Icewind's Ramblings

Life Observation # 164 “If time travel is possible . . . we'll know about it beforehand.”   Traveling woes At the airport for a business trip I settled down to wait for the boarding announcement at gate C2. Then I heard the voice on the public address system saying, “We apologize for the inconvenience, but Alaska Flight 51 will board from Gate C8.” So everyone picked up our luggage and carry-on’s and headed down the corridor to gate C8.  It was not 10 minutes later the public address voice told us that Flight 51 would in fact be boarding from Gate C2. So again everyone gathered our stuff and returned to the original gate.  Just as we were settling down the public address voice once again spoke:  “Thank you for participating in Alaska Airlines physical fitness program.” Ice

Like most people at this time of year it seems like everyone takes a few minutes to think about and review the past year.  I do that now and again but try not to write those “year end reviews” that some people enjoy sending out each year which embellishes all the great things that have happened to them or their family members. Hopefully this will not be that type of review though there may be some exaggeration of a few things since I tend not to really want to go to those things which may have been negative for me this year. As 2012 started in January there was much work going on with me traveling out to many remote Alaskan villages where the company I worked built clinics, water & sewer plants as well as other needed infrastructure so needed in the bush.  Many Natives still do not have indoor plumbing or clean water and I was fortunate to help provide that in several villages. The time of my separation and divorce brought me to a period for the first time in...

Trying really hard not to think about something makes that something the only thing on your mind. Ice

These last few weeks we have really been soaking up the daylight as we anticipate the arrival of our Alaskan summer.   We broke our annual snowfall record in April and once things pushed past that it has been mostly nice as spring has taken hold of Anchorage and most of Alaska.   Bright sunny days . . . shorter nights is always something to celebrate in the northland.   Things make the transition from the ever present white through the browns, muddy water, dampness, to the greening up and colors again. This has led me to contemplate the differences between our winters and our summers. The contrasts are as extreme as the landscape found within this state.   Moose roam the streets.   Dogs are on leashes or locked up in yards or houses. Winters of cold and constant darkness while the summers of never ending light.   It seems like everyone carries a gun . . . but me (seen enough of them for one lifetime). There are not a lot of people here . . . compar...

Today Anchorage Alaska had warm weather and the snow is melting nicely. The streets aren't too bad now and you can wash your rig as the puddles of water are slowly receding around town. Cars riding around town today with windows down and in several I saw dogs getting for many their first ride with heads out the window in months. It got me thinking back when Levi was still around . . . Did you ever notice that if you blow in a dogs face it gets mad . . . yet when you take him in the car for a ride he sticks his head straight out the window enjoying every minute of it? Ice

Why do musher’s seek the challenge of the Iditarod? If you listen to them, they'll tell stories of experiencing the serenity of a beautiful day on the trail, dog team and musher working as one.   They'll talk of the intensity of the experience.   They'll talk of the challenge of meeting the demands of the world's last great race. On the early morning flight from Anchorage to Kotzebue and then to Nome the other day the last person to board the plane was an old haggard looking man who sought out a space to put his items in the overhead space on the plane.   He looked the part of what I would call the Alaskan Old Timer who had on his flannel shirt, Seal skin hat and bushy beard with thick glasses.   He was not a big man but rugged in every sense of the word. He sat down in the seat directly behind me and started talking, and talking, and did not stop from push back, deicing, take off to Kotzebue, landing and the hour turn around time to head to Nome and only quit ...

Traveling around Alaska with my job I have the pleasure/pain of flying all over the state in various aircraft.   Most days I have an early morning departure from the main Anchorage airport, Ted Stevens International Airport flying Alaska Airlines from my base in Anchorage to one of several ‘hub’ airports.   It has been from the southern end of the Alaska in Ketchikan, Sitka, or Juneau to the “island”; Kodiak or out to the delta area of western Alaska to Bethel or Dillingham.   For my trips farther north it has been to Fairbanks, Barrow or Kotzebue in the arctic regions of the state. Once I arrive in a hub airport I go over to one of several smaller carriers which are the typical “bush” plane operations which may use both float planes and more conventional small aircraft.   Some carriers use turbine engine planes which carry more passengers or more cargo depending on the pilot’s mission for that particular flight.   Most days the pilot will make multiple flig...

