Icewind's Ramblings

It has been a little strange for me that since my heart attack that my being able to sit down and write just seemed to be stalled.  There was much to say and many notes to gain topics from which to write but it has been hard for me to sit down at the computer to write it down. I have tried many times in these last few weeks where I would sit and start and just as quickly stop not able to make my fingers hit the key strokes like they have so many times before.  It is strange in some ways as I could sit and write things on a notepad but could not bring myself to transfer the words from paper to word process.  I have wondered why that has been that way or what did not motivate me to sit and write during this time I have been in a state of convalesce since my hospital stay. It has only been two days now that I can seem to sit here and contemplate this state and start to put things down on what I would like to say again.  I have been editing my book getting it r...

Everywhere you go . . . even to the mall. And where better to remember shopping than my favorite movie, Christmas Vacation’s shopping scene with Mary. Enjoy! Did a small bit of shopping today and the parking lots were a mess.   Everyone seemed to lose the Christmas spirit as there were many hands and fingers pointed at people trying to find or maneuver for those few shopping spaces. Not fun so glad to be home without all of the chaos of the malls or stores. Ice

Thanks to AMC cable channel it was nice that they are playing Christmas Vacation over and over again today.  I awoke early and was able to watch it in the quiet of my man cave . . . no laundry going at this early hour. The days this week leading up to this morning were filled with all of the necessary items that make up “that perfect family Christmas” that Clark Griswold so earnestly tried to bring together. My family was probably no different from his as everyone scrambled with busy lives, work, doctors appointments, and the waiting for when those that had been out of town returned home for the holiday’s . . . then add to the mix our family dysfunction and the stage was set. "I don't know what to say, except its Christmas and we're all in misery. (Ellen Griswold)" - Christmas Vacation Dog barking, kids screaming and running around like chickens with their head cut off (if you’ve lived in the South and watched your grandmother do this before the holiday mea...

We’ve made it to Christmas week and with it watching the traditional holiday movies we sit through every year.  My brother loves “It’s a Wonderful Life” while my sister likes “Miracle on 34 th Street ”.  My favorite is “National Lampoon Christmas Vacation”.  I find it hard to believe that it has been out 20 years now and it still brings us laughter year after year. This is the classic tale of a man trying to have a ‘good old’ family Christmas with his "good old" family.  The quiet dream of every man, I think, is to have that perfect holiday.  Too bad like the movie it never quite turns out that way. There's a reason the "Cousin Eddie" character in Christmas Vacation resonates with so many.  We've all got a Cousin Eddie, or two, in our extended families.  Some of us . . . are Cousin Eddie. Probably many of our families weren't designed for a televised Christmas special as our dysfunction would be awkward on TV.  Who knows with the curre...

2008 has been one of those years that you just wish was over and can look forward to the coming New Year. Last nights post ended with a kind of somber note that I felt there would be no saving grace at the end of this year. After I posted I sat there and felt bad that over the course of the whole year I was left with a ‘downer mood’ which goes against all of my positive being. I went to sleep late after watching my granddaughter fall asleep on the couch waiting to see Santa come down the chimney. She made sure that the fire that had been raging earlier was out and the chimney had cooled so Santa would make his appearance. I wandered off to sleep just as a light snowfall was coming down outside and the light played off the crystallized snowflakes as it passed by the street light out front. I finally fell asleep around four in the morning and ‘slept’ in as that is my usual time for waking up and getting ready for work. I was in a deep sleep when around...

. . . or Trying to remember our past. I posted this several years ago but with our hectic lifestyles it still rings true today so I thought I would repost this as we make our way through the darkness here in Alaska and embark on this Holiday Season. With this being that time of year that people tend to stress and wrap themselves into the frenzy of the holiday season, perhaps at this time of year we all need a moment to remember patience and good will. Even though Icewind is hesitant to put religious messages before you, the sentiments below are worthy, whether you pray to God or seek your own inner guidance. Oh Lord, help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children. Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't ma...

Usually every year at this time I have always gotten into the Christmas season with a renewed sense of my childhood. For many years I was like Clark Griswold putting light after light up all over the house or yards. It started when I lived in Atlanta and there were many years it seemed our family experienced many of the things that the Griswold family did. I spent year after year collecting lights from garage sales, after Christmas sales, and even a discard here and there. There were a couple of years when our house could be seen from miles away. It may have taken a couple of tries, but when they lit up, Clark W. Griswold would have been green (and red) with envy. You know they were great when the neighbors complained. We had those times of going out to the country to find and cut our own tree spending hours looking for that perfect one. One year we found one on a slightly rainy day and when we walked up over a hill and saw this tree the Heaven’s opened up ...