Icewind's Ramblings

Some of the best things about life I learned from Lonesome Dove. Great movie, excellent characters, and tells a story about how to live life. Augustus McCrae “It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living.   I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live.” I'm just tryin' to keep everything in balance, Woodrow. You do more work than you got to, so it's my obligation to do less. “Yesterday’s gone and we can’t get it back.” “I'm sure partial to the evening,' Augustus said. 'The evening and the morning.   If we just didn't have to have the rest of the dern day I'd be a lot happier.” Hat Creek Cattle Company Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is . . . he's hard to stop. Biscuits “I never knew you to get excited about anything except biscuits maybe . . . and whores!”    Captain Woodrow Call to Augustus McCrae in Lonesome Dove. Whores L...

A dog still has bad breath even after eating a Tic Tac. Ice

Dog Farts . . . or how my eyes were burning as I woke up this morning. Sometimes dog farts tend to be nastier than some of our best human counterparts.  My wife’s dog Gus lets go of some absolute beauties . . . and he knows it too.  I have been known to pinch my nose and give my traditional cry of "Awwwwww Gussssssss!", as he never moves off the bed just looking up at me with innocent eyes in the dimness of the bedroom as if to say "What?"  But I know that he knows, because of the way he looks away again just a little too quickly hoping he will be left alone and not thrown or kicked off the end of the bed.  The other night he was in fine form after sneaking the remnants in a bowl of chili . . . his own pungent smell woke him up . . . and he indignantly got up . . . jumped off the bed and left the room!  Of course leaving behind the toxic cloud in his wake, luckily it wasn’t mine and no one else woke up so I did not get blamed for polluting the room. Of cou...

I’ve had one heck of a day and I do not know where to start explaining the madness so I guess I will start at the beginning.  Saturday is my time to get different things or chores done that get put off with a busy work week.  This Saturday was no different but I had a few added places to go or stop for things before I was able to stop and relax for the evening. “Where everybody Knows your Name” – Village Inn breakfast with friends.  I started going to ‘Saturday Breakfast’ over six years ago when I was working on a Project at the University of Alaska Anchorage .  We were building a very nice Library and the project took over a year and a half to complete. My Superintendent and I started to go there on Saturday morning so we could go over the progress of the job, set goals for the crew in the coming week and to review the past weeks goals and to make sure we had all the material to keep 12-15 plumbers busy the next week.  It was too hectic each day to fi...

Alaskans give a big Thank You and Welcome Home to the first members of the 1-25 th Stryker Brigade returning from a yearlong deployment in Iraq .  The first 160 troopers arrived to a quiet hanger in Fort Wainwright in the darkness of an early morning 3 a.m. Inside the hanger was filled with yawning and pajama clad children and adults who erupted in a joyous reunion as the soldiers came off the plane.  Over the next several weeks a total of 4,000 military personnel with the Stryker Brigade will be coming home to similar welcoming events. Thanks again for your service and sacrifice from a grateful nation! The crazy birdman of Alaska is at it again as the geese are gathering in larger numbers making preparations for their migration south.  They are hitting many areas around Anchorage looking to bulk up on food before hitting the skies before the approaching winter weather arrives in a couple of weeks. I have been playing with my birds hitting my feeder multiple tim...

A few days ago I wrote about the movie Lonesome Dove. I did not realize it at the time but oddly the cable channel American Movie Channel over last weekend was doing a 20 th Anniversary tribute to this epic western. Has it been that long? I guess it has but as Gus says on his death bed . . . “By God, Woodrow; it's been one hell of a party.” We all age and go through many changes in our lives, some planned and a few thrown at us by forces unknown. Hopefully we make our way through it and adapt and adjust to those changes. Gus says: “The older the violin, the sweeter the music.” I hope there is sweet music to ease us though each day as music is that universal rhythm that binds us. Personal growth and maturity is a part of life. Throughout life, we deal with a variety of physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual changes. These changes sometimes make life difficult. Time is your life story’s ultima...

One of my favorite books is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. It’s funny how a novel and later a movie have lasting impact on your life. Good writing is supposed to be that way as the book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for fiction. Oddly the Lonesome Dove story came about in the 1960’s as a movie script for John Wayne, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda but was never developed after Wayne turned down the part. For me I’m glad that it was later developed with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones as the lead characters. Both were perfect in how they portrayed the lifestyle and complexities of the American West. When things get too busy or stressful for me I tend to make time to sit and watch it again to glean life lessons which I find useful. I seem to watch it several times a year since it first aired in 1989. “If you want only one thing too much, it’s likely to turn out a disappointment. The only healthy way to live, as I see it, is to learn to like all the...