Icewind's Ramblings

Today is another Veterans Day across American or Remembrance Day in other lands but all over the world it honors the men and women who proudly serve in the Armed Forces or have served in times past. I would like to honor those with some little known facts about the Tomb of the Unknowns in Washington D.C. at Arlington Cemetery . The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier The following was forwarded by Col Chris Giaimo, USAF (Ret), Director, MOAA Council and Chapter Affairs: Interesting facts about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Sentinels of the Third United States Infantry Regiment "Old Guard" . 1. How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why? 21 steps. It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute, which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary. 2. How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his return walk and why? 21 seconds, for the same reason as answer number 1. 3. Why are his glov...

Alaskan Terminology (conversion to language outside) Part 1 Outside : What Alaskans call any place outside the borders of Alaska . Personally, I prefer to use the term because, to me, "outside" is where everything is when you travel usually adding at least a travel day each way when vacationing or traveling on business trips. Last Frontier : What many Alaskans are proud to call the State. There is truly a pioneer type spirit here among the people who live and work here. There are the modern conveniences found in most other areas but with the extreme conditions found within the vast land mass here the consequences are like those found in the frontier days of the wild west. Lower 48 : What Alaskans call the original 48 contiguous states. You are not considered a Native Alaskan; no matter whether you were born here or not, unless you are at least part Eskimo, Aleut, or American Indian. North Slope : The sloping tundra region from the foothills of t...

Weird stuff tonight . . . Busy day so not much time tonight so I thought I would pose this question to everyone . . . How many mice does it take to screw in a light bulb? You think you have the answer . . . Did you really think about the question? Did you consider any other options? Oh here’s the correct answer . . . Are you smiling now? Ice

We could learn a lot from crayons . . . some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors but . . . they all have to learn to live in the same box. Ice

This is my one year anniversary post for my blog, Icewind’s Ramblings . It started out as a way to preserve some things I had written on the forum boards at The Amazon Basin . At the time we were having server problems as the Community of gamers grew. I did not want a few of the funny stories to be lost and it was also a way that I could post things about living in Alaska and post pictures of places and activities here. It has changed somewhat from those early posts and has transformed itself to the oddities of life in the far north from a Southern perspective. Moving from Georgia to Utah then to Alaska has been an experience in itself. Let me say that what this has been about has been “life at the end of the road,” literally, when we came here after many miles of travel there is nowhere else to go on the road system in the USA . I can drive a few hours south to Homer Alaska and you come to “the end of the road” on the Homer spit in Kachemak Bay . It was ...