Icewind's Ramblings

Happy 4 th of July, a time to pause for reflection This past week has been a busy one filled with plenty of activities both at work and personal. The work time spent preparing several new projects added to this construction season which means taking of material lists so I can order all the parts and pieces to be shipped to the remote work sites.   The logistics of these endeavors are daunting trying to coordinate barge or air freight schedules with the crews and getting everything organized for a successful project. On the personal front there was “The Moving Wall” a half size replica of the Washington, DC Vietnam Veterans Memorial.   It is making its way through Alaska and was in Anchorage last week. I wanted to make my way to ‘The Wall’ at first with friends and then I knew it was a solo personal time for me to visit my fallen brothers.   I made my way to the Park Strip across the street from our Anchorage Vietnam Veterans Memorial and there it was the black mon...

I was sitting here tonight and remembering my friend Lewis Grizzard as I was re-reading one of his books.   Years ago we hung out many nights together at Harrison’s on Peachtree with his step brother, Ludlow Porch (Bobby Hanson).   Both were humorist and funny as hell.   Ludlow was a rather large man, huge really while Lewis and I were quite skinny back then.   Sitting at the bar or at a table the three of us looked a strange sight.   The laughter and stories are probably why I enjoy my Saturday breakfast so much; it reminds me of those nights. The internet is a great thing as I looked I found several YouTube pieces from Lewis’ comedy albums or concerts.   I listened to them and I cannot stop laughing and honestly a few tears remembering those times.   It’s hard to believe Lewis has been gone almost 20 years now and Ludlow just over a year. Keeping my Southern heritage alive and well I share one of my favorite stories, “The Last Confederate Soldi...

We all hear it . . . we see it in the changes as we walk through our daily routines.   Sometimes it subtle when it lasts for several weeks but here in Alaska things seem to be in a much faster progression and sometimes it just jumps out at you. I have been thinking a lot about change lately and what brings on those variances that make up our lives.   Do we bring it on ourselves or by chance did we allow it to just happen unaware that in an instant (or over a longer period) things changed. In my life music has always taken me to many places and in my ipod I have a collection of things that I constantly listen to during my travels or just in my car going between places.   I have certain music that I listen to every morning that hopefully sets the mood of my day and others that I pull up from times gone by that bring back certain memories or events in my life and the music that was associated with those times. Music is dear to us and we tend to hold onto it while techn...

Since leaving Atlanta in 1995 there are a few things that I really miss about the south and Atlanta in particular.   Food is always at the heart of a good southerner where during family or friend get together outings it is impossible to finish the meal you are eating without discussions of the next meal in a few hours.   It is a southern thing that has been passed generation to generation . . . father to son . . . mother to daughter.   It is a way of tradition of a proud people. Growing up I lived in the downtown are and The Varsity drive-in was just a few blocks away so it was not a big deal to walk there and get a chili dog and a coke or if you had the extra money a frosted orange drink.   Those were great times and fond memories. Another one was the Auburn Avenue Rib Shack a staple of great southern BBQ.   I used to go there many times with my old friend Lewis Grizzard, another one I miss a lot, Catfish too.   They were best buddies! There is alway...

This summer has been going in what feels a hundred miles an hour.  So many trips to different places for work with little time for doing the things that make this such a great place to live. The last month or so has been a series of trips to inspect and visits the many projects going on around the state.  I have several on Kodiak island and several more scattered around the state so it has been one plane ride after another going from project to project. Last week was to several jobsite visits on Kodiak and the weather was trying not to cooperate.  There were times of fog and rain showers in between times with millions of mosquitoes buzzing around my head.  It was something else wearing head nets while wondering if I should be in a full body “bug suit”. I need to upload some of the pictures about the villages and trips but my internet service while out of town is totally lacking.  The brief time at home has me playing catch up to laundry, finishing house pr...

