Tag Archives: relocating to Dickinson North Dakota

Local Residents’ Opinions On Dickinson, North Dakota Being The 6th Best Place To Live In America

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On September 18, Time’s Money Magazine published an article of the top 100 best places to live in America, and Dickinson, North Dakota was ranked the 6th best.  This is hard to believe, and far from being true.

Yesterday, I asked a homeowner neighbor who is in his early fifties what he thought about this, and he replied, “I have lived here my whole life, and I hate it here in Dickinson.  I would like to get out of here.”

Today, I unintentionally got into a discussion with two other homeowner neighbors in their fifties, and I mentioned the Money Magazine article about Dickinson being the 6th best place to live, and one of the men replied, “I have lived in Dickinson my whole life, and I hate it here, I am trying to get out of here.”

Yesterday, I asked a politician who used to live in Dickinson what he thought about Dickinson being the 6th best place to live, and he said, “I don’t even know where to begin about that.”

I myself, would rank Dickinson as high as 80th, because of my own peculiar point of view and preferences.  My personal preferences are, that I don’t like there to be a lot going on, I don’t like traffic, and I don’t like too much diversity.  I will explain what I mean about there not being too much diversity.

As much as I complain about Dickinson, (and there is a need for change and improvement), most of the people in Dickinson are not too different in their thinking and what they want, which happens to coincide with what I want.  Just about everyone in Dickinson would like to own a home, a four wheel drive vehicle, a few toys like a motorcycle or boat, be able to pay for everything, and be left alone.

The people in Dickinson mostly believe in the individual ownership of land, vehicles, motorcycles, boats, travel trailers, animals, firearms, and big screen televisions.  And, if someone wants something, they should get a job and go buy what they want for themselves.

You could probably already tell that I was going write that Dickinson is not liberal, socialist, or communist.  The people in western North Dakota are land greedy to a fault.  And besides their excessive land greediness, they want absolutely no interference with what they do on their own land, none.

Liberals, socialists, and communists, talk about and seek the “sharing” of resources, supposedly for the overall good of everyone.  The people in Dickinson and western North Dakota don’t believe and have not ever believed in this.

In the large urban cities like New York City, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia, people are constantly crowded together where they live, where they work, and on their way to work.  Residences are just cubby holes stacked on top of each other,  work places are just tiny cubicles, people are shoulder to shoulder on sidewalks, public transportation, and in traffic jams.

The people in the large urban cities have given up their freedom, privacy, identity, and security, whether they know it or not.  They are living like a liberal, socialist, or communist whether they know it or not.  They don’t really own their property, even if they “own” an apartment or condominium.  They have to share the hallways, stairs, and elevators with everyone else, and they typically have no way to deny, block, or prevent access to their front door.  They have to share office space with hundreds of other people.  They have to share their transportation with hundreds of other people.  In many ways, maybe even just about every way, they have to go along with what everybody else wants, whether they agree with it or not.

Even though I complain about Dickinson, the people in Dickinson generally want the same things, except for the drug people who came to Dickinson from Seattle, Portland, and Coeur D’Alene.

How Difficult Is It To Get A Job In Dickinson, North Dakota?

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How difficult is it to get a job in Dickinson, North Dakota?  The answer is, pretty difficult.  I will give a couple of reasons.

Now, if you read through the details of the job listings for most of the oil field companies in Dickinson, about 90% of them require the applicant to have a Class A Commercial Driver’s License.  The large oil field companies in Dickinson, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Rock Pile, MBI, and all of the wireline companies require the applicant to have a Class A CDL.

On top of the requirement for a Class A CDL, they want at least a couple of years commercial driving experience, and no traffic violations, accidents, or DUIs.

The oil field companies in Dickinson do not need very many people now.  There are hundreds and thousands of oil field workers out of a job now.  The oil field companies require that the applicants have a Class A CDL, in part to weed out the riff-raff who in general could never obtain or keep a Class A CDL.  The other part is that the oil field companies want any one of their employees to be able to drive their 26,000 GVW trucks if necessary.

I found out today another reason why it is difficult to get a job in Dickinson now.  I have been looking at the job posting websites North Dakota Job Service, Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder, and LinkedIn.  I saw an older job listing for a company in Dickinson, that was for a degreed engineer with just a couple of years of work experience.  I had done this type of job for several years after I had graduated with Bachelor of Science in engineering.

I applied for this job in Dickinson, because it was an O.K. job, and I have done this before.  This job would pay from $38,000 to $48,000 per year in my estimation.  Within about one hour of applying for this job, the job posting website sent me an e-mail stating that the employer had viewed my application, and this job posting website offered to show me data on the other applicants for this job.

To my surprise, 55% of the applicants had a Masters Degree, and 55% of the applicants had more than 10 years of work experience.  There were applicants from California, Texas, Maryland, Georgia, and North Dakota.

I have written several times in previous blog posts, that it is bullshit and a lie that the economy is doing so well in California and Texas.  If the economy were doing so well in California and Texas, you would not have people with Masters Degrees and over 10 years of work experience applying for an almost entry level $40K job 2,000 miles away, in horribly cold North Dakota.

An Unethical And Underhanded Business Decision In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have been working for a locally owned company in Dickinson, North Dakota for a little over three years.  Sometimes this company is busy, and sometimes it is slow.  About two years ago, I was promoted to manager of this company.

Myself and some of my coworkers, have had second jobs, and third jobs, outside of working for this company.  The owner of the company that I work for, and my co-workers are generally calm and mild-mannered.  None of us want to quit working for this company, because each of us are left to do our job with very little interference, each of us is treated pretty fairly, and we are fair with each other.

Last week, myself, a co-worker with two years experience, and co-worker with five years experience were scheduled to perform work for a new customer in Dickinson.  There was another long time customer that requested work last week, that one of us three experienced workers could have done, and allowed a new hire to be the third person on the other job for the new customer.  The owner of our company said to me, “No, this is important, and I want the three of you to go.  Tell the other customer that we don’t have anyone available.”

Myself, and my two co-workers, had to put aside whatever personal and work activities that we had planned, in order to go perform work for this new customer.  When we arrived at this business location, I introduced ourselves, and I asked to speak to the manager.  After about three or four minutes, the manager walked up, she was a lady who myself and my co-workers knew from other work that we had done.

The manager said, “I never got a contract back, we never signed a contract, we don’t need you.”  I was very taken aback by this, but I didn’t react in proportion to how I felt.  I said, “Oh, O.K.”  I realized that it probably was true that someone didn’t sign a contract or get a contract back.  I realized that in the lobby of this business was not the place to have an argument at this moment, especially since I didn’t know about the contract not being signed or returned.

I apologized to my co-workers, and I told them that I would telephone the owner of our company to explain what was happening.  I tried repeatedly to telephone and text the owner of our company, but I could not get in contact with him.  After about half an hour, I told my co-workers to go ahead and forget about doing this work for today.

I was very angry about what had happened.  Ever since I was about 26 years old, I had been responsible for scheduling contractors, equipment, and material.  I always tried to be very clear with all contractors and suppliers about what was needed, when it was needed, and if there were any changes or anything else that they needed to know.  It would not do me any good, my company any good, or anyone else any good, to allow a mistake to happen.  In fact, making a few costly mistakes would have resulted in me losing my job.

This lady manager, who I am tempted to refer to as “this fat bitch” for the remainder of my story, could have sent one text message, one e-mail, or made one phone call to the owner of my company a month ago, a week ago, or one day ago, stating, “We don’t need you after all, sorry.”  However, the way she chose to handle this, was to not inform the owner of our company that anything was wrong or that they didn’t need us, and to allow us to put this work on our schedule, to decline other work, and to show up with three people to perform this work.  She seemed kind of pleased with herself, and snarky when she said, “We never got a contract back, we never signed a contract, we don’t need you.”

The owner of our company has had this business in Dickinson for twenty years.  The overall manager of the business that we were going to perform work for, has been the manager there for twenty-eight years, and she has known the owner of our company for that long.  The corporate sales manager who did this underhanded thing, has been at this business for less than two years.  I don’t know why or how this lady felt that handling this the way that she did helped her or benefited her in any way.  I would expect that she will have negative consequences from this, though I don’t think she ever thought of this, or she would not have done it.

Though this kind of thing can happen, especially when one or both parties is trying to be sneaky, treacherous, or underhanded, it had never happened at this company that I work for in Dickinson, or with any other project, contractor, or supplier that I have dealt with.  However, now that I think about it, about half the time women do do things like this.

Time’s Money Magazine Just Named Dickinson, North Dakota As 6th Best Place To Live

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On September 18 Time’s Money Magazine published a list of the 100 best places to live, and Dickinson, North Dakota ranked 6th.  Oh my God!  You probably couldn’t find twenty people in Dickinson that would even put Dickinson in the top 50 places to live.  You probably couldn’t find twenty people in the state of North Dakota that would put Dickinson in the top 50 places to live.

