Icewind's Ramblings

Over the last several months there has been an increase in seismic activity with numerous small earthquakes within the volcano. Beginning last Sunday night there has been a series of eruptions. One on Thursday sent an ash cloud over 65,000 feet into the air. The last time the volcano had erupted was during a four-month period in late 1989 and early 1990. Winds over the last few days has mainly blown towards the north sending a light coating of ash into the interior but after a couple more blasts yesterday the winds have shifted towards the east and southeast sending ash into Soldotna and Homer. So far Anchorage has been spared with only minor ash fall into the city and it has been mixed with snow. There were two more eruptions this afternoon at 5:35 pm and 7:25 pm again causing a disruption of air travel throughout the state. Mount Redoubt bellows steam and ash, seen from across the Cook Inlet in Ninilchik, Thursday, March 29, ...

Have you ever seen the 1976 movie Logan ’s Run? It was pretty good science fiction in its day. Can we find Sanctuary or does it really exist in the first place. Sometimes I start to wonder if we are not already closing in on the “Lastday” syndrome here with no where to run to. I was watching a television commercial recently from a drug company when the narrator said, "Tell your prescriber about all your medications first." Prescriber? If you’re not getting drugs from a doctor then it’s a ‘dealer’. Or the Internet. Welcome to the future. Citizens are now consumers and the people you buy drugs from are prescribers. Can a real life Logan 's Run be far behind for us now? Remember all the hype about “Change” before and during the elections? Here is one I would like to see . . . This is a little off the topic but you think now that Obama is our president spell check can stop trying to correct it to Osama? ...

The Bad I think its true that time heals all wounds as it has been a few weeks now since we returned from our trip to my daughter’s wedding in Florida with the grand kids. At the time it seemed like a pretty traumatic experience for everyone of us but now after some time to think about things I seem to be able to pull more ‘funny’ things from my memory than the other not so fun things. But over the course of the two weeks on the road I have to say it was no picnic for anyone during various parts of the trip. The long airplane flights from Alaska to Florida actually went pretty well for three of the four flights. The flights south went pretty smoothly with a little help from some prescribed medication for the kids to help them remain calm or sleep a bit of the way. They were long flights with the leg from Anchorage to Seattle just over 4 ½ hours with a 5 hour layover (yeah that was real fun trying to keep them entertained). The Alaska Airlines flight ...

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was one of the largest oil spills in history. It took place in Alaska in March 1989, when the oil tanker ran aground, causing 10.8 million gallons of crude oil to spill into the pristine waters of Prince William Sound . While this was indeed a huge spill, it was actually only a small fraction of what the United States uses in oil in any one day. The United States uses about 700 million gallons of oil every day. That is a lot of oil. When an oil spill occurs, everyone works to help clean it up. Have you ever noticed a rainbow puddle on the street or parking lot after a rain? That rainbow sheen that you see on top of the water is actually oil from cars that has leaked onto the ground. For Steve Smith, the 20-year anniversary of the nation's worst oil spill is like a reminder that he lost a loved one. "It's like a death in the family," the 70-year-old fisherman said of the Exxon Valdez disaster. "With time...

How is the fall of western civilization going for you? Just as we were collectively getting over the fear of terrorism in this country it has now been replaced with the fear of being fired. Stores are closing all over the country, the Big 3 automakers are begging for loans to keep their high priced car companies afloat all the while many unemployment websites are crashing under the heavy demand from those out of working looking to get back into the workforce. And the banks seem to be getting away with the biggest theft in history. I guess sadly we are watching those (balloon) payments come due for our way of life folks. Money has been the ‘scorecard’ here for a while. Do you remember the ending of the movie Fight Club? It was not my cup of tea but they blew up the buildings that housed the computers for the credit industry and banks. The idea was simple. Destroy everyone’s financial records and we all start over from scratch. Well . . . Stores . ...