As we approach the holiday season and prepare for the small gathering tomorrow of family and maybe a few friends it is nice to think back on summers end.  It started snowing this afternoon giving us a fresh blanket of the white stuff.  Anchorage is known as the “City of Lights ” during the winter months so I, like many people put up lights for the winter which remain on until the last musher of the Iditarod arrives in Nome completing the race in mid March. With a little extra time on my hands I can think back on summers past where I close my eyes as the memories come back like a wild river, colorful like Northern Lights in the clear cold night, which I saw for the first time this season a few nights ago.  THE reason I came to Alaska , THE thing I wanted to see since I was a little boy in Atlanta .  There they were, dancing above the hillside, misty green, slick and wavy.  Nothing could screw this day anymore as I watched in amazement at the night sky. ...

Somewhere at the jumping off point at the north end of the earth . . . the edge of what's known.  Where I'm going is another plane ride away on Kodiak Island , where there are 3,000 brown bears and around 10,000 humans.  I’m going to look at a project there to bid work on the Coast Guard Base.  I’m hoping to find the time to explore this area as one may quickly get away from everything almost without realizing how fast you find yourself in no man’s land. I had flown into Kodiak Island a couple of years ago and had written down some thoughts and filed them away.  It’s funny sometimes how you come across a few things here and there that are bits and pieces of times past.  Do you also do this?  Put a few things on paper and put them away so that later on when you find them it will trigger a memory or event.  It is nice sometimes as the surprises they bring can almost put you in the mind frame as if you had returned there . . . if only for a brief ...

An update. The social experiment of neighbors competing and then voting each other out of the neighborhood ended Sunday with the winning family beating out the other families of the $ 250,000 prize money.  Eight families were isolated behind 20 foot high walls and the bickering began and continued for the last seven weeks.  The first thing to happen in the scorching heat of summer in a suburb of an Atlanta Georgia subdivision was the power to be cut off. No air conditioning, no television, internet, cell phone, texting or other ‘modern day’ items to occupy the time.  It’s like a trip back to the 50’s when families spent time together.  There is the family dynamics of spending time together 24 hours a day plus the interactions between the other families playing the game. The neighbors, 5 of the eight families call themselves “The Core” while the others who have not been living there as long “The Outsiders”.  The core group moved in when the subdivision w...

It seems that many weekends this summer have gone through a similar pattern with regards to the weather. This summer has been great compared to the last few as we actually had summer like weather and temperatures for a change. That is not to say it has been without shades of the past as we have lately gone over the last several weeks with a cloudy, overcast and possibly rain showers during the week with a glimmer of sunshine. The television forecasters give us hope each week for a great sunny weekend but by Friday it seems it is still gray and overcast. Saturday mornings seem to have light rain overnight. We can go all weekend with that hope of things clearing up but it seems like every Sunday evening about six pm the skies clear, clouds roll away and the warmth of the sun presses to dry the pavement or decks. It is too late to start many activities so one can only sit back and enjoy the changing colors of the mountains around us as the day wanes and we h...

July 20, 1969 They captured our imagination that afternoon as the whole world watched with labored breath. I was a young boy/man living in Atlanta glued to the television set after a childhood immersed in the space program. There were many drives down to Florida over the years to see the launches of Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle liftoffs. For those of us who understood the call outs by Mission Control were on the edge of our seats knowing there was only seconds of fuel left before Eagle finally touched down. True American Hero’s were the Astronauts who flew space missions; test pilots whose flights reached the outside of the envelope of known technology. We salute you and all of the wealth of information gained by our exploration into the unknown. Re-live those final minutes before the dust flew and those famous words were uttered from the lunar landscape . . . Happy Anniversary! 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 five most important words a parent can say: "I'm so proud of you." I was sitting in the hospital room this afternoon with my daughter (who’s not had a fun weekend) and we were talking and looking outside the two large windows that look west from the hospital towards midtown and downtown. We both were reminded how small Anchorage still is as her window is above the tree level outside giving us a nice vantage point. We can see on the horizon ‘Sleeping Lady’ mountain range in the setting sunlight. The clear skies all day are giving way to clouds rolling in from the southwest. We count the buildings rising above the treetops in our line of sight and can only count 12 high-rise buildings in the distance. There is the Sheraton Hotel sitting slightly east of several other building making up the downtown area which consists of the Captain Cook Hotel, Westmark Hotel, Conoco Phillips building, our new Dena’ina Convention Center, ARCO building, a...