In some ways Dickinson is one of the worst places in the United States to live:

  1. The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is about 3:1.  There is a shortage of women, and a scarcity of attractive women.  Of the many states, cities, and towns that I have lived and worked in for the past 48 years, Dickinson has the most unattractive women of any place that I have ever been.  These statements are common knowledge here in Dickinson.
  2. Dickinson is one of the least educated places that I have ever lived.  Higher education is derided, ridiculed, laughed at, and penalized in Dickinson.  In Dickinson, people who did four years in prison are treated better that people who did four years in college.
  3. Dickinson is one of the least healthy places that I have ever lived.  It is common for both men and women to be overweight, use tobacco products, and to never engage in healthy exercise.  Only about 10% of the people in Dickinson engage in regular exercise.
  4. There is a lack of entertainment, social activities, and things to do in Dickinson.  Yes there is the West River Community Center which is nice.  There are outdoor concerts in downtown Dickinson in the summer which are nice.  But, with the shortage of women, and scarcity of attractive women, most men end up going to bars, and getting a DUI when they go home.  I have never seen more people get DUIs, than I have here in Dickinson, which is mostly because there is nothing to do and it is depressing here.
  5. I have never met more depressed, down on their luck, nearly hopeless, suicidal people than I have here in Dickinson.  It is difficult to get a job in Dickinson.  There are not a lot of things to do in Dickinson.  There is a scarcity of women in Dickinson.  All of these things, plus the unfriendliness of people in Dickinson, make many people that I have met become very depressed, hopeless, and suicidal.
  6. About 90% of the out of state workers who came to Dickinson for work during the oil boom, couldn’t wait to get out of here.  They said it out loud every day.

I have never seen a news article be more wrong than the Money Magazine article ranking Dickinson as the 6th best place to live in the United States.  Whoever wrote this article should have to come and live in Dickinson for one year.

I don’t know how the data was manipulated in order to somehow make Dickinson the 6th best place to live.  The editor of Money Magazine should interview two oil field workers, two truck drivers, two retail workers, two fast food workers, two black people, two gay people, and two housewives from out of state, and I guarantee that each of these people would say that Dickinson is a difficult and unpleasant place to live.

Background Check On Employers In Dickinson, North Dakota

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You read that correctly, Background Check On Employers In Dickinson, North Dakota.  I recommend to everyone, that if you are going to apply to work at a company in Dickinson, North Dakota, you perform a background check on your employer.

There is a fairly large company in Dickinson, where I applied to work once in approximately 2014.  Though I was well qualified, or perhaps over qualified for the position that I applied for, I did not hear anything from this company after I applied.

Employers anywhere, have their own personal beliefs and preferences for who they would like to hire.  Some employers want employees who stay at the same job for many years, other employers want employees who show ambition.  Some want employees who are family men, who don’t drink, don’t get into trouble, and have no criminal record.  Other employers want men who are risk takers, rough, not afraid of getting hurt, or putting others at risk.

In Dickinson, employers seem to favor local people, and North Dakotans, over people from out of state.  This is probably a combination of a feeling of obligation or loyalty to local people, comfort in dealing with people from a similar background, discomfort in dealing with people from a different background, and people from elsewhere having different beliefs, values, and ethics.

I have had the experience in Dickinson, where my life experiences, work experiences, education, beliefs, values, and ethics, were so different from my employer’s, that I had problems.  As an example, a company that I recently worked for in Dickinson, had the practice of not paying employees for the hours that they worked.  The owner and his wife, would look at employees’ time sheets, and pay them for less hours than they worked, based on their opinion of how much work was completed.

When I sought to file a complaint with the Department of Labor, I found out that there were four previous complaints against this company for failure to pay employees wages that they were owed.  I found out from local people in Dickinson, that this practice used to be fairly common in Dickinson.  I also found out that this company owner owed a lot more than four employees money, after looking him up on the North Dakota record of active and completed court cases, NDcourts.

The company in Dickinson that I had applied to in 2014, and never heard back, I saw that they had another job advertisement for an engineer in August, so I applied again.  I didn’t expect to hear back from this company, because I don’t think that they liked me or my resume.  And again, I didn’t hear back from them.  I wondered what it was about me, that would make me so unacceptable to this company.  I have a good education, a great deal of work experience, and a completely clean background, what is wrong with me as an applicant?

I decided to look up the company owner to see what kind of person, HE is, since he is judging me, and I am not suitable for his company.  One of the court cases that he was involved in, involved a dispute over child support payments.  At about the time he was starting his company in Dickinson when he was in his early twenties, he became married.  He and his wife had three children.  By the time he was in his early thirties, he became divorced.

His company was organized as a corporation.  As his company was doing well, he paid himself a salary of $60,000 per year.  The extra money that his company made, was held as retained earnings.  Though the retained earnings grew to $700,000, he continued to pay himself a salary of $60,000 per year.  The child support that he paid, was based on his salary of $60,000 per year.

His ex-wife, and his ex-wife’s attorney, tried to explain to the court, that the child support that he was paying, was based on his $60,000 per year salary, but look at how much money his company was making, this isn’t right.  I believe that the court in North Dakota decided that there was no law saying that the company owner had to pay himself more money, or receive more of the retained earnings of his corporation.  So, his child support payments remained the same.

Ha, ha.  He outsmarted the courts, his ex-wife, and his ex-wife’s attorney, in not having to pay more money in support for his children.  It’s hamburger helper, macaroni cheese, and Wal-Mart for them.

My Neighbor Said He Lost His Dog

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On Friday evening it was raining in Dickinson.  I was driving around the corner in my truck, and my neighbor was just getting home from riding his bicycle, he was wearing rain gear.  I asked him if he wanted to go get something to eat, and he acted kind of mad, and he sounded kind of mad.

My neighbor is moody, and he admits it.  He and his wife were divorced about ten years ago.  His ex-wife, ex-girlfriends, and current girlfriend have similar criticisms and complaints, part of it being his dark or unfriendly moods, which he is more aware of after the fact, than when they occur.

On Saturday he called me on the telephone to apologize for his angry behavior.  One of the first things he said was that he had lost his dog.  I thought that he was talking about his dog being dead.

He has this very small old male dog that is 14 years old.  It is about sixteen inches long from rear to snout, about eight inches high at the shoulders, and it weighs less than twenty pounds.  I don’t think this dog can see very well or hear very well.  I have been out to Patterson Lake with this dog, and it quit walking and just sat there not saying anything, and its owner had to come back and examine it, and it had stepped on a cactus and had cactus thorns in its foot.

My neighbor explained that on Friday when he was riding his bicycle in the rain, he had gotten into an accident.  He was going too fast, he lost control of his bicycle when he hit a curb too hard, everything went flying out of his bicycle basket, his backpack came off, and it was very embarrassing because there were people around, and dogs started barking.  He could have been hurt very bad, but he wasn’t.

He picked up the things that had come out of the bicycle basket and off of his bicycle.  He didn’t realize that his backpack had come off, and he left it there without knowing.  His small old dog had been in one of the bicycle baskets.  He looked around for his dog, and it wasn’t there.  He looked and looked for the dog, but it wasn’t there.  He supposed that the dog didn’t want to get back in the basket, so it walked off.

I said, “So your dog didn’t die?”  My neighbor said, “No, he’s home here now.”  I said, “Wait a minute, where was this that you got in a wreck on your bicycle?”  My neighbor said, “Over by the South Side Bar on Broadway.”

I couldn’t believe it.  The South Side Bar is at least a mile away.  The 14 year old, 8 inch tall, 16 pound dog, that can hardly see, and can hardly hear, had to walk across Broadway, walk through the rail road yard with about four sets of tracks with trains operating on each of the tracks, walk across four-lane Villard in downtown Dickinson which always has cars and people have a hard time crossing, and walk through all kinds of streets in downtown Dickinson to get back to his house.

My neighbor said yup, and it took him about one day to do it.  I said, I don’t even think that your dog could find his way home from the Family Fare grocery store, and you are telling me that your dog made it home all the way from the South Side Bar?

My neighbor said, “That’s not as bad as the time that I lost him out at Patterson Lake.  It was very cold, and he was wearing a sweater.  It got dark and late, and I called him and I called him, but he didn’t come.  I could hear him bark once, but he was very far away.  I kept calling him, and it got to be about 10:30 p.m., and I had to work the next day, so I left him.  He made it home after about two days.  It got down to nearly freezing at night.  When he came home, he wasn’t wearing his sweater.  He must have gotten his sweater caught on some barbed wire, that is why he didn’t come when I called  him.”

