Icewind's Ramblings

I think it is going to be a 3 Dog Night tonight. -9* below zero Fahrenheit. And if it’s not a three dog night, it should at least a 2 dog night if you’ve got em because it is (to quote Chevy Chase ) quite nipply out there. With the fresh snow this week and now the huge full moon, it is bright enough to drown out the Northern Lights. Maybe three puppies and one big dog, that should be about right for the night. In case you didn't notice, last night's full moon was the closest to earth it has been in 15 years. If you missed it, your next chance to see the moon this big will be November 14, 2016. It was 14 % bigger and 30% brighter than normal. It’s clear out tonight so the temperatures drop with no cloud cover to hold the ‘heat’ in, also guest starring tonight: the annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the year’s best displays of shooting stars. There should be up to 100 meteors an hour flying across the sky. The meteors, which are easy to spot with the nak...

Today dawned clear as first light broke around 10 am. Once the sun rose over the mountains we endured what is called “Horizon Sun” until it set around 3:15 pm. With only about five and a half hours of daylight this time of year the sun barely clears the mountaintops and hangs just above the peaks until it drops below again for another long, cold, dark night. It looks something like this . . . Driving towards the east and south is at times difficult due to the sun peeking in between the visor and the hood of your vehicle. There is no good way to block it so with the glare from the ice it makes things difficult to see. Solstice is approaching in ten days and we will start making our way back towards the light and the warmth it brings. I love winter but on the cold mornings when you arrive to work and four hours later the first light of day is creeping in your window as you take another sip of coffee that feeling of a warm tropical locale seems nic...

There should be a better way to start a day Than waking up every morning . . . At least my coffee maker is on auto start at 4 am So it will be ready before I am. There is nothing like a great cup Anytime of the day or night. It’s snowing more tonight so we’ve had about 10” to 12” since yesterday making coffee and a nice fire way to wind down the evening. Cheers! Ice

Greg Maddux announced his retirement from baseball earlier this week. When I lived in Atlanta he was . . . quite simply . . . the best pitcher I’ve ever seen, and most likely ever will see. I’ve enjoyed watching him over the years even after we both left Atlanta . Even his retirement announcement was handled the way he did everything else — low key, with no hint of ego or pride. Oddly, some of my remembrances of Mad Dog were away from Atlanta Stadium as my company was his plumbing company until I left in 1995. I was lucky to see a World Series after so many years trying and Greg was a major part of that success for Atlanta . The crazy antics on the golf course with his pals and fellow players, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery kept everyone in stitches as the practical jokes ran rampant. From 1992-95 he won four straight Cy Young awards. His approach was subtle in the fact that despite being known as ...

I was up late last night working on a couple of things for work and I had the television going in the background. I wasn’t really paying attention to it as it was on mainly to drown out the noise of the washer and dryer going behind me. Yes, I’m still writing from the laundry room . . . it’s great to have an office with peace and quiet so I can put all of my weird thoughts on paper. Sunday nights are usually a busy place in my ‘office’ as there are the final loads of laundry to be washed and dried. The constant folding of towels, underwear, and clothes along with the constant thumping sound of the washer drum as it needs a new belt and will bang the sides of the washer if things are slightly out of balance within the wash drum. It keeps me on my toes making sure it does not throw a belt. Anyway I am at a stopping point in one excel spreadsheet and was about to open another when I stopped to take a sip of my coffee. I will drink a cup or two late at night to he...

Usually every year at this time I have always gotten into the Christmas season with a renewed sense of my childhood. For many years I was like Clark Griswold putting light after light up all over the house or yards. It started when I lived in Atlanta and there were many years it seemed our family experienced many of the things that the Griswold family did. I spent year after year collecting lights from garage sales, after Christmas sales, and even a discard here and there. There were a couple of years when our house could be seen from miles away. It may have taken a couple of tries, but when they lit up, Clark W. Griswold would have been green (and red) with envy. You know they were great when the neighbors complained. We had those times of going out to the country to find and cut our own tree spending hours looking for that perfect one. One year we found one on a slightly rainy day and when we walked up over a hill and saw this tree the Heaven’s opened up ...