Tag Archives: guide to Dickinson North Dakota

Dickinson’s New Campground Ordinance Limiting RVs’ Stay To 270 Days

I have worked in the oil field in Texas, Utah, and North Dakota.  For some occupations, especially welders, pipe fitters, electricians, equipment operators, and Union workers, it is sometimes easier and more practical for the workers to own and live in RVs and travel trailers because work project duration can last from two months to two years.

Other factors that make owning and living in an RV or travel trailer more practical are that some projects require a peak amount of welders, pipe fitters, electricians, equipment operators, and other workers at certain times to get a particular phase of construction completed, then once this phase of construction is completed, the number of welders, pipe fitters, electricians, etcetera is greatly reduced.  No one knows ahead of time, which welders, pipe fitters, electricians, equipment operators, and workers will get to remain on the project, which ones will be let go, and when exactly the layoffs will happen.

With some people working in occupations where they really do not know if they will get to work on a project for two months, two years, and when exactly they will be laid off from a particular project, these people have found that it is more practical to own and live in RVs and travel trailers.  It would be foolish and a mistake to sign a lease for an apartment or a house when you could very likely get laid off in a couple of months.

Try to think about this and realize this, though real estate agents, appraisers, accountants, and city employees may remain in their job in a town for five, ten, twenty years, people who make their living working on pipeline construction, oil storage terminal construction, refinery construction, and other large industrial projects, they no longer have a job once their pipeline, oil storage terminal, or refinery construction is completed.  They have to move on to the next large industrial project, where again they will not know if they will get to work on this project for two months or two years, because the number and type of occupations needed for each phase of construction varies and changes.

Welders, pipe fitters, electricians, equipment operators, and Union workers may purchase a new or newer RV or travel trailer for as much as $80,000.  They may expect this RV or travel trailer to last them eight to ten years.  One of the benefits of living in an RV or travel trailer, is that your personal possessions, important paper work, clothing, cookware, food, bed, furniture, TV, stereo, computer, is all right there, and you don’t have to pack everything up, and carry it down stairs out to a moving van, every time you move.

But in cold climates, there are a few laborious and time consuming things that RV and travel trailer owners have to do when they park in a campground.  They have to install tight-fitting insulated skirting along the bottom perimeter of their RV or trailer in order to keep their grey-water tank, black-water tank, and fresh water lines from freezing.  They will likely have to install electrical heat tape on both their sewer line and their fresh water line.  They may need to construct a 6 ft x 6 ft mud room at the entrance door to their trailer in order to be able to take off muddy boots, and muddy overalls before entering their trailer, and also to keep from letting all of the heat out of their trailer when there are high winds.

But the City of Dickinson, the City Commissioners, the residents of Dickinson, and the property owners in Dickinson do not care about what is convenient or practical for other people.  They don’t care, and in fact, the property owners, property managers, and real estate agents like the idea that by putting a limit of 270 days on living in an RV or travel trailer, that this would potentially force workers to rent an apartment, rent a house, or buy a house.

I have tried to point out again and again, that when Dickinson “does things to people”, like quadrupling the price of rent during the oil boom, over aggressive stopping of everyone for DUI by Police, over aggressive following of people by Police, trying to convict people for a 20 year sentence for seeking sex, a Civil Service Commission that has never once decided in favor of a City employee, and generally treating out of state workers like shit, no one wants to come to Dickinson or stay in Dickinson once they find out what it is like.

Limiting the amount of time that a person working in Dickinson can stay in a campground in their RV or travel trailer to 270 days, is not going to turn all of these people into apartment renters, house renters, or house buyers in Dickinson.  Many of them, who may have spent up to $80,000 on their RV or travel trailer, will just plan on moving on in nine months.  Not only not renting or buying a home in Dickinson, but not renting in a campground or living in Dickinson at all.

I don’t know when, if ever, the people in Dickinson will realize that they are driving people out of Dickinson to such an extent that Dickinson will eventually look like Belfield, Richardton, Taylor, Gladstone, New England, Dodge, or Haliday.  To the property owners that are so greedy, what will your property be worth when no one wants to come to Dickinson and more and more people leave Dickinson?

Ape Creatures And Prime Rib At The Paragon In Dickinson, North Dakota

I have gotten into or nearly gotten into more trouble at the Paragon Bowling Alley & Diner in Dickinson, North Dakota than the sum total of everywhere else I have ever been in my entire life.

There are only two reasons now why I ever go to the Paragon Bowling Alley & Diner: if one of my friends is there, or if it is Prime Rib night on Saturday.

This Saturday I spent working on one of my vehicles at my friend’s house, and going to Mac’s Tool, Tractor Supply, and Menards to get parts.  Once it got dark at about 5:30 p.m., I couldn’t see what I was doing anymore, so I called it quits for the day.  I was hungry, and I was planning on going to the drive-thru of a fast food restaurant on the way home, when I realized that it was Saturday, and it was Prime Rib night at the Paragon.

I decided that I would drive by the Paragon, and if one of my friends was there, I would eat there.  I didn’t see any of my friends’ vehicles in the parking lot, but I parked my vehicle, and I went inside to see who was in the diner.  There were not very many people eating in the diner, it was not crowded, maybe a total of ten people at three different tables, so I thought that I would eat here.

I sat at the counter in order to not take up a table in case other groups of people came to eat.  The Prime Rib dinner at the Paragon on Saturday night is $16.95, and it comes with a baked potato, and your choice of soup, or a bowl of lettuce.

John Mueller who is in his late fifties, is the manager of the Paragon Bowling Alley & Diner, which was established by his father, Dick Mueller, in the 1960s or 1970s.  John’s mother Bernice, who is in her eighties, still works in the diner sometimes.

If you ever watched the television show “Fantasy Island” in the 1970s, where all of the guests were greeted by the character “Mr. Roarke”, who always wore a white three-piece suit, John Mueller is kind of like Mr. Roarke, in a way.  You see, just as Mr. Roarke planned out an elaborate fantasy for each one of his guests, John Mueller hires your fantasy waitresses, if your fantasy happens to be being waited on by drug addict women from Couer D’Alene, Seattle, or Spokane, or women from the county jail, or women from prison, or the latest fantasy, female Ape Creatures.

When I went to the Paragon on Thursday morning this week to see a friend of mine, and when I went to the Paragon this Saturday night, I saw that John Mueller has hired a whole entire clan of Ape Creatures.  On Thursday morning, one of the big female Ape Creatures who weighed about 300 lbs, she had orange hair, and she was fairly well trained, as she could do most things, but in a blunt kind of way.

On this Saturday night, there was a different 300 lb female Ape Creature with very short light colored hair waitressing, along with a smaller female Ape Creature weighing about 225 lb, with dark hair.  Both of these creatures were going through the motions of waitressing, though they appeared to be a little confused.

I watched these two Ape Creatures for about five minutes.  It was taking all of their effort and concentration to bring things to the three tables of customers who had already been seated.  What appeared to be causing some confusion, and posed a dilemma for them, was that they didn’t grasp the concept that they didn’t have to stand in front of the cook’s window waiting for food to be put out, that they could go and do other things.

Partly because of their fascination with the cook’s food window where they remained standing and staring, or perhaps because I reminded them of someone who had once shot and killed one of their family members, neither of the two Ape Creatures came over to take my order.

I went looking for John Mueller who I had seen when I arrived, to tell him that his Ape Creatures were not taking my order, but apparently John had gone to the other side of the island, as he was no where to be found.

If you know anything about me, you might think that getting to see Ape Creatures up close and eating Prime Rib would be an enjoyable night for me.  It turns out that I only want to see Ape Creatures in the wild, and that they do not make very good waitresses.  I never did get any Prime Rib to eat.

I Wish That I Could Force You To Understand Dickinson, North Dakota

I have been writing about Dickinson, North Dakota on this blog website for a little over four years now.  For those of you who don’t know why I started writing about Dickinson, it was because Dickinson, Williston, and Minot, North Dakota were the towns in the middle of the Oil Boom in North Dakota that occurred from 2007 through 2014, and I was living in Dickinson.

During the Oil Boom years, there was a great amount of chaos, confusion, development, excitement, optimism, hype, misinformation, and people being taken advantage of.  For those of you who don’t remember, have forgotten, or never knew what happened from 2007 through 2014 in Dickinson, here is a short synopsis:

Most people did not know that 2007 through 2014 was North Dakota’s third Oil Boom.  There was an oil discovery boom in the 1950s, and there was an oil market shortage boom in the late 1970s.  Dickinson had experienced an influx of oil field workers and oil companies before, in the 1950s, and the 1970s.  Well-informed people, well-educated people, and intelligent business people in Dickinson knew from past experience that these Oil Booms last about seven years, that’s why they are called a “Boom” in the first place.

However, even though there were very wealthy people, moderately wealthy people, influential people, politicians, elected representatives, large land owners, and community leaders in Dickinson who all knew from the previous two Oil Booms in North Dakota, that these Oil Booms last for about seven years, rather than trying to manage this Oil Boom in the most effective way for everyone, they either tried to benefit personally at the expense and suffering of others, or they did nothing to stop the taking advantage and suffering of others.

For those of you who were not here, or do not know what I am talking about when I write about the taking advantage of others and the suffering of others, I will explain:

All over the United States, television, radio, newspaper, and magazine media frequently announced that everyone working in North Dakota was making over $100,000 per year due to the Oil Boom.  This was not true at all, the average wage rate in western North Dakota was about $15 per hour at the time.

Believing that they were going to make $100,000 per year in North Dakota like they heard about, people who were struggling financially, or who were broke, used the very last money that they had to travel to Dickinson or Williston.  When they got here, one-bedroom apartments that had once rented for $300 per month, were now $1,500 per month.  With $3,000 due at lease signing for first month’s rent and security deposit, for the cheapest apartments available, most people could not afford a place to live.

Though business was booming in Dickinson, and many wealthy people were becoming even wealthier, there was deliberately and intentionally no homeless shelter in Dickinson.  The people who had been lured to North Dakota by the announcements that everyone was making $100,000 per year, ended up sleeping in their cars in the parking lot of WalMart or the Tiger Truck Stop.  Or, if they arrived in Dickinson by bus or by hitch hiking, they slept under bridges, in the bushes at Patterson Lake, or in the bushes behind businesses.  In the winter, it gets down to -30 degrees Fahrenheit in Dickinson.

When quick, short-term housing solutions, such as the permitting of temporary housing called “man-camps” were proposed, the building permits were denied, due to citizens of Dickinson supposedly fearing “rape” from all the men.  However, the permits for many, many large apartment complexes were approved, even though the occupants would be the same men who would have lived in the man-camps, who were feared for “rape”, but apparently not if they paid $2,000 per month rent for a new apartment.

During the Oil Boom of 2007 through 2014, I witnessed many, many people arriving in Dickinson who were financially broke, who had been lured here by television, radio, newspaper, and magazine announcements about everyone making $100,000 per year in North Dakota.  This was not true, even after living in Dickinson for six years, I have only ever personally met about three or four people who made $100,000 for even one year, working in the oil field.

One of the very first things that I tried to do when I started this blog website four years ago, was to try to get the information out there, that most people were not making $100,000 per year in North Dakota or the oil field, that this was a lie.  I tried to explain what the employment situation was really like.  I tried to explain that only young men between the ages of 18 to 30 years old, who were able-bodied, in good physical condition, with no physical defect, would even be considered to start out working on an oil drill rig, where they would work 12 hours per day, for fourteen days in a row, at about $23 per hour, and make nearly $100,000 per year.

I tried to explain in my blog posts that the vast majority of the job openings in North Dakota were not on an oil drill rig, some were in the oil field, what these other oil field jobs were, what skills and abilities these other oil field jobs required, what it would be like working in the oil field, and what other jobs there were in Dickinson.

I also wrote blog posts explaining that there was a shortage of housing in Dickinson, and that housing was very expensive.  I tried to counter what the television, radio, newspapers, magazines, Chamber of Commerce, North Dakota Job Services, business owners, and politicians were saying in order to try to get people from all over the United States to move to Dickinson or Williston, not knowing what they would be getting into.

During the Oil Boom, I had jobs where I was paid $12 per hour, $15 per hour, $16 per hour, $17, $18, $19, and $20 per hour.  But I had a college degree in engineering, management experience, experience operating heavy equipment, experience in construction, experience in heavy mechanical equipment assembly, and I was able-bodied.  From what I saw, from the people that I worked with, and my experience living in Dickinson, the average hourly wage was about $15 during the Oil Boom.

There were times when the local WalMart paid $15 per hour.  But many businesses paid less than $15 per hour for store clerks, front desk people, customer service people, retail workers, fast food workers, restaurant workers, drivers, general laborers, caregivers, and many other jobs.  For instance, the TSA at the Dickinson airport paid officers $14 per hour.

