Icewind's Ramblings

My last post started my annual adventure of Kenai Dipnetting where is found every July on the shores of Cook Inlet a throwback to the 70’s beach party. There are the ‘famous’ and almost famous Alaskans sharing the beach and enjoying a long standing tradition of sand, seagulls, and wind while spending time at the beach. If the fish are in there may be some filling of great big freezers with that fresh catch of the day. A while back as the snow was starting to melt you could feel that things were changing as the stores started selling huge fishing nets on very long poles. They were being sold in any and every kind of store, just as is any fishing paraphernalia in this part of Alaska . When Costco moved their nets from the back of the store to the front entrance row by the liquor cage it must be time to prepare for that mad rush to the river. I started hearing from other friends that they planned to make the trek this year and how the numbers of fishermen would swell beyond i...

Part One There is an annual rite of summer that occurs every July in Alaska that makes for a unique and usually different experience each year I participate. This amazing phenomenon occurs for a short time each summer as thousands of us, from all walks of life, take a break from whatever we're busy doing at the time to storm the shores of several Alaska 's rivers. It’s known as subsistence fishing but is largely called ‘Dip Netting’. Some dip solo and some with friends. Some make it a family effort and yet others combine the family with the friends and that makes for a raucous time camping on the beach! I have anticipated this time coming for several weeks and when both the dates of the open season for subsistence fishing on the Kasilof and the Kenai Rivers arrived I as well as thousands of others waited for word that the fish had arrived. I first heard the news at work when one of my plumbers called and told me one of his buddies was on the Kenai and had g...

Nah! It never left us this “Summer”. How does the cold climate affect the way you live in winter? What do you have to do differently than in the summer? Remember to sleep! Everyone acts like ants in the summertime. Busy . . . busy . . . busy. There are many activities going on during this time for gathering the grain (or the salmon) to help us make it through another tough winter. People can be found on the hillsides picking berries or in Mat-Su valley growing the ‘giant’ veggies that we see at the Alaska Fair each year. I sense a theme going on as we're Tougher in Alaska . See what I mean? This is how stereotypes get started. With our days growing shorter again and the onset of fall in the air there is a feeling of what happened to our summer. If we would have paid for it this year I am sure there would be many people holding on to their receipts and demanding a refund since we have not had but one day this year that officially reached 70 d...

Driving for Jesus . . . Driving for Jesus . . . Making all the lights! (song from my childhood I haven’t really thought of in a long while) On my way home from work this afternoon, I was sitting in a line of vehicles at a stoplight with nothing to do but wait for the light to turn green and I looked in my rear view mirror to watch the woman in the car behind me. She had on one of those hands free on-ear cell phone devices. You know the kind that makes you look like one of the Collective Borg with a hive mind from Star Trek. It wasn’t obvious at first but she was talking someone’s ear off, and there was nobody in the vehicle with her. The emotions were mixed with what looked like an argument at first which is what brought her to my attention in the first place. The funny thing was that she was using hand gestures . . . very actively. That got me thinking . . . what are hand gestures in communication really used for? Especially with no one there in the car to observe ...

Summer morning . . . Silence broken by the light sound . . . of rain on a tin roof. A busy few days here while waiting for summer to happen. It still has not warmed up here in Anchorage this summer. Only one day so far of reaching seventy degrees and it only lasted three hours. What a change from normal. I played golf on Friday at Settlers Bay in the Pacific Plumbing Tournament and had a nice round with a great group of people. It was nice having a chance to mingle with those you may normally be competing against bidding projects in a no hassle friendly place. It gives time to catch up with old friends, past enemies, and get a feel for where everyone thinks the current work market is headed here in Alaska . There were the usual rumors floating around . . . the news of people moving from one company to another and the planting of seeds to see how far and from whom the rumors will spread. All in all a good day and the weather cooperated with cloudy overcast...

What’s it like to live under the steady gaze of the sun in our arctic locale? The clock ticks . . . the sun is there . . . never blinking . . . never hiding . . . Our day never really ends . . . just moving from one date on the calendar to the next. This continues for several months and brings with it several differences from living Outside. Relentless is this sun by your side . . . above your head . . . all the time . . . in your face. Animals tend to be somewhat confused as birds who tend to ‘sing’ more at sunrise can be heard 24 hours a day belting their song until there seems to be nothing left . . . then there is another one close by who cranks it up. Children can be found outside playing long past a ‘normal’ time when those of us who work and get up early would be heading for bed and that much needed sleep. No need for a night light as the kids who go to bed at a regular time hear the calls of their playmates still at play well past ten. The sound of ...

