Would I Buy A House In Dickinson, North Dakota At This Time?

July 6, 2018Uncategorizedbuying a house in Dickinson North Dakota, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, inexpensive houses in Dickinson North Dakota, Information on Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, would you buy a house in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

Would I buy a house in Dickinson, North Dakota at this time? My answer is that I personally would only buy a house in Dickinson at this time, if it were less than $80,000. There are several reasons for this, and I will explain these reasons.

First reason, though the housing prices in Dickinson, North Dakota have come down some since the oil boom ended in 2015, most houses are still priced too high. I believe that in the next several years, house prices in Dickinson will drop by about 20%. It would not be a very good idea to buy an expensive, over-priced home in Dickinson at this time, because house prices are going to continue to decrease.

Second reason, this happened before in Dickinson during the second oil boom that occurred from approximately 1978 to 1983, that housing prices shot up, then fell once the oil boom ended. However, the assessed property values determined by the tax assessor remained at their peak values for years following the end of the second oil boom, in order for the City and the County to cover the amount of money they had spent on infrastructure improvements during the oil boom.

In other words, if you buy an expensive, over-priced home in Dickinson at this time, you can expect your assessed property value for property taxes to remain at its peak value for years and years to come. Who wants to pay high property taxes?

Third reason, it is possible that there could continue to be job losses in Dickinson, decreasing wage rates, and people moving away. More home vacancies, fewer jobs, and lower paying jobs, mean housing prices will continue to fall. Also, who will be able to buy a house, and how much money will they be able to afford? You would have a much better chance of being able to sell your house at the low price range, or rent out your house at the low price range, which is why you do not want to buy an expensive house in Dickinson.

The other thing that I need to say about buying an $80,000 house in Dickinson, is that the immediate area of the house would have to meet certain conditions. In Dickinson on the north side of Villard Street and the south side of Villard Street, and on the south side of the railroad tracks, there are old residential blue collar neighborhoods, where some of the older smaller wood frame houses are in the $80,000 price range.

On some city blocks in Dickinson, though the houses are older and smaller, the residents all take pride in their homes and their yards. If you were to purchase an old small inexpensive home on this city block, you might not have to worry too much about noise, theft, and illegal drug activity.

However, on some city blocks in Dickinson, the battle has already been lost. A few neglected houses have become rental houses, or subdivided rental units. You would likely have a constant turnover of low income neighbors. People who do not have good sense, or know or care about right and wrong. Loud ghetto music at all hours, yelling, fighting, illegal drug activity, traffic at all hours, and theft and vandalism to your home and your property.

Another way to say it, you would be looking in a nice neighborhood, for the absolutely least expensive house, maybe the house that doesn’t even look like it belongs with the other houses.

Because I expect readers to disagree with me, that there are no $80,000 houses for sale in Dickinson, North Dakota, here is a listing for a 2br/2ba house for $65,000:

DCIM101MEDIA

Talking To People About Their Vehicles In Dickinson, North Dakota

July 6, 2018Uncategorizedcar collectors in Dickinson North Dakota, hobby cars in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, Range Rover in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, working on cars in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I have liked cars since I was about two years old. At that time my mother had a blue Plymouth Roadrunner, and my father had a yellow Lotus Europa, just like the ones shown below:

My father wanted to be a race car driver. He wrecked the yellow Lotus Europa, and the previous Plymouth Roadrunner, by driving too fast.

Prior to my birth, my father and mother had other Plymouth Roadrunners, and two Jaguars, which they used to talk about, both the good and bad characteristics of the cars they once had. After my father came home from the Korean War, and was a college student in his mid-20s, one of the ways that he made money was transporting illegal alcohol in his Plymouth Roadrunner, bootlegging. Bootlegging in the South, was the origin of NASCAR and stock car racing.

When I was growing up, my parents owned several Plymouth Furys, a Jensen Healey, a Fiat, an Audi, and a couple more Jaguars. When I was a kid, my father, my sister, and I would look at AutoTrader classified magazines to see the exotic cars that they had for sale in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Jacksonville: Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Maserati, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mercedes, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Lotus, and Jaguar.

When I was in high school, an anonymous person sent a subscription to the DuPont Registry magazine to our house every year, which was a color magazine of exotic cars for sale throughout the United States. I think that it was the daughter of the person who owned the Ford, Chevrolet, Jeep, Toyota, Mercedes, Porsche dealerships in our area. She was in some of my classes, I liked her, and she liked me, but she was much taller than me, and much more mature.

When it became time for my sister to learn to drive and get a car, she was four years older than me, she wanted an E-type Jaguar. She test drove a couple of Jaguar XKEs with me and my father, but she couldn’t drive them, they were too hard for her to shift.

My father bought her a white Porsche 914, but she never drove it, she couldn’t drive it, it was too hard for her to shift. It wasn’t until my sister was in her 30s, that she had driven enough standard transmission cars to where she could shift O.K. Now she has a Porsche 911 Turbo, one of the fastest and most dangerous fast cars to drive, and I think she also has a Porsche Boxster.

Below are shown a Jaguar XKE, a Porsche 914, and a Porsche 911 Turbo:

I used to like to ride in the Porsche 914 very much when my father drove it, but like I said, my sister couldn’t drive it, and it got sold before I turned fifteen. My parents didn’t know what kind of car they should get me when I was sixteen. My father wasn’t driving his white 1978 Jaguar XJ6L at the time, partly because the air-conditioning was broken, so I took it, and it became mine. Shown below a 1978 Jaguar XJ6L:

When I was 36 years old, I bought my 2nd 1978 Jaguar XJ6L, which I still have to this day. Below is a picture of my 1978 Jaguar XJ6L:

There are many vehicles that I like, from the time when I was growing up. Here is my 1978 Mercedes 300D:

Over there in the corner is my guards red 1977 Porsche 924:

I had to sell my guards red modified 1967 Porsche 911 S in 2013:

As I explained in a previous blog post, collector cars or hobby cars can be like a piggy bank. On the one hand, they are something that you can use and enjoy, and when you need money, you can sell one of them, just like breaking a piggy bank. On the other hand, they aren’t a very good piggy bank if you keep having to spend money on them and they aren’t worth anything.

Two weeks ago, my father who is 83 years old, he sold his 2000 forest green Porsche 911 Carrera. I had thought that he might give this car to me one day, but either he thought that I could not afford it, I had no where to get it worked on in Dickinson, I had no where to keep it in Dickinson, it would get vandalized in Dickinson, it was not practical in Dickinson, I would soon lose my driver’s license in Dickinson, or it would cause bad feelings with my sister and her husband who might have wanted it.

Below is my father’s 2000 Porsche 911 Carrera that he just sold:

My father was probably right not to give me this 911 Carrera, I could not have afforded it, I had no where to keep it in Dickinson, it would have gotten vandalized in Dickinson, it would have gotten damaged by hail which is very common in North Dakota, it would get damaged if I drove it in the winter in North Dakota, and the Police in Dickinson would have ticketed me so much that my license would be suspended in a matter of days.

Since leaving my home in Idaho in 2011, to work in North Dakota, Utah, and Texas, I have seen that I have hardly ever been home in the past seven years to drive the cars that I have there. I have thought about bringing one or two of them over to North Dakota to have something to work on and enjoy while I am here, but the cars would be impractical in the winter in North Dakota, and I don’t have anywhere to keep them.

What I have also seen and learned, is that I would have been better off, instead of buying any of the cars that I have, to have taken that same amount of money each time, and have instead bought a four-wheel-drive Toyota truck. Instead of having a Mercedes, Jaguar, or Porsche, which are impractical in the winter and not very useful, I would have been better off having three Toyota trucks which I could have driven in the winter. Toyota trucks hold their value, are very reliable, and are very inexpensive to maintain.

I wrote all of this background information above, to try to describe my history and my interest in cars. In my teen age years, I liked Audis very much, but by the end of my teens, I realized that they were too delicate and impractical at that time, the late 1980s.

When I was in my mid twenties and working as an engineer in Tampa, I had some interest in the large Mercedes S Class, the large four door Mercedes cars built in the mid to late 1980s. These cars were very well built, very solid, very heavy, very fast, very luxurious, and very beautiful. There was a time in the United States, from about 1965 to 1990, when every young engineer, architect, lawyer, doctor, and dentist dreamed of buying and owning their first Mercedes automobile.

But as the 1990s were entered, the Mercedes automobile company switched from being mechanical perfectionists, to begin trying to attempt to accomplish the same things or advance further technologically by using electronic and computerized components, which I believe has been a disaster for Mercedes. Soon, Toyota Camry quality and reliability was better than a Mercedes. Lexus, Acura, and Infinity became better cars than Mercedes in the 1990s.

In my late 20s, I found that one of the best ways to know what cars were like, was to be observant, and to ask car owners what their cars were like. There was an engineer who I worked with, who was about twenty-five years older than me, who I talked to a lot about cars, especially Mercedes, because he was an expert on Mercedes. From 1965 through 1990, whenever you were buying a used Mercedes, you always asked to see “the book”.

Mercedes owners in the past, kept a log book of service, maintenance, and repairs performed, that was stamped by the Mercedes dealer each time work was done to the vehicle. These log books were treated as seriously as airplane log books. Just like an airplane can lose 20% to 40% of its value if its log books are missing, because there is no proof that required maintenance was done, or they are missing due to an attempt to hide mechanical problems, it was treated the same way if a Mercedes automobile was missing its “book”.

Through the years, I have had friends, co-workers, and other engineers who I have talked to about cars. Some of my beliefs have stayed the same for the past twenty-five years, such as the 1970s through early 1980s Mercedes 240D and 300D being the best cars ever built. These are 2.4 liter and 3.0 liter, 4 cylinder and 5 cylinder diesel engine cars that last for a million miles even under hard use in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

Some of my beliefs have changed. After owning two 1980s base model Jeep Cherokees, and driving several company owned 1990s base model Jeep Cherokees, (not the Grand Cherokees), in my late twenties and early thirties, I was convinced that these were cheap vehicles that didn’t last long, because it seemed like they all needed a new alternator, radiator, or water pump. But as time passed and I got older, I realized that was all these 1980s and 1990s base model Jeep Cherokees ever needed, nothing else seemed to ever go wrong with them! That’s not bad, only having to replace an alternator, radiator, or a water pump.

As I grew older, I became even more interested to hear what people had to say about vehicles that they had owned for a long time, and I would ask people when I got the chance. At gas stations around the U.S., when I would ask Mercedes 300D owners, or Toyota 4Runner owners about their vehicles, they would not hesitate to say how happy and pleased they were with them.

Another vehicle that lasts a surprisingly long time, are 1980s and 1990s Ford Crown Victorias. Law Enforcement, government, and taxi services used hundreds of thousands of Ford Crown Victorias. After Law Enforcement or government agencies put 200,000 miles on Crown Victorias, they would go to public auction for sale. Taxi companies would then buy them at auctions and put another 200,000 to 300,000 miles on them.