At the same time that the average hourly wage in Dickinson was about $15 per hour, some of the cheapest old one-bedroom apartments rented for $1,500 per month.  If a person worked for 50 hours each week at $15 per hour, with overtime pay that comes out to about $820 per week before taxes, about $700 per week after taxes, and a take home pay of about $2,800 per month.

Starting out with a take home pay of $2,800 per month, and subtracting rent $1,500; utilities $150; cell phone $50; car insurance $100; car payment $200; fuel $150; leaves $650 left over for the entire month for food, clothing, and everything else.  That’s less than $20 per day that you could spend on food.  What if you had a child, a medical emergency, or a major car repair?

I wondered, and I wrote about, what kind of people would double, triple, and quadruple the rent and housing prices in order to gouge and take advantage of the out-of-state workers who came to Dickinson, many of whom were struggling financially to begin with or were completely broke?

You need to know and keep in mind, that outside of Dickinson there is more vacant, barren, flat, undeveloped land than almost anywhere else in the United States.  There is no scarcity of land to build on. The land outside of Dickinson is almost as vacant as the deserts of Arizona, Nevada, or Utah.  Though the land outside of Dickinson is not as dry as the desert, it is very, very cold in North Dakota from October through April, that’s seven months out of the year, and this is one of the reasons why there are less than one million people living in the entire state of North Dakota.

With such an abundance of vacant, barren, undeveloped land, why were the rent prices in Dickinson and Williston higher than any place else in the United States, higher than even New York City and San Francisco?  The local people liked to say that it was a matter of supply and demand, low supply of housing, and a high demand for housing.  But like I just got done explaining, there is more vacant, barren, undeveloped land outside of Dickinson, than almost any place else in the United States.

Keep in mind, that the well-informed people, well-educated people, the intelligent business people, the wealthy people, and the large land owners in Dickinson knew about the oil discovery boom in the 1950s, and the oil market shortage boom in the 1970s that occurred in North Dakota.  They knew from these previous two Oil Booms, about all the workers and oil companies that come to North Dakota during the Oil Booms.

The doubling, tripling, and quadrupling of the rent and housing prices that occurred in Dickinson, was not merely a matter of supply and demand.  There was more to it than that.  If you have foreknowledge that something is going to occur, where people will experience a scarcity or lack of some necessity, and you seek to take advantage of this scarcity, and even take steps to keep this scarcity from being alleviated so that you can personally benefit financially, you are unethically taking advantage and gouging other people.  I will give a couple of examples for you to think about:

When a hurricane was approaching the east coast of the United States, and everyone needed to prepare for an emergency, some businesses used to sharply increase the price of fuel, drinking water, plywood, generators, and other emergency supplies.  Do you know that this practice is now illegal, and that business owners are now criminally prosecuted for this?

What if you and your business associates created or helped form a retirement community in Nevada, an isolated community consisting of modest, inexpensive, single-wide manufactured homes on 50 ft. x 100 ft. lots, for sale for about $50,000.  Once each of these modest manufactured homes had been sold, what if you doubled, tripled, and quadrupled the price that you charged for water, knowing that there was no other water service available, and that the cost to drill a well would be about $20,000, which these low-income residents would be unable to afford?

Just because someone can see a way to take advantage of and gouge other people on the price of a necessity that they will need, this in no way means that this is ethical, moral, or even legal.

What was actually going on in Dickinson and Williston, was that the wealthy people, the business owners, the property owners, elected representatives, politicians, community leaders, spokespeople for the oil industry, and spokespeople for the North Dakota Job Services continued to perpetuate the lie that everyone who moved to North Dakota for work was making $100,000 per year, even though they knew that this was not true, that they would make much less money than this, and that more than half of their pay would be spent on housing because they had quadrupled the price of housing in North Dakota.

The reasons for spreading this lie all over the United States and luring people to North Dakota were:

  • To bring as many people as possible to the state to be able to rent, lease, and sell all property available.
  • To bring as many people as possible to the state to occupy or buy all property available, to cause a shortage, and be able to greatly increase rents, leases, and property prices.
  • To cause the need, the requirement, or the perception, that there needed to be new apartments constructed, new housing constructed, new retail stores constructed, new grocery stores, new schools, new hospitals, and new infrastructure like water towers and roads.
  • To lure property developers and business entrepreneurs to the state build developments and start new businesses.
  • To bring customers to the state to increase business and sales.
  • To greatly increase tax revenue to the state in sales tax, personal income tax, and property tax revenue.
  • To bring a surplus of workers to the state to try to keep wages low.

After writing about all of this for four years, I realized or discovered several surprising, sinister schemes.  What is even more surprising, and kind of funny, is that most of the people who sought to take advantage of others and be predatory, have been set up for financial ruin, and they don’t even know it yet.  I will explain.

The ordinary people in Dickinson, whether local people or from out-of-state, each of them are aware of only a fraction of what is going on.  They are often very susceptible to lies and misinformation, their circumstances in life change greatly when their rent is increased, their hourly wage rate is increased, or they lose their job.  They are practically slaves or livestock, and they don’t even know it.  They were likely to parrot the phrases that they were taught, such as “This Oil Boom is going to last for the next 20 years”, and then later “The Oil Boom is coming back” or the ever perpetual phrase “Things are starting to pick up again.”

The business people, business owners, property owners, property developers, elected representatives, Chambers of Commerce, oil industry spokespeople, and North Dakota government agency spokespeople, were or are, kind of like the herders, shepherds, shearers, fleecers, milkers, and egg gatherers of the ordinary people, who are like slaves or livestock.

The business people, business owners, property owners, property developers, elected representatives, Chambers of Commerce, oil industry spokespeople, and North Dakota government agency spokespeople thought that they were all in agreement, all with the same program, of continuing to encourage people to move to North Dakota because it accomplishes their goals of having customers, making sales, having properties rented or leased, having properties sell, keeping property values high, and keeping tax revenue coming in.  So they all keep making announcements that there are thousands of high paying job vacancies in the oil field of North Dakota, even though there aren’t.

But when I, and several of my friends were unable to get home loans from banks in Dickinson recently, I discovered something odd.  Eventually I realized that there is an entirely different plan in place, that is unknown to 99.95% of the people in Dickinson.  The wealthiest 0.05% of the people in Dickinson, which includes the local Bank owners, have a completely different plan.

Despite what the business owners, property owners, property developers, Chambers of Commerce, oil industry spokespeople, and North Dakota government spokespeople are saying about the thousands of high paying job vacancies in the oil field in North Dakota currently, in order to try to keep the economy going, the Bank owners and the wealthiest 0.05% are preparing for an economic collapse.

When I and several of my friends were denied home loans recently by Banks, even though our income was sufficient to make the mortgage payments, and we had each been at our present jobs for more than four years, it was like the Banks were saying, “Even though you currently earn enough money to make the mortgage payments, and you have been at your present job for more than four years, we don’t believe that you will keep your job, or be able to get another job in Dickinson, and we don’t want to foreclose on a property that will be worth much, much less than your mortgage with the bank.”  In other words, the Banks are preparing for an economic collapse in Dickinson, where many people will lose their job, be unable to get another job, and property values will fall.

I began to realize that what the Bank owners know, what the wealthiest 0.05% of North Dakotans knew all along, was that these Oil Booms in North Dakota last about seven years.  You can make money on the way up, you can rent properties, lease properties, sell properties, build some properties and sell them, but you need to sell or hold during the way up, don’t buy anything, unless it is very early on.  The real money to be made, is when the economic collapse comes, then you can buy businesses, equipment, buildings, houses, and properties for 10% of what they cost.

The funny thing is, that the business people, business owners, property owners, property developers, Chambers of Commerce, oil industry spokespeople, and North Dakota government spokespeople, all believed that they had the same goal, were on the same page about growth, and keeping the economy going, when all along the wealthiest 0.05% of North Dakotans were just eagerly awaiting the economic collapse that was inevitable.

The business people, business owners, property owners, and property developers that were kind of the herders, shearers, fleecers, milkers, and egg gatherers of the ordinary working people, taking advantage of them and gouging them on rent, leases, and real estate, once the economy in Dickinson collapses, they will be broke or in a very bad financial position.  The wealthiest 0.05%, who knew this was coming years ago, have been waiting for this.

Business people, business owners, property owners, and property developers that once took advantage of other people, will then be taken advantage of.  Whatever they built, created, bought, or owned, they will end up losing it, and perhaps be paid 10% of what it cost them.

Truth About The Work Situation In Dickinson, North Dakota

In the past two weeks, I have written three blog posts about three different couples that I have seen moving out of the low rent older apartment building where I live in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota.  Each of these three couples had moved to Dickinson about six months ago, and now they are leaving Dickinson.

Every day there are radio advertisements from local companies in Dickinson about how they offer competitive wages, paid family health insurance, and $3,000 to $6,000 sign-on bonuses.  About once each week, there is a representative from North Dakota Job Services talking about hundreds of job openings in Williston, Watford City, and Dickinson.  Yet when I log on to the North Dakota Job Services website and I search for jobs in Williston, Watford City, and Dickinson, there are fewer than forty current job openings in each of these towns, and one third of them are for medical professionals.

What is really going on?  To explain, I want to write about an experience that I had yesterday on Saturday November 10, 2018, in Dickinson:

I went to a gas station in Dickinson that I normally do not go to.  Working at the cash register, was a man that I had worked with in Dickinson seven years ago, back in 2011.  He is about 6′-3″, 300 lb, able-bodied, fairly intelligent, and he is from Dickinson.

In 2011, this man was the operations manager for the small oil field service company where I worked.  He was in charge of the crew trucks, equipment trailers, skid steers, backhoe, scissor lifts, snorkel lifts, lull, generators, compressors, compactors, and other tools.  He operated equipment in the company yard, and at the job sites where we worked.

This company where we worked constructed pump jack concrete foundation pads at oil field locations, salt waters disposal facilities, steel warehouse buildings, and performed work at several different refineries.  The operations manager ordered material for the work that was performed, and he sometimes supervised the work that was performed.

The operations manager did a pretty good job over all.  He worked at this small oil field service company for several years, before going to work for a supplier of oil field tools and equipment for several years.

Why is this big, strong, able-bodied, fairly intelligent, competent, local person, with ten years of experience working in the oil field, working as a cashier at gas station in Dickinson, if there are supposed to be hundreds of job openings in Williston, Watford City, and Dickinson?

In my recent blog posts titled “The Truth About Living And Working In Dickinson, North Dakota”, “Truth And Lies About Living And Working In Dickinson, North Dakota”, and “Even More Truth And Lies About Living And Working In Dickinson, North Dakota”,  I have tried to explain that business people, property owners, property managers, and oil field companies are trying to “keep things going” by spreading false information.  They want to keep people moving to Dickinson to do business, so that the value of their properties remain high, to rent or lease properties, and to have a large pool of skilled labor in order to keep wages low.

Even More Truth And Lies About Living And Working In Dickinson, North Dakota

Today, Saturday November 10, 2018, I am yet again watching a couple move out of the low rent older apartment building in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota where I live.  No, this is not an across town move, because they have a pickup truck and a U-haul trailer, and they are very carefully trying to fit absolutely everything they own into this truck and trailer, because they are leaving Dickinson.

In the past thirty days, I have written two previous blog posts about two other couples who were moving out of the older apartment building where I live in Dickinson.  Both the first couple, and the second couple, the husband was truck driver.  Both of these two couples moved to Dickinson about six months ago.

On the radio in Dickinson, North Dakota for the past several months, there have been advertisements from local trucking companies about how they need truck drivers, they offer competitive wages, paid family health insurance, and a $3,000 to $6,000 sign-on bonus.

Why is it that truck drivers come to Dickinson for work, then they leave about six months later?  No, they didn’t make so much money that they are leaving.  I talked to them, I saw how they were living, I saw that they had very little, I sometimes saw and heard these couples arguments that continued through the parking lot and into the building, the kind of arguments that people have when money is scarce.

Also on the radio in Dickinson during the past sixty days, I have heard representatives from North Dakota Job Service talk about the great need for workers in Williston, Watford City, and Dickinson, about several hundred job vacancies in Williston.  Yet when I log onto the North Dakota Job Services website, and search for job openings in Williston, Watford City, and Dickinson, I see that there are less than forty current job openings in Williston, and less than thirty current job openings in Watford City and Dickinson.  One third of these job openings are for Registered Nurses, Travel Nurses, and Medical Doctors, more job openings in the medical professions than there are in the oil field.

What is going on?  I know exactly what is going on, and what is happening.  Business owners, property owners, property managers, and oil companies want to “keep things going”.  The business owners want customers, the property owners want their property to continue to be worth money, the property managers want tenants, and the oil companies want to have a large pool of skilled trades people so that they can keep wages low, have the threat of easily replacing workers, and being able to replace skilled trades people like they were shop rags when they get worn out.

