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If you’ve ever had a loved one undergo surgery at Medcenter One, you may have spent time here: the second floor Surgery Waiting Room. It’s a spacious place, with one computer to browse the Internet, several televisions, and lots of magazines. Some of those magazines are older than I am…I’m referring to their stack of National Geographics.

It seems to me the stack was larger last time I came through here, but perhaps it’s just more orderly. Tucked away in the corner, these magazines range back to the early 1960’s. I can’t help but take myself back in a timewarp (in a periodical sense) every time I’m in this room, and it does help pass the time very quickly while someone else is hogging the Internet computer. Hopefully they’re reading this blog, at least.

What a blast, reading about what we might find if/when we get a man on the moon! This particular issue talked about photos sent back by the first Surveyor probe sent up by NASA. Pretty cool, huh?

If you find yourself stuck at the hospital for a while, peruse this stack. It’s very interesting to look at the ads from nearly fifty years ago, as well as the photos and the articles. I remember reading one about some little Pacific nation called Vietnam, long before the Democrats started their ill-fated military action there. There are lots of camera ads, of course. Cover to cover, it’s neat to get such a glimpse at the past.

If you do find this treasure of magazines, please do your part to make sure that they stay right there in the waiting room where they belong, providing enjoyment for people who probably need to get their minds on something other than the person for whom they’re waiting.

Fields of gold, and going nowhere fast

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I took the opportunity to leather up and stretch the big Suzuki’s legs Sunday afternoon, of course with twenty-some pounds of camera gear strapped to my back. I’m a daddy of two now, so I have to learn to consolidate my hobbies if I want to get time to do them. If I could just find a way to train karate while I SCUBA dive with a controller for a nitro-burning RC truck in each hand, while riding one of my fleet of motorcycles and taking a picture, all while pulling a giant wheelie on my mountain bike at the tennis court. That would just about cover it, I think I could hold my favorite frisbee in my teeth. Instead of attempting the impossible, I have instead resorted to times like this to steal away for a little chunk of time, and pick and choose which hobbies get my attention for now. Sooner than I can imagine, my boys will be old enough to do many of those things with me.

This was another one of those days where I catch my self saying, “I love my polarizer!” On a nice sunny day, it gets rid of all that pesky scattered light and brings out the best in nature’s colors…especially the blue of the skies. It also helped that the fields were full of what I’m told is golden clover, as seen behind this threshing machine north of Bismarck! Note the wind farm on the horizon.

After reading about the abandoned town of Arena, North Dakota, I decided to head up there and see what I could see. I saw what was left of an old elevator, the lone house in town, and the church next door. All were boarded up. It was a beautiful day, even in leather racing apparel, and I made some other photo stops along the way. The fields and the sky collaborated to give me lots of color Sunday, and I was able to enjoy the photography and the ride.

I suppose you could technically say I went “nowhere” since the town of Arena doesn’t officially exist anymore, at least not as it once did. According to my GPS, I went “nowhere” fast…reaching 245 mph maximum speed! I’d like to take this occasion to say I WISH. I couldn’t do 245 mph if I wanted to. I’m not saying how close I got, however. I’ll keep that between me and the bugs splattered all over the visor of my helmet. As far as the other numbers on the display, well…they’re worthless too. I forgot to stop logging the trip when I got home, so it sat logging all day. I don’t know how long I was riding, how long I was stopped taking pictures, or even my top speed (244? hm…). Great day for photos and motorcycling, bad day for data acquisition. I guess I’ll have to go do it again. Darn.

So I suppose you were wondering why they closed River Road…

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No, I had nothing to do with it! There I was, minding my own business, driving down River Road on my way home…when I found two of Bismarck’s finest blocking the road. Being the curious sort, I hopped out and asked what was going on. They gave me permission to go poke around…who could resist?

I guess a pretty big wall of water came flying out of the water treatment plant’s grounds when this whole debacle started. When I left, they were still wondering whether River Road should be inspected to make sure it wasn’t washed out underneath. Lots of dirt from the construction site of the treatment plant itself had been washed away, and there was a reddish brown streak in the Missouri River where the dirt was being deposited. The water was still deep in a few places, but had mostly spread out in about a 75 foot wide flow across the river and the bike path.

Boy, that’s going to be fun to fix. And that isn’t even the water problem! Upgrades to the water treatment plant have been taking place for a long time, and it looks like the road was about to be built. Now they’ll have to do a lot more groundwork before that can take place…and that’s after they repair whatever caused this mess in the first place!

Things got even more interesting; the officer I talked to said that there had been two water main breaks tonight already. I wonder if any of these things are related? Perhaps the water system is similar to an electric grid; when part is shut down, it causes more stress in other places. In any case, if you work for the City of Bismarck and have anything to do with water or digging, you probably got a call Monday evening. Those of us who are city employees but don’t lift a shovel…well, I guess I’ll just take pictures and type, as usual.

Friends and Family Day at the NGPRL

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Last Thursday I was able to take my family to the Friends and Family Day at the Northern Great Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory south of Mandan. As a kid growing up south of Mandan, I remember occasionally riding my bike toward town and visiting the facility. The people we talked to were cool, and gracious in explaining what they were doing to a curious kid. They showed the same sort of hospitality to kids and adults alike last Thursday.

