Icewind's Ramblings

I started this last Friday but have not had time to post this. Over the years I have been jaded by professional sports mainly by the player’s attitudes and the changes that have taken place in almost all sports . . . “For the Love of the Game” has been lost and it’s turned into “Business” for most players as they are in high school making the transition to college or onto professional sports. Things have changed as now it is all about the money and not the way it was when I was growing up . . . in awe of Hank Aaron, Vida Blue, and Ferguson Jenkins for they truly loved the game as a game. They never made the kind of money that is out there today. They played without the scandal, without the ‘personality’ of many of todays players whether in baseball, football, hockey, or even motorsports. Something remarkable happened in a college softball game . . . Sportsmanship. The moment of grace came after Sara Tucholsky, a diminutive senior for Western Oregon, hit what look...

The Discovery Channel has the last couple weeks been airing a series called “The Alaska Experiment” . It follows four different group's experience surviving off the land for a three month period as summer wanes and the onset of winter sets in. They are spread over the 13.3 million acres of the Wrangell/St. Elias National Park . The “volunteer’s” are dropped off and must make their way to a remote cabin or tent for shelter which has some staples but not enough to last the full three months. They forage for firewood or attempt to catch fish for eating or possibly canning and also hunt for food. The program is a great study of human nature and the ability to cope with varying conditions of terrain and weather. My company has been asked to help with a project at the Ultima Thule Lodge which was the base of operations for the production crew last year. A friend of ours spent much of last summer flying his small bush plane out to help Paul and Donna Claus who ...