Here is a 1998 Ford Crown Victoria:

Here in North Dakota, when I became bored because there is not a lot to do, I would look at Bis-Man online classified ads for cars for sale. I would look under the manufacturers like Porsche, Mercedes, Jaguar, Range Rover, and Toyota. I haven’t mentioned Range Rover yet in this blog post, but I have an interest in Range Rovers, they are cousins to Jaguar, because they were once under the same parent company called British Leyland Motors.

I wrote a long blog post about working on my 1978 Jaguar XJ6L, all the peculiar problems that it had, and I know that Range Rovers and Land Rovers, being cousins to Jaguar, have their own special problems, that will cause these vehicles to break down at the worst possible time and place, like the busiest intersection in your city, the most remote place you have ever been, or the coldest day of the year.

In 2014 in Dickinson, I saw on Bis-Man online classifieds, a 2004 Land Rover Discovery with 80,000 miles for $4,500, and I saw a 1994 Toyota Landcruiser with 195,000 miles for $4,500. The Land Rover Discovery was 10 years newer, had a custom lift, custom roof rack, and only had 80,000 miles on it. I read about fifty owner reviews on two different internet websites for the Land Rover Discovery. About ten of these reviews, that’s 20%, said “Do Not Buy This Vehicle!”

The biggest warning about the Land Rover Discovery, was that the driveline sometimes has a catastrophic failure due to a U-joint coming apart, which at highway speed causes nearly instantaneous destruction of the transmission and the transfer case. A repair so expensive, that it costs nearly as much as the vehicle is worth. About 80% of the Land Rover Discovery owner reviews, also complained about endless electrical problems with things like window switches.

Here is a 2004 Land Rover Discovery:

I bought the 1994 Toyota Landcruiser for $4,500. I have been very pleased with it, though some buyers would not be. When I bought this vehicle, I was not aware that it was using engine oil or leaking engine oil. Within a few months I found out that the front main seal, and the rear main seal were leaking some oil. Also, this engine has 24 valves, the valve guides wear, and some oil passes through each of the valve guides, which causes the engine to burn some oil.

I don’t care that the engine uses oil, the vehicle has an engine oil level warning light that comes on when you need to add oil. This vehicle is full-time four-wheel-drive, and it has push button differential locks, which locks each wheel into the driveline, with no limited slip of the wheels allowed once the differential is locked. It is very good in snow, here is its picture:

Even though I read many, many bad owner reviews of the Land Rover Discovery, especially the catastrophic failure of the driveline, I continued to do research on them. One of the things that I learned, was that the owners should have been able to tell from the “clunk” sound when putting their Land Rover Discovery in gear, that their drive shaft universal joints needed to be replaced.

On YouTube, I watched and commented on videos about “overlanding” in Australia with Land Rover Discoverys. Several Land Rover Discovery owners assured me that “Discos” as they call them, can be made very reliable and trouble free by understanding them, learning about them, and getting to know them.

In 2014, I saw this white 1991 Range Rover in the parking lot of Arby’s restaurant in Dickinson.

I asked a lady who was working there if this was her Range Rover, and she said that it was. I told her that I liked her vehicle, and that I had liked Range Rovers for a long time. This lady did not want to talk to me at all about her Range Rover.

As months went by in 2014, gradually this lady would talk a little bit more about her Range Rover. In 2015 and 2016, she was used to me asking about her Range Rover. Her daughter was driving it for a while.

In order to clarify things for the reader, as I have had to clarify things for myself by doing some reading, let me explain the difference between the Range Rover and the Land Rover Discovery in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In the 1980s, the Range Rover, with the box shape, tall windows, and high roof, like the white color one shown in the picture above, this vehicle was very expensive, and affordable only by the very wealthy people in England, South Africa, and the United States. The Queen of England owned one, for instance, this was her personal vehicle that she drove on her estate in Scotland.

This Range Rover of the 1980s, was very solid, very rugged, but luxurious on the inside, with carpeting, and leather seats. These Range Rovers, I believe, were full-time four-wheel-drive, with differential locks, that would not allow limited slip of the drive wheels when the differentials were locked. I believe that I read that the 1986 to 1987 were the best ones to get because of the suspension configuration or the differential lock configuration. This style Range Rover was manufactured from 1970 until 1996.

Here is a 1990 Range Rover:

In 1989 began the production of the Land Rover Discovery, which was slightly more affordable, less expensive, and more marketed toward suburban yuppies. The Land Rover Discovery was a departure from the more solid and rugged looking Range Rover of the 1980s.

To me, I will describe it this way, just like the Mercedes automobile company transitioned from mechanically perfect heavy cars in the 1980s, to electrical and computerized lighter cars in the 1990s which were weaker, the Range Rover being supplanted with the Land Rover Discovery was kind of the same thing, in my opinion.

Now, to confuse you even more, the Land Rover Defender, which was manufactured from 1948 through 2016, is far superior to both the Range Rover and the Land Rover Discovery. Even ten year old used Land Rover Defenders in the United States with 100,000 miles on them, still sell for $70,000 to $100,000. The Land Rover Defenders are the Safari vehicles that you see on television in the national parks of Africa.

Here is a 1990 Land Rover Defender:

In 2015, I saw a forest green color 1980s Range Rover sitting outside of a repair garage in Dickinson for several months in the same spot. I stopped at this garage and went inside to ask if this Range Rover was for sale, and a mechanic told me that this was a customer car. I asked the mechanic about Range Rovers like this one, and he cautioned me that parts were very expensive.

In 2016, I saw another forest green color 1980s Range Rover in Dickinson that was often parked downtown. I asked several people if they knew who owned this vehicle, and someone told me who the owner was. I was looking forward to speaking to the owner of this Range Rover, to ask him about his vehicle, when I saw him.

In 2017, I saw the owner of this forest green color 1980s Range Rover in Dickinson at the grocery store downtown. When I asked him, if I could ask him about his Range Rover, he very rudely said no. In my entire life, and I was 48 at the time, this was the only person who was ever rude to me about me expressing an interest or curiosity about their vehicle. But this is Dickinson, North Dakota, where people are hostile and uncooperative.

I asked a co-worker of this person, if this person was like this all the time, and I was told yes, he is. His co-worker said that he was told, that this person has about eight to ten of these Range Rovers, which I find hard to believe, because I keep an eye out for them. The only 1980s body style Range Rovers that I have seen in Dickinson in the past five years, are two forest green ones, and one white one.

The owner of the white color 1991 Range Rover began working elsewhere in Dickinson in 2017, but I still see her occasionally. This past week when I saw her, she told me that she and her husband are trying to sell this white 1991 Range Rover and a 2nd Range Rover parts vehicle for a total of about $3,500. It is listed for sale on Facebook Classifieds.

I contacted her husband by private message on Facebook, and he replied back that he had already turned down an offer of $2,000. I will wait and see what happens. Here is one more picture of this vehicle that is now for sale in Dickinson:

I am not looking forward to working on any vehicle, especially an expensive foreign made vehicle, where parts are expensive and hard to find. That is why I did not offer very much money. However, for someone who likes to work on vehicles, and who likes the characteristics and appearance of these 1980s Range Rovers, $3,500 with a 2nd parts Range Rover included is a good deal.

Teal Swan Video

June 30, 2018Uncategorizedadvice from Teal Swan, frustration living in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, recommended video of Teal Swan, relocating to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I have been watching Teal Swan videos on YouTube for several months, but I have not shared one of these videos yet on my blog website, because they are often hard to understand, or they express an intellectual philosophy that I do not agree with.

I am not going to try to explain Teal Swan completely in this blog post, as you will see, she believes in the Far-East philosophies of Yoga, Meditation, Hinduism, and natural medicine.

People like Teal, try to find a comfortable, peaceful, serene, beautiful, positive energy place to live and spend their time, with other like-minded people. You might see people like Teal in Flagstaff, Sedona, Sante Fe, San Francisco, or other small mountain towns in California, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, or Colorado.

What I do agree with Teal on, is trying to live in a comfortable, peaceful, serene, beautiful, positive energy natural environment, where you can contemplate life, and nothing unnatural, unhealthy, or restrictive is forced on you, such as a ridiculous and confining job, noise, traffic, ignorance, ugliness, or badly behaving people.

I have a tremendous amount of frustration living in Dickinson, North Dakota, and in trying to explain Dickinson. The people here in Dickinson are not the slightest bit aware that they are any different than people elsewhere. For instance, the people in Dickinson spend thousands of dollars modifying heavy-duty diesel pick-up trucks that are already loud, to make them even louder. Then, they leave these loud heavy-duty diesel trucks idling outside of where they live, so that every resident within 400 ft has to listen to it.

In Dickinson, North Dakota, there is a constant effort among ignorant people, who make up 20% to 40% of the population, to disturb the peace and quiet somehow. If it isn’t full throttling a large diesel truck, old car, street racer, or motorcycle on a 25 mph residential street up to 50 mph, it’s playing ghetto music with a 2,000 watt amplifier.

Something else about Dickinson that I hate, is the ignorance about beauty, sex, sexuality, and normal, healthy human behavior. Somehow, from when the first homesteaders arrived in Dickinson in the 1890s, the idea of beauty in anything has been destroyed. The absence of the idea of beauty is apparent everywhere, and particularly in women. The women in Dickinson have no desire to be attractive, so they aren’t.

In addition to the absence of beauty, especially in women, the North Dakotans have eliminated romance, sensuality, sex, and sexuality. In a way, North Dakotans have reduced people to behaving like cattle, horses, pigs, or chickens. Higher human thoughts, feelings, and emotions are ignored, repressed, and suppressed.

Commentors to my blog website, sometimes write that I appear to be an angry, rotten, bitter person. Yes, I am angry all the time living in Dickinson, North Dakota. Most of the people here, don’t even know how fucked up it is, or how backwards it is, which just adds to my anger and frustration. Like people here not being able to understand the value or the desire to have peace and quiet, or not have your property stolen.

In this video below, Teal Swan explains that not getting what you want, and not being able to live like you want, will have a negative effect on your health. The people living in Dickinson, and especially the Heidi Heitkamp people, need to pay very close attention following the 6:50 minute mark in this video:

Usually, I leave an annoying or irritating comment after watching Teal’s videos, because I like her. If you watch this video, Teal explains that it is important to do what you feel like doing.

It Seems Like Reckless Drivers Never Get Caught In Dickinson, North Dakota

June 30, 2018Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, Information on Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, reckless driving in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

On Thursday of this week, I was at a stop sign in downtown Dickinson getting ready to make a right turn onto Villard Street and drive west, when two motorcycles went by going 80 mph to 100 mph travelling east.