Ever play Garden Jeopardy? Me neither. This was just one of several breakout sessions that were held throughout the day. They focused on subjects from soils to gardening to trees, and looked really interesting and informative. I watched one guy talk about “rain gardens” and how one can collect rain water and retain moisture in soil by how it’s landscaped and the type of soil used. I didn’t get to stay for much of it, though…

…because my wife and boys were waiting for me at the horse and buggy. I kept our infant and stroller with me, while little PJ and mommy went for a ride. He’s 18 months old now and talking up a storm, and said “horses” a lot after this ride.

This was his other favorite stop. Daddy took him up into the cabs of a lot of these big tractors, but wouldn’t let him touch any of the buttons. One of them even had the key in the ignition, as PJ pointed out, but I was a party pooper and wouldn’t let him touch it. I don’t think I’m insured for that kind of damage.

I’ll admit it: this was Daddy’s favorite stop. I absolutely LOVE those Cloverdale brats. I was able to keep from getting mustard on my camera, too. Thanks for the free lunch!

This was one of the activities for the kids. There was face painting and other fun going on, but this tunnel seemed especially cool. It’s to show kids about what goes on in the soil underneath their garden or field. Note the roots and carrots sticking down. The kids got to wear a headband light too, so it wasn’t too scary.

Not a lot of takers on the “greenhouse gas emmission” information. I’m not surprised; the farmers finally have a couple of good years, and now they’re supposed to get uptight about the greenhouse gas emissions of their operation? The whole “greenhouse gas” nonsense is a political issue, anyway…not a scientific one. Too bad research grant money is given out by a political process.

These folks got a really cool ride! Rolling bleachers…I never thought I’d live to see the day. I wish I’d had time to hang around and take this ride, but I don’t think the little boys would like it much and we had the stroller & stuff to worry about. Too bad, it’s been a couple of decades since I really poked around out here. Perhaps next year I can take PJ on the ride. I’m sure he’ll remind me about the horses and the tractors! Thanks again to the NGPRL folks for their hospitality in putting on a great event for the community.

If I had a boat

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“If I had a boat, I’d go out on the ocean…and if I had a pony, I’d ride him on my boat…”

For the music reference title of this post I picked a Lyle Lovett song, but I’ll always think of it as a JPL song, since my favorite version of it is done by my pals in JPL. Two of the guys are my frequent live-sports coworkers and employees of NBC in Fargo, and the third (J) is the brother of the other (L). They are extremely talented, and the best of their work isn’t even on the Myspace page I have linked for them. Enough about JPL, though…this picture is of JCP: Jonathan, me, and PJ.

We spent an evening by the river this week, with PJ learning how to throw rocks into the river and calling out every airplane, boat, or motorcycle that passed our view. He really loves motorcycles, which he calls “norlkles”, and can even turn the key and start one of my Kawasaki motorcycles if help him get up onto it. Imagine what he’ll be like when he’s two!

The river seems to be where it’s at this year. The sandbars are now fully revived as a place to gather and spend a summer afternoon, despite the city of Bismarck decimating the summer sandbar scene when they carved up Sertoma Park many years ago. Nowadays one simply needs a boat (or a friend with one) to join; I don’t, but considering that my little boy thinks they’re so keen, I suppose it’s time to shop for one! I never wanted one before because I didn’t think I’d use it enough to justify it. I suspect that these two little guys would encourage me to take the boat out plenty. Hm…if I had a boat…

New feature added! And a reminder of an old one

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If you noticed the site loaded a little slowly this week, it’s because I animated the top banner. Doing so involved a little bit of Javascript and Flash, and that stuff has to load the first time you visit the page. Once you’ve visited this site with the new header, it should load quickly in repeat visits. I had been playing with a few ideas for new banners at the top of the site and couldn’t pick one, so I decided that I should just rotate them. I hope they’re pleasing to the eye.

Now a reminder of an older, less frequently used feature. When I activated this feature a long time ago, I posted instructions on how to “Rate the Windbag.” The number of regular visitors to the site has grown by leaps and bounds since then, so I’ll post this again for those of you who are new. While older posts have rating counts as high as 400 or 500, I’m getting several times that many visitors on even a slow day now. So perhaps not everyone knows what those dots are for.


This is a 5-point rating system. If you like the post, click on the dot to the far right. If you think I’m out of my ever-lovin’ mind, click on the dot on the far right. Just kidding. The dot on the left is worth 1 point, the one on the right worth 5, and I leave it to you to discern the values of the remaining three.

Each time a user clicks a dot it’s added to the tally, the number on the right. The average rating is on the left. In the graphic above, 4 users have responded with an average rating of 3.8.

This diagram illustrates the difference between the way a designer sets up a web page, with how he thinks the reader will scan it in mind, and the way the average web surfer actually looks through the page. It’s a pretty big difference, isn’t it? By the same token, I tend to assume that those five little dots look like they’re clickable… but apparently not everybody gets it right away. Oh well.