Patterson Lake is about six miles away, and most German Shepherds, Labrador Retrievers, and Pit Bulls wouldn’t find their way home from there, let alone an 8 inch tall, 16 pound dog.  It also kind of surprises me that he would even try to find his way back to my neighbor’s house.

Will You Catholics Take A Look At Your Church

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I have written approximately eight blog posts criticizing the Catholic Church in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I have elaborated many times that the Catholic Church in Dickinson does not teach what the New Testament Of The Bible teaches, and what Jesus Christ taught:  “So do you unto the least of my people, so do you unto me”.

The Catholic Church in Dickinson, rather than teaching people to be kind, caring, and helpful towards others, has instilled in the Catholics here that they are better than others, and that it is O.K. to take advantage of others.

I don’t know why the Catholics can’t read the Bible for themselves, and understand that the Catholic Church is far, far away from the teachings of Jesus.

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Stephanie Kirchgaessner for The Guardian on Friday September 15:

“A Vatican diplomat in Washington has been recalled to Rome after the US state department said the priest may have violated laws related to child sex abuse images.

The US state department notified the Holy See last month of a possible violation of laws. American prosecutors said they wanted the Vatican to voluntarily lift the official’s diplomatic immunity so that he could face charges, according to several reports, but the Vatican refused. The request was made on 21 August.

The Vatican said an investigation had been opened and the church was seeking “international collaboration to obtain elements relative to the case”, and it would be handled confidentially on a preliminary basis. It said the priest had already returned to Vatican City.

The Vatican said its decision to recall the priest was in line with normal diplomatic practices.

The information was transmitted by the state department to the Vatican’s secretariat of state, Pietro Parolin, the Vatican said, who in turn has turned the matter over to the Vatican’s top justice official.

The Associated Press, quoting an official familiar with the case, said the priest was a senior member of the Vatican embassy staff.

As a member of the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, the priest could not be prosecuted in the US, though he could have been expelled.

It is not the first time the Vatican has been forced to recall a diplomatic official. In 2013, it recalled the Vatican’s then ambassador to the Dominican Republic following allegations that he sexually abused minors.”

You do not need a Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, and Diplomats, who have authority and wealth.  Jesus did not teach anything about this, other than teaching against pride, power, wealth, and corruption.  So where your treasure is, there is where your heart will also be.

If You Want To See Kayaking On The Heart River In Dickinson, Go To YouTube

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Several weeks ago I wrote a blog post letting the readers know that I would begin uploading videos to YouTube.  These videos do not have commentary, and they are not controversial.  I just wanted to show different aspects of Dickinson, North Dakota using video.

My latest three videos show kayaking on the Heart River in Dickinson.  These short videos are quite picturesque and somewhat funny.

On your internet browser, type in “YouTube”.  Once you click on the YouTube site, enter in their search bar “Dickinson58601 Living in Dickinson North Dakota”.  The three latest videos are “Heart River Horses Dickinson North Dakota”, “Heart River Horses And Dogs Dickinson North Dakota”, and “Heart River Kayaking With Dogs Dickinson North Dakota”.

Don’t attack the person in the video, this is not me, this is someone who lives in my neighborhood.

Here is the link to this YouTube video:

Exposing Some Bad Things In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for five years now.  Ever since I came to Dickinson, I could tell that there were things going on that were wrong.  There were things that were adversely affecting me, my friends, and other people that I met.  I wanted to know what was going on, what were the reasons, what was behind all of this.  Eventually I created this blog website, and here are some of the things that I wrote about:

  1. The gouging and taking advantage of out of state workers on housing.
  2. The deliberate creating of a shortage and not alleviating the shortage of housing in order to keep prices high to benefit local property owners.
  3. OSHA refusing to investigate the work site death of Eric Haider.
  4. No one being charged with manslaughter over the work site death of Eric Haider.
  5. Public and private businesses violating EEO laws in order to hire friends and relatives.
  6. Failure of the Department of Labor to hold employers accountable for non-payment of wages.
  7. Long history of companies and employers in Dickinson attempting to keep wages low in order to prevent employees from ever getting ahead or being able to leave.
  8. Not allowing prostitution though the ratio of men to women varied from 3:1 to 30:1.
  9. Newspaper reports of multiple occurrences of local men resorting to sex with cows and horses in this area.

One of the causes of the injustices that I have listed above, appears to be the Catholic Church in Dickinson.  The Catholic Church in Dickinson has encouraged the Catholics to believe that they are better than everyone else, has encouraged anything that brings money to the Church, and has not discouraged or spoken out against the mistreatment or taking advantage of others.

A second cause of some of the injustices in Dickinson, appears to be the Dickinson Mafia.  The Dickinson Mafia are a group of men who own businesses, who hold public office, who are on boards of directors, and who manage some of the large companies in Dickinson.  They sought to keep wages low so that workers could never get ahead, would have to work their whole life for low wages, and could never leave.  The Dickinson Mafia also sought to control Dickinson by giving jobs as favors or rewards to people who did what they wanted, and not giving jobs to people that were independent, regardless of education, skill, and qualifications.  The Dickinson Mafia was greatly responsible for the Nepotism and Chronyism that goes on in Dickinson.

A third cause of some of the injustices in Dickinson, appears to be the failure of the police, the judicial system, and the press to hold people accountable for wrong doing.  I have come across situations in Dickinson, where individuals should have been arrested but were not, should have been prosecuted but were not, should have received long prison sentences but did not, and should have been fully covered in the Dickinson Press newspaper but were not.

Some of the really bad bad things that have been done by prominent people and businesses in Dickinson have been covered by newspapers outside of Dickinson, such as the Jamestown Sun, the Grand Forks Herald, and the Bismarck Tribune.  This is one way to handle it, and leave the Dickinson Press newspaper out of it.

The Bismarck Tribune newspaper did publish an article approximately one year ago, that described the failure of the North Dakota Department of Labor to hold employers accountable for non-payment of wages to workers.  There had been a two year wait after a worker complaint had been filed, before a case worker was even assigned to the complaint.  75% of the Department of Labor complaints were against oil field companies in western North Dakota.

I myself was shorted wages by an oil field company in the Dickinson area, so were some of my coworkers, so were some former employees of this company.  I called the North Dakota Department of Labor, and there were four other complaints against this company by former employees for non-payment of wages.

The Dickinson Press newspaper writes glowing newspaper articles about this company and the owner.  How can that be?  I began asking many local people about this company and the company owner.  I wanted to know why was he doing this, how did he think that he could get away with this, and what kind of person is he?  I found out more and more.

In high school, in the seventh grade, this company owner raped a boy in the gym locker room.  It was a very severe sexual assault.  He should have been arrested, convicted, sent to a juvenile detention center, and been registered for life as a convicted sex offender.  None of those things happened.  I asked why this didn’t happen.  I was told because of his family name, who his family was, and because his family had money.

In a previous blog post that I wrote titled, “Summary Of Wickedness And Perversion In Dickinson, North Dakota”, I wrote about a very similar incident to the one that I just described above, where a member of a wealthy and prominent local family was convicted of molesting an 8 year old girl.  His prison sentence and restitution was extremely lenient, unbelievably lenient.

In that blog post, I wrote that one of the problems in Dickinson, is that some people in Dickinson think that they are so much better than other people, that they can take advantage of other people with impunity.

As long as the Catholic Church continues to teach that Catholics are better than other people, there will continue to be people trying to take advantage of others, and mistreatment of others in Dickinson.  As long as the Dickinson Mafia continues to practice Nepotism and Chronyism, there will be corruption, collusion, injustice, unfairness, and mistreatment of people in Dickinson.

As long as the police, judicial system, and press do not hold all people equally accountable, there will be corruption, injustice, unfairness, underhandedness, crime, and mistreatment of people in Dickinson.

This Is How Methodists Act

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In my previous blog post, I wrote that I hate White People in Texas.  White People in Texas are arrogant, elitist, proud, greedy, self-serving people.  I partly blame the version of Southern Baptists that exists in Texas, the “prosperity gospel” believers, that allow them to believe that they are better than other people, which gives them the right to do the things that they do.

I have written approximately eight blog posts about the German Catholics here in Dickinson, North Dakota, that act almost as bad as the Southern Baptist prosperity gospel believers in Texas.  The Catholics here in Dickinson, North Dakota think that they are better than everyone else, so if they want to gouge people from out of state on housing, violate federal EEO laws to hire their relatives rather than people from out of state, undermine and take advantage of people from out of state, they feel that they are justified in doing so.

The German Catholics in Dickinson, North Dakota may have no idea that their behavior is not right, because they have nothing to compare it to.  Most of my close relatives and distant relatives are Methodists.  I grew up in a town with many Methodists.  But I also went to Catholic School for four years.  Later I went to school with, and became friends with Atheists, Baptists, Episcopaleans, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Lutherans, Mormons, Muslims, and Seventh Day Adventists.  I read, and I learned about each of these religions.

