Monthly Archives: February 2007

Phat pheasants

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I guess they must be eating well this winter, or their feathers are REALLY fluffed up to keep them warm, because lately the pheasants have looked like pumpkins with feathers! I’ve noticed a lot of portly, plump birds recently.

This particular fella and his friends were hanging out within 50 feet of the van as I loaded my video gear near Underwood yesterday. They didn’t seem too put out by the fact that some strange looking dude was working his way toward them with his camera, at least until I got pretty close. Then they simply sauntered off to the thick brush to hide out for a while.

Upon close observation, I think that the pheasant is quite possibly the stupidest of all feathered creatures, often nonchalantly walking toward speeding vehicles bearing down on them. At least they seem to be strong in number this winter, a fact I’m sure the hunters will be pleased about the next time hunting season comes around. Until then, people like me will hunt them with our telephoto lenses instead.

Cowardly Earl Pomeroy continues to show his true colors

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Once again, the cowardly Earl Pomeroy shows that he’s more devoted to trying to defeat Republicans than he is to defeating America’s enemies. While many on his side were calling for an increase in troop levels a while back to criticize the President, now they’re doing the opposite. But we shouldn’t be surprised.

You see, the cowardly Representative Pomeroy has always been clear on where he stands on this issue. As I pointed out in a post a while back, he voted against House Resolution 861 less than 24 hours before showing up at the funeral of a fallen Bismarck soldier, where he proudly looked all patriotic. This two-faced, cowardly liar had the nerve to wave and greet North Dakota soldiers and those of us there to support them less than a day after voting against a resolution supporting victory in the War on Terrorism.

The troop surge makes sense: let the rest of the soldiers in place in Iraq continue their operations as usual, while bringing in a force designed and deployed to root out the insurgency. But if we do that, then we don’t enable the Democrat party mouthpieces to cry “Civil War! Civil War!” But the fact of the matter is, they’re merely using this war as a means to attack Republicans here at home. That’s so cowardly, apparently Earl needed to be deployed back to Washington from ND to carry the mantle for the Democrats. He’s doing a bang-up job.

I’ve covered the text of the House Resolution in other posts so I won’t get into it again. Let it suffice to say that I’m not surprised to see cowardly Earl taking his five minutes to bravely stand the Democrat party line, trying to insure that our fighting men and women are not given the resources they require, hoping eagerly for a defeat to hang around the neck of a Republican president while paying for it with the blood of American soldiers. Way to go, Earl…you make me sick.

Oh, deer!

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With the recent snow and cold, the deer are out foraging wherever they can. They also stand out against the white terrain pretty well, too! As I took a little trip around town after work Monday night, I spotted deer all over the place without leaving city limits. First were these deer under the railroad bridge on the Mandan side of the river. There were plenty of them, just not all in the frame at the same time. They’re right in someone’s back yard too, as you can see.

I surprised these guys between two tree rows behind some houses on the south side of town. There probably three or four times as many as you see here, it’s just that some are more alert than others. There were deer on both sides of the street, poking around in the fields south of town.

As you see, there were enough deer to scoop up with a bucket! Unfortunately, nobody left a crane attached to this bucket, so it was too heavy to lift. These deer seemed more determined to find food than to bolt in search of safety. Let’s hope they ride out the rest of the winter okay.

It’s nice living in a place where wildlife still roams within the city. We’ve got bunnies in our yard, which are pleasant to watch when they’re not eating my wife’s flowers. I remember the night we got a call at Mandan PD about a deer charging down Collins Avenue! The furry critters of nature…they make life in Bismarck-Mandan interesting.

A rebuttal to Mark Armstrong’s article

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In the January 2007 issue of The Dakota Beacon Mark Armstrong (who I should clarify is a friend of mine, as is the magazine’s publisher) wrote an article talking about Our Lady of Guadalupe, a supposed apparition of Mary in South America. He talks about how he and his wife ventured to Mexico to purchase a canvas reproduction of an artifact depicting this thing, blessed by the Pope. He then goes on to talk about how Jesus sent Mary to the western hemisphere, and how she “will intervene for us today and overwhelm the darkness with the brightness of her presence once again.” Pick up a copy of the Beacon and read it for yourself.

