Need a place to faceplant in Mandan? Look no further

faceplant_zone_ip_1764This sign has since been fixed, but as I stopped near the Trolley Bridge on my motorcycle a while ago I noticed it and thought it was slightly funny.  Opinions may vary.  It looks like the sign is indicating a Faceplant Zone, newly paved for your comfort!

 

faceplant_zone_ip_1761What happens in Mandan stays in Mandan…

Folks are known to faceplant in Mandan, after all…why not have a zone just for them?  The only problem is the traffic.  Maybe that’s why they reconsidered and fixed the sign. 🙂

 

My name is Sue! How do you do?

salem_sue_dji_0019I had the opportunity to swing thru New Salem the other night and pay the “World’s Largest Holstein Cow” a visit.  The last time I had my little boy with me and he used his toy Vtech digital camera to take some 640×480 stills of it.  Well, this time I had a different angle in mind.

 

salem_sue_dji_0073I’ve always wanted this angle, although she looks a little angry right now.  Maybe that’s when I started getting the Johnny Cash song in my head.

 

salem_sue_dji_0065And there’s the gleam in her eye, as she surveys the Morton County Fair site on the east side of School Hill.  That won’t be till August, though.

There are other giant fiberglass cows out there, but I can’t find any evidence of one bigger.  Here’s a site that details some of them.  Didn’t see another holstein, so perhaps New Salem’s claim holds true.

After years of driving Divide Avenue, I couldn’t take it any more

The life of a freelancer does not jive well with sleeping normal hours (or at all, some days).  The past month and a half has been insane and, while I’ve been buying a lot of gear and software with the proceeds, I haven’t actually gotten to use any of it for my own enjoyment.  Yet.

You know how I say, “The best camera is the one you have with you!” ad nauseum?  Well, in this case I took my iPod Touch out to snap a quick pic with some Photoshop in mind.

winger_aptsEvery time I drive down East Divide Avenue and pass the Winger Apartments, I can’t help but start singing “Seventeen” or “Down Incognito”.  I’m not a Winger fan, but I’m aware of the body of work.  So in this case I dug up a photo of Kip Winger, threw it in the foreground, and while it is not my finest work it at least got this out of my system.

If I was a renter here I’d get a cardboard standup of Winger and put it in the window.  How many folks do you think would get it?

Now that’s recycling

spidey_ip_4869I was up in Minot last night as part of one of the video crews covering the Century-Minot boys’ basketball games that evening.  Man, were those two INTENSE games.  After initial setup it was time for a Fuddrucker’s run (it’s ALWAYS time for that).  As I rounded the corner in the commons area, though, I was confronted by our friendly neighborhood webslinger.

 

spidey_ip_4871It looks like Spidey was made from recycled streamers or other pep club materials, plus a lot of plastic and tape.  In any case, it was an admirable rendition.  No explanation as to why he was there, though.

 

spidey_ip_4872My compliments to the sculptor(s) of this tribute to my favorite Marvel superhero.  The web was a nice touch, even getting his fingers in the right position to match the way he’s drawn in the comics.

You never know what you might find when you come around the corner.  After all, I encountered the Batphone in an armory in Dickinson two years ago!

 

The scary thing is, it was swinging

ndak_windchime_32350I’ve wanted to take a photo of this oddity for a long, long time.  I actually got an opportunity today while on the road for another errand in western North Dakota, and researched the odd route needed to reach it.

This and a couple of other items reside along the south side of I-94 west of Glen Ullin, but one has to take a long route to the north to reach them, cutting back across a county road to an overpass and a frontage road.

I guess I can finally cross this off my photo bucket list!  It’s interesting to note that as I bracketed exposures to deal with the harsh sunlight directly behind it, I caught the chain actually swaying slightly.  I don’t recall the wind being that strong, so maybe it was residual motion from my little boys climbing to the top of it.  I guess I’ll never know.

Fun in a bottle

I’ve been on a novelty soda kick lately, as the above photo illustrates. The types I’ve spotted around town range from Christmas-themed to absolutely bizarre, such as the Qadaffi and Leninade sodas, and fun like Avery’s disgusting soda line. Of course we can’t forget good old Jolt Cola – sugar and caffeine, baby! By the way, many of these sodas actually use pure cane sugar instead of the high-fructose corn syrup used by the big soda companies these days.

My favorite so far is Leninade (here’s their website) – it’s the best tasting, and as a bit of a cold war buff I get a kick out of it. I bet Reagan would sip this stuff cold if he was still with us today! There are plenty of humorous bits in the label and the inside of the bottle cap as well.

These sodas are awesome – some for their novelty, some for their taste, and some for both. The best collection I’ve seen to date is at Runnings, although there are a bunch at Mac’s Hardware as well. Mac’s used to have an enormous display of these, but now they’re down to just a single refrigerated case.

If you spot these sorts of sodas around town, please let me know!

Capitol quandary

This sign could work well as a picture metaphor of the state legislature and property tax “reform”. They’re throwing hundreds of millions of dollars in “relief” at a problem which isn’t inherently theirs.

– The state legislature doesn’t assess property values;

– The state legislature doesn’t levy property taxes;

– The state legislature doesn’t collect property taxes…

And yet they’ve managed to not only tie the noose of public anger at property taxes, but they’ve also stuck their head in the loop and tightened the knot. Meanwhile, the culprits behind high property taxes at the county level get a free pass without any accountability.

I’d expect another Measure Two type initiated measure to appear on the radar soon. In fact, while I opposed Measure Two on the last ballot I would certainly vote for the abolition of property taxes in North Dakota. I just saw the bad mechanics of the last attempt and didn’t want to put the state in a bind. If it had simply said “No governing entity may levy property taxes” I’d have voted yes. I imagine that a lot more people will be voting yes for whatever property tax measure hits the ballot, regardless.

I met one of my representatives for coffee back when Governor Hoeven got this ill-fated “reform” shell game started and pretty much predicted the debacle we’re facing now. I warned that the legislature will assume responsibility for the tax & spend behavior of the counties, and will be the bad guys in the eyes of voters no matter what they can and can’t do to relieve property tax burdens. Here we are.

Some days the legislature makes just about as much sense as the signs pictured above – and those signs would work even better as a descriptor of the failed transparency bills in this session, but I’m not going there…yet.