Rawr

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My 3 and 4 year olds are reading these days, with voracious appetites at times. Upon reaching a milestone, we had a party at Barnes & Noble for little PJ where he got to pick out some new books and celebrate. Well, there was something else with a voracious appetite in the kids’ section: these stuffed T-Rex dinosaurs! I couldn’t resist a quick photo.

“Don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world…”

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Those words won’t be much consolation to the biblically ignorant folks who bought into Harold Camping’s so-called “prophecy”…actually, they were banking on it actually BEING the end of the world. Of course, anyone who spends time studying the Bible saw through this charade instantly. Let’s see, take some really convoluted and erroneous math, throw out the book of Daniel and other prophetic books, completely ignore the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and voila’! You’ve got yourself a prophecy!

Let’s not forget what Jesus said about His return:

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (Matthew 24:36)

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” (Matthew 25:13)

“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” (Luke 12:40)

I read into the eschatology of these folks when people first started buzzing about it. Aside from all the nuts & bolts of the end times according to the Bible, which I don’t have time to dissect here, the Lord Jesus Christ makes it quite clear Himself that we’re not going to be able to predict or know. That’s enough for me…case closed.

I grew up Catholic, which means I didn’t always know what the inside of a Bible looked like. After I became a born again Christian and started studying my Bible, I was amazed at what I found therein. Old and New Testament correlated each other, scripture contextualized scripture, and I was blown away at what an amazing inspired book it is. It’s also a book that, when taken out of context, is a favorite weapon of all types of charlatans.

What about the poor folks who buy into this? Foretold by the apostle Paul:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” *II Timothy 4:3-4)

There’s one sure way to avoid being suckered in by this sort of thing: study your Bible. ALL of it. In context. Second, don’t give heed to anyone who’s got a $75 million dollar “ministry” and makes his livelihood from “prophecy” and end times “theology.”

They’ll need a crane (UPDATED)

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It’s been a while since I’ve dropped a lyrical reference in a blog post title, so I thought I’d give a hat-tip to one of my favorite songs by They Might Be Giants. If you found yourself on the far eastern reaches of the capital city today, you probably spotted this flag flying high above the industrial park.

This is an enormous flag, flying high atop an enormous crane. But what was the event? Something I’ve been eagerly anticipating for quite some time: the Case Triple Threat Rodeo, held today at Titan Machinery in Bismarck.

I was lucky enough to come visit this event over my lunch break, and so were my little boys. What could be more fun than hot dogs, big machines, and a sunny day? We’ll get to that in a moment.

There are multiple components to this rodeo contest: skidsteer, backhoe, and loader. Participants negotiate an obstacle course and perform skills of coordination while competing for the best time. The wind made it a challenge, I’m sure! At the end of the drill pictured above, the operator had to try to dump that little soccer ball into one of three waiting garbage cans.

As if watching big machines working wasn’t enough fun for little boys, there was also a big inflatable skidsteer loader-shaped bouncing pen. Believe me, they got PLENTY of use out of this thing. They were still bouncing with Mommy when I left to return to work.

According to the schedule on the Case website, there will be an event in Fargo today and in Minot later this year. Click here to check it out. It’s fun to watch. If you’ve got better loader skills than I have, you can register and participate!

One important thing I forgot to mention is that this event has also helped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in support for Habitat for Humanity. You can click here to read more, and freewill donations are accepted at the event. Cool, huh?

Another day at the office

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I saw these two hawks chummin’ it up atop a row of hay bales the other day as sunrise approached. My 3 year old and I were out roaming in Daddy’s truck, ready to find some mud and a sunset so we could use some cameras and four wheel drive.

It’s not uncommon to see hawks sitting on bales like these; I imagine they’re a great vantage point for scoping out some tasty rodents. What I thought was unique was the fact that two of these hawks were sitting facing each other. I tried to get a little closer for a tighter photo, but of course they soon departed.

On a side note, I once heard that these round bales are going to be banned by the USDA in the near future. Apparently the livestock can’t get a “square meal” out of ’em!

Interesting shadow

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My eye caught something interesting while I was in the park a while back. While looking up at the trail of a passing jet, I couldn’t help but notice a dark offset beneath it. Do you see it?

This jet was flying pretty high, much higher than the wispy clouds below. As a result, its contrail was casting a shadow on the clouds below it. In fact, the shadow was leading the plane by a long shot from my perspective.

The sky is always a good bet when you want to see something interesting and unique! Timing is a factor and you need to take the right perspective, but there’s always something cool about God’s creation to an attentive eye.

Looking for a riverboat ride…how far can you jump?

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I was among the many curious locals who traveled up and down along the Missouri River recently to investigate the notoriously high water level. I’d heard that the river was going to rise by approximately five feet, but wanted to see for myself what a difference that would make. The answer: significant.

The most dramatic illustration of the risen Big Muddy is at the Lewis & Clark Riverboat landing. Maybe they can come up with some sort of a “mini riverboat” to ferry passengers out to the real thing! The moorings for this boat are out quite a ways and now underwater, leaving no easy solution. I’m guessing a catapult or fast-line rope rig are out of the question.

Well, I suppose it’s about time

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I’ve photographed this wellhead before, but never at sunrise. Last Saturday I got up at 5am for some reason, hopped in the truck with my cameras, and started out in search of photographic adventure. I found it.

Sunrise and sunset provide the most amazing opportunities for photos because of the unique light they provide. Sunset is a lot easier, of course. Sunsets in the winter often happen before I’m off work, and winter sunrises occur after I’ve already arrived at work. Summer sunrises? Well, they’re just plain early. You’ve got to get up to catch ’em, and that isn’t always easy.

I must say, after the results of Saturday’s outing, that it sure pays off.

Another broken connection

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It’s always fun to find something that’s been hiding in plain sight. I can’t even guess how many times I’ve driven past this dilapidated pole north of Bismarck, but last Saturday I happened to notice it while meandering down a long gravel road at sunrise.

It was a glorious morning, with a perfectly clear sky. Near the horizon it was bright gold with the rising sun, and overhead it was still a deep blue. I managed to run around quite a bit with my cameras and not bring home any ticks, which is a feat considering how my friends have been getting swarmed by them!

From our “stuff that no longer spins” department, part deux

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If you’re like me, you found yourself four-wheeling through section line roads at 5am or so Saturday morning. I had the inclination to sneak in a quick photo jaunt before my family woke up, and there were some noteworthy events in the morning sky I wanted to pursue. While I didn’t see any planetary alignments as promised, I did find plenty of other neat things during my voyage. One of them was this broken wind turbine near Wilton.

For some reason one of the blades delaminated in spectacular fashion, making an enormous mess and putting this expensive piece of hardware out of commission. If the numbers I heard are correct, a blade replacement is about a $150,000 job. That’s presuming that there was no further damage due to its failure.

Sometimes when things fail they REALLY fail. That would be the case here. Rather than simply splitting down the middle, as I’ve seen before, this one appears to have shredded itself quite handily. Maybe that means it failed while rotating. Maybe it sustained wind damage after the failure. I’m not sure…all I know is that it is definitely “busted.”

Here’s the last time a blade failed at the Wilton/Regan area site. As you can see, the blade simply split in half and then collapsed under its own weight. There are no shredded chunks hanging like this most recent failure.

This reminds me: when this first failure occurred, a friend of mine who was incarcerated at the time said that a rumor was going around the state penitentiary in which a UFO struck the turbine. Yeah…not likely. In any case, I thought that was an entertaining conspiracy theory!