Veterans’ Memorial

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If you’ve crossed the new Memorial Bridge at night, you’ve probably seen this monument lit brightly on the Mandan side of the river. Now that the bridge has been formally dedicated, flags adorn the tops of the flag poles in the center, and the area is nearing completion. If I remember correctly, a small section of bridge span will be placed here sometime in the future.

I love my ultra-wide angle lens, by the way. It’s the only way to make such a shot possible. Obviously there’s some perspective distortion in the corners, but I think it’s a nice photographic effect.

This stone, bearing a memorial placard, has been placed beneath the flags. The stone stood by the old bridge as long as I can remember. I don’t know if it’s been there since 1924, like the metal placard it bears. There a stone like this for each end of the bridge, and I am sure Bismarck’s will be placed in an appropriate position once the debris of the old bridge is cleared and work on the Bismarck memorial begins. I wonder if the park on the Bismarck side will be the same as the one on the Mandan side? I sure hope so.

One neat feature of this monument is that it shoots a beam of light skyward at night. It’s most visible during those cold fall and winter nights, when we get a slight haze in the air. That’s pretty much every night during a North Dakota winter. That’s one more reason why I hope a second such monument is placed on the Bismarck side; we’ll have two columns of light shooting straight upward, similar to the monument at the site of the fallen World Trade Center buildings.

One other interesting feature is the text of the memorial placard, which thanks “our sons and daughters who died in the World War that liberty might live.” When this memorial was made in 1924, there had been only one “World War.” If they only knew of the display of valor yet to come.

This bridge is open for traffic, but I expect far more wonderful things from it down the road. This monument area is nearly completed, but I think they’ll be adding some signage and a chunk of the old bridge. I also look forward to seeing what is built on the Bismarck side of the river, once all the pulverized concrete is trucked away and construction can begin. In the mean time, it’s worth a chilly walk to see how things are taking shape as the new Liberty Memorial Bridge serves the second part of its important purpose: honoring our nation’s veterans.

Little boy, big capitol

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Not only did we fire up the grill and have a burger day at work today, but I also had the opportunity to take off a little early. That provided me the perfect window of time to take little PJ up to the capitol building for his first time! He wasn’t scared when he first saw the view from the 18th floor windows, but he was surprised. His favorite was watching the little cars driving around down there. He always likes elevator rides too, and the capitol has fast ones. He asked to hit the buttons, of course.

This is the only mall I feel like visiting during the holiday season. I find it interesting that there was so much green grass under the snow. I noticed the same thing at the Tom O’Leary tennis courts. Bring on more November snow storms! I’m from the Rocky Mountains, so I remember trick-or-treating in snow so deep my dad had to carry me. I wouldn’t mind October snow here either.

Once our capitol mission was accomplished, it was time to go look at things like motorcycle shops, trucks, and airplanes. Those are PJ’s favorites, and he seems to remember everything he sees. When I tuck the boys into bed, I always talk about our day and all the fun things we saw. I expect they’re going to grow up loving Bismarck-Mandan, and North Dakota in general, as much as their daddy does.

November 11th, 11:00 am. 11-11-11. Where were you today?

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Today wasn’t very sunny, so one of the features that makes this memorial at the state capitol grounds so special was hampered by weather this year. I was at work anyway, and ran errands over lunch, so I missed it. November 11th is always Veteran’s Day, and this memorial is designed for something special at 11:00 am on 11/11 each year. Here’s how I featured it last year:

I don’t know how many of you folks have looked far back enough to see this post about the Veteran’s Memorial at the state capitol grounds, but this year marks the first time I actually made it to the memorial on Veteran’s Day. As noted in my original post, this monument has a unique feature that displays itself on Veteran’s Day.

On Veteran’s Day at 11:00am, the sun sweeps a path across the metal globe in the middle of the monument. Judging by the number of people waiting to catch a glimpse of this once-a-year happening, I can see it’s no secret.

North Dakota is raised on this globe, and polished. When the sun comes across the globe, the great state of North Dakota shines. It was dull when I inspected the site on Saturday, so I rubbed it furiously to try to shine it up. You’d think someone would have thought of that already, but I guess not.

This is the base upon which the globe sits. Note that the inscription says “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day.” That’s important…

…because I got there late. I mistakenly thought it would be at 11:11. The significance of all those elevens, by the way? World War I ended at 11:00 on 11/11/1918. I mistakenly thought there would be a fourth eleven in the time that the sun was centered on North Dakota. That’s why it’s off-center in the photo above.

