Icewind's Ramblings

Over the past forty years, I've developed a deep love for mountains.  No matter the season or the location, there's something about towering peaks and deep valleys that (although terrifying with their steep cliff faces and inclement weather) inspire me.  It started off simply enough.  After the Army and a time in Atlanta working in law enforcement and as a paramedic, I started teaching myself to hang glide.  This started on small training hills in the Atlanta area then moved to nearby mountains in north Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.  Many hours were spent flying over Lookout Mountain, Tut’s Hang Glider Heaven in north Georgia, Grandfather Mountain and playing on the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk, both in North Carolina.  Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina Eventually, I started flying in competitions first in the southeast but quickly started flying the professional circuits all over the world.  There were many times the weather turned un-flyable so whether alone

Life Observation # 182 On Demand and its recurring ad themes While I was at mamas recently I started trying to catch up on several television shows since I’ve not had “live tv” for several months.  On Demand is a great thing to allow you to catch up on things that you have missed over the last season. I like the Dick Wolf Chicago series “Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago PD”.  Great writing, story-telling and the cast on all three shows are interesting to watch and I especially like the crossover shows story lines.  There is depth to things much like Steven Bochco/Michael Kozoll’s “Hill Street Blues” in the early 1980’s.  Both series are shown on NBC so I guess quality television seems to be still around. That production quality might not seem to carry over in its commercials with On Demand.  I have been watching all three Chicago shows as I catch up and there are repeated commercials for Viagra, Sprint, and Cialis shown multiple times per episode.  They thankfully a