Icewind's Ramblings

As we go through life there is always another first step to take each day when you wake up on this road called Life.  As I have traveled along with the experiences in my life the concept of the journey (making your way along the different paths and highways) has been a recurring theme for me.  Creating the “Where’s The Flamingo” Facebook page is my attempt at writing about this subject so laugh with me when I make mistakes and forgive me as I learn where I am going with this.   Placido Flamingo travels started when I left Alaska as I traveled from there to where I am currently.  It doesn’t really matter where “here” is now because for some of us it changes with time and circumstance.  Home has been so many places I have traveled and most felt like a places where your comfort level was how you made the best of the where you were.  It might be lying under the stars on a hillside winery in northern California or sleeping in a metal conex box “apartment” i...

Sometimes people get what they want! Having it your way! Here's an interesting story sent to me by a friend.  I thought it was funny and wanted to share it with you. Here’s the story from the person's point of view: I was getting ready for work when I looked out the window and saw the utility company starting to erect a pole in front of my house.  They were going to position it directly in front of my picture window. No way, absolutely no way was I going to permit this.  I gulped down my last bit of coffee and went directly to the crew supervisor and told him in no uncertain terms that I was not going to permit his crew to put that stupid electrical pole directly in front of my picture window. He took out a map for pole locations and a right of way document and explained that it is the best location for it.  I told him it is not the best location for me and when I came home from work that day I did not want to find that pole in front of my wind...

Life Observation # 193       Door opening              I was raised in the South where holding the door open for people is an art.  If you make the decision to hold the door open when the person is too far away, it becomes awkward and you’re tempted into letting go of the door as they get close enough, which generally means the person has to catch a falling door, which is more work than opening a static door.   My daddy taught me right and I still open car doors for women. Ice

A number of years ago before I moved to Alaska, I had the rather unique experience of being backstage at The Omni, in Atlanta, during the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.  I worked as a paramedic on the medical staff there and saw many great bands, the Atlanta Flames hockey team, and other things that played there.  To say the least, it was a fascinating experience.  I was able to walk around looking at the lions, tigers, giraffes and all the other circus animals.  As I was passing the elephants, I suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg.  No chains, no cages.  It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.  I saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.  "Well," he said, "when they are very young and m...

One can’t predict when or where they will come from; those memories that stay with us a lifetime, and never fail to bring us warm fuzzy feelings.  When I left Alaska I had just finished loading the car; made one lap back through the house to make sure I had not forgotten anything and then into the kitchen.  I thought to myself; “I guess filling my thermos is all I have left to do, and then I’m off.” Down the drain went the hot water that had been warming my thermos.  I’m sure I had a very nostalgic look on my face as this would be the last morning living in Alaska.  When I filled my thermos with water earlier, I thought of how long I had been doing this to keep my coffee warmer longer when I travel.  In fact, anytime I fill my thermos I think about that. The air outside was chilled the sky blue and my breath sprang from my nostrils as I prepared to leave.  As I started my month’s long drive back to Atlanta it was anti-climactic.  A quick stop ...

Hair Spray I saw an ad for hair spray the other day and it reminded me of a time long ago when I first saw the uses of it as a small boy.  This was in the fifties and “big hair” was the rage.  Many girls and women had the bouffant and beehive hair styles including my sister.  There were lots of curls and hairspray was needed to give it that certain look. We lived in a housing project in downtown Atlanta close to Georgia Tech, The Varsity and the area around our neighborhood became the Olympic Park during the 1996 games.  Our apartment was small and my sister had her bedroom and I shared one with my younger brother.  There were tiles on the floor, brown with black accent tiles in each doorway threshold going into each room.  I was not allowed to cross the black tile going into her room.  In my mind it was like the black tile represented a ten foot high wall that I needed to climb over to see what bounty was on the other side so there was always a...

A Technicolor Life Benjamin Franklin said, "Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing". An old friend recently emailed me that her mom had passed and I could sense the loss in the brief words that were wrote informing me.  I knew that loss from my own dad’s passing when I was young. I wrote a few words and wanted to fill the void I knew was missing but as I wrote I drew from my own loss years ago and more recently with the passing of my brother in law, aunt and uncle.  I filled the rest with my experiences of life when I was younger, time in Alaska and trying to move on when the loss comes.  Not much I thought but the reply seemed to find its mark.  Solace over the miles. I love writing (ironic English was my worst subject in high school) and I was told it’s never too late to write a book or two.  I have one completed from years ago about my journey ending up in Alaska called 10,000 Horizons.  It is gathering dust ...

