Icewind's Ramblings

I remember when I was young going to the local Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC in recent years) was a big deal for the family and a lot of fun.   I even met the Colonel once dressed out in his hat, cane and that funny laugh of his. I do not eat there very often as it seems like each time I head over the prices keep going up and up.   My granddaughter wanted Mac & Cheese from KFC so I took her to the location just around the corner from my house. Blasted by a menu board with many items and large print size prices (I guess to keep you from going into shock).   I stood there looking at all the prices, kid’s meals, family meals and for individual meals. What struck me was how much the cost of chicken has gone up lately.   A 12 piece meal was $ 29.99 and this is for mainly thighs and wings with one breast thrown in.   What a rip-off. A two piece chicken meal was almost $ 9 bucks but that did come with a side and biscuit.   It’s crazy how they seem to dict...

It has been awhile since I’ve written a blog so I decided to do a quick one to let everyone know what I’ve been up too. Alaska finally came out of a pretty harsh winter with a somewhat nice (but short) spring.   With that comes a busy time for me preparing for the upcoming construction season here.   There are so many tasks to do in a relatively short time period where our projects are assigned to the different construction managers to make things happen so construction may begin during the summer. The construction work plan has to be written up along with safety plans and assembling all of the required paperwork and permits.   There are the usual ones for storm water runoff control and spill prevention but there are a couple one would not think about.   There are the archeological permits if we dig anywhere since we may disturb possible ancient burial grounds that are unmarked.   There are very specific plans to follow if you do come across human bones or a...

I was picking up my granddaughter last weekend & we were driving back to the house.   Leaving her other grandparents’ house you can drive several back streets before heading back out to the main road.   For several months now she has been reading every street sign & business sign she can as we drive by.   It’s so strange to see the cycle of children & grand kids go through this same process. I hear this from the back seat . . . "Papa, where are all the 'GO' signs?" Ice

I hope everyone’s tummy is full with turkey and stuffing and you’re forced to spend the rest of the weekend on the couch from the delicious food coma. That’s the holiday season. This year for the first time we did not cook a turkey or holiday dinner.   There was no one here to enjoy it so going through the motions of fixing all the trimmings was to no avail.   We hung out watching the snow falling all day long as the one to three inches of snow turned into almost a foot as the weather system stalled out over Anchorage. Overnight the skies cleared and today it is bright, sunny, and not a cloud to be seen.   Whiteness returns and everything is covered with a fresh coat of powder.   There is no left over food to munch on or find space for in the refrigerator and all of the paper plates from yesterdays ‘meal’ have long since been thrown away. Missing is the kids and grandkids this year and my father in law who decided to become a snowbird this winter and headed fo...

This has been a rather long week with travel, the work grind of a busy summer schedule, and the loss of letting family go away in search of her destiny. I totally understand that need as I have gone through it myself but it does not make it any easier from a parent’s perspective in letting go to see the ‘spreading of the wings, flying away’ from home. It is an empty feeling house now and will take some time getting used to the lack of activity. This week also had the sad passing of two people I have admired for many years.   Tony Curtis died at the age of 85, a man who entertained us and showed us over coming ones own demons with an artistic flare can heal oneself in the long run.   We have missed your presence from the ‘silver screen’ and one of my favorites was the funny 1965 sleeper, “Boeing, Boeing.”   Jerry Lewis was also in the movie. One of my favorite writers, Stephen J. Cannell died today in California.   He entertained us in the 80’s with so many show...

Well weeks actually . . . as I was out of town last week on Monday to Kipnuk for a long “day” trip.  It is one of those where you leave the house at 4 AM to get to the airport for an early morning flight.  It just so happened that this was June 21 st which is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.  When I walked out the door at four the sun was already above the mountaintops to the northeast of town.  With our high latitude we do not have the typical sun rises in the east and sets in the west like most places further south.  During the long summers our sun rises in the northeast about 50 degrees from north not the “normal” 90 degrees “east” heading and sets briefly around 310 degrees not the usual 270 degrees “west”.  So much for the brief explanation as all I wanted to say was the sun was already heading up into the summer sky. I went with the engineers for a progress inspection since I took over these three projects just over three weeks ...

My grandson is almost three years old and proud of the fact that he is potty trained and goes to the bathroom like ‘big people’.  Saturday started out like most others for him with the typical playing, coloring, and the jumping around that comes with his age. I went to breakfast as usual and returned home to do the normal chores that come on the weekends.  My grandson went about his day and was a pretty happy little guy until his world fell apart just before noon. He prides himself in being potty trained and usually alerts someone (everyone) when he goes so sometimes it’s a pretty big deal for him.  Sometimes being new to the procedure he tries to get things right.  He sometimes can barely pee on his own without shooting a stream like a fire hose was out of control on the bathroom floor.  The problem I have to admit is not totally his fault.  The hall commode is a cathedral of tile (new I might add) and fixture with a throne set almost too high for his...