In this blog post, I will write about how Methodists act.  Primarily, Methodists are moderate, peaceful, conservative, tolerant, and patient.

Methodist Finances:

  1. Methodists seek to have their financial affairs in order, just like every other part of their life.
  2. To not be reckless with money, to not overspend, to live within one’s means.
  3. To not have much debt, and to certainly not have delinquent debt.
  4. A personal bankruptcy to a Methodist, would be a grave moral failure.
  5. To stay employed, to work steadily, to pay your bills, and to save money.
  6. To not buy a home, automobile, boat, motorhome, or airplane as a way to show off.
  7. To make money only in an ethical, moral, right way, to not engage in usury, fraud, deceit, treachery, or taking advantage of others.
  8. Methodists realize as part of their faith and religious beliefs, that no good can come from taking advantage of others, usury, fraud, deceit, treachery, indebtedness, overspending, showing off, and pride.
  9. Methodists have no difficulty seeing the evil in some people accumulating great wealth, while at the same time others in the same community are lacking basic necessities.  Methodists would feel shame and guilt in having excessive wealth while at the same time others in the same community didn’t have enough, due to being less able.  Methodists seek to make sure that other people don’t suffer needlessly.

Methodist Families:

  1. Husbands and wives should stay married, they took their marriage vows before God.
  2. Husbands and wives should not engage in infidelity, they took their marriage vows before God.
  3. Husbands and wives have a duty to act like a civil, decent, moral, ethical, responsible adult, for the sake of their spouse and their children.
  4. Methodists believe in having zero to three children, and that their children need supervision, guidance, instruction, education, and correction.
  5. Methodists realize as part of their faith and religious beliefs, that they should conduct themselves as a civil, decent, moral, ethical, responsible adult, for the sake of their spouse and children, for the sake of their community, and to try to make sure that their children do the same.

Methodist Culture:

  1. Methodists seek to be civil, decent, moral, ethical, responsible, thoughtful adults.  They have read the Bible themselves, and they have had the Bible, what it actually says, taught to them by thoroughly educated Methodist ministers.
  2. Methodists are likely to see the wastefulness, sloth, immorality, and drunkenness in people getting overly entrenched with NASCAR, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and UFC.
  3. Methodist are not likely to want to spend much time in bars.
  4. Methodist are not likely to want to spend much time in casinos.
  5. Methodist do not have any interest in using drugs.
  6. Methodists are not sexually promiscuous, and they do not take advantage of others.

Methodists At Work:

  1. Methodists do not believe in discrimination of any kind.
  2. Methodists believe in performing work competently, and making sure that work is performed competently.
  3. Methodists have an aversion for unethical and immoral businesses practices, so much so that they do not and will not tolerate unethical and immoral business practices, and seek to stop these business practices whenever possible.
  4. Methodists will try to help, assist, instruct, or teach others who are having difficulty in their work, in order for that person to keep their job.  If a person is not capable of doing a job, Methodists believe that that person, no matter who they are, should be removed from that job, for the sake of the work, the company, and everyone else.

I just want to point out how significantly the Catholics in Dickinson, North Dakota behave differently than Methodists.  In #4 above, Methodists at Work, Methodists would never fill all the private and public management positions with poorly educated, incompetent people like has been done in Dickinson.  Methodists would realize that the whole future, economic prosperity, and current functioning of Dickinson has been placed in the hands of not very educated or capable people.  How in the world could this turn out well?

Hurricane Harvey Has Reminded Me How Much I Hate People In Texas

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Hurricane Harvey has reminded me how much I hate people in Texas.  Not the Black people, and not the Hispanic people, but the White People.

I hate the White People in Texas, more than I hate the Catholics in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I would rather have some militant Muslim extremists living next door to me than White People from Texas, because at least the militant Muslim extremists have principles, believe in something, and live right in comparison.

Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t stand living in Houston in a predominantly Black neighborhood or a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, because these people are so different than me.  It would be uncomfortable for both me and my Black neighbors or my Hispanic neighbors.  I don’t want to listen to rap music all the time, I don’t want to listen to festival music all the time, and my neighbors would get tired of me complaining to them about their music.

Just like the Catholics in Dickinson, North Dakota think that they are better than everyone else, and think that they are going to advantage themselves, advance themselves, and disadvantage and hinder others, the White People “Texans” act the same way, only more so.

  1.  A perfect example of “Texans”, is Ethan Couch:

Ethan Couch was 16 years old in 2013, when he killed four people while driving drunk and speeding in Burleson, Texas.  One of the passengers in his vehicle suffered complete paralysis.  He was indicted on four counts of intoxication manslaughter.  His attorneys argued that he was so wealthy, that he didn’t know what he was doing.  The judge agreed with this “affluenza” defense, and Ethan was sentenced to probation only, no prison time whatsoever.

Some “Texans” in Texas are so much better than other people, that they can kill four people and not get any time in prison.  Whereas other people in Texas have been sentenced to twenty years in prison for possession of marijuana.

2.  Another example of “Texans”, is Joel Osteen:

Joel Osteen is the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas.  His father, a former Southern Baptist minister, founded Lakewood Church.  Joel Osteen attended Oral Roberts University, but he did not graduate and he did not receive a degree from divinity school.  He returned to Houston to produce his father’s television ministry program.  He did not preach his first sermon until 1999, when he was 36 years old.

Lakewood Church’s attendance grew.  In 2003, Lakewood Church acquired the former stadium of the Houston Rockets NBA basketball team.  The renovations to the stadium cost $105 million.  In 2012, Joel Osteen’s net worth was estimated to be $56 million.  He lives in a $10.5 million home.

Osteen’s sermons are sometimes criticized for promoting “prosperity theology”, a belief that material gain is the reward for Godly Christians.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, What the Fuck!  Hold on and back up!  In the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus Christ the son of God came to Earth and taught, his teachings were recorded by the Apostles.  Jesus said to each of the Apostles, come with me, leave what you have behind.  In one of Jesus’ teachings, a man asked him and the Apostles what must he do in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus replied that he must give up his possessions, and the man was very sorry, for he had much.

Teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, was not supposed to be a money making venture, and people were not supposed to get rich doing it.  The fact that a preacher of the Gospel accumulates $56 million, is not a “miracle”, something is wrong, this should never happen.  The preacher himself should have never allowed this to happen.  Are you going to tell me that there aren’t thousands of needy people in Texas, that need help with food, medical care, and housing?

In other words, the “Texans” in Texas would rather give their money to a rich White Southern Baptist “Texan” that doesn’t need their money, than to poor hungry people who really need it.

3.  A third example of “Texans”, is their catching and keeping immigrants as slaves:

When I worked in southwest Texas near the border with Mexico several years ago, the grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations, and restaurants had signs posted that read, “It is illegal to detain and hold people against their will, and force people to work for no pay.”  What had been happening, was White People near the border with Mexico would come across illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America that had just walked through the desert onto their property.  Tired, weak, thirsty, uneducated, and unable to speak English, these illegal immigrants were completely at the mercy of White People land owners with a gun, out in the middle of nowhere.  The White People Texans got in the habit of detaining these immigrants, not allowing them to leave, and forcing them to work for free, just like slaves.

Rather than feeling sorry for Texans when I see the news coverage of their flooded streets, homes, and businesses, I am sorry that I don’t see more White Texans trying to climb up on electric lines and getting electrocuted.

Yes, I hate Texans.  They are the most arrogant, elitist, self-serving people that I have ever met, and I hate their state.  I hope that the swarms of swimming, clawing, biting rats with rabies half-eat as many White Texans as possible.

Dickinson58601 Living In Dickinson, North Dakota Is Now On YouTube

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A couple of years ago, a friend of mine who read my blog posts, suggested to me that I begin making videos.  I didn’t want to do this at that time, there was so much that I wanted to say and write about, that I just didn’t want the distraction of trying to make videos.

Now that I have written approximately 400 blog posts, there are some things that I would like to show using video.  My first videos will not have audio commentary or narration, because I want to show some things in Dickinson, North Dakota, just as they are, so that people can look at them and have their own thoughts about them.

Today, Monday 8/28/2017, I uploaded two 40 second videos to YouTube that show Patterson Lake.  These two videos are primarily for people who have never been to Dickinson, so that they will know, and can see that Patterson Lake is less than one mile from downtown Dickinson.

I will begin adding more videos on a regular basis.  To view these videos, perform an internet search in your browser for “YouTube”, then click on the YouTube website.  Once on the YouTube website, in their search box, type in “Dickinson58601 Living In Dickinson North Dakota”.

Here is a link to my YouTube Channel:

What It Would Be Like To Be Married To A Small Freshwater Duck

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There is a young lady that I like very much, who I have written about previously.  She has asked me to please not use her name, so I won’t.  If you knew her name, it means “a small freshwater duck”.  In this blog post, I will refer to her as Quack, though that is not her real name.