An odd couple of days here in Alaska as the tourists are here in full force enjoying the magnificence of this great land. For some it’s a boat ride seeing the tidewater glaciers up close enough to hear the ice cracking before breaking off falling into the water. It’s an incredible experience and for a few it was another experience altogether . . . Can you say . . . Oops! Here’s the story from Anchorage Daily News by Mary Pemberton . And there was also the old theme of Triumph and Defeat . . . Denali Picture by Bob Hallinen from ADN archives 2006 As one climbing enthusiast (tourist) had one of those once in a lifetime experiences of climbing to the summit of North America’s tallest peak (20,320’) reaching the summit of Denali (Mt. McKinley to Outsiders) on the evening of the Fourth of July where he shortly collapsed just off the summit and died after other climbers tried to revive him. Here’s the ADN story by Lisa Demer on the f...

Men and women will act rationally . . . When all other possibilities have been exhausted. I hope everyone had a nice 4 th of July celebration wherever you found yourself. I took a much needed break and headed off to Big Lake for some time away from it all. Call it a pre-vacation warm up for our August trip. My family headed out on Friday morning to meet up with Scott and his family who left after work on Thursday. I am reminded why it is difficult to go anywhere with the young ones as my daughter who has been recovering lately from an illness came along with her husband and one year old. I also took my granddaughter (4 yrs old) so packing up all of the items was a major pain. There were all of the sleeping bags, tents, porta-cribs, coolers, chairs (which I left in the rig as we did not need them), food, ice, dog, kids, and even a little fixins’ for my cooking. We loaded up everything on the party barge and headed out across Big Lake , Mud Lake , a...

Summer officially came to Anchorage this afternoon . . . briefly! It arrived on a Wednesday . . . the first in July at 3:58 pm ADST . . . Today FINALLY feels like summer! Yay! The temperature hit 70 degrees for the first time this year . . . but it only stayed for a short time as it only lasted a couple of hours and tomorrows expected high is dropping down to 57 degrees with clouds rolling in overnight. Summer . . . The weather both in May and June had been . . . well let's just say it hasn't even FELT like its summer. Cloudy, cool, and sometimes rainy has been the norm this year very different from years past . . . Some things never change (like the cottonwood snowstorm we’re experiencing right now) and some things do . . . like the allergies for many people who have said it has been much worse this year. It was nice while it lasted and hopefully there will be more days like today or we get into an ‘indian summer’ period. But today . . . it was...

July already . . . where did this year go already as it’s half over and it seems like it was the New Year a short time ago. The day was beautiful here as the sky was totally clear, the clouds rolled out and the sun was shining brightly. Today was a people day at work with many people calling to see if I was bidding this project or that in the next two weeks? Several people dropped by the office to either drop off plans or materials for several ongoing jobs which leads me into tonight’s thoughts . . . We are in our Statehood celebrations honoring our 50 th anniversary of becoming the 49 th state in the USA. What do Alaskans think of people from Outside who live in the lower 48, in terms of differences in life philosophies, ways of living, personality, etc.? The funny answer would be we think they're all idiots. Probably because we have found something that most will never know or understand. Nah . . . just yanking your chain. I think the biggest di...

This is Monday night and most people are feeling good here as the weather has broken and the clouds finally parted after hanging out for what seems like many days now. For some reason . . . however . . . I don't have anything funny to write about, though I did manage to come up with something early this morning to bring a chuckle to me. This is an opportunity for me to show off that still mischievous side of my personality. Humor is one way to get through tough times. My goal is to provide people with a unique blend of a little twisted look at things and hopefully provide a measure of entertainment in the process of my oddball observations of the human condition. As many of you know by now that my daughter has been sick the last six months and had several stays in the hospital both here in Alaska and also a Medivac trip to Seattle . Things have been turning around for her now and she has not been vomiting since her return to Alaska and actually has put on seven po...

I do not know if it is the ‘kid’ in us that still has that longing to see things go fast or make loud noises while at the same time allowing us to marvel how incredible man (or woman) can make an aircraft perform. Arctic Thunder did not disappoint this year as Elmendorf Air Force Base hosted a weekend celebration of Alaska ’s 50 th Statehood anniversary and military family appreciation. It started with a concert on Friday night, continued Saturday with the first air show and finished this afternoon after another crowd pleasing flight demonstration. Almost one hundred thousand people showed up for Saturday’s and another fifty thousand or more are expected today to see all that is on display or in the skies over Anchorage . On Saturday, we actually had a taste of traffic like Outside as cars jammed the designated parking lots and officials opened overflow lots. They were asking people on the news to ease traffic today by car pooling, coming early and taking ...

