Icewind's Ramblings

** I wanted to give you a heads up that I am catching the red eye flight out of Alaska in a couple of hours for a much needed R&R from a really busy work schedule. I am heading back to the hopefully sunny skies of Cancun with about 20 friends who are in the industry. This is a ‘business’ related trip but will have plenty of time to slow down, get away from fax machines and phone calls and regroup for the upcoming construction season. I will try to get back to my writing of observations while down south and also get to a refreshed schedule. My recent trip south to Florida gave me time to reflect on my habit of coffee drinking during each daily cycle. I drink coffee at home; work, that afternoon period during or just after ‘rush’ hour and also during the evening. Oddly it calms me and I really enjoy the taste. But sometimes a great thing is just too good to continue at the pace I have been going. Over the last several months I wanted to cut back and the recen...

It’s springtime in Augusta , Georgia which means the Masters Tournament is this Easter weekend. It’s that four day walk through the beauty and rolling hills that is the Augusta National Golf Club. For many it is hallowed grounds where past memories of golf’s finest tournament is played with a gallery full of people. In the South where I grew up it was a rite of passage each spring much like our beloved Iditarod here in Alaska . There are the familiar names such as Rae’s Creek and Amen Corner with each of the three holes that make the turn each year usually making or breaking Master’s Dreams on Sunday afternoon. The unique beauty that makes up that portion of the course inspires to bring out the best in the competitors. The flowers as a backdrop and the wonderful television shots of the Ben Hogan Bridge or the reflections of the Byron Nelson Bridge gives one a proper perspective of the gentleness of Bobby Jones the founder of this spectacular golf course. ...

For no reason at all. That line was from one of my favorite movies, “Remember the Titans!” We do construction work all over Alaska and see some pretty incredible things especially when you get off the limited road system within the state. Our mode of travel at times is sometimes a little unconventional taking a ‘bush plane’ into the interior to some remote village where we may be working to build a school or medical clinic. I have had to be taken once by dog sled from one location after being stranded there in bad weather where the plane could not land for several days so one of the Native locals trekked me over 40 miles to a larger village with an airport so I could return home. At those times Life is an Adventure and you just kind of go with the flow. At others things do not work out so great. A friend whose company does a lot of work on the North Slope recently sent me a couple of photos taken by DEC personnel during a site inspection. Th...

When you are over the hill . . . You begin to pick up speed. Ice

I’m trying to cut down on my coffee drinking but this one was too good to not pass on . . . I’m sitting there after work for a cup of ‘joe’ and a quick look at the newspaper when next to me had to be the fastest nanny interview in history Woman: What would you do in an emergency? Nanny: Call 991. Woman: (pauses) What? Nanny: Call 991. Woman: (pauses) Right . . . Uh . . . (pauses) Well . . . Thank you for coming. It was great and a much needed laugh but trying to sit there with a straight face as they both left was hard for the three of us within ear shot of what had just happened. Now if we only had a Dunkin’ Donuts closer than 3,000 miles in Las Vegas for a good donut. Ice

Over the last few weeks it has been busy so it has been hard to write about all of the things happening so I’ll try to get back on track and hopefully return to some sort of normal schedule. The news has been filled lately with all of the gloom and doom with the financial crisis and the auto industry meltdown. Our new Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton recently returned home from her first trip abroad with stops in Japan , South Korea , Indonesia , and China but all this stuff is nothing compared with a news story that has somehow managed to fly beneath the radar. That might be a poor choice of words. Sorry, or maybe not. Russia is in talks with Cuba and Argentina to station bombers in those countries. The Russian president announced they were going to rebuild their nuclear stockpile in response to what they see as America gaining footholds in countries bordering Russia . All this only a week after Hilary Clinton visited. Don’t know what she did but perh...

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, ...

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 . ...