I am old enough to know now, that women will change their mind about anything in an instant.  They also say and claim, the exact opposite of what they think and feel.  “I hate you”, can turn into “I love you”.  “I don’t want to see you with your shirt off”, turns out to get hundreds of views from women overnight when you post your picture with your shirt off.  “I don’t like that, stop”, turns out to mean “Don’t Stop”.  You get the idea.

Now, knowing all this, leads me to imagine what it would be like if Quack and I became married.  This is not nearly as unlikely as some of you might think.  I choose to focus on our life together, twelve years from now, when Quack is 37 years old, and I am 60 years old.

I imagine that we are taking a family vacation together, driving to the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff, with our 11 year old daughter, and our 7 year old son.  On all of our long drives together, Quack has always sat in the passenger seat looking out the window, with her mind far away.

Quack always wonders to herself how her life turned out this way.  She feels cheated.  How and why did she ever marry a man so much older than her?  Why is she with him?  Why is she tied down?  How did all of this happen?

Every passing desert bush, Quack wishes that she could go and hide behind the bush, stay there, and not come out, until we couldn’t find her and went away.  Every passing vehicle, Quack wishes that she could go with them, anywhere, away from here and us.

Her thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a piercing shriek, “Iieeeeeeeeee… he’s touching me!”  Quack quickly turns around in her seat to see our seven year old son sitting quietly like a toad, holding onto a large tupper ware bowl in his lap, in case he has to throw up.  Our daughter who is sitting behind Quack, is who Quack focuses in on now, this is her nemesis you would sometimes think.

Quack’s daughter is exactly like her, she is tall for her age and thin.  She is hardly any trouble at all, but Quack is always very cold with her.  You could think that Quack is just trying not to spoil her, to make her turn out not to be a bitch, but I sometimes think that Quack is just taking her anger out on her, that is all it is.

Our son is small for his age and immature.  I would not say that Quack adores him, I would say that Quack feels sorry for him, like she would for a turtle or a toad.  She spends quite a lot of time worrying about him in any case, whatever the reason.  Perhaps it is maternal instincts, I don’t know.

Quack has had just about enough of this driving trip, and she begins to think about tricking all of us three to stay in the car, while she launches the car into the Grand Canyon, or over the dam.  The more good places that we pass for her to do this, the more she thinks about it.

It is hot, and the children have been talking about going to a hotel with a swimming pool for hours.  I have been explaining for hours that we are going to stay in an old mom & pop motel on old Route 66, that they might not have a pool.  Quack somewhat agrees with this, staying in an old mom & pop motel on old Route 66, but thinks that I am doing this because I am cheap, which is the truth.

When we do finally get to an old mom & pop motel, with a pool, the children squeal with delight, that they are going to get their bathing suits on right away to go swimming.  I know exactly what is going to happen, and Quack knows exactly what is going to happen, that pool water is cold, about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, there is no way that those kids are going to get in that water.  Quack looks at this as the opportunity to finally get her revenge.

As soon as we check into the motel room, to the children’s surprise, Quack is changing into her bathing suit too.  This makes the children slightly suspicious.  I admire Quack in her two piece bakini bathing suit, she has not lost her figure at all.  Quack takes her two little ducklings with her to the pool, noting with satisfaction that there is a chain link fence around it, with only one gate.

Quack gently and unflinchingly descends down the steps into the pool, calling to her two children.  With just their bathing suits on, and it being late in the day now, our two kids are not hot anymore, and their enthusiasm for going into the swimming pool is now gone.  They don’t want to go in now.  Quack reminds them of how they have been talking about going swimming for the last several hours.

As soon as the two children take the first step down into the pool water, they have a look of horror on their faces at how cold the water is.  Quack has taken hold of each of them by the arm, with her cold, wet, bony fingers, and they know that they can not get away from her.  They plead with Quack and beg for mercy, “No, please, I don’t want to go in, I don’t want to go in…”, but soon their mouths, eyes, and nostrils are filled with pool water and they are choking and gasping.

After about four minutes of frightening her children, who are not sure if their mother is trying to kill them, it is time for dinner.  After Quack and the children change out of their bathing suits and get dressed, we walk across the street to a diner.  I and the children order cheeseburgers and fries, Quack has to pick something else to order.

Quack’s second most favorite thing it would sometimes seem, is embarrassing the children in public, and at restaurants.  She often deliberately orders something that the children will think is gross, and she orders alcohol, which worries me too.  We all know that we are going to become victims of hers here shortly.

When Quack gets her beer, she begins eye balling each of us, and we aren’t sure which one of us she is going to start with first.  “How old are you now?  What, are you in the second grade or something?  Don’t you think that you should start doing your own laundry now?  Here let me put some mayonaise on your french fries for you, that is what they do in France, what you don’t want any, what are you a Republican like your father or something?”

After dinner, we are all tired and ready for bed.  I go lay down on one of the double size beds, and Quack goes and lays down on the other double size bed.  The two children climb into bed with Quack, and cling to her sides like baby opossums riding on their mother’s back.

I think that this is a very happy marriage.

Final Dickinson First On First Concert For 2017?

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I don’t want this to be a quick, flippant blog post, I want to be clear and have people think about and reflect on some of these things.

This might have been the last First On First a.k.a. Alive at Five concert that you will see in Dickinson for many years, or maybe something else happened at this final event, you will have to continue reading.

The Odd Fellows Lodge in Dickinson is the group that sponsors, organizes, and pays for the First On First concerts.  The Odd Fellows Lodge members are all unpaid volunteers.  Some members handle the event plans and permitting with the city, sell event advertising to businesses, seek event sponsorship and donations, have signs, tickets and T-shirts made, order alcohol, close off the street and set up the event area, set up the stage, stock the alcohol bars, serve drinks, sell event wrist bands and drink tickets, sell event space to vendors, take down the stage, and clean up the event area.  And continually do accounting and budgeting all week in order to be able to pay for everything each week, the biggest expense being the main performer every week.

Since I began going to the Alive at Five concerts in Dickinson in 2014, it has been harder and harder for Odd Fellows Lodge members and other people to volunteer and work at the events because of the way that Dickinson has changed.  I would describe it as most people having financial difficulty, more difficulty in their lives, and being less able to volunteer their time.  Also, businesses have become less able to afford event advertising, sponsorships, and donations.

For the past two years, Tracy Tooz the owner of Tooz Construction, and Mike Odegaard have been the primary event organizers in the leadership, management, booking of performers, event set up, and event take down each week.  I have never seen Tracy Tooz or Mike Odegaard complain or gripe about anything.  I have also never seen anyone ever thank Tracy Tooz or Mike Odegaard.

If you look at the First On First events as a big party, where everyone in North Dakota is invited, Tracy Tooz and Mike Odegaard set up this party, hire a band, make sure that there is enough alcohol, try to make sure everyone has a good time, then clean up after everybody has left, and then throw another party next week.  Well, nobody has ever thanked them for it.  They spend a lot of their time on the phone, the computer, driving their own trucks to go pick things up, using their own tools and equipment at the event, letting the performers use their personal RVs and vehicles while in town, and spending many hours each week setting up and taking down the stage.  Tracy Tooz and Mike Odegaard have donated a great deal of time, money, and energy to the First On First concerts and there is no guarantee that they will want to continue, I am not sure that they will.

Other people who have consistently volunteered many hours at the events are Kathy Fisher owner of the Rock Bar, Kristi Schwartz owner of Allstate Insurance, Jeff Pokorney owner of Pokorney Chiropractic, all of the Outlaw Sippin’ band members Brady Paulson, Beni Paulson, Emil Anheluk, Qwain, Donna HR at Tooz Construction, Brock White owner of Brock White Entertainment, April, and many other people whose names I will add as I remember them.

As I wrote earlier, it is becoming more and more difficult for people to volunteer or work at the events because of the way that Dickinson is changing economically.  All of the people that I have named so far up above, I don’t know if they will all be able to keep on volunteering like they have been.  I have never seen anyone thank any of them.

All of the Odd Fellows Lodge members, all of the volunteers, all of the event sponsors and donors wanted for people to come out, have a good time, meet friends, socialize, and enjoy the concerts.  Seeing and knowing that people enjoy the concerts was gratifying for everyone.  But I wanted to point out now that many people just took the events for granted, that they would always happen every Thursday, that the city paid for it, or that it was a money making venture, where someone was making a profit.

The final First On First concert of this year, I knew, and probably thirty other people knew that this might be the last First On First concert for many years possibly.  This may have been one of the reasons why Tracy Tooz, Mike Odegaard, and Jeff Pokorny decided to have the very last concert at the Dickinson State University football season opening game.  This had never been done before.

