Tag Archives: what is Dickinson North Dakota Like

The Danger Of Snacks In Dickinson, North Dakota

July 9, 2017Uncategorizedhow oil field workers lost money, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

All together, I have lived for a total of five years in Dickinson, North Dakota. I first came to Dickinson in May of 2011, from Idaho, because I had heard about the oil boom. The economy had turned bad in Idaho in 2009, about two years later than most other places in the United States.

The area of Idaho that I lived in had experienced a housing boom that started in approximately year 2000. People in California that owned ordinary single family homes, discovered that they may have had $400,000 to $1,000,000 equity in their home, due to rapidly increasing real estate prices in California. California was congested, had terrible traffic jams, high taxes, and crime. California home owners began selling their homes in order to move to Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Montana.

The California home owners could sell their home, buy a new home in AZ, UT, ID, and MT for $200,000, and have $200,000 to $800,000 left over to use as retirement money. Many young men in AZ, UT, ID, and MT worked in construction, concrete, dry wall, earth work, electrical, framing, plumbing, roofing, etc. When real estate prices dropped in 2007, due in part to wide spread mortgage fraud, “derivatives”, and a naturally occurring market reset, the construction jobs went away not long afterwards.

Myself, and many other people involved in construction began to have much less work, and make much less money. These construction workers were the majority of the out of state workers that came to work in western North Dakota. Reporters or local people may have wanted to describe the people who came as being from diverse backgrounds, but this was not the case, they were mostly construction workers.

When I arrived in Dickinson in 2011, within one week I had a job where I was earning about $1,100 per week, due to working overtime hours. Able bodied, semi-skilled construction workers were able to obtain employment making $15 to $20 per hour, with roughly twenty hours of overtime each week.

I thought that my financial problems were over, I was making much more money than I had been making. The majority of the out of state workers felt this way. But every winter, I would have not very much money saved up when I wanted or planned to go back to Idaho, and I wondered what had happened, and where the money had gone.

For all of the out of state construction/oil field workers, myself included, one of the biggest and worst “hidden” costs, was Snacks. Every morning, most workers would stop at a gas station convenience store and buy about three to four Gatorades, a sandwich, potato chips, brownies, etc., which would add up to $20 more or less. There would not be anywhere to stop later in the day possibly, or there possibly would not be time, so you had to try to get enough things to last all day.

Back in 2011, there were very long lines at the grocery stores, tremendously long lines at WalMart, and most workers did not have the time or the energy to stand in a long line at WalMart after working for twelve hours. The gas station convenience store shopping continued in the evening, due to the long lines at the grocery stores and WalMart.

How bad is this problem? Let me give you an astonishing example. My co-worker/supervisor told me that he made $135,000 in year 2015. He paid over $45,000 in income taxes that year. Though there should have been $90,000 left over, he has nothing to show for it, and he does not know where that money went. I told him that it was partly due to Snacks.

In the morning, every morning, he spends $20 or more at a convenience store on food, drinks, etc.. The same thing happens at lunch time, and the same thing happens at night on his way home. That is at least $60 per day, $420 per week, $1,800 per month, and $21,600 per year, on Snacks!

His Snack payment each month, is equal to what a mortgage payment would be on a $275,000 house. His Snack payment each month, would make the make the payments on two new four wheel drive trucks.

There are several things that caused all of the out of state workers to spend a tremendous amount of money in a way that was wasteful. Most of the out of state workers did not have wives and girlfriends with them, due to adverse conditions, especially the cost of housing. Wives and girlfriends could have done shopping during the day, and obtained food and drinks at 20% to 30% of the cost of a convenience store. Wives and girlfriends, if they had any sense and wanted to have anything for themselves, would have grasped the enormous amount of money that the oil field workers were wasting every day.

Besides the out of state workers not having wives or girlfriends with them, most out of state workers did not want to come back to their local housing at night. Housing was very, very expensive, which meant having a bunch of room mates in order to live in a house or nice apartment, living in a small camper, living in a man camp dormitory, or living in a small old decrepit apartment. Out of state workers went to eat at restaurants every night and out to bars every night for several hours in order to not have to be around their room mates or face the depressing fact that they were living in a small camper.

The End Of A Work Week In Dickinson, North Dakota

July 7, 2017Uncategorizedemployment in Dickinson North Dakota, guide to Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

If you have been reading my blog posts for the past couple of weeks, you will have read some descriptions and details about how things have been going at my new job that I started five weeks ago. I was very let down and disappointed that what I thought was going to be a good job at a good company, turned out to be the exact opposite.

Besides complaining about the company that I started to work for, I very nearly could not work because my eyes swelled up to where I could not see due to allergies. I made it through that, but just barely. My co-worker/supervisor for a number of reasons, did not want to help me do the work, and began to come to work less and less, to the point that he did not come to work at all yesterday. The company that I work for, is unaware of this, but the oil company that we are doing the work for, is aware that I have been working mostly by myself, though I am not supposed to be.

I have been working out of town, two hours away from Dickinson. There is an even greater shortage of women, restaurants, stores, and things to do where I am working, than in Dickinson. On the drive home to Dickinson this Friday, there is nothing that I was looking forward to in Dickinson. There are no friends or prospective girl friends that I was looking forward to seeing, no where that I was looking forward to eating, nothing that I wanted to buy, and nothing that I wanted to do.

When I got home in Dickinson, I checked my e-mail. There was nothing too important or alarming. I had an e-mail that my on-line pay check record could be viewed. I looked at my net pay check, and it was disappointingly low. Looking at it some more, I saw that my company had shorted me 8.5 hours of overtime pay.

I wrote a letter to the company pay roll person, writing down the hours that I worked each day, and my total hours. I planned on dropping this letter off on Saturday or Monday. Also, there was withholding for “New Hire”, which I did not understand.

As I thought about it some more, I realized that the company was going to try to not pay me for drive time, which began to make me angry. I have to wake up at 2:00 a.m. on Monday, to leave at 3:00 a.m., to drive two hours until 5:00 a.m., which is 6:00 a.m. in that time zone, and then work until 5:00 p.m. in that time zone, which is 6:00 p.m. in Dickinson. In other words, I start driving at 3:00 a.m., and I don’t get done with work until 15 hours later, that’s right 15 hours later. On my time sheet, my supervisor writes down 12 hours for Monday, but the accounting women and the owner’s wife, just assume that because it is a two hour drive, they will just go ahead and take two hours off that 12 hours.

I could inconvenience the company owner and his wife by filing a small claims suit or a complaint with the Department of Labor, for the money that I am not being paid, but I would probably lose, because this is North Dakota. The company owner and his wife have a lot of news stories about them because they are so amazingly successful, benevolent, charitable, and run everything so well. I am seeing and experiencing the exact opposite.

I have to weigh out what I want to do. Saying or writing what I would really like to do, would only cause me unnecessary problems and not get me anywhere. The only smart and rational thing for me to do, would be to find another job.

I looked at North Dakota Job Service, Indeed, and LinkedIn, to try to find another job. There are very few jobs in Dickinson now, very, very few jobs.

I write about things like this in blog posts, because I am frustrated, but also to write what is actually happening. If anyone came to Dickinson, they would experience the same thing, and perhaps even worse. Most people would go to the liquor store or to the bar on a Friday evening like this. This is why most out of state workers get a DUI in Dickinson. It sucks here so bad, but you can’t drink, or the police will get you.

Allergies Almost Causing Me To Lose My Job In Dickinson, North Dakota

June 28, 2017Uncategorizedallergies in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I never had allergies before in my life, until the last four years in Dickinson, North Dakota. In my first two years in Dickinson, I didn’t have allergies either.

I wouldn’t care very much if I just had a runny nose, and red, itchy, watery eyes. But, one or both of my eyes swell nearly completely shut, my eyes become blinded by sunlight, and I can barely see. This happens about three to four times each year, for the past four years.

No one is going to like this, what I am going to write next. In order to not lose my job, and go to work, I have had to wear two pairs of sunglasses, one over top of the other, and open my eyes for 1/2 second, and close them for 1 second, while I am driving. On some days, even wearing two pairs of sunglasses, I can’t hold my eyes open for more than one second.

Why don’t I go to the doctor? Because this is Dickinson, and North Dakota, that’s why. I have lived with a life-long Dickinson resident for over three years. I have seen him try to make appointments with the St. Alexius Hospital and Sanford Health, many times. When he needs medical attention fairly urgently, describing his intense agonizing pain, the staff reads to him the appointment dates they have available, five to six weeks out.

Then, what I have seen them do to my room mate, is to schedule him for test after test after test, running up a bill of $7,000 for tests, and offer no treatment! So fuck the corrupt and incompetent medical professionals in Dickinson! They would probably try to put you on the medical helicopter to Bismarck for a bad case of hemorrhoids.

