I recently took my boys to a friend’s house east of town for an epic afternoon Nerf gun war with a bunch of other boys. That gave me some time to roam with my camera, and along Apple Creek Road I had to stop by this crazy old stump. It just keeps getting more and more hollow, and the birds love it on a windy day like the one we were having. I’ve always been stricken by the way that the stump looks like a castle.
The sky actually didn’t cooperate with me tonight. I was working on an idea I’ve had with the Square Buttes in the foreground of a sunset shot, but the sky really didn’t do a whole heck of a lot. So I zoomed in on one portion of the horizon where there were actually some clouds. As you can see, most of this is the result of jet contrails. Oh well…it got me out of the house for a while. 🙂
I recently received a promotional mailer from a local business which had a scratch-and-win game on the back. Well, as you can see above, there wasn’t a whole lot of mystery to the game in this particular case. I scratched it off anyway, and voila’ – I was a winner of one of many potential prizes…even $25,000!
Well, I could certainly use a new vehicle right now, and $25,000 would buy a pretty nice Toyota Tacoma or something. So I figured it might be interesting to visit the local business and see what the catch was. I’m a born skeptic with this kind of thing. I didn’t plan on any special trips, but kept the mailer in my truck in case I was in the neighborhood.
For years I’ve had a unique opportunity, as I have received mail at multiple addresses…PO Box, rental property, that sort of thing. So I was amused when I got my hands on a couple more of the mailers. Either this was really my lucky week, or something strange is afoot.
As I’d planned to do anyway, I perused the fine print. It looks like each “WINNER” receives a chance to choose an envelope which may or may not contain a prize. Makes sense. The odds of winning each prize are clearly stated on the mailer if you are curious. They’re far better than the PCH or Powerball, by the way.
I never did venture down to this business; I was simply too busy. It’s too bad, because I missed a chance to grab a winning envelope. While you might suspect that I’m ranting against this business for deceptive use of the word “WINNER”, that’s not the case at all. In 2016, if someone reads a mailer like that and thinks they’ve really struck gold by scratching their way to a big win, then I need to sell them the Grant Marsh Bridge. It’s just a ploy to get you to pay attention, and by reading the details it’s easy to surmise what’s up. They want to get you into the store, they’ll give you a chance to pick a prize (at no cost to you, by the way), and along the way see if they can sell you something. Hard to be offended by that, although I’m sure many would try.
It’s remotely like the Publisher’s Clearing House – if they can keep you busy adhering labels, scratching off “game cards”, and hunting through all sorts of product listings in search of that stamp you need to send back, there’s a good chance they can play on human nature and get you to buy something. I mean, after all, if you have to do so much to even qualify to win, doesn’t that mean the Prize Patrol could be right around the corner?
I’m of the mindset that if someone offers me a free chance to win something, I’ll take them up on it. I don’t have any illusions about it, but I don’t mind taking advantage of the opportunity if I’ve got the time. No hard feelings if I don’t win, and as long as we’re both understanding what’s going on with the contest there’s no reason not to simply take it for what it is: a business trying to attract customers and sales, and a consumer taking a crack at winning free stuff.
It’s no secret that the photos have been fewer and farther between for quite some time now. First I and every single member of our family had major health issues to deal with. Then after we circled the wagons and worked on treatment and healing we took on building a new house, and still have lots of thing in bins and a new Garage Majal to get whipped into shape. Additionally, my little kids have grown up to a point where they want more Dad time (not as much “Daddy”) and I’ve had a hectic freelance schedule. Whew.
Well, I decided to knock off a little early on Friday and actually head out with my camera and some new gear I purchased with some of the aforementioned freelance money. I didn’t want to make a major voyage out of it, but just work the outskirts of town and let the stress of the week melt away. What better way to get back into the game than to go with my trademark: windmills! I found a trio of ’em.
I have photographed these before, but they do change over time. This one has lost more than half of the blades but is still standing tall. I chose not to remove the power lines in the background this time.
A wider shot may have portrayed this windmill standing alone in a vacant prairie better, but in reality there was a pole just out of the frame on the left where power comes in…presumably some sort of stock tank heater or something. The lettering on the vane (yes, that’s what it’s called) says “R. R. HOWELL CO MINNEAPOLIS”. It’s an interesting Google search if you have time on your hands.
Sunset came quickly, and I once again cashed in on the real Secret of My Success when it comes to photography: being in the right place at the right time, often due to absolute blind luck. I had a couple of minutes to wait for the sun to set in the silhouette of the water tank next to this windmill, adjusting my tripod to the side periodically to track the sun as it slid down and to the right of the frame. The way it reflected off the wispy clouds above added to the feel of the shot.
It felt SO good to be out roaming again. I didn’t even have a potential target when I set out; I just settled on windmills after coming upon the first one. It was simply therepeutic to get out and start clicking photos again. All the while I had a Nick Lowe song repeating in the back of my head:
I am determined for my own sanity to get out with my cameras more. Maybe not as much as in the old days, because I want to be a good husband and dad. Bringing the kids with on my photo trips will help, and maybe even kindle in them a love of roaming photography. Meanwhile I hope to have more to share than simply political rants, which don’t take much road time at all. Back to my love of North Dakota and sharing it online. Maybe the next song going through my head will be Back in the Saddle Again!
