I had to chuckle when I spotted this sign in an extremely remote location. In fact, after two weeks my truck is still dropping mud from the section line road adjacent to this property. I don’t even recall whether or not there was some old dilapidated farmstead or other intriguing subject beyond this sign…I simply remember finding the annotation quite amusing. I don’t think I’d want to test the landowner’s resolve, either!
Winter didn’t exactly go as planned, but my little guys did eventually get to build a couple of little snowmen this week. They’re both old enough to ride little bikes now, and are expressing a desire to go stargazing so I anticipate big things this summer! I can’t wait to get started.
You know the Democrat Party has really screwed things up when normally reserved North Dakotans are putting up displays like these and attending protest rallies in the hundreds. Normally we just go about our business and want to be left alone, so for a political party to elicit these kinds of reactions speaks volumes.
Since we got cheated out of the blizzard that everyone was anticipating last night, I thought I’d share a few pictures I took of the nasty spring storm we received in Bismarck-Mandan back in 1997. This was a particularly wicked storm, as the snow was very fine and icy. It packed in so tightly that the roads had to be cut open with snowblower-equipped payloaders, instead of simply plowed.
At the time I lived north of Century in the vicinity of Montreal Street. Since only the major roads were cut open, I had to hike around six blocks down to Century Avenue, where the big KFYR-TV 4×4 engineering truck was waiting to transport me to work. As you can imagine, we were pretty busy in a news capacity at that point.
It was a surreal walk down to Century Avenue. The snow was taller than even full size pickups parked along Montreal Street, and as I walked down the road I noticed that I wasn’t leaving any footprints. The snow was made of such fine snow crystals and packed so tightly that I wasn’t breaking through the surface. Every now and then I’d see part of a pickup cab poking up through the snow, but for the most part I couldn’t even tell where the street was, much less where cars were parked.
After the roads were beginning to clear, a crazy friend picked me up in his Escort GT and we went out to document the whole thing. At this time I had merely a little Canon point-and-shoot film camera, but I think it tells the story:
It was a Saturday storm, and I remember being quite put out at having some of my motorcycles stranded at the Hall of Ports for the annual Freedom Riders Motorcycle Show! At least I got to bring home some trophy hardware later.
Anyway…if you’re feeling slighted by the lack of blizzard conditions (especially after all the hype over the last few days), maybe this will help get you through it!
I love roaming the back roads and this past weekend’s trip was exceptional. I found a few nice photos, got to roam as a guy is wont to do, and even found a location I’d been seeking for quite some time. These bridge footings were a particularly pleasant surprise and, since the water surrounding them was completely frozen, I was able to try several angles over the course of a half hour until I found something that I liked. I was even able to position my flash and trigger it remotely to fill in some light where needed. After all, as my photographic mentor taught me, “lighting is simply controlling the shadows.”
I have a link on my Northern Lights page (link in the upper right column) for each of the many sites I use to “throw in the hopper” and make the call on whether I figure chasing after Northern Lights is worthwhile. It’s a soft science at best. In this case, one particular model was accurate and another was not. In other cases, a different model will make the correct prediction. It really ends up coming down to gut instinct: trying to determine which numbers to trust. Yesterday’s solar wind blast was expected, but it was not expected to cause any auroras. One blip on one set of data is what made me suspicious, and it turned out to be the right call.
Since I’m a husband and Daddy these days, I can’t be bolting out of town every night in the hopes of getting a lucky encounter with the auroras, so I’m trying to see if I can get a better sense of when such a trip is worthwhile. Last night my instincts proved correct.
If this windmill indeed becomes a casualty of the sale, I’ll at least have some nice memories of it.
I was surprised to hear this poll reported as credible on KFYR, because it ignores two very important facts:
1- The pro-abort crowd has WON this issue if they continue to refer to it as a “contraception” issue. Go back to those same professing Catholics, poll ’em again AFTER reminding them that the mandate also includes ABORTION drugs. Look up what an “abortifacient” drug is, or a “morning after” pill. Guess what: the Catholic church is going to have to hand THOSE out too. My guess is that at a LOT of Catholics who don’t mind strapping on prophylactics in defiance of the Pope would have a real problem with handing out abortion drugs!
2- It’s not just an issue of contraception, or even abortion. It goes far more fundamental. Let’s simplify the scenario for a second:
Government: “Hey, church – we want you to do ‘X’ and we’re going to require it by law.”
Church: “Um…no. ‘X’ is against our beliefs and teachings, and has been for centuries.”
Government: “Well, that’s too bad. We’re going to make you do ‘X’ anyway. After a week of bad press, we’ll claim it’s the insurance companies paying for ‘X’, but you’re still going to do it. Besides, your membership’s doing ‘X’ in secret anyway…regardless of your church’s belief.”
So what’s the right answer for the churches or practicing Catholics to give here? I’ll give you a hint: it’s NOT one of acquiescence.
And by the way, it’s NOT just a Catholic issue. Just because Christian churches don’t have a tenet forbidding contraceptives, they are ALL united against abortion. That’s what brought Catholic, Christian, Jewish, and even Muslim groups together in unity against this mandate. But you don’t hear anything about that anymore, do you?
This is how the media works to further leftist agendas: with a vacuum. They locked the issue of mandatory government-funded abortion into a vacuum chamber, and only reported on “the contraception issue.” Not only did that take the worst part of the issue out of the argument completely, but it also sliced those unified groups apart and focused only on the Catholic church, an organization liberals knew they could easily roll over. Divide and conquer, 21st century style.
I’m not surprised at how many Catholics have fallen hook, line, and sinker for it…given the fact that the Catholic Church has given in to liberal progressivism long ago in what Paul Rahe calls “Catholicism’s Pact with the Devil.”
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