I am getting off my topic here, but what the medical facilities here in Dickinson are trying to do is bill, bill, bill, in order to pay for their personnel and facilities. In treating someone, even if they could quickly diagnose someone and treat them, they aren’t going to, because there is no money in that. And, they probably perceive there being some legal liability in trying to quickly diagnose someone and offer a simple treatment, foregoing extensive testing.

Back to my allergies. It happens three to four times a year in Dickinson, where my eyes swell up, become sensitive to light, and I can’t see. I have tried just about every over the counter allergy medication, like Benadryl, Claritin, Allegra, and Flonase. Benadryl seems to make my eyes more sensitive to light, Flonase Sensimist nasal spray seems to help the most. But nothing helps very much. Visine and Opticon allergy eye drops do not help very much.

If you have read my recent previous blog posts, you will know that I started a new job four weeks ago at an oil field company. I have to drive and operate a crane truck. If I don’t come to work, the work can not be done, my co-worker/supervisor can not get paid, and my company can not get paid. My co-worker/supervisor gets paid about $300 per day, his truck gets billed at about $200 per day at least, and my crane truck gets billed at about $500 per day at least, and the company loses about $3,000 per day in billing. If I tried to not come to work for even one day, they would try to replace me as soon as possible, permanently. Especially, if my co-worker/supervisor and the company thought that this was something that could happen again.

I could not say, “I have a bad allergy attack about three to four times a year, I am having a bad allergy attack this morning, it would not be safe for me to drive or work today.” I may as well say, “I quit.” The company would not understand. The part that they would understand, is that I needed to be replaced. Once my position has been filled, what do they need me for, so that I can call in sick again in the future?

I had to drive two hours to work on Monday in my personal truck with a bad allergy attack, and very much difficulty with my eyes. I then had to drive 1/2 hour in the crane truck to some place that I had never been. When I got to where my co-worker/supervisor was, I explained to him about my allergy problem that I was currently having, but that I wanted to try to work.

I know, and my co-worker/supervisor knows, that if I don’t work, neither of us get paid. This was my co-worker/supervisor’s main concern. I don’t think that most people will understand how dangerous it was for me and for others, for me to work and drive all day with having only about 30% of my eyesight. At the end of the day, I did not think that I could drive the crane truck back for thirty minutes in traffic. I tried to discuss this with my co-worker/supervisor, but he did not want to drive thirty minutes in the opposite direction from his home.

I made it to where I was going at the end of the day Monday, barely. My eyesight was slightly better on Tuesday and Wednesday. I managed to keep my job. This job pays me in one week, what I would earn in one month in Idaho. Jobs in the oil field are very scarce and hard to get now. It would have been the end of me working in the oil field if I would have lost this job after one month, especially for having allergies.

How My New Job Is Going In Dickinson, North Dakota

June 25, 2017Uncategorizedemployment in Dickinson North Dakota, jobs in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about starting a new job in Dickinson, North Dakota. I thought that it was going to be one of the best jobs that I ever had, because the company was enthusiastic about my previous work experience in several different areas that they happened to be looking for.

Because I am in my late forties, have had many jobs, and have worked for about seven companies in Dickinson, I knew that there could be complications and obstacles at work. I was mentally and emotionally prepared for things to not go well at work. I was especially expecting to experience hostility and lack of cooperation from the local North Dakotan co-workers, like always.

I had offered to drive my own personal truck to get to the work location two hours away. I was doing this so that the company would not have to find a truck for me, but also so that I would not be entirely at the mercy of others, at a work location two hours from Dickinson. When I arrived at work at 3:45 a.m. on a Monday morning, after waiting 45 minutes for my work manager to arrive, and he did not arrive, I was informed that he would not be in all this week.

The crane truck that was supposed to be at the work location, was here in Dickinson, and I would have to drive it. I was told the keys were in it, I was already late, to get in it and go. I got my personal work equipment bag and my hotel bag for the week out of my own truck and carried them to the crane truck.

The crane truck had spoiled food in a take-out box on the dashboard, all kinds of other garbage on the dashboard, all kinds of garbage on the seat, and on the floor boards. It was dark outside, but looking out the back window of the truck cab, I could see a metal gas can unsecured on top of the right side tool box. I got out of the crane truck and walked to the rear of the truck, on the back bumper, below the level of the rear deck, were two 35 lb buckets of grease, that would have fallen off on the highway. I was very angry about all of this.

I felt like I was being set up to get fired, by my piece of shit North Dakota co-workers, but I realized that it was more likely stupidity that caused the crane truck to be an accident waiting to happen for the next person who drove this truck. I was angry that any company would start a new employee out like this, I sure wouldn’t.

I went back in to the office to inform them that the keys were not in the crane truck. After about twenty minutes, they were able to find an employee who had the keys. As this employee was removing all of the keys that were needed from his key ring, he was saying that a major piece of equipment on the crane truck was not working, that would be needed. Some things were said by a manager along the lines of, it’s not my problem.

I had had about as much as I could take. Everything in my mind was telling me to say to this company, “Hey, that’s O.K., I don’t want to work here.” I now believed that I had made a mistake, and the best thing for me to do now, was to not spend another minute at this company. If I would have gotten in that crane truck and gone, I could have caused an accident on the highway and gotten someone hurt with all the things that were ready to fall off the truck. I didn’t know what else was wrong with this truck, was the boom locked down, was the other rigging locked down, what was my clearance height?

I had not been given any drive maps, work site location, work orders, work contacts, hotel information, fuel credit card for the crane truck, hydrogen sulfide H2S monitor, or been asked if I had all of my mandatory personal safety equipment. They just wanted me to go. I was getting a very bad impression of the company, and I believed that this is what the company was like, no thought, planning, preparation, care, concern, or accountability.

If anything went wrong, they would just blame me, and I thought that they were setting me up to fail. I wanted so bad to quit right then, to spare myself from the blame of everything going wrong, which everything would likely go wrong. If I would have known that I would have had to drive this crane truck, there was plenty of time on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday for me to inspect and check this crane truck, and the equipment on this truck, when there was day light.

If the crane truck would have been low on fuel, this might have been the last straw. I considered whether I was willing to spend my own money to fuel this truck, rather than deal with the people in the office, who weren’t prepared to provide me with anything.

I left the company yard being more angry, than nervous about driving a very large truck, which I hadn’t driven anything this large for six years. At about 6:00 a.m., I telephoned my co-worker that I was supposed to meet at the work location. I could tell from his voice that he was from the South like me. I was relieved that I would not be working with a North Dakotan.

When I got to the work location at about 7:30a.m., I talked to the man who I would be working with. He was my age. He had worked in the oil field for most of his life, so had his father, and his grandfather. He was very knowledgeable about most areas of oil field work and operations. He looked at the piece of equipment on the crane truck that was broken, and he said that there was very little we could do without this piece of equipment working. He said we would take his truck back to Dickinson.

During the two hour drive back to Dickinson, I had the chance to talk to my co-worker from the South. He explained to me why the company was, the way that it was. He explained that he tries to handle everything, and take care of everything on his own. To not rely on the office in Dickinson, to handle everything himself, as much as possible. As long as work gets done, and the work makes money, he is allowed to operate on his own, without much interference. This is the only way he wants to work.

After getting parts in Dickinson, I was able to drive my own personal truck back to the work location. In the next two days, I worked in the oil field with my co-worker, who was in charge of the work because of his four or five year work relationship with the customer, and because of his many more years work experience in the oil field. On about the third day, my co-worker began leaving me on my own, to go do other things. By the end of the first week, I was working on my own for most of the day.

I was a little angry, that I was having to do all of the work by myself, I didn’t think that I was supposed to be doing everything by myself all the time. On the other hand, I was being left alone, left in charge of the work, and I was not being bothered. After a few days of working with my co-worker, I had told him that I had been a foreman, a superintendent, a project manager, an inspector, and had operated my own construction business. Because of my age, my work experience, and working with me, my co-worker believed that I did not need any supervision or help, and that he could be elsewhere, doing other things.

What my co-worker wanted, and I suppose what I want too, is to be left alone to do your work. To not get phone calls where people are quizzing you about work progress and work details. To not have people pushing you to get more work done. To not have other people trying to tell you how to do the work, what you are doing wrong, and trying to direct everything you do, like you are not capable of directing yourself.

