Icewind's Ramblings

I was downtown earlier this week looking at a job to bid next week and I ran into a guy I had worked on another project a couple of years ago. He was working on the new Museum addition and it reminded me of the ‘small town’ feel Anchorage still has. You can go almost anywhere and it is not uncommon to see someone you know. Still nice to run into people you haven’t seen in a while. When I left the pre-bid walkthrough I had to walk back to my rig which was in an area that the summer season is filled with tourists. They come here on the cruise ships or fly in to start their own unique adventure going to places unknown to me. The streets were filled with a multitude of people scurrying about looking into the different shops for that perfect Alaskan gift. People are funny to watch as I made my way down the street looking at several groups taking pictures of the painted sides of buildings or the many flowers placed all over town. Some wanted their picture taken next to...

Alaska in the summertime is filled with many unique sights and you never know what to expect on any given day. On this drive home today was no exception. The weather now is finally approaching the norms for this time of year as we slowly make our way towards seventy degrees. We are consistently hitting the sixty degree days now with temperatures dipping into the forty’s at night but since we are now into our full light season it does not take things long to warm up. The sun is rising now at 4:30 am and setting below the horizon around 11:30 pm so the time period with the sun physically out of sight it remains light outside. Birds chirp seemingly confused by the seasonal changes. It is common to hear them outside an open window when you’re trying to get some sleep. They cannot be found during the darkness of winter and gladly sing all summer long giving anyone within earshot a song. When I left work this afternoon it was not a clear blue sky kind of day but...

There is a Citibank commercial running in Alaska right now that drives me nuts. Maybe I’m just a little sensitive to it because my wife watches every HGTV program about remodeling and is always looking for that next project for me to tear out, build, or fix. The spot: a woman stands in her living room while her husband relaxes on the couch. In voiceover, she explains how something doesn't feel right. A home improvement montage follows: purchasing nick knacks, a new carpet, painting the walls, all paid for with her ‘Citibank’ card. Her husband can be glimpsed on the couch throughout, relaxing or working on his computer while she redecorates. Finally, she realizes: "It wasn't the room, so I used the cash I got back to redecorate my husband." We watch as she purchases new clothes and he models his new khaki pants, shirt and sweater combo. Finally satisfied, she sits on the couch with her husband after he pauses to relocate one of the new nick knacks on...

Last night was the start of a three day event under the Alaskan summer sun and one that will be talked about for a long time to come. Rocker Sir Elton John came into Alaska for three sold out concerts in Anchorage and Fairbanks . Yes . . . the odds are good that the goods are Odd . . . we’re crazy! (Photo by unknown EJ Fan) Anchorage is a unique city in the wilderness . . . 1,900 miles from the nearest city with a population over 100,000 people. In our city you can watch moose in the morning and a ballet in the afternoon. You can take a short flight to see some of the most dramatic mountain scenery on earth then be back in town for fresh seafood at a five-star restaurant. Our “Big Wild Life” city is an urban enclave surrounded by wilderness. This international city uniquely combines the conveniences of the modern world with a rugged, natural environment and backs up to these beautiful Chugach Mountains and surrounded by the waters of Cook Inlet in the middle of ...

Elton John mania stormed into Anchorage this month with two schedules shows . . . the first in Anchorage tomorrow night and the second show in Fairbanks on Thursday evening. I’m not going but it has been fun watching this phenomenon happen all over the city. This will be the biggest thing we've had here in recent memory and it started with people camping out for three days before tickets went on sale for the performance at the Sullivan Arena on May 28. The show is part of his 2008 tour, "Rocket Man: Number Ones." I stopped off at one of the spots where local radio station Magic 98.9 KYMG was giving away tickets, today’s spot was the Muldoon GCI Cable store. As I waited the few minutes before the drawing for two seats one thing stood out to me . . . there was no one under 40 years old stopping by for the drawing. All of us ‘old farts’ were waiting . . . laughing at what the younger kids were missing. Elton John, the British pop star is quite the d...

The World is just Awesome . . . I'm watching Discovery Channel on Tuesday night with two great programs currently running . . . Deadliest Catch and The Alaska Experiment, and a commercial comes on about all their current series on air. It starts with these two astronauts space walking, looking at the earth . . . and one says . . . “It never gets old huh?” . . . “Nope. It kinda makes you want to break into song.” “Yup.” I love the mountains. I love the clear blue sky. I love big bridges I love when great whites fly I love the whole world and all its sights and sounds Boom di ada Boom di ada Boom di ada Boom di ada I love the ocean I love real dirty things I love to go fast I love Egyptian kings I love the whole world and all its craziness Boom di ada Boom di ada Boom di ada Boom di ada I love tornados I love ar-ach-anids I love hot magma I love the giant squids I love the whole world it’s such a brilliant place Boom di ada Boom...

