Tag Archives: relocating to Dickinson North Dakota

The Beauty Of Western North Dakota

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I recognize the beauty of western North Dakota.  It is like the ocean in many, many ways.

I am reminded of the ocean when I look across the rolling prairie.  When I look out across it, it is empty, there is nothing there.  It is beautiful because of its vastness and emptiness.

It is frightening in its emptiness and desolation.  Even though I admire it, it makes me feel uneasy.  It is desolate and barren.  I can never forget how cold it gets, how the wind blows, how poor it is, and how hard it is to survive.

I only enjoy looking at it, when I am sitting someplace warm and safe, like my vehicle, and I have money.  I never want to be forced to work outside in the wind and cold ever again, and to be at the mercy of other people in North Dakota.

It is exactly like being on a ship at sea.  There are no women.  Everything is fine when you are warm and dry, and can look out upon the ocean.  When there is a storm, and you have to be out in the wind and rain, it is miserable.  When the weather is bad, you realize how close you are to dying.

Tiger Salamander In Watford City, North Dakota, Part II

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I didn’t mean to keep everybody in suspense over what happened to the green & black Tiger Salamander that I saw walking down the street nine days ago.  I felt bad for him because he was walking in the middle of the road at less than 1 mph, and I didn’t think that he knew where he was going.  I put him in a cardboard box, and I looked him up on the internet.

Green & black Tiger Salamanders are native to North Dakota.  During the rainy season, once each year, they get out and walk to the pond where they were born, in order to find a mate.  Then they go walking, usually on a rainy night, to go find a place to stay for the Winter.

I read about five internet articles that described what they like to eat, what to do if you want to keep one as a pet, and what they do and where they stay during the Winter.  All the internet articles downplayed the statement, “…or, they go and live in some other animal’s burrow.”

I didn’t know what to do with him.  I did not want to go buy a 15 to 20 gallon aquarium, make dry land, water pond, plant plants, go to the pet store to buy crickets every week, and have to worry about the cat knocking the lid off the aquarium, and the dog knocking over the aquarium.  You can’t change your mind about keeping him in the middle of the Winter, because you can’t take him out of the house and let him loose in the snow and freezing temperature.

When I got up in the morning after keeping him in the cardboard box over night, and looked to see how he was doing, he might have drank some of his water, but he had not eaten any of the hot dog pieces that I had cut up for him.  Later that day, I showed him to a neighbor lady, and she said, “I would like to say that he is cute, but he isn’t.”  I agree, he was creepy and hideous looking, and poisonous.

In the late afternoon, I talked to the person who owns the house where I live in Dickinson, and he said that Tiger Salamanders make good pets, although they don’t do a lot in the Winter, and when they are very active in their aquarium, they stink.  I can believe that, because I detected a stinky smell already.

When it got completely dark that night, I took the Tiger Salamander over to a field that had been in the direction of where he was headed the night before, and let him go.  There were some large dirt piles, brush piles, and debris piles, so he had many hiding places to chose from.  I did not want to take him further away, because I think that he would probably try to walk back to the retention pond to find a mate next Fall.

In the field where I let him go, there were many rabbits and mice.  These rabbits and mice already have holes and burrows.  Mice already have high pitch squeak voices, and I can picture some mouse woman shrieking at him, “Oh no! You’re not staying here!  Get out!”  Of course he’s not going to leave.  Probably for a weak, some mouse woman will be yelling at him, bitching, griping, and complaining non-stop.  Then, everybody will just have to go around him and step over him for the rest of the Winter.

If You Have To Leave Dickinson Or Watford City To Go Work Out Of State, Part I

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For the past seven months while working in Watford City, I have seen several of my neighbors move out and move away each month because they lost their job. During the past several weeks I have been looking at the internet job site Indeed.com, and the North Dakota Job Services website, for job listings in Watford City and Dickinson, and there are very few jobs.  Yes, there is a similar job advertisement for Registered Nurses that gets repeated over and over, but there always is.  Lately there is usually a job listing for a heavy equipment mechanic, an electrician, a welder, and a truck driver, and I mean one listing for one position.  The amount of jobs advertised for Watford City and Dickinson is probably the same as, or less than Bismarck, Fargo, or Billings.  At this time, more of the out of state workers will have to return home, start over again in some other city away from home, and maybe even some local Watford City and Dickinson residents will have to leave and go to work out of state.

I want to give some recommendations and warnings to people who are not experienced in having to leave home and go to work out of state, and give some reminders to those who do have to have to look for work out of state from time to time.

I can not warn North Dakotans strongly enough that it will not be easy or safe going to look for work out of state.  When I went to look for work in Dallas, Texas in 2012, the very first night that I was there in a motel, someone took a utility knife, shoved the blade in my truck tire and broke it off.   I believe that it was this angry black guy, who somehow didn’t like the Idaho license plate on my truck, thinking that Idahoans were racist.  People in Texas don’t even know where Idaho is on the map.  If you recall from the national news in July of this year, a black man shot six white police officers in Dallas.  You had better believe me that in Dallas and Houston, which are about 40% Black, that they don’t like Whites, and that they will rob you and assault you as if you were in Somalia, especially, especially because you are White and have a North Dakota license plate.

You need to obtain a concealed weapons permit while you are still in North Dakota, before you leave to go to try to find a job in states like Texas, Arizona, Colorado, or Florida.  Most states honor other states’ concealed weapons licenses.  Traveling in an area with an out of state license plate, being unfamiliar with the area, is very dangerous.  When you are driving, at a gas station, at a restaurant, or at a motel, you are very likely to be the victim of robbery or a theft.  If you are from North Dakota, I don’t know how I am going to make you understand how prevalent crime is outside of North Dakota, and how likely you are to be victimized while traveling out of state.  You need to have a firearm on your person, and in your vehicle, but you need to have a concealed weapons permit because you are more likely to be stopped by the police and have your vehicle searched with an out of state license plate.

When you go to work or look for work out of state, I recommend that you take a truck or SUV instead of a car if possible, bigger is better up to a point.  There are several reasons for this.  One, when you are in traffic and unfamiliar with the roads and highways, people will let you change lanes and try to stay out of your way more when you are in a larger vehicle.  Two, when you are unfamiliar with roads in an area, and you make a mistake, with a larger vehicle people make an extra effort to move out of the way and not get hit with your vehicle.  Three, if you have an accident, with a larger vehicle you are more likely to have a vehicle that has survived the accident and you can continue trying to find work, rather than having a car that is destroyed and having to take a bus back to North Dakota.

What I have done for the past fifteen years, whether in the backseat of my truck or the backseat of my SUV, I have a large sturdy trunk which has a padlock, and the padlock has a chain which locks the trunk to a seat frame.  A thief would have to break my vehicle window to unlock the door, but the thief could not carry away the trunk because it is chained to the seat, and it would make a lot of noise and take a while to beat the trunk open.  What crack heads and meth addicts are looking for, are certain items that are easy to grab out of vehicles, typical items in plain view:  pocket book, wallet, check book, CD collection, radar detector, laptop computer, briefcase.  I try to keep valuables and things that I don’t want to get stolen, locked in the trunk in the backseat.

I hope you know that you are going to have to sleep in your vehicle mostly when you are going to work or looking for work out of state.  When you are driving a long way, it is better to pull into a rest area and sleep for a while when you get tired, and when you feel like driving again, drive.  Planning on staying in a motel while trying to get somewhere is like planning on wasting time and wasting money.  If you try to get your money’s worth out of your motel, you are just wasting time there.  It doesn’t matter that you are wrinkled when you are trying to get where you are going, and if you look a little rough it probably actually keeps people away from you when you are traveling.  You do want to get cleaned up as much as you can before you meet people regarding your employment.

I didn’t say anything about it, because I wasn’t thinking about it because I am not married, you don’t want to bring your wife or girlfriend with you when you are going to look for work out of state, because it will not be fun or pleasant.  If your family’s financial outlook is bad enough to where you have to look for work out of state, you don’t want to take your wife or girlfriend with you and try to make it a pleasant trip, because it will cost you about four times as much: stopping at restaurants for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; staying at a “nice” motel every night.