In order to get work done, I have chosen to work on many bad weather days, rainy days, and high wind days. There is a prohibition against performing certain operations when the wind is over thirty miles per hour, but I have done it anyway, because about 30% of the time there have been high winds. This is possibly another reason why my co-worker has decided to be elsewhere doing other things. If I get caught performing certain operations when the wind is over thirty miles per hour, it is better for my co-worker and my company to deny any knowledge of this, that no one knew that I was doing this, to let me take the blame, and for me to get fired. I understand that if the work does not get completed, my company can not get paid, and my co-worker and I can not get paid unless we work every day completing the work.

There are a lot of dangerous things that I have to do many times each day, that are just part of this work. Every location that I go to has multiple surveillance cameras which are monitored at an operations center. If the customer wanted to, they could watch every step that I performed, all day long. Every location has SCADA systems, supervisory control and data acquisition systems, which monitor and send oil and gas flow rates, oil and gas pressures, oil and gas temperatures, valve positions, electric motor speeds, electric motor loading, and probably perimeter breach. Every location that I go to and begin work, causes the operations center to receive alarms for drop in flow rates, drop in pressure, stop in motor load, and stop in motor speed. The multiple alarms result in the operations center looking at the surveillance cameras for that location to determine what is going on at that location. Because each location cost many millions of dollars, I get watched at each location by the people at the operations center. Many people do not know this or think about this, but they should.

I have about two or three more weeks of out of town work, then, as far as I know, I will be working out of the Dickinson office. I don’t know how this will go, or if I can handle this or not. I don’t know if I can take the lack of cooperation, unfriendliness, and unhelpfulness that I always get from North Dakota co-workers. The past three weeks my co-worker from the South has been cordial and has let me work on my own. The customer oil company personnel have been very civil and decent so far. I don’t know if I can take what is going to happen when I go back to Dickinson.

There Aren’t Even Any Skank Girls In Western North Dakota

June 18, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, guide to western North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, skank girls, skank women, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, what is western North Dakota like, women in Dickinson North Dakota, women in Western North Dakotaname withheld

I have lived in Western North Dakota for almost five years now. I have written many blog posts about the shortage of women and the scarcity of attractive women in Western North Dakota. About one year ago I wrote a blog post titled, “List Of Attractive Women In Dickinson, North Dakota”. On that list, I have included three women from Watford City, one woman from Belfield, one woman from South Heart, two women from Amidon, and about ten women from Dickinson. I have only been able to come up with about twenty attractive women in Western North Dakota, and I have been here for five years.

I thought about attractive women that I could add to my List Of Attractive Women, being careful to not include any skank women, and then I realized that there aren’t even any skank women in Western North Dakota. About one month ago I wrote a blog post titled, “Skank Women From The South”. In that blog post I had intended to point out and explain that there aren’t any skank women in Western North Dakota, but I only managed to describe skank women.

Skank women start out in life being underprivileged. They are often pale and skinny as children and adolescents because they don’t have access to very much food, and they don’t get to go outside and play in the sun. Also, they sometimes have scars from a car accident, animal attack, or other mishap. When they become teenagers, they sometimes blossom into attractive young ladies, but they are poor, and not from respectable families, so they are not destined to be a cheerleader, homecoming queen, or go to college and be in a sorority. Sometimes, they have a stigma attached to them because their mother was so wild, or their father was a criminal.

As all good respectable women know, their husband, boyfriend, brother, or son can become involved with a skank woman. Skank women did not have a lot growing up, they did not have high expectations in life, they only expected to have small pleasures in life, such as going out, getting drunk, and having the affection and company of men.

Skank women are not necessarily trashy. If I wanted to talk about white trash women, I would say that I was talking about white trash women. White trash women are the next level below skank women. Now that I think about it, there aren’t even hardly any white trash women in Western North Dakota.

In Western North Dakota, besides the twenty attractive women on my list, it skips straight down past the skank women level, straight past the white trash women level, and stops at one of two lower levels, the battle axe women, and the drug addict women.

Just like there is a scarcity of attractive women, there is a scarcity of plain average women, and you mainly see women that are the battle axe women, the women with big ankles, ham fists, and scowling faces, that look like somebody hits them in the face with the flat side of a 1”x4” board every morning. The other women that you mainly see are the drug addict, problem women, that came from Los Angeles, Los Vegas, Spokane, or Coeur d’Alene.

The South is full of skank women. They work at banks, book keeping, retail stores, offices, and in health care. They are easy to meet and talk to. You meet them at the places where they work, at any store you go to, any place you go: convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, Wal-Mart, laundromats, dry cleaners, the beach. They don’t go to the gym, or go to church.

Skank women like getting asked out. If they got asked out nicely three times in one day, they would probably agree to go out on three different dates. They look forward to getting slightly dressed up, to meet someone for dinner at a restaurant, or drinks at a bar. They like meeting people, going places, and doing things. They see going out with people as an opportunity to do all kinds of things that they like: eating good food, having good drinks, getting drunk, dancing, making friends, going new places, seeing other people’s nice clothes, jewelry, cars, motorcycles, boats, animals, and homes. They like to have fun, they look forward to having fun.

The battle axe women in Western North Dakota want to make everyone miserable, most of the time, they are like ogres or trolls. The problem drug addict women that came to Western North Dakota from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Spokane, and Coeur D’Alene to work at the bars, restaurants, and hotels just want to get high on meth, crack, or heroin.

I Need To Warn Everyone About Dickinson And Western North Dakota

June 17, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, living in Western North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, moving to Western North Dakota, police in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, what is western North Dakota likename withheld

I started this blog about three years ago to tell everyone from out of state what Dickinson, North Dakota is like. I wanted people to have truthful information about Dickinson so that they would be prepared and know what to expect if they came to Dickinson to work, or perhaps they would choose not to come if they knew the truth. Now more than ever, I need to warn people about Dickinson and Western North Dakota.

First, the Oil Boom is over in North Dakota. The number of operating oil drill rigs went from 200 a few years ago, to less than 40 currently. There are fracturing operations going on, and work over rig operations going on, but these operations will be winding down in about a year. There are many, many experienced applicants already living in Western North Dakota for every job opening that is advertised.

Second, Dickinson and Western North Dakota are going to experience a great Economic Bust in approximately 1-1/2 years. There are a combination of more than four economic factors that guarantee an Economic Bust is coming. At least 70% of the oil field jobs went away after 2015. Many oil field workers moved out of state, but some remained. There are now many, many experienced and able-bodied applicants for every job that is advertised. The wage rates are decreasing, workers are making less money. 70% of the oil field jobs went away. Every business is making less money. Businesses need fewer employees now. More people will be forced to move away from Western North Dakota due to a reduction in wage rates, and a reduction in jobs. As more and more people move away, businesses will close, there will be fewer jobs, and more people will have to move away.

Three, the people in Western North Dakota have hated outsiders for many generations. They have hated and mistreated the out of state workers in every way possible throughout this Oil Boom in North Dakota that began in 2007. Now that the Oil Boom is over, the people in Dickinson are targeting out of state workers with hatred and hostility like never before. The local human resources personnel with the City of Dickinson, Stark County, the State of North Dakota, and private employers, hide job openings and only disclose them to friends and family members, so that their friends and family members can get hired. The Western North Dakota Highway Patrol and police are targeting out of state workers to try to make them leave North Dakota.

Prior to working in Western North Dakota, I worked in Tampa for seven years, Arizona for five years, Idaho for five years, and Texas for one year. In Tampa, Arizona, Idaho, and Texas, I never once got stopped by the police in those eighteen years of working. In the past year in Western North Dakota, I have been stopped and questioned by the police three times. None of these times was I speeding.

The Police Are Trying To Encourage People To Leave North Dakota

June 11, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, police harassment in Dickinson North Dakota, police in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakota, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I first came to North Dakota to work in the oil field in May of 2011. For the first two years, I primarily worked around Dickinson, North Dakota. I realized very soon after arriving in Dickinson, that the police were very eager to stop people for DUI.

There is very little to do in Dickinson, North Dakota. Especially if you are not from Dickinson, don’t have friends, don’t have family, and don’t own a home here. There is very little to do here, except go to bars and restaurants. The police drive around and around the downtown areas, waiting to try to get a chance to stop someone.

The police have already driven past the Paragon, the Spur, the Rock, Bernie’s Esquire Club, the Eagles Lodge, and Applebees several times, and noticed what vehicles were parked outside. When a customer has to drive home on Villard, State, or Main, the police already know where the person just left.

I don’t call this policing, or law enforcement. Policing and law enforcement would be to deter and detect crime. This is more like harassment and corruption, starting out with the intention of making an arrest, pulling over as many motorists as possible, and trying to come up with something illegal that you can accuse them of.