Growing old is never easy and for many of us our children may not know what to do with us as we grow into those golden years. I have tried my best over the years to prepare them for many things and for the most part think I have done a pretty good job of it.  One of those simple things that I started many years ago when they were young and everyone was still in the house was to wake up in the morning and put on a long brown sock on one foot and a short blue one on the other foot.  Then I stick on a tie with no shirt, either a baseball cap or cowboy hat, boxer shorts with no pants one day then briefs with no pants on the next. I think it was shocking at first to them thinking I was a little crazy but my purpose was to get them used to strange things that I may do as I became a senior citizen.  That way hopefully when the time comes and I do weird or forgetful things it won’t seem so bad and they decide to put me away in a home somewhere. I think many parents as we ge...

Bill Cosby was describing his children’s love of their grandparents whom sometimes seem to do no wrong in the kid’s eyes. His children love their grandmother and think she is the greatest thing.  He tells them maybe you just cannot see it but Bill said to his children . . . “My mother is NOT the same woman who raised me as a child . . . she’s old and trying to get to Heaven.” Thanks Bill! Ice

Dog Farts . . . or how my eyes were burning as I woke up this morning. Sometimes dog farts tend to be nastier than some of our best human counterparts.  My wife’s dog Gus lets go of some absolute beauties . . . and he knows it too.  I have been known to pinch my nose and give my traditional cry of "Awwwwww Gussssssss!", as he never moves off the bed just looking up at me with innocent eyes in the dimness of the bedroom as if to say "What?"  But I know that he knows, because of the way he looks away again just a little too quickly hoping he will be left alone and not thrown or kicked off the end of the bed.  The other night he was in fine form after sneaking the remnants in a bowl of chili . . . his own pungent smell woke him up . . . and he indignantly got up . . . jumped off the bed and left the room!  Of course leaving behind the toxic cloud in his wake, luckily it wasn’t mine and no one else woke up so I did not get blamed for polluting the room. Of cou...

Thanks to AMC cable channel it was nice that they are playing Christmas Vacation over and over again today.  I awoke early and was able to watch it in the quiet of my man cave . . . no laundry going at this early hour. The days this week leading up to this morning were filled with all of the necessary items that make up “that perfect family Christmas” that Clark Griswold so earnestly tried to bring together. My family was probably no different from his as everyone scrambled with busy lives, work, doctors appointments, and the waiting for when those that had been out of town returned home for the holiday’s . . . then add to the mix our family dysfunction and the stage was set. "I don't know what to say, except its Christmas and we're all in misery. (Ellen Griswold)" - Christmas Vacation Dog barking, kids screaming and running around like chickens with their head cut off (if you’ve lived in the South and watched your grandmother do this before the holiday mea...

The future you have control over is the one you create. There are some things we have no control over. It is wiser to accept what you have not been given the power to change. I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday weekend. I spent mine with friends (Scott & Kim’s family) out at their cabin on Big Lake . It was a combination of families which included: dogs (3, with one having OCD), kids (5), grandkids (1), grand dads (2), Nana’s (1), Mom’s (1), and Dad’s (2). This is just sort of a mix match of all kinds of things. It was an interesting weekend with many things going on between relaxing, riding wave runners, 2 pontoon boats, a speed boat, and a paddleboat. The kids were all over the place having fun and one surprise Saturday evening was 6 kids ranging in ages from 5 to 15 years old all on a trampoline jumping, having a great time without anyone mad, whining, hurt, or not wanting to be there. It was strange but nice. The wea...

Or Adventures in Bathroom Learning Kids discover early in life that the flush handle on the toilet is a magical device to make things disappear. Years ago when my kids were little and more times than I can count . . . I had to lift the toilet and use a sewer snake to clear the blocked toilet drain. Lucky for me plumbing was right up my alley so toilet removal was yet another bathroom activity which the children found absolutely fascinating. I felt like a scuba diver for Roto-Rooter and went sewer fishing so often that (for a while) we kept a stock of wax rings in the bathroom cupboard . . . they're cheaper by the dozen, you know. (Helpful housekeeping hint: Articles of clothing that have progressed past the P-trap of the toilet are no longer serviceable. Even if they weren’t shredded when the sewer snake snagged them, the stains will not come out and who would want to wear it again anyway.) One recent Sunday afternoon, the grandkids were over as we were goi...

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 ...

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