiny.

It looks like a toy.

Can you even?

This is just too beautiful for words.

I have a picture that my grandfather took when he was working in the CCC (Civil Conservation Corps) that looks very similar to this one. 

Lone pine trees marching up a hill.

I like it. 

Overlapping mountains.

This was very far away and I tried out my big, big zoom lens.

It's a little fuzzy but I was on a moving ship, for Pete's sake.

Reminded me of the coast of Ireland.

It's a small world. But a big state.

__________

I was working quietly at my desk yesterday afternoon when my phone rang. It was our children's librarian calling to ask if I knew what was making all the chirping sounds upstairs in the children's department. I had just spent a few hours up there and told her I hadn't heard anything at all. As we were talking, I remembered that our custodian had swapped out a battery pack on a medical device and thought it might be that. I went upstairs to help.

P, the children's librarian, and my co-worker, L, were standing behind the counter trying to hear where the chirps were coming from and they were definitely coming from the defibrillator in the box on the wall. 

I hadn't really paid too much attention to what our custodian was doing when he swapped out the battery pack, I just remember seeing a white thing in his hands when he warned me that an alarm would go off when he unplugged the old pack. I wanted to open the defibrillator case to see if the white thing was in there and then we would know for sure if that was the cause of the chirping. Maybe he hadn't completely plugged the new pack in to the connector?

The defibrillator was in a box on the wall, behind a glass door with a latch on the front. I lifted the latch to open the door and

WHEEEEE!!! WHEEEE!!!!! WHEEEE!!!!

Alarms go off immediately.

P jumped back about ten feet, airborne, and landed in the chair behind the counter. L and I jumped back about three feet, both of us looking like deer in headlights. I quickly gathered my wits and ran back to the glass door and slammed it shut.

The alarm stopped right away. 

The three of us just looked at each other, trying to catch our breath (we must have all been holding it) and let our heart rate return to normal. Honest to Pete, I felt dizzy, I was so scared. I thought for a minute I might pass out. That alarm was so loud.

After a few moments, we all came to the same realization....is the defibrillator box wired to notify emergency services if it's opened? 

Oh no. We listened for sirens. Nothing. We listened some more. No sirens. No call from emergency services wondering what was happening.

I waited upstairs for a few more minutes and then skedaddled out of there, telling them I would let the fire or ambulance personnel know that the children's employees had set off the alarm accidentally.

They looked at each other and then laughed as I skipped down the stairs.