Over the past three years, I have written several blog posts about getting stopped by the police in Dickinson, North Dakota, and Watford City, North Dakota. I try to not ever drink alcohol at bars and restaurants in North Dakota, because I know that the police are very aggressive in stopping people for DUI. When I have not been drinking alcohol, and have not been speeding, I have gotten stopped by the police more than several times in North Dakota. The police are hopeful that once they get you pulled over, they will find something that you can be arrested for.

Beginning this spring, the police and Highway Patrol in North Dakota have become much, much more aggressive in trying to stop motorists for anything they can possibly come up with. I would say, that this behavior of the police and Highway Patrol in Dickinson now amounts to violating people’s Civil Rights, and constitutional rights.

I have been a licensed driver for 30 years. In my first 15 years of driving, I got two moving violation tickets, and had one accident. In my second 15 years of driving, I have gotten no moving violation tickets, and had no accidents. I got stopped by the Montana Highway Patrol in March of this year, and I was given a “failure to wear seat belt” citation. I got stopped by the North Dakota Highway Patrol last weekend, and I was given a “failure to wear seat belt” citation. In both of these stops by the Highway Patrol, I was going under the speed limit, and I was towing a trailer.

Let me repeat, and point out again, that prior to being stopped by the Montana Highway Patrol in March of 2017, and by the North Dakota Highway Patrol in June of 2017, I had not had any moving violations or vehicle accidents in the past 15 years. During the past 15 years, I have driven to Florida, through Utah many times, and I lived in Arizona, Texas, Idaho, and North Dakota.

I am writing this blog post because I have had enough of the police in Dickinson and the Highway Patrol in Dickinson trying to stop me for something.

In the beginning of June, I rented an apartment in downtown Dickinson. In mid-June I got stopped by the Highway Patrol when I was towing a trailer from the north side of Dickinson across town to where my new apartment is. The following weekend, I was continuing to make trips to move things to my new apartment.

I was driving west on Villard, driving the speed limit, 25 mph. My police radar detector started beeping just as I was passing through the stoplight at 3rd Avenue. I saw the front end of a Dickinson Police vehicle sticking out beside the wall of the Sax Motor Company building. He was hiding. There were very few vehicles on Villard, it was approximately 9:00 a.m. As I passed the police vehicle that was parked, the police vehicle did not pull out onto Villard.

After I had driven three blocks further, I looked in my rear view mirror, to see if the police vehicle had pulled out onto Villard, and it had not. I did not want to get stopped by the Dickinson Police. I did not want them following me.

Just before I reached the west end of Villard, just before the very last stop light beside the gas station, I needed to change into the left lane, because the road narrows from two lanes to one lane. I didn’t plan on using my turn signal to change lanes, I just looked in my rear view mirror and my side mirror to make sure that there were no vehicles beside me. Whoa!, there’s that Dickinson Police vehicle, he got behind me and he stayed back three blocks behind me, for about a mile, with his radar turned off so that I didn’t know he was there.

Attention Dickinson Police, this is beyond ridiculous, this is going too far. First, you are hiding behind the wall of the Sax Motor Company building with speed detector radar on, and then you are pulling out behind passing motorists on Villard, and then following them for one mile, hoping to be able to stop them for speeding, changing lanes without signaling, turning without signaling, failure to come to a complete stop, not maintaining lane, expired registration, brake light not working, etcetera.

This is not policing and law enforcement, this is harassment, and interfering with people’s Civil Rights, and constitutional rights to travel freely, and not be required to explain and prove that you are not engaged in any illegal activity. I don’t know if the Chief of Police in Dickinson has instructed the police officers to stop, question, and ticket every vehicle with an out of state license plate, or if the police officers in Dickinson have decided to do this all on their own.

Whenever I have to drive in Dickinson now, I have to try to find a way to not get stopped by the police. I have to watch out for where the police are hiding, and watch out for them trying to sneak up behind me. Figuring out ahead of time, that there is a temporary construction zone ahead, where you have to change lanes and reduce speed, and that this is why the police are trying to follow behind me right here, without me noticing them.

To answer a question, why do I have an Idaho license plate on my truck? I have two trucks with North Dakota license plates, and two trucks with Idaho license plates. I own a home in Idaho, which is my primary residence. I have the full amount of income tax withheld from my pay checks by the State of North Dakota, and, I have to pay Idaho income tax too. I pay motor vehicle registration, and income tax, equally to both North Dakota, and Idaho.

I purchased two trucks, thousands of dollars in construction equipment, thousands of dollars in personal property, paid thousands of dollars in truck repairs, and paid $25,000 in rent, all in North Dakota. I wish that the police would leave me the fuck alone, instead of trying to harass me and try to get me to leave North Dakota.

I think that the police are trying to force people from out of state, to leave North Dakota, so that the less able and less qualified North Dakotans will be able to gain employment. Also, I think that this is part of a strategy to get the people in North Dakota back under control.

Dickinson North Dakota Compared To Other Places I Have Lived

May 25, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what are people like in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Restaurant Slow Down In Dickinson, North Dakota

May 25, 2017Uncategorizedfast food restaurants in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, people worried about money in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

On Wednesday night, I felt like eating Chinese food, so I drove to the King Buffet restaurant in the T-Rex Mall. As I turned into the parking lot, I saw about one vehicle parked in front of the King Buffet restaurant. I believe that the restaurant had one customer. It was 8:35 p.m.

I did not want to eat at the King Buffet restaurant if I was going to be the last customer of the night, and the only person sitting there. I would have liked to have taken my time eating, had two different things cooked on the hibachi, and tried many different things on the buffet. I wouldn’t do this if I was aware that I was preventing the staff from putting all the food away and going home. I asked the cashier what time they were planning on closing the restaurant, and the cashier said that they would close at 9:15 p.m.

Because the King Buffet was closing so early, I went back to my vehicle to try to decide where else I would like to eat. I thought that this was pretty pathetic that the King Buffet had one customer at 8:35 p.m., and that they were planning on closing at 9:15 p.m. I can’t believe that this is what is happening in Dickinson, no customers at the Chinese buffet at 8:35 p.m. I vaguely remember that the King Buffet restaurant expanded its leased area at least twice since 2011 in order to handle the amount of customers at lunch and dinner. This restaurant now has seating for about 150 people.

Not being able to decide what I else I would like to eat, I thought that I would just go to the drive thru at McDonalds. When I got to McDonalds, there was a line of about ten vehicles in the drive thru. I turned around to drive elsewhere.

In the past month, this is about the fourth time that I have turned around in the McDonalds parking lot because there were so many vehicles in the drive thru. This McDonalds drive thru being so busy, means something.

In the past month, I have been to Subway, Jimmy Johns, Arbys, Dominos, and Taco Johns, when there was only one other customer in these fast food restaurants. The food at these fast food restaurants is better than McDonalds, but it costs about 40% more. McDonalds is two or three dollars cheaper per meal, than these fast food restaurants.

In Dickinson, Burger King, Wendys, Arbys, Taco Bell, Taco Johns, Subway, Jimmy Johns, and Dominos are all less busy than McDonalds. Though their food is better than McDonalds, it costs a few dollars more. It is obvious to me, that it has come to the point in Dickinson, where many people are so worried about money, that they will only go to eat at McDonalds.

How Dickinson North Dakota Is Controlled

May 19, 2017Uncategorizedgetting a job in Dickinson North Dakota, how is Dickinson North Dakota controlled, lack of education in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, people being kept down in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, who controls Dickinson North Dakota, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I first came to work in Dickinson in 2011. I left to go work in Texas in 2012. Then I returned to Dickinson in 2013, and I have been working here since then. That is about five years that I have spent living in Dickinson.

Prior to coming to work in Dickinson, I had lived and worked in five different states. I had worked as a laborer, engineer, estimator, inspector, superintendent, project manager, and as a business owner. In my previous jobs, I had operated a backhoe, bobcat, compactor, crane, excavator, forklift, scissor lift, and snorkel lift.

The economy was bad in Idaho where I had been living, and I was coming over to North Dakota to work because of the oil boom. I didn’t know exactly what it would be like, but I had a vague idea. I wasn’t expecting to get my dream job, I was prepared to take what I could get.

I dropped my resume off at some of the oil field businesses on Hwy 22 in Dickinson. The people at Marathon Oil Company were not nice at all. The person at Key Energy Services was fairly nice. An engineering company manager was very interested in hiring me, but he said he had to get approval from the company owners. On the first or second day that I was in Dickinson, I got hired to work at an oil field service company, and this company would allow me to stay in my truck camper on the company property.

Looking back on it now, I was kind of timid when I first started working at this oil field service company in Dickinson, especially considering my previous employment and work experience. It was probably better that I was a little timid, rather than being assertive and confident.

