Of course, this storm seems to have skipped Bismarck just as the one a few days ago. At that time I was south of town in my truck getting hailed on in rain so heavy that traffic was stopping…yet the roads north of the Bismarck Airport were bone dry. Crazy, huh?
What I like most about this photo is that the power line towers look as if they’re lining up to brace against the assault of the storm.
While I missed my wife, I also saw an opportunity to “get it out of my system” and spend my every waking moment on bachelor-style activities. After all, I lived alone, except for the bird, for over ten years…marriage is quite an adjustment, no matter how happy we are.
So I rode a lot of mountain bike. I rode a lot of motorcycle. I played a lot of Xbox. I played some tennis, drove my little nitro RC trucks (see above), went stargazing until early Saturday morning, the whole works. Ah, to be a kid again.
One realization I had this week was that, although I really love doing all those things, there’s something I choose to do before all of them: be a husband. Marriage is when it’s time to make good on all that stuff you promised your girlfriend you’d do. And not begrudgingly so, either. Now that we’re married, my wife and I share some of those things that were so fun to do on my own. Some we don’t. But what it all comes down to is that a guy has to be a husband first…soon I’ll add “father” to that description as well. And when I get a few days to play around like this, it’ll be a nice vacation. And it’ll help keep my mind off missing my wife for a few minutes!
Note the absence of Conrad, Dorgan, or Pomeroy. Note also the absence of any results of their hard fought battle (I mean, they ARE fighting for us…aren’t they?) for equity in Missouri River management between the northern states, who rely on its lakes for tourism, and the southern states, who rely on it for floating casinos and barges.
Yes, I know there’s a lot of talk about the barge industry…but that barge industry doesn’t account for a fraction of the combined financial interest of the northern states’ tourism and hospitality industries. But the riverboat casinos? They’ve got a little more dollars attached. I have a friend who, while he worked in the gaming industry, clued me in to that little tidbit when this debate first started raging a few years ago. I haven’t seen one mention of it in the newspapers.
The next time our congressional delegation start tooting their collective or individual horns about what they’ve done for the state, please invite them to come to Riverdale and play in the state’s largest sandbox.