Icewind's Ramblings

If ignorance is bliss . . . Why aren't more people happy? It was a busy day today with all of the activities going on around town for the 50 th anniversary of Alaska ’s Statehood celebrations. Arctic Thunder had great weather for the air show . . . Downtown had 4 th Avenue closed for all kinds of activities including the 49 th Star Flag reenactment . . . and the Park strip was full of people. So much to do trying to hit a little of everything means tomorrow will be full of more partying and experiencing the ‘newness’ of Statehood. Ice

Fifty years can seem like a long time to some . . . While for others it might seem like only yesterday. Alaska is in the middle of our statehood celebrations with events and reenactments all over. Tonight there is a joint military family appreciation/50 years of statehood concert featuring Wynona Judd out at Elmendorf Air Force Base that is a free concert with a live broadcast on KTUU Channel 2. Towards the end Wynona brought out her mama, Naomi to sing a few songs and also had several families come onstage for a teleconference with their family members who are combat stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq . Tonight’s concert will finish off with the lighting of a bonfire to reenact the ‘statehood bonfire’ fifty years ago on the park strip downtown. Tomorrow starts the Arctic Thunder Air Show with many static exhibits and live flight demonstrations by both military and civilian pilots as well as parachute drops by our own Alaskan Arctic Warriors based at Fort...

The morning dawned at 4:25 am and I am taking a working break to play in a yearly golf tournament that one of my vendors invites me too. Ferguson puts on a great outing every year and it is a great time to network with those other contractors who you have bid against, not seen lately, or are old friends sharing a great time. The forecast last night was calling for the clouds to roll in and rain but as I woke up it was sunny with the sun just clearing the mountaintops . . . a few clouds lazily hanging over the city and the temperatures would climb into the mid sixties. That seems to be our “normal” summer now as we still have yet to hit the seventy degree mark. My foursome was Scott, Frank, and Dave and we had a great relaxed round today. We played a normal round as out team was 1B so we started on the first hole. We started out with nice drives off the tee and that seemed to set the tempo for the day. Everyone made the ‘shot’ that was needed ...

Here in Alaska there are more natural resources in and under our land it is hard to believe how our gas and fuel oil prices have gone through the roof. It is not just here in the arctic regions but all over the country. Gas prices keep escalating about ten cents ($ .10) every two weeks with our averages around town in the 4.29 to 4.59 range for 87 Octane. Premium is at five dollars a gallon and diesel has broken the five dollar mark in many stations around town. An odd concept to me has turned into reality for some Alaskan’s . . . What happens when a village runs out of fuel? That's not theoretical for the village of Manokotak , about 25 miles south of Dillingham. Our company did some plumbing work there last year so it was strange seeing a report in the Bristol Bay Times recently. The entire village ran out of gasoline June 2 with the spring barge not due until June 6. The problem was a delay in a Dutch Harbor dry dock held up the vessel, fi...

The sun was out as the high clouds rolled into Anchorage and from a distant thunder the sounds grew louder and there they were. Making an entrance that everyone could see over the city was like a scene from a movie. The Air Force Thunderbirds, a squadron of ace Air Force pilots who perform all over the country, arrived in or over Anchorage this evening in preparation for the Arctic Thunder air show this weekend at Elmendorf Air Force Base. The Thunderbirds arrived with a bang and the arrival show they performed in the skies above Anchorage just after 7 p.m. tonight was awesome. I live just off base so had a great view as the jets maneuvered as a group or in solo sorties quickly making their way across the city with the Chugach Mountains in the background. In years past the Thunderbirds will practice for several days before the weekend shows and this year will be celebrating our 50 th year of statehood along with fifty five years of the demonstration team’s existen...

The house if full of people again as the guests who come up to fish every year are here. One friend of the family who lives in Florida and works at my favorite place Disney World, arrived almost a week ago and has fished in several areas with my brother in law. We tried to get up this morning after about an hour and a half of sleep to fish on Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage but it was pouring down rain so we opted to stay put an let those hardcore fisherman who braved the downpour all the fish. We waited most of the day for things to let up to head out but it waited until now to stop so I think everyone has found other things to do. Charlie my father in law arrived Thursday after a week’s road trip relocating his belongings and vehicles to Alaska from Utah . We have the parking lot now that we expected with everyone’s vehicles here now. Deb’s rig is in the garage as well as mine (I do not drive often as I have a company rig) and in the driveway out front there is my w...