Icewind's Ramblings

Highlights from Anchorage Daily News of Coast Guard Video of the rescue of 4 people whose boat had grounded on rocks and this rescue helicopter crew hoisted them from the ice in Portage Bay. This is another great example of the selflessness of our military going above to keep us safe. We have had temperatures well below zero for almost a month now so this rescue had to be in some pretty extreme conditions. Air Station Kodiak rescues 4 from Kimberly from anchoragedailynews on Vimeo . This is our Alaska Coast Guard at work, there are men and women in all branches of the military who give of themselves each and everyday so we may be safe.   Keep them in your prayers and when you see these great people in or out of uniform, give them your thanks. We salute you for all that you do, for your professionalism and honor in performing your mission. Ice

It was an interesting State of the Union speech tonight . . . Wrap things in the American Flag, throw in our great military men & women, and add some things about unity and greatness . . . we must be doing pretty damn good right now. I'll probably blog about it but let's see . . . 3 years of promises, out of control spending on borrowed dollars, massive unemployment . . . I thought it was a fairly confrontational speech going after the partisan other side.  It made a direct reference to Mitt Romney’s 15% taxes and used the charisma of his speaking abilities to ask American for a second chance.  It seemed like he was saying I have for the most part pissed away the last three years but hey look, the economy might be in a small rebound so give it another look.  I am sure the young will get all worked up in the same vein that John Kennedy’s speaking did for a nation so many years ago.  The problem is that time period is long gone and the world is so much differ...

A little story for you to ponder. The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with her hair fashionably coiffed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, she was provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. "I love it," she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy. "Mrs. Jones, you haven't seen the room . . . just wait."   "That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.   Whether I like my room or not doesn...

Funny headlines from the newspapers that make you go what the heck . . . and then the laughter sets in bringing that little smile to your face. You wonder if the editors get burned out in looking at story after story and miss something or if they catch it and decide to let this or that one slip by to give the readers a little chuckle or find that little gem waiting inside the paper. Sometimes the obvious really does not make much sense when it is put this way.   It makes you want to ask, Duh dummy, I know that. In our lives we see and hear many things that make us want to say, I should write this stuff down because you cannot make this shit up . . . well I think you could but the reality of things is sometimes funnier or more absurd than one might imagine. Ice

If you can't be kind . . . at least have the decency to be vague. Ice

Life Observation # 147   A man's home is his castle . . . in a manor of speaking. Ice

On the farm lived a chicken and a horse, both of whom loved to play together. One day the two were playing, when the horse fell into a bog and began to sink. Scared for his life, the horse whinnied for the chicken to go get the farmer for help! Off the chicken ran, back to the farm.   Arriving at the farm, he searched and searched for the farmer, but to no avail, for he had gone to town with the only tractor. Running around, the chicken spied the farmer's new Harley.   Finding the keys in the ignition, the chicken sped off with a length of rope hoping he still had time to save his friend's life. Back at the bog, the horse was surprised, but happy, to see the chicken arrive on the shiny Harley, and he managed to get a hold of the loop of rope the chicken tossed to him. After tying the other end to the rear bumper of the farmer's bike, the chicken then drove slowly forward and, with the aid of the powerful bike, rescued the horse! Happy and proud, the chicken rode th...

Waking up this morning after a weekend of constant snowfall it was piled high as one would expect but overnight it was crystal clear with stars shining and an awesome full moon hanging above the horizon.   The moon large on the western sky as I drove to work with temperatures dropping from 14 degrees last evening to about minus seven this morning. My rig struggled to get warm by the time I made my short drive to work.   I had used my auto-start about 10 minutes before leaving home but with the cold temps it takes it a few miles to feel warm inside my auto.   Work was a typical Monday with meetings, working through the logistical problems with getting material shipped to remote villages.   As the day wore on I needed to go to our shipping yard to look at a conex (big metal shipping container) that I was preparing to ship to my project in Larsen Bay.   Today was clear, calm, and cold staying about minus 4 by mid afternoon. This was the calm before the next ...

This morning before the late time of sunrise cast its bit of light across the city in the darkness all that was seen were the snowflakes coming down reflected in either the vehicle headlights or the street light glow of an eerie orange tint on the landscape. It was pretty quite outside with no one wandering around as I drove for coffee.   The slow steady drive to meet friends saw only several vehicles out and about on this Sunday morning. The city’s squads of snowplows were out in force along with the many private companies clearing out parking lots and driveways along my way.   The snow had been falling all night long in small flakes but had accumulated over 8 inches with it continuing to bring about 2” an hour. When I lived in Park City Utah on days like this you could feel the excitement in the air; we woke up to fresh snow on the ground and avalanche bombs shaking the house.   The ski patrol shot off mortar shells onto the side of the mountains to bring the ex...

We’ve had cold temperatures below zero for a couple weeks now and it is slowly warming up (to about 5 degrees) as we are getting some snow this afternoon and tonight.   It is nice to see the flakes floating around as day turned to nightfall giving things a soft glow from the street lights. I am glad this is a short week as everyone at work seems to not be into things or it is taking a little longer to get into the rhythm of the New Year.   To think back to an event in warmer times I thought I would share this with everyone.   This is some pretty awesome pictures from last fall @ the 2011 World Submarine racing Championships in the Gulf of Alaska. It’s pretty neat if you like submarines and with all of the water activities here during the summer months it seemed like a natural.   As Jimmy Buffett says, “This one is for all of us with a little pirate in them.”   Well, what did you really expect to see . . . it’s a submarine race . . . Now h...