I used my experience to not get hurt, not get other people hurt, to help, and to stay out of trouble. I was able to do everything that I was asked to do, and I was able to help make sure that projects turned out O.K. As time went by, everyone else was getting hurt, making mistakes, and having accidents, but I wasn’t. This caused resentment with my coworkers, and even my manager.

In time, I probably explained to my coworkers, that I had already worked as a superintendent and project manager on many large construction projects in the past. But even though I explained this to them, I don’t think that they comprehended or understood, they probably didn’t want to.

I began to see pretty clearly, that the people from Dickinson did not want to acknowledge that anyone could have relevant education and experience that was greater than what they had. Their way of dealing with someone who had relevant education and experience, was to make believe that it did not exist.

I wrote up above, that when I dropped my resume off at Marathon Oil company, the people there were not very nice to me. I later learned through the years of living and working in Dickinson, that about 85% of the people working at Marathon Oil in Dickinson do not have college degrees in engineering. Not only that, but with my work experience as an engineer, estimator, inspector, superintendent, and project manager on large commercial construction projects, I would have been one of the most senior and experienced people working for Marathon Oil in Dickinson. Because most of the people working for Marathon Oil in Dickinson do not have college degrees, when they look at my resume, they just make believe that my qualifications and work experience don’t exist, and therefore they are much more qualified than me.

The second oil field service company that I worked for in Dickinson, I did my job as a crew worker, then began to do more what a foreman would do, and then more what a superintendent would do, without any acknowledgment or thanks from the manager or company owner. Several times I identified and solved some big problems on projects, that the manager and company owner had not seen or known about. I never received any thanks or acknowledgement.

Working for other companies in Dickinson, it was the same thing. This is what they do in Dickinson. This is a learned behavior in Dickinson, that is standard practice. This is all about controlling people. It took me several years of living in Dickinson to really see what was going on, and then another couple of years to become certain that this is what is going on.

The people who settled western North Dakota in the late 1800s were German and Ukranian Catholics. Western North Dakota was very barren and harsh. The settlers had such a hard time surviving, that they really could not afford to be hospitable to their neighbors. There were so few resources in western North Dakota, that no one really got ahead. The only way that anyone did better than their neighbors, was when their neighbors failed. This is the origin of the belief of people in the Dickinson area, that they get ahead by other people failing.

It became prevalent in the Dickinson area, that people believed that they could be successful by other people failing. My coworkers, managers, and the company owners were not about to acknowledge that I had education and work experience that made me knowledgeable, capable, and useful in getting work done and managing projects. How could they be successful, if I was successful?

Another way of stating this, and explaining how this works in Dickinson, is that there is great effort put into keeping people down. There is this belief in Dickinson, that if you don’t keep people down and try to control them, then how are you ever going to be successful? How are you going to be successful, if you allow other people to become successful? You have got to control people, and keep them down.

Trying to keep people down, is kind of a primitive and outdated belief in my opinion. This is what kings, queens, lords, shieks, and slave holders used to try to do to people. They tried to keep people uneducated and uninformed so that they are easier to control, which is also something that they try to accomplish in Dickinson.

When I was working in Tampa, the company owner required that each of the employees must read books about success and leadership. This would never, never happen in Dickinson. One of the books that I bought was titled “The Power Principle, How To Influence With Honor”, by Blaine Lee. In that book, there were several chapters about getting out of other people’s way, letting them succeed, even if it meant that they would surpass you. I was only 27 years old at the time, and I wanted to get ahead, how could I just let people surpass me I wondered?

I tried doing the things that were described in the book “The Power Principle” and within a year I was a superintendent, with an new limited edition Toyota 4-Runner as my company vehicle, and I was making about 40% more money. Within another two years I was a project manager. Whenever somebody working for me had a good idea or plan, I listened to them, I let them do it, I let them take charge of it, and I gave them credit for it. Work got done better, faster, less expensively, innovatively, and with workers being happier, satisfied, and more motivated. Who do you think got the credit for that? Me, I got the credit. But it all began by me getting out of other people’s way and letting them be successful.

I had a degree in engineering, I wasn’t a business major, I hadn’t read books about success and leadership. Other books that I then began to read that had important information for me to consider were, “The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People”, “Gung Ho”, “The Power Of Positive Thinking”, “How To Win Friends And Influence People”, “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, “Winning Through Intimidation”, and many books on psychology. I realized that there was a lot that I did not know about being successful.

A common theme in many of these books about being successful in business, was the importance of how you treat people. For instance, believe it or not, a business expert explained that it was even more important to treat an employee fairly, than a customer. An employee, in most cases, has more opportunity to affect your business, than does a customer.

Other topics in these books were the necessity of taking a genuine interest in people, to seek first to understand others before expecting to be understood, to be aware of your emotional bank account with people, and the importance of always encouraging others.

The people in Dickinson are so determined to keep other people down, that education and learning is widely discouraged and belittled. In order to maintain control, the company owners and business owners try to hire and promote people with no education. This just perpetuates that lack of education and knowledge in Dickinson. The business owners now, and the business managers now, do not have any business education.

They do not know that you are supposed to treat your employees well, because employees have much more opportunity to affect a business than do customers. They do not know that you are supposed to encourage your employees. They do not know that by allowing employees to come up with good ideas, present them, implement them, and give them credit, increases the efficiency and productivity of their business, and makes the employees happier, more satisfied, and more motivated.

There is a final principle that I will mention called “synergy”. Synergy is the principle that people or businesses working together in a collaborative effort, can accomplish much greater things than they could accomplish working separately.

I will give an analogy to describe synergy. Imagine that you have water, sand, gravel, and cement. Could you make a wall only with water? Could you make a wall only with sand? Could you stack the sand on the water? When you mix the water, sand, gravel, and cement all together, you can make concrete walls, houses, and buildings.

Not only do businesses in Dickinson try to keep their own employees down, they do not cooperate with other businesses. There is no Synergy. For instance, I described in some previous blog posts, that I do self employed construction work in my own business. In the past couple of years, I purchased $1,200 worth of equipment from two locally owned businesses in Dickinson. In the month of April, I talked to these two local business owners about buying more equipment from them, and both of these business owners were very nasty to me.

Why don’t these local business owners in Dickinson see, that if I buy the equipment from them that I need, so that I can complete my projects, so that I make money, that I can then come back and buy more equipment from them?

The town of Dickinson and everyone in Dickinson would be so much more successful if there was Synergy, where everyone makes an effort work together, so that collectively everyone is better off.

If You Come To Work In Dickinson, North Dakota, You Must Plan On Leaving

April 29, 2017Uncategorizedguide to Dickinson North Dakota, Information on Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

If you come to work in Dickinson, North Dakota, you must plan on leaving. This is probably the most important advice that I could give to anyone.

I first came to work in Dickinson from Idaho, in 2011. I have lived in Dickinson for almost five years now. Something that I now realize was a mistake, was that once I had been here for a while, I tried to settle in, to be comfortable, and I tried to make a life here.

When I first came to Dickinson in 2011, I ended up staying in my truck camper on company property where I was working. My goal was to make as much money as possible, and then return to my home in Idaho when I had made enough money. I brought over one extra vehicle, so that I could drive around after work and on weekends without moving my truck camper. Making money, saving money, and bringing just the bare minimum of personal belongings to Dickinson, these were all good ideas that I should have continued to follow.

When I came back to Dickinson in 2013, by the winter I had moved into a house. I purchased an additional vehicle in Dickinson. I bought a couple of kayaks. I bought some mountain bikes. I later brought over from Idaho, two extra trucks, two equipment trailers, and construction equipment. I began doing self employed construction work, in addition to my other job.

Instead of making money, saving money, and going back to Idaho when I had made enough money, I tried to make a life here in Dickinson. I tried to have a normal life in Dickinson, because it looked like I was going to be here for several years. I began trying to do things that I enjoyed doing elsewhere, riding my bike, kayaking, fishing, going to the gym, going to restaurants and bars, trying to meet women, driving jeeps out to nowhere. This turned out to be a mistake, trying to make a life in Dickinson.

I have been writing blog posts for a little over 2-1/2 years, and I have written very few good things about Dickinson, and many, many bad things about Dickinson, North Dakota. Primarily, the local people are unfriendly, uncooperative, hostile, hateful, uneducated, very greedy, and they raised housing prices 400% to 500% to gouge the out of state workers. There is a shortage of women and a scarcity of attractive women. The restaurants are not very good, and the waitresses and bartenders hate their jobs, hate their customers, hate white men, and hate Dickinson. The police follow everyone leaving restaurants and bars hoping and trying to arrest them for something.

