Icewind's Ramblings

"May you never lie, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in each other's arms. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink with all of us because we love you." May this New Year bring you great things in Life. Ice

It has been snowing all day today. It started during the night and slowly built into some significant snowfall. Saturday mornings I usually meet business associates and friends for breakfast and spend about an hour and a half talking and relaxing with those there. It was the usual time this morning as I arrived. I left the house a little earlier than usual because of the overnight snowfall and several vehicles were off to the side of the road from skidding off into a snow bank. Usually this happens because people drive too fast for the conditions or try using their cruise control on icy roads causing the vehicle to spin out. My golden retriever, Levi usually goes with me on my Saturday morning outings. We head to breakfast and then finish any errands before returning home. He enjoys this time and loves the snow. Levi heads out and usually will roll around making snow angels or burying his head in the large piles of snow around the house where we snowplow th...

As the New Year approaches we are reminded, Every calendar's days are numbered. If this was a bad year for you, it’s almost over. Readjust your attitude and next year will be a great one. Ice

Today, I could not find my pizza cutter. This greatly limits my functionality in the kitchen. The frustrating part is that there aren’t that many logical places for it to be: the kitchen or in my hand. It could not be found in either. So where in the world could it be? I can recall once trying to open an unwrapped CD with it. And one time I used the handle end of it to hammer in a nail. But now I found my hammer so I wouldn't need it for that. This is driving me crazy! It could be anywhere, but it shouldn't be. Either in the kitchen or in my hand, that's how it's always been. Now I'm reluctant to walk around in the dark, as my feet might get pizza-sliced! Of course I made this discovery AFTER cooking the pizza. Now I know what life was like before pizza cutters, and it was not good. Ice

During the Christmas holidays there were several trips to Costco or the mall. We've all seen them. It was easy to not notice them at first since they have been among us for a time now. Lately it seems they are everywhere you go. I see them in restaurants, movie theaters, and almost anywhere people gather. They walk the streets around the world with a Borg -like contraption glued to one ear, unaware of red lights, cars, or people. They're on autopilot. They're the new zombies of mobile technology. I am not quite sure if I am witnessing a Star Trek episode or living in the world described in the nine short stories by Isaac Asimov in “I, Robot” . Mobile technology is changing human behavior quickly. Once, people talked face-to-face with occasional telephone calls. Now, it's email, cell phones, webinars and voice mail. What happened to us? When did it become acceptable in our society for people to become so wrapped up in their techno-...

Merry Christmas everyone. From my wife's friend Amy, Enjoy! http://www.thecompassgroup.biz/merryxmas.swf Ice

Tonight on the eve of Christmas 2006 I would like to share with you a prayer - a prayer that I discovered through a good friend of mine many years ago who gave it to me. The prayer is not a particularly old one in that it was written sometime in the mid-1800's and what oddly attracted me to it was not - the wisdom, upon reflection that its author was trying to praise God for . . . but rather the fact that the author was an unknown Confederate soldier. I have read quite a lot about the civil war as I grew up in Atlanta and was surrounded by the many battlefields. I was fascinated with stories from that time period and spent time searching for artifacts left from the many battles in and around Atlanta . I thought . . . I might be able to get a historical perspective on the civil war while visiting the many sites around the city. Little did I know that over the next 20 years or so I would read that prayer and it would continue to change me. The fact that the prayer was aut...

Fishing, as in every activity, is fun until you realize how much work it takes to prepare for and then clean up. However, the experience is what everyone loves and remembers. I miss fishing in the throes of winter . . . goes in search of his ice fishing gear. Ice

Welcome to "The Long Night Club" Recently the long running “Fly by Night Club” closed its doors and the wildly funny Mr. Whitekeys is doing other things now (Friday evening comical news segments on Channel 2). There is another ‘Club’ here that only comes around once a year and it is that time again. "The Long Night Club" is where all Alaskans are today. It was snowing all day so there was little additional light with the overcast skies. The one glimpse of the sun was just as it was setting around 3:15 pm AST this afternoon. It could be seen through the snowfall as an orange ball dropping below the horizon so as The Winter’s Solstice came at 4:22 pm Alaska time (7:22 pm EST) so began "The Long Night Club" in the northland. Alaska has been losing daylight since summertime and for a time about 7 minutes of sunlight a day was lost. It started slowly in June and after peaking awhile back we started slowing down on the number of minutes w...

People often ask me how we spend the Holidays in Alaska . I’ve given it some thought now and have a few observations I’d like to share with you. Well, to be honest, if you had a lick of a sense you’d leave. It’s going to be D.A.D. (dead assed dark) for twenty hours of the day and if the temperature manages to get up to –05 degrees, well, that’s your Holiday gift. So, it’s a cinch no friends in their right mind from “Outside” world are coming to visit. Yes, we have great skiing, snow machining, and ice fishing this time of year but you won’t see any relatives dropping in for a visit. Sure, they will come up in the summertime and stay for weeks or months at a time, mooching off of your hospitality, drinking all of your beer, and eating all of the salmon and halibut they can stuff down. Who wouldn’t? But December? Get real. If you spend the Holidays in Alaska , you have two options: You can get together with Cheechakos ( Alaska newcomers) and celebrate. What that mean...