"Seek those who find your road agreeable, your personality and mind stimulating, your philosophy acceptable, and your experience helpful. Let those who do not, seek their own kind." Ice

I wrote last night about my best friend’s birthday and today I found out about what his son’s birthday present was to him. The day for Scott really began after work with the short drive out to Fort Richardson to see a baseball game. Scott loves baseball so much so that while on our vacations he is always taking (making) everyone go see a major league game in whatever city we may happen to be traveling through. That is not so bad and breaks up the travel time when we leave the far north to visit the world Outside. The weather the last few days have been turning toward those wondrous days of summer. With temperatures around 60 degrees and few clouds in the afternoon sky the children of summer enjoy that all American game called baseball. Whether it is the majors, college, high school, or little league there is nothing like a baseball game. The beauty of the field from the grandstands with the grass cut in patterns . . . the bases all white against the red dirt of t...

Today is my best friend Scott’s birthday and it got me thinking of aging and sometimes it’s not very graceful. We used to play a lot of racquetball and worked out at the gym together and had fun playing off the fact there is a slight age difference between us but there is always that competition to beat each other in whatever activity we try. We did one of our cruises last year on the ‘Freedom of the Seas’ and had a great time on the Flow Rider surfing ride and the fifty foot tall climbing wall as well as snorkeling. That competitive fire is still within us as we age even if the body has a mind of its own. Never in a million years. Well, not for the last few anyway would I ever have thought that I would be cheeky enough to put a picture of my feet on my blog. Actually saying the phrase “my feet” and “blog” seem to go . . . dare I say it . . . “hand in hand?” No . . . I don’t think I’ll go there in my observation of my feet or make you suffer looking at a picture of such...

Tonight’s post is just a mixture of thing’s happening around our state this week. It reminds me of the Clint Eastwood movie . . . “The Good . . . The Bad . . . and The Ugly” . The Good . . . Something Fishy From Alaska . . . The first glimpse of the coming summer as the Copper River King Salmon fishery opened yesterday . . . Seafood lovers in the Northwest and around the world have been waiting with, yes, baited breath for this year’s Copper River Salmon season to begin. No more waiting: today an Alaska Airlines plane left Cordova , Alaska for Seattle , Washington with the season’s first shipment of this tasty and often wildly-priced wild salmon. The first fish off the plane got celebrity treatment: First Officer Mark Aown walks down the red carpet with first Copper River Salmon. (Photo courtesy Alaska Airlines) Alaska Airlines expects to transport about 20,000 pounds of the coveted fish by day's end. The arrival of Copper River salmon is anticipated ever...

Sometime Life’s Just Hard . . . for no reason at all. These last few months have put a strain on me and family. My youngest daughter has been having health problems and has been in and out of the hospital several times now while doctors run test after test and try to figure out what is wrong. We thought things were making a turn for the better as she was released from the hospital, was eating again and starting to put weight back on seemingly working her way back to recovery from some mysterious ailment. Her ‘better’ period lasted only about a week and she was back in the hospital again not able to keep any food down. Doctors had came back with a partial diagnosis saying her kidneys were in partial failure but were stumped as to why as many tests showed she was normal for so many other things. It has been so frustrating seeing her suffer and not able to take her pain away. Since she has been back in again these last three weeks she has missed out on her graduatio...

I started this last Friday but have not had time to post this. Over the years I have been jaded by professional sports mainly by the player’s attitudes and the changes that have taken place in almost all sports . . . “For the Love of the Game” has been lost and it’s turned into “Business” for most players as they are in high school making the transition to college or onto professional sports. Things have changed as now it is all about the money and not the way it was when I was growing up . . . in awe of Hank Aaron, Vida Blue, and Ferguson Jenkins for they truly loved the game as a game. They never made the kind of money that is out there today. They played without the scandal, without the ‘personality’ of many of todays players whether in baseball, football, hockey, or even motorsports. Something remarkable happened in a college softball game . . . Sportsmanship. The moment of grace came after Sara Tucholsky, a diminutive senior for Western Oregon, hit what look...

The Discovery Channel has the last couple weeks been airing a series called “The Alaska Experiment” . It follows four different group's experience surviving off the land for a three month period as summer wanes and the onset of winter sets in. They are spread over the 13.3 million acres of the Wrangell/St. Elias National Park . The “volunteer’s” are dropped off and must make their way to a remote cabin or tent for shelter which has some staples but not enough to last the full three months. They forage for firewood or attempt to catch fish for eating or possibly canning and also hunt for food. The program is a great study of human nature and the ability to cope with varying conditions of terrain and weather. My company has been asked to help with a project at the Ultima Thule Lodge which was the base of operations for the production crew last year. A friend of ours spent much of last summer flying his small bush plane out to help Paul and Donna Claus who ...