I tried to make a life here in Dickinson, and this was a mistake. Dickinson is not normal, and it is never going to be normal. There will always be a scarcity of attractive women in Dickinson. The restaurants and bars will always be bad with waitresses and bartenders that hate their job and hate their customers. The people here will always be unfriendly, uncooperative, hostile, and hateful. I guess that I thought that I would try to persevere, and try to make things as bearable as possible while I was living here in Dickinson.

Things are so bad in Dickinson now, that I can now see that I had made a mistake when I changed my plans from working, saving, and leaving, to trying to do things, have things, and become involved in things here in Dickinson.

There are very few job openings in Dickinson now, even though this is the busiest hiring month in Dickinson. My job is not very busy, and I am not making very much money. Once I had brought extra vehicles, trailers, and equipment to Dickinson, my local landlord began being difficult and causing problems, thinking that I was stuck here, and that I could not leave. Once I started taking my extra vehicles and equipment back to Idaho in preparation for moving out, my landlord changed his attitude.

Without having some of my equipment that I moved back to Idaho, in order to do my self employed construction work, I had to re-buy equipment from local businesses that I had bought this equipment from last year. I was shocked recently when two local business owners that I had bought equipment from last year, were very nasty to me when I talked to them about buying more equipment from them. I regretted having spent over $1,200 at these two local businesses.

These two local business owners being so nasty, caused me to think about what I am doing in Dickinson. Just about every involvement with anything and anyone in Dickinson has been negative. The local people are so unfriendly, the women are unattractive and unfriendly, the waitresses and bartenders are so unfriendly, the local business owners are nasty, and the police follow everyone around trying to arrest them for something, I guess that it was a mistake in trying to make a life here. I just should have brought the bare minimum of belongings over here to Dickinson, and tried to have as little involvement as possible in Dickinson.

I recommend to out of state workers, do not move to Dickinson, just plan on staying here while you have a job. Do not buy a house in Dickinson. Do not pay a lot for housing, get just the bare minimum for housing. Try to get a lease that allows you to break your lease by giving notice and paying a penalty. Try to bring a minimum of belongings to Dickinson. Be ready to leave Dickinson. Try to make as much money as possible, to save as much money as possible, and to spend as little as possible. While you are here, try to research some place better to move to.

After living in Dickinson for almost five years, with everything that I have seen, learned, and experienced, you can’t have a normal life, or a good life here in Dickinson. Don’t get trapped here because you have bought a house which you will be unable to sell, or because you have spent your money on a new car, motorcycle, or boat. Plan on saving your money so that you will be able to leave. Don’t accidentally get trapped here in Dickinson.

Risks Of Having Any Involvement In Dickinson, North Dakota

April 28, 2017Uncategorizedgetting involved in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, things to do in Dickinson North Dakota, what are people like in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

When I first started this blog website over 2-1/2 years ago, in my first blog posts I wrote that the local people here in Dickinson were unfriendly, uncooperative, and hostile to people who came from out of state to work in Dickinson. I wrote that the local people here in Dickinson hate people from out of state, and anything that out of state people say to them, only makes them dislike out of state people more. I also wrote that the local people here in Dickinson, hate each other too.

I have lived in Dickinson for almost five years now, and it just continues to be demonstrated that the local people here are unfriendly, uncooperative, hateful, and hostile. Because of my experiences here, and what I have seen and observed in Dickinson, I would recommend to people from out of state, to not get involved in Dickinson.

I recommend to people from out of state who come to work in Dickinson, to plan on having as little involvement in Dickinson as possible. I understand moving to Dickinson to work. Due to the oil boom, there were higher paying jobs with more overtime hours, than other places in the United States. I came from Idaho to work in Dickinson.

When I first came to Dickinson to work in 2011, I just planned on making money, saving money, and returning to my home in Idaho. When being hired at my first job in Dickinson, my employer had told me and another man from Montana, that the company would provide housing for us. I had bought a truck camper to put on my truck before I drove to Dickinson, so I just stayed in my truck camper on the company property at first. My local Dickinson co-workers, began complaining to the company that it was not right or fair for the company to provide housing for me and the other out of state worker. It would not have harmed or cost my local Dickinson co-workers anything, for the company to provide housing for me and the other out of state worker. However, my local Dickinson co-workers complaining because they were hateful, hostile, unfriendly, and uncooperative, caused the company to not provide housing like they had said they would when I was being hired.

Next, my local Dickinson co-workers began complaining that it was not right for me and the other out of state worker to be able to stay in a camper on the company property, for free. I explained to my local co-workers when they complained about me staying in my camper on the company property, “I have a home like you do, but my home is in another state. I have to pay all the same housing bills as you do, house payments, property tax, home insurance, and utilities, for my home in Idaho. I don’t want or need two homes. I can’t afford to pay for two homes.”

I found out at the first company that I worked for in Dickinson, and at the second company that I worked for in Dickinson, that the local people hate people from out of state. Anything you say, or anything that they find out about you, just makes them hate you more. Even saying something innocuous, just makes them hate you more. Anything you say, or anything you tell them, they will spend all day trying to figure out how to use it against you.

After everything that I have experienced in Dickinson for the five years that I have lived here, I need to warn out of state workers, to plan before you ever arrive in Dickinson, to have as little to do as possible with your local Dickinson co-workers, and have as little involvement as possible in Dickinson. The more that people find out about you in Dickinson, the more problems you will have. The more that you become involved in Dickinson, the more problems you will have.

At the first company that I worked for in Dickinson, my employer asked me what I thought about Dickinson. I knew what he was getting at, he wanted to know if I was planning on staying in Dickinson. I said the only positive thing that I could think of, I said that I thought it was nice that Dickinson had a lot of undeveloped land and was not over crowded. However, what I was thinking in my mind, was that I was not about to try to stay in Dickinson. The least expensive old one bedroom apartments rented for $1,500 per month if you could even find one available, and it would be in a wretched building and a bad neighborhood. I was not about to sell my quiet peaceful home in Idaho on five acres, in order to buy a horrible shitty townhome in a bad neighborhood in Dickinson for $120,000.

What employers and local co-workers were always trying to find out, was how invested and how trapped were you going to become in Dickinson. The employers and local co-workers knew that the out of state workers would have to pay 400% to 500% more than they did for housing, and they really enjoyed this. The local people in Dickinson are hateful and hostile to out of state workers, and they actually enjoyed and took satisfaction in knowing that the out of state workers were being taken advantage of tremendously on housing. The employers and local co-workers were very interested in finding out what your plans were. They wanted to find out if you were going to stay, they enjoyed finding out how much you had to pay for housing, and they wanted to determine how financially burdened and how trapped you were becoming.

Any hesitation or resistance that an out of state worker showed to becoming committed to paying for extremely high housing, was seen by employers and local co-workers as an indication that a worker was not planning on staying, and they didn’t like it. They didn’t like it because you might be planning on quitting your job and leaving Dickinson, and they didn’t like it because you deprived them of the satisfaction of being taken advantage of by the local people, one of them.

I recommend to out of state workers, and I have been recommending this for the past 2-1/2 years, do not buy a home in Dickinson at this time. The home prices are still very high. The oil boom is over. The number of oil field jobs may stay roughly the same, or there may be a decrease in oil field jobs. There are a tremendous number of newly completed apartments in Dickinson, and the occupancy rates at these new apartments is below 50%. Housing prices will continue to decline, home prices will continue to decline. Do not buy a house in Dickinson now, because in two years houses in Dickinson could easily be worth 20% to 50% less. Also, you face the possibility of not being able to sell your house in Dickinson.

I saw that the employers in Dickinson and the local co-workers were interested in what the out of state workers were going to do for housing, because they enjoyed finding out how bad the out of state workers were being gouged by the local people, and they were looking forward to the out of state workers becoming trapped here. The employers wanted the out of state workers to get into an expensive housing lease or mortgage, so that they would have no choice, they would be stuck here and have to work for them. The employers were also looking forward to the out of state workers getting into an expensive lease or mortgage, being stuck here, having to work for them, and then employers being able to drop the pay rates.

When I found an inexpensive and stable place to live in Dickinson, I brought over from Idaho, two extra trucks, two equipment trailers, and equipment to begin doing self employed construction work in Dickinson. I later regretted doing this. I was again taught the lesson to have as little involvement as possible in Dickinson.

My landlord became more difficult and disagreeable, once he saw that I had so much equipment and property here in Dickinson, that I could not easily leave, that I was stuck here. When I started moving my equipment back to Idaho in preparation for moving out, my landlord changed his behavior immediately. I regretted becoming invested in Dickinson, trying to do business here, bringing vehicles, equipment, and personal property here, then a local person knowing my situation, thinking that I was stuck here, and then trying to take advantage.