I will cover this in more detail in Part II, but you absolutely need to leave your wife and children behind when you go to work out of state, and for at least several months after you begin working.  If you don’t do it this way, you will very likely end up worse off than if you hadn’t gone to work out of state at all.

My Ninth Most Favorite Person In Dickinson, The Odd Fellows Lodge

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My ninth most favorite person in Dickinson, North Dakota is the Odd Fellows Lodge.  I only became aware of the Odd Fellows Lodge in Dickinson in the summer of 2014 when I went to the downtown concert called Alive @ 5.  The Odd Fellows Lodge was the sponsor and organizer for Alive @ 5.  The Odd Fellows Lodge in Dickinson had existed since 1887.

Kevin Holten, who had been a professional rodeo rider, president of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, and writer for the Dickinson Press, joined the Odd Fellows Lodge in 2009.  In 2010, Kevin Holten organized the first Alive @ 5 in Dickinson with the Odd Fellows Lodge, I believe that it was his idea in the first place.  Kevin Holten is very mild-mannered and low-key, and I have never seen him say,  “I thought of it, it was my idea, and it’s mine, mine, mine!”

From the first Alive @ 5, and continuing, the Outlaw Sippin Band performs at the downtown summer concerts, provides and sets up their sound equipment for the concerts.  Even though sound equipment set up, operation, and take down goes from about 2:00 p.m. on Thursdays until about 1:00 a.m. Friday morning, I have never seen Beni Paulson, Brady Paulson, Emil Anheluk or any other Outlaw Sippin members gripe, complain, or argue.

Eric Smallwood was the lead organizer for Alive @ 5 in 2014 and 2015, until his ascension.  To the best of my knowledge, Eric Smallwood brought the following performers to Alive @ 5 for the first time:  Gwen Sebastian, Kat Perkins, Tigir Lily, Corb Lund, and Firehouse.

I believe that Kevin Holten was president of the Odd Fellows Lodge 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.  Jeff Porcupine Pokorny was president in 2015 and 2016.  During the years 2010 through 2016, the Odd Fellows Lodge building which was built in the early 1900s, went through some physical restoration, with the work being performed by the Lodge members.  It was a surprise to me that the Odd Fellows Lodge also owned the ground floor portion of the building, which they opened as a V.I.P. lounge and bar during the downtown summer concerts in July of 2016.

Membership in the Lodge is open to everyone, male or female, young or old, with no concern for the member’s religious affiliation, politics, or occupation.  There are many different types of people who are members of the Odd Fellows Lodge.  There are some college professors, teachers, business owners, housewives, oil field workers, and construction workers.

This year the downtown summer concerts sponsored and organized by the Odd Fellows Lodge changed its name from Alive @ 5, to First On First Dickinson Summer Nights.  The lead event organizers this year were Brock White, Tracy Tooz, and Mike Odegaard.  Brock, Tracy, and Mike organized and ran all the events very competently, and were always calm and professional.  Other important volunteers whose names I can remember:  Dell and Marchell Kubas, April Grant, the other April, Andrew, Tracy Nash, Jeff Porcupine Pokorny, Eric Odegaard, DSU football player Bryce, the Outlaw Sippin Band, …

In my previous blog post, I wrote a First On First Dickinson Summer Nights year end review.  I started that blog post being mostly positive about how the concerts were organized and run.  But I had to say that the downtown summer concerts seem to have become mostly attended by people whose primary focus is drinking alcohol, which I think has caused family attendance to decline.

My opinion is, that the downtown summer concerts will be most beneficial to Dickinson if they can be enjoyed by the broadest range of people, including families with children.  The more famous, “bigger” bands, brought mostly people that were in the age range of people that normally go to Rock or Country concerts, 16 year olds to 50 year olds mostly, with no kids, no elderly, and no families.

In 2014 and 2015, the North Dakota performers Gwen Sebastian, Kat Perkins, and Tigir Lily seemed to have brought more families with their children, probably for the following reasons:  they were from North Dakota, they were engaging with the local people, and because of the music that they play.  Last year a very good band that was not well known in Dickinson was the Corb Lund band from Canada, this was a “fun” band that was liked by all ages.  This year another very good band that was not well known in Dickinson was Zeona Road from South Dakota.  Zeona Road, Corb Lund, Tigir Lily, Gwen Sebastian, and Kat Perkins connected with the local people of all ages in Dickinson, and these performers made the concerts seem more like a family event and a community event.

First On First Dickinson Summer Nights Concerts, Year End Review 2016

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The last First On First Dickinson Summer Nights Concert of 2016 was this past Thursday, September 1st.  I went to just about every downtown Dickinson summer concert in 2014, 2015, and 2016.  I have mixed feelings about the downtown summer concerts this year.

No one can deny that there were more than several well-known, famous, “bigger” performers this year:  Fire House, Black Hawk, Steel Heart.  Firehouse gave a very good performance, and they acted like they were glad to be back in Dickinson.  32 Below probably gave a performance that was as good as Firehouse, and they acted the most enthusiastic about being in Dickinson while they were on stage.

Event organizer and MC, Brock White, was positive, professional, and up beat at every event.  Event organizers Tracey Tooz and Mike Odegaard were professional, competent, and executed everything well.  The tractor trailer stage with roof and lighting was an excellent stage, the stage could not have been better.

The event area was much larger than last year.  There were about four different food vendors at each event.  Because of the larger event area, and the rented table trailers, people were able to sit and eat more comfortably.  Most event attendees would have liked it if the Wurst Shop would have been a food vendor again this year.

Everything that I have stated so far up above is good and positive.  The negative comments that I am going to write concern mostly the type of people that attended the concerts.  Somehow, the drinking of alcohol has become the predominant focus of the event.  I don’t know if anybody ever saw this coming, knew that this would happen, or considered whether this was desirable or not.

I know that alcohol sales are probably the primary way that the events are paid for, and that drinking alcohol may be the main reason why so many people come downtown for the concerts on Thursday nights, but the heavy drinkers make the events not “family friendly”, or even “friendly”.

Good-natured, mature adults, can be jovial and considerate people when they are drinking beer.  Good-natured, mature, jovial, considerate drinkers are fine for families with children to be around.  But the summer concerts were not highly attended by families with children.  I believe that more and more each year, moms and dads with kids, and other types of moderate, conservative people do not dare to come to the summer concerts because of the heavy drinking.  And I agree that these people are probably right in not coming to the summer concerts because the drinking of alcohol has become predominant, and many of the drinkers are not mature, or good-natured.

There are many young men and women that get drunk, start acting foolish, not using good sense, acting kind of wild, and many adults who aren’t drinking don’t want or wouldn’t want themselves or their kids to be around these young people.  There are both younger people and older people that become uninhibited when they drink alcohol, and they let their hostility come out in contentiousness, hostility, and fighting, which makes moderate adults not want to be around when there are a lot of people drinking alcohol.

Once it gets past about 8:30 p.m. at the downtown summer concerts, I get the definite feeling and impression that the crowd is not that friendly, the crowd is mostly wanting to get drunk and act wild, so it is not really like a community event at that point, it is like being in a bar that is having a band that night.

 

How Men Are Assessed In Western North Dakota, Part II

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In my previous blog post, Part I, I wrote that the most important thing to local people in western North Dakota in evaluating a man, is that he will stay and show up for work.  Everywhere else that I have lived, this criteria never even entered people’s minds.