I came to a complete stop, as did one westbound car on Villard Street, one eastbound car on Villard Street, one truck that was just entering Villard Street from the south, and one woman walking her dog. We all couldn’t believe it, and we all stopped expecting there to be some kind of a crash.

I could see that the two motorcycles slowed down some when they got to the intersection at 10th Avenue East. There was no crash, this time.

I don’t see how people who ride motorcycles like this, live for even one week, or how they even still exist. I sincerely believe that they don’t need to exist, and that the World would be a much better place without them.

The 25 mph to 35 mph section of Villard Street through downtown Dickinson is probably the most dangerous place to drive 80 mph to 100 mph. Vehicles driving on Villard Street or entering Villard Street do not expect anyone to be driving this fast, and they couldn’t see or react to a motorcycle going this fast anyway.

It’s not a very good thing to have someone who is suicidal driving around Dickinson, but it is much worse that they could likely kill, cripple, or severely injure someone else who was just merely going to the grocery store or driving home from work to be with their family.

The Police in Dickinson would be able to do very little in the moment of watching a motorcycle go this fast past them, they would be unable to catch up to them. All they could do would be to try to identify the helmet of the rider, his jacket, the color of the motorcycle, and anything unusual about the faring, gas tank, or something else. Then, contact other Dickinson Police and Highway Patrol to see where the motorcycle goes or turns off.

In the neighborhood where I live downtown, there is a house down the street where some of these reckless drivers originate. Sometimes they take four wheelers out and drive about 50 mph on the 25 mph streets. Again, they never seem to get caught by the Dickinson Police. I don’t even know how the Dickinson Police could catch up to them in this residential area.

Tonight, at the apartment building where I live in downtown Dickinson, there was something like a small red Nissan, Mitsubishi, or Hyundai that has been lowered and has a belled-out exhaust, that went for a high speed drive around the neighborhood. It drove about 60 mph for four blocks going north, then four or five blocks west, then five blocks south, then back here. This took about three minutes, and I could hear this car the whole time.

I didn’t know that this car was coming back here, but when they got back into the apartment building parking lot and revved the car engine, I was very angry. I didn’t like listening to this car that was way too loud, and I didn’t like them driving recklessly in this neighborhood. Many of the four way intersections in this neighborhood do not have stop signs because they expect people to be driving slowly and to yield.

If I would have gone down there, because these people are already stupid assholes who I don’t even think should exist or live here, the situation would have escalated to where I was the one who would be arrested by the Police and subsequently be evicted. The Dickinson Police will never ever catch these people driving recklessly through Dickinson, but if I were to do something to them, I would be arrested, be evicted, and lose my job.

In order to not be in a situation like this, I shouldn’t live in a town with so many white trash and criminals, it is certain there will be conflicts.

Banks’ Role In The Coming Real Estate Collapse In Dickinson, North Dakota

In this blog post, I am going to explain the Banks’ role in the coming real estate collapse in Dickinson, North Dakota. I believe that the Banks will be 20% of the cause for the coming real estate collapse in Dickinson.

The price of oil dropping from over $100 per barrel down to $40 per barrel in late 2014 and early 2015 is what caused the oil boom to come to an end in North Dakota. The oil companies did not want to pump oil out of the ground, perform exploration, and drill new oil wells if they could not make a profit. The number of operating oil drill rigs in North Dakota went from over 250, down to less than 50.

About 70% to 80% of the oil field jobs went away in North Dakota after the end of the oil boom in 2015. 70% to 80% of the out-of-state workers returned to the states where they came from. I believe that the end of the oil boom in North Dakota will be 30% of the cause of the real estate collapse in Dickinson, North Dakota.

What North Dakotans should realize, is that 20% of the cause of the coming real estate collapse in Dickinson, is how local people treated the out-of-state workers. There are some things that North Dakotans never understood. From 2007 through 2014, many areas in the United States were in a recession. It wasn’t the prospering people with jobs who came to North Dakota during the oil boom, it was the people who were having financial difficulty or were completely broke.

The majority of people who came to North Dakota during the oil boom, they didn’t have very much money or any money, that is why they came in the first place. When they got here, old one bedroom apartments that had recently been $300 per month, were now $1,500 per month. Many people slept in their vehicles at Wal-Mart, Tiger Truck Stop, and Patterson Lake. Many people slept in the bushes, under bridges, along the railroad right-of-way, and on canal banks in Dickinson. There was no homeless shelter in Dickinson.

Stark County residents, politicians, business owners, and property owners did not want Man-Camps, temporary oil field housing, in Stark County, so they were not permitted. These temporary portable housing units, could have been set up in a matter of months to alleviate the housing shortage in Dickinson. It appeared that the end goal of the local people, was to force the out-of-state workers to have to rent, lease, or purchase the existing locally owned housing, or new housing that they would build.

The new apartments that were built in Dickinson, they rented for $2,000 to $3,000 per month. That’s $24,000 to $36,000 per year in rent, that wasn’t even for something they would own, that money was just gone. All of the out-of-state workers felt like they were being gouged. The cost of rent, and the way that the out-of-state workers were treated by the local people, the local company owners, the local co-workers, the local Police, made the out-of-state workers make up their minds that they would leave North Dakota, and always think badly of North Dakota.

Another way to put it, is like this, thousands of out-of-state workers who left where they came from because they were making little or no money, would have willingly made North Dakota their permanent home, if they would not have been gouged so bad on housing, and been treated with hostility by local people. The funny thing is, the desire of the property owners to make a killing in a hurry, is one of the primary reasons why there is going to be a real estate collapse in Dickinson, they drove everyone away.

Something else that is funny, is that because Stark County did not permit Man-Camps, temporary oil field housing units, and instead wanted there to be construction of new apartment buildings, town homes, and houses, the occupancy rates at the new apartment buildings and old apartment buildings is now about 50%.

If Stark County would have permitted temporary Man-Camps to operate for three years, and then not renewed their permits when the oil boom was over, the occupancy rates at apartment buildings in Dickinson might now be at 80%, with higher rents, and a higher demand for houses. I am going to put 20% of the cause of the coming real estate collapse in Dickson on the refusal to permit temporary Man-Camps in Stark County, which has led to an over supply of apartments, town homes, and houses in Dickinson.

So far, I have listed the causes of the coming real estate collapse in Dickinson as: 30% end of oil boom; 20% gouging and mistreatment of out-of-state workers which drove them out of North Dakota; 20% denial of temporary Man-Camps which resulted in an over supply of apartments, town homes, and houses.

I began this blog post by stating that 20% of the cause of the coming real estate collapse in Dickinson will be the Banks. The Bank owners know that the oil boom has ended, that 70% to 80% of the oil field jobs have gone away, that 70% to 80% of the out-of-state workers have returned to the states where they came from, that there is an over supply of housing in Dickinson, and that the occupancy rates at the new apartment buildings, and the old apartment buildings is now at about 50%.

Despite what the Chambers of Commerce, politicians, business owners, real estate agents, real estate developers, property owners, and other spokespeople say, or what newspapers, trade journals, and magazines write about the oil boom coming back, or the local economy growing, the Bank owners have a different view, which they aren’t openly sharing.

In my previous blog post, I wrote about my recent experience, and my two neighbors’ recent experience in trying to obtain a home loan with local banks in Dickinson. Even though my two neighbors could demonstrate the required income level, income history, and a stable job history in Dickinson, they were still turned down for a home loan.

In other parts of the country, myself and my two neighbors would have been given a home loan based on income level, credit history, and purchase price of the home. What is different about Dickinson, is that there is an over supply of housing, and Dickinson is just coming down from an oil boom.

The owners of the local banks in Dickinson, in my case for instance, where several local banks told me that they were instructed to not loan money on any manufactured home no matter how much land was involved, no matter what, indicates to me that the local bank owners expect to be facing a great deal of home loan foreclosures.

Getting to the point, if you don’t already see it for yourself, is that if the local bank owners in Dickinson don’t want to grant many or any home loans, what do you think that this will do to the real estate market? Who is going to be able to sell their $100k, $200k, $300k, $400k home in Dickinson, if no bank will grant a home loan to a buyer?

Will it matter if your home is appraised at $200k or $300k, if no one can buy it?

End of oil boom, 70% to 80% of out-of-state workers leaving, over supply of housing and occupancy rates of 50%, and Bank owners not wanting to grant home loans, what do you think is going to happen to the price of housing in Dickinson?

Suspicious Behavior Of Bank Lending In Dickinson, North Dakota

June 27, 2018Uncategorizedbank loans in Dickinson North Dakota, borrowing money in Dickinson North Dakota, economic outlook in Dickinson North Dakota, economy in Dickinson North Dakota, home financing in Dickinson North Dakota, home loans in Dickinson North Dakota, home mortgages in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

This is going to be a quick blog post about suspicious behavior of bank lending in Dickinson, North Dakota. Actually, it’s about banks not lending money.

I own a home that is paid for in Idaho, and I would like to be able to return and live there. In the past seven years, I have worked some in Utah and Texas, but for about five of these years I have worked in North Dakota.

After the oil boom went away in North Dakota in 2015, since then about 70% to 80% of the oil field jobs went away. Consequently, 70% to 80% of the out-of-state oil field workers returned to the states where they came from.

By 2017, the occupancy rates at the newly completed apartment buildings and the old apartment buildings in Dickinson became 50% or less. Apartment rent, home rent, and home sale prices began to decrease throughout Dickinson.

In the summer of 2017, I got a very good deal on an apartment in downtown Dickinson. However, I soon came to find that the crime in this area of downtown Dickinson was very bad primarily due to drug dealing, people being on drugs, and people stealing to get money for drugs.

In the Spring of 2018, mostly because I was tired of the drug dealing and drug activity at the apartment building where I live in downtown Dickinson, I began looking for a very cheap home to purchase. I found a manufactured home on its own property for sale in Belfield for $25,000.

This 3br/1ba manufactured home in Belfield on its owned 75 ft x 140 ft lot would have been good for me. I went and looked at it with the realtor, and it was fine with me. So far, neither myself or about thirty other prospective buyers, have been able to get a loan from any bank in North Dakota for this manufactured home.

For myself and all of the other prospective buyers who looked at this $25,000 manufactured home, the combined payments for the loan, home insurance, and property tax, would have been less than rent payments anywhere in western North Dakota.

The four or five banks that I spoke to or went to in Dickinson, they each had their reasons for not wanting to loan money on a manufactured home at this time. It wasn’t a matter of credit history or income, the local banks in Dickinson didn’t even want to initiate a loan application for a manufactured home, even on owned land.

For this particular case, I got the impression that each of the local banks in Dickinson that I went to, that someone much higher up, the bank owners, were scared to death of being stuck owning manufactured homes.