Attitude is everything . . . How else can you explain how I finished a stressful day at work with a smile on my face? Ice

One of my favorite CD’s is George Winston’s “December” album . Another is “Winter into Spring”. After our snowfall last week it seems to finally beginning to make the turn as we continue our journey into full light. Today is May Eve, a mid-spring cross-quarter day. Tomorrow, May Day is another one, while May 6th is mathematically midway between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice. To most of us it is mid-spring but some people consider it the first day of summer. Of course there are many people who don’t think about it at all. It feels more like mid-spring to me. Maybe more like in the old John Denver song, “Late winter, early spring . . . when everyone goes to Mexico ”. I can close my eyes and almost feel the sun on me and sense the rhythm of the guitar strumming. Most of the leaves here in Anchorage are not fully out on the trees but the buds are starting to magically appear on the trees. The flowering trees and shrubs are only now a thought but will be...

I started writing this post just after Christmas when one of my presents from my new son in law and daughter decided that I needed a survival kit to make sure I was ready for any emergency on these long . . . cold . . . dark winter nights that we have in Alaska during the winter months. It was put into my working folder until now since I have not been writing much lately. I had no idea I really needed anything like this but I have heard of people who prepare for any road emergency by having in the trunk of their rig a few survival items. Blankets, food, flashlight, matches and a lighter are some of the more common items found in the northlands of the Arctic . Others may be sleeping bags, bunny boots, heavy gloves, and the assorted food items that would not freeze or could be eaten without fire or warmth. It turns out my daughter and her husband decided I needed something a little different now that some things have recently changed for me. I do not need a survival kit...

Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio Icewind . . . “The nation turns its lonely eyes to you me.” Oh, only to be so relevant. Fortunately I’ve heard from a few of you that I have been missed so thanks for the emails and well wishes. I can’t say how much or why, but it feels good to know that some of you noticed I was gone and took the time to drop me a line after Levi’s passing. In any case, it’s nice to be back, if only for this post. Hopefully I’ll regain my form and be posting regularly again, but as you’ll find out below . . . what was melting has now it seems turned to permafrost or the Global Warming has shifted, resulting in a whole new level of discontinuity and madness in the far north. It has nothing to do with the recent warm temperatures in Anchorage . Or maybe it does. Let me fill you in on the last couple of months in “ Icewind’s world”. Unbelievable is all I can say about yesterday as our springtime in Alaska took another turn . . . over 18 i...

Times have been a little strange here lately with our slowly making our way back into the light . . . 10 pm now and there are still the fading rays of light to the west. It snowed here the last two days with about 10 inches up on the hillside and about 6 inches at the house. I was so ready for our things to move into spring and quickly into summer that the thought of going through two breakups this year is a big time disappointment for many here who want the winter over. I have written before about Buzzwinkle our ‘almost famous’ moose who lived downtown over the years and gave many of us enjoyment watching his antics. The Bull Moose with an affinity for fermented crab apples and Christmas lights is dead. The even-tempered moose has popped up sporadically over the years, but it wasn't until he got his antlers tangled in a rope swing in a Turnagain Parkway yard in November 2004 that he got darted and tagged, becoming instantly recognizable. Since then, Buzzwink...

One more dog story (news) and I’ll move on to other things . . . Over the last two weeks I started my Iditarod coverage but with all that has happened never finished so tonight I’ll give you the end . . . and the rest of the story. Jump back to the middle of March and the closing days of Iditarod 36 . . . Sled-dog racing pundits said it couldn't be done. The Thrill of Victory . . . Win the brutal 1,000-mile Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race and the punishing 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race both in one year, both — in fact — in the space of little more than a month? Impossible, you say . . . and then a hardscrabble, cancer-beating musher from Fairbanks by the name of Lance Mackey did it. But that was last year’s race in 2007. How about an instant replay this year? First the Quest was run through the Yukon Territory in Canada and in Alaska in bone-numbing, flesh-freezing 40-degree below zero temperatures that left Mackey with frostbi...

I have not been able to write this week but there have been so many things going through my brain and sorting through all of the emotions from the last several months. We are all creatures of habit . . . sometimes without totally realizing the small mundane things that make up our lives are so very much a part of what makes us happy or whole. I found myself this past week coping with the death of my Levi, my 12 year old Golden Retriever and as such have been one of the hardest weeks of my life. I found myself stepping gingerly onto the floor as in years past to not step on Levi as I awoke and not finding him under foot or within a few steps from me as I made my way around the house. There were no treats or carrots the first thing in the morning . . . no opening the door for that first morning snow angel before Levi would get to his business before I left for work each day. That time spent each morning as we went outside to start my rig so it would warm up before maki...