I’m unable to let Mark’s article go unanswered, because in it he makes some dangerous assertions that are disturbing to any Christian who believes in God’s word. You see, he throws around a lot of praises of an apparition purporting to be a “Blessed Mother” whose claims are nothing but Satanic in nature. Catholics who fall prey to these apparitions need only to consult the Bible to see that they’re being deceived. While my tone in this post seems pretty harsh, I’m only being serious because this is very serious stuff, folks. This post is written out of concern for God’s truth, and I ask your forgiveness that I can’t always convey my care in a very loving tone. It’s out of love that I sound the alarm here…please bear with me.

Ask any catholic whether they worship Mary, and they’ll try to avoid the issue, claiming instead that she’s merely revered, esteemed, or something similar. Yet they claim that she takes the place of Jesus and exalt her to a role which she never claimed and which was never bestowed upon her. Nowhere in the Bible is she ever given the position to which they try to promote her. When told about his mother wanting to see him, Jesus said, “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it” (Luke 8:21). In Luke 11:27 a woman exclaims how the mother of Jesus must be blessed, to which Jesus replies, “Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it” (Luke 11:28). Mary herself knew she was a sinner in need of the Messiah to come, which it turns out she would bear: “And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” (Luke 1:45-48) So neither Jesus nor Mary claim that she’s special aside from being chosen to bear the Messiah, yet millions of people today try to turn her into a false God. They claim they don’t, but they pray to her for things that only God can provide. That’s blasphemy and idolatry.

Most importantly, let’s look at Mark’s claim that Mary will “intervene for us today and overwhelm the darkness with the brightness of her presence once again.” Let me point out that the Bible says “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5). Romans 8:24 tells us that “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” The Hebrews were told about Jesus: “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25) We don’t need Mary to interceed, intervene, or do any other sort of thing that Jesus Christ himself does for us. Anyone or anything that tries to replace Jesus Christ is of the devil, plain and simple. If you run across something, no matter how miraculous, who tries to usurp the authority given to the Son of God, you’re face to face with the devil or one of his angels. According to the Bible, “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12) We need no purported brightness of the presence of Mary or any other. Check your Bible…it’s in there.

The blasphemous idolatry toward Mary is blatant. Take, for instance, the “Hail Mary” prayer. It starts out innocent enough: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Nothing wrong there, the wording closely resembles that of Luke chapter 1. But then things take a turn for the worse: “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners…” That’s just plain blasphemous. As I’ve stated above, only Jesus stands ready to intercede for us with God the Father. Nobody in the entire Bible attempts to exalt themselves to the level of God except the devil himself. Mary never did it either. It takes something very sinister to start presenting that in churches which claim to follow Jesus.

This also brings up the larger issue of Catholicism vs. Christianity. The Bible tells us throughout its text that we are saved by faith. For example, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). The Catholic Church, on the other hand, claims that the sacraments are necessary for salvation. A quick read of the current Catechism shows that “the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation” and “Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify.” They mix the word “grace” with the underhanded tactic of saying that you must work for that grace. These are the same folks that are confirming these apparitions and deeming them worthy of worship. Let’s not forget that Peter said we are “kept by the power of God through grace until salvation” (I Peter 1:5) or that Paul wrote “…But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” (Romans 5:15) Jesus died once to save us, just like Adam sinned once to condemn us. We don’t need to try to perform sacraments to do what Jesus has already done on our behalf. If you don’t accept his sacrifice on the cross, where he declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30) as payment enough for your sin, then you do not believe in the Jesus of the Bible.