I will try to explain how different this is, the way western North Dakota evaluates men, by giving some examples of the most favorite men in the rest of the United States.  The actor Paul Newman had a long career as a leading man and as ladies’ man.  He was not big, tall, or muscular, but he was charming, handsome, and boy-ish looking.  I watched many movies with Paul Newman:  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Color Of Money, Hud, The Verdict, The Long Hot Summer, and Cool Hand Luke.  Paul Newman was well-liked in all of his acting roles, and he most often played a character who was quick-witted, sharp, intelligent, charismatic, spontaneous, adventurous, and out for a good time.  Everywhere that I have ever lived men would admire or be envious of someone as sharp, handsome, and charismatic as Paul Newman.  Everywhere that I have ever lived women would have loved to have had a relationship with a man like Paul Newman.

The most recent Paul Newman movie that I watched was The Long Hot Summer.  In this movie, when Paul Newman came to town, he was walking and carrying a suitcase.  Besides being poor, it was soon learned that he had a terrible reputation.  But because he was handsome, intelligent, sharp, and quick witted, he soon won the admiration of the wealthiest man in town, who began to insist that he mate with his daughter.  The wealthy man’s daughter tried to resist the character played by Paul Newman, but she couldn’t.  Throughout the movie, from beginning to end, Paul Newman was always threatening to leave.  Which made the wealthy man offer Paul Newman a lot to stay and have children with his daughter.

In western North Dakota a man does not get evaluated on wit, charm, charisma, handsomeness, or intelligence, but on whether he is going to stay and show up for work.  In most of Paul Newman’s movies, he plays a character that is on the run, trying to get away, adventure seeking, and not staying in one place, which rates very low with North Dakotans.

The leading men in movies, are the ones that the vast majority of the public finds heroic, handsome, and appealing.  James Dean, Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, and Clint Eastwood were the leading men, the ladies’ men, the heroes, that most often played characters that were independent, couldn’t stay in one place, and were on the run, which rates very low with North Dakotans.

What the vast majority of men and women found to be heroic, exciting, admirable, desirable, and attractive, was a handsome, physically fit, in-shape, independent, intelligent, quick thinking, adventure seeking male:  Tom Cruise in Top Gun, Mission Impossible, Jack Reacher;  Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones;  George Clooney in the Quiet American, Michael Clayton, Oceans Eleven;  Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall;  Daniel Craig in James Bond.

Everywhere that I have ever lived, I have seen women attracted to men that were physically fit, in shape, handsome, charming, charismatic, adventurous, intelligent, sharp, and quick witted, just like the characters played by the actors Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Daniel Craig.  However in western North Dakota, like I have been saying, local people use as their main criteria for evaluation of a man is that he is going to stay and show up for work.

Getting to the point:  The men that stay in western North Dakota and show up for work kind of look like bulls or bears.  Men in western North Dakota are assessed and evaluated like live stock or farm animals.  Local men and women look at men, and if they don’t see extra fat on them, they don’t see how they are going to stay outside in the winter.  If they don’t see that the man has a large frame and extra fat, they don’t see that he will be able to do much work or stay out in the cold.  The local men and women in western North Dakota think that a good man should look like a prize pig or a prize bull at the county fair.

Everywhere else that I lived, women would dream of running on the beach hand in hand with their boyfriend, jumping in the waves, rolling in the sand.  God only knows what the women in North Dakota dream about.

How Men Are Assessed In Western North Dakota, Part I

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I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for almost four years now.  The local people in Dickinson, judge, assess, and evaluate men differently than they do in other parts of the United States.

I lived in Florida mostly until I was 30.  After that I lived and worked in Colorado, Utah, Texas, Arizona, Idaho, and North Dakota.  Higher education is important and valued in Florida, Colorado, Utah, Texas, and Arizona.  Not valued very much in Idaho and North Dakota.

In the states that I just mentioned that valued higher education, if you had a bachelors degree, this would allow you to enter into and work your way up in accounting, advertising, banking, business management, construction management, healthcare, human resources, insurance, manufacturing, marketing, real estate appraisal, sales, and other businesses.  What employers were looking for, were people who had adult level competency in reading, writing, math, history, logic, critical thinking, decision making, ability to learn, and ability to complete tasks unsupervised.  Local people in western North Dakota don’t look at things this way.

Things are different in western North Dakota.  For instance, if there was no Oil Boom, people that had good logic, critical thinking, and decision making ability would move away, so people in western North Dakota could never evaluate anyone based on these three criteria, because they wouldn’t be here in the first place.  Some of the other criteria that are important elsewhere like reading, writing, math, and history, are not important in western North Dakota.  In western North Dakota, they were looking for people that would stay and show up for work.

In western North Dakota, the most important characteristic in a male, was that he stay and show up for work.

In the small town in Florida that I grew up in, in the college towns that I went to school in, in the cities that I worked in, women would rather date, be with, and marry a guy that had a college degree, because everyone knows that college graduates make more money and have more employment opportunities.  In most of the places that I lived, women were very aware of the employment possibilities and earnings potential for every type of education.  Women would most like to be in a relationship with a medical doctor, 2nd lawyer, 3rd MBA or PhD, 4th physician’s assistant, pharmaceutical sales rep or engineer.  In western North Dakota, what really turns a woman on, is a guy that is going to stay here and show up for work.

Answering A Reader’s Questions About How I Date Women In Dickinson, North Dakota

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A reader named “Cheryl”, a.k.a. ndgirlone, posted a comment to my blog post “Women In Dickinson, North Dakota”, where she asked about how I date women.  To answer Cheryl’s question, for one thing, I give each girl/woman that I like the following Application For Relationship:

Application For Relationship

Please complete the following application.  Please answer all questions.  Please print clearly.  Incomplete or illegible applications will not be considered.

First Name:______________________  Last Name:__________________

Phone Number:___________________  Date of Birth:_________________

Current Address:______________________________________________

Height:_________________  Weight:____________  Race:_____________

Do you have Children:________  How many:_______  Do they live with you:____

Do you want Children:________  When:________________  How many:______

Current Occupation:_________________________

High School years completed:________________  Did you graduate:__________

Name of College or University attended:________________________________

Years at College or University:___________  Degree Awarded:_______________

Do you have any Diseases:__________________________________________

Do you have any Medical Condition:___________________________________

Do you have any Mental Condition:____________________________________

Do you Smoke:__________  How often:___________________

Do you use Drugs:______________________________________________

Are you Currently Married:_____________

Have you ever been Married:____________  How many times:______________

List activities, hobbies, and interests:_________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Tell why you think that you would be a good person to date:_________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Note:  You will be considered on a number of different factors.  For instance, a not very high education level can be compensated for by a good personality and disposition.

I always have blank Applications For Relationship in my vehicles.  For women that are working when they are dealing with you, like police officers, doctors, and nurses, you can give them an application so that they can fill it out later, and you don’t have to ask them a lot of questions while they are dealing with you.

When you are at a restaurant or a gym, it is better to hand women the application when you are on your way out, instead of when you first get there.

When you receive the completed application back, you can go and look them up on the internet to do a more thorough background check.

Everyone Please Go To The Cowboy Hall Of Fame Pioneer Museum In Medora, North Dakota

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Please, everyone in western North Dakota needs to go to the Cowboy Hall Of Fame in Medora, North Dakota and spend an hour in the first floor Pioneer Museum.  Even if you are from western North Dakota and have been in the Pioneer Museum before, you need to go again now.

Everyone has forgotten how hard, barren, and poor North Dakota had been.  Everybody in North Dakota has got to realize that without oil revenue, North Dakota will be as hard as what is shown in the Pioneer Museum.

2007 to 2015 was just a brief moment in time when people in North Dakota could go out and buy a new four-door four-wheel-drive truck for $50,000, and a new tractor for $200,000.  There was one other brief time like this and that was 1978 to 1983.

Spend an hour in the Pioneer Museum, look at the photographs and read the captions.  There was no wood to construct houses, people had to cut squares of grass sod and stack it to make 10′ x 12′ shelters to live in.  There was no fire wood, people had to collect buffalo dung to burn for heating and cooking.  This is how North Dakota is, this is reality.  It is harsh, barren, cold, and desolate.