If ignorance is bliss . . . Why aren't more people happy? It was a busy day today with all of the activities going on around town for the 50 th anniversary of Alaska ’s Statehood celebrations. Arctic Thunder had great weather for the air show . . . Downtown had 4 th Avenue closed for all kinds of activities including the 49 th Star Flag reenactment . . . and the Park strip was full of people. So much to do trying to hit a little of everything means tomorrow will be full of more partying and experiencing the ‘newness’ of Statehood. Ice

Fifty years can seem like a long time to some . . . While for others it might seem like only yesterday. Alaska is in the middle of our statehood celebrations with events and reenactments all over. Tonight there is a joint military family appreciation/50 years of statehood concert featuring Wynona Judd out at Elmendorf Air Force Base that is a free concert with a live broadcast on KTUU Channel 2. Towards the end Wynona brought out her mama, Naomi to sing a few songs and also had several families come onstage for a teleconference with their family members who are combat stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq . Tonight’s concert will finish off with the lighting of a bonfire to reenact the ‘statehood bonfire’ fifty years ago on the park strip downtown. Tomorrow starts the Arctic Thunder Air Show with many static exhibits and live flight demonstrations by both military and civilian pilots as well as parachute drops by our own Alaskan Arctic Warriors based at Fort...

The morning dawned at 4:25 am and I am taking a working break to play in a yearly golf tournament that one of my vendors invites me too. Ferguson puts on a great outing every year and it is a great time to network with those other contractors who you have bid against, not seen lately, or are old friends sharing a great time. The forecast last night was calling for the clouds to roll in and rain but as I woke up it was sunny with the sun just clearing the mountaintops . . . a few clouds lazily hanging over the city and the temperatures would climb into the mid sixties. That seems to be our “normal” summer now as we still have yet to hit the seventy degree mark. My foursome was Scott, Frank, and Dave and we had a great relaxed round today. We played a normal round as out team was 1B so we started on the first hole. We started out with nice drives off the tee and that seemed to set the tempo for the day. Everyone made the ‘shot’ that was needed ...

Here in Alaska there are more natural resources in and under our land it is hard to believe how our gas and fuel oil prices have gone through the roof. It is not just here in the arctic regions but all over the country. Gas prices keep escalating about ten cents ($ .10) every two weeks with our averages around town in the 4.29 to 4.59 range for 87 Octane. Premium is at five dollars a gallon and diesel has broken the five dollar mark in many stations around town. An odd concept to me has turned into reality for some Alaskan’s . . . What happens when a village runs out of fuel? That's not theoretical for the village of Manokotak , about 25 miles south of Dillingham. Our company did some plumbing work there last year so it was strange seeing a report in the Bristol Bay Times recently. The entire village ran out of gasoline June 2 with the spring barge not due until June 6. The problem was a delay in a Dutch Harbor dry dock held up the vessel, fi...

The sun was out as the high clouds rolled into Anchorage and from a distant thunder the sounds grew louder and there they were. Making an entrance that everyone could see over the city was like a scene from a movie. The Air Force Thunderbirds, a squadron of ace Air Force pilots who perform all over the country, arrived in or over Anchorage this evening in preparation for the Arctic Thunder air show this weekend at Elmendorf Air Force Base. The Thunderbirds arrived with a bang and the arrival show they performed in the skies above Anchorage just after 7 p.m. tonight was awesome. I live just off base so had a great view as the jets maneuvered as a group or in solo sorties quickly making their way across the city with the Chugach Mountains in the background. In years past the Thunderbirds will practice for several days before the weekend shows and this year will be celebrating our 50 th year of statehood along with fifty five years of the demonstration team’s existen...

The house if full of people again as the guests who come up to fish every year are here. One friend of the family who lives in Florida and works at my favorite place Disney World, arrived almost a week ago and has fished in several areas with my brother in law. We tried to get up this morning after about an hour and a half of sleep to fish on Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage but it was pouring down rain so we opted to stay put an let those hardcore fisherman who braved the downpour all the fish. We waited most of the day for things to let up to head out but it waited until now to stop so I think everyone has found other things to do. Charlie my father in law arrived Thursday after a week’s road trip relocating his belongings and vehicles to Alaska from Utah . We have the parking lot now that we expected with everyone’s vehicles here now. Deb’s rig is in the garage as well as mine (I do not drive often as I have a company rig) and in the driveway out front there is my w...