It all comes down to your final authority. If you get your answers and your doctrine only from a church of men (catholic or otherwise) without a clear basis in the Bible, you’re liable to fall for anything. If you go to the Bible, the inerrant word of God, you have something which stands proven and doesn’t change, despite the best efforts of men. God doesn’t change, and neither does his gospel. Check out Galatians 1:8, where Paul warns: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Trying to substitute Mary for Jesus in any capacity is in direct contradiction with the gospel as preached by the apostles and recorded in the Bible. Piling conditions, works, and sacraments on top of the grace that is freely given is the same sin. If the scripture is not good enough for you, and you choose some other final authority, then that’s your decision. But you cannot claim to be Christian while seeking a substitute for Christ. You cannot be a Christian while trying to substitute works for his grace. It just doesn’t work.

Here’s an analogy: I’ve got a nice entertainment center at home. I’d really like to program my VCR using the remote for my satellite receiver, because it would be much easier for me. I don’t like the VCR remote, or having to do it the way the VCR was manufactured. But the fact of the matter is, the VCR will only work one way: if I read the manual and follow it to the letter. Your soul has an owner’s manual: the Bible. If your soul is sitting on the shelf, blinking “12:00” all the time, then you’ve got serious trouble. Dig out that owner’s manual and get the truth. Quit trying to do things your own way, because the next thing you know, you’ll be worshiping a piece of cloth from Mexico with someone’s face print in it.

As for these apparitions themselves, I’ll just let the Bible speak for itself: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” You can find these words in I John chapter 4. That’s not me talking, that’s God’s word. In accounts of these apparitions of “Mary” where this test is applied, “Mary” changes the subject and vanishes.

I’ve known and/or worked with Mark for over fifteen years and don’t doubt his good intentions, but that article last month was nothing short of blasphemy. If you want more truth about the apparitions claiming to be Mary, and even Jesus, check out the book “Quite Contrary” at BibleSoft.com. But even more importantly, read your Bible…all of it, not just the parts that might prove your point if taken out of context. I was raised and confirmed a devout Catholic…private schools, altar boy, the whole works…but I’d never been told to do anything with a Bible except carry it in front of the priest. Once I read my Bible, my eyes were opened. I encourage you to do the same. Read it cover to cover, and you’ll be surprised what’s in there…and what’s not.

1997 snow – a look back

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With all the talk about the snows in the northeastern United States lately, I thought I’d share a few pictures I took of the nasty spring storm we received in Bismarck-Mandan back in 1997. This was a particularly wicked storm, as the snow was very fine and icy. It packed in so tightly that the roads had to be cut open with snowblower-equipped payloaders, instead of simply plowed.

At the time I lived north of Century in the vicinity of Montreal Street. Since only the major roads were cut open, I had to hike around six blocks down to Century Avenue, where the big KFYR-TV 4×4 engineering truck was waiting to transport me to work. As you can imagine, we were pretty busy in a news capacity at that point.

It was a surreal walk down to Century Avenue. The snow was taller than even full size pickups parked along Montreal Street, and as I walked down the road I noticed that I wasn’t leaving any footprints. The snow was made of such fine snow crystals and packed so tightly that I wasn’t breaking through the surface. Every now and then I’d see part of a pickup cab poking up through the snow, but for the most part I couldn’t even tell where the street was, much less where cars were parked.

After the roads were beginning to clear, a crazy friend picked me up in his Escort GT and we went out to document the whole thing. At this time I had merely a little Canon point-and-shoot film camera, but I think it tells the story:

The perspective on this one is slightly misleading, since I was sitting in a compact car. But you get the idea.

As you can see from the walls of snow lining Century Avenue, these roads were literally cut open, as plowing would do no good. Not only was the snow too deep, but it was fine, compacted “sugar snow” composed of tiny little crystals. It was rock hard.

Since we were already into Spring, the sun started to work on the snowbanks right away. They’re melting down pretty quickly. We weren’t in a particularly low-riding car, but even along the Expressway the snow was taller than we were.

The fence along the Expressway was almost completely hidden by snow. Lots of places were packed in completely as the snow settled in and froze solid.