If you have extra money right now, you had better not be buying a new vehicle, motorcycle, boat, or RV.  You had better hang on to your money as tight as you can and start cutting way back on your spending.

If you have very little money right now, you should probably try to get a second or third job to make extra money, and to have some place else to work if your first job goes away.  I recommend that you look at all the job advertisements to be up to date on where you can apply.  When you see all the job advertisements go away, you will know things are about to get bad.

It is easier to watch TV and do other things than it is to stop and face the reality that oil drilling operations are not coming back to North Dakota for at least a year, and possibly not for many years.  You need to face this now.  You need to know that North Dakota is unforgiving.  I can’t tell you everything that you should do, but you need to cut back on your spending and try to save as much money as possible now.

I have run out of money at least twice in my life.  The first thing that I had to do was sell extra firearms or an extra vehicle.  All this did was buy me a little more time and allow me to travel to some place else to work.  I have traveled to the wrong place before and could not get a job.  The more money you have, the more chances you will have.

I need to start scaring people now in North Dakota, because you need to be scared now, it is to that point now.  The biggest indicator of what is happening right now is to look at the job listings in North Dakota, and see that there are fewer and fewer jobs.

(If you go look at the North Dakota Job Services listings in Dickinson now, about 35 out of 50 jobs listed are for nurses, virtually the same nursing job.  Not many other jobs at all, especially jobs that pay a living wage.)

Many Local Men And Women In Dickinson Will Never Date, Marry, Or Have Children

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Many local men and women in Dickinson will never date, marry, or have children.  I have lived in Dickinson for about four years now, and I want to explain what I have seen and describe the people that I have met.  This aspect of Dickinson is culturally different than where I am from mostly, but not entirely.  I have seen this happen where I am from too, but this is much more common in Dickinson.

I have met many men and women in Dickinson who do not date, will not marry, and will not have children.  Their backgrounds are similar.  They have a normal mother and father, who have normal jobs, and they grow up in a normal household.  When these children are born, their mother and father love them and take care of them.  When they enter school, these children are kind of in the middle of their class as far as size, appearance, physical ability, and mental ability.

These kids fit in O.K. all through elementary school.  However, once these kids are in high school, they fall behind without anybody really noticing.  One of the reasons why nobody really notices that they are falling behind their peers is because these kids seem content mostly.  Their parents love them and provide for them, they aren’t unhappy.  Another reason why no one notices that these kids are falling behind their peers is because these kids don’t cause any problems.

No one is paying much attention to these kids because they are not gifted academically, athletically, artistically, socially, or appearance wise.  Their parents are satisfied with their “B” and “C” grades, and don’t pressure them to do better.  Their parents see no reason to pressure their kids to do better, or more, and don’t want to make their kids uncomfortable.  Their child has never expressed an interest in playing football, basketball, or baseball, and this is O.K. with them, they didn’t want them to get hurt anyway.  The parents didn’t try to push or steer their kid in any direction, not in academics, not in sports, not in music, not in art, not in drama, not in anything.  The parents thought that their kid was fine just as they were, no need to pressure them to do anything or be anything, or guide them in any direction.  Their kid was a good kid who never got into any trouble.  But their kid was not participating in anything, not trying anything, not competing, and perhaps not socializing.

Kids that are shy, awkward, not physically attractive, small, or overweight, they might not want to participate in sports, student government, drama, or band.  They may need some encouragement or coaxing to get involved.  But because their parents love them, don’t want to see their kid struggle, face disappointment, failure, and rejection, the parents just leave them be.

By the time these kids graduate from high school, that’s all they did, just graduate.  They didn’t participate in anything.  They probably didn’t date anyone or go to prom.  They didn’t find out what they were good at and what they were bad at.  They didn’t find out what they wanted to do, and what they didn’t want to do.  They don’t have any goals, aspiration, or ambition.  Without it being said out loud, the parents think that their kid is not good at anything, and the kid thinks that he is not good at anything.

(Everything that I have just described, I have seen before with parents and their children, and not just in Dickinson.  The parents were not bad parents, they loved their kid.  But because they did not want their kid to get hurt, become stressed, or uncomfortable, they spared their kid from the things that would have made their kid mature and grow up.  Especially if their kid was shy and awkward to begin with, their kid has not competed enough, failed enough, and participated enough to have the experience and confidence to go out on their own.  Now their young adult child will probably have to continue to live with their parents, but the parents headed things in this direction all along the way.)

With both the parents and the kid believing that the kid is not good at anything, this young person carries themself with very little confidence.  This young person gets the lowest pay entry level job that there is, if they are able to get a job at all.  This young person is not stupid, may be nice and polite, but they don’t assert themselves, have confidence, or take chances, so they just settle for the lowest pay job there is.  They may have so little confidence in themselves, both them and their parents, that they don’t even seek a job.  Their parents love them and don’t want to see them get hurt, don’t want to see them get turned down for a job, or lose a job, so they don’t even make them get a job sometimes.

These young people in Dickinson that continued to live with their mother and father, they became so accustomed to this sometimes that they lived the remainder of their lives this way.  I have met men and women in Dickinson in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s that continued to live in their mother and father’s home.  There are many many employers in Dickinson that have reliable competent employees that they don’t pay a living wage to because they don’t have to, because these employees live with their mom and dad.  I have met many workers in Dickinson like this.  I would say that about 15% of the local work force in Dickinson reside with their mother and father.

When these young adults live with their mother and father, I don’t think that their parents try to suggest or talk them into dating anyone.  They just leave their kid alone, their kid seems content enough.  The parents may be fearful that their son would get some girl pregnant, would be unable to support her, and that all three of them would just end up right back in their house, so it is better to have just the son.  The parents may have similar thoughts about a daughter, that she would be taken advantage of, become pregnant, and the two or three or four of them would be right back in their house, so it is better to just have the daughter.

In some cultures in different parts of the world, this is how things are done anyway.  The adult sons and daughters remain living in the mother and father’s home until a suitable marriage can be entered into, one that the parents agree with.  And if there is no suitable marriage that can be found, the son or daughter stays, until they are very old.  This may be working in Dickinson because I do not see very many local women being unwed mothers, and I don’t think that there are any North Dakotans on the Jerry Springer Show.

Answering A Reader’s Questions About Buying A Home Now In Dickinson, North Dakota

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Do not buy a home now in Dickinson, North Dakota unless the price is very low, and it is a property that you will be able to rent out in the future.  I will thoroughly explain why I make this statement.  But I need to caution you right away that you do not want to let your employer or your coworkers find out that you are having any hesitation in wanting to buy a home in Dickinson.  Employers want to see that their employees are committed to being here, that they are dependent on their job here, and that they don’t plan on leaving.  Your coworkers will tell on you, believe me they will.  They all know that you are renting, and that you are looking at houses to buy.  The husband needs to blame the wife, that she is just so picky, the wife says, “The yard is too dark, the yard is too small, the bathroom is too small, the closets are too small, the kitchen is outdated, the bedrooms are too small.”  That way, everybody will just think that there is no pleasing his wife, everybody might even feel sorry for the husband, and have admiration for him in persevering with such a difficult wife.  The wife can blame the husband for not being able to find the right house, and everybody will just think the wife is crazy.  However, no one can find out that the truth is you are skeptical about buying a house in Dickinson right now.

