Icewind's Ramblings

Politics can sometimes be a very frustrating and rewarding thing and over the last couple of years I have wondered where the direction of this nation might be headed since Obama’s election. There are still many ideals I cannot see eye to eye with the current administration as I believe that both sides debate for the sake of debating and not looking out for the needs and wants of our nation.   But when one does rise to the occasion I have to admit I put away all of the misgivings and embrace the words and emotions of the occasion. We finally saw something out of the man who leads our nation, that spark that makes men and women want to protect the freedoms we have every day.   We saw that moment, 51 seconds that could very well define his Presidency. Did you catch it during the memorial service in Arizona? He was giving his speech, part sermon, more heartfelt than most of the last two years of speeches about the senseless tragedy last weekend.   He had started talking...

The tragedy of 9 years old, Christina Taylor Green being killed in Arizona while she was learning about the freedoms in this country and was on her way to meet Rep. Gabrielle Giffords since she was just becoming interested in politics having been elected to student council. Christina was born on a day of overwhelming tragedy, 9/11/2001. She died on another. As a baby, Christina's photograph appeared in a book commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.   Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11 was a project undertaken by a Pennsylvania mother who sought out children from each of the 50 U.S. states to be featured in the book. "A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on." - Carl Sandburg "I think it's something hopeful," Christine Naman, the book's author, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2002.    "Maybe they were born to help us remember those who were lost, as well as to help us remember the things we should fight to hold...

I have had several comments on my travels around the State of Alaska and going up north specifically ‘above the Arctic Circle’, places with names like Kotzebue, Selawik, Barrow and Point Hope to name a few.   Time of year comes into the equation but only slightly as it can snow or have freezing temperatures there even in summer.   For many of those who ‘work’ in the arctic it is a place where seasonal changes do not hamper the operations of providing much needed oil and natural gas to the nation.   It is a place where things continue to move about and work performed even in the harshest conditions known to man.   60 below zero with a 70 know wind many times is a common event with things moving a little slower and with safety always forefront in everyone’s mind as a misjudgment can be tragic to those who are complacent and not fully aware of their surroundings and wildlife. When I moved from Atlanta to Alaska, I learned what a “winter coat” really meant.   Whe...

I was picking up my granddaughter last weekend & we were driving back to the house.   Leaving her other grandparents’ house you can drive several back streets before heading back out to the main road.   For several months now she has been reading every street sign & business sign she can as we drive by.   It’s so strange to see the cycle of children & grand kids go through this same process. I hear this from the back seat . . . "Papa, where are all the 'GO' signs?" Ice