Icewind's Ramblings

A friend in Florida sent me an E-Mail circulating around Orlando which detailed the following . . . A small business owner who was resigned to the probability of Obama winning the Presidency had done a little preliminary financial calculation & came to a realization he would at a minimum have to raise his pricing 7% to 10% just to meet the minimum increased costs for what he anticipated the healthcare costs from Obama`s plans would be. With sad realization he knew in his business field, most customers would be unwilling to accept the increased costs. He estimated that perhaps 10 of his 30 employees would have to be laid off due to a projected loss of business. This individual felt very sad about the situation, particularly given that these employees had been with the company for a long time & he considered them to be almost like family. Pondering who would most likely be the ones who would have to go, during his lunch break he took a walk around his busines...

It’s down to the wire now and people will stand up and make a choice for President based on whatever it is that they think is the right information. I guess part of the problem is both side tend to skew the information to support their claim to be the next President. One seems to be a better ‘showman’ than the other and seems to possibly “look” better than the other guy. Some people only see what is on television or in the papers without really understanding what the issues are and will vote based on those assumptions . . . whether or not they are valid or not. Sometimes a simple example might be effective to help those understand an issue and this was sent to me by several readers which illustrate the “share the wealth” plan of Obama. Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed. Once in the restaurant my server had on an "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preferen...

Wednesday is Hump Day where your brain tries to fool itself that the week is almost over. It may be the idea that the last part of the week will be easier than the first half. After several long hard weeks it crept into my brain this afternoon. Sometimes it feels like the world is trying to show its dominance over me by humping my leg like an oversexed German Sheppard. I came home this evening and the dog that my wife brought into the house after I lost Levi earlier this year was there eagerly waiting my arrival. A little history about this dog . . . Gus as I named him, was asked to give him his name to help me get over the anger of bringing another animal (dog) into the house. I thought about it for a bit and decided on naming him after a character from one of my favorite series, Lonesome Dove. Robert Duvall played Captain Augustus “Gus” McCrea a true cowboy and a romantic figure whose happy-go-lucky nature and good fortune with women and prostitutes, especially Loren...

Everyone needs a good laugh and today is no exception. Too much to go into right now but this was sent to me today and brought with it a smile. Maybe one will find its way to your face. To bad we cannot have commercials here like Australia with that little bit of fun. Enjoy! Ice

Today has been a mixed bag of things going on here in the northland. Anchorage finally dropped the price of gasoline to below $ 3.50 a gallon today while word on the news is saying the Lower 48 is seeing gas prices about a dollar a gallon less than here and a few areas that the price has dropped lower than $ 2.00. That’s great for those areas and hopefully we will see something around two fifty before long. There was the rumor of traffic here today as the traffic engineers were working on the traffic lights by the Dimond Mall. They turned them off at 9 AM this morning for maintenance and other work and should have them operational around midnight. It did not make for a fun day for anyone who had to drive around the area as there were vehicles backed up in all directions while the flaggers directed traffic in the below freezing temperatures. It was only 9 degrees this morning and rose only to about 25 when I left the office at 6 PM tonight. I could see th...

It’s getting colder here in Alaska and once again its time for more great food as our freezers are stocked now from another season of hunting and fishing. There is also much talk about Sarah Palin since she was asked to be John McCain’s running mate. She is an outdoor’s woman who hunts and fishes with the best of them and like many Alaskans has done her share of preparing game meat for her family. And speaking of PETA I have been getting some crazy feedback from my new recipe book I have been working on. It is a kind of recipe book on “Road Kill” from Alaska and many Nations and other such nonsense. Now before the PETA folks all get in an uproar there are varying organizations of PETA. There is the P rimary E ducation T eacher’s A ssociation And the P eople for the E thical T reatment of A nimals But the one I like best, P eople E at T asty A nimals My section of Alaskan Fare in my area includes: Moose and Squirrel Meat Balls ...