It was a Saturday storm, and I remember being quite put out at having some of my motorcycles stranded at the Hall of Ports for the annual Freedom Riders Motorcycle Show! At least I got to bring home some trophy hardware later.

Anyway…just in case the news of all the massive snowfalls in New York are making you pine for a real North Dakota winter, maybe this will help get you through it!

A life well lived

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Friday I attended the funeral of Bob, the father and grandpa of some dear friends of mine. It’s always hard to watch people you love as they grieve. While we know that Bob is in heaven, a place of unspeakable joy, it’s obviously very hard for his loved ones to say goodbye. I knew Bob…not very well, but enough to smile when I would see him and shake his hand, and enough to remember him in prayer when obstacles to his health would come up. I learned a lot more about him on Friday as his pastor and friends spoke about him. Any man would be honored to be remembered as Bob is, and for some reason I saw the reasons why with remarkable clarity that day. Such an occasion tends to make a guy wistfully introspective about how he’s seen and will be remembered by others. From that introspection comes this epiphany.

If I was asked how I would identify myself, the answer would vary over time. In the 80’s I’d have said computer “hacker” or, while I lived at Big Sky, simply a snowboard bum. In the 90’s and beyond it would probably have been as a mountain biker or Hakkoryu karateka. All that time it would have been as a motorcycle racer and by my job at KFYR-TV. I suppose I could also throw in video animator, scuba diver, photographer, semi-anonymous blogger… but do any of those things really count?

Last year, as folks were teasing me about my independence vanishing the day PJ is born, my friend Chuck told me something that sums it al up. He said I’ve had a remarkable young manhood, but now it’s time for a new manhood to begin. He couldn’t have said it better or more succinctly. Of course, having been a bachelor for a LONG time, I find myself resisting that role…but I’m coming around. I’ve got a little boy next to me now who’s put life into an entirely different perspective, one I couldn’t have anticipated even up to the very minute he was born.

Through my youth (and I’m not old yet) I relished the fact that I was known as an adrenaline junkie. After a while my idea of “getting serious” was by letting my job at the TV station define me. I suppose that’s typical for a guy, to let himself be defined by his occupation or something he’s passionate about…or both. But adrenaline wears off and careers change…who am I then?

Since I left the TV job and have slowed down a little bit, I didn’t know what kind of identity I have. I knew I didn’t want to be thought of as “that motorcycle guy” forever. But who am I? I still cling to live TV, and miss doing it every day more than I can describe. There’s the fact that I started writing again and picked up photography as an art, starting this blog…but that’s no identity. Heck, I don’t even get paid for this, and in the interest of my family’s safety, I don’t even divulge many specifics about who I am. But aside from smoking tires and pinned together bones & scars, ESPN etc. shirts and crew passes, artsy pictures and questionable writing, there’s gotta be something of substance…right?

As I listened to the people talk about Bob and watched a slideshow of family pictures, it occurred to me: it only matters who a man is. The identity part will take care of itself.

Bob was a Christian in the way he lived his life and in volunteering for Focus on the Family and as a Gideon. In other words, it wasn’t just a label. Look at the family that misses him, and it’s obvious that Bob succeeded as a husband and father (even grandfather!). We got to hear as his pastors and friends shared memories of Bob’s friendship and concern for others that will remain very dear to them. Finally it struck me: Bob was a Christian, a husband, a father, and a friend. I’d put two and two together and come up with a very profound four. Looking around at the kids and grandkids, listening to the memories shared by his pastor, his Gideon brothers, and his friends, I was surprised at the things that made Bob so dear to these people fit neatly into those four characteristics. I needed only to see his impact on the people in church that day to see that Bob had succeeded in each of those four roles. That’s what I want.

The convicting part, of course, is that it requires a man to step up. You can’t be known as a Christian if you’re not out there sharing your faith and behaving accordingly. You can’t be selfish with your time and accidentally become a good husband or father. A true friend is ever present in times of trouble. None of these things come easily, and they all require sacrifice and selflessness. Who would have thought a person would have to set themselves aside in order to have an identity they can be proud of!