In my previous blog post, I found a short way to put it, if you are not from this area, you are treated like a migrant worker.  No matter if you have a college degree, management experience, or a great deal of work experience, if you are not from this area you are treated like a migrant worker.

What does this mean, being treated like a “migrant worker”?  It means that you will be followed more, stopped more, and treated with more scrutiny by the local city Police.  You are a good candidate for a DUI, a good source of revenue for the city when you pay your court fines, and how the local attorneys stay in business with the $3,000 retainer fee you will pay.

If you are not from this area, you will be treated like a migrant worker in many businesses, establishments, city, county, state, and federal offices in Dickinson.  At work, you will be disliked, mistrusted, mistreated, and undermined by your local co-workers, local administrators, local managers, and local company owners.

The truth is, that there are some job openings in Dickinson, and the wage rates are still above average, because no one wants to live or work in Dickinson.  The local people are unfriendly and hostile, the real estate prices are way too high, there is not a lot to do, there are very few places to go, and the local employers and the local co-workers treat out of state workers like shit.

More Truth And Lies About Living And Working In Dickinson, North Dakota

About ten days ago, I wrote a blog post article about a poor truck driver and his wife moving out of the low rent downtown apartment building where I live in Dickinson, to return to the state where they came from.  When they moved in six months ago, back in May of 2018, they arrived with a thirty year old beat up car that they had borrowed from someone.  The only progress they made financially during the past six months was being able to buy a twenty-five year old beat up pickup truck for about $2,000.

During the more than one hour drive that I have to and from work, and while I am at work, each day I hear on FM radio stations advertisements for truck drivers wanted in Dickinson, North Dakota, where the companies are offering sign-on bonuses of $3,000 to $6,000, and family health insurance plans.

How can it be, that even though this truck driver neighbor of mine worked long hours and I hardly ever saw him, how could this be that he and his wife were so poor?  How could this be that when he lost his truck driving job in October, he was unable to get another truck driving job and had to return to the state where he came from?

This same exact thing that I saw happening ten days ago, where this truck driver and his wife who arrived here six months ago were moving out of the apartment building where I live in Dickinson, happened again two days ago.  Another couple who arrived here six months ago, where the husband drives truck, they are moving to Bismarck.

I ask the readers to please stop and think about this, every day I hear on FM radio around Dickinson, advertisements from several different trucking companies about their immediate need for experienced truck drivers, where they offer competitive wages, anywhere from a $3,000 to $6,000 sign on bonus, and family health insurance plans.  Why do poor truck drivers from out of state move here with their wives and belongings into the least expensive apartment they can find, to take a truck driving job in Dickinson, never appear to get ahead, and then leave Dickinson after six months?

These truck drivers leave Dickinson because they were lied to, and were misled.  All out of state workers who arrive in Dickinson are treated like shit, both at work, and outside of work.  If you are not from Dickinson, you are treated like a migrant worker.  You will not receive fair treatment, or good treatment, the whole time you are here.

The companies in Dickinson, the Chamber of Commerce, and North Dakota job service will continue to put people on the radio talking about the great need for workers, the shortage of workers, and that companies are desperate for workers.  Yes, they do need workers, because they treat everyone like shit, and they leave.  This is why people will not come back to Dickinson to work.

The Tragedy Of Dave’s Auto Repair In Dickinson, North Dakota

I am a big believer in taking Fords to the Ford Dealer, Dodges to the Dodge Dealer, and Toyotas to the Toyota Dealer.  The mechanics in each of these dealerships have worked on hundreds of F150s, Ram 1500s, and Toyota trucks.  These mechanics have done the repair that you need on your particular model vehicle, dozens of times.  They know the easy way to do it, without damaging anything else, and the additional parts that can’t help being damaged that will have to be replaced too.

I also like the fact that service departments which are part of a car dealership have so much assets, that if a repair is ever done incorrectly which requires it to be redone or results in damage to your vehicle, they can afford to redo the repair or compensate you for the damage done to your vehicle.  They practically have to handle an incorrect repair in the most customer friendly way in order to maintain a good overall reputation.

I estimate that in the past six years in Dickinson, North Dakota, I have spent $2,000 at the Ford Dealer, $1,500 at the Dodge Dealer, and $1,200 at the Toyota Dealer getting vehicle repairs done.  The work was done well or just O.K., but it was expensive.

My Ford F150 for instance, the heater core had a hole in it, and the entire dashboard needed to be removed in order to replace the heater core.  A repair garage in Idaho, and the Ford Dealer in Dickinson both read to me the man-hour estimate for removing and reinstalling the entire dashboard, and it was something like eight hours.  Because of the large number of hours, and the high hourly shop rate at the Ford Dealer in Dickinson, this repair cost me about $1,200.

My Dodge 1500 for instance, the headlight switch quit working.  The Dodge Dealer mechanic said that he had done this light switch repair many times, and that it wasn’t just a matter of replacing this switch, the wiring harness plug for this switch was notorious for melting, and he was able to show me on my truck that this wiring harness plug had in fact melted.  In order to splice on a new wiring plug onto the wiring harness, it required the dashboard to be removed and reinstalled, and this repair cost me $500 due to the amount of man-hours and the high hourly shop rate at the Dodge Dealer in Dickinson.

At the Toyota Dealer Service Department in Dickinson, not only did I look at their nice looking women employees in their service department, and their nice looking customer women who were waiting for their vehicles to be repaired or serviced, I wrote about it.  I may not be very welcome in the Toyota Dealership Service Department in Dickinson, so for this reason, and for the reason of the car dealership service departments being so expensive, I needed to find a good, less expensive, independent mechanic in Dickinson.

In the past several years in Dickinson, a few local people had recommended Dave’s Auto Repair to me.  This repair garage is located behind Runnings, in the same building as the car wash, which has the large sign that reads “Four Seasons Auto”.  I had stopped at this garage once before when they had a Lexus for sale.  It was an inexpensive Lexus, but the paint on the hood, roof, and trunk had its clear coat worn away, and the paint was beginning to oxidize, and at the time I needed a nicer looking vehicle with no oxidized paint.

About a year ago, the engine oil pressure gauge quit working most of the time on my Dodge 1500 truck.  This didn’t bother me too much, because there was still a low oil pressure warning light that was separate from the oil pressure gauge.  Three months ago, 35 miles into my drive on the way to work, the low oil pressure warning light came on in my Dodge 1500 truck.  I pulled off the side of the road, added one quart of engine oil, started the truck, and the low oil pressure warning light did not come back on for the rest of the drive to work.

In the following days, the low oil pressure warning light on my Dodge 1500 truck came on, and stayed on.  Me, and two of my co-workers doubted that there was no oil pressure in this truck, my two co-workers said that it was most likely a bad oil pressure sensor sending unit.  One of my co-workers who I had worked with for almost a year, who was very practical, level headed, and cheap, recommended Dave’s Auto Repair in Dickinson very highly.  He said that he had been taking all of his vehicles, even his new vehicles to Dave’s Auto Repair for the past fifteen years.

My co-worker explained to me that Dave, the owner, did the work, along with his two sons.  He said that Dave was very honest, and very reasonable on the cost of car repairs.  In a few days I went and met Dave to make an appointment to have my Dodge 1500 engine oil pressure tested, and then replace the oil pressure sensor sending unit if it was faulty.

When the work was done on my Dodge 1500 truck in approximately August of 2018, Dave’s son did the repair, and I talked to him a little bit when I came to pick up my truck and pay for the repair which cost about $150.  I had met Dave’s son a couple of years ago when I went there to see about the Lexus which they had for sale.  This repair to my Dodge truck was fine, it didn’t cost that much, and I liked Dave and his son.  I planned on getting a lot more work done at Dave’s Auto Repair, especially getting the front drive shaft CV joints and seals replaced on this Dodge 1500 truck.

In September, I believe it was, I was getting my hair cut in a barber shop, when a young man came in and said to the barber that he had to get his van off of the garage property by the end of the day, because they were having an auction at the garage the following day.  The barber asked this young man if he was buying his father’s tools, and this young man said something like he would have bought them prior to the auction or he didn’t want to bid on them at the auction, because he wanted the auction to bring as much money as possible.

I thought about what this young man and the barber were talking about, it seemed like this young man’s family’s repair garage or service company was unexpectedly going out of business, which was very sad, because this young man was employed at this business.  He might have expected to own and operate this business one day, or be employed there for the rest of his life, but that wasn’t going to happen now.

After he left, I asked the barber what was going on, and he said that Dave’s Auto Repair was closing, and that they were auctioning off all of their tools and equipment.  I misunderstood what the barber said, because I thought that there was no way that the repair garage that I had just gone to was going out of business.  I said, you are not talking about Dave’s Auto Repair behind Runnings, at the car wash?  And the barber replied, that yes he was.

I couldn’t believe this, what were Dave and his two sons going to do now?  Hadn’t he been in business at that location for something like twenty years?  I telephoned my co-worker who had recommended this garage, who had been taking all of his vehicles there for fifteen years.  My co-worker said that he and a bunch of people that he knew asked Dave what was going on.  My co-worker heard from his friends, that the owner of the building where Dave had his garage, had told Dave that he was going to triple his rent.  Dave supposedly said to the owner of this building, that there was no way that he could make enough money to stay in business if he tripled his rent, so that he would have to close his business.

I was very sorry to hear this, and my co-worker said that he and his friends were all going to go over to the owner of this building where he lived and drag him out of his house, but Dave would not tell them where he lived.  This is very, very typical and well known in Dickinson, that the greed of the property owners is so great, that they expect successful business owners to hand over most of their money to them, so that as business owners they would be left with about $10 per hour to pay themselves.

Now Dickinson no longer has one of the most honest and reasonable independent repair garages in town.  Dave no longer has the satisfaction and freedom of being self employed, running his own business, and providing a good place to work for his two sons.  His two sons no longer have the pride, security, and future of working in a successful family run business.  All because of the evil greed of the property owners in Dickinson.

The Reality Of Living In Dickinson Versus The Lies

On this blog website, I have tried again, and again, to explain the reality of living in Dickinson, North Dakota, versus the lies.

Right now, today, there are advertisements and announcements on the radio about truck driving jobs in Dickinson, Watford City, and Williston with “paid benefits, housing provided, $3,000 sign-on bonus, and $6,000 sign-on bonus”.  Yes, there are some truck driving jobs in Dickinson, Watford City, and Williston, but it is not like what is advertised or claimed.  I want to give a recent, real life example.

In the Spring of 2018, at the older, low rent apartment building where I live in downtown Dickinson, there was a couple in their late twenties who moved into my building.  This man and woman, appeared to be kind of poor, they drove a thirty year old luxury car that was worn out, with the rear suspension sagging.  Later, it was found out, that this wasn’t even their car, it had been lent to them.

Everyone in the building remembers this couple moving in, because they made a fuss about someone being parked in “their parking space”, which caused at least a year long mutual agreement and understanding of the residents to be messed up, and a chain reaction of squabbles.

Mathematically, there are not enough parking spaces in front of the building for each apartment to have one parking space, without even considering that some apartments have two drivers and two vehicles.  It came to be understood and established, that the mothers with children, and the women who were less mobile, had their usual spot where they parked their car in front of the building, and the men, who typically drove pickup trucks and were able-bodied parked on the street.  It was a very practical arrangement, that worked very well, until this new young couple demanded “their parking space”, which then caused everyone to end up parking in someone else’s customary space.

This couple was from out of state, and the husband was a truck driver.  I never saw very much of the husband, because he was always working.  After about two months of living in this building, this couple bought a twenty-five year old Chevy pickup truck that was beat up, and they gave back the thirty year old luxury car that had been lent to them.

I remember this husband and wife fighting and squabbling some, on a regular basis, with their arguments and hostility being carried or continued into the parking lot, and hallways.  Car doors slamming, shouting, yelling, fighting between the two of them about the other one not doing what they wanted, needed, or were supposed to do.

With their beat up truck, shabby, dirty, cheap clothing, and tired appearance, the husband always seemed to be coming from the position of working hard, working long hours, and the wife not doing what she was supposed to do, or not understanding that they didn’t have money.  And the wife was disappointed and unhappy about everything, where they lived, what they had, and her not getting what she wanted.

This past week, five or six months after this couple moved into my building downtown, they are moving out.  The husband lost his truck driving job, and they are returning to the state where they came from.  All by himself, this poor, tired, worn out truck driver was carrying all the beat up old furniture from their apartment, and piling it in the back of their beat up $2,000 truck.  The wife was no where to be seen, it looks like she split, too much disappointment and humiliation for her.

This husband was hardly ever home, because he was out driving tractor trucks.  With the supposed high demand for truck drivers, high rate of pay, $3,000 to $6,000 sign on bonuses, why are people like this couple so poor?  Why was the husband let go?  Why did they have to pay for their own apartment?  Why couldn’t the husband easily go get another truck driving job with a $3,000 to $6,000 sign on bonus, and housing provided?

