Icewind's Ramblings

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...

Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack? That’s how I would feel lately if I knew exactly what it was.  Sorry for not writing much lately but it has been one busy summer with work keeping me on the road . . . well not really “on the road” since where I travel is not on the road system.  Traveling to ‘bush Alaska ’ this summer has been trying with all of the rain and marginal weather.  Multiple projects in various parts of the state has me going in so many directions about 4 or 5 days a week it has been hard to keep up with things. During the brief down time I have managed to get in a couple rounds of golf (though not enough but with the weather, it is not a bad thing), three fishing outings (not as many as normal years), and I have finished my projects around the house.  The master bathroom turned out nice and it is a joy to be able to shower in there again as 4 people trying to use one bathroom for many months was a pain in the butt.  I ...

Sometimes we get busy and caught up in work or possibly play . . . here in Alaska with the abundance of both things always going on.  For many of us it usually does not take long for something to trigger that memory of what brought you here in the first place.  Springtime is one of those times as the renewal of life comes to the neighborhoods all around Anchorage .  We have over 1,100 moose roaming within the City of Anchorage during the winter months with the females calving in springtime.  One such occurred here on May 25 th in a lower hillside neighborhood backyard belonging to Mark McDermott.  These photos cover only about 1.5 hours, from 10:30 AM to just after 12:00 noon.  His pictures show the renewal of hope and the first hours of “Life in the City”.  Will this moose remain in the city or head for the hills? Enjoy these incredible pictures of new life. Mom (Cow) lying down just below the deck at the start of her labor. Note: the fron...