Icewind's Ramblings

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 ...