While the DSU Blue Hawk supporters were having their tail gate party in the stadium parking lot, the Outlaw Sippin’ band began playing.  Bradi, Beni, Emil and the band sounded as good or better than they ever had, but most of the tail gate partiers stayed over in the Blue Hawk supporter event area, like they were accustomed to doing for many years.  There was also the assumption by many of the DSU Blue Hawk supporters that they had to be 21 years of age, and pay admission to get into the fenced in area in front of the stage.  Attendance before the start of the football game at 6:00 p.m. was very low.

Immediately after the football game was over at about 8:30 p.m., the event area in front of the stage began to fill very quickly.  Chancy Williams and the Younger Brothers Band began playing at about 8:45 p.m.  From about 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m, there were approximately 400 to 500 people at the event.  Without anyone knowing, the event almost ran out of beer by 10:30 p.m. and they had to go get more beer.

All of the event organizers were very happy that they had sold so many wrist bands and drink tickets in the final two hours, which would be enough to cover or more than cover all of the event expenses.  All of the event organizers, volunteers, vendors, and workers realized that they could have or would have had much higher attendance starting at 3:00 p.m. if they would not have had a separation between the Blue Hawk supporter tail gate party and the event stage, everything should have been co-mingled, not separated.

The event organizers also realized from the wrist band sales and drink sales immediately following the end of the football game, that they might be able to continue to have this event for each of the remaining DSU home football games.  This would allow the Odd Fellows Lodge to continue to bring music performers to Dickinson into the winter months, which is something that many people had wanted to happen for at least the past several years, but it was not known how this could be done.

What was seen by some people as possibly being the last First On First concert for quite a while, might have instead turned out to be the beginning of the music concert season in Dickinson extending into the winter.  We will have to wait and see.

(Please leave the names of the event organizers, volunteers, band members, sponsors, and donors that I keep forgetting to mention in the comments section and I will include them.)

Magellan Energy Group Proposed Davis Space Ship

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Press Release 8/23/2017:

Magellan Energy Group, has announced its plans to begin building several space ships in western North Dakota, in order to travel to other planets, and to create colonies under the oceans and lakes here on Earth.

Travel to other planets will allow for the sale of materials, agricultural products, goods, and services here on Earth to hundreds of other galaxies, each with hundreds and hundreds of planets.  This should allow for the expansion of existing businesses and industries here on Earth such as telemarketing, real estate, insurance, entertainment, and tourism.

Magellan Energy Group expects to bring back to Earth technology and resources of every kind.  “We expect that minerals that are scarce here on Earth, such as platinum, gold, and silver may be much more abundant on other planets.  Investors should expect to see a 1000% return on their investment, if not more.”

“We could not have picked a more suitable place to begin constructing our inter-planetary space craft.  The wide open prairies of western North Dakota offer plenty of room for construction of the space craft, air fields, and unobstructed flight path for landing and take-off.

North Dakota is home to many skilled tradesmen in welding, fabrication, erection, machine work, electrical, hydraulic, mechanics, instrumentation, controls, and propulsion.  During construction, Magellan expects to employ 1,000 people here locally.

Magellan Properties, a division of Magellan Energy Group, plans to build residential and commercial properties under the oceans and lakes here on Earth, these will include:  single family homes, multi-family housing, hotels, retail, restaurants, movie theaters, police stations, and fire departments.

One of the main things that influenced the founding partners to base operations here in western North Dakota, is both the abundance of oil and uranium, that will serve as the fuel source for interplanetary travel, and also the fact that people here don’t look into things.”

(Note:  I wrote the Press Release above as a parody of actual press releases, that I have been reading from a company in the Dickinson area with a similar sounding name to “Magelllan Energy Group”.

Most readers who do not live in North Dakota, and many readers who do live in North Dakota, might have been wondering what this blog post was all about.  I have written one blog post about it before, about a company’s plans to build a $900 million facility in this area of North Dakota.  Though I believe that a smaller version of what they are proposing may eventually be constructed, I want to encourage local people to look into and question proposals and claims, to consider and evaluate the feasibility, cost, amount of time, and economic viability of this venture.  To not rely only on company press releases.)

Don’t Get Your Prescriptions Filled At Sanford Health, Check Prices First

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I went to the Sanford Health Clinic in Dickinson, North Dakota to get a prescription for an allergy medication.  Because the Sanford Health Clinic had a pharmacy there, I chose to have the prescription filled there.  I was surprised at both the high price, and the small quantity of the Pataday prescription eye drops.  For 2.5 ml of Pataday eye drops, smaller than the amount of liquid in a tea spoon, it was $191.  That is $76 per ml.

I looked on the internet when I got home to see if I could get the Pataday eye drops anywhere else for less money, and in Canada they sell it for less than $7 per ml.  In Canada they sell 7.5 ml bottles for $48, and they ship to the United States.  I wanted to have more than 2.5 ml because I have severe allergy attacks about four times per year.

I completed my on-line order form, and I e-mailed the Canadian drug store a copy of my prescription.  I then called the Canadian drug store on the telephone, and they would not process my order because I only had my prescription information from the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.  I didn’t have the original doctor’s prescription slip, I never got it from the doctor, she just e-mailed it to the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.

I called a second Canadian on-line drug store, and they would not process my order without an original prescription slip from a medical doctor.  They would not accept the prescription label from the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy that showed I had 1 refill allowed.  The Canadian drug stores that I spoke to said that they did not think that I would have a problem getting the medical doctor to write me a new prescription slip.

What I should have done, and what I recommend that the readers of this blog post do, is to always get a physical prescription slip from a medical doctor before you leave their office.  This will give you the chance to go home and compare prices at different pharmacies.  Once a pharmacy gets your prescription slip, it will be very difficult if not impossible to get your prescription refills at a different pharmacy.

Two days after I had my Pataday eye drop prescription filled at the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy, I delivered a letter to the Sanford Health walk-in clinic addressed to the medical doctor that had examined me and had prescribed the Pataday eye drops with one refill allowed.  In the letter, I explained that I could order the Pataday eye drops from a drug store in Canada for $7 per ml, versus $76 per ml that I paid at the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.  I asked if she could write a prescription slip for my one refill of Pataday, so that I could get this refill for less money in Canada.

I received a telephone call from a woman at Sanford Health, denying my request for a prescription slip, even though I explained to her that I had one refill allowed.

 

My Sanford Health walk-in clinic visit will probably cost more than $200, and my prescription for Pataday and Prednisone cost more than $200.  This is enough medication to make it through one allergy attack.  If I buy one refill of Pataday for $191, I can make it through a second allergy attack.  On my third allergy attack, I would have to go back to the Sanford Health walk-in clinic and pay over $400 again.  I wanted a solution to my allergy problem, not to be a continuing on-going source of revenue for Sanford Health.

I hope that the readers of this blog post will now know that they should request enough refills on their prescriptions for recurring health problems like allergies. so that they don’t have to keep going back for expensive doctor visits.  I also hope that the readers begin looking on the internet at on-line Canadian drug stores who mail prescription medications to the United States.

I looked for international drug stores that would sell and ship prescription medications to the United States without a prescription, and I found one company based in Gibraltar that does this.  However this particular company in Gibraltar has several complaints against it from people who placed an order, paid for their order, but never received their shipment.  Other people claim that they have received the orders that they placed from this company in Gibraltar.

In my situation, I will continue to look for a way to buy Pataday eye drops for as little money as possible, in the quantity that I expect that I will need, without a prescription and having to pay a medical doctor over and over again.

The Beautiful Women Of Sanford Health In Dickinson, North Dakota…Can Be Treacherous

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Update 9/7/2017:  When I originally published this blog post on 8/22/2017 it was completely positive and complimentary.  When I found out that I could get my medication for 1/10th the cost from Canada, and Sanford Health would not give me a prescription slip to get my medications from Canada, my impression of Sanford Health became very negative.  When I received my bill today, it was reasonable, so I am editing this blog post.

For the past three years in North Dakota, about four times each year, I have had a severe allergy attack.  The worst part about these allergy attacks is that my eyes become so swollen and sensitive to light, that I can not see well enough to drive.  In order to not lose my job, I have driven anyway, when I should not have.

I did not want to go to a doctor in North Dakota, because I was afraid of what kind of doctor I would get, and how much money I would be charged.  I have had mostly bad experiences in trying to get anything done in North Dakota, that would have been normal and ordinary things to do in other states.

I had to stay home on Sunday and Monday because I was having an allergy attack, and I could not see well enough to drive.  I realized that I really needed to find out about getting a strong antihistamine to use in an emergency, almost something like people who are allergic to bee stings might use in an emergency.  I went to a pharmacist on Tuesday morning and I asked him if there was any prescription strength antihistamine that I could use in an emergency to stop the swelling of my eyes.  He said that yes there was, and he wrote two of them down, Pataday and Prednisone.

