Icewind's Ramblings

This one is a little strange story that I should probably not make light of but it struck me a little funny when I heard that from my co-worker Kelly this morning. The last two or three summers have not been very nice to us with more rain and clouds than previous years. Last summer there one only one day that the temperature hit 70 degrees and that was only for about 2 hours, not much of a summer for my tastes. This spring it has been wonderful with pleasant weather for almost a month now. We had not had any precipitation since the snow quit in mid April and this morning I awoke to a nice light rain. It helps wash away the dust and debris left from a long hard winter with the crews still working hard to clean up all of the road sand/gravel mixture before the main contingent of tourist arrive. Anchorage is a vibrant town with a lot of pride in both how the city looks after another winter and in our residents. For a city of our size we probably have a slig...

Job safety is always on everyone’s mind on a construction site and keeping those injury free work days climbing in the books usually makes for a great Safety Program. It’s a shame when someone gets hurt on a work site but sometimes it seems they just can’t be helped. One such incident happened recently that I just had to blog about. Electricians work with high voltage lines and take extra care to be safe at all times but as one found out he might just have been too careful. One of his coworker’s passed by and observed an electrician shaking violently while working on a circuit. Construction workers know that if someone is being electrocuted you should never grab them or touch them as the current will pass to that person also. The trick is to either kill the power by tripping a circuit breaker or getting something non-conductive to move the person off the power source. Acting quickly is important in saving a life and keeping the amount of damage to ...

Or Adventures in Bathroom Learning Kids discover early in life that the flush handle on the toilet is a magical device to make things disappear. Years ago when my kids were little and more times than I can count . . . I had to lift the toilet and use a sewer snake to clear the blocked toilet drain. Lucky for me plumbing was right up my alley so toilet removal was yet another bathroom activity which the children found absolutely fascinating. I felt like a scuba diver for Roto-Rooter and went sewer fishing so often that (for a while) we kept a stock of wax rings in the bathroom cupboard . . . they're cheaper by the dozen, you know. (Helpful housekeeping hint: Articles of clothing that have progressed past the P-trap of the toilet are no longer serviceable. Even if they weren’t shredded when the sewer snake snagged them, the stains will not come out and who would want to wear it again anyway.) One recent Sunday afternoon, the grandkids were over as we were goi...