Monthly Archives: August 2007

A trifecta of a different sort

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My little boy and I took a drive west of Mandan tonight and caught this shot. It’s like a formula for success on this website: an old windmill, the buttes west of Mandan, and a blazing red sun with a power line tower in front of it!

Little PJ is such a treasure. He was patient when I’d jump out of the truck for a quick photo. He held my finger while we drove, and smiled at all my funny faces. I’m so blessed to be his daddy!

There’s a lot of other neat stuff to see west of Mandan. I hope to post the photosin the near future.

Tower of Power

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26th Street in northeast Bismarck can take you to some pretty cool places if you’ll let it. Saturday night after the KTM Sportbike Night, I rode out to a friend’s place north of Bismarck. Along the way I was treated to another blazing red sun in the horizon, so I stopped to capture this image. The power line tower served to put things into perspective.

Here we are, all teed up! Now we just need the universe’s largest 9 iron to make it interesting. I tried a number of different things to try to make the tower visible where the sun is behind it, but without result. Perhaps I’ll need to get into specific filters or something like that, which I’d like to do. But for now I’ll just have to get by. In any case, I think it looks pretty nice just the way it is.

By the way, it’s almost September! Enjoy those warm evening sunsets while we’ve still got ’em!

Morning reflection

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During a morning photo trip with some friends a while back, I captured this windmill casting a reflection on the water below. I have a fascination with certain landmarks these days: broken down farm buildings, old wellheads, and windmills. Every now and then I catch one in a neat location like this, where I can try to capture the surrounding area as well. In the case of this sunrise shot, its mirror image in the water below works just fine.

This particular windmill sits along a little gravel road northeast of Bismarck, north of Sterling. We have so much to see just around Bismarck-Mandan that it’ll take a LONG time to exhaust the possibilities! But I’m trying…

Cycle Hutt Sportbike Night

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Cycle Hutt put their spacious new facility to use this weekend with their first (and certainly not last) Sportbike Night. They’ve got an enormous parking lot, which they made available Saturday night for wheelies, burnouts, stoppies, and whatever other sort of tricks one could do while contained within the premises. It was an enormous success!

Stunters from all over western North Dakota joined in. I heard talk of guys from Dickinson and Minot who came down to take part. Amos from the 5-Oh brought his van and PA system, food was available, and everybody had a good time! Yeah, there was a crash or two, but I got there a little late and missed those. Nobody was hurt, though. Many of the bikes used have special cages welded or bolted on to prevent injury to the bike as well.

Wheelie time! This is far better than doing it on the street where it’s illegal and dangerous. An “exhibition driving” ticket is pretty expensive, too, I understand. I’ve never had one. Read the back of any speeding ticket to find out…I haven’t had one of those in seven years or so, either.

Even the kids came to enjoy the fun! I didn’t bring little PJ, because I couldn’t find a way to safely transport a seven month old boy on the back of my Suzuki. He and his mommy had a birthday party to attend, so I flew solo. Gary’s wife brought their little girl in the car, I’m sure…but here she’s enjoying their Kawasaki in the parking lot.

After things wrapped up at the shop, it was out for a group ride. Here’s the stop at Double Ditch (which has three or four ditches, actually, according to recent discoveries) Indian Village. From here many of the riders headed north on Highway 1804. Some of us ran back into town to meet up with the group later for some in-town cruising. I had a pretty serious mountain biking appointment, so that’s where I put the big Gixxer away for the evening.

Kudos to Justin and Tammy, owners of Cycle Hutt, for giving area sportbike riders such a great night! Also to the guys who helped orchestrate the event. I know Amos was part of it, and I think there was another guy or two who partnered up with him. I’m sorry I don’t have your names, guys. Anyway, props to all involved – we had a blast!

Perseid meteor shower

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Sunday night / Monday morning marked the peak of this year’s Perseid meteor shower. I wasn’t able to catch any with the camera, but I had a really good time watching the skies. This shot of the Milky way is from my trip, though. The clouds started to roll in and ruined the view, so I wrapped it up after seeing some very impressive fireballs blaze across th e sky. It was a little chilly and breezy, but otherwise a great night for stargazing!

