Icewind's Ramblings

I heard this Neil Young song today and it brought back many thoughts. I have always been intrigued by the lyrics and the possible meanings from which Neil was writing at the time. In different interviews over the years he has said he has no idea and probably was from whatever he was taking at the time (drugs or high fever?). I have always looked at the song from the perspective of past, present, and future. As time has progressed from 1970 until now its possible meanings have also changed when I think about it. I’m going to give you three versions of the song and with each, if you take the time to listen, will bring with it something different. The imagery throughout the song is haunting in one sense, a past from medieval times and the pageantry, painting pictures of a possible lost planet in another, and possibly new beginnings at the end. Either way great music from a long ago time that still impacts the listener if you can stop and take the ti...

I like lawn sprinklers. In Alaska they are not needed very much as normally we have a pretty good mixture of rain or snow to give us our water for the season. I used to live in the South and I miss that early morning ritual that they bring. I like the Ch…Ch…ChChCh sound they make. I like their consistency. I remember the sound of sprinklers either retires a hard fought day, or it welcomes a new day’s possibilities. No one ever ran their sprinklers during the details of the day. I now live in a semi-arctic climate so I do not have sprinklers at my house and few here have them, but there is a house up my street with sprinklers. I hear them as I walk up a nearby hill each morning during the ritual that is “my morning walk”. I walk very early and the song of the sprinklers as I climb up the hill is a mantra for me both in my exercise and life lately. Ch…(keep going) Ch…(new things are coming) ChChCh…(stay strong). I can not explain it and it may sound...