From 2009 through 2014 during the oil boom, the rent on this 3br/1ba manufactured home would have been about $2,000 per month. Back then, just one year of rent would have been $24,000. Now, the rent on this manufactured home would be about $500 per month, or $6,000 per year. So why are the banks so scared of loaning money on something like this, on a 75 ft. x 140 ft. lot?

As a second example, one of my neighbors who lives in the same apartment building as me in downtown Dickinson, this couple wanted to buy a house not far from here, in order to get away from the drug dealing and drug activity in this building. Even though this man has had a good paying job for the past four years with the same company in Dickinson, he was turned downed for his home loan.

As a third example, another one of my neighbors, who owes about $19,000 on his current small home in downtown Dickinson, he wanted to buy another nearby home that was larger. He wanted to move into the larger home, and rent out his smaller home that was nearly paid for. He has had a fairly good paying job with the same company in Dickinson for the past eight years, and he was turned down for his home loan.

For the past twenty years in the United States, banks have routinely lent money to people to buy homes that they could not afford. These loans were called “liar loans”, because the borrower could not demonstrate their ability to pay without lying about their income, sources of income, money in savings, assets, and debts.

In the three examples that I gave up above about myself and my neighbors attempting to borrow money from a bank in Dickinson, North Dakota to buy a home, it wasn’t that the borrower did not have the income to make the mortgage payments, or the income history.

It seems like the banks are just scared to loan money for a home purchase in Dickinson at this time, in any case. To me, this signifies two beliefs by the local bank owners. One, that they expect many people to lose their jobs in Dickinson in the near future and be unable to make their mortgage payments. And two, that the bank owners don’t want to be stuck owning homes in Dickinson when people default on their home loans, because homes will be worth less and less, with no one wanting them or being able to buy them.

In other words, I think that this shows that the owners of the banks in Dickinson, think that Dickinson is going to fail and collapse. Actions speak louder than words, watch what a person does, not what he says.

Really Bad Day With My Truck

June 23, 2018UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, vehicle wheel breaking off, vehicle wheel coming off, wheel stud bolts breakingname withheld

Ten months ago, someone in Dickinson stole one of my trucks. I posted and handed out flyers in Dickinson, South Heart, Belfield, and New England. After about four or five days, some people telephoned me to tell me who had my stolen truck.

The person who stole my truck was well known to the Dickinson Police and the Stark County Sheriff Department. He already had a warrant out for his arrest on drug and possession of stolen property charges.

The person who stole my truck, was convinced by different people that he would be better off if he gave this truck up, which he did. But it was missing at least $1,500 in tools and equipment when I got it back. Also, the good new tires had been swapped with very bad tires that had the tread coming off and wire sticking out.

I got a good deal on a set of four used tires, and a reasonable price to get them mounted on the truck wheels. Bit by bit I have been replacing what was stolen out of this truck, the truck bed tool box, spare tire, tool set, tow strap, jumper cables, etcetera.

The person who stole my truck, in addition to taking my good new tires, he swapped some other parts off this truck. He replaced the completely bad front axle constant velocity joints in this truck, CV joints, with used shaft assemblies from another truck. One of the front axle seals was leaking since I got my truck back, and I have to re-fill the front axle differential about every 700 miles.

The used replacement front axle shaft assemblies that came from another truck, the CV joints are going bad, so even though the U-joints are sealed, I was going to try to stuff grease into them today in order to try to make them last a little bit longer. A car dealership in Dickinson quoted me about $750 to replace the front CV joints.

At about 4:30 p.m. today I was putting the front wheels of this truck on ramps in my friend’s driveway so that I could get under the CV joints easier to grease them, when he started yelling about needing new studs. I didn’t know what the hell he was yelling about, and I wished that he would have kept his mouth shut until I was done driving up onto the ramps.

I got out and looked at the driver’s side front wheel, and it was missing three out of five lug nuts. This made me very angry for several reasons. Driving on Hwy 22 or Hwy 85, I could have gotten killed or had a very bad accident if this front wheel had come off, or I could have gotten someone else killed.

At first I thought that someone had undone my wheel lug nuts to cause me to have an accident, but as I looked closer, I could see that three of the five wheel stud bolts were broken off. I had checked every lug nut on every wheel with a lug wrench about three months ago, and I couldn’t understand what had happened.

I was trying to figure out what happened, and I was thinking that I should just take this truck to the dealer and let them replace the front axle shaft assemblies and CV joints. My friend persuaded me that he had some spare wheel stud bolts, we could take the brake caliper off, the wheel rotor off, and get to the wheel stud bolts.

We got the brake caliper and wheel rotor off, knocked the broken stud bolts out of the hub, and my friend did not have any wheel stud bolts that fit this hub. Meanwhile, ever since I had driven the front tires up onto the ramps, my friend was going on and on talking, going off on irrelevant tangents, while I was trying to figure out what had happened, take things apart, and put them back together. I would have liked to have driven away, but obviously I couldn’t.

My friend let me borrow his vehicle to go to the auto parts store to buy some wheel stud bolts. At the auto parts store, the young man got the wrong part number stud bolts, because he was looking at 2-wheel drive, not 4-wheel drive. I caught this before I left, but this added to my frustration a little bit.

When I got back to my truck at my friend’s house, the wheel stud bolts did not fit correctly in the wheel hub, the base diameter and the scoring was a little too big, but just slightly too big. You could pound and pound on these wheel stud bolts with a hammer, and they would not seat in the wheel hub.

After a while, I got a bunch of large washers and put them on the wheel stud bolts, screwed on the lug nuts, got an air impact wrench, and tightened the lug nuts while beating the stud bolts in. With a lot more work than should have been necessary, the wheel stud bolts seated in the wheel hub. All the while, my friend would not stop talking about unnecessary things, things that were a nuisance distraction.

I was getting so mad, that I was thinking about calling a tow truck to just drag my truck onto the bed, wheel and rotor off, brake caliper dragging on the ground, doing hundreds of dollars of damage to my truck, just to get the fuck out of there. I was going to tell the tow truck driver, no I don’t want to put the wheel on, just drag it, I can’t take listening to this guy for one more minute, he won’t shut up.

I got everything back together, and the wheel back on. I could tell that I did some damage to the threads on a couple of the stud bolts during the extra effort to seat them, because two of the lug nuts were very difficult to turn for most of the way. But five stud bolts with lug nuts, is much better than only having two stud bolts with lug nuts.

I began greasing the CV joints and turning the wheel in order to get to each universal joint bearing, and my friend came out of the house to point out to me that I was not tightening the lug nuts as I was turning the wheel. I explained that I knew that, I was turning the wheel to get to each universal joint bearing to grease it, which is what I started out to do in the first place.

After I had put all of the tools away, I looked at the three broken wheel stud bolts. They each had rust or oxidation on the broken ends, which means that they had been broken off for a while. The only explanation, since I had checked every wheel lug nut with a lug wrench about three months ago, was that the person who stole my truck, and the person who mounted my used tires ten months ago, they both saw and knew that three of the five wheel stud bolts were broken. Since they were able to get three, four, or five turns of the lug nuts onto the broken wheel stud bolts, they acted like nothing was wrong.

With only three, four, or five turns of a lug nut onto a broken stud bolt, it was only a matter of time before the lug nuts popped off. The tires were mounted on the wheels, and put back on this truck in September of last year, when it was cooler. Once it became so hot in June, with the metal hub, metal rotor, and metal wheel expanding slightly in the heat, this is probably what caused the three barely on wheel lug nuts to pop off.

About four days ago, there was a fatality on Hwy 22 south of Dickinson, where a pickup truck crossed into the opposite lane, and had a head-on collision with a tractor truck. I could have had a fatal accident like this too, if this front driver’s side wheel would have come off my truck, which was going to happen very soon if my friend hadn’t noticed my wheel lug nuts were missing.

I was mad about this happening, why this happened, how this happened, the unexpected emergency repair, the difficulty of getting everything apart and then back together, and my friend talking non-stop the whole time while I was trying to work and figure this out. I am very regretful that I got so mad, that I nearly called a tow truck to drag my truck away with the wheel and rotor off, to the dealer, just because I couldn’t stand to listen to my friend anymore.

The Criminality Of People In Dickinson, North Dakota

June 22, 2018Uncategorizedcrime in Dickinson North Dakota, criminals in Dickinson North Dakota, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, Information on Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

Yesterday evening, I heard some noise outside in the parking lot of the apartment building where I live in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota. I looked out the window, and there was a City of Dickinson Police car, and a Stark County Sheriff truck. It appeared that they were looking for an apartment resident in order to take them into custody.

In the one year that I have lived at this apartment building in downtown Dickinson, I would say that the Police or Sheriff have been here about fifteen times. But that number would be too low, because the Police or Sheriff are here several times each month, and I am not even home half of the time, to witness the other times that they may have been here.

One of the frustrating things about living in Dickinson, North Dakota, is that the people here don’t even know that they are any different than people living elsewhere in the United States. The criminality of people here, far exceeds any place else that I have ever lived. I will give some examples.

The very first apartment building that I ever lived at, was in Gainesville, Florida. In the three years that I lived at this apartment building, where 50% of the residents were students, the Police might have shown up a total of two times.

The second apartment building that I ever lived at, was in Tampa, Florida. In the two years that I lived at this apartment building, the Police might have shown up a total of three times.

At this apartment building where I live in Dickinson, the Police have shown up an estimated forty times this past year. And, I wish that the Police would have shown up even more times than this, to handle the drug dealers, trespassers, suspicious acting people, reckless drivers, and other problems.

I began thinking about how to describe the criminality of people in Dickinson, North Dakota versus elsewhere. Below I will give my estimate of the number of adults with a criminal record in the other areas where I have lived.

Town where I grew up in Florida………….18% of adults with criminal record
Gainesville, Florida………………………….18% of adults with criminal record
Tampa, Florida……………………………….20% of adults with criminal record
Flagstaff, Arizona……………………………..15% of adults with criminal record
Eastern Idaho…………………………………20% of adults with criminal record
Fort Worth, Texas……………………………..20% of adults with criminal record
Dickinson, North Dakota……………………..35% of adults with criminal record

If Dickinson, North Dakota would not have had an oil boom………..20% of adults with criminal record, just like most other places.

The high number of criminal people living in Dickinson, North Dakota is due to the oil boom. The oil boom brought criminal people to Dickinson. For some people with a criminal record, the oil boom in North Dakota would allow them to get a job without their criminal record in a different state being discovered. For other people with a criminal record, it was primarily the rumor of high pay that brought them to Dickinson.

For some people with a criminal record, they moved to North Dakota with the expectation of either getting a high paying job, and if not, they would steal from the people with high paying jobs, or sell them illegal drugs.

The oil boom also turned some local people into criminals, after they were introduced to illegal drugs, they became a user, a dealer, or a thief in order to pay for their drug addiction.