Here’s the tube through which the sun shines to reach the globe in the middle of the memorial. It casts about a four-inch circle of light on the globe when fully aligned at 11:00. It appears to have some sort of reflective inside, although I don’t know if that’s true. While the sun is coming through it, it’s hard to look at.

I’d like to pass along a belated thanks to all veterans. Closest to me are my friends Reed and Tony, although I’ve met many others and owe my freedom to millions of ’em. Military service is not something to be taken lightly. The memorial at the state capitol bears the names of North Dakota soldiers who lost their lives in service to their country. If you haven’t inspected this memorial, which has a new parking lot and is just south of the State Library building, please pay it a visit. Once again, the original blog post can be seen by clicking here.

Bring on the Night

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I needed a photo of these three explorers for a video project I’m working on. You’ll probably recognize it when you see it, and there’s a good chance many of you will see it soon. The thing is, I needed a night shot with a clear sky. North Dakota winters are often quite hazy, so I was happy to see the clear dark sky last night. I ventured out in the cold with my trusty camera, snapped the shots, and hustled back to the warm truck.

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We can count the flakes as it snows and snows.
We can’t get hurt. It melts and fades.
…
Was it only last week
we made crazy promises,
mad as the snow?

I couldn’t help by throw some lyrics in from my favorite song by Kitchens of Distinction, titled “Mad as Snow.” I was nearly mad at the snow Thursday and Friday; I had a lot of it to shovel!

I grew up in the Rockies and took a break during college to move back out and make a living (meager, yet fun) snowboarding. I started out shoveling snow but eventually did get to live out my “dream” of snowboarding all day and getting paid for it. The free season pass wasn’t bad, either! But I grew to enjoy shoveling snow as I embraced mountain living. 50 miles from the nearest city, one usually has to master a shovel! But I’m not 20 years old any more.

I shoveled the drifts around our house, ignored the driveways, and made sure access to our rental property was restored on Thursday night. I woke up Friday to find that there was more snow than before! Grrrr. I got a text message from work saying not to come in, so I put that time to use with my trusty shovel again.

This time I took a break in the middle of shoveling to storm off to a few area stores to “check out” snowblowers. Of course there weren’t any to be had, except some overpriced ones with plastic parts sure to break in the cold. Dejected, I made my way back home for more shoveling. Thank God I got through it, one scoop at a time. I could have done without the drifts, though.

Today I chiseled off the driveways I’d previously ignored, after a run to a very busy Scheels Sports. My favorite Thomas Dolby live album in my iPod, an ice cold Cherry Coke in the driveway, and my Dakota Snow Blade kept me company as I chopped the now-packed snow into manageable chunks and cleared the slabs. To do all this with a shovel instead of a snowblower DOES seem as “Mad as Snow.” I’m just not mad AT the snow. Not yet.

Warm photo for a cold day

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It’s going to take a while to get used to this skyline when heading west out of Bismarck! I never realized how much that bridge seemed like a “door across the river” until it was gone. Having nothing overhead while driving across the river is really weird, especially with the roof open. There won’t be any more of those days until Spring, however…unless I get cabin fever and turn stubborn (like THAT ever happens…)

This was taken during the warm weather of the first weekend of November. What a difference a few days make!

Fallen Farm #37611

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I lost track of how many Fallen Farm posts I’ve done in my series, so now I’m just going to use the photo number. This is a barn near Baldwin, just a stone’s throw north of Bismarck. My friend Tony was back home from sunny Alaska for a little while to visit family, and he and I took our cameras to go poke around the outskirts of town while our wives had other things to do.

This is a really cool barn, and I couldn’t help but notice some old equipment in the field thereby. It was a perfect shot, a different angle than I’ve had on this spot before. It’s even better when shared with one of my closest friends ever. I’ve got more to post from the day, but that’ll have to wait for another time. I have to go shovel my sidewalks now!

Bismarck-Mandan homeless numbers skyrocket in late October

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With the old Liberty Memorial Bridge gone, and the last of the debris being cleaned up and removed, hundreds – maybe thousands – of pigeons which called it home are now…well, homeless. Granted, they’re pigeons and could probably find a perch nearly anywhere; however, pigeons have called that bridge home for decades! In fact, the acid in their poop was a significant contributor to the bridge’s deterioration.