Like I said, any guy would be honored to have a group of friends and family to remember them so lovingly someday. Who’d have ever thought that touching so many people over the years, while certainly not easy, could be so simple? I guess you can count me among those who Bob touched, because I’m going to use this moment of unusual clarity of vision to inspire me to be a better Christian, husband, father, and friend. In the end, it will be a life well lived.

Ice racing to cure bike fever

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Who says winter has to put a stop to motorcycle racing? This is a shot from a while back when I was turning laps on an ice course with several friends. (It was also before I went to Bob’s Photo and got a decent camera.) The location and identities of the guys will remain undisclosed because of one simple reason: lawsuits.

There are quite a few local guys who spike up their tires and race on the ice every winter. We plowed a course on a frozen body of water, put up cones to mark the corners, and then went nuts. Every now and then the racing would stop, people would grab shovels, and we’d go groom the corners. Those spikes shred the ice in a hurry, and we’d get drifts of ice in the corners that needed to be cleared for better traction. But it had to be kept secret…why?

The particular property we were using is privately owned. We had permission from the owner to be there, it was an invite only event, and that’s the way it has to stay. The reason is to protect the gracious landowner from a lawsuit should somebody come out uninvited, injure themselves, and suddenly decide it wasn’t their fault. It’s a shame, but in these 50 United Litigious States we live in, it’s a fact of life.

It’s a lot like the off-road course east of town on the MME hill. It’s marked No Trespassing, but for certain folks it’s open for use, as long as we keep a signed waver in the filing cabinet in the trucking company office. For most of us it’s a no-brainer…we try to go as fast as we can on a particular piece of dirt or ice, and any consequences belong solely to the rider. Sadly, many people don’t think that way, and for that reason a lot of fun has to be kept within a tightly knit group of riders.

Right down the line

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I don’t think Gerry Rafferty had power lines in mind, but he’s the victim of another music reference on this blog. One of the most frustrating things about taking pictures of North Dakota landscapes is all the darn power lines! It seems that no matter where I go, they’re always present. We have a lot of power plants in this state, presumably because of the supply of coal, so the ubiquitous power transmission lines are part of the package. Tonight on my way home from work I decided to turn a nuisance into an asset.

I’m trying to catch on to this photography thing, a hobby to which I’m relatively new. I’m also hoping it’ll help me in other creative work as well, since some days I think I possess the design skills of a carrot. Having a camera on hand at all times helps a person look for relationships, geometry, and perspective. In this case, I was driving along and noticed the line of towers heading southeast from 93rd Street. I figured it was worth a quick exercise in photography, so I positioned the truck just right, stood atop the cab, and this is the result. I like the line formed by the towers as they march off into the horizon. I had snow on my shoes and almost slipped off the truck, but thankfully I made the save. I try to save bouncing my head off the asphalt for racing season, when I wear a helmet!

Power lines like this are pretty wild; when I was part of the electricians’ union I got to see a big chunk of power line. They had it on display in a meeting room, with different layers peeled back. This is pretty heavy duty stuff! These big “wires” are capable of carrying a lot of electricity, and if I had to pull a guess out thin air I’d say these are probably 230kv lines.

Because the electricity generated by power plants has to travel such long distances, they step the voltage up as high as they can to prevent loss. These wires have a certain amount of resistance to them, and they are less efficient with high current than they are at high voltage. If I remember correctly, power loss is proportional to line current, but inversely proportional to the square of the voltage. So the higher the voltage, the less power loss. That means more efficiency, more generating capacity, and more money too. But they can only bump the voltage up so far before it starts to cause loss too; make the voltage too high and it’ll start to arc. It’s kind of a corona effect, and probably pretty dangerous too.