At the oil field service companies and construction companies where I have worked in Dickinson, I would estimate that 40% to 45% of my male co-workers had a criminal record. In previous blog posts, I wrote about looking up the company managers and foremen of the companies where I worked in Dickinson, and most of them had criminal records for assault, drug possession, and DUI.

At the convenience stores, fast food restaurants, restaurants, and bars in Dickinson, I would estimate that 35% of the women employees have criminal records for drug possession, bad check writing, assault, or DUI.

Dickinson, North Dakota is not like other places in the United States. I have complained and written blog posts about the Police in Dickinson following people around, trying to come up with a reason to pull them over and question them. I was complaining that the Police were treating everyone like they were suspected of being a criminal. The truth is, that about one out of three people in Dickinson is a criminal, and they act like it.

Asshole With A Silver Camaro In Dickinson, North Dakota

June 21, 2018Uncategorizedbad drivers in Dickinson North Dakota, dangerous driving in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, reckless driving in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, silver Camaro in Dickinson North Dakota, speeding in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

This week in Dickinson, I had to work on a project on 21st Street West, just to the west of Evergreen Assisted Living and Runnings Farm & Ranch store.

On this section of 21st Street West, the speed limit is 25 mph hour. This is very near the exits to Evergreen, Runnings, Whiting Petroleum, the Big Sky Plaza, Four Seasons Car Wash, town homes, apartments, and houses.

On the north side of 21st Street West in this area, there is a frontage road that parallels 21st Street West, and provides access to the residential driveways. You could expect that people would drive even more slowly on this frontage road, because it is not a through street.

While I was working, a couple of times during the day, a silver Chevy Camaro caught my attention because the driver was hot-rodding and speeding on 21st Street West and the frontage road on the north side of 21st Street West.

All day, there were bucket trucks and utility trucks from Consolidated Telecom and Cable TV companies parked on the frontage road performing work, with workers walking to and from their vehicles, getting in and out of their vehicles. At the same time, there were pedestrians walking on the frontage road and sidewalk, and very small children walking on the frontage road and the sidewalk.

Twice, in order to go faster than the cars travelling 25 mph on 21st Street West, the driver of the silver Camaro exited onto the frontage road, and quickly accelerated to 40 mph, passing up the vehicles that were on 21st Street West.

This was very dangerous, because all of the homeowners, workers, pedestrians, and children had the expectation that people would be driving at about 15 mph on this frontage road, not 40 mph.

It appeared that the driver of this silver Camaro was making a right turn onto 10th Avenue West, and resides in one of the Prairie subdivision homes.

I hope that if this driver is someone’s kid, that this blog post is shown to the parents so that they can consider not allowing their kid to drive this car anymore. If the driver of this Camaro is an adult, they need to be told that what they are doing is wrong.

Most people do not drive their vehicle at 40 mph on a side street in front of people’s homes, because they do not want to hit and kill someone’s child that runs out into the street or steps out from behind a parked vehicle. Most people recognize that 40 mph is too fast to stop in time if a homeowner backs out of their driveway from behind a tree, fence, or parked vehicle.

In any case, I don’t expect the driver of this Camaro to keep it for very long due to getting their license suspended or wrecking their car, if they keep driving the way they have been. I hope that they don’t kill someone or someone’s kid.

Upsetting YouTube Video From A Vlogger That I Follow

June 21, 2018Uncategorizedfollowing vloggers on YouTube, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, people asking for donation on YouTube, people on YouTube begging for money, people trying to make a living from YouTube, relocating to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

A couple of months ago, I began watching YouTube videos from a guy named Dave who lives in California. Dave is in his early 30s, and he tries to live out of his vehicle, not work at a job, and spend as little money as possible.

I don’t want to give the name of Dave’s YouTube channel, because I don’t want to upset him or embarrass him. I am embarrassed for him, and I feel sorry for him.

There are more than several YouTube vloggers that I follow who are trying to not have a normal job, and instead earn money from the videos that they upload to YouTube, gaining views, subscribers, patrons, and donations.

I have mixed feelings about the YouTubers that I follow. A few of them are so professional, talented, and have so may followers, that they seem like successful people. However, the majority of the YouTubers that I follow, what they do is almost like begging, begging to an audience of thousands of people.

The begging that I am talking about, is where in one video they are positive and upbeat, with entertaining content, and in the next video they are giving the complete story on how their vehicle broke down, how they are stranded, that they don’t know what to do, and that they don’t have any money.

Myself and thousands of YouTube viewers feel sorry for these vloggers when they describe their current catastrophe. Many people send them money, mostly just $5 to $20, but this brings in hundreds or thousands of dollars, from people wanting to help. I suspect that many times, some of these YouTube vloggers begging for help during an unexpected financial crisis, probably end up receiving so many donations that they have a financial windfall.

But when I think about it more, most of the people who watch YouTube videos, they work at WalMart, convenience stores, are teachers, hair dressers, cooks, construction workers, they have just as many problems in their life as these YouTubers, but they work at normal jobs for forty hours or more per week so that they can pay for their own emergencies. Why should the people who go to work at jobs for forty hours per week or more, send money to bail out people who do not work?

When I think about it, these YouTube vloggers are very self-centered and selfish people. They don’t want to work, because they are lazy, don’t like being told what to do, and don’t like getting up in the morning, but they think that everyone else should send them money so that they don’t have to work at a job.

The other sad thing, and selfish thing, especially among the YouTube vloggers who travel, is that when they get into trouble, not only do they beg viewers to send money, but they inevitably turn to their parents for assistance. If you look at the situations that they get themselves into, you would ask yourself, how does a person who does not have a job, expect to be able to travel to far away places or foreign countries without enough money to cover everything? They did practically everything they could to create a situation where they would have an emergency, so why bail them out of the situation that they created for themselves?

So on the one hand, I am aware that these YouTube vloggers believe that they should not have to work at a normal job, and other people should pay for their lifestyle, which I think is very selfish, but on the other hand, I am entertained by the things that they do, which is why I watch their videos.

In the case of Dave who is in his early 30s, there are many jobs that he could do. I think that Dave could even be a manager of a small business. But Dave does not want to work. I believe that at one time he probably had normal jobs, and I don’t know if customers, co-workers, or bosses upset him so bad, that he won’t work anymore.

Dave spends his days working on his vehicle, supposedly getting it ready for travel, doing errands, going skateboarding, getting take-out food, and making YouTube videos. For the past two months, he has been parked in the driveway at his mother’s house in California.

His mother’s house appeared to be a small two bedroom, one bathroom house in a lower middle class neighborhood. It also became apparent that this was the house that Dave had grown up in. It looked like Dave’s mother was single, that Dave was an only child, and that his mother did not get onto him about getting a job, getting married, or getting a place of his own to live in.

In Dave’s YouTube video this evening, he began explaining why he hadn’t been able to make a video recently, he said that his mother was being kicked out of her house, after thirty years of living there. So I guess his mother didn’t own this house, had been renting it for thirty years, and now the landlord wanted much more money for rent.

Oh my God, Dave’s mother must be about 60 years old, and now she is losing her house. During her working years, her income kept pace with the cost of the rent on this small modest house, but not anymore. Meanwhile, her 30 year old son Dave was not working, not contributing towards rent and utilities, probably not even paying for food, and he spent his days working on his vehicle, skateboarding, and making YouTube videos.

This is really tragic. If Dave would have taken a job working at a convenience store, where he could have contributed $500 per month toward rent, his mom might have been able to stay in this house. Now that I think about it, the landlord might have driven by this house, saw that her 30 year old son was living there, and figured that he should be charging more money for rent if two working adults were living there.

Dave was upset in today’s video because the small place that his mom was moving to several cities away, was like a mother-in-law quarters at some other family’s house, so he wouldn’t be able to stay there in the driveway in his vehicle.

This is very sad to me, that it looks like Dave’s mother can barely afford to survive on the income that she has, and her son doesn’t even consider that he should get a job. He just plans on continuing to spend his days skateboarding and playing around.

Dickinson State University Could Become A Polytechnic Campus

June 20, 2018Uncategorizedadvice to Dickinson State University, advice to Tom Mitzel, Dickinson State University Polytechnic, DSU polytechnic, how to improve Dickinson State University, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, technical program at Dickinson State University, technical program at DSUname withheld

Today in the Dickinson Press newspaper there is an article titled, “DSU could become a polytechnic campus”. Tom Mitzel, DSU president, appeared before the Dickinson City Commissioners on June 19 and explained that in addition to offering traditional four-year liberal arts degrees, DSU could begin offering technical training that would result in licensing, certification, or associates degrees in fields related to workforce needs here in western North Dakota.

The mayor of Dickinson and some of the commissioners stated that they thought that this was a wonderful idea. In my opinion, this would be the best thing that ever happened to DSU, and this is long overdue. I also think that this would be one of best things to ever happen to Dickinson. I will enumerate why this is such a good idea.

There are many high school kids in western North Dakota that already have a mechanical aptitude from growing up on farms, working on vehicles, motors, and equipment. They are just a little short of being ready to work in the oil field in a skilled trade. Being able to obtain certification here locally right out of high school, in things like welding, crane operating, instrumentation for example, would give them a much better chance to obtain employment locally, and at a higher pay rate.
Many local high school students do not want to go to college for four years, they don’t see themselves doing this, they don’t see the need to go to college for four years, they don’t see this benefiting them, and they don’t plan on doing it. Many of these high school students would see the benefit of taking only course work relevant to obtaining a certification that would make them more employable, or allow them to receive a higher rate of pay.
Many high school students could see themselves going to college for two years, in order to obtain a technical associates degree, that demonstrates both that they have completed typical college general education requirements, and that they also have a technical competency in one or more areas.
The businesses, employers, and oil companies in North Dakota would probably love to have many more prospective employees that have completed college level course work and also received relevant technical training.
The large oil companies and the large oil field service companies would probably be willing to provide funding, guidance on desired technical course work, and also loan experienced personnel to advise or perform some teaching.
If DSU developed a recognized technical program that offered certification or associates degrees, Dickinson would be a magnet for high school graduates from all over North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Minnesota.

My advice to DSU president Tom Mitzel, would be to aim for cooperation and assistance from GE, General Electric. A little more than a year ago, GE acquired Lufkin, one of the biggest manufactures of oil field pump jacks, and also control systems. About a year ago, GE also acquired Baker Hughes, a.k.a. BJ Services, one of the largest oil field service companies in the World. Both Lufkin and BJ Services have large operations in Dickinson that would benefit greatly from a technical program at DSU.

When Farmers Used To Be Poor

June 19, 2018Uncategorizedfarming in Dickinson North Dakota, farming in Florida, how farming used to be in Florida, how farming used to be in the South, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, old farms in the South, poor farmers in the South, relocating to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I grew up in the 1970s on the east coast of Florida, in a small town. The population of this town was probably about 10,000 people. Some of the poorest people in this town were the farmers. There were not any wealthy farmers in the area.