I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for a little over six years now.  What business owners, business organizations, and politicians claim, is a bunch of bullshit, hype, and propaganda which benefits them:  To keep people coming here to rent apartments, rent homes, buy homes, keep real estate prices up, keep businesses going, to have an overabundance of labor, in order to keep labor pay rates low.

If you are from out of state and you come here, you may be able to get a job, but you will not be treated very well because you are not from here, you will be undermined by your local co-workers, not valued by your local company owner, used like migrant laborers, and let go.  You may be able to pay your bills while you are here, but you will not get ahead financially unless you live almost like a homeless person or Mexican migrant worker to try to save some money.

I Hate Tailgaters In Dickinson, North Dakota

I hate tailgaters in Dickinson, North Dakota.  Dickinson is the worst place that I have ever lived regarding tailgating.  The second worst tailgating place that I have ever lived, is the small town in Idaho where I bought a home.

You might think that the worst tailgaters, would be the pushy, aggressive people in Tampa, Orlando, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, or Salt Lake.  But the people in the big cities who drive in heavy traffic every day, know that if you follow too closely behind another vehicle, you are going to be in an at-fault vehicle accident for rear-ending another vehicle.

In Dickinson, and in the small town in Idaho where I used to live, it appeared that the local people were too stupid to have ever had the thought, “If this vehicle in front of me slams on the brakes, there is no way that I could stop in time before running into the back of this vehicle.  I would be the one who was blamed for the accident, for following too close, driving too fast, or not paying attention.”

It’s like the people in Dickinson have this thought process, “The stoplight up ahead has just changed to red, even though there is no way to continue through the stop light at this moment, I will follow as closely as possible behind the vehicle in front of me, so that at least I might get into an at-fault accident, have some points assessed against my driver’s license, have my vehicle insurance go up or be cancelled, and have some damage done to my vehicle so that I won’t be able to drive it for a while.”

The tailgaters in Dickinson fall into the following categories, from the most common, to the least common:

  1. Ford F250/F350, Dodge 2500/3500, Chevy 2500/3500 owners that follow too closely because that is what they think their vehicle is for, tailgating.  In Dickinson, probably 50% of the people who own these 3/4 ton-1 ton pickup trucks, do not own a trailer of any kind, or do any heavy hauling, so the next best thing in their mind, is to drive like an asshole.  Even if you are driving at the speed limit, or a little over the speed limit, in a 25 mph, 35 mph, or 45 mph zone, they follow as closely as possible, because they are in big hurry to get from one red stop light to the next red stop light.
  2. Stupid, inexperienced, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder young people with $2,500 vehicles.  Mostly from poor families, but a small few are from middle class or upper middle class families, mixed up, troubled, confused, drug addict young people who can never think more than one step ahead, they just don’t know how to not get into a car accident yet.
  3. Highway drivers outside of Dickinson, that can’t use logic, reasoning, understand physics, or do math.  Scenario: “If you are driving one mile behind a vehicle, and over the course of five minutes, you steadily become closer, and closer, and closer to the vehicle ahead of you, are you going faster than the vehicle ahead of you, and is the vehicle ahead of you going slower than you are?  Do you think that you will need to pass the slower moving vehicle ahead of you, or if you follow the slower moving vehicle ahead of you as closely as possible, will you be going the same speed as you have been going?”
  4. Highway drivers that feel safer driving as closely as possible behind you.  There are women drivers that are young, middle-aged, or older who somehow feel like they are safer, if they can drive as closely as possible behind your vehicle, that you know where you are going, that you know the speed limit, that everything will be O.K. if they stay right behind you.  It’s like they are scared to be alone in the woods, alone in the dark, or alone on the highway.  There are some confused men, maybe they don’t even have a driver’s license, that try to stay right behind another vehicle, because they feel like they will get into less trouble and not be noticed by law enforcement.

The least likely people to tailgate, are truly successful people who have accumulated many assets.  They do not want any vehicle accident, personal injury, or property damage of any kind, because this would only be a waste of their time, a nuisance, an inconvenience, and possibly cause them other problems.  They do not want to have any altercation with people, if they can possibly avoid it.

Wealthy people, successful people, have experienced the frustration of being stuck in slow moving traffic, so they have gone and gotten their pilot’s license, and have bought an airplane either by themselves, or jointly with several other people.  If they want to or expect to travel long distances, they use their airplane.  They have planned ahead, not to be frustrated with traffic.

Wealthy people, successful people, plan on taking several or more vacations and trips each year.  They look forward to going to their vacation home in a different state, or a different country.  They look forward to laying on a warm, sunny beach, going sailing, going deep sea fishing, or going scuba diving.  How or why, would they want to be involved in an at-fault vehicle accident, wasting their time and money, and causing other problems, by driving so close behind other people that they can’t stop in time to avoid a rear-end collision?  They plan, not to get into vehicle accidents.

Wealthy successful people, spend their time looking at investments, buying real estate, starting a business, buying businesses, and instructing and mentoring their children.  They plan what they do with their time.  Why would they plan on being in a vehicle accident by driving so close behind other people that they can not stop in time to avoid a rear-end collision?  They plan, not to get into vehicle accidents.

It is only the poor people, the stupid people, the drug addicts, the feeble minded, the white trash, and the dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks blue collar people that can not get it through their stupid fucking thick skulls, that driving so close behind other people that they can not stop in time to avoid a collision, is something that is going to waste their time, waste other people’s time, cause an altercation, cost them money, cause points on their driver’s license, require repair on their vehicle, raise their vehicle insurance or cause insurance to be cancelled, and possibly cause them problems with their current and future employment.

Unethical Human Medical Experimentation In Dickinson, North Dakota

I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for about six years.  The reason why I came to Dickinson, was because there was an oil boom in this area from 2007 through 2014.  Though the oil boom is over, and approximately 80% of the out-of-state workers have returned to the states where they came from, I have remained here in Dickinson because I can still make more money here than I can where my home is in Idaho.

I have not ever come out and said it openly before, but I might as well say it now, the reason why the wages are still fairly high in Dickinson, is because it sucks so bad here, that no one wants to work here, stay here, or live here.  Further, truly intelligent, sharp, talented, highly skilled people don’t have to live here and suffer through this, they can probably get a job someplace else, anyplace else, so it is only the less intelligent, less talented, less skilled people, or people who have got something wrong with them, that stay here.

I have described that living in Dickinson, is like being in prison:  There are hardly any women;  the women who are here are mean, unfriendly, hostile, overweight, and unattractive;  the local people here are suspicious, mistrustful, uncooperative, and undermining to people who are from someplace else;  there is no where to go and nothing to do;  the City of Dickinson Police follow everyone around, watch them, and treat them just like they are all convicts or inmates.

It is very difficult living in Dickinson, North Dakota.  It is not normal, it is very harsh.  You can not do, or get things that you would elsewhere.  It is very isolated from civilization by the many miles of cold, frozen, barren prairie.  And one of the things that you cannot get, is competent medical care.

Beginning in 2014 while living in Dickinson, I began getting very sick, from what appeared to be something in the air in Dickinson.  I had previously lived and worked all over the United States, and I had never had allergies or an allergic reaction to anything before.  In Dickinson, my eyes would swell up, almost completely shut, my eyes would water continuously, and my nose would run continuously.  There is hardly any plant life in Dickinson, what could this be from?

I went to Sanford Health in Dickinson about my allergic reaction in 2014, and was diagnosed with “allergic conjunctivitis”, and I was given a prescription for some kind of eye drop medication.  When I went to get this prescription filled at the grocery store pharmacy in Dickinson, there was a line of people all the way from the pharmacy counter, out the door of the grocery store.  I was too sick to wait in line for this prescription to be filled.

When I have been very sick in Dickinson, with a sudden severe allergic reaction, I have gone to family practice clinics in Dickinson, and I have been told I would have to wait seven weeks for an appointment.  I then went again to Sanford Health Clinic, and I was given a very expensive medication prescription, for a very small amount of medication, which did not help at all.

I then resorted to trying every over-the-counter allergy medication that there is, first in the normal recommended doses, and then in much larger doses after these over-the-counter medications failed to work.  Eventually, I found that taking “Zyrtec” a.k.a. “Cetirizine” in much larger doses, helps the most.  But these allergy attacks are becoming more and more frequent, and the large doses of Zyrtec are becoming less and less effective.

What is it in the air in Dickinson, that can suddenly make me have such a severe allergic reaction, even when it is in October and snowing?  There are only a very small variety of trees in Dickinson, and there are very few trees overall.  What the fuck is going on?  What is in the air?

I am including some excerpts from a Wikipedia article about Unethical Human Experimentation In The United States:

Unethical Human Experimentation in the United States describes numerous experiments performed on human test subjects in the United States that have been considered unethical, and were often performed illegally, without the knowledge, consent, or informed consent of the test subjects. Such tests have occurred throughout American history, but particularly in the 20th century.

The experiments include: the exposure of people to many chemical and biological weapons (including infection of people with deadly or debilitating diseases), human radiation experiments, injection of people with toxic and radioactive chemicals, surgical experiments like KX-338, interrogation and torture experiments, tests involving mind-altering substances, and a wide variety of others. Many of these tests were performed on children, the sick, and mentally disabled individuals, often under the guise of “medical treatment”. In many of the studies, a large portion of the subjects were poor, racial minorities, or prisoners.

Funding for many of the experiments was provided by the United States government, especially the Unites States military, the Central Intelligence Agency, or private corporations involved with military activities.  The human research programs were usually highly secretive, and in many cases information about them was not released until many years after the studies had been performed.

My belief is, that because Dickinson is geographically and socially isolated, with the lowest education level and least well-read people anywhere in the United States, that unethical medical testing is being conducted on the people in and around Dickinson, without their knowledge or consent.

The very large and new Sanford Health Clinic and St. Alexius Hospital in Dickinson give the local people and people in the surrounding area, the impression that they can expect modern, up-to-date, and competent medical care in Dickinson.  But this is not the case, people in Dickinson find that they do not have their health problems effectively treated or solved in Dickinson.  Is this because the “test subjects” in Dickinson, are not supposed to be treated, and only monitored in order to observe and study the long term effects of the chemicals and substances that they have been exposed to?

Why Local People In Dickinson, North Dakota Prefer To Stay Home

In my previous blog post titled “Socializing In Dickinson, North Dakota”, I explained that there were a lot more people going to Patterson Lake Beach, bars, restaurants, parties, events, and concerts in Dickinson back during the Oil Boom in 2007 through 2014, and for a short time after the Oil Boom ended.

I explained that once approximately 5,000 out of state workers returned to the states where they came from, Patterson Lake Beach and bars in Dickinson, went from having 200 people at one time, to having only 5 people at one time.  After the Oil Boom was over, and so many out of state workers left, Dickinson quieted down, calmed down, and it appears that the local people in Dickinson prefer to stay home.

In this blog post, I want to explain why it is that the local people in Dickinson prefer to stay home.  The main reasons have to do with several different kinds of fear, mistrust, suspicion, and money.  These fears, mistrust, and suspicion are present in many local people whether they are poor, lower middle class, middle class, or wealthy.

Up until this most recent oil boom in 2007, Dickinson was very controlled.  It was controlled by wealthy or influential people, who decided who got hired, who got fired, who got promoted, who got a car loan, who got a home loan, and so forth.  Wealthy people, influential people, and employers had a lot of power, because there were not many places to work.  If a person “got out of line”, they risked never being able to get a promotion, losing their job, or being “blacklisted” from being hired elsewhere.

Many people in Dickinson, whether they were poor, lower middle class, or middle class, feared going out in Dickinson, because they ran the risk of letting their guard down, enjoying themselves, and being “reported” by someone, or being “observed” by someone higher up than them, and later facing unwanted and unintended consequences.

A corollary of this was, poor people, lower middle class, and middle class people, feared going out in Dickinson either alone, or with their family, and unknowingly entering a place where a supervisor, company owner, or wealthy person was drunk, and being verbally abused or insulted in an embarrassing way, and being unable to defend themselves because of the fear of themselves or their family member losing their job, being evicted, or their home being foreclosed on.

Something that I have written about before, is that there was so little opportunity to get ahead in Dickinson, that one way that people in Dickinson could feel like they were getting ahead, was when other people failed.  So, unfortunately, it became common in Dickinson for people to cause or assist other people to fail.  One way to assist other people to fail was to withhold help from others, which is easier to do if you do not talk to, or socialize with other people.

Because it was so common for people in Dickinson to cause or assist other people to fail, undermining was a very common practice.  In order to not be undermined, people in Dickinson became very tight-lipped about their affairs and everything that they did, and one way to do this was to not talk to or socialize with other people, lest they find out something about them, and use it against them.

