I was thinking last night.  I was reviewing what I had done in my life, and where the time had gone.

I was shocked when I realized that I had lived 4-1/2 years in Arizona, 4-1/2 years in Idaho, and almost 5 years in Dickinson.  Dickinson has been one of the worst places that I have lived.  How could it be that I have been here for almost 5 years?

In Arizona, I counted how many people that I knew, that I could think of as friends and acquaintances.  I counted 40 people.  Of those 40 people, how many could I count on to be helpful and dependable, I counted 20, 50% of them.

In Idaho, I counted how many people that I knew, that I could think of as friends and acquaintances.  I counted 40 people.  Of those 40 people, how many could I count on to be helpful and dependable, I counted 10, 25% of them.

In Dickinson, I counted how many people that I knew, that I could think of as friends and acquaintances.  I counted 70 people.  Of those 70 people, how many could I count on to be helpful and dependable, I counted 15, 21% of them.  And as I thought about it, I was aware that most of these 15 people would not help very much.

When I did the counting of people that I had met who I considered to be friends or acquaintances, it seemed to be very consistent with the length of time and the amount of involvement that I had in the towns where I had lived.  It made sense to me and it was not surprising.

It was surprising to me that when I counted the friends and acquaintances that I could count on to be helpful and dependable, it was only 25% in Idaho and 21% in Dickinson.

In Idaho where I own a home, there is not much going on, there is not a lot of traffic or congestion, it is not overdeveloped, it is not crowded, and there is not a lot of crime.  I like the peacefulness and the dullness of it, but I have never been very comfortable there or at ease there.  When I thought about it, and quantified it, only knowing 10 people that I could count on to be helpful and dependable, that kind of explains why I have never felt very comfortable living there.

Likewise, in Dickinson, there is not a lot of traffic or congestion, it is not overdeveloped, it is not crowded, and there is not a lot of crime.  I like the open undeveloped land in North Dakota.  However, I have never felt very comfortable or at ease living here in Dickinson.  I have always felt that my situation here in Dickinson is precarious.  Of the 70 people in Dickinson that I consider to be friends or acquaintances, I can only count on about 15 of them to be helpful and dependable, and I know that most of them would not go very far out of their way in being helpful.