One of my favorite spots to watch Northern Lights is near one of the bigger towers north of town. On a calm night I can hear crackling overhead…talk about spooky! I also heard the same crackling while taking photos for the feds right outside a power plant. That’s not a reassuring sound, believe me. There were no visible signs of arcing in either case, but anytime you can hear electricity it’s best to move down the road a ways.

Well, I’ve satisfied two things here: I’ve geeked out and taken a photo I’m happy with. Time to go play with PJ…he’s babbling now, and he LOVES his daddy! I can get him to smile so wide just by playing with him and talking to him. On the drive home from this power line photo my mind wandered to taking him on daddy-son field trips, showing him how things work, getting him his first library card…I guess he’ll be a geek like his dad. We’ll sure have a good time though!

Saw my coyote

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The HOT 99.7 is my current body temp, not a local radio station. Actually, maybe it is a local station, I don’t know; I don’t listen to local FM. Sadly, I find myself still awake at 4am, sipping hot Theraflu (this stuff WORKS) and trying to get Charlie out of my head…which is in Mississippi, by the way, if you’re looking for a music reference this morning. I’ve got a recurrence of “the crud” and am phoning this in from fever land. Thankfully I have a wife who’s a nurse and has a thermometer (and a wonderful bedside manner).

We’re kinda walking wounded at Casa del Clint these days. My wife had a particularly painful tonsillectomy last week, the day after which we discovered we have a 6-week old baby with an infection in both ears and snot in his nose. All it took was a few sleepless nights with PJ to let this nasty bug get a foothold in my sinuses again. The only one having a decent time in our house is Scooter, our bird!

I went to bed early after the Wizards game tonight, slept like a rock (except for all the tossing and turning) until 2:20am on the dot, and have been awake and miserable ever since. It reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons where Homer eats an “insanity pepper” at the local fair. As I recall, he has a really trippy hallucination in which he finds himself face down in the desert. Next to him is a coyote, voiced by Johnny Cash. The coyote tells him what happened and Homer asks, “are you my spirit guide?” Johnny Cash simply replies, “No, Homer…I’m your coyote.” Well, after nights like this, I sum it up by saying that I saw my coyote.

My dear friend Mike Holwegner used to tell a joke when he had a cold: “What’s green and goes backwards?” Then he’d snort back a nose full of gunk. You’d have to know the guy to appreciate his humor, which was a near daily part of my morning until his passing a few short years ago. I’ve got green in my head, but not in my camera; instead, I thought I’d showcase a little local color from a week or so ago.

Obviously I love sunrises and sunsets…heck, anything that happens in the sky. What I encountered east of Bismarck on this trip was a pleasant surprise: the pink of the sky with the blue of the snow. It’s a scene right out of the 1980’s; in fact, I’m pretty sure I still own some snowboarding gear in these colors!

Another pleasant surprise is that we’ve got landscape features like this within five minutes of Bismarck city limits. I’ve found bluffs, outcroppings, valleys, and all kinds of other really cool places. Since they’ve assigned all rural roads a street name for 911 purposes, it feels even more like these places are a part of town.

During the summer a sunset like this would likely be more red than pink, and would be offset simply by a dark horizon instead of a blue one. The snow helps out there by not only keeping the ground illuminated somewhat, but also by adding some analogous color. (In an effort to enhance my skills and be more valuable at work, I’ve been studying color theory.)

And then the sun began to fade, adding contrast to the bands of clouds. Like I said, this is literally within minutes of city limits. Anyone who thinks Bismarck-Mandan is boring is looking for an excuse to be lame. We live in a remarkable city.

Well, that’s it. I just slammed the last of the Theraflu…you know, the part where all the nasty bitter grainy stuff is? Bleah. My wife is still on pain meds for her post-tonsillectomy pain, and PJ is on the mend. They’re couch pilots tonight. Scooter’s keeping an eye on us like a responsible bird should. As for this blogger, it’s time to throw down a bottled water chaser and bundle up to sweat this thing out. Have a happy Wednesday, and try to stay clear of “the crud.”