There are not very many middle class people or wealthy people in Dickinson.  In the past, these middle class or wealthy people might have been able to socialize at the Elks Lodge, but the Elks Lodge in Dickinson now is almost extinct.  At the Elks Lodge, middle class or wealthy people could have discussed what college their children were going to, their vacation to foreign country, or their vacation home in a different state, but not anymore.

In Dickinson, because there are so few middle class or wealthy people, it is very hard for these people to go out in public, to places like a bar, restaurant, party, event, or concert, lest they let their guard down, and accidentally start talking about their home in Arizona in front of other people, or be overheard by other people.

In summary, the fear of suffering consequences at work; the fear of coming into conflict with a supervisor, employer or wealthy person; the fear of socializing with people who may then later undermine them; the desire to not make friends with others who may later want help; the desire to not share personal information with others; these fears, mistrust, suspicion, and disparity in wealth, make local people in Dickinson not want to socialize or go out in public, and prefer to stay home.

Again, this is something that I do not think Odyssey Theaters or the City of Dickinson understand when they are trying to build a cinema complex and a town square downtown.  The local people in Dickinson, do not want to socialize, they would rather stay home.  Local people in Dickinson are mistrustful, suspicious, wary, and uncomfortable with local people, and especially strangers from out of town.  A cinema complex or a town square are not places they would want to go or enjoy, these are places that local people would try to avoid.

Socializing In Dickinson, North Dakota

I lived in Dickinson, North Dakota during the years 2011 through 2018.  There was an Oil Boom going on in Dickinson from 2007 through 2014, that ended once the price of oil dropped below $80 per barrel near the end of 2014, and continued to fall.

In 2011 in Dickinson, restaurants, bars, hotels, apartments, and RV Parks were crowded with people from all over the United States who had great optimism and enthusiasm about having the chance to make a lot of money in the oil field.  These were not bad people, many of these people were educated, intelligent, hardworking, talented people who were looking for the opportunity to make their fortune.

All over the United States, on television news, or television shows, reporters and journalist were telling about how everyone was making over $100,000 per year in North Dakota.  Although this was not true, the people from all over the United States that arrived in Dickinson with great optimism and enthusiasm, wouldn’t know that this wasn’t true until they had worked through the Spring, Summer, Fall, and into the Winter.

Although for me personally, I had been convinced by my own thoughts and the local people in Dickinson, that the years 2007 through 2014 were the “Ugly Years”, or the “Oil Field Trash Years”,  these were actually the best of times, the affluent years, and the most social years for Dickinson.

The point of me writing this particular blog post, is that the local people and myself, believed that after the Oil Boom ended, Dickinson would return to some kind of normalcy, and calm down to something that was preferable.  It has dawned on me now, that the Oil Boom years 2007 through 2014 were the best years as far as socializing and having fun in Dickinson.

In 2011 in Dickinson, in the Summer at Patterson Lake Beach, there would be about 200 people at this beach every weekend, sunning, swimming, throwing frisbees, throwing footballs, drinking, and cooking out.  About 150 of these people would be men, and 50 of them would be women.  At the time, I might have thought that there were only 50 women or less, because there were just too many men, but the opposite was true, women came to Patterson Lake Beach because there were so many men.

There were maybe 20 attractive looking women at Patterson Lake Beach on the weekend in the Summer of 2011, because there were so many men.  About half of these attractive women on Patterson Lake Beach were Dickinson State University students, a few were local high school girls, the rest were women who came to work in Dickinson.

In 2011, I never could have imagined that in the Summer of 2013, there would only be twenty people on the beach at Patterson Lake on the weekend.  And by 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 in the Summer on the weekend there would only be about five people on the beach at Patterson Lake.

In the Summer of 2013, when I was shocked to see only twenty people at Patterson Lake Beach, I thought that what must have happened was that the out of state workers got tired of the local people, the local people got tired of the out of state workers, and the Dickinson State University girls got tired of everyone ogling them, so no one came to the beach anymore.

Also in 2013, I noted that bars that had had 200 people inside at night during 2011, now only had about 50 people.  In 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 the number of people in these bars might be five people.

In 2013, 2014, and 2015, there were often very large wedding receptions held in the ballroom of the Astoria Hotel, the Elks Lodge, and the Eagles Lodge.  These large wedding reception parties have become much, much fewer after 2016.

The large event parties that were held in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 such as the API Fish Fry and the Hair Ball Concert in the West River Ice Rink Center, parties and concerts in the Biesiot Activities Center, and the downtown Alive at 5 Concerts have become much smaller, and much less frequent.

Altogether, since the beginning of the end of the Oil Boom in Dickinson, there have been much, much fewer people going to Patterson Lake Beach, bars at night, having parties, putting on events, putting on concerts, or going to events or concerts.  What happened?, the population of Dickinson might have peaked at 28,000 and is now at maybe 23,000, with only 5,000 people moving away, why would Patterson Lake Beach or bars go from having 200 people at a time, to only having 5 people at a time?

I must have written this phrase twenty times in my previous blog posts, “Once the Oil Boom ended in 2014, the out of state workers returned to the states where they came from.”  5,000 workers returned to the states where they came from.  I now realize, that the out of state workers made Dickinson a much more sociable place than it had been.

Earlier in this blog post, I wrote that I had been convinced that Dickinson would return to a kind of “normalcy” after the Oil Boom was over.  Once Dickinson became quieter and calmer, I thought that local people would emerge from their holes and burrows, but they haven’t really.

I was somewhat mistaken about what was happening during the Oil Boom, and what would happen after the Oil Boom ended, because I was not realizing or recognizing that there was a big difference between the out of state workers and the people who are from Dickinson.

The out of state workers, were risk takers or adventurers, whether they wanted to be or not.  They left behind their families, friends, what they knew, and what they were familiar with, to travel a long distance to go somewhere where they didn’t know anyone, or know about anything.  They had to be outgoing, in order to get a job, find a place to live, find a place to eat, find a bank, get along with people, and keep their job.

The local people in Dickinson, are the opposite of risk takers or adventurers, they chose to stay in the same place all of their life, not ever deal with anything or anyone unfamiliar to them, and not try new things.  (Now that I think about it, if I would have written this paragraph before, this explains why the local people in Dickinson do not like out of state workers:  they don’t like dealing with anything or anyone that is unfamiliar to them, and they don’t like trying new things, new ideas, or change.)

So, as far as 2007 through 2014 actually having been the best of times, the most affluent years, and the most social years for Dickinson, it was because of the Oil Boom economy, and the influx of out of state workers.  The out of state workers had to be outgoing by necessity in order to begin working and living in some place that was completely new and different to them, while at the same time intentionally and unintentionally forcing new ideas, beliefs, ways of doing things, and changes onto the local people, who were reluctant and resistant to try anything new, or change anything.

Now that the Oil Boom is over, and the out of state workers have returned to the states where they came from, the local people in Dickinson can do what they want to do with much less interference or disruption.  And it appears, that what local people in Dickinson want to do, is mostly just stay home.

A second reason for me writing this particular blog post, is to explain why it may be a mistake for Odyssey Theaters or the City of Dickinson to plan on new development in downtown Dickinson, in order to make it a social gathering point.  Odyssey Theaters and the City of Dickinson are just not realizing, that the local people in Dickinson, are not social people, they do not like things that they are unfamiliar with, new ideas, new ways of doing things, or changes.  They would much rather stay home, than be around people that they do not know.

North Dakota Residents Are Too Permissive About Illegal Drug Use

When I first came to work in Dickinson, North Dakota in 2011, one of the companies that I worked for was very permissive about illegal drug use.  This company, which performed work in the oil field, knowingly hired people with recent criminal, drug possession, and drug dealing charges.

The two owners of this company believed that what people did in their own time, had nothing to do with work, it was none of their business, and it had no effect on their company.  This was far from being true.

About 50% of the current employees of this company were using illegal drugs on a daily basis, and another 40% were drinking heavily on a daily basis.  Every morning, virtually every employee that came to work or had to be picked up, was still impaired from over drinking the night before, drinking before coming to work, illegal drug use from the night before, or illegal drug use before coming to work.

There were usually a few employees who did not make it to work, because they had consumed too much alcohol, or too much drugs.  Some were absent for days at a time.  Some of them would come back weeks or months later, begging for their job back.

Whether it was the employees who drank too much alcohol every day, or used illegal drugs every day, work was not something that needed to get in the way of them being drunk or high.  Why would work be a place where you couldn’t be drunk or high, especially if the owners of the company were tolerant about it?

At this company, work was performed in a haphazard, disorganized, random, inefficient, barely competent, sometimes incompetent, dangerous way, and this company had a reputation for this.  Some local people would never consider working for this company, or hiring this company to perform work, because of its reputation.

So, for people who believe that being an alcoholic or drug addict does not affect work or a company, they are completely wrong.  Employees arriving to work impaired, not showing up that day, not showing up for days or weeks, trying to perform work impaired, completing work that is barely competent or not acceptable, having work site accidents, and gaining a reputation for all of this, is very detrimental and should not be wanted.

Recently and for some time previously, I have seen people try to make the argument,  “If alcohol use is legal, then marijuana use should be legal.  You can’t have alcohol be legal, and not have marijuana be legal.”  Many people think that this is sound logic and reasoning, so let me continue a little bit with this argument, to make it more clear:

“People become impaired by using alcohol, so why can’t they become impaired by using marijuana?”

“People drive impaired after using alcohol, so why can’t they use marijuana?”

“People commit crimes and violence after using alcohol, so why can’t they use marijuana?”

“You can’t say that people don’t get addicted to alcohol, so why can’t they use marijuana?”

When people try to make the argument that alcohol use is legal, so marijuana use should be legal, they inadvertently point out that people using alcohol become impaired, they drive impaired, they commit crimes and violence while impaired, and they become addicted to alcohol.  Why would this then be beneficial to make one more illegal substance now legal?

Also, the people who try to make the argument that alcohol use is legal and accepted, therefore marijuana use should be legal and accepted, how can they not admit that if you use this kind of logic, that once marijuana is legal, then ecstasy MDMA should be legal.  Once marijuana and ecstasy MDMA is legal, shouldn’t cocaine be legal?

The other main argument that people use to try to advocate for any illegal drug being made legal, is by saying that what people do with their own body, is their own business, if it doesn’t effect anyone else, it is their own business.  On the surface, this seems to make sense, but it is easy to point out why this does not make sense.

I will try to give two brief personal stories about marijuana users, before giving two brief stories about methamphetamine users:

While I was living in Arizona, I was roommates with two different people named “Steve”, who were both engineers, a little older than me.  They both smoked marijuana every day.  It was the same thing, they got up at about 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., and smoked marijuana, then 8 a.m., then 11 a.m., then 2 p.m., then 5 p.m., and so on.

Both of these two “Steves” had a degree in engineering, had not worked as an engineer for years, had gone bankrupt, and were very unmotivated.  They were not motivated to get a job, get a good job, meet people, socialize, exercise, have recreation, go anywhere, do anything, or have a girlfriend.  They were irritable, ill-tempered, and paranoid.

Though they were alive, they had departed and withdrawn from life in many important ways:  no job, no career, no friends, no relations with family members, no girlfriend, not going anywhere, not doing anything, neglecting chores and bills, no plans for the future.  How did they support themselves you might ask?  One of them went through all of his 401K, his inheritance from his grandparents, and all of his personal possessions.

So how does this affect other people?  There was a woman who liked me, and I talked her into going on a date with one of these “Steves”, in fact, I had to take them both out to dinner to get them to agree to this.  I tried to tell her about all of Steve’s good qualities and attributes, more than once.  They liked each other, and began dating.  When they broke up, I got them back together again.  They became engaged, then married, then they had two children, a boy and a girl.

But his wife had to separate from him, and take their two children with her, because Steve would not get a job, hold a job, be responsible, and stop smoking marijuana all day, once their two children got older.  He just wanted to sit around smoking pot all day, while his wife worked to support all of them.

My point is, that marijuana is not harmless, it can ruin people’s lives, just like alcoholism can.  But just because alcohol is legal, does not mean that we should make one more harmful drug legal.

The next two stories, are about two young women who I met, who were methamphetamine users, who were both from Idaho:

I was in an Italian restaurant eating, when I saw a very beautiful, thin, tall, Hispanic girl walk in, to pick up a take-out order.  I wanted to be with her, I thought.  By coincidence, not long after that, I was introduced to her, and we began dating.

She was one of the most beautiful women that I have been with, and she had sex with me right away, because she was a meth addict, she didn’t care about anything, and she was high all the time.   She had a very long criminal record, about thirty different charges in the past eight years.

Her three children had been taken away from her, because of her drug use.  She had spent her time and money, buying methamphetamine and getting high, rather than pay rent, buy groceries, feed her children, and take care of her children.  Her mother and stepfather had gained custody of her three children.

She liked me, because I owned a home, and had money.  She liked having sex with me, because she wanted to have another a baby, as her other three children had been taken away from her, this next one wouldn’t be taken away from us.  I was thinking, “Holy shit!  What!  You want to have another baby?  You must be out of your mind.”  Yes, she was out of her mind, she was high all of the time.