Luke Graner Band

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Tonight I took my boy and strolled him around the downtown area, as it was Urban Harvest night and our pal Luke Graner was performing. We met up with some other friends and enjoyed the evening’s show. In addition to some of our old favorites, we got to hear a new tune or two as well. There’s a ton of stuff for a seven month old boy to see, too. I snarfed some A&B pizza, he had some grape Pedialyte, and we brought home a bag of popcorn from the Walrus.

While at the line at the Walrus counter, I had the opportunity to thank Randy. I had the opportunity to tell Randy and his folks how the Walrus is special to my wife and me. Our first date was at the Walrus; I got food from the Walrus for our picnic when I proposed to my wife at Pioneer Park; on our wedding day, we went straight from the church to the Walrus in our wedding garb; and the Walrus has been our anniversary spot as well! They serve all kinda of good stuff at Urban Harvest as well.

Luke and friends (and sister) played for a while, then handed things off to Fat Dad. A fun time was had by all, and little PJ and I decided to walk the downtown area for a while before going home. Urban Harvest is quaint but not my cup of tea, since it’s a little too hippie-ish for my tastes. It’s interesting to get a glimpse of the fantasy world of the peaceniks though, and it’s a harmless little weekly festival. There’s good food and live music, and it was great to be out on a night like tonight. My boy saw a lot of friends and a lot of new things, and I try to never miss a chance to see Luke perform.

Good faith effort

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It’s a motorcyclist’s – or nice car owner’s – least favorite time of year: chip seal season. While I still consider it a dubious approach toward street maintenance, Bismarck and Mandan insist on coating the streets with gravel, spread over an adhesive layer of tar, on all city roads. Doing so means a portion of the summer where we must dodge patches of loose gravel on the roadways, at least until they come by to sweep up the excess.

Last year I made a passioned plea to the Bismarck City Commission to re-examine their policies regarding chip seal application. In the 90’s I had a nasty encounter with this stuff, spread SIX INCHES deep, in a corner that was not only unlit, but at the crest of a hill as well. I still bear nasty scars from that instance, and even some ground-down bones as well. I was leading a group of riders who all had passengers, but thankfully they saw me hit the gravel and were just that little bit more prepared for it. I was also the only one decked out in safety apparel, although falling on chip seal is like falling on a meat grinder! Thankfully, we had a nurse, a doctor, and a surgical technician among us that night…it was quite nasty.

Back to the point. After last year’s City Commission meeting, I was approached by Keith Hunke. For those of you who don’t know, he’s from the Public Works department. He was interested in what I had to say and agreed with the Commissioners that a better job of signage could be done. I think he’s kept his word; I’ve seen plenty of signs this year, and they look brand new. I also understand that it’s not always possible to mark every patch of chip seal from every possible approach. With that in mind, I’m throwing Keith and the Commission a big thumbs-up for the effort to make our streets safer during this construction period.

I guess there’s still grant money available out there

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In the spirit of the Thunderbirds eyesore and the big shiny white whatchamacallit along River Road, it looks we’ve got another monstrosity being assembled in Pioneer Park. Either someone’s a really good grant writer, or we have some skewed priorities in the Parks & Recreation department. The good news: we’ve reached the end of the path, unless they decided to work their way southward in the future!

I know it’s probably a matter of personal taste, although I haven’t encountered anyone who likes the giant blue monstrosity down by the Grant Marsh bridge. Some may argue that you can’t put a price tag on cultural “enrichment” but it looks like somebody found a way. The question is, who’s paying the bill? If we’ve got money for this kind of thing, perhaps we could work on lighting or other more usable projects along the path.

Someone give this lady a medal

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Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.–Proverbs 18:22

Yes, this month I celebrate my second anniversary with the most wonderful girl in the world! That would make her a candidate for sainthood in many circles. She’s very giving in allowing me to run around the countryside with my camera so much, and enriches my life in ways I can’t even begin to describe. She’s now the mommy of our handsome little boy, and Baby Number Two is on his way! I’m the most blessed guy I know. I LOVE MY WIFE!