I went to an optometrist’s office in Dickinson, and the earliest appointment that I could get was more than several weeks away.  I had not wanted to go to the Sanford Health Clinic because I was worried about what kind of doctor I would get, and how much money it would cost.  I talked myself into going to Sanford Health, hoping that the walk-in clinic visit would not be much more than $200.

I went into the Sanford Health walk-in clinic, and both of the check-in/admitting women were available.  Both of these women were pleasant and professional acting, and check-in was fairly quick.  I had to wait less than five minutes for a nurse to come and get me, she was older with grey hair, but she was also pleasant and professional acting.

There was a second nurse already waiting in the exam/treatment room, she was nice, in her mid-thirties.  The first nurse checked my weight, heart rate, and blood pressure, while the second nurse asked me some questions about my medical problem this day.  The first nurse and the second nurse spent less than five minutes with me.  In the back of my mind, I was thinking that this was probably some scheme by Sanford Health to charge me for two nurse consultations/treatments to increase my bill.

Lastly, I got who struck me as the Marinna Marsh of medical doctors, Dr. Nicole Marie Wilson-Hall from Indiana.  She was very attractive with long blonde hair, and friendly disposition.  I thought that I was very lucky, but I was worried how much this would cost me.  Dr. Nicole Marie Wilson-Hall is a locum tenens, a temporary doctor used by a medical facility to fill a staff shortage.  I have seen and read job advertisements for medical doctor locum tenens in Dickinson, and they are usually paid $300 to $350 per hour.  When I got home, I looked up Dr. Nicole Marie Wilson-Hall on the internet, and I found that she also works at walk-in clinics in Tampa, Florida where she lives:

Dr. Wilson Hall graduated Cum Laude from the University of Notre Dame, where she majored in Pre-Medicine and Anthropology and minored in Science, Technology, and Values. Her love of culture and travel prompted her to spend a semester abroad in Australia during her junior year of college. She graduated from St. Louis University/Scott Air Force Base’s Family Medicine program in Belleville, IL. She served four years as a family medicine physician at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota and earned an Army Accommodation Medal during Operation United Assistance in Liberia. She attended A.T. Still University of Health Sciences for medical school in Kirksville, MO and spent her two years of clinical rotations in St. Petersburg, Fl, where she and her husband fell in love with the Tampa Bay area.

I was glad to have met Dr. Captain Nicole Marie Wilson-Hall, she was attractive and nice, and she seemed very competent.  She prescribed two medications, Pataday and Prednisone.  I had explained to her that I had an allergic attack like this about four times per year, and that I really wanted to get an antihistamine that would stop the swelling in my eyes so that I could see well enough to drive, and not lose my job.

When she asked me what pharmacy that I wanted my prescription to be filled at, I said that I didn’t know, I guess at the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy if the cost was the same as anywhere else.  She sent the prescription to the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.

From the time I walked in the door to the walk-in clinic, to the time I got to the clinic pharmacy to pick up my prescription, it took about twenty minutes.  I hoped at the time that I would not be charged much more than $200 for the walk-in clinic visit.

One of my prescriptions, the Pataday eye drops, cost $191 for a bottle smaller than a sewing thimble.  The amount of liquid in this bottle was less than what a tea spoon would hold.  I was not prepared or expecting this to cost so much.  I was literally scared to try to use it, what does this cost $5 per each drop?  I usually miss my eye a little bit when applying eye drops, and it takes several drops.  Drop, drop, drop, there goes $15.

The Pataday eye drops, my other prescription for ten Prednisone tablets, and the walk-in clinic visit to get these prescriptions will end up costing me more than $400.  I have one refill on the prescription for the Pataday eye drops.  If I want to pay $191 for another Pataday refill, the first bottle and the second bottle would get me through two allergy attacks, at a cost of $591 to get me through two allergy attacks.

When I got home after picking up and paying for my two prescriptions at the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy, I looked on the internet and I found several drug stores in Canada that sell the same bottle of Pataday eye drops for $32 per bottle, versus $191 at the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.  These Canadian drug stores ship prescriptions by mail to the United States without any difficulty.

I called one, and then another Canadian drug store to place my order for the Pataday eye drops, and they both said that they needed the original doctor’s prescription slip for the Pataday, not the prescription label showing one refill allowed.  I explained that I never got a doctor’s prescription slip, it was e-mailed from the doctor straight to the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.  The Canadian drug stores said that they did not think that I would have any difficulty in getting the doctor to write me another prescription slip.

On Thursday 8/24/2017, I delivered a letter to the Sanford Health walk-in clinic for Dr. Nicole Wilson-Hall.  The letter explained that I could get the Pataday eye drops from Canada for $7 per ml, instead of $76 per ml at the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy, that the Canadian drug stores would not accept the refill label on the Pataday, and I asked if she could write a prescription slip for me.  I was told at the check-in desk that she was gone for the rest of the week.  I asked if she had a mail box that they could put the letter in for her, and they said that they would.

I knew that it might be a while before Dr. Nicole Wilson-Hall would come back to Dickinson.  She might not come back at all.  Later on Thursday afternoon when I was working, I received a phone call from a woman at Sanford Health, I should have asked her to repeat who she was, but I didn’t.  She pretty much said that I could forget about anyone at Sanford Health writing me another prescription slip, even though I explained to her that I had one refill allowed, and that I wanted to get this one refill at some place other than the Sanford Health Clinic pharmacy.

Even though I have had nothing but bad experiences getting anything done in North Dakota, I still was not cautious, suspicious, and careful enough.  Because the women at Sanford Health seemed to be pleasant, professional, and competent, I began to think that nothing was wrong.  I had intended that my doctor visit and the money that I was paying, was going to allow me to have medication to treat my allergy attacks that occur about four times per year, not just this current attack plus one more.  When I have a third allergy attack, I would have to go back to the Sanford Health walk-in clinic again, go through this process again, and pay the same amount of money again.

Rather than helping people, these women at Sanford Health are there to help make sure that Sanford Health makes as much money as possible, I see that now.  I am really dreading the bill that I am going to get from them now.  I might not pay it.  I have excellent credit, and I have never not paid a bill, but I think I might not pay this one.  I don’t mind explaining a hundred times why I haven’t paid this bill.

About two weeks later I received a bill from Sanford Health for the walk-in clinic visit.  The bill was $158, which I think is fair and reasonable.  In the end, the only thing that I am mad about, is that I wish I would have requested a prescription slip from the doctor, so that I could go home and research the best price for my medication before getting the prescription filled, most likely in Canada.

Elks Lodge Calamity In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have heard from two different people that the Elks Lodge in Dickinson, North Dakota is giving up the upstairs main floor of their building, and will now operate out of the basement of the building.  This was shocking, upsetting, and depressing to me, and I am not even a member of the Elks Lodge.  The more I think about it, the angrier that it makes me.

What’s next, are you going to get a reverse mortgage on your basement, and then when that money runs out, start having your meetings at McDonalds?

Oooh, Oooh, it’s so hard to make money now, we can’t really afford to keep the upstairs to our building, it’s so hard to keep the building clean and pay the electric, with my arthritis and my hip problems, I can’t climb down those stairs anymore.  We aren’t going to live much longer anyway.

What the Fuck is wrong with you!  The Elks Lodge members before you bought the land, paid for the construction of a nice modern two-story building, with a large lounge, large bar, large kitchen, dining room, and ballroom.  All of this was long ago paid for.  From what I have been told, the previous manager “Ray”, built up $700,000 in retained earnings over his tenure.  All you had to do was break even with bar and restaurant sales, banquets and events, and only dip into that $700,000 in an emergency.

You can’t take a paid for building, and just break even with bar and restaurant sales?  All over North Dakota, bar and restaurant owners not only have to pay for their building, they have to make a profit.  And you couldn’t even break even with a paid for building, right in the middle of the biggest economic boom anywhere in the United States that went on here from 2007 to 2014?  What the Fuck is wrong with you!

1,000 Elks Lodge members probably contributed at least $100 per year, that’s $100,000 per year, and you still couldn’t keep a paid for building, even with a $700,000 emergency fund?  With the last little bit of money you have, you should hire an independent auditor to find out what happened to all the money.

In every city, and every state, the Elks Lodge members are comprised of the car dealership owners, car dealer management, real estate brokers, real estate agents, insurance company owners, insurance company agents, other business owners, doctors, dentists, lawyers, and accountants.  All of these types of people formed, built, and kept the Elks Lodge going for 80 years, and now right after the biggest oil boom ever in Dickinson, you can’t even keep your building that was long ago paid for?

Something is wrong with you people.  I would be ashamed to be an Elks Lodge member in Dickinson.  You belong in a basement.