That’s why, when you see the numbers at the bottom of the posts, things won’t always make sense. I’ll have a post with a low vote count, but with one comment, and dozens (sometimes hundreds) of comment views. So, while the post has been read between a thousand and two thousand times (that’s how many daily visitors I get), only one person may have found reason to comment, and not everybody decided to read his/her comment. Even fewer decided (or knew how to) vote to rate the post. It’s actually very interesting to see, especially in light of the server stats that I receive daily!

Of course, if you’re reading this post on one of the websites that syndicate it, you’re not eligible to vote. You have to actually come to bismarckmandanblog.com to do so.

Have fun. The old Democrat adage “vote early, vote often!” doesn’t apply here.

Road to nowhere

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While heading down to the Burnt Creek dock with my boys, I took the scenic route down Sandy River Drive. It’s one of my favorite roads because it’s narrow, straight, canopied by trees, and I have several friends who live along it. Just before I headed north to the boat dock, however, I saw this new item.

Marking “The Road to Nowhere”, this marker was obviously put up by someone who got a raw deal. In case you have a bad monitor, let me go ahead and quote it:

“Until 2006 the road to the west of this site contained 22 giant cottonwoods, oaks and ash trees – and two private roads maintained by residents of this area.

This marker is dedicated to the public officials who deemed “we’re from the government and we’re here to help” – even though the residents of the area didn’t want the trees removed, their roads destroyed, and the new road built.”

As usual, I proofread everything I read, and something caught my eye. If I’m right, “Pactas” should actually read “Pacta” as it’s the plural of the Latin word “pactum.” It means an agreement, contract, covenant, or treaty. The full translation of this little dictum is essentially “Agreements should be honored.” If so, all those years of high school and college Latin finally paid off. The dedication itself speaks for itself…just think the Democrats want the government to be in charge of our health care, too!

The road really DOES go nowhere, by the way. I went to the end of the road so I’d have room to turn our carbon-belching SUV around, but not until after I poked my head through the moon roof to take this shot of our tax dollars at work.

If you’d like to find this marker and enjoy the picnic table, you can take River Road north from Pioneer Park, then turn left and head west on Sandy River Drive until you spot the marker on your left. Its GPS coordinates are 46 deg 51.164 minutes North, 100 deg 51.237 minutes West. If you find out who placed the marker here (it ain’t hard to figure out), tell them I sent you.

After only a week or so….July 4th photos posted

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This year brought something different for our family on Independence Day. I was hired to take photos for Cycle Hutt, our church didn’t do a float this year because of our new building project, and my wife and I thought it better to keep the two little boys at home on the hot afternoon. That means that I didn’t sit and watch the parade go by like last year; rather, I took lots and lots of photos of the goings-on at Cycle Hutt and around & on the float for the parade.

There are around 1800 photos overall, but I pared it down quite a bit into a few image galleries:

July 3rd: Practice, brief Stunt Show

July 4th: the main stunt show, the crowds, the fun.

The parade float, complete with a burnout stand and other fun stuff.

July 5th: Another stunt show, wrap-up with the SPEED Channel crew, and a brief group ride afterwards.

Local Riders – These guys got lessons from JasoN Britton!

Enjoy! Prints are available, if you’d like. Just find the “Contact me” link on the upper right of this screen, and we’ll get you the details.

Any landing you can walk away from…

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One of my mountain biking buddies and I were comparing photos a couple of weeks ago and I found this gem in his collection. He gave me permission to share it with y’all, so I thought I would take the opportunity to do so. The tractor above was mowing near the sagging walls on a hill along west Century Avenue when a section of the wall decided it had had enough. Fortunately the tractor operator was okay.


The same cannot be said for the wall; however. The same sort of upkeep that had left sections of the wall sagging in the first place has also left a pile of bricks where the incident occurred. I don’t remember the date of this particular rollover, but it’s been a while…plenty of time to repair the wall. In the mean time, I wonder how they mow around it?

Very serious, very fundamental defect spotted on the new Liberty Memorial Bridge

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Take a look. Do you see it? I saw it right away after the bridge caught my eye. I was driving west on Memorial Highway, on my way to Mandan when I spotted it. I suppose it’s because they have removed a lot of the construction materials from the bridge as it nears completion. Do you see it yet?

I have to say I’m really disappointed. Ever since the day I attended the groundbreaking where the various mayors and senators congratulated each other and the architect drawings (done by my friend Alex, by the way) were unveiled, they’ve been talking about how this is going to be a site of interest with lots of foot traffic and memorial parks at either end. That’s why I can’t believe the oversight I spotted this week: there is no walkway on the north side!


Question: how is a person going to get a view like this without dodging traffic on the new bridge? Answer: they aren’t. There’s a walkway on the south side of the bridge, but the only time of year the sun sets on that side of the bridge is in the dead of winter. Not aesthetically pleasing, and cold on top of it. Sad.

I give the new bridge a big thumbs-down for this fact alone. If offered the choice of a walkway on the north or on the south, I’d have definitely recommended the north. Sadly, that choice wasn’t mine to make. Oh well, maybe they’ll make a wide shoulder and I can dodge traffic to get the right shot. In the mean time, I’ll just have one more thing to whine about!