Women who are methamphetamine users, don’t see and don’t understand, that you can’t be pregnant while you are using drugs, and the baby develop normally.  They don’t see that a baby and children need constant care and supervision from an adult.  That you have to be present all day to feed them, change them, watch them, and be able to tell if they are sick or not.

My second story, is about a young woman from Idaho, who I saw walking down the street in the neighborhood where I rent an apartment in downtown Dickinson.  She was pretty, and she started talking to me, because I had an Idaho license plate on my vehicle.  I asked her if she wanted to go get something to eat, and she said O.K.

I suspected that she was homeless, and she admitted that she was.  We went through the drive through at Wendy’s, and I talked to her while we were eating.  I asked her if she wanted to go to the women’s homeless shelter, and she said that she did not.  She was scared that the women’s shelter would turn her in to the Police.

I could tell from the way that she was acting, skittish, erratic, and disorganized in her thinking and speaking, that she was a drug addict.  When I dropped her off back where I lived, she immediately went to a drug dealer’s vehicle that was parked about one hundred feet away, to ask if she could get some drugs.

The following day, I called the women’s homeless shelter, and I talked to them about trying to get this girl to them, and they assured me that they would not try to turn her over to the Police.  Later in the day, I found her, and I took her to get something to eat.  I talked to her about going to the women’s shelter, I tried to drop her off there, and I tried to persuade her to go in, but she would not get out of my vehicle.

On the previous day, or the second day when I was talking to her, I learned that she had had a child, but it was taken away from her by her father, and the state of Idaho.  Her father had custody of her young child, and he did not even want her to visit it.  I understood that it was the exact same situation as the Hispanic drug addict girl that I had dated, if you don’t feed your child, care for your child, and watch your child because you are out seeking drugs and getting high, you can’t fulfill your parent obligations.

This young lady that I now had in my vehicle, did not want to get dropped off at the women’s homeless shelter, because she was not done using drugs and getting high.  She asked me if I had any kids, and I said no, I was never in a stable enough place with my work, where I was living, and who I was dating, to have kids, I was scared to have kids.  She replied, “It’s not that big a deal, I had a kid, and everything turned out O.K.”  She couldn’t even comprehend, that her kid had been taken away from her, and was being raised by her father.

These two stories up above about the women methamphetamine users, where their children had been taken away from them by the state of Idaho, and custody awarded to their parents, because they spent all of their time and money trying to buy drugs and get high, and were not home taking care of their children, these two women could not fully comprehend what they had done.

Additionally, the parents of these two women did not even want them coming around.  The stepfather and mother, and the father of the Hispanic girl that I dated, they had “No Trespass” orders or restraining orders against her.  During the first several years of her drug addiction, she would remove property from her parents’ homes in order to have something to sell or barter for drugs:  music CDs, video DVDs, jewelry, tools, anything that was available that she thought wouldn’t be missed right away.  Eventually locking the doors was not enough, as she would just push open a window and climb through, hence the “No Trespass” orders at her parents’ houses.

The four stories up above, I used to explain that drug use is not something that affects just the the user and no one else.  You can’t use the argument, using drugs is my personal choice, that does not affect anyone else, and is no one else’s business.

In North Dakota, there is also the opinion, that drugs are something that young people try, and experiment with, then they grow out of it.  No, this is not the case anymore, the drugs that are available now, cause people to destroy everything in their life long before they are done using drugs.

My Opinion Of The Stark County North Dakota Sheriff Department

I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for six years now, and I mostly have complaints.  There is a shortage of women, there is a scarcity of attractive women, the people are unfriendly, co-workers are hostile and undermining, employers and managers hate people with an education, most company managers have criminal records, there is nepotism and discrimination in hiring, most of the bartenders and waitresses at restaurants are drug addicts from Spokane or Seattle, the real estate prices are too high considering that the oil boom is over, and the City of Dickinson Police are over aggressive in following and stopping people.

However, contrary to everything else, I have nothing bad at all to say about the Stark County Sheriff Department.  I wish that the City of Dickinson Police Department, and everything else for that matter, was run like the Stark County Sheriff Department.

I lived outside of Dickinson, in the Stark County Sheriff Department’s jurisdiction for four years, and I was never followed, stopped, or paid any attention to by the Sheriff Deputies.  And, there was absolutely no crime in the neighborhood where I lived.

I will admit, that once you consider anyone who lives outside of the City of Dickinson, their property is worth at least $200,000, and there are no apartments or trailer parks, so the Stark County Sheriff Department Deputies are not dealing with as many drug addict, hoodlum, riff-raff people as the City of Dickinson Police.

However, when driving around outside of the residential neighborhood where I lived for four years, into other areas of Stark County, even though I had an old truck with an out of state license plate, the Stark County Sheriff Deputies still left me alone and they paid no attention to me.

There were about four or five occasions where I had to telephone the Stark County Sheriff Department, several of them I have already written about, where the Stark County Sheriff Deputies were very professional and helpful.  One, when a strange acting young man was hiding in the bushes at Patterson Lake near the newly paved walk path; Two, when a former employee of an oil field service company attempted to “borrow” a trailer at 10:30 p.m.;  Three, Four, and Five when I was looking for my stolen truck, and the thief was hiding in South Heart, Belfield, etcetera.

Now that I think about it, I probably dealt with the Stark County Sheriff Deputies six or seven times.  My impressions was, and is, that the Stark County Sheriff Department was hiring only men over 30, who had prior military service.  The reason why I think this, is because all of the Stark County Sheriff Deputies that I dealt with, were over 30, and they were very confident and calm.

I would describe every interaction with the Stark County Sheriff Deputies as follows:

First, they wanted to get an understanding of what was going on, and they did not have any difficulty understanding what you were telling them, which was a relief, they appeared to be intelligent.  Not only did they understand what you were telling them, at the same time, they understood why you had contacted them about this in the first place, they understood, without even having to ask.

Second, they would ask for additional information or details, which didn’t take long, because they knew right away what else they wanted to know.  Third, they would let you know what they were going to do.  Fourth, they would go and do what they said they were going to do.

The Stark County Sheriff Deputies always appeared to be very professional, experienced, intelligent, competent, and confident.  They all appeared to be ex-military.

I have met and talked to former Stark County Sheriff Clarence Tuhy several times, and I have heard about different controversies surrounding Sheriff Tuhy.  Probably the most well known controversy, was when a group of Sheriff Deputies filed a complaint against Sheriff Tuhy for being verbally abusive.  In the end, the state of North Dakota exonerated Sheriff Tuhy in regard to this complaint.

My opinion is, that even if Sheriff Tuhy was mean to the Stark County Sheriff Deputies at the time, this is was part of the origin of a good, professional Sheriff Department.  Those who might have experienced verbal abuse in the department might strongly disagree with me, but I suspect, even though this type of behavior is not permitted, it was meant to motivate people to be serious, competent, alert, and that their best effort was expected of them.

Regarding the current Stark County Sheriff,  Terry Oestreich, one of the candidates in the upcoming Sheriff election stated to a reporter, that there was something like an 80% turn over in Stark County Sheriff Deputies in something like an 18 month period.  I didn’t like hearing this, because I thought that from what I saw, and the Sheriff Deputies that I had met, that everything was very well run within the Stark County Sheriff Department.

If you stop and think about it, why wouldn’t the Stark County Sheriff Deputies leave Dickinson?  There is a shortage of women, a scarcity of attractive women, the bartender women and waitresses are drug addicts, prostitution is not allowed, there is no where to go, nothing to do, real estate prices are way too high, and the City of Dickinson Police follow everyone and try to stop them.  Why would the Sheriff Deputies want to live in Dickinson?  Why wouldn’t they move away?  They are intelligent, competent, and confident, they could get a job anywhere, they don’t have to stay here.

If Sheriff candidate Sergeant Corey Lee of the Dickinson Police Department does become elected as Sheriff, I hope that he continues the exact same hiring practices, practices, and procedures as Sheriff Terry Oestreich.  In other words, don’t mess this up, and don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken.

Banks Don’t Want To Lend, Or Own Property In Dickinson, And It Is Causing Real Estate Prices To Fall

Banks in Dickinson, North Dakota do not want to loan money on property, and end up owning property in Dickinson, and it is causing real estate prices to fall.  No matter what people in Dickinson say or think about the economy in Dickinson remaining steady or improving, the Banks think the opposite, as demonstrated by their current lending practices.

The Banks don’t want to loan money on property in Dickinson because of the following doubts about Dickinson:

  • The Banks believe that real estate prices in Dickinson will continue to fall.
  • The Banks do not want to have loans on properties that are depreciating, which people would walk away from when they owe the Bank more money than their home is worth.
  • The Banks believe that the economy in Dickinson will continue to decline, with fewer jobs, lay-offs, businesses closing, and wage rates continually decreasing.
  • The Banks do not want to loan money based on people’s income history in Dickinson, because they believe that many people will lose their job, be unable to find another job, and their wage rates will continually decrease.
  • The Banks believe that people in Dickinson will default on their home loans, because they will get laid-off, be unable to find another job, their wage rates will drop, or they will find out that they owe more money on their home than it is worth as its value depreciates.
  • The Banks believe that they will likely end up owning many properties in Dickinson because of people defaulting on their mortgages.  The Banks believe that these properties will be depreciating in value greatly, they will be unable to find qualified replacement buyers, and the Bank will be responsible for paying insurance and high property taxes on these properties for many years.

In order to not have problems, the Banks are trying to not lend money on houses in Dickinson, because they don’t want to end up owning many, many houses in Dickinson.

The Banks don’t care, that the depreciation of home values that they are so worried about, they are perhaps the primary cause of this right now.

I will give two quick examples of home buyers who were willing to pay the seller’s asking price, but the Banks would not loan money to any of the buyers, so the home price dropped 10% to 20% in less than one year.

A friend of mine who has lived in Dickinson for 35 years, currently owns a home with $20,000 remaining on his mortgage.  I believe his current mortgage payments are $300 per month or less.  He is single, and a couple of years ago he no longer had to make child support payments of $700 per month or more on his two children, as they are now grown.  He has worked at the same company for over eight years, and his take home pay after all taxes is at least $3,000 per month. He owns several vehicles, which are paid for.

He agreed to purchase a neighboring house for $134,000, which was less than the current appraised value.  He thought that he would have no problem getting a mortgage for this house, based on his income, his employment history, his large equity in his current home, and having no car payments, credit card debt, or other debt.  But the Banks in Dickinson denied him a home loan.

If you use an on-line mortgage payment calculator, the mortgage payment for the $134,000 house would be less than $900 per month, plus his current mortgage payment is $300 per month.  For a single male with $3,000 per month income after all taxes, with no other debts, why couldn’t he afford $1,200 per month total for home payments?

The Banks did not want to make a home loan to him with payments of less than $900 per month, but for twelve years on his income he had paid nearly this much every month in child support.

Within less than one year, the seller’s asking price for this home that he agreed to buy for $134,000 had dropped to $120,000.

This second story is about my experience.  I own a home in Idaho which is paid for, but I have been working in Dickinson for almost six years.  For about three years, I was a roommate of a home owner in Dickinson, where I paid about $480 per month.  Once the Oil Boom ended, and so many out of state workers returned to where they came from, apartment rents in Dickinson decreased greatly, and I rented an apartment for less than $400 per month.  However, I wanted to get out of this apartment, because I had some bad neighbors.  I saw a very inexpensive manufactured home for sale in Belfield, on its owned land, so this was something that I was interested in buying:

A trucking company in Idaho, that was doing business in North Dakota, wanted to buy housing for three of its truck drivers, so this trucking company purchased a 3-bedroom single-wide manufactured home in Belfield on its owned triple lot, for nearly $50,000 in about 2014.  This trucking company completely furnished this manufactured home with everything from furniture, to appliances, beds, bed linens, cookware, and utensils.

This trucking company in Idaho, no longer does business in North Dakota, so they wanted to get rid of this manufactured home, just like it is, with all of the furnishings.  Six months ago, they were asking $25,000.  I went and looked at it, and it was fine with me.  The property taxes were only about $100 per year.  The mortgage payments, would be much less than I had been paying in rent for the past six years in Dickinson.

I went to or spoke to four or five Banks in Dickinson, and they each had their own excuse for not wanting to lend any money for this manufactured home, such as “We have been instructed to not lend money on any manufactured home whatsoever, no matter how new it is, or how much land is involved.” or “We can not lend money because the land is zoned commercial.”

I thought that this was ridiculous, I have very good credit, this was less money than a new vehicle costs, and the Bank could place a lien against my paid for home in Idaho if they ever needed to collect their money.  I was seriously considering putting this home purchase on my credit card, which has a credit limit of $35,000.