As a lot of you know, I’m Southern by Birth, Alaskan by the grace of God. Checking in on the happenings in my former area I was surprised to find things shifting for the upcoming holiday. I found this letter forwarded by relatives from Atlanta , Georgia . To Whom It May Concern: Mrs. Claus and I regret to inform you that effective immediately, I will no longer be able to service the Southern United States on Christmas Eve. Due to the overwhelming current population of the earth, my contract was renegotiated by North American Fairies and Elves Local 209. I now serve only certain areas of Alaska , Washington , Montana , Canada , Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Wisconsin and Michigan . I will still also handle those states bordering these to the south but will stop my rounds at the Mason-Dickson line. As part of the new and better contract I also get longer breaks for milk and cookies so keep that in mind when you place that snack out for me. However, I'm ce...

The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for. ~ Homer Ice

Letters to Santa As you all know, it is almost Christmas and in the Holiday spirit I have decided to post some Letters to Santa from little children around the world and his generous response to their ridiculous requests and questions. I am sure everyone at some point in their life wrote a letter to Santa asking for some ridiculous gift that only Santa himself could afford to give you. I am also sure that you never got that gift that you wanted either; I know I didn't get my dirt bike with the banana seat. Enjoy: Dear Santa, I wud like a kool toy space ranjur fer Xmas. Iv ben a gud boy all yeer. yer Frend, BiLLy Dear Billy, Nice spelling. You're on your way to a career in lawn care. How about I send you a friggin' book so you can learn to read and write? I'm giving your older brother the space ranger. At least HE can spell! Santa Dear Santa, I have been a good girl all year, and the only thing I ask for is peace and joy in the world for everybody! Love, Sara ...

Nothing's real or fake. Life is all about how the brain perceives electrical impulses. Ice

My wife is out of town this week so I thought I would go out and do a little Christmas shopping. I am not one to spend time at the mall or at WalMart as I hate just ‘browsing’ and usually try to have either a list or a great idea of exactly what I am going to get. I will go into the store, head to the isles and retrieve the items I came for and head out fairly quickly. But over last weekend some of that changed for me as I had a great time. It was so nice to wander around without any preplanned items to buy. I also decided to have a little fun with the other shoppers and the staff of the two stores I had gone to. Here is Anchorage there is a commercial on television for ‘David Green Master Furrier’ where he has his two kids ‘sit’ while the family is shopping. Kids being kids jump up and hide in the racks of furs jumping out at each other and then are sitting down when the family returns. I thought about that and decided to play a variation in one of the local ...

Life is a grindstone; whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you are made of. From yesterday - It's a Boy - 8 pounds Ice

A stroll through the life of a soulless wanderer is sometimes what I feel like. Tonight I am sitting here waiting for my phone to ring letting me know some wonderful news from the ‘Southland’, Florida . The call hasn’t come as I anxiously worked through my day wanting some news to brighten this mostly cloudy dark day. In Alaska now we are only about 10 days away from winter’s Solstice , the shortest ‘day’ of the year. Our daylight hours will only be just over 5 hours. With first light arriving around ten o’clock in the morning and the sun just barely rising above the mountaintops makes the ‘day’ seem somewhat out of place. The horizon sun as we call it here during this time of year just makes a small arc about 2 inches about the horizon mountaintops. The distance the sun travels will only be about 18 inches from the point it rose and will settle back under in only about five hours. Darkness quickly settles in and the feeling of this special place is one of wonder be...

“Men in Trees” , a new comedy on ABC showed an episode of a bachelor auction in the fictional town of Elmo , Alaska . Too bad they did not send one of the show’s writers to visit the “real deal” in Talkeetna. It was a good story but not quite the same as this long running affair. Last Saturday night at VFW Post 3836 the much anticipated, long awaited yearly event was held with much noise and catcalls by the mostly female audience as the Talkeetna Bachelor Auction was held. Before the event started there had been talk that it was over, that after 26 years this would be the last. Nobody really believed it and there is rumor that several people will step up to continue this annual tradition. The last of an era, maybe, with the exit of the two main organizers but not the last as several locals have said they won't let it die. No matter what happens, it will never be the same. How can it be without Pam Rannals and DX Russell? They're the ones who've ...

For my friend Russ, who is on vacation now in sunny Mexico with his Rose , kicking back relaxing in the spa, drinking cerveza’s, enjoying the sunlight, and balmy breezes. It’s almost over now so the long flight back to your homeland, Canada will be with your favorite ready and waiting. I’ll pull a long Guinness and leave it at "The Tavern" for you, ready for your arrival. Life Observation # 24 I love defenseless animals. Especially in a good gravy, with a cold Guinness . Ice

We truly take a lot for granted. Forget the football "heroes" and movie "stars". Today I am reminded of a picture I saw several years ago. It’s one of those pictures that you never forget that is a reminder of the price of freedom. Thank you, to ALL the generations of valor. Caption reads: Pearl Harbor survivor Houston James of Dallas embraced Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke Jr. during a Veterans Day commemoration in Dallas in 2004. Graunke lost a hand, a leg, and an eye when he defused a bomb in Iraq July 2, 2003. Today is the 65th anniversary of the attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor . That horrific event brought America into World War II, forever changing the world. Luckily, the world vastly has changed over the years. But the memory of that deadly Sunday morning remains, as well it should. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, speaking to Congress asking for a declaration of war against Japan , said it was a “day that shall live in...

Have an Ice Day! Ice

With this being that time of year that people tend to stress and wrap themselves into the frenzy of the holiday season, perhaps at this time of year we all need a moment to remember patience and good will. Even though Icewind is hesitant to put religious messages before you, the sentiments below are worthy, whether you pray to God or seek your own inner guidance. Oh Lord, help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children. Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester. Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ou...