Reasons not to buy a house in Dickinson, North Dakota right now:

  1. There is about a 50% chance that the oil field work in western North Dakota will continue to decrease, for years.  Not only will oil field related jobs continue to decrease, all jobs in all areas of the economy will subsequently decrease.  You can research this for yourself by reading about the history of North Dakota, and by talking to old local people that are not in business or real estate.  A good website to read is “A Brief History Of North Dakota Oil Production”, which is a collection of newspaper articles from the past about the Oil Boom in the 1950s, and the Oil Boom in the 1970s.  Supplement your reading by talking to old blue collar workers in Dickinson.  They will tell you about the difficulty in getting any employment for ten years after the 1970s Oil Boom, and that all employment was very low wage.  What I am telling you is there is a 50% chance that you or your husband may lose your job in a year or two, and that so will everybody else.  You will not want to live here, because there will be very few jobs, and they will be low paying jobs.  You will not be able to sell your house, because everyone else will be trying to sell their house too, and no one will have any money.  This all happened before in Dickinson, go read about it for yourself, and go ask old local blue collar workers.
  2. This is somewhat related to Reason #1, but I need to explain this separately.  I will begin by saying that the home prices are too high in Dickinson right now.  But let’s just say that you find a home that you like for $350,000 right now, and that this price seems fair.  Reading about the history of Dickinson, and talking to old local people, you find out what happened after the Oil Boom of the 1970s.  Based on what happened in the past, this house that you bought for $350,000 right now, two years from now if the oil field work has continued to decrease, you might not be able to sell this house for $180,000 because everyone else will be trying to sell their house too, no one will want to live here, and no one will have any money.  It is not that your house is worth so little money, it is that no one wants it, everybody wants to leave.  Do you want to lose that much money?  Are you prepared to leave the state and rent your house out?  Is your house the kind of property that you could rent out?
  3. There is a 50% chance that the price of oil will climb, will remain high, and oil drilling operations will begin again in North Dakota.  You can go and read for yourself news articles from all the different oil companies where they state, “In order for our company to begin again with drilling operations, the price of oil would have to climb to over $60 per barrel and remain there for several months before we would take any action.  Then, at that time we would begin bringing personnel back in all areas of operations.  It would take nine to twelve months to get enough personnel back to resume full operation.”  What this means to me, is that as long as the price of oil is low, employment in North Dakota will not increase. There will continue to be new apartment buildings with occupancy rates of 30%.  Apartment rents will continue to decrease, consequently house rents will continue to decrease.  There is no justification for home prices to remain high, other than wishful thinking of the homeowners and real estate agents.  Where are the owners of these houses that are for sale?  Are they still making high wages in the oil field, probably not.  How long can they afford to pay $2,000 to $3,000 per month mortgages, not forever, because if they could afford to wait, they would just wait for the Oil Boom to come back and make a profit.  They are not waiting because they can’t wait, they need to sell, more and more each day as they keep having to pay their mortgages, and new apartment rents become lower and lower.  A buyer right now can afford to wait for prices to drop in Dickinson.  A buyer should look at everything that is available, know what is available, and wait.  If the price of oil climbs for several months, and remains high for several months, and oil companies begin increasing their personnel, that might be the time to consider buying a house if you plan on staying in Dickinson and the oil field may be busy for more than a couple of years.  But you will have several months of advance warning before you have to decide whether to buy or not.
  4. Since you don’t have to hurry up and buy anything right now,  Keep Looking.  I would not only be looking for my ideal house, I would be looking for something that might be a really good deal.  This good deal could be a house closer to Belfield, South Heart, Richardton, or Gladstone, that may have so much land, have such a good view, or be so low priced that you feel it is too good to pass up.

To answer your question about real estate agents, property managers, and property investors gouging people.  Prior to 2007, there were three bedroom/two bathroom older homes in Dickinson that sold for $30,000 to $40,000 and rented for about $400 to $600 per month.  Retail workers, restaurant workers, construction workers, and retirees lived in these homes.  By 2011 these rents had increased to $3,000 per month, about five to six times what they had been.  The retail worker and restaurant worker wages increased by maybe 40%.  The construction worker wages increased by maybe 50% to 60%.  The retiree income might have increased by 5%.  But the rent increased by 500%.

All over Dickinson, the price of goods and services increased.  Grocery prices might have increased 15%, car repair prices might have increased 15% to %25.  Everybody could understand 15% to 25% price increases, but not the 500% housing price increase.  Everybody who moved to Dickinson to work was angry about the cost of housing and being ripped off.  Everybody who moved to Dickinson decided right away that as soon as the Oil Boom was over, they were leaving.  No one wanted to stay or could afford to stay after they lost their oil field job.  The real estate agents, property managers, and property investors might have been able to gouge people for about five years, but the people got gouged so bad that they all left, and now nobody wants to live here.  All the other business owners have the real estate agents, property managers, and property investors to thank for ruining what could have been permanent growth of the area.  All over the United States for the next fifty years, people will be talking about how bad North Dakota was, and really most of everybody’s bad experience was being gouged on housing.

Kaycee Hutzenbiler, “Hop”, Belfield, North Dakota

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Recently I was at an event where the Outlaw Sippin Band and the Sawdust Band performed.  I have watched Outlaw Sippin play at Alive @ 5, First On First, Buffalo Gap, and the High Plains Cultural Center.  I think that they are a good band and I have written about them several times in this blog.  I have seen the Sawdust Band play several times, and they are pretty good, but they don’t have Emil Anheluk playing accordion and fiddle.

I believe that I have seen every performer at Alive @ 5, and First On First in Dickinson 2014, 2015, and 2016.  I recognize and acknowledge that Gwen Sebastian and Kat Perkins are very talented and well liked.  I also like the two sisters with their band Tigir Lily.  The first time I heard the Zeona Road Band from South Dakota, I was very impressed, and I thought that they have a very good chance to be as well known, well liked, and as commercially successful as Miranda Lambert, somebody like that.

When I was at this recent event with Outlaw Sippin and Sawdust, I didn’t expect to see anything new or different.  Beni Paulson was playing the drums, which I had never seen him do before, that I can remember.  He did good, didn’t seem too uncomfortable, but I don’t think this is his favorite thing.  When Sawdust was going to play, Beni got up from the drums and let this small girl take his place.

This girl was in her early twenties, about 5′-4″, 110 pounds, medium length black hair, she was cute.  She seemed a little timid at first and through the first couple of songs.  She kept the beat O.K. , but was lighter and softer on the drums than a guy would have been.  After maybe about ten to fifteen minutes, she sang lead vocals.

She has a very good soft voice. I was trying to think of who to compare her voice to, and I think that it is most like Belinda Carlisle, but as I listened and paid attention, I think that her voice is better than Belinda Carlisle’s voice.  I would also compare her voice to Natalie Merchant in its niceness and smoothness.  I think that she would sound great singing Belinda Carlisle or Natalie Merchant songs, not mimicking them, but singing just as her own voice is.

I was thinking that she would also sound good singing Blondie songs.  As I was considering these things, I realized that she was more into her drumming now, probably because she had warmed up and had loosened up.  She was a good drummer.  She sounded different than male drummers.  I could hear it in my head before I could figure out why she sounded different.  Guys have heavier arms, shoulders, and hands, and I am thinking that their drum sticks come off the drum milliseconds later than her. You can hear it especially when she is working on just one drum, her sticks are getting off the surface quicker and you can hear the difference, it is clearer and sharper.

I was thinking that this quick, sharp, lighter handed beating, was something that a rabbit would do.  She drums like a rabbit with rabbit paws and feet.  My favorite drummer looks like a gargoyle, plays drums like a gargoyle, and is the most recognizable drummer that I have seen.  I like the band he is in, because of him.  This girl is cute, pretty, has a very good voice, plays drums well, and like a rabbit, you can hear the difference.  I will go to see Sawdust, just because of her.

I went and asked people who she was, and they told me her name was KC.  I said that she has a very good voice, and everyone agreed, and added, “She looks good too.”  I wanted to tell her after she got done playing that she sounded very good, but when she got off her stool, she was gone, and out of there.

I looked up the Sawdust Band on the internet when I got home.  Her name is Kaycee Hutzenbiler, and she is from Belfield.  From the little that there is to read about her, I am worried and concerned that she has been overlooked, and her talent not recognized locally.

Back in the 1980s, the band the GoGos became popular and successful just because of their good sound, I don’t think that any of the GoGos had years of training, they just went out and played, and everybody liked them.  That is exactly what Kaycee needs to do now, just get out and perform.  Now, don’t wait!

