Icewind's Ramblings

Summer officially came to Anchorage this afternoon . . . briefly! It arrived on a Wednesday . . . the first in July at 3:58 pm ADST . . . Today FINALLY feels like summer! Yay! The temperature hit 70 degrees for the first time this year . . . but it only stayed for a short time as it only lasted a couple of hours and tomorrows expected high is dropping down to 57 degrees with clouds rolling in overnight. Summer . . . The weather both in May and June had been . . . well let's just say it hasn't even FELT like its summer. Cloudy, cool, and sometimes rainy has been the norm this year very different from years past . . . Some things never change (like the cottonwood snowstorm we’re experiencing right now) and some things do . . . like the allergies for many people who have said it has been much worse this year. It was nice while it lasted and hopefully there will be more days like today or we get into an ‘indian summer’ period. But today . . . it was...

July already . . . where did this year go already as it’s half over and it seems like it was the New Year a short time ago. The day was beautiful here as the sky was totally clear, the clouds rolled out and the sun was shining brightly. Today was a people day at work with many people calling to see if I was bidding this project or that in the next two weeks? Several people dropped by the office to either drop off plans or materials for several ongoing jobs which leads me into tonight’s thoughts . . . We are in our Statehood celebrations honoring our 50 th anniversary of becoming the 49 th state in the USA. What do Alaskans think of people from Outside who live in the lower 48, in terms of differences in life philosophies, ways of living, personality, etc.? The funny answer would be we think they're all idiots. Probably because we have found something that most will never know or understand. Nah . . . just yanking your chain. I think the biggest di...

This is Monday night and most people are feeling good here as the weather has broken and the clouds finally parted after hanging out for what seems like many days now. For some reason . . . however . . . I don't have anything funny to write about, though I did manage to come up with something early this morning to bring a chuckle to me. This is an opportunity for me to show off that still mischievous side of my personality. Humor is one way to get through tough times. My goal is to provide people with a unique blend of a little twisted look at things and hopefully provide a measure of entertainment in the process of my oddball observations of the human condition. As many of you know by now that my daughter has been sick the last six months and had several stays in the hospital both here in Alaska and also a Medivac trip to Seattle . Things have been turning around for her now and she has not been vomiting since her return to Alaska and actually has put on seven po...

I do not know if it is the ‘kid’ in us that still has that longing to see things go fast or make loud noises while at the same time allowing us to marvel how incredible man (or woman) can make an aircraft perform. Arctic Thunder did not disappoint this year as Elmendorf Air Force Base hosted a weekend celebration of Alaska ’s 50 th Statehood anniversary and military family appreciation. It started with a concert on Friday night, continued Saturday with the first air show and finished this afternoon after another crowd pleasing flight demonstration. Almost one hundred thousand people showed up for Saturday’s and another fifty thousand or more are expected today to see all that is on display or in the skies over Anchorage . On Saturday, we actually had a taste of traffic like Outside as cars jammed the designated parking lots and officials opened overflow lots. They were asking people on the news to ease traffic today by car pooling, coming early and taking ...