Vultures circle the state capitol building…I hope that’s not a sign
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Bismarck-Mandan, home of the fabled Flying Islamic Bison (Peace Be Upon Them)
First is the buffalo with wings; I always wondered where Applebee’s got my favorite appetizer, and apparently they’re indigenous! Perhaps we could tailor our own version of Home on the Range, “where the geese and the buffalo fly.”
Second is the crescent/stars thing. Initially it looks like a symbol commonly associated with the cult of Islam. Looking up the crescent online shows that it’s not necessarily a religious symbol, but one used by lots of Arab nations. While there were literally hundreds of pagan gods in Mecca, the moon and stars being symbols of some of them, I doubt there’s a giant black cube hiding in Bismarck-Mandan anywhere.
If you, like me, haven’t stopped in at the CVB for a visit, I invite you to do so. There’s always more a person can learn about their hometown(s), and this is the place that’s gathered much of the information. Don’t forget to ask them about the flying buffalo!
Square Butte sunset
I used to live in Big Sky, Montana and work for the ski patrol there. I basically got paid to snowboard all day at a time when few resorts actually allowed snowboards; the sport was pretty new in the late 80’s. My best friend Corey was from Detroit Lakes, and referred to North Dakotans as “Flatlanders.” One would have thought the drive through the Badlands would have enlightened him, but he still held the view of many Minnesotans whose only experience with North Dakota is the Red River Valley. Well, the land surrounding Bismarck-Mandan is anything but flat.
This sunset is taking place just north of the Square Buttes. If you go out to Double Ditch Indian Village and park in the little parking lot on the north end, you’ll see some educational signage describing the Square Buttes. They’re a little hard to see from there, as they reside a few miles north on the Mandan side…but they’re there, they’re enormous, they’re real, and they’re spectacular. Beside the two large, flat-topped buttes sits this rugged set of features, overlooking the mighty Missouri.
I’ve had some neat Square Butte photos before, even at sunset, but this time I left out the wide, flat buttes to just concentrate on the jagged lines of the hills to the north. Once the sun had receded past the horizon, however…that’s a different story. With a different lighting situation and the sun out of the picture:
If you get out of Bismarck-Mandan even a very short distance and look around, you’ll see some really dramatic landscapes. We have lots of hills, buttes, mesas, and valleys that tend to blend into the scenery unless one is looking for them. For example, the next time you’re stopped in the southbound lane of State Street at the intersection with Divide Avenue, look straight ahead toward the southwest horizon. There are some pretty cool hills out there! When the sun is right, it looks like what we’d imagine as a Southwestern USA horizon. Just because ours have grass on them doesn’t make those rugged hills any less beautiful…and they’re right in our own backyard.
Congratulations! You just got a pay cut.
First off, according to the US Department of Labor’s own statistics, “about 1 percent of workers age 25 and over earned the minimum wage or less.” These are typically entry level jobs, folks.
Rather than rehash this whole argument though, as I’m sure there are plenty of political blogs doing it, I’m going to bring up another point: everybody else is getting a 70 cent per hour pay cut. That might not matter quite as much if you’re making $20/hr. What if you’re making $5.85? You just got slammed back to ground zero. What if you had worked a retail job for two years to work your way up to $6/hour or so? Now some 16 year old kid can get hired for just about the same salary you’ve strived for two years to attain. Feels great, doesn’t it?
You can’t give the entire working population of the United States a mandatory pay raise without the cost of goods and services following. It may not be overnight, like the wage hike…in fact, businesses may have been ramping up in order to compensate for the day the wage hike goes into effect. They’ll likely continue to do so for the next two years, since the minimum wage will continue to climb until it has made a 41% jump in two years! How much do you think your Big Mac is going to cost in 2009?
If you don’t make the minimum wage, guess what: your wages didn’t change a bit today. Well, that’s not entirely true…technically, they went down. When the cost of the things you buy goes up but your salary does not, then you just got a pay cut. All that so 2.2% of the 76.5 million hourly wage earners in the US (that’s 1.7 million out of 300 million) can get a pay raise that will be offset by rising costs.
Fallen Farm #15
Good news from Minnesota, miracle at my house, a preacher comes home, and the Linton sunset
“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)
Speaking of cares, we had an enormous care lifted at our house this week. My wife had previously been diagnosed with Total Placenta Previa, which is a very serious complication to a pregnancy. Many people, including some we don’t even know were praying for a change in her condition. On Friday she had a followup ultrasound, and the placenta has moved to such a degree that it cannot even be classified as placenta previa anymore! This is a very unlikely development, and a true answer to prayer.
Those beautiful Dakota seas of blue
I found this field, complete with a fallen farmhouse, close to Douglas Bay over the weekend. That’s just west of the National Guard’s training facility. I’m afraid I wasn’t able to catch the effect that makes this field look like a body of water, but I haven’t given up. There are similar fields just north of Bismarck, and I would like to try again while they’re still in bloom.
Mining for sunshine
Photography is about being at the right place at the right time, and that’s how this photo came into being. The sun was just setting as I came up good ol’ 83 in my truck. I’d been eyeballing everything on either side of the road the entire time, looking for photo opportunities, and this one was not about to escape! I found an approach on which to park, sauntered over to the fence line, and here we are. I have a bunch of different angles and zooms, of course…but this one highlights the sun’s rays streaming from behind the clouds the best.
Chasing the red sun
Northern Lights Saturday
I shot up another one of those notorious Minimum Maintenance roads that I’m known to favor. It seems that no matter where I am, even in a remote spot where I didn’t even know where I was, I can find those roads. They’re great for stomping on the brakes and taking pictures. Shortly after we took a couple of snapshots of the auroras and the Milky Way, the sky faded. That’s okay…we were fading too, after eleven hours of work. I pointed the truck back toward the lake, got a good night’s sleep, and made it back to Bismarck in time for church Sunday morning.