Icewind's Ramblings

Well weeks actually . . . as I was out of town last week on Monday to Kipnuk for a long “day” trip.  It is one of those where you leave the house at 4 AM to get to the airport for an early morning flight.  It just so happened that this was June 21 st which is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.  When I walked out the door at four the sun was already above the mountaintops to the northeast of town.  With our high latitude we do not have the typical sun rises in the east and sets in the west like most places further south.  During the long summers our sun rises in the northeast about 50 degrees from north not the “normal” 90 degrees “east” heading and sets briefly around 310 degrees not the usual 270 degrees “west”.  So much for the brief explanation as all I wanted to say was the sun was already heading up into the summer sky. I went with the engineers for a progress inspection since I took over these three projects just over three weeks ...

I need to come clean since I pretended to be asleep last night after “The Incident”. I would like to give you a little back story before I confess.  This past weekend was one of those times where there were multiple things going on and everyone is required to give way from the normal routines and go into that feeding frenzy mode that comes during these times. We had the start of the Olympics with the athletic competition getting underway on Saturday.  Then add to that the happenings in Daytona with auto racing which included Danica Patrick’s debut in the Nationwide Series 300 and the running of the 52 nd annual Daytona 500 NASCAR race and you have the makings of a stomach disaster. To properly watch any of these events you have to prepare for them.  The Super Bowl has its ‘must haves’ to do it up just right.  There is always chili, hot dogs or hamburgers, nachos, and the chips & dip that set the mood for the afternoon.  Mine was no different where you...

I suffered tonight while eating dinner as I sat watching television.  I had been watching the local news which as I did that manly thing of channel surfing I stumbled upon either “Show Biz Tonight” or “Entertainment Tonight”.  They both look the same to me as I never watch these programs but the ‘teaser’ during the commercial gave reference to a pre-Olympic story on skier Lindsey Vonn which I wanted to see. While I waited for the story I was bombarded by a story about John Meyer’s raunchy talk about his former love Jessica Simpson.  Who cares was my first thought, and then I went into wondering who the hell John Mayer is?  Turns out he is somewhat of a singer and had the song from The Bucket List, “Say”.  Yeah that was annoying long before I ever saw the movie with its repeating the line “Say what you need to say” 41 times in just over 3 minutes and 44 seconds.  It was not the neat little ditty like some songs that stick in your brain to help you bright...

I read a lot of blogs when I get the chance on all kinds of subjects and one that seems to get a ton of verbiage is about people who work in offices.  Some are complaints about people who have co-workers who steal their lunch or co-workers who wear too much perfume.  A few about those people who haven’t mastered email etiquette at work.  I read blogs where people rant about their bosses, complain about their work schedule, moan about their cubicle size. Which makes me feel somewhat guilty. Because usually . . . I don’t have anything to complain about.  Sure, I might have a backlog of work from submittals or O&M manuals waiting for my attention or a list of calls to return but is that really something to complain about?  Not really.  The work hectic but I think I thrive on it if truth be told but this is just . . . It’s sort of a gross story, but I did it as a child too . . . so I can understand the appeal. (Get it . . . A PEEL?  I’m here all ...

A lot of you know by now that I try to keep my eyes peering for anything that may strike my fancy for a blog. I think people who observe things or people around them find inspiration almost anywhere. I had to make a late-night run to the 24 hour Fred Meyer store down the street from my house the other night - and it was not the fun kind. You know what I mean, when you were younger and stayed out late at night making that pit stop between parties when you grab Doritos, eye drops, Red Bull and aspirin and you're off to the next hot spot especially here in Alaska where there is the always constant daylight in the summertime. This sortie from home was after eating more fajitas than I should have which was not to say there wasn't a sense of urgency involved in this trip. So I hurry into the store, run to the aisle marked "stomach" (although let's face it, it wasn't really my stomach I was worried about) and stop in sheer awe of the selections avai...

A mother and her young son were sitting out front of a Starbucks having a conversation about God. It went something like this. "Where is God?" asked the little boy. "All around us." Answered the mom. "What does he do?" Asked the son. "Answer our questions about everything." Said the mom. "Oh." Hey Kid! That’s not God your mother is describing, that’s Google. God sees our prayers as status updates on Face book too. Have a nice day! Speaking of religion . . . it was interesting at church this morning as everyone talked about all the recent activity here in Alaska . There was also great music and our youth ministry talked about the trip 34 of our kids took over spring break to Costa Rica to help build a church and interact with the local community. Other topics . . . Spring in Alaska . . . Its great! The temperatures are around 30 degrees after ...

Over the last several months there has been an increase in seismic activity with numerous small earthquakes within the volcano. Beginning last Sunday night there has been a series of eruptions. One on Thursday sent an ash cloud over 65,000 feet into the air. The last time the volcano had erupted was during a four-month period in late 1989 and early 1990. Winds over the last few days has mainly blown towards the north sending a light coating of ash into the interior but after a couple more blasts yesterday the winds have shifted towards the east and southeast sending ash into Soldotna and Homer. So far Anchorage has been spared with only minor ash fall into the city and it has been mixed with snow. There were two more eruptions this afternoon at 5:35 pm and 7:25 pm again causing a disruption of air travel throughout the state. Mount Redoubt bellows steam and ash, seen from across the Cook Inlet in Ninilchik, Thursday, March 29, ...