When I had to re-buy $800 worth of equipment that I had just taken back to Idaho, from a local equipment dealer in Dickinson that I bought this equipment from last year, the local business owner was incredibly shitty to me. A few days ago when I was talking to another local business owner, who I had bought a generator from, this local business owner was also incredibly shitty to me. I regretted doing business with these local business owners in Dickinson, and I regretted trying to operate my business in Dickinson.

When I began to think about my experiences here in Dickinson, I regretted just about every involvement in anything here in Dickinson. Going out to eat at restaurants, going out to bars, the staff are not friendly, and the customers are often very trashy and low class. Leaving restaurants and bars, the police in Dickinson are very aggressive in following people, hoping and trying to arrest them for something.

Public recreational places like Patterson Lake and the West River Community Center are often not good places to be, because of misbehaving people and hoodlums. Business owners that I have bought multiple pieces of equipment from have turned out to be very unappreciative and nasty. Co-workers that I have tried to be civil to have caused me problems. Local people that I have tried to be friends with, have shown to be unhelpful and greedy. People that I have helped, have been unappreciative and have caused me problems.

If I had good sense, I would follow my own advice, and try to have as little involvement as possible in Dickinson. Don’t go to restaurants and bars in Dickinson. Don’t go to locally owned businesses in Dickinson. Try to spend as little money as possible in Dickinson. Pay as little as possible for housing in Dickinson, don’t get on a lease, and don’t buy a house. Don’t go anywhere, stay at home, and only go to WalMart when you need something. Try to save as much money as possible so that you can leave Dickinson and have a normal life elsewhere one day.

A Local Reader’s Reply To My Blog Posts About Dickinson, North Dakota

April 27, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what do local people think about Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, what local people say about Dickinson North Dakota, what out of state workers need to know about Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I have copied and pasted a local reader’s comment to one of my blog posts about employment and Catholics in Dickinson, North Dakota:

First of all, I did not say that your facts about how many jobs posted was incorrect. I meant your facts about me, my family, and my life. Second of all, here is another example where you need to open up that closed mind of yours. You are absolutely correct that it is not the same as it was in 2011-2014. But that does not mean that it is not picking up.

There is a big difference between then and now. At that time we had such a huge influx of people and no housing, that of course the hotels were full. Since then the housing market has caught up and more hotels have opened up, along with many people leaving when it slowed way down.

I don’t believe that job service has someone scouring the internet looking for jobs that have been posted. That would not be a good business practice. Again things have changed. Companies are holding job fairs, utilizing tv and radio, posting on social media.

I read your post to a business owner who says he won’t use job service. He had in the past and didn’t receive one application from there. It is starting to be an outdated service. Yes people network and of course they want someone they know to work along side them. This is something that happens everywhere not just Dickinson. In a different post, you complained about businesses in Watford City hiring lesbians. North Dakota is a right to work state and employers are not allowed to discriminate against you for your sexuality or religion. Also, in the end, a business owner is in it for the money, and will not hire someone they know if it is not a good business decision.

Alright and now the Catholics….. just let it go already. You are grouping so many people into your bs prejudice. Yes a very large part of the population here is Catholic. But they aren’t all out to get you.

You said something about how the settlers discouraged kids from higher education. This is not true. 99% of these people were farmers. The local schools went to 8th grade. Once you finished that, you were expected to help out at home. Many of these families had 10 plus children along with all the farm work. Mouths need to be fed and work needed to be done. Again things today are very different than they were 100 years ago.

Now about the housing prices going up, this is simple supply and demand. Anyone regardless of religion, race, sexuality, whatever would do the exact same thing. If people are willing to pay it, they will charge it. This would happen anywhere. There was also a comment about the Catholics having vacant land that could be used for low income housing or a homeless shelter. These people bought this land and it is theirs to use how they see fit. I highly doubt that anyone anywhere would just give up land so that apartments could be built. If you want to buy it that’s a different story. I assume you have a bed, why don’t you give it up to a homeless person tonight?

I wanted to post this reader’s comments, so that more people can read them. The reader spent some time putting her thoughts together in these comments. She wanted to express her point of view, and she wanted to disagree with many of the things that I wrote.

It would be useful for out of state workers who are considering moving to Dickinson, to read this local Dickinson woman’s comments.

There are just a few things that I want to explain to the author of the comments, Ali:

Yes, I have let a person in Dickinson that did not have a place to stay, stay where I live, when he did not have any money. Eventually when he did got a job, his rent was based on how much he could afford to pay. When his truck broke down, I let him borrow my new mountain bike, which he damaged, and I did not make him pay for it. Because he used the same shower and bathroom as me, I got athlete’s foot fungus from him. Helping people is sometimes inconvenient. His name was Mike.

Mike was Catholic. He went to Catholic Mass in Dickinson at least twice a week. He tried every Catholic Church in Dickinson, Richardton, and Belfield, and at each Catholic Church, the people were very unfriendly to him. I repeat, he went to every Catholic Church in Dickinson, Richardton, and Belfield, and at each Catholic Church, the people were very unfriendly to him.

At one Catholic Church service, the priest said, “Reach out and shake the hand of the person next to you in fellowship.” When Mike reached out to shake the hand of the woman next to him, she scowled at Mike and stepped back from him.

At my home in Idaho, I have let a person stay in my home without paying rent or paying utilities for several months, because he did not have any money to pay. It caused me some problems and inconvenience.

It does not hurt me financially to let people stay where I live, or stay in the home that I own. I would still have to pay insurance, property tax, and utilities anyway. I am not wealthy, and I don’t have a high income, yet I was willing and able to help others. Besides the Biblical teaching “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, there is the common wise saying, “There but for the grace of God, go I”, which means, the same thing can happen to you.

Many of the property owners in Dickinson are financially well off, and their properties were long ago paid for. They could have charged reasonable rent, or increased their rent by 100%. The rent increases of 400% to 500%, are what the Bible refers to as “usury”. “Usury” is lending money at interest, but as it is used in the Bible, it means any manner of taking advantage of others financially.

The Catholics in Dickinson committed Usury, a very bad sin, and no amount of denying it, or trying to justify it, changes the fact that it was Usury.

Answering A Reader’s Questions About Employment And Catholics In Dickinson, North Dakota

April 27, 2017UncategorizedCatholic Church in Dickinson North Dakota, Catholics in Dickinson North Dakota, employment in Dickinson North Dakota, getting a job in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, work slow down in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

A reader who lives in Dickinson, has left a couple of comments to my blog posts, and she disagrees with most of what I write about Dickinson. This does not surprise me at all.

To summarize the indicators that the oil boom is over in Dickinson, that there is a work slow down, and that employment is way down:

The busiest time for hiring in Dickinson, is March, April, and May, just before the spring, summer, and fall work season. From Friday April 14 through the end of the day on Friday April 21, there were a total of seven new jobs posted for Dickinson on the North Dakota Job Service website. Seven new jobs! In 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, there would have been a total of about thirty to forty new jobs posted for Dickinson on the North Dakota Job Service website during a one week period in April. (Note: North Dakota Job Service receives job notices from employers, and places job announcements, but, they also go and search several other job posting services and import those job advertisements into their system, to include these job announcements as well.)
For the period from April 1 through the end of the day on April 21, there were only five new job listings posted for Dickinson on the website CareerBuilder. Five new job listings, for the entire month! In April, the busiest hiring month in Dickinson! In 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, there would have been about thirty to forty new job listings posted on the CareerBuilder website for Dickinson during the first three weeks of April.
Today, I looked on the international oil industry website Rigzone. On Rigzone, there were twenty-three job listings for Williston, six for Dickinson, and three for Killdeer. A total of thirty-two job listings on Rigzone for all of North Dakota. In 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, there were usually sixty to eighty jobs listings on Rigzone for North Dakota in April.
The job posting websites Indeed.com and Monster.com have much fewer job listings for Dickinson than they did in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
In Dickinson, during the months of March, April, and May, in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, the underground utility locating company ELM would have to place repeating job advertisements every other week in order to hire and train enough underground utility locators to respond to all the construction locate requests. This year, in March and April, I have not seen one job advertisement from ELM locating.
In Dickinson, during the months of March, April, and May, in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, all the oil field service companies would place job advertisements, companies like Timberline/Liberty, Weatherford, Steier, Bob’s, Key, Titan, SM, Champ, K&R. So far this year in March and April, I saw one job advertisement from Steier, and no job advertisements from these other oil field service companies.
The three Family Fare grocery stores and WalMart in Dickinson, went from staying open 24 hours per day, to closing at night in 2015, because they no longer had enough business to stay open 24 hours per day.
At the Theodore Roosevelt Airport in Dickinson, they went from having two airlines, United and Delta, each making two flights per day out of Dickinson, down to one airline, with currently only about twenty-five passengers per day out of Dickinson. The one remaining airline, United, tried to cease operations in Dickinson in approximately 2016, but they were forced to stay by the Federal government enforcing an “essential air services” regulation.
The newly completed hotels in Dickinson, went from sometimes having no vacancies in 2010 and 2011 at $180 per night, to where they now have 80% vacancy at $60 per night.