Icewind’s Ramblings Blogging Post # 1,200 and the internet I noticed yesterday after I posted that I had my 1,200 post on my Icewind’s Ramblings Blog.  I started blogging on November 07, 2005 and during the early time posted almost every day but now with the challenges of life I post when I can or find something to comment on.    The internet it's a source of endless wonder and a powerful educational tool. For instance, I never would have learned that I like to see young ladies in cheerleader outfits bent over the stairs of the Brady Bunch house, but because I have access to the internet, I did learn that about myself.  Luckily it was only a curiosity and I moved beyond those into more fact finding uses in researching some of my blogging subjects. Then came blogging (or Then Came Bronson for those in tv land).  Now here's the thing, you put stuff out there and give people the option to post a reply anonymously; people are going to use that opt...

Life Observation # 192       Rain    The sound of heavy rain on a metal roof needs no translation but I do miss the silent softly falling snow in the morning with a nice fire going. Ice

Tinnitus – Not the sounds of silence Tinnitus has been a very noisy part of my life for over forty years – ever since the day I first noticed the slight ringing in my ears.  At first you try not to notice the sounds within your head but over time and depending on the day it may rage out of control.  It didn’t happen in a split second but I think over time.  In the Army it was the whining sound of my helicopter’s transmission above my head.  You learn to fly in the right seat affecting the hearing in your left ear then as aircraft commander you fly from the left seat destroying your right ear’s hearing.  We wore helmets but it did not do an adequate job of total hearing protection from the surrounding noises.  I could still hear bullets hitting the skin of my aircraft or the screams from crewmembers or others wounded inside on the way back to the LZ.  When I first noticed the sounds within my head . . . I felt alone, very scared.   How cou...

Life Observation # 191        Adventures   Begin your adventures as early as you can.  I promise you, you will not get burned out.  It actually becomes the most enjoyable way to spend time on Earth as opposed to just pacing the cage. Now, that is not to say that I don’t have walkabout time left in me.  I know I do, and I know the places I would go.  Fun is about as good a habit as there is, especially when your search for it becomes tempered from wisdom of time experiencing life.  To live it every day! The destination is not that rewarding if you have not had the experience of the journey.   My walkabout place cannot be yours.   Your walkabout place cannot be somebody else’s.   You have to find your own! Ice

Life Observation # 190       Coping with Terror  Humor is the antitoxin for terror! Ice

Fall is that time of year especially in the South where the festivals pop up every weekend.  There are apple festivals all over north Georgia and many farms and orchards to stop in to buy or pick fruit or vegetables.  Fields of pumpkins or roadside markets to obtain one for the kids to carve are along many roadways here.  It takes one back to simpler times where friends and families gather to go pick apples, peaches, or whatever is ready to harvest.  Nights are getting cooler, mornings are getting to the point that frost briefly appears in the early morning hours until the sun peaks over the distant horizon and the beautiful transition from night to day happens once again. We all hear it . . . we see it in the changes as we walk through our daily routines.  Sometimes it is subtle when it lasts for several weeks like here in the South as you see a few leaves turn red or yellow and over the next several weeks.  The trees on the hillsides and mountains co...

Tropical Storm Irma started in the Atlantic Ocean on August 30, 2017 in the mid-Atlantic Ocean close to the Cape Verde islands?  By September 5, 2017 it had grown into a Category 5 hurricane. Over the next several days it began touching land along several islands (Barbuda, St. Maarten, & Tortola) before making landfall in Cuba.  It then turned slightly north/northwest and hit the United States in the Florida Keys, crossing these islands at Cudjoe Key while continuing north to make landfall at Marco island as a Category 4 storm driving inland northward to Naples up to the east of Tampa roughly following interstate highway 75 through southern Georgia decreasing   strength to a Tropical Storm with sustained winds just below hurricane strength. Part of my family lives in Jacksonville Beach Florida and having evacuated last year when another hurricane hit their area and St. Augustine decided to once again heed the State’s warnings and comply with the mandator...

In my generation, which was several generations ago, the question was repeatedly asked, "Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?" For my generation in that time, there are too many questions with fewer answers. The United States changed directions and suddenly we were in a war called Viet Nam and the loss of this country’s young men’s innocence. Tragedies and calamities abounded in our collective memories. But as with the saying “time heals all wounds” and we proceeded for many years along a course with unclear direction.  Then new violence cropped up with names like Taliban and Al-Qaeda.  Multiple bombings and acts of violence were happening all over the world giving us a false sense of security while their zealots were infiltrating our country waiting for a time to strike. The final innocence of America was taken on September 11, 2001, but seems to have somewhat faded now as the one question that will be asked again ...

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Please note typing and sending an email is not the same as writing with a ballpoint pen, filled with blue ink, on a plain sheet of paper. In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives. ~Anatole Broyard Tonight it was raining and I was eating dinner or was it supper (Supper is the last meal of the day, right??  But what about those snacks I might eat at midnight?) I was watching reruns of The Newsroom on television.  There were four deer outside my window eating the field corn I put out so my time was divided between looking out the window, watching the show and trying to write when I decided I would complete a few e-mails I had waiting for me.  It occurred to me that I never write letters to anyone anymore.  I am lucky if I get the chance to answer a few emails every now and then.  Come to think if it, over the years I have ...