The farms outside of town ranged from about 10 acres to 50 acres. The farms were small like this because they were established in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when fields were still plowed with horses, or very simple tractors. 50 acres was about all one person could handle back then.

The farm houses were either “shot gun houses” or “dog run houses”. These were one-story wood frame houses, built a couple of feet off the ground on brick or stone piers. The “shot gun houses” were where room opened to room, from the front door to the back door. The “dog run houses” had a center hallway from the front door to the back door, and you entered each room from the center hallway. The walls had exterior clapboard nailed to the vertical wall studs, and usually there was no interior covering like lathe and plaster. The sizes of these houses was about 30 ft x 30 ft.

The yards all around the houses were mostly dirt with a sparse amount of grass, because of the kids, adults, and animals constantly walking and playing around the house. There was not any pavement. Kids, dogs, cats, and chickens ran wild around the outside of the house. Pigs were kept a couple of hundred feet from the house, far enough away to not have to smell them and hear them constantly, but close enough to haul food scraps and garbage to them regularly.

Barns were small and usually very primitive because animals did not have to be kept in the barn. Horses or cows would try to find shade from the sun in the afternoon, or something to stand under when it rained, an overhang, shed, or thick trees would work for the animals.

So far, everything that I described above about the farms where I lived, was the same from the 1890s up until the 1970s. In the 1940s more or less, many of the farm houses began adding indoor bathrooms with plumbing. I imagine that many farm families in Florida continued to use wash basins and outhouses into the 1960s.

Prior to the 1960s, farm kids in Florida might not have worn shoes in the summer, except to go to church on Sunday. Before the start of school in the Fall, they might get a new pair of shoes to wear to school, or be given hand-me-down shoes to wear to school. Prior to the 1960s, the farm families had a very bare existence.

In order to have more cash money, farmers in Florida had other ways to make money: cutting trees to sell for timber, working in saw mills, doing carpentry for other people, hunting animals for meat and fur, hunting alligators for meat and hide, fishing, crabbing, shrimping, and making illegal alcohol.

As the population of Florida grew more and more due to real estate development, land became more controlled, animals and fish became more scarce, many farmers in Florida began to take regular jobs working in construction. There would be five to eight years of a boom in construction, followed by a lull for several years, all through the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s.

When I was a kid in the 1970s in Florida, the farmers who did primarily farming, were very poor. The fathers drove old, worn out, beat up trucks, there was nothing fancy about them, just single cab, torn vinyl bench seat, rusty two-wheel drive trucks. The father’s clothes were old, stained, and ragged. The farmer kids had very little of anything.

In the 1970s, the farmers who worked regular jobs, they wore nicer clothes, drove nicer four-wheel drive single cab trucks, and their kids had more, but they were not rich.

I didn’t see it until the 1980s in Florida, but some farmers said, “Fuck it, I am going to sell the farm because this property is worth so much money now.” Real estate developers wanted 10 acre, 20 acre, 30 acre parcels of land that had been cleared and drained, so that they could put in a new housing development with 1/4 acre home lots.

The farmer kids who had grown up going barefoot, using wash basins and outhouses, being bit by mosquitoes constantly, now that they were adults struggling with finances, sometimes they could not resist the temptation to cash-in the family farm, and finally live a life of luxury. They could move into a new modern home with central air conditioning, shag carpeting, a couple of bathrooms, and modern kitchen. Buy a new luxury edition truck with a back seat, and have enough money for their kids to go to college. So that is what many poor farmers did.

In the 1980s in Florida, the adult farm owners were aware how poor and how much of a struggle that their grandparents, parents, and themselves had gone through. They weighed out in their mind what to do, should they continue to live poor and struggle, or should they sell their land and have a life of ease?

One thought that made up the adult farm owner’s mind was this, “If I continue to be poor and struggle with this farm for the rest of my life, when I die, my shit head son is just going to sell it and never have to work, so is it going to be me, or him that doesn’t have to work? I pick me.”

In Florida, one by one, all of the farms were sold and developed. It was just too hard to make money farming, and the land became worth so much money. Who would want to continue to be poor, when they could sell their land and become a millionaire.

By the 1990s in Florida, the only people who retained inherited acreage or who obtained acreage, were not farmers, but doctors and lawyers.

In my next blog post, I would like to try to explain and compare this to farming in North Dakota.

Men Competing And Winning In Women’s Sports

June 19, 2018UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, men competing as women, men competing in women's sports, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, women in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

Below I have included a video that shows a man competing, winning, and setting new records in a Connecticut State women’s high school track meet.

This black man shown in the video competing against the women, is a “transgender”. He is a biological man, that thinks that he is, or thinks that he wants to be a woman.

Because liberal people, many Democrats, and many women, want for Transgender people to be accepted, they advocate for these Transgender people to be accepted for who they say they are. This means that Transgender people should be allowed to use the bathroom of the sex that they identify with, and apparently compete in sports as the gender that they identify with.

As you can see in this video above of the state high school track meet, a biological man competing in women’s sports, has an advantage, so much of an advantage that he was able to set new state records for women’s track.

Can you see that biological men who think or say that they identify as women, will be able to dominate all of women’s sports? Basketball, softball, volleyball, tennis, golf, field hockey, lacrosse, swimming, track and field, triathalon, cycling, skiing.

Do you think that this is fair or right, for biological men to compete against women and win? To take away 1st place finishes from women in women’s sports?

Do you see that at every high school and college, women could begin losing spots on basketball, softball, volleyball, golf, and tennis teams to biological males who are bigger, faster, and stronger? Losing athletic scholarships to biological men.

I do not think that women ever saw this coming, that any biological man can now say at some point in his life, that he identifies as a woman, in order to compete in women’s sports, compete for a scholarship, or compete for a job by saying that he is a woman.

Why Dickinson, North Dakota Is So Quiet Tonight

June 19, 2018Uncategorizedeconomy in Dickinson North Dakota, how hard is it to get a job in North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

When I got home to my apartment in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota at 6:30 p.m., on this Monday, June 18, everything was very quiet. I opened all of the windows in my apartment, turned on my computer, checked my e-mails, looked at my Worpress blog, looked at Facebook, read the Dickinson Press Newspaper online, and everything continued to be quiet in my apartment building, the parking lot, and this downtown residential area.

I fell asleep in my lazy boy recliner chair from 9:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., and I am just now waking up. This residential area is so quiet right now, that I can hear that there is not a single car driving on the main downtown street through Dickinson, Villard Street. Either directly on four-lane Villard Street, or one block north of Villard Street, there are twelve bars and restaurants, and about eight gas station convenience stores.

I am listening and trying to time it, and I am not hearing even one vehicle per five minutes on Villard Street. I have heard one car in the past fifteen minutes. Can you imagine how quiet that is, one car in fifteen minutes on the main street through downtown, at 11:30 p.m. on a Monday night?

I know why Dickinson is this quiet, it is a combination of about four different things. I read a newspaper article about a month ago, that said the population of North Dakota decreased from 2017 to 2018, there was a net out-migration of about 500 people. The total population of North Dakota is only about 750,000 people.

Despite what the business owners, real estate agents, real estate developers, chambers of commerce, business associations, elected representatives, and spokespeople say, the economy in western North Dakota has been slowing down since 2015, and it continues to do so.

In the Spring of 2018, there were newspaper articles and advertisements, radio announcements and advertisements, television reports and advertisements, trade journal articles and advertisements, telling people about the great need for workers in western North Dakota. The truth is, that all of these reports and advertisements about the need for workers in western North Dakota, did not match the reality of the actual number of job openings posted on North Dakota Job Services, the Dickinson Press newspaper, Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Indeed.com, LinkedIn.com, etcetera.

Yes, there was a need every week for a few CDL licensed drivers, experienced heavy equipment mechanics, electricians, experienced hydraulic fracturing operators, and laborers, but just a few, not a huge amount. Many of these job openings did not represent company growth or an expansion in business operations, but were job vacancies created by workers who quit and left North Dakota.

The truth is, that workers who are already living here or who come here, who can prove that they have experience welding, fabricating, operating heavy equipment, operating fracturing equipment, working on a drill rig, with a CDL license, or are a certified mechanic, they can probably find a job if they are in good health and have a clean driving record. But there is not a huge demand for workers.

I know experienced oil field workers living here in western North Dakota who have had difficulty in finding a job, and the jobs that they eventually accept are lower pay, sometimes much lower, than what they used to get paid. I know people over 50 years of age who have work experience in the oil field and in construction, who have a lot of difficulty in finding a job in western North Dakota.

In the past several years, I have seen many people with some college education, business experience, technical experience, construction experience, and oil field experience, decide to leave North Dakota, because of the combination of not very high pay, poor working conditions, cold weather, and overall unpleasant environment here. The people who have remained here in Dickinson after the oil boom ended in 2015, are mostly blue-collar trades people.

As I previously stated up above, there was an attempt this Spring by business owners, real estate agents, real estate developers, chambers of commerce, and government spokespeople, to entice and lure people here to North Dakota using announcements, news stories, and advertisements. Most of the people who responded to this and came to western North Dakota, were no-skilled, low-skilled, inexperienced, poor, uneducated, illegal drug users from cities in Washington State and California.

Initially, in this Spring of 2018 in downtown Dickinson, it was noisy and chaotic. The poor white-trash and poor blacks who recently arrived from the inner-cities of Washington State and California ran around and got into everything like insects that had recently hatched. In expectation of getting a high paying oil field job, these no-skilled, low-skilled uneducated inner-city people rented apartments, and behaved like they did where they came from.

These new arrivals from the inner-cities continued to use illegal drugs, sell illegal drugs, get high, get drunk, and drive recklessly around Dickinson. Little by little, bit by bit, the Dickinson Police arrested these new arrivals for possession of drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, reckless driving, and DUI.

Once these no-skilled, low-skilled, uneducated inner-city people with criminal records and bad driving records found that they were unable to get a job working in the oil field, they began doing what they did in the inner-cities where they came from, sell drugs, steal, commit burglaries, and robberies.

Little by little, bit by bit, these inner-city people who arrived in Dickinson, most of them have either been stopped by the Dickinson Police multiple times, or they have been arrested. They are in jail awaiting trial, have posted bail and have fled the state, have calmed down because they don’t want to get stopped by the Police anymore, or they have moved away because of the Police and they can’t get a job.

What is very funny to me, is at the apartment building where I live in downtown Dickinson tonight, it is so quiet, such a contrast to the months of April, May, and the beginning of June. There is no one driving recklessly through the residential streets, there is no vehicle in the apartment building parking lot playing ghetto music, there is no one stopping by the apartment building to buy illegal drugs, there are no drug addicts wandering through the parking lot or the hallways.

