Icewind's Ramblings

In Alaska we have a great group of men and women serving our country while stationed at Ft. Richardson, home of our “Arctic Warriors” and the 172 nd Stryker Brigade.   Their tour was extended over in Iraq and like many other units the number of wounded or killed has grown over the last few years. I saw yet another news story recently about insurgents using car bombs to attack security personnel in Iraq.   This includes the peace keepers and the Iraqi soldiers trying to support the new “Freedom Plan” government being established for this country.   This has become an almost daily occurrence and seems to have escalated in the last few months.   Thinking about this for a little bit, I decided that the major issue as far as I can tell isn't with the feisty-ness of the insurgents or the poor security in Iraqi cities.   The biggest problem I can see is with the cars there.   They are just too convenient and plentiful to stuff with explosives, drive into a c...

There was an incident at my work today that had me thinking about several things. Someone parked a car at the top of our parking lot and left to go inside to work in the building next to ours.   One of my co-workers, Faith came to work a little later than usual due to her son’s school activities.   She parked in a different spot than her ‘normal’ one as most of us are creatures of habit and leave for work at the same time, arrive at the same time and park in ‘our’ spot each day.   We do not change very much of our daily activities going home the same way, stopping for things from the store on the same day each week or weekend.   We all do it. Several hours after work started there was an email sent saying a vehicle had “rolled over in the parking lot”.   It did not say which side of the building this happened so I looked out my window and noticed a car had plowed into one or two other vehicles.   Later it was discovered that the vehicle that had parked...

I have not kept up with the news lately but the times I have had a chance to either watch a news program or a quick look online there have been a couple things that stood out. Veterans Day should not be a sad day. Yet, in the days before America pauses to honor the men and women who have fought for this great nation, the country was forced to note the awful handiwork of two one-time soldiers who dishonored their country and their comrades. The tragedy at Ft. Hood is one that hits hard with these fine men and women serving their country to be assaulted and killed on our home soil in a ‘secure’ environment of an Army post.  I guess it stands to reason when I was sworn in so many years ago the words “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” still rings true, today thirty nine years later. "I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true fa...

Originally appeared in the September 2003 issue of Esquire Do you remember this photograph?  In the United States , people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day. Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0903-SEP_FALLINGMAN#ixzz0QruXC4RU   Falling Man. Taken by Richard Drew at 9:41:15 a.m., on September 11, 2001 In the picture, he departs from this earth like an arrow. Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it.  If he were not falling, he might very well be flying.  He appears relaxed, hurtling through the air.  He appears comfortable in the grip of unimaginable motion.  He does not appear intimidated by gravity's divine suction or by what awaits him.  His arms are by his side, only slightly out rigged.  His left le...

Or Flight of Fancy Talkeetna Bound The weather this last week brought some much needed rain along with some flooding on the Kenai Peninsula in the towns of Seward and Soldotna. In Seward the airport runway was underwater for several days and the large town waterfall was so powerful it was crashing down on the bridge about forty feet in front of the waterfall. Finally on Friday evening the winds died down the clouds parted and Saturday morning dawned with clear skies and warmer temperatures. My breakfast was nice with only Frank, my boss showing up since most everyone was out of town this weekend. I did not have many chores this morning so it was back home until noon when I went out to Merrill Field one of the local airports a few miles from my house to meet Wayne (one of my coworkers) who keeps his Cessna 177 (Cardinal) tied down there. The weather was nice with broken clouds so we decided to fly up to Talkeetna , Alaska and have lunch. We did ...

Alaska is “hot” for a change with temperatures near a record of 80 degrees here in Anchorage . The past weekend was nice with warmth like has not been seen for several years but with the dry comes forest fire dangers. There are several large fires in the interior west southwest of Fairbanks and with our high pressure situated just so is bringing the smoke down from the north across south central Alaska . It reminds me of my travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachia and the hazy look found there. The lake wasn’t too bad but the view around Anchorage today is quiet hazy. With the smoke and haze it reminded me of one of my childhood friends. It’s hard to believe Smokey Bear is 65 years old. Many people still think that his name is Smokey the Bear but that is not right for all these years. Happy Birthday Smokey! There are still the teaching tools for the kids available and updated commercials and print ads that show Smokey has a...

This evening while my father in law was outside in the front yard working on deck stairs we have just installed a very clean-cut college age person came up and started a smooth talking sales pitch. He said his name was Justin and he worked for APX Alarm Security Solutions and wanted to talk with us about our alarm system. He came into the house and gave his pitch about window break and door sensors and that his system was cellular based and would work even if a burglar ‘cut’ our phone line. It all sounded pretty good and he threw around names like “Honeywell”, ADT, Brinks, and Guardian which are other local companies who have been around Alaska for many years. He explained they had over 90% of the Anchorage residential market and could “waive” the two thousand dollar equipment fee if we placed their APX sign in our front yard (his hard part) and we could just pay the $ 49 dollar monthly monitoring fee (our easy part) for a period of three years. ...

Job safety is always on everyone’s mind on a construction site and keeping those injury free work days climbing in the books usually makes for a great Safety Program. It’s a shame when someone gets hurt on a work site but sometimes it seems they just can’t be helped. One such incident happened recently that I just had to blog about. Electricians work with high voltage lines and take extra care to be safe at all times but as one found out he might just have been too careful. One of his coworker’s passed by and observed an electrician shaking violently while working on a circuit. Construction workers know that if someone is being electrocuted you should never grab them or touch them as the current will pass to that person also. The trick is to either kill the power by tripping a circuit breaker or getting something non-conductive to move the person off the power source. Acting quickly is important in saving a life and keeping the amount of damage to ...