Supposedly, the upstairs to the Elks Lodge building has been acquired by the New Life Pentecostal Church of Dickinson.  This church has fewer than 100 adult members, and most of them are not wealthy people.  How can these 100 adults from a church afford to purchase, renovate, and maintain the upstairs to the Elks Lodge building, and the 1,000 professional and business people Elks Lodge members can’t even keep the upstairs to the building that they already owned?

Update 1/12/2018:

I do not know why this blog post article has been viewed by more than 100 people today, because I posted this article back in August, four months ago.  Here are some of the Facebook posts from the Elks Lodge in Dickinson:

November 16, 2017 – “PSA: We have set a date to close the top half of the Elks, our last day open this year will be December 16th! We are planning to renovate downstairs of the Elks and will reopen in 2018! We are really excited to see where this new chapter takes the Elks and all of our Members….”

December 14, 2017 – “Hey Everyone, As most of you know our last day upstairs is Saturday (16th) and we are requesting help from anyone who is interested!
We would like to start on Sunday December 17th……The Auction will be December 30th at 10:00 AM here at the Elks. Basically, we need to move the various equipment and furniture into trailers that we plan to keep for the lower level and organize the sale items in the building for the auction sale…..”

January 2, 2018 – “As most of you know we are officially closed for lower level renovations! We will be reopening at a later date in 2018….”

I drove to the Elks Lodge in Dickinson this evening, and I saw several work vans and equipment trailers owned by Simons Homes Siding & Windows parked beside the Elks Lodge building, because work was being performed on the upstairs of the building.  Simons Homes Siding & Windows is owned by Robert Simons, pastor of the New Life Pentecostal Church.

From the three quotations that I took from the Dickinson Elks Lodge Facebook page and listed above, it appears as though the Elks Lodge is moving into the basement of their own building, and vacating the upstairs of their own building.

I can not say for certain that the New Life Pentecostal Church will occupy the upstairs of the Elks Lodge building, but it looks like this will happen.

I do not want to express any more anger and outrage than I have already written, about how the Elks Lodge members from the past, could buy or build their own building in the worst of economic times, and then later the future Elks Lodge members would lose a paid for building in the middle of the best of economic times.

I will write an updated article with some other comments about the Elks Lodge in Dickinson.

Dickinson, North Dakota Could Have Had Permanent Growth If….

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In this blog post, I am going to try to explain one of the mistakes that has been made in Dickinson that has prevented permanent growth.  No, I am not going to write about local people in Dickinson being unfriendly, uncooperative, not helpful, and hostile for the 100th time, I am going to write about something that I have not covered yet.

I will illustrate what I am trying to explain using a real life example of a woman named “Trudy” who moved to Dickinson with her husband approximately two years ago.  Trudy and her husband are in their late forties, and they moved to Dickinson because of her husband’s job.  They had moved to different towns more than several times during their marriage because of her husband’s job.

Initially, when they moved to Dickinson two years ago, they rented an apartment.  They wanted to look for and try to find the right house for them.  With the sale of their previous home and their financial situation, they could have afforded to buy the most expensive home listed for sale in Dickinson if they wanted to.  But they were really only looking for a nice looking, comfortable, modest home that was the right size for them.

Trudy and her husband did not like paying the very high apartment rent that was the result of the oil boom that began in 2007 in western North Dakota.  The rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Dickinson was typically $2,000 to $3,000 per month.  Most people recognized that if you are going to pay $24,000 to $36,000 per year in rent, you would be much better off financially by using that amount of money to purchase a home.

Trudy liked Dickinson, and she liked the people in Dickinson.  She was looking forward to buying a house and making a home here with her husband.  She was looking forward to getting out of their apartment, this was only supposed to be a temporary arrangement.

Trudy looked, and looked for a house in Dickinson.  She looked at every on-line listing, she looked at all the printed real estate guides, she went to real estate offices, she drove around Dickinson looking at homes “For Sale By Owner” and to look for any house for sale that she wasn’t already aware of.

Trudy looked for a house in Dickinson for 1-1/2 years.  Though from time to time she found a house that would have been O.K. for her and her husband, everything was overpriced.  It was as if the home owners and the real estate agents did not think that anyone else was aware that the oil boom was over, and that the oil field was not going to pick up any time soon, and possibly not for a long time.  It also appeared that the home owners and the real estate agents believed that there were people “with a lot of money”, that would just go ahead and buy a house for $250,000 to $450,000 without even thinking about it.

Most people that are capable of purchasing a home for $250,000 to $450,000 are financially shrewd people, who are not in the habit of losing money.  These people don’t willingly over-pay for anything.  But in Dickinson, there seemed to be this wide-spread belief that there were vast numbers of home buyers that didn’t know how much homes were worth, and that the thought never entered their mind, “What could I expect to re-sell this home for in the future?”

Dickinson began to lose its charm for Trudy and her husband.  The people didn’t turn out to be that friendly or very helpful after all.  They could not find a reasonably priced home, and living in their apartment was unpleasant.  There was not a lot to do in Dickinson.  Eventually, both Trudy and her husband agreed that they would be happier and better off if they just moved to a different state.

I used this story up above to illustrate that both the excessive gouging on housing during the oil boom, and the current and continuing over-pricing on houses, has made about 90% of the people who came to Dickinson in the past ten years make up their minds that they would never stay in Dickinson.  I am not saying that 10% of the people decided to stay, I am saying that 90% of the people made up their minds that they would never stay.

Of the 10% of the people who came to Dickinson in the past ten years who didn’t make up their minds that they would never stay, many or most of this 10% had to leave anyway because they lost their job, or they could not find a reasonably priced house.  Trudy and her husband would be in this 10%.

In other words, Dickinson drives almost everyone who comes here away.  The population of Dickinson is going to continue to decrease every year, for years to come.

Businesses Closing In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I want for everyone, local people, people from out of state, and people who are considering moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, to know what is going on here.  The oil boom is over in North Dakota, it was over by the end of 2014.  Since then, everything has become less busy with each passing month in Dickinson, North Dakota.

During the morning work rush hours in Dickinson, 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., traffic is not heavy.  From 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., traffic is very light.  After 8:00 p.m. in Dickinson, the streets are almost empty.  After 8:00 p.m., there are only three to six people in each of the downtown bars on a week night.  After 8:00 p.m., it is the same thing in each of the grocery stores, only about three to six customers.

Outside of town in the industrial areas, there are many commercial buildings and warehouses that have become vacant.  In town, there are many commercial and retail spaces that have become vacant.

The Sears store has sold most of its inventory, there is hardly anything left in the store, and they are permanently closing in just a few days.  The Family Fare grocery store on highway 22 is closing in just a few days, much of their inventory is already gone.

In downtown Dickinson, there are two family owned businesses that were very rude to me, and several other people that I have spoken to.  I spent about $500 at one business, and about $1,000 at the other business, yet the owners were shitty with me when I came to their stores to buy more equipment.  I enjoy driving by their stores now at various times throughout the day, and I see that they have zero customers.

I am not going to list every tenant from every retail, commercial, and industrial building in Dickinson that has left, because it would take too long and it would be difficult to include every one.  In general, in buildings where there are five or more tenants, it has gone from one vacancy, to two, then three, and so on as the months have passed in Dickinson.  What I want for people to understand, is that more and more business will continue to close in Dickinson.

I have had a couple of discussions recently with two men who are my age, late forties, who have lived and worked all over the United States, who came to Dickinson right when the oil boom began in 2007.  They lived and worked through the housing shortage, and the worker shortage in Dickinson.  One of these men is an electrician who has had his hours reduced more and more, as other workers are let go.  One of these men is a roustabout foreman who has had his wage rate reduced by $7 per hour, as other workers are let go.  Both of these men admit to there being a scarcity of jobs right now, and every indication that things will get much worse in employment.

All three of us, do not like it when uninformed people in the area say things like, “Things are starting to pick up again.”, “The drill rig count is up.”, “Its starting to turn around now.”, and “People are going back to work now.”  These statements are absolutely not true, although the drill rig count may go up from time to time.  It is not helping anyone to give them false information, it is actually harming many people.

There are many people who have reduced work, have lost their jobs, or have been unable to get a job, who should do everything they can to plan on leaving North Dakota.  They need to look into what things are like in Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, what kind of job can they get there, where can they live, and how are they going to get there.

It is about to get cold again in North Dakota, and there will be a winter work slow down.  It is wrong, and it is harmful to mislead people who have lost their job or who have not been able to get a job, into believing that if they wait here, the oil field is getting ready to pick up again, it’s not.

It would actually be better for everyone in Dickinson to know and to say, “The oil field is not going to pick up any time soon.  More people will probably lose their jobs.  It’s time for people to start thinking about where else they could live, and where else they might go to earn a living.  It is not going to be good to encourage people to stay in Dickinson, there will end up being many unemployed people in Dickinson if some of these people don’t try to go someplace else.”