Icewind's Ramblings

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, ...

Have you ever seen the 1976 movie Logan ’s Run? It was pretty good science fiction in its day. Can we find Sanctuary or does it really exist in the first place. Sometimes I start to wonder if we are not already closing in on the “Lastday” syndrome here with no where to run to. I was watching a television commercial recently from a drug company when the narrator said, "Tell your prescriber about all your medications first." Prescriber? If you’re not getting drugs from a doctor then it’s a ‘dealer’. Or the Internet. Welcome to the future. Citizens are now consumers and the people you buy drugs from are prescribers. Can a real life Logan 's Run be far behind for us now? Remember all the hype about “Change” before and during the elections? Here is one I would like to see . . . This is a little off the topic but you think now that Obama is our president spell check can stop trying to correct it to Osama? ...

The Bad I think its true that time heals all wounds as it has been a few weeks now since we returned from our trip to my daughter’s wedding in Florida with the grand kids. At the time it seemed like a pretty traumatic experience for everyone of us but now after some time to think about things I seem to be able to pull more ‘funny’ things from my memory than the other not so fun things. But over the course of the two weeks on the road I have to say it was no picnic for anyone during various parts of the trip. The long airplane flights from Alaska to Florida actually went pretty well for three of the four flights. The flights south went pretty smoothly with a little help from some prescribed medication for the kids to help them remain calm or sleep a bit of the way. They were long flights with the leg from Anchorage to Seattle just over 4 ½ hours with a 5 hour layover (yeah that was real fun trying to keep them entertained). The Alaska Airlines flight ...

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was one of the largest oil spills in history. It took place in Alaska in March 1989, when the oil tanker ran aground, causing 10.8 million gallons of crude oil to spill into the pristine waters of Prince William Sound . While this was indeed a huge spill, it was actually only a small fraction of what the United States uses in oil in any one day. The United States uses about 700 million gallons of oil every day. That is a lot of oil. When an oil spill occurs, everyone works to help clean it up. Have you ever noticed a rainbow puddle on the street or parking lot after a rain? That rainbow sheen that you see on top of the water is actually oil from cars that has leaked onto the ground. For Steve Smith, the 20-year anniversary of the nation's worst oil spill is like a reminder that he lost a loved one. "It's like a death in the family," the 70-year-old fisherman said of the Exxon Valdez disaster. "With time...

How is the fall of western civilization going for you? Just as we were collectively getting over the fear of terrorism in this country it has now been replaced with the fear of being fired. Stores are closing all over the country, the Big 3 automakers are begging for loans to keep their high priced car companies afloat all the while many unemployment websites are crashing under the heavy demand from those out of working looking to get back into the workforce. And the banks seem to be getting away with the biggest theft in history. I guess sadly we are watching those (balloon) payments come due for our way of life folks. Money has been the ‘scorecard’ here for a while. Do you remember the ending of the movie Fight Club? It was not my cup of tea but they blew up the buildings that housed the computers for the credit industry and banks. The idea was simple. Destroy everyone’s financial records and we all start over from scratch. Well . . . Stores . ...

* Warning rant ahead, bifocals optional. I’ve been out of town lately so I have been somewhat lacking in the news department for the last month so when I started to catch up on a few things I was blown away about a few things. Probably many of you were too. Turns out AIG again took millions of dollars of the bail out money the Government gave them and paid more executive bonuses. Now this is the second set of bonuses paid since the financial collapse started. One guy received six million dollars. I read that over fifty others got more than a million. All right, it is an outrage. But wouldn’t you want to work at a company that rewards failure on a historic level with million dollar bonuses? I don’t know about you but I have never screwed something up on a job to the point where we had to go beg the Government for financial help three times and then the boss sat down with me to write a giant check. I wonder what you get for doing your job really well...

I was out of town during the start of this year’s Iditarod, the first time I have missed the race since I moved to Alaska . It was strange looking for information about the start in newspapers or on the news in the Lower 48 but little if anything was found there. I did have a brief glimpse of the starting lineup from the internet while in Florida but I have to admit the usual excitement I have felt in past years was missing. In terms of great athletic ability the dog teams too me are the most superb in the world. Dogs and their human teammates, both man and woman, train hard to endure the many known and unknown circumstances found along the 1,100 mile trail from Anchorage to Nome Alaska . AP Photo In case you missed it living “Outside” of Alaska , Lance Mackey won the Iditarod Sled Dog Race today in a time of a little over 9 days and 20 hours. "The Last Great Race" as it is called and he did so in a grand fashion over...

All trips probably have those elements of surprise, wonder, and joy. On the flip side there is also the aggravation of dealing with children who cannot be reasoned with at various times over a long period. Part One of these next couple of Posts will be “The Good” . There were moments even though I probably sounded like it was one total disaster after another that were truly awesome; here are a few of them. The ‘Happy’ Kids – playing before bed. Diane & Deb at the wedding. Kelly, Ron, & Nathan – On the beach after the wedding Zachary “Ring Bearer” on the way in, Flower Man on the way out Taylor swinging in Jacksonville Beach , Florida Family Picture D., Mom, Lori Ann, Ron, Diane, Deb, Taylor, & Zachary Ice

A friend of mine had sent me a couple of CD’s of music and video’s from a concert reunion of some old friends I used to hang out with almost every night when I lived in Atlanta Georgia . They played in many clubs all over the south east and I flew them up to Louisville Kentucky during Derby week for concerts there. The group was called ‘Cullowhee’ named from a small town in the mountains of western North Carolina where most of the members went to college. The guys played together for over 10 years and sadly for many of their friends and fans finally decided to give it up as a full time endeavor in 1985. Friendship lasts forever and from time to time since the group went their different ways the guys have gotten together for several reunion concerts in Atlanta and in North Carolina . The last concert was during the fall at Western Carolina University on September 27, 2008. They have posted some of the songs on YouTube which is great since they ...

The things we do for our family can be a mixture of joy or an enduring painfully drawn out experience. Recently I had the seemingly never ending pains of a long road trip with my family. It was supposed to be a series of joyous occasions traveling with two of my grand kids, my youngest daughter (the one who has been sick this past year and a half) and my wife to make our way out of the frozen north land of Alaska to the sunny south and the warmer weather of Florida. We were going to make this a combination trip to visit with my mama who lives with my brother’s family in Jacksonville Beach and also travel across the northern stretches of Florida to attend my daughter’s wedding in Ft. Walton Beach in the panhandle region. The logistics of this is complicated by the fact that Alaska Airlines only travels to two cities in Florida , Miami and Orlando . We left Alaska early in the morning (4 am) with the knowledge that we would not arrive until almost ...