I did some research about rabbits playing drums, and there was a 2011 movie about a rabbit who plays the drums who moves to Los Angeles to be in a band, the name of the movie is “Hop”.  This is a good name for Kaycee, “Hop”.

Trying To Change Things In Dickinson And Watford City, North Dakota

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In my blog posts I have written about: The Dickinson Mafia, Dickinson State University, Dickinson Police Department, Dickinson Chamber of Commerce, Watford City Chamber of Commerce, Watford City Police Department, Belfield, Gladstone, Catholics, Bohemians, Black People, Mexicans, Real Estate Agents, Property Developers, Property Investors, White Trash, Jessie Veeder, Dan Porter, Kristi Schwartz, Bill and Kamal Patel, Outlaw Sippin Band, Codi Miller, Marinna Marsh, Eric Smallwood, Bigfoot, UFOs, women, bartenders, prostitution, restaurants, and that arrogant Mexican who owns that Mexican restaurant.

Many people are mad at me.  I will suffer some negative consequences as time goes by and people figure out that it is me who wrote these things about them.  There are at least three things that I accomplish when I write about Dickinson and Watford City:  I give the readers from out-of-state a better understanding of what is going on in western North Dakota; I point out things to the local readers that they might want to think about, consider, and change; and I cause the local people who are directly involved to think about what they are doing and maybe change what they are doing.  It is worthwhile to me to give truthful information to people from out-of-state to save them from having problems, and to try to cause some things to change in Dickinson and Watford City that will benefit everyone.

There are some things that I write about, that no one else addresses in public, and the Dickinson Press newspaper will not write about.  There are some things that I write about, that no one thought needed to be written about.  The following are some subjects that I have written about that I still think are important:

  • The Dickinson Mafia.  The Dickinson Mafia exerted beneficial control over development in Dickinson.  The town of Dickinson is very organized and clean, even though it just went through an Oil Boom.  However one of the things that the Dickinson Mafia should have done was grab hold of all the Real Estate Agents and Property Investors by their necks and said, “You are not going to fuck up this beneficial growth of Dickinson by ripping off all these people so bad, that they can’t wait to leave here when this boom is over!  Do you understand that you are going to ruin the whole economic future of Dickinson for years to come with your short-sighted gouging that is only going to last a couple of years?”
  • Dickinson State University.  I quit going to the West River Community Center in 2013 because of all the hoodlum street thugs, which were here in Dickinson because they were brought here by DSU.  Everybody in Dickinson noticed this, where did all these inner city street street thugs come from?, my God, it’s DSU that is recruiting them here!  In about 2015, I think that Dickinson State University quit doing this, because I don’t see as many hoodlum street thugs in Dickinson as I used to.
  • Dickinson Chamber of Commerce and Watford City Chamber of Commerce.  At first, the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce and the Watford City Chamber of Commerce did not want to allow my blog on the first page of Google search results, but now they don’t fight with my blog as much.  Probably, the Chamber of Commerce wants people from out-of-state to know that housing prices are very high, that most people who come to North Dakota to work will not make $100,000 per year, that it is very cold for about seven months each year, and that there is no homeless shelter.
  • Jessie Veeder.  Jessie Veeder is a singer, writer, and photographer from Watford City.  I wish that she would write about Watford City and North Dakota exactly how it is, not how she wants it to be.  She should know from her grandparents, parents, and old people in Watford City how hard life in North Dakota had been, how poor people were, and how much of a struggle it was to survive.  It is very important that people in North Dakota know and never forget how hard and difficult it was for people up until this most recent Oil Boom.  People here need to know this so that they conserve everything they have, don’t waste anything, and don’t live foolishly.  There has been about a twenty-five year gap between Oil Booms in North Dakota.
  • Women, bartenders, restaurants, and prostitution.  It took me a while to catch on, but I am now 100% certain, that the single women who came to North Dakota to work had something wrong with them.  There are jobs in human resources, nursing, administrative assistant, banking, retail, hotel, bartending, and waitressing, everywhere in the United States.  A woman could make more money in these occupations in Florida, Texas, New York, Arizona, or California and live in a more comfortable and better social environment.  With the cost of housing in western North Dakota, there was no financial advantage to women in these occupations to move to North Dakota.  The thing was, they were so fucking crazy, that they could not get a job in Florida, Texas, New York, Arizona, or California, a background check or even just talking to them for five minutes would reveal that there was something wrong with them.  In North Dakota, there was a shortage of workers, so employers didn’t do much of a background check or much of an interview to exclude crazy people.  In addition to the extremely cold weather, very high housing prices, lack of things to do, and shortage of women, when you did go to a restaurant or a bar, the women servers were crazy and had something wrong with them.  I argued and argued in this blog that prostitution should have been allowed in western North Dakota due to the shortage of women.  I argued that housewives didn’t want truck drivers, construction workers, and oil field workers trying to solicit them everywhere they went.  But I was wrong about prostitution, if all the waitresses and bartender women had something wrong with them, I can’t even imagine how horrible the prostitutes would have been.

 

Having A Young Attractive Girlfriend In Watford City Is Like Having A Monkey

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Having a young attractive girlfriend in Watford City is like having a monkey, because everybody wants to come and look at it.

When I was about 11 years old, riding my bicycle, some chubby kid coming the other way on the sidewalk said, “Hey, they got a monkey over there, they got a monkey.” I asked where is this?  And the chubby kid said right down there at the house on the corner.  I rode down there, and there was no monkey, but there was a wooden crate up in a tree, and a long leash tied to one of the tree branches.

I rode about six blocks home to my neighborhood, and talked to the neighbor kids about the alleged monkey.  One of the kid’s older brothers had seen it.  Nobody told me.  Anyway, the owner would let it out from time to time, but not for very long because it would attract too many kids.  The kids would get all excited and start yelling, and the monkey would get all exited, jumpy, and upset, which he didn’t want.  Everybody asked where did he get it, how much did it cost, and how can I get one.

The same thing happens to guys in Watford City that have young attractive girlfriends, everybody wants to come and look at it, wanting to know where they got it, and how much did it cost.  I usually go and look at their girlfriends when they leave them sitting in the truck.  One of my neighbors has to drive fast past me because I always try to look at his girlfriend.

This is not a bad idea, because I do talk to some people’s girlfriends when they aren’t at home.  One very attractive 21 year old girlfriend does talk to me about three times a week before her boyfriend gets home from work, because she refuses to live like some guy’s monkey.  She wants to go outside in Watford City, and do things, and go places like everybody else.  She knows that everybody looks at her, but she is not going to let this keep her from going outside.

The last place she lived, somebody broke into her apartment, went through all of her stuff, and the only thing that they took, was all of her underwear.  She was mad that she didn’t have any underwear, the only pair she had left was one that was in the dirty laundry basket.  I was thinking, “Why would they take all her underwear from her drawers?  That would be like getting new ladies’ underwear from the store.  What is the point in that?  What they should have done if they liked her, was take the underwear that she had been wearing, that would be the underwear to take.”  I was going to explain this to her, but then I thought, no, I better not.

Outlaw Sippin And The Green River Gargoyles Of Gladstone

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Gladstone, North Dakota is fifteen miles east of Dickinson on Interstate 94.  The town of Gladstone sits high above the Green River which runs through the center of town.  The population of Gladstone according to the 2010 Census was 239.

Gladstone has a Highway that runs through it, called “The Enchanted Highway” that has ten of the largest scrap metal sculptures in the world depicting such things as birds, fish, and grasshoppers.

In the 1970s Gladstone had the “Green River Concerts” which were outdoor music concerts that lasted through the day and into the night, with a high amount of alcohol being consumed, along with marijuana, and LSD.  Some of my older friends in Dickinson who are in their 60s, start giggling when I ask them about the time people demanded to have some of their wine, and they didn’t know that the wine had LSD in it, and they had never taken LSD before, and they went out of their minds in the fields in Gladstone that night.  This is probably why they quit having the Green River Concerts.