Not much goes through the mind of a pigeon. They are, however, attached to the bridge and are still congregating on its wreckage. I’m a bird lover, so I can’t help but feel sorry for these birds whose world got turned upside down last week. They don’t know any better. These birds will continue to cling to the bridge while it lies in pieces just like they did when it spanned the river.

The columns don’t provide much solace for a pigeon, but they’re all that’s left. Soon they’ll be gone, too. Don’t these poor guys just look like they’re wondering what the heck happened to “their” bridge? I suppose that’s the bird lover in me trying to empathize with them.

This sandbar has become a sort of pigeon refugee camp, as has the sandbar just south of the new bridge. They can’t stay here forever; soon the river will freeze, and may even rise above this sandbar. They need some sort of bird “community organizer” to come up with a game plan to relocate!

Progress brings bad along with the good. In this case, it’s the pigeons who got their world rocked, especially when those explosives went off! I’m told the crew attempted to scare the pigeons away before blowing the bridge, but there’s really nothing you can do. Even with the bridge reduced to a few remaining beams strewn about the ground below, you still can’t drive those pigeons away. Naturally there was some collateral damage during the explosions. The birds who survived need to find another place soon, as winter is bearing down on us!

Don’t forget to vote! Plus, a suggestion…

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It’s time! Actually, it’s been time for a while, since early voting centers have been open. I voted last week, for example. You can scroll down a little bit if you want to hear what a goofball like me thinks about the measures and the Presidential candidates.

One thought crossed my mind, though. If you wouldn’t mind indulging me in a little experiment, please write me in for Burleigh County Commission. It would be interesting to see if we could make a statistical showing.

If you don’t know when to vote, please visit the North Dakota Secretary of State’s Office at www.nd.gov/sos to find your polling location. You may even get a sample ballot in PDF format that you can print and use to practice. You can weigh your choices, fill out the sample ballot, and take it with you. Nobody can cast your vote for you, but you can use the sample ballot to help remember the choices you wish to make. It’s not like you’re taking the SAT in there; you can bring notes or a completed sample ballot in to assist you. Make your choices on the sample ballot, take it with you to the poll, and copy your well-considered choices to the actual ballot. That’s perfectly legal and a good idea if you have a shaky memory.

I know the media has carried Barack Obama through this election, and they may well push him over the top; but with the worship he’s been given by all the mainstream newspapers, broadcast news outlets, and cable news stations, he should be up by thirty points in the polls. The fact that he isn’t gives me a little bit of optimism. The fact that ACORN has managed hundreds of thousands of fraudulent voter registrations is worrisome, however. We’ll let it all shake out and see what happens.

Even if the Obamessiah lost in a landslide, you know there would be weeks of caterwauling about voter fraud. If he wins, we’re in for a bumpy ride; however, if he and his ilk take the country where they want to, the backlash could seal their party’s fate for decades. Now is not the time to worry; it’s the time to call all your friends who don’t want to be socialists, rally ’em up, and get them out to vote. Regardless of the result, we’re going to have a big mess to sort out come Wednesday morning. The difference between the two candidates will be the nature of the hangover.

I’m going to be too busy Tuesday to pay much attention to the coverage until evening. To torture one’s self with a constant barrage of news all day isn’t worthwhile anyway. See y’all tomorrow night, then.

Bye Bye, North Dakota Economy – Obama plans to “bankrupt” the coal industry

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Let’s not start spending those trust fund dollars yet! In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, the Obamessiah promises a global warming agenda so aggressive it will bankrupt the coal industry. We get 49% of our nation’s energy from coal-fired power plants, so you can imagine what his policies will in turn do to the rest of the nation as well. Listen to his own word:

“If someone wants to build a coal power plant they can, it’s just that it will bankrupt them.”
How a North Dakotan could vote for Obama can only be explained by: dementia; habitually voting Democrat; getting their news only from the Bismarck Tribune or NBC/ABC/CBS/CNN. This guy will wreck one of the largest industries driving our state’s economy (one which helps insulate us from economic troubles in other parts of the country) while thumbing his nose at North Dakota’s mainstream opposition to things like gun control and abortion.

North Dakota boasts its “Energy Corridor” to attract new people to our state, as a reason for new industries and businesses to come to our state, and as an integral part of North Dakota’s strong economy. Want to make life in North Dakota miserable? Enact the Obama global warming plan.