All the voices in your head decide to play on the same team. This is a joke we've all heard before and it's funny, it really is . . . However, with most humor, the reason it is funny . . . is because it's true. When people see me and I’m smiling . . . I just think funny things to uplift my day! Ice

I ran across this older post on my gaming board, The Amazon Basin and it gave me a chuckle on parenting and children coming of age and dating.   I thought I would post on my blog so others may gain insight into their own experiences.   This was written in 2006 and brought with it several events that have run full circle now in my family’s life. Enjoy. As my youngest daughter has grown up and started dating it has become apparent that I needed to break out the rules again for dating my daughter.   Before the holidays I had a strange thing that happened and wanted to share it with you.   On one of the weekends before the Thanksgiving holiday some little girls stopped by the house to sell some gift wrapping paper for a school project.   This happens every year and talking with the neighbors kids was nice seeing how they were doing and what was happening in their school.   One of the young girls asked me if we could get the car that parked at the edge of ...

America is all about celebrating our freedoms and differences.  I believe the American people are getting wiser.  I hope so anyway, and I'm sure that there are those that would beg to differ, and that's ok, too.  Here's the thing that you have to realize during this election process.  Any candidate for the Presidency must raise a shitload of money in order to get the job.  That's just a fact.  It has been that way for many years now and probably will not change anytime soon even with the revisions in elections laws. Another fact this is often missed by the public is that the candidate owes these people for contributing enough to get him or her elected. I would like a list of donors from each candidate before the elections are done.  I think that would actually be a better way to tell who to vote for.  It shows more of the people and special interest groups and how much they are willing to pay to have a certain side in office. Those are the...

Well, damn. I accidentally hit "enter" right after I typed the dang title to this thing and so some of you are just going to hit a blank spot until I get it done.   In the meantime, I think I've lost the thought of what I was going to say and I'm hoping that by typing it will come to me . . . nope . . . damn. Yeah, pretty much, I just don't feel like blogging tonight.   I think I will fix some dinner, kick back and play about an hour of Starcraft 2 and watch Hawaii Five-0.   Maybe it will come to me then. Ice

Yeah, I know . . . just the right time of year. I was sitting here today trying to figure out what my first post of 2012 was going to be and this theme kept coming back to me as the day wore on.   What is it you ask? It struck me, though, that it's all an illusion. The people we are surrounded by . . . all of that . . . it's all an illusion. Not real. What is real is that we are all utterly and completely alone with no one to rely upon but ourselves. And, strangely enough, that's the only truth that matters. All the rest . . . are just mirrors to perfect the illusion . . . the illusion of being connected. Welcome to the New Year; may you seek the things that interest you, find your way through this maze called life and at the end of the day find joy. Ice

Only a person in Alaska would think of this! From the city of Anchorage where drunk driving used to be considered a sport in our time, comes this story.   Recently a routine police patrol parked outside a bar in Anchorage, Alaska. After last call the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk. The man stumbled around the parking lot for a few minutes, with the officer quietly observing.   After what seemed an eternity in which he tried his keys on five different vehicles, the man managed to find his car and fall into it. He sat there for a few minutes as a number of other patrons left the bar and drove off. Finally, he started the car, switched the wipers on and off . . . it was a fine, lightly snowing night . . . flicked the blinkers on and off a couple of times, honked the horn and then switched on the lights. He moved the vehicle forward a few inches, reversed a little and then remained still for a few more minutes as some mor...

This morning I was watching Today Show and they did a really good piece looking back at this past year.   It covered almost any topic you can think of from world events, economy, sports, celebrities, deaths, and it was beautifully done.   I came away with several thoughts about the video and also about my own year in review. The most striking thing that jumped out at me was how much chaos and trouble there is all over the world.   The many conflicts going on in so many different regions and how they never seem to be resolved and continue year after year. The natural disasters that happened this past year seem almost unprecedented with the numerous earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and droughts to affect so many countries and people.   One could almost think the ‘end of times’ was marching quickly and everyone needs to take a look at their lives and how they are living it.   It is an interesting ‘what if’ thought process when you look at what the Bible says...

I wanted to get my three daughters a little something for Christmas to put some positive thoughts to events over the last couple of years.   In Anchorage we had a nice large Barnes and Nobel bookstore that has a coffee shop and a nice sitting area to read.   It can be found with quite a few people hanging out and enjoying a good book or a cup of java.   I love coffee so decided I would stop for a cup while I was trying to do my Christmas shopping. I wanted to send my daughters a positive book that has always given me food for thought.   It is called "The Power of Positive Thinking" by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. My thoughts were everyone can always use that little lift from a positive attitude and sharing that feeling with others around you. Being the good father I wanted to boost these young women's spirit and help them get through the tough times away from family many miles away.   My thought process was I wanted to spout all this positive stuff how they...

I had posted this in 2007 and thought it appropriate to re-post again this year and with FaceBook now in the forefront it can go around once again. In our troubling times that we live today and the uncertainties that face many peoples and nations, I am reminded of an earlier time in a place called “No Man’s Land” during World War I.   During that time an act of humanity happened that went beyond rank and reason . . . and so . . . Christmas Truce . . . * The truce began on Christmas Eve , December 24 , 1914 , when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres , Belgium , for Christmas . They began by placing candles on trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols , most notably Stille Nacht ( Silent Night ). The British troops in the trenches across from them responded by singing English carols. The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were calls for visits ac...

It started snowing heavily today giving us a fresh coating of beautiful white snow for the Holidays making sure we will have the story book “White Christmas”.   It seems like it is nearly waist high and is continues to fall all afternoon and probably all night long. The temperature continues to drop and could be below zero tonight and the north wind is howling once again blowing snow all over the place and drifting in those nooks and crannies. My ex-wife has done nothing but look through the living room window most of the day . . .   if it gets much worse, I may have to let her in. Ice