The people all throughout this downtown neighborhood tonight, they have got their jobs to go to in the morning, they were all in for the night by 7:00 p.m., they had dinner, watched television, and went to bed. The people from Washington State and California, are mostly back where they came from, or locked in their jail cell.

I Did Not Know That Women Powerlifters Pee When Lifting Heavy Weights

June 13, 2018Uncategorizedgyms in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, women in Dickinson North Dakota, women peeing in Dickinson North Dakota, women peeing when lifting heavy weigthts, women powerlifters peeing, women's fitness in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I did not know that women powerlifters pee when lifting heavy weights, but thanks to a YouTube video explaining this phenomenon, I do now.

I imagine that some women readers are hissing, spitting, and wanting to scratch my eyes out for writing this, but I am not making this up. I never would have known about this, if these women in the video below, would not have made a video about this.

About two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post where I complained that there should be some weight room gyms, where men can expect to lift heavy weights without the distraction of women, interference of women, women taking up the equipment and not using it for its intended purpose, and women talking and fooling around.

There are several gym franchises such as Curves, that are for women only, and we all understand why women want to exercise without any men around sometimes. So why can’t women understand that men want to exercise without women around sometimes?

Men and women are different. I can absolutely guarantee you, that if I peed my pants when doing deadlifts or squats at a gym, I would be kicked out, and everyone would be furious at me, both the men and the women.

Apparently, it is very common for women to pee their pants when lifting heavy weights. I don’t care that much, but like I said, if a man did this, he would be kicked out of the gym. Probably, if a man peed his pants while deadlifting or doing squats at the West River Community Center in Dickinson, the Police would be called and they would try to charge him with lewd and lascivious behavior. But women can just pee all over the place and get away with it.

Women Powerlifters And Steroid Use

June 13, 2018Uncategorizedgyms in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, steroid use in Dickinson North Dakota, steroid use in women, steroid use in women's powerlifting, women athletes in Dickinson North Dakota, women in Dickinson North Dakota, women using steroids in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I found a very good YouTube video where a female powerlifter explains her steroid use. You will first hear the straightforward admission from her about her steroid use at the 4:40 minute mark on this video.

This powerlifter explains that though some of the side effects of steroid use, like acne outbreaks, will go away after you quit using steroids as a woman, your voice change and hair growth everywhere on your body, will not ever go away, it is permanent.

Please also pay close attention to the 11:40 minute mark on this video, where she makes the statement, I knew that if I was going to compete at the highest levels of women’s powerlifting, I had to take steroids.

Eight Ways To Tell If Someone Is Using Steroids

June 10, 2018UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, spotting steroid use in Dickinson North Dakota, steroid use in Dickinson North Dakota, weight lifting in Dickinson North Dakota, weight training in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I found a good video, which explains eight ways to tell if someone is using steroids:

This video somewhat addresses the increases in strength that are attainable by someone who is not using steroids, versus someone who is using steroids.

For instance, this video creator explains that it took him four years of weight training to increase his bench press from 200 lb to 300 lb, without using steroids. He states that when you see someone increase their bench press by 100 lb in a matter of months, that this is a definite sign of steroid use.

Jason Dodge For Sheriff Of Bowman County, North Dakota

June 9, 2018UncategorizedBowman County North Dakota Sheriff Department, City of Bowman North Dakota, Jason Dodge for Sheriff of Bowman County, living in Bowman County North Dakota, living in Bowman North Dakota, moving to Bowman County North Dakota, moving to Bowman North Dakota, Sheriff election Bowman County North Dakotaname withheld

Today I read an article in the Bowman County Pioneer Newspaper about a person named Jason Dodge running for Sheriff of Bowman County. When I first saw this newspaper article headline, I thought to myself, is everybody running for Sheriff now?

I am glad that I read this entire newspaper article, because it looks like Jason Dodge would be by far the best person for Sheriff of Bowman County at this time. I have met the other candidates who are running for Sheriff, and they are nice people, but Jason Dodge is a much better candidate.

There are four main areas that I can point to, to explain why Jason Dodge is what Bowman County needs at this time: 1) He is not afraid to clearly identify several very significant problems with the Bowman County Sheriff Department and the Bowman Police Department that need to be corrected right away. 2) He has specific remedies and solutions to fix these significant problems that need to be corrected right away. 3) He has identified the drug problem in North Dakota as the primary source of most crime, he has vowed to aggressively root out all drug activity in Bowman County, and he has explained his plans for how he would attack the drug problem in Bowman County. 4) He has had much more extensive and intensive training in law enforcement from having worked for the U.S. State Department Diplomatic Security Service.

To first address Jason Dodge’s qualifications, after serving in the military, he became employed with the Diplomatic Security Service. This involves working in foreign countries, where every day, 24 hours per day, of your tour of duty, you have to expect, detect, and defend against a bombing, terrorist attack, assassination attempt, kidnapping, espionage, sabotage, theft of classified material, spying, blackmail, extortion, counter intelligence operations, and compromise of personnel. This is much more intense duty than most Sheriff Departments, Police Departments, or Highway Patrol Departments.

Jason has stated that he will have his personal telephone number posted in the local phone book, so that he can be reached 24 hours per day, and that he will make sure that the Sheriff Deputy on duty will always be reachable by telephone. He has promised that he or his deputies will respond to all calls, even if they might appear to others as trivial or frivolous.

Jason has stated that he will make sure that there will be complete cooperation between the Bowman County Sheriff Department and the City of Bowman Police Department. He recognizes that there must be sharing of information, resources, and working together with other law enforcement agencies.

Jason has expressed that he will have zero tolerance for illegal drug use, and that he will have Sheriff Deputies receive additional training in recognizing illegal drug users and illegal drug behavior. This is the first time that I have seen any member of law enforcement in North Dakota understand that you have to recognize drug users as the first step in following the trail back to the small dealers, bigger dealers, suppliers, and transporters of illegal drugs.

I hope that the people in Bowman County realize the chance that they now have to run the crime out of their county. The Bowman County Pioneer Newspaper article was very thorough, here is the link to this article http://bowmanextra.com/2018/06/08/dodge-runs-for-bowman-county-sheriff/

Stark County Sheriff’s Ron VanDoorne Disciplined For Disorderly Conduct

June 7, 2018UncategorizedCity of Dickinson North Dakota, City of Dickinson Police Department, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, police in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, Ron VanDoorne Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I just now read a June 6, 2018 Dickinson Press Newspaper article titled “School resource officer disciplined for disorderly conduct”. This article starts off with “The school resource officer for the Stark County Sheriff’s Department, Ron VanDoorne, was involved in a disorderly conduct incident May 27 at his residence, where Dickinson Police responded to a frantic phone call that said VanDoorne was in the house with a gun.”

After reading this entire Dickinson Press Newspaper article, in essence what this article described, was that Ron VanDoorne had lost his temper after an incident happened in the kitchen of his home, where he was cooking dinner for his wife, adult kids, and grandchildren. One of the young grandchildren got underfoot when Ron was cooking, which caused a big pot of boiling water to be spilled on himself, and a grandchild.

Not much detail is given in this article about what was said and done right when this happened in the kitchen, but someone made a “frantic” phone call to the Police, saying that Ron “had a gun”. Ron walked to a nearby park to cool off. When he returned home a short time later, the Dickinson Police were there.

Sheriff Terry Oestreich said, “Ron was walking back and there was four or five officers present and Ron was not in a good mood, he was very upset,”……”Yeah, he said some inappropriate things to the officers. He was handcuffed and he has apologized to me.”

Captain David Wilkie of the Dickinson police said VanDoorne had been “uncooperative” on that night, but confirmed there were no charges filed.

This incident is funny to me, and I will explain why. In 2014, there was an advertisement for an opening with the City of Dickinson Police Department. This job advertisement was hidden, it was not posted on the websites North Dakota Job Services, Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Indeed.com, or the Dickinson Press Newspaper classifieds. I believe that this job opening was posted on the most obscure website possible, so that the only people who would know about it, were people who were personally told about it.

I applied for this opening with the City of Dickinson Police Department, and the application paperwork was very lengthy and time consuming. After I had already turned in my completed application package, one day before the deadline, I received an e-mail stating that I needed to submit my high school transcripts, before the end of the following day, or my application would not be considered.

I believed that the City of Dickinson had not only hidden this job opening advertisement, but they waited until the last minute, the day before the deadline, to send me an e-mail requiring that I get my high school transcripts from Florida, where I had graduated more than twenty-five years ago. Without receiving the required payment, a county archivist in Florida went to a warehouse, went through boxes of records to get my high school transcripts, scanned them, and faxed them to the UPS store in Dickinson, so that I would have them before the deadline.

I passed my three written tests for the Frontline National Law Enforcement Exam. Then I was scheduled to have an interview before a panel with the City of Dickinson human resources person, and three City of Dickinson Police Officers. I was doing O.K. at the interview, until Ron VanDoorne sunk me.

Ron VanDoorne asked me, “How do you feel about doing customer service?” I said something like, “I can do customer service, I don’t mind doing customer service, but I understand that being a Police Officer, I would have to do a variety of things, customer service, patrol, responding to calls, writing reports, but that I wouldn’t be doing just one thing all day long, that is what I was looking forward to.”

Ron VanDoorne followed up by asking me if I did not want to do customer service, and I pictured in my mind sitting at a desk all day taking in customer complaints, and I replied that I wanted a job where I did a variety of things, that I didn’t want to do just one thing all day long. I believed that this line of questioning by Ron VanDoorne, was what caused me to not be hired, because I did not want to do “customer service”. Really, what a Police Officer is required to do, is be professional, courteous, and civil with everyone, it’s not exactly the same thing as customer service.

The truth is, no I don’t want to do customer service all day long, or I would have applied for a customer service job at a call center. I should have seen that Ron VanDoorne was just looking to disqualify me anyway, that I should have seen this question for what it was. It goes without saying, that a Police Officer is supposed to be professional, courteous, and civil at all times.

The hidden job advertisement, the last minute request for high school transcripts from twenty-five years ago, and being disqualified because I answered truthfully that I did not want to do “customer service” all day long, made me a little disgusted and angry with the City of Dickinson, and the City of Dickinson Police Department.

So yes, I think that it is funny that Ron VanDoorne had the Police called on him by his own family, that he got put in handcuffs, that he received disciplinary action, and that this was reported in the newspaper. Maybe in addition to his required alcohol evaluation, he get some “customer service” counseling, because you can’t go losing your temper with the public and the Police like that.

To summarize for the readers who never agree with what I write, I think that it is funny that Ron VanDoorne got in trouble for blowing up at his family and the Police were called on him, after he disqualified me for potentially not being able to maintain a civil demeanor with people.