Many other people looked at this manufactured home in Belfield, and tried to buy it, but none of them could get a loan from a Bank.  A few days ago, the real estate agent sent me a text message, stating that the seller’s asking price is now down to $20,000.  This is a 20% price drop in six months.  I would have been happy to pay $25,000 with a home loan from a Bank.

I know one other person in Dickinson now, whose take home pay after taxes is at least $3,000 per month.  He is single, in his forties, and he has been employed with the same company for several years.  He recently applied for a home loan with a Bank in Dickinson, for a home owned by a relative of his who is willing to sell it to him for less than $200,000, even though the appraised value would be closer to $250,000.

This Bank informed him that they would approve him for a mortgage of up to $70,000.  Which means they don’t trust him to be able to make monthly payments of more than $400 per month.  If a single person’s take home pay after taxes is $3,000 per month, why wouldn’t this person be able to afford mortgage payments closer to $1,000 per month, and a mortgage of up to $180,000?

What I am explaining, is that Banks in Dickinson right now are being very restrictive on home loans, because for one thing, they expect home values to decrease.  The funny thing is, these Banks’ lending policies are the primary cause right now for why home values are decreasing.  They won’t loan money even when buyers are willing to pay the sellers’ asking prices.

The Best Seven Years For Dickinson, North Dakota

In 1996 I moved to Tampa to work for a company as an engineer.  I rented an apartment on Lake Magdelene in north Tampa.  Up until the 1950s, most of north Tampa was hundreds and hundreds of acres of orange groves.  As Tampa grew continually, it pushed northward into these orange groves.

This area of Tampa was very beautiful, or it had been.  There were probably nearly one hundred small lakes, ranging in size from fifty feet across, to Lake Magdelene which was about one mile in length.  Besides citrus trees like orange, tangerine, kumquat, lime, and grapefruit trees; banana trees, palm trees, oak trees, oleanders, dense hedges, ornamental plants, ferns, and flowers filled these middle class and upper middle class neighborhoods.

By the time that I moved to Tampa in 1996, Hillsborough County had grown to nearly one million people.  At this moment in time, the character of Tampa was about to change significantly.  The area north of Tampa, the orange groves and small lakes, was almost completely developed.  These very traditional, beautiful, comfortable suburban neighborhoods that had been built from the 1960s through the 1990s were done.

An unbelievable and unprecedented amount of new development began in what was called “New Tampa”, to the north west, on the west side of Interstate 75.  On the west side of Interstate 75, there were thousands of acres of cattle pasture and swamp land, this became “New Tampa”.

Every housing development in New Tampa was a “gated community”.  You exited Interstate 75 onto Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, and drove west until you reached the entrance to the gated community in which you lived, turned in, and drove through the entrance past the guard house and gate.  This entrance was the only way in, and the only way out.  Each gated community was surrounded by a combination of walls, earth berms, and tall hedges.

Besides being protected behind the walls, earth berms, and gates, or you could look at it as being a prisoner, which was often the case when you tried to leave in the morning during rush hour, these gated communities featured “McMansion” architecture.  “McMansion” architecture is where cheap construction methods and cheap materials are used to create intentionally tall entry ways and high roof peaks, to make a home look enormous and expensive.

I believed that I had arrived in Tampa about twenty years too late.  On weekends when I was living on Lake Magdalene, I would ride my bicycle through these beautiful thirty year old neighborhoods, with quiet tree lined streets, natural lakes in the backyards, community tennis courts, and small orange groves here and there.

In these thirty year old neighborhoods, everyone knew everyone on that street, and the next streets over.  Husbands and wives bought one of these houses when they were in their thirties, and stayed there even after their kids moved out, they retired, and became old.

Some of these houses were large five bedroom, three bathroom houses, but most of these houses were modest and unpretentious.  Due to the economy and nature of Tampa, with large corporations, an international airport, McDill AFB, international sea port, and professional sports teams, neighbors would have been doctors, lawyers, engineers, airline pilots, military officers, ship captains, or professional athletes.

For adults in these neighborhoods, especially the wives, it would have been very enjoyable to be able to socialize with so many other adults with similar education, professional level, income level, interests, and values.  Parents in these neighborhoods did not have to worry very much about where their kids were, because all of the parents watched all of these kids.

After school, and in the summer, the kids in these neighborhoods, could have gone swimming, fishing, canoeing, water skiing, sailing, or played tennis.  I don’t think there would be any question that each of these kids was expecting and planning on going to college, because that is what all of the other kids did, and that is what everyone’s parents had done.  There would not have been aimless, depressed, self-destructive, drug addict, hoodlum kids around.

So I would have liked to have been either a kid or an adult living in one of these middle class neighborhoods in north Tampa from 1960 to 1990.  I think that I would have been happier as a kid or an adult living among peers with the same interests, values, beliefs, and goals, in this warm, safe, beautiful environment, doing things that I like to do.  But after 1990, no way, Tampa became too huge and overwhelming.

I want to point out, that these middle class adults who lived in Tampa from 1960 through 1990, with their education, professionalism, values, beliefs, interests, and goals, they caused Tampa to thrive, and double in size.  Though these adults created and loved their quiet, peaceful, happy, suburban neighborhoods on the north side of Tampa, the growth that they caused, changed the character of Tampa, to something that they would not have liked, the “gated communities” with the “McMansions”.  However, they would have acknowledged there was no way to be able to stop this, it was inevitable.

I also want to point out, that the kids who grew up in these beautiful, safe, fun, middle class neighborhoods on the north side of Tampa, where everyone’s parents went to college, and everyone was going to go to college, that these kids were so solidly grounded, that I think that they could do O.K. living anywhere.  What I mean is, I think these kids all turned out so well due to the constant positive influence of their peers and the other parents, that I think these kids as adults could cope with living in an unpleasant city or urban area.  ( I base this belief on my experiences attending the University of Florida on a campus with what was then 35,000 students, where some students thrived and some students could not cope, not because of intelligence level, but because of their backgrounds.)

When I was living in Flagstaff, Arizona, which I loved, I also felt that I arrived there twenty to thirty years too late.  To save time, I could say that everything about Flagstaff was wonderful.  However, beginning in about year 2000, real estate prices began to skyrocket.  And from what I have been told, growth has just continued non-stop to this day, making not just the price of real estate a problem, but now over development is a problem too.

The best, most enjoyable years to live in Flagstaff, were probably the 1960s through the 1990s.  The town, the forests, the mountains, the beauty, the lifestyle, the people, the weather were all so enjoyable, that this is what led to real estate skyrocketing, and the over development.  It was just inevitable.

Finally, getting to what this blog post was supposed to be about, “The Best Seven Years For Dickinson, North Dakota.”  From 2007 through 2014, there was an Oil Boom in Dickinson, North Dakota.  Though there was an “Exploration Boom” in North Dakota in the 1950s, and there was a “Gas Price Oil Boom” in North Dakota in the 1970s, this most recent oil boom has had the most significant and greatest impact on Dickinson.

How can I say that 2007 through 2014 was “The Best Seven Years For Dickinson” ?  To begin, prior to 2007, the average hourly wage in Dickinson was probably about $8 per hour, with no opportunity to work overtime.  There were very few job openings, and very few opportunities to get a higher paying job.  There was no way for most Dickinson residents to get ahead financially.  It would have been difficult for most Dickinson residents to even be able to save enough money to get out of Dickinson and try to move some place else.

In addition to there being mostly only low paying jobs, with very few opportunities to get a higher paying job, everything in Dickinson was controlled.  The wealthy families in Dickinson, and the influential families in Dickinson, controlled who got hired, who got fired, who got a promotion, who got demoted, who got recognition, who got blame, who got arrested, who was not prosecuted, who got a home loan, who got a car loan, who was evicted, and so forth.

When the Oil Boom began in 2007, it was almost like the Dickinson residents were released from bondage.  There was such a demand for workers in the oil field, that any able bodied person in Dickinson could get a job immediately for at least $16 per hour, which is about twice the average hourly pay of $8 per hour, plus, they might be allowed to work as much as 40 hours of overtime each week.

Some Dickinson residents, who were in their forties, who had always been kept down in Dickinson, always receiving low pay, never getting a promotion, never being able to get a better job, never being able to get a home loan, all of a sudden went from making $320 per week, to making $2,000 per week.  And for once, there was no wealthy or influential family in Dickinson who could stop them.

When the Oil Boom began, a graduating high school student who would not have been able to find a job in Dickinson, could now get a job earning as much as $1,400 per week working in the oil field.  A graduating high school student who would have had no car, and had to live with his parents, could now get a job working in the oil field, buy a very nice truck, and rent their own apartment.

Once the Oil Boom began in Dickinson, young couples were each able to obtain good employment, get married, and buy their own home.  Older couples were each able to obtain good employment, pay off their credit card debt, pay off their car loans, and pay off their home loans.

Due to families in Dickinson owning farms, or having retained mineral rights, oil well lease signing checks and revenue checks, began earning many families in Dickinson thousands or tens of thousands of dollars each month.  Farmers purchased completely new farm equipment, trucks, and travel trailers.  Some families dispersed this monthly oil revenue money to their children and grandchildren.  Many family members in Dickinson receiving oil revenue money purchased new vehicles, motorcycles, travel trailers, did home remodels, or paid for their kids to go to college.

Due to the amount of oil field work in and around Dickinson, many new large warehouse buildings were built, new office buildings were built, new restaurants were built, a new shopping center was built.  About five new hotels and fifteen new apartment buildings were built.  Local land owners, real estate agents, and construction companies made money on these new building projects.  Some local residents started and grew their own oil field service companies and construction companies.

During this Oil Boom, the City of Dickinson was able to build one of the nicest recreation centers in the World.  It has two indoor swimming pools, one outdoor swimming pool, skateboard park, ice skating rink, two indoor tennis courts, three indoor racketball courts, four indoor basketball courts, one volleyball court, indoor golf simulator, rock climbing wall, indoor track, cardiovascular equipment area, weight lifting gym, aerobics studios, and child day care.

The City of Dickinson was able to build a new Police Department, have a new water tower, pave many roads, widen roads, add stop lights, build a new school, and have a new County Fairground.

Would I have wanted to be in Dickinson from 2007 through 2014?  Yes, I would have, especially if I would have been a resident of Dickinson.  I was in Dickinson on and off from 2011 until now in 2018.

Unlike my story about getting to Tampa too late, where Tampa kept growing and growing, or my story about getting to Flagstaff too late where Flagstaff kept growing and growing, I got to Dickinson too late, because Dickinson is contracting.

In my stories about Tampa and Flagstaff, conditions in these towns were so good, that it was inevitable that they would grow.  In Dickinson, conditions are so bad, that it is seems inevitable that Dickinson will decline.

One of the reasons why I am writing this particular blog post, and the way that I am writing it, is because the people in Dickinson do not know that 2007 to 2014 will likely be the best years that Dickinson has ever had, or will have.  I began with the two stories about Tampa and Flagstaff, to explain the inevitability of places changing, even if you do not want them to go in the direction that they are going in.

In the case of Tampa, there was so much continued growth because of the regional economy, low cost of living, good climate, recreation, entertainment, night life, fine dining, shopping, professional football, professional baseball, professional hockey, international airport, international sea port, U.S. Central Command McDill AFB, and the University of South Florida.

In Flagstaff, the continued growth had nothing to do with the regional economy or cost of living, neither of which are very good, it was the beauty of the town, the Coconino National Forest, the snow skiing, trail hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, the clear blue skies during the winter, the nightlife, friendly downtown, diverse and well educated population, low crime and no riff-raff hoodlums.

In Dickinson, after the Oil Boom ended in 2015, many of the oil field jobs went away, many oil field workers returned to the states where they came from, and subsequently other jobs went away in other areas of the economy.  The amount of oil field jobs continue to decrease, as do other jobs in other areas of the economy in Dickinson.  As there are fewer jobs in Dickinson, and a greater supply of workers than demand for workers, we are seeing the wage rates steadily decrease in Dickinson.

As there are fewer oil field jobs, fewer jobs in other areas, and wage rates are decreasing, the old practices of nepotism, favoritism, discrimination, prejudice, and exclusion in hiring, promotion, lay offs, and home lending are beginning to emerge again in Dickinson.

The people in Dickinson are unfriendly, the Police in Dickinson are encouraging people to leave Dickinson, the Police in Dickinson are discouraging people from going out at night, the restaurants are not very good, the restaurant servers are not very nice, there is shortage of women, there is scarcity of attractive women, the real estate prices are high, the real estate prices are likely to fall, there is too much crime in Dickinson, little entertainment, few recreation activities, and it is cold and grey for about seven months of the year in Dickinson.

The population of Dickinson is decreasing, Dickinson is contracting, and this is just going to continue.  The people in Dickinson refuse to see this or acknowledge this.  Some people believe the Oil Boom will come back.