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...

This summer I travelled to several remote villages in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta area of Alaska or the YK Delta as it is know locally.   Many of these trips start we me leaving Anchorage on Alaska Airlines’ 737 and flying to one of the hub cities like Bethel, Dillingham, or Kotzebue from which I change planes to a smaller single engine or twin engine airplane. I spend time in Cessna 206, 207, and 208 aircraft along with the Piper Navajo which are the workhorses (taxi’s) to travel into the bush communities.   Many times over the course of the summer I fly over literally a million small lakes scattered across the tundra as I visit my project sites.   I find it interesting to see the different wildlife that calls these lands home.   There may be caribou herds transiting the area as they free range never stopping or hardly slowing down as they drop there babies who quickly keep up with the groups.   I have seen a few mush oxen that usually stay within a 10 to 15 ...

I made my trip up north to Selawik on Tuesday morning leaving the house at 4 am making my way to the airport for my Alaska Air flight to Kotzebue.   We took off into the clear cold night sky leaving the sparkling lights of Anchorage below as we turned northwest for the one hour forty five minute flight.   I thought about grabbing a nap since this would be a long day returning to Anchorage around midnight but chose to instead listen to my music on the iPod and enjoy the coffee and Danish the flight attendant had given me.   I sat next to the window but many of these early morning trips I do not spend time looking out the windows since in the darkness it is like looking into a black hole in space.   Tonight was different as there was almost a full moon to the west a couple hours away from setting casting its silvery bluish glow on the landscape below. As we made our way at flight level 340 (34,000’) and had just crossed over the Yukon River below with its ribbon li...

I started off the New Year with a ‘quick’ trip up to Selawik Alaska for meeting with the tribal leaders on our plans to refurbish their water treatment plant and add some water and sewer service to 8 new homes added last summer to the community. There was a large group of us flying up from Anchorage leaving for the airport around 4 am to light snow mixed with rain.   We gathered at the boarding gate in the airport with everyone mostly quiet as we waited to board the plane around 5:30.   Once on board the plane several people took the chance for a quick nap since we were not due to return to Anchorage until almost midnight.   The rest of us chatted briefly or listened to music on our iPods.   We landed in Kotzebue which is a small spit of land on the Arctic Ocean along Norton Sound.   We deplaned from Alaska Airlines and made our way over to Bering Air for our charter flight to Selawik. Everyone dressed in their arctic gear and boarded the plane in the darkn...

This has been a long two days for my family. My youngest daughter and her son have been preparing to move to California and the day for them to leave was last night.   She sorted and packed and did some more to get their things into four items to check on the flight along with a car seat.   We headed to the airport at midnight and get them and their bags checked in for their 1:30 am flight to Seattle then to Sacramento. I returned home around 1 am only to return to the airport for my own flight out to Kodiak for a day trip to two villages I have projects in.   That meant no real sleep as I hit the sack about 1:30 only to have the dog scramble off the bed at 2:15 am chasing the hamster around who somehow had gotten loose. After jumping out of bed . . . ‘au natural’ and the mad dash through two bathrooms and the living room to retrieve “Hammy” and get him back in the cage I headed back to bed.   If there had been cameras in the house it must have been an awfully f...

This summer has been going in what feels a hundred miles an hour.  So many trips to different places for work with little time for doing the things that make this such a great place to live. The last month or so has been a series of trips to inspect and visits the many projects going on around the state.  I have several on Kodiak island and several more scattered around the state so it has been one plane ride after another going from project to project. Last week was to several jobsite visits on Kodiak and the weather was trying not to cooperate.  There were times of fog and rain showers in between times with millions of mosquitoes buzzing around my head.  It was something else wearing head nets while wondering if I should be in a full body “bug suit”. I need to upload some of the pictures about the villages and trips but my internet service while out of town is totally lacking.  The brief time at home has me playing catch up to laundry, finishing house pr...