They could have just asked us…we’d have saved them six years

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Hat tip to one of my readers for this one. According to this London Telegraph article, Cambridge University did a 620,000 person, six year survey to find out more about people’s friendliness and stress. What do you know, we came out on top! Like the title says…we could have told them that. Six years ago.

I think we take it for granted that we don’t have smut on our streets, we don’t have to be afraid to go out at night, we don’t hear gunshots all night long, and when we hear sirens we wonder who crashed their car or pulled the fire alarm this time. The pace of things in Bismarck-Mandan is slower even than Minot or Fargo, and I think that’s because they both get a steady influx of people from other parts of the country. Our city is clean; there isn’t trash piled in the gutters or alleys, we don’t have any slums, and the potholes get fixed (even on north 19th Street).

We live in one of the most “heavily churched” parts of the country too, I’d bet. I read somewhere that most North Dakotans claim church membership; while that’s not a very concrete indicator of character, it’s a far sight better than most parts of the United States.

Back when Ed Schafer was governor, it was not uncommon to see him jogging along Bismarck’s recreational paths. No entourage. No bodyguard. Just a guy out for a run. I took great comfort in that.

Speaking of recreational paths: did you know you could start at the University of Mary, get on the paved path, and continue unhindered all the way to north Washington near Highway 1804? Double back past Horizon Middle School, and you can hop on a Parks & Rec trail that parallels Valley Drive and gets you over to northwest Bismarck, where you can go down to Pioneer Park. From there you can go all the way down to Fox Island, hit the new section that goes from Tavist back to Washington, or you can hop on the Expressway Bridge, take the path into south Mandan, and find yourself at Fort Lincoln State Park. If you choose to journey northward through Mandan, you can take the path north of town for quite a ways as well. We value our recreation here in Bismarck-Mandan!

I deal with stock photography on occasion, so I caught this right away: take a look at the image the Telegraph used for this article, presumably to depict New York. The marquee is promoting the movies Hackers and Mortal Kombat, which came out in 1995. Time to update the stock photos, guys, or maybe use something with less recognizable features!

Aren’t you glad you live in the middle of one of the most friendly, healthy states in the nation? I’m sure glad my family and I are here!

The secret of Lake Mitchell

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I think I’ve figured out how they keep Lake Mitchell full of water…it’s right next to a well!

Sorry, I’m feeling silly tonight after some late-night garage time. I wanted to play with my pressure washer and my air compressor, so I had to figure out how to use both. Obviously I washed my air compressor with my pressure washer! Then I used the air compressor to push the water out of the washer’s hose as I coiled it to put it away. I like putting tools away…I’m one of those people who scrubs down his lawn mower, including under the deck, before oiling everything and putting it away.

It would take a LONG time to catalog all the neat little places, like Lake Mitchell’s recreation area, that surround the Bismarck-Mandan area. I found a few a while back when I took a little jaunt down some gravel roads that took me up that way, popping out somewhere near Wing, before turning back to park the camera for some family time. I have some interesting photos from Lake Mitchell that I’ll post in the near future.

What I’ve been doing this week instead of bloggin’

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Being daddy! My two little boys are so amazing and precious. Jonathan started crawling and loves to smile at his daddy, and PJ is learning the ropes of being a big brother. Having two little boys under the age of two doesn’t make for a lot of spare time, so my photography habit has been fed in a hit and miss fashion. Sometimes I’m fortunate enough to combine the two, and photograph my boys! For the most part, however, the camera has stayed behind. It isn’t easy, but being daddy is very rewarding.

Foggy morning church

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We had another foggy morning today, and it gave me the opportunity to photograph the sun as it rose above the steeple at Buckstop Junction. A friend mentioned that as he drove in from north of Mandan, the river valley had a really neat silhouette effect from the fog as well. Mornings like this are so incredible and make getting up early worthwhile!

From our “just when you thought you’d seen it all” department…

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One of the last things I thought I’d find in the middle of a field in central North Dakota is a big pyramid of bowling balls. Some look like they’ve been painted black with what looks like stove paint (regular flat black turns gray) but maybe they’re just aged. Some are left with their original color(s). This stack of bowling balls was next to a brush pile in a field well east of Bismarck.

I’d love to hear the story behind this one.

Misty morning hop

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As I ventured around the periphery of Bismarck-Mandan via obscure gravel roads Saturday morning, I noticed a lot of fog in low-lying areas. I noticed this old abandoned farm house poking through the fog in one area and grabbed this quick photo of it. It was a long way from the road, so in compliance with my “not without permission” policy, I simply took the best photo I could put together from the road.

More proof that liberals are liberals first, above all else

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In taking a firm stand not to put Sarah Palin on her show, Oprah just threw the “two” in “the ol’ one-two” punch to her credibility:

Punch One: Oprah declined to have Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on her show. Not the first black Supreme Court Justice in our nation’s history, but a qualified man who rose from impoverished roots. He’s a conservative. A Republican appointee. Oprah decided she was a liberal before a black person.

Punch Two: Oprah declined to have VP candidate Sarah Palin on her show. Not the first female VP candidate, mind you, but by far the most popular…a regular superstar, if you will. She’s a conservative. A Republican candidate. Oprah decided she was a liberal before a woman.

For a bunch that needs to “group-ify” everybody into factions in order to appropriately pander to, and make victims of, everyone they see…Oprah has just shown that her allegiance belongs to neither of the two most prominent demographics to which she belongs: black Americans and women.


Oh, there IS one group that which Oprah belongs to which she’s not afraid to put on her show: liberal millionaires. The list of them appearing on her show is quite long, and includes such prominent members as Barack Obama. So much for “the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates” eh?

Wispy clouds

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These were some of the last clouds of August, taken mid-afternoon. It’s not often that I shoot clouds without something else in the frame, but these were just too cool. I also threw on a couple of filters to get better color, contrast, and some lens flares.

North Dakota skies are fantastic, no two ways about it. Whether they’re clear or cloudy, we’ve got it good.