In order for Dickinson to not contract, Dickinson would have to be a place where people would want to move, and stay.  Here are some changes that would be needed:

  • The Police in Dickinson need to find a way to stop the crime and drug dealing in Dickinson, without following, surveilling, and stopping non-criminal, law abiding people.
  • The Police in Dickinson need to find a way to allow adults to go out to restaurants and sports bars at night to socialize, without following, surveilling, and stopping them on their way home.
  • The people in Dickinson need to stop being mean and nasty to other people in general, and to cease nepotism, favoritism, prejudice, discrimination, and exclusion in hiring, firing, promotion, and bank lending.
  • The people in Dickinson need to stop being out-of-their minds as far as real estate prices in Dickinson.
  • The banks in Dickinson need to grant home loans to people who demonstrate that they can make the mortgage payments.
  • The restaurants in Dickinson need to stop using jaded, rough, mean drug addict women as servers, especially the ones from Spokane, Seattle, and Coeur D’Alene.
  • Dickinson needs to be a city that promotes health, such as hygiene, exercise, and fitness, and discourages smoking, tobacco, illegal drugs, over use of alcohol, and over eating.
  • Dickinson needs to be a city that promotes education, awareness, and spirituality, and discourages ignorance, hate, and Catholicism.
  • Dickinson needs to be a city that encourages women to be beautiful and friendly, and discourages women from being ugly, glaring, and scowling.
  • Dickinson might need to have a strip bar, just so men can see what women are supposed to look like, maybe they have never seen one, or they have forgotten what they look like.
  • Dickinson needs to have a good Italian restaurant.

I Wouldn’t Go Out In Dickinson On A Dare, Or If You Paid Me

I wouldn’t go out in Dickinson, North Dakota at night, on a dare, or if you paid me.  My experiences living in Dickinson for nearly six years have taught me that you do not go out at night in Dickinson.

I have had so many bad experiences going out in Dickinson at night, even just to get something to eat, go to the grocery store or WalMart, that I know not to do it.  From what I see, 95% of everyone else in Dickinson feels the same way, they won’t go out at night in Dickinson.

The number one reason or cause for people not wanting to go out at night in Dickinson, is the City of Dickinson Police.  The City of Dickinson Police have been so aggressive in scrutinizing, surveilling, stalking, following, tail gaiting, stopping, and questioning people at night in Dickinson, even when they are just going to the grocery store or WalMart, that people don’t even want to leave their homes at night.

If you aren’t doing anything wrong, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about?  No, that’s not how it works.  The City of Dickinson Police want to find something to charge you with, so they will ask you questions about what you are doing, where you are going, have you had any alcohol to drink, do you have any weapons in your vehicle, and more.  You are going to have to explain yourself to their satisfaction, while they try to find something wrong with your driver’s license, registration, proof of insurance, vehicle, vehicle contents, your activities, your attitude, and other things.

The City of Dickinson Police have gotten people so conditioned to being scrutinized, followed, and stopped at night, that fewer, and fewer, and fewer people go out at night, to the point that Villard Street, the main thoroughfare through town, is just about completely vacant.

Because the streets in Dickinson are so completely vacant at night, when a vehicle does enter a street at night, the Dickinson Police automatically assume that this person must be a law-breaker and up to no good, because no one is supposed to be out at night, no one is allowed out at night.

The second most common reason why people do not go out in Dickinson at night, is why would you?  If you went to the drive through of Arby’s, Wendy’s, or Taco Bell in Dickinson, the food and the service that you get, would be equal to what you would find anywhere else in the United States.  And this is about as good as it gets for dining in Dickinson.  For something better than fast food, you could order take-out from Upin Thai.

But going inside a fast food restaurant in Dickinson at night, or any restaurant in Dickinson at night, you are most likely going to find blue collar male workers from the oil field or construction.  If you have worked in Dickinson for two years, three years, six years, all day, every day with blue collar male workers, do you want to spend any more time with them?

I will say, that at the fast food restaurants in Dickinson, there are some young girls who work there, who are nice, cute, attractive, silly, funny, and entertaining, but you can’t or shouldn’t bother them too much while they are working.

If you go to a sit down restaurant in Dickinson with waitresses, if you are a normal adult who has lived in Dickinson for a few years, you know from experience that these waitresses are from Coeur D’Alene, Seattle, or Spokane.  They and their boyfriend were drug addicts who could not get a job or keep a job where they were living, so they came to Dickinson.  They are shitty, callous, jaded human beings, who just want to get high on meth or heroin.  Knowing this, would you want to go out to eat at restaurant in Dickinson, or would you rather stay home?

Wolverine Not Far From Dickinson, North Dakota

Today is August 16, 2018.  I want to document several up-close Wolverine sightings not far from Dickinson, North Dakota, occurring over the past several days.

The reason why I want to document these recent up-close sightings in North Dakota, is to bring awareness, because it is believed that there have not been any Wolverine in North Dakota for over 150 years.

On April 24, 2016, a ranch hand working near Alexander, North Dakota shot and killed what was confirmed to be a Wolverine.  At the time, this was the first confirmed Wolverine sighting in North Dakota since the 1850s.  You can read many newspaper reports about this, here is one of them from the Bismarck Tribune newspaper: https://bismarcktribune.com/wolverine-confirmed-in-north-dakota-first-since-s/article_5b29d55e-617b-5935-a1f8-0b95d9da864f.html

For the past several nights, a friend of mine has watched a Wolverine, which he believes to be a male.  He has watched it from as close as twenty-five feet, for three minutes.

Upon discussing his recent sightings, another friend of ours, has seen this Wolverine a couple of times in the past several years at this same location.

This group of people who have seen this Wolverine in this location, have no intention of harming this Wolverine.  A couple of these people have kept their mouth shut about it for several years, thinking this was the best way to handle it.  This probably is the best way to handle it, because this Wolverine appears to be comfortable and confident where he is living, no one bothers him.

I am not going to disclose the location, or any of the people involved, because I think that this is the best way to handle it for the well-being of this Wolverine.  I only want to document this for the sake of making people aware about the existence of Wolverines in North Dakota.

I am including a short video of a Wolverine in Montana.  I don’t know why the Wolverine in this video didn’t kill the adult deer, Wolverines are known to attack deer, elk, moose, and wolves.

I Am Again Recommending That Men Go Look At The “Escort of Italy” Website

Almost one year ago, I wrote a blog post article about the “Escort of Italy” website.  This website, and this escort service, is one of the most amazing, fascinating, and impressive things that I have ever seen in my life.

I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for about six years, where there is a shortage of women, a scarcity of attractive women, the women who are here are mean and nasty, and prostitution is not allowed.  When I look at the “Escort of Italy” website, I can’t believe that such a thing exists, but it’s true.

Before I go any further, and provide any links to this website, I need to caution everyone, that you will see nudity on this website.  Because of the cultural difference, and acceptance of prostitution in Italy, when you are on this escort website, if you click on any of the women’s photographs, it will give you the age, height, weight, and nationality of each woman, and what she is willing to do sexually.

To save you some time, if you want to see the largest number of escorts at once, click on the tab for “Travel Girls”.  Click on the escort named “Rozy Model”, for instance.  She might be the girl that I would ask for.  That’s what you do, you pick and ask for the girl that you want.  The “Travel Girls” are more expensive, I think that you have to pre-pay for a large amount of time and pay travel expenses.  The other escorts in the towns of Milan, Rome, and Florence are almost as pretty, and they cost about $250 per hour.

Here is a short excerpt from the “Escort of Italy” website.  If you click on any of the differently colored text in this excerpt, it takes you to this website:

“You are welcome to our high class escort agency Italy, offering you the best female escorts Italy for hotel or private dating, exclusive girlfriend experience, travel and vacation escort with charming Italia girls, VIP escort girls Italy for business occasions and many more. If you are looking for pleasure and comfort, then you have come to the right place. Our elegant Italy escorts will meet the most subtle expectations of a lonely man who is eager to find love and companionship in Italia. We offer our clients the finest attractive escorts in Milan, escort girls Rome, and Turin escorts. Our Italy escort agency provide both incall and outcall services for the guests and residents of the country.”

It kills me, that rather than suffering through living in Dickinson, like being in prison, for only $250 each week, I could look forward to being with “Rozy Model” or “Fiona”.  I suppose it could be worse, I could be living in North Korea.

Review Of J&J Chinese Delivery In Dickinson, North Dakota

Whoa!  I am going to have to completely change my review of J&J Chinese Delivery to DO NOT USE!

Last week, I was looking through something that I received in the mail titled, “The Local Business Guide Directory”, produced by the Dickinson Press.  Towards the end of this advertisement booklet was a small ad for “J&J Chinese Delivery”.

I was aware that there had been a restaurant on Main Street in Belfield called the “J&J Chinese Cafe”, but this restaurant had closed down about a year ago.  I felt bad for the owner of this restaurant, the food was good, but there were just not enough customers in the town of Belfield.

I had not known that the owner of the J&J Chinese Cafe had moved to Dickinson, and was now offering Chinese food for delivery only.

I looked up J&J Chinese Delivery on the internet, and there were listings for it in Dickinson.  I clicked on the Facebook page of J&J Chinese Delivery, if you look through their photographs, they have three photographs of their menu items with prices.  As you are about to read, Their Prices Are Not What They Say They Are!

I called J&J Chinese Delivery, and asked if they had “Beef with Chinese Vegetables”, they said they did, and it was $9.99.  I said that I wanted to come and pick it up, they told me that I could not pick it up, they had to deliver it.  I asked how much for delivery, they said $2.00.

My food was delivered in about twenty minutes.  Though I got “Beef with Broccoli”, not “Beef with Chinese Vegetables”.

Warning!:  I have to absolutely give this warning, because of both my first order, and my second order a few days later.

When my first order was delivered, the charge was a little over $12 including tax and delivery.  I had a $20 bill ready for when the delivery person came.  I planned on giving the delivery person $3.00 extra, but he said, “I don’t have my change bag with me.”  So I ended up only getting back $3 from my $20 bill, paying $17 for my $9.99 order.  If you are old enough to know, this is a common scheme used by delivery people, taxi drivers, etcetera “I don’t have change for a $20 bill”.

Remember, I wanted to go and pick up my order, but they told me that this was not allowed.

Two days later, I placed an order for Szechuan Beef, which their menu says is $9.99.  I asked how much my order would be on the telephone when I placed my order, and I was told $15.17.  When the delivery person arrived, they asked for $17.17.

Today, when I telephoned to place an order, I asked about their prices, and why they are not what they say they are, and at first I did not get a straight answer.  Then, the person at J&J Chinese Delivery told me that their delivery charge is now $5.00.

Fuck J&J Chinese Delivery!  I don’t mind paying a $2.00 delivery charge which is enough for a business to pay a delivery driver about $10 per hour, and then giving the driver another $3.00 to boost their income so that they can make money in what they are doing.

A delivery driver should be able to make at least five deliveries per hour, so they should be able to make $25 per hour with an hourly pay plus tips from the customer.  But what I suspect that J&J Chinese Delivery is doing, is trying to make money by not allowing customers to come and pick up their food, and charging $5.00 for each delivery, which I do not believe is all going to the delivery person.

In any case, Fuck J&J Chinese Delivery.  The very first thing that I am going to do tomorrow, is call the City of Dickinson Health Department, Restaurant Licensing, Business Licensing, and City Zoning to complain about J&J Chinese Delivery operating out of a location that may not have been inspected, permitted, licensed, or zoned for this.

I can not stand dishonest, scheming, lying , treacherous people, especially if they are immigrants who receive abundant generosity when they are allowed into our country, and then they turn around and try to rip people off.

What do I mean, rip people off?  The King Buffet Chinese Restaurant in Dickinson probably has to pay at least several thousand dollars per month for rent in the T-Rex Shopping Center.  On top of that, the King Buffet Chinese Restaurant has to pay $1,000 to $2,000 per month in utilities.  Then pay employee wages, plus pay more money for employee payroll taxes for workers compensation and social security.  Also pay sales tax, business license, property insurance, liability insurance, and bare all the costs for tables, chairs, utensils, plates, bowls, cups, and glassware.

At the King Buffet Chinese Restaurant, it is all you can eat, and you can have the hibachi chef cook in front of you, whatever raw meat and vegetables you want.  With a drink included, this costs about $13.00.

So to me, it is treachery, scheming, underhandedness, and dishonesty that J&J Chinese Delivery that doesn’t operate out of a restaurant, is going to advertise many menu items for $9.99, but it ends up costing you $17, when J&J Chinese Delivery doesn’t have high rent for a commercial space sit-down restaurant, high utility bills for a commercial space sit-down restaurant, have to pay for property insurance, liability insurance, tables, chairs, utensils, plates, bowls, cups, glassware, waiters, table clearers, dishwahsers, and payroll taxes on these employees.  But they try to charge you more than a local restaurant which has way, way more costs to bare.