When I first started venturing out for my Fallen Farms series of photos I discovered that there are more of these than I would have expected. I suppose they were harder to demolish and either haul away or bury. Whatever the reason, they do look pretty neat in a wistful way.
Lately the temperature swings have made for some cool frost. Not the long spiky kind, unfortunately, but frost just the same. This is one knobby on the tire of my truck, and it caught my eye as I was getting ready to head out with my camera the other day. This was before the current warm stretch, of course. I hope I can start getting back out with my camera more, just like the old days…
Crews spent some time lashing the Lewis & Clark riverboat to the shore this weekend as the river level jumped up in the area. The park is closed and water is high due to ice packing in downstream.
Every year they take this boat out of the water with a huge crane and set it on some heavy duty cribbing until spring. That’s all fine and dandy until the water rises to the level of the boat anyway.
Even the ice machine wanted to get into the act. That’s a pretty decent seal, although I doubt that water is going to do the compressor or electrical components any favors.
I didn’t take a look at the water level indicator further down River Road, but I did notice some water in the ditches and low lying areas further north along the road. Hopefully we don’t have to deal with more flooding this year, in Bismarck or anywhere else in North Dakota.
Fargo police officer Jason Moszer has passed away due to injuries inflicted by one of the citizens he’s sworn to protect. Domestic violence calls can be the most unpredictable and volatile situations, and this proved true on the night he was shot. This cowardly act on the part of the shooter was senseless and deprived a community and a family of their hero. I drove to the capitol yesterday and stopped at the Peace Officer Memorial to ponder for a second. The thought of another name being added to that wall is infuriating.
There’s a donation campaign underway. If you want to help out Officer Moszer’s family, please consider going here and donating. I’ve been on the receiving end of financial help from others when we were going through our family’s avalanche of medical and other issues, and it’s an enormous blessing. Here’s the link:
https://www.crowdrise.com/fargopoliceofficermoszersfamilybenefit/fundraiser/aaranjoneson
Pray for the family and comrades of Officer Jason Moszer.
This little bugger is known as 1059580, which to the average person is KBMR 1130 AM. It sits over on East Rosser Avenue, right in the backyards of some Bismarck residents. And it’s putting out 10,000 watts of your favorite country classics. Unfortunately it’s putting it in some rather troublesome places.
Anecdote: when I was working at a local TV station years ago, our on-air talent began complaining that they were hearing “country music” in their IFB earpieces. At first we thought they were nuts (after all, they are broadcasters) but eventually had to switch to wireless earpieces. One of the station engineers figured out that the offending signal was coming in through the power lines.
I recently came across this situation again with an audio mixer that proved susceptible to this phenomenon. When I’d adjust the microphone preamps I would be treated to a twangy jam instead of the audio source on the other end of the wire. I ended up switching to a different mixer to get rid of the result.
I’ve also had instances east of town where I couldn’t leave a microphone cable on the concrete floor without picking up KBMR and had to switch to wireless. What a joy.
A friend of mine who used to work over by the Coca-Cola plant said he could hook up to his filing cabinet and get his dose of the classic country. I don’t know if he could feel his teeth tingle, but maybe that’s just reserved for the people who live right next to this tower.
I’m just a layman and possess no engineering or electrical degrees, but I think I know the issue:
The image above shows KBMR’s tower, which these days is located behind the studio building, in relation to two big electrical junctions: the Western Area Power Administration and Montana-Dakota Utilities. Remember how I said the engineer traced the interference to the power coming into the building? By the way, those are people’s homes in the left edge of the photo.
What I’m wondering out loud is whether it’s a good idea to be throwing 10,000 watts of radio frequency energy into the local electrical grid. In one of our trucks, if I drive alongside the power lines on the south side of Century Avenue, KBMR even bleeds into KFYR 550 AM. Not an ideal situation. It seems as though being adjacent to two substations turns the electrical wires into a giant antenna array.
My understanding is that KBMR’s daytime tower (they go low-power at night) used to be east of Menoken. When Anderson Broadcasting began building 710 AM KXMR, they moved all operations of KBMR to the in-town stick and used the Menoken tower as part of a directional array for 710. I can’t find an online paper trail of this using the FCC’s page, because their site and search aren’t very intuitive. But that’s my foggy recollection.
My contention is that if KBMR’s full-power signal was beaming 10,000 watts on 1130 kHz from this site east of Menoken, people wouldn’t be picking up Merle Haggard in their dental work and houses on 35th Street wouldn’t require filters on their telephones. But that’s just me… I’m just a simple caveman when it comes to this stuff. As a video professional, though, I sure wish I didn’t have to chase this signal out of my microphones when recording within the Bismarck city limits. I grew up listening to classic country & western music with my dad, but there are times I wish it would only come out of my radio and nothing else.
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.
Every 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?