Icewind's Ramblings

I saw in today’s paper that there were over 50 vehicles in the ditches around Anchorage yesterday.   It doesn’t surprise me as it seems people making the drive out to the valley do crazy things while making that commute back and forth every day.   It snowed about 3 inches yesterday and again last night.   It lingered into the evening hours but late last night things were getting back to normal when temps started falling again and yes, it finally HAPPENED!!!!. I was shocked to see things had gone crazy here. While out running errands on my day off for Veterans Day this dick in a truck pulled out in front of me on the way home as it has been snowing all day and everything was slick and people were upside down in the ditches.   I was able to avoid and miss this nut but couldn't quite catch up to him to get a license plate number.   Luckily I do keep a camera with me for job pictures so I was able to get a quick picture to help me find him again.   If anyo...

In this place, Alaska, I fondly call the ‘far north’ today is one of those very lucky days that doesn’t come around very often.   I awoke and saw the light dusting of snow from my window as I poured my first cup of coffee.   Winter is finally settling in here in Alaska so it was still dark outside.   A Friday morning like many others, I showered and ready to head out for a cup of coffee. It is Veterans Day and I will take time off from work.   It seems somewhat funny to me now as I think about how things have changed over the years.   We are just working stiffs who proudly served and take the time off remember our brothers in arms who have fallen or are serving this country right now on battlefields across the globe. There is something else we share. We are all military veterans. The purpose of Veterans Day is to honor all veterans. So how does this country honor them? By letting the veterans, the majority of who work in the private sector, spend the day a...

End of October The sleepy brown woods seem to Nod their heads to the winter. Yellows and grays . . . Paint the sad skies today. Woke up one morning The wind through the window Reminded me that Winter Was just ‘round the bend. Somehow I just didn’t see It was coming . . . It took me by surprise again. Lyrics by Dan Fogelberg These last couple of weeks before the snow fell this is pretty much what it felt like here in Anchorage. Ice

There is a funny scene in the Tom Cruise movie, “RiskyBusiness”  where Tom Cruise has his father’s Porsche 928 out for a drive with his “girlfriend” and sinks it in Lake Michigan.   I had an incident Thursday where I felt much the same way as I realized I was not where I thought I was and ended up falling through the ice on an ATV with a passenger, with me.   Well sort of the same way as T.C. minus the girlfriend and the Porsche. It’s quite funny now writing about it but in the darkness, cold, and blizzard conditions it was not.   I would not rank it in the ‘deadly serious’ category as no one was in real danger (or seemed to be) but gives me another reminder that the arctic can be deadly if not prepared or ready for anything. Here’s what happened starting the night before the early morning incident. It was nighttime in Kipnuk Alaska, the coffee pot was almost empty and the conversation between several of us was pretty well finished.   I had arrived earlier...