This may have been when people in Gladstone started seeing gargoyles.  Some people said, “How can you tell the difference between gargoyles and North Dakotans?”  Some people said that the gargoyles had wings and could fly, which makes them different than North Dakotan people.  A mayor of Gladstone, I’m not going to say which one, said,”I don’t want anybody to shoot at, or try to kill what they think is a gargoyle.  It could be somebody’s kid, or somebody who has something wrong with them.  I have a call in to Fish & Game, and until I have something back from them in writing, I don’t want anybody trying to shoot one.”

The towns people said, “Can we at least call Outlaw Sippin, they investigated the Giant Sea Squid of Sakakawea and that Dennis Johnson thing?”  (Is it any wonder that they would call Outlaw Sippin?  Beni Paulson lives not ten miles away in Richardton.)

The Outlaw Sippin band consists of Brady Paulson, Beni Paulson, Emil Anheluk, and Jessie Veeder.  Jessie Veeder likes to take photographs, so it was her job to stay around Gladstone and try to photograph a gargoyle.  Brady and Beni thought that the gargoyles might be living in the coal mine shafts between Dickinson and Gladstone, so they went to look there.  Emil thought that the gargoyles might have something to do with the Assumption Abbey in Richardton, so Emil went there.

The Assumption Abbey is a Benedictine Monastery that was built in Richardton in 1899.  Today one of the things that the monks do at the monastery is make soap, which they sell at their gift shop.  When Emil went to the monastery to follow his hunch, he didn’t want to let on what he was doing.  He started talking to the monks about the monastery, and what it was like there.  The monks offered to let Emil stay there in an extra room in the dormitory, to dine with them, and to participate in their activities.

A day came and went with Emil living in the dormitory, dining in the hall with all the monks, making soap, and chanting.  Emil liked chanting.  Emil liked it so much and was having such a good time, that he soon forgot about the gargoyles and why he was there.  Had it not been for an intervention by Brady and Beni, Emil might still be there to this day.

Well, Jessie Veeder was supposed to be taking photographs of a gargoyle, and she didn’t see one, and she started talking to people, and there is a bar in Gladstone, and Brady and Beni had to go get her too, and this turned out to be not one of their better cases, but nobody got hurt, and maybe I shouldn’t have even talked about this case.

 

Outlaw Sippin And The Giant Sea Squid Of Sakakawea

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During the 1970s and 1980s there was a cartoon television show “Scooby Doo”. The television show was about a group of four members, Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and their stupid dog Scooby.  They drove a van, the “Mystery Machine”, and every episode they would happen upon a mystery that needed to be investigated.  Also on television at the same time was the cartoon “Josie and the Pussycats” which was about a band, that would happen upon a mystery in every episode that needed to be investigated.  Therefore, I see no reason why the Outlaw Sippin band can’t investigate mysteries.  Hence, “Outlaw Sippin And The Giant Sea Squid Of Sakakawea”.

The Outlaw Sippin band consists of members Brady Paulson, Beni Paulson, and Emil Anheluk of Dickinson, and Jessie Veeder of Watford City.  Lake Sakakawea is a 480 square mile reservoir located twenty miles northeast of Watford City.  The creation of the lake flooded the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation villages of Van Hook and Sanish.

There are at least two legends regarding Lake Sakakawea.  There is a Native American legend of a Missouri River monster, Miniwashitu, that is now trapped in Lake Sakakawea after the dam was built.  The second legend is that a crew of underwater welder divers refused to continue to work on a dam gate repair until shark cages were brought in due to the size of the paddle fish encountered, which were big enough to swallow the divers.  Is it any surprise that the Outlaw Sippin band would be called in to investigate, not twenty miles from Jessie Veeder’s home?

The circumstances of the Outlaw Sippin band’s involvement, is strangely similar to those described in Jules Verne’s novel “Twenty Thousand  Leagues Under The Sea”, which coincidently, also involves a giant sea squid.  However, Lake Sakakawea is only 180 feet deep and 176 miles long.

Brady, Beni, Emil, and Jessie are onboard a pontoon boat in search of the giant sea squid, when they encounter the creature.  During the subsequent attack, Brady, Beni, Emil, and Jessie are hurled overboard.  They cling to the creature to keep from drowning, which they find is not a creature at all, but a submarine!  They are captured, and brought before the captain, Dennis Johnson, former mayor of Dickinson.

To be continued…

Reasons Why I Can’t, Couldn’t, Wouldn’t Marry Codi, Kit, Marinna, Or Kristi, In Dickinson, North Dakota

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For the first two years that I lived in Dickinson, North Dakota, I complained that there was a shortage of women, and a lack of attractive women in Dickinson, North Dakota.  For the first time in my life, I began to look at internet dating sites.  Looking at five different internet dating sites, there were still very few attractive women in Dickinson.  I believed that there were many things wrong in Dickinson.  The residents here were producing ugly children, and no attractive or normal women would move here.

After about two years of living in Dickinson, I went to a grocery store before 5 p.m. during the week, and I saw a few attractive women, which made me suspicious.  Then, there was a Chile cook-off at the Astoria Hotel that I went to, and there were many different kinds of attractive women there.  There were attractive women at the downtown summer street parties.  I looked up some of the pretty girls that I had met downtown on Facebook, and they all had pretty girl friends.  So, I found out that there are attractive women in Dickinson, but they do hide most of the time.

This year I wrote about some of the women that I like in Dickinson, Codi, Kit, Marinna, and Kristi.  I also wrote about a very beautiful housewife that I met, and some beautiful Bohemian women and girls that I met.  With the exception of one 32 year old Bohemian woman with two kids who didn’t tell me that she was married, and one other exception, I did not try to pursue a relationship with any of these women that I liked, because I liked them and did not want to make them unhappy.

I did not want to make them unhappy, because then I would be unhappy.  It would be very sad for any one of these women to like me, to trust me, to believe in me, and to try to have a life with me, and me let them down.

For all of these women, their beauty, attractiveness, and health would allow them to marry a man that was much more successful than me.  I don’t want to keep them from having a nice home, nice car, nice clothes, not having to work, being able to travel, and being able to have kids who won’t go without anything.  I could not stand knowing that I ruined everything for them.

The only women that I would be comfortable dating, would be women that already had their life ruined.  A single mom with two kids said to me once, “I’m just looking for a guy who has a job, and can fix shit.”  This woman already had a courtship with the man she thought was “the one”, a wedding, honeymoon, first child, second child, many problems, a divorce, and the difficulties of raising children alone.  She was looking for someone that she liked, that she could trust, that would help her, and make her life easier.  She no longer was expecting a man to provide her with a nice home, nice car, travel, and not having to work.

Another way to say this is, I just can’t handle women putting all of their expectations on me.  Not entirely because of the fear of failing, but the understanding of the reality that I will likely never be able to provide as much as I would have wanted to.

Unfortunately, the reality is, that most of the men that will pursue these women that I like, will not be any wealthier or any more successful than me, and the thought of ruining these women’s lives is not something they concern themselves with, only the goal of obtaining these women for themselves.

 

Marinna Marsh, My Eighth Most Favorite Person In Dickinson, North Dakota

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Marinna Marsh is my eighth most favorite person in Dickinson, North Dakota because of her beauty and her personality. She is the daughter of Bernie Marsh, the owner of the downtown bar The Esquire Club. Bernie and his wife had about ten children, and every one of them is named with an “M”, like Max, Mariah, and Miranda. All of the Marsh children that I have met have dark hair, except for Marinna who is blond. Many of the Marsh children work at Bernie’s Esquire Club, including Marinna.

In 2011 when I first came to Dickinson to work, I complained to my co-workers that there were no attractive women in Dickinson. They said, “You should see Marinna Marsh.” The second company that I went to work for, the company owner’s kids went to school with the Marsh kids, the company owner said to me, “You should see Marinna Marsh, she is quite attractive.” When I came back to Dickinson in 2013, my new co-workers said, “You should see Marinna Marsh.”