Remembering What I Forgot About Steroids

May 30, 2018Uncategorizedbodybuilding in Dickinson North Dakota, fitness centers in Dickinson North Dakota, gyms in Dickinson North Dakota, human growth hormone use in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, powerlifting in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, steroid use in Dickinson North Dakota, testosterone use in Dickinson North Dakota, women using steroids in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I have no interest in pharmaceutical steroids, testosterone, or human growth hormone. I do not have very much interest in powerlifting or bodybuilding either. I did have my own idea about what I wanted for my own physical strength and health.

I wanted to have useful strength, for the work that I did, and the things that I was involved in. But once I became over 27 years old, I did not want to spend a couple of hours in the gym every day. Partly, I no longer had time in my schedule to spend a couple of hours in the gym every day, and the other part was that it was no longer important to me to be overly strong or overly big. Getting my work completed and making money was more important to me.

In my mid 30s, after I moved away from the city and had more free time, I began lifting weights again. I was putting in good effort, but I was careful not to damage my knees, back, elbows, or shoulders by trying to lift too much weight. Again, it was not important to me to be overly strong or overly big.

In my early 40s, I began trying harder to improve my strength, and it was something that I looked forward to, to try to make gains in the gym. I was pleased with my bench press, dumbbell press, overhead press, lat pull downs, triceps dips, triceps curls, biceps curls, pretty much all my lifts and exercises, considering that I was now in my early 40s.

When I had to leave my home in Idaho in 2011 to begin working in the oil fields in North Dakota, Utah, and Texas, my life was disrupted in many ways. One of the worst things that happened to me, was getting my back hurt so bad in 2011, that I couldn’t walk for several months. But other things that were always a problem working in the oil fields, were lack of normal housing, and general chaos in just about everything else.

Working in North Dakota, for a couple of years I had to sleep in small campers on company property, and sometimes take showers at the Tiger Truck Stop. There was a shortage of housing, and housing was extremely expensive. Once it gets to be below 0 degrees Fahrenheit and you live in a small camper, just staying clean and warm, and not dying, is what you are paying attention to.

It has only been in the past couple of years, once the oil boom ended in North Dakota, that I have had the time and opportunity to begin trying to go to gyms on a regular basis again. The West River Community Center in Dickinson, North Dakota where I live is one of the nicest gym facilities in the United States. However, it is a community center with men, women, children, and the elderly.

I never had a problem with the elderly people in the WRCC, they were not a nuisance at all. The men were typical of what you would find in a gym anywhere. But the women and the children in the WRCC were a nuisance, annoyance, and a distraction to me: sitting on equipment and not using the equipment, placing belongings on equipment that they were not using, taking up equipment that they did not need for that exercise, getting too close and not understanding that they could get hurt, and fooling around being a distraction.

This year, I thought that I had found a small gym with only heavy duty power lifting training equipment, a place that would not have any women and children in it. There was nothing in this small gym to be of any interest to women and children, I thought. A couple of days ago when I was in this gym, everything that I hated about the West River Community Center, happened here in this small gym.

A couple of women came in, and were talking, socializing, fooling around, placing belongings on equipment, sitting on equipment that I wanted to use, and me having to worry about hitting them with a weight bar because they were close to what I was doing. I was angry, and I wrote a blog post about what happened. The owners of the gym and I got into a dispute over this, and they told me not to come back.

During the argument about women being in the gym, and in comments to my blog post, the gym owners, power lifters, and especially women, were telling me that there were women who could kick my ass in the gym. I doubted this. There were claims made about what weight women were lifting, so I looked it up.

I looked up the USPA 2017 Montana state records for women, which showed something like 238 lb bench press, and 315 lb squat, which sounded about right to me. Then I looked up a specific woman who was given as an example, and her bench press and squat were maybe 268 lb and 400 lb in 2015, which still sounded about right to me.

When commenters began citing even higher numbers for female power lifters, and higher numbers for some of the women power lifters that I had already looked up, I checked more records as was suggested to me, and suddenly I realized what was going on.

For adult women who were power lifters, who had been training for several years or more, who had entered and won power lifting competitions, there was a record of what their bench press, squat, and dead lift were for each meet. After several years or more of focusing on diet, nutrition, supplements, training, exercising, and working very hard, these numbers for bench press, squat, and dead lift represented a peak or plateau that they had reached, after several years or more of work.

Then in less than a year, their bench press, squat, and dead lift all suddenly increased by 40%, after they had already reached their physical plateau? They had been working for several years to make gains of 10% to 20% per year, reaching their physical plateau, then all of a sudden all of their lifts increased by 40% in one year. What was going on?

Let me put it this way. Does a college senior baseball pitcher enter Major League Baseball and begin throwing 40% faster, No. Does a college track athlete ever begin running 40% faster one year later, No. Does a college swimmer ever begin swimming 40% faster one year later, No. Does a college high jumper ever begin jumping 40% higher one year later, No.

So how could an adult athlete who has been training for years, suddenly have a 40% increase in strength?

Remembering What I Forgot About Steroids, Testosterone, And Human Growth Hormone

Reading the records of the women power lifters, this started me thinking about everything that I knew about steroids, testosterone, and human growth hormone. I will give some examples.

#1. When I was in junior high school, about 8^th grade, there was a school assembly in the gymnasium, where a 30 year old man was going to perform a demonstration. This man named Chuck, he was from this town, he had joined the Navy, and he had taken up power lifting. He had achieved some kind of powerlifting record, and today he was going to give a talk, and then bench press 500 lb. At the time, I didn’t think that this was worthy of a school wide assembly, but I was glad to get out of class.

The point of this demonstration and school assembly, was that the school principal had been convinced that this was motivational, that this might give some kids an inspiration to get involved in power lifting, to put effort into something positive, rather than getting into trouble. To Chuck, this was partly an opportunity to get publicity for the new gym that he was opening in town.

However, within about a year of Chuck’s gym opening, it was shut down, by the Police. Chuck, his gym, and his gym members were found to be using, bringing in, and selling steroids, testosterone, and human growth hormones. It turns out that Chuck’s above average strength, was primarily from steroid use, etc. Within about a year of this drug bust by the Police, where Chuck was prohibited from using steroids as part of his probation, Chuck’s appearance changed, he became just a normal looking, average sized guy.

#2. When I was in high school, our high school hired a strength and conditioning coach for the football program. One of my friends named Bob, who was on the football team, his older brother played professional football. Bob was only about 5’-10” and 180 lbs, and he knew full well that he was not going to be able to play professional football.

Bob had a brother named Todd, who was two years younger than Bob. Todd was even smaller than Bob. In elementary school, junior high school, and high school, Bob and Todd lifted weights together. Bob tried to push Todd to do more weight, but Todd could only do what he could do. For instance, when Bob was a junior in high school, he could bench press about 210 lb. His younger brother Todd could maybe bench press 180 lb at this time when he was a freshman.

After Bob and I graduated from high school, when his younger brother Todd was a junior in high school, Todd was all of a sudden bench pressing 365 lb. Within a year Todd went from bench pressing 215 lb, to bench pressing 365 lb. Bob was really mad about it, because his younger brother was using steroids, and his physical appearance totally changed. He said he told him, Todd, you are only 5’-7”, you are never going to play professional football, probably not even college football, so why are you doing this to yourself taking steroids?

There were several kids who were high school football players, who weighed about 135 lbs their sophomore year and were skinny, who within a year went up to weighing over 200 lb their junior year. There were so many cases of steroid, testosterone, and human growth hormone use by the high school football players, that an investigation was done, and it was found that these pharmaceuticals were being administered by the strength and conditioning coach, who was then fired.

#3. When I was a college student, some of my friends became involved in powerlifting and bodybuilding. Even though they were training regularly, and working hard, there came a point when they quit making advances in their strength and muscle size, so they began experimenting with steroids and other drugs such as GHB.

One of my friends began ordering veterinary and ranch pharmaceuticals through the mail. One of the things that I remember him receiving, were “feed lot heffer” cattle implant pellets, which were used by ranchers to implant in cattle ear flaps, to slowly release steroids into the cattle to make them put on weight. He would grind these pellets up using a mortar and pestal, add linseed oil or propylene glycol to make a solution, heat it up in the microwave to make it dissolve, draw the solution into a hypodermic needle, and then inject the solution into his buttocks muscle.

One college student got arrested for receiving veterinary pharmaceuticals in the mail. My friend passed out a couple of times, once inside of a gym, and he was very nearly arrested for various drug charges. One of our friends who was a successful personal trainer and competitive body builder died at the age of 25 from drug complications.

My friends were using Dan Duchaine’s books, “The Underground Steroid Handbooks 1 & 2” as a reference manual on how to obtain and use steroids and other substances. Dan Duchaine was arrested and put in prison twice for his involvement with selling steroids and GHB. Dan Duchesne later died at the age of 48 from kidney disease.

#4. My friends’ idol or role model were people like Dorian Yates, a British bodybuilder who was known not just for winning bodybuilding competitions such as the Mr. Olympia six consecutive times, but because he trained with very heavy weights, almost like a power lifter would use, and he was very strong, large, and well defined.

This was in the 1990s, and the professional bodybuilders were becoming so outrageously large in muscle size, and the professional powerlifters were making such enormous increases in weight lifts, that it was obvious that steroids and other pharmaceuticals were being widely used. Very few competitors would admit this at the time, but now, many of these competitors who are now retired are coming out and admitting to their drug use, and are giving details about what went on.

Most of the competitors that are telling about their experiences now, said that they used drugs in order to be someone, in order to be a champion, in order to be successful, to be able to have things in life that they would otherwise not have had. They said that the risks were worth the reward to them, at the time, in their mind.

These competitors also described the kind of psychological addiction to steroids and other drugs, the drugs that enabled them to lift enormous weight, have a huge physique, and stand out in a crowd. Once they had to quit taking steroids due to health problems, they became depressed and wanted to withdraw, because they could not live up to the image of themselves that people had become familiar with.

This first video does not have any commentary. It shows the contrast between Dorian Yates when he was using steroids during his professional bodybuilding career, and what he looks like after he retired and ceased using steroids.

This second video is a discussion where Dorian Yates explains his steroid use during his professional bodybuilding career.

The problem is, that once people begin taking a serious interest in bodybuilding or powerlifting, begin training seriously, working hard, reading and learning more, keeping a record of their work out weights and repetitions, after several years of making gains they will realize that they have reached their physical plateau, where they are no longer making gains, and may even begin going backwards.

From what they have read, learned, seen, and heard by this time, they have to choose whether they are going to stay where they are, or are they going to try to make further gains by using steroids, testosterone, human growth hormone, or other substances. Women are no different than men now in their willingness to take steroids, testosterone, and human growth hormones. I think that some women are even more likely to use these drugs not solely to make gains in their weight lifting or muscle size, but to try to have equal or greater strength than men.

This last video, gives another person’s perspective on his steroid use, who was not a professional bodybuilder or powerlifter.