It is a good thing that I never saw or met Marinna Marsh in 2011, 2012, or 2013, because she wasn’t married then, and I never would have left her alone. I probably saw some of her pictures on Facebook in 2014. In 2015, I saw her about once a week on a television commercial for active duty military personnel overseas, she was with her boyfriend or husband. I saw Marinna in person several times in 2015 and 2016. In order to not get run off right away by her mom, dad, brothers, and sisters, I waited to talk to her.

To me, her physical appearance, personality, and disposition make her the most attractive girl in North Dakota. She is like a nice girl cat. When she is not doing anything, she settles right down, still and contented. When she has to do something, she rouses right up without objection. But she is better than a cat because she can talk, and drive a car, and she can probably even pay bills on time if you gave her a check book. And, on top of everything else, she is Bohemian.

My Motorcycle Gang, The Prairie Dogs, Dickinson, North Dakota, Part II

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In Part I, I explained what bikers were like when I grew up, how yuppies started the “Costume Party” bikers, and that most bikers today are pretend bikers, good weather bikers, motorcycle sits in the garage 355 days a year bikers.

In 2013, when I came back to Dickinson, I wanted to start a motorcycle gang, “The Prairie Dogs”. Founding members were to be myself, Duane Sickler, S.A., and D.M. Possible prospects were Rod Sickler and Dale Sickler. In talking to Duane Sickler, who had previously been in a motorcycle club, he wanted to put the motorcycle gang life behind him. Duane was warning me that we would face opposition from the motorcycle club already existing in Dickinson, The Sick Bastards.

I said to Duane, that my motorcycle gang, The Prairie Dogs, would be different. We would leave people notes. Notes like, “Do not park here” or “Your jacket makes you look fat”. We would also threaten to leave notes, “Notes that people wouldn’t like.” The other thing about the Prairie Dogs, you had to have a smaller cc motorcycle, like under 500 cc, preferably an older motorcycle. I had a 1975 Kawasaki 125 enduro, and a 1976 Yamaha 125 enduro. I got another 1975 Yamaha 125 enduro out of somebody’s backyard in Dickinson.

I gave the 1975 Yamaha 125 enduro that I got out of someone’s backyard to S.A. Then S.A. threw the engine in the garbage because he said the piston was seized, but I wish he would not have done that. S.A. has been arrested many times, several contempts of court, several restraining orders, on the U.S. “No Fly List”, dresses oddly, good founding member for the Prairie Dogs.

Duane Sickler wanted to put the biker gang life behind him. When I let him borrow my 1976 Yamaha 125 enduro, and I saw him riding around town, that was the happiest I ever saw him. Until it died. This motorcycle has a generator, not an alternator, and it went bad, a common problem for this motorcycle. I put a tool box on the back luggage rack with a lawnmower battery in it, but then Duane didn’t want to ride it anymore because it didn’t look as good. Then Duane died. Then Dale Sickler died too.

D.M. has been arrested and imprisoned many times. He stole 30 cars, including a police car, before he turned 16. He plays a banjo, and he looks like a banjo player. His only problem is that he has a 1300 cc Harley Davidson, which you can’t ride with the Prairie Dogs with that.

I am not mentioning any names, but these founding members have been kicked out of the military three times for bad behavior and non-compliance, and have been kicked out of prisons and jails for causing too many problems. (You used to get kicked out of jail for having crab lice, because the other prisoners would get it, I am not saying that any of the founding members had crab lice.)

If you were a Prospect of the Prairie Dogs, you would get a sticky note pad to leave notes. If you were a Probationary Member, you would get a spiral note pad, to leave longer notes. If you were a Full Member, you would get stationery with envelopes. The president, which would have been me or Duane, would have letter size manila envelopes to leave long notes in.

All over town, people would fear and dread the Prairie Dogs. Bar managers would meet us at the door saying, “You’re not coming in here starting shit with your notes.” Which would of course result in a note being shoved under a door in a manila envelope, which would have to be read. The bar staff would say, “What does the note say, what does the note say?” The bar staff would have apprehension all night, saying to customers, “Can you go out to my car, and see if it has a note on it, it’s the blue Dodge Charger over by the street light.”

We could go by the Catholic Church and leave notes on car windshields: “Rather than going to Mass, why don’t you quit doing underhanded things in the first place.” and “I’m not ever going to buy raffle tickets for your car because you never announce who won the car, and I think it’s a scam.” Not all the notes would be mean, some would be benign, which would be irritating: “You do a good job taking care of your car.” and “You look like you have good hygiene.”

People in their homes would hear those two stroke engines coming, and say, “Oh no, it’s those fucking Prairie Dogs, I hope they keep going.” People at parks, the Prairie Hills Mall, and restaurants would leave when we got there, or keep on driving and not stop if they saw our motorcycles in the parking lot. The only people who wouldn’t leave, would be women who want attention. They would be like, “So…., are you going to give me a note?…. Why not, why aren’t you going to give me a note, that’s what you do isn’t it?”

My Motorcycle Gang, The Prairie Dogs, Dickinson, North Dakota Part I

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I grew up in the 1970s just south of Daytona Beach. Things were different in the 1970s. People drank as much alcohol as they wanted, as often as they wanted, and regarded law enforcement as not having any business interfering with their drinking. Many men had been over in Vietnam, had been immersed in military order, discipline, and killing people daily. A civilian police officer was not someone they were frightened of, or someone they wanted to listen to very much. For many veterans who just got back, complying with law enforcement was something they did voluntarily, because they could have just as easily killed a single police officer or two if they were attempting to arrest them.

There were bikers around Daytona Beach throughout the year, and thousands of bikers before, during, and after bike week. Most of the bikers were poor, many of them were recently returned from Vietnam. Many bikers liked to stay at the campground, because it was the cheapest place to stay. The bikers didn’t try to go to upscale restaurants, they preferred to go to hole-in-the-wall biker bars.

My recollection is, that the bikers back in the 1970s did not go looking for trouble. They especially did not bother children, moms, or parents with children. I think that they went out of their way not to frighten kids, moms, and parents. However, if a restaurant owner or a waitress ever insulted a biker, their restaurant would likely be burned down after it closed that night. There was a restaurant in Daytona, I believe it was called The Raw Bar, that got burned down two years in a row because a waitress was shitty to a biker.

Back then, most of the Bike Week bikers had Harley Davidsons, second most popular was probably Triumph, there were probably some BMWs and BSAs. Throughout the year, bikers just rode what they could afford, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha. Bikers wore what they normally wore, jeans, boots, T-shirt, maybe a denim jacket, not a lot of leather. My father had a small Suzuki, a Triumph chopper, an AMF Harley Sportster, and a Honda XL 185. I had a small Suzuki enduro, and a Kawasaki KX.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that there came to be the “Costume Party Bikers”. I think that one of the first signs that Harley Davidsons were becoming glamorous was when Rocky Balboa had one in the movie Rocky II. I didn’t like it when the accountants, dentists, and attorneys started dressing all in leather like they were going to some Sadists & Masochist sex party, trying to pretend to be bikers. Since the early 1900s, bikers were just bikers, they rode what they had, and they wore what they had. The yuppies were turning Bike Week into a Halloween costume party. I felt like it was non-Muslims going to Mecca, and I don’t know why the bikers put up with it. The only reason that I can think of, is that the bikers thought they could get these fantasizing yuppy women away from their husbands for a while.

Continuing to this day, I think that most bikers are pretend bikers. Good weather bikers, their $15,000 motorcycle sitting in the garage 355 days each year. Their $15,000 1100cc motorcycle sitting in their garage for 355 days each year, and they feel the strong desire to trade it in for a 1300cc motorcycle. Hey, you can go buy a new 300cc Kawasaki Ninja that will go 113 mph, for $5,700. Ohh, but it vibrates at 8,000 rpm. Yes, it should vibrate at 8,000 rpm, good, get used to it.