To explain what the Catholics have done in Dickinson:

The homesteaders that settled Dickinson in the late 1800s, they were German and Ukranian Catholics. The Catholic Church was the main cultural and societal influence in Dickinson, from the beginning. The Catholic Church did not teach, encourage, or foster, the teachings of Jesus Christ, such as “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you”, “So as you do to the least of my people, so do you unto me”, and “What profiteth a man that he gain the whole world, let lose his soul? And, what shall he give in exchange for his soul”. Instead, the Catholic Church taught hatred, hostility, unfriendliness, and it fostered jealousy and greed.
In order to maintain its control, and in order to help its henchmen maintain control over people, the Catholic Church in Dickinson discouraged higher education, and tried to make the people in Dickinson fear and mistrust higher education. The Catholic Church did not want people to read the Bible for themselves, interpret, and understand the Bible for themselves, lest they find out that what the Catholics were doing was evil. With a lack of education, people in Dickinson could not get ahead, learn about other places, learn about new things, and they would continue to be trapped in Dickinson, unable and not knowing how to escape.
The Catholic Church encouraged and fostered the people here to be hateful, unfriendly, uncooperative, jealous, and greedy. When a neighbor was having difficulty, this was not taught as a time to help him, this was taught as a time to withhold help. A neighbor failing, dying, or moving away, was the opportunity to seize his land and his possessions.
Only with the one hundred years of teaching and fostering hatred and greed by the Catholic Church, would prepare these evil Catholics in Dickinson to begin raising rent and housing prices by 400% to 500%. All Christians are supposed to help their fellow man, and do unto others as you would have them to do unto you, but in Dickinson they had been taught nothing but evil!
The Catholics, the Catholic Church, and the Catholic associations in Dickinson, made plans to not allow the great abundance of vacant land in Dickinson, to be used for affordable housing, or housing for the homeless.
The Catholics collude in every way possible, how to take advantage of the out of state workers.
The Catholics collude in every way possible, how to manipulate, connive, and scheme to advance themselves, and hinder, undermine, and impede others.

What this local native from Dickinson wrote in her comment to my blog post, was that it was inaccurate for me to cite the few job postings on North Dakota Job Service and CareerBuilder, because the local employers weren’t posting their jobs there.

Yes! Yes! I have seen this before in Dickinson, North Dakota! For employment with the City of Dickinson Police Department, and Dickinson State University, they don’t post their job opening in the local newspaper, North Dakota Job Service, CareerBuilder, Monster.com, or Indeed.com, they post it where no one can find it, except for the people that they personally tell!

Sometimes, the people who work at City offices, County offices, or State offices in Dickinson, they don’t want to post a job opening where people can see it, they don’t want to have a bunch of highly qualified applicants. They want to tell their fellow Catholics, their brother, their uncle, their nephew, where they have hidden the job posting, so that no one else can find it and apply. They don’t want people with relevant job experience and relevant education applying, they want their inexperienced and uneducated relative to get the job!

Only Seven Jobs Posted This Week On North Dakota Job Services In Dickinson

April 22, 2017Uncategorizedavailability of jobs in Dickinson North Dakota, Catholics in Dickinson North Dakota, economy in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, oil boom in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what are the people like in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

On Friday April 21, I received a comment to one of my blog posts from a 31 year old local woman in Dickinson, North Dakota. This woman was from a local family that had lived in Dickinson for several generations. She had graduated from the private Catholic Trinity High School in Dickinson. She later married a man who came to Dickinson from out of state to work here during the oil boom, and she later became divorced from him, though he still lives here in Dickinson.

I could not find a woman who is a more perfect representation of local women in Dickinson, coming from a family who has lived here for several generations, being Catholic, and having graduated from Trinity High School, and making the comment, “The oilfield is not dying it’s picking up. Companies can’t find enough workers to fill all the open positions.”

No matter how many articles I write exposing the lies and misinformation in Dickinson, North Dakota, that are spread in attempt to lure people here to take advantage of them, the local people persist in spreading these lies and misinformation. “This oil boom is going to last for the next twenty years.” “Everyone is making $100,000 per year in the oil field.” And, “The oilfield is not dying it’s picking up. Companies can’t find enough workers to fill all the open positions.”

This week in Dickinson, North Dakota, for the entire week, from Friday of last week to the end of the day on Friday of this week, North Dakota Job Services posted a total of seven new jobs this week. Seven new jobs! For the entire week!

April is the busiest time of the year in Dickinson for new employment. Dickinson goes through a cold and snowy winter where a lot of outdoor work is postponed, and then there is a rush in April to hire workers for companies to get their work done in the Spring and Summer. In 2011 through 2013 in Dickinson, during the spring, there were typically thirty to forty new jobs posted each week on North Dakota Job Services. Then in 2014 through 2015, there were typically twenty to thirty new jobs posted each week on North Dakota Job Services. This week there were seven! A huge drop in new job postings!

It wasn’t just North Dakota Job Services in Dickinson. For the month of April 2017, for the entire month up until April 21 on the website CareerBuilder, there were only five new jobs posted for Dickinson, if you don’t include enlisting in the National Guard. Only five new jobs, for the entire month of April, on CareerBuilder for Dickinson!

Several years ago on the website CareerBuilder for Dickinson, North Dakota, there would have been approximately one hundred new jobs posted during the month of April. For most towns the size of Dickinson not any where near the oil field, these towns probably had more new jobs posted in April than Dickinson’s five new job postings.

The local Catholic people here keep lying to everyone to try to get them to come to Dickinson, North Dakota so that they can rip them off on housing, and try to take advantage of them with their evil schemes and plans. But people will quit coming once they find out that there are no jobs in Dickinson.

The businesses here in Dickinson will begin closing, one after another. The commercial warehouses and industrial buildings will become vacant. People will abandon their homes in order to get out of Dickinson. Then the Catholics will begin killing each other and practicing cannibalism. They will all get what is coming to them.

Don’t worry about me, I will leave before the cannibalism starts.

I Haven’t Seen Optimism And Hope For The Past Four Years In Dickinson, North Dakota

April 18, 2017UncategorizedLiving in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, oil boom in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, what was the oil boom like, working in Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I haven’t seen optimism and hope for the past four years in Dickinson, North Dakota. This has been a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual drain on me. The stress of living here has probably made me age by six years in the past three years.

In the Spring of 2011, when I first came to Dickinson, North Dakota, there was widespread hope and optimism in everyone, both in the local people and in the out of state workers. The oil boom began in North Dakota in about 2007. News of the oil boom did not become widespread across the United States until about 2010.

When I arrived in Dickinson in the Spring of 2011, the local people and the oil industry were saying that this oil boom was going to last for the next twenty years. The local people and the oil industry were saying that everyone was making $100,000 per year in the oil field.

People that arrived in Dickinson with old, beat up $1,000 vehicles, with only $50 in their pocket, were feeling on top of the world, because everything was going to change for them, right then. People that arrived in Dickinson with new vehicles, but were months behind on their payments, and had $30,000 in credit card debt, they were optimistic too, because they were going to be able to turn everything around, right then.

People that arrived in Dickinson in the Spring of 2011, were willing to sleep in their vehicles in WalMart parking lot, in the Tiger Truck Stop parking lot, or at Patterson Lake, because they thought that they would be making so much money, that it would be worth it.

At the bars in Dickinson in the summer of 2011 after work, there were hundreds of workers, and they were all bragging about their jobs, how much money they had made, or how much money they were going to make. I had very little difficulty in getting my first job and my second job in Dickinson in 2011. Both of my jobs had about 20 to 25 hours of overtime each week.

However, once six months had gone by, and it became winter, the optimism and enthusiasm went way down. There were less workers in the bars at night after work, and instead of bragging about work, the workers were complaining about work.

Even though most of the workers had been working a tremendous amount of overtime, and they were initially impressed with the amount of their weekly pay checks, they were no longer impressed. They weren’t becoming rich, not even close. So much money was taken out in taxes. So much money was spent on buying food and drinks at convenience stores that had to last ten to twelve hours at work, then going out to eat at night, and drinking at bars. There was so much eating out at restaurants and drinking at bars because many workers lived in small old campers with no water or sewer hook ups, in company parking lots. If a worker did have an apartment, it cost at least $1,500 per month, plus utilities.

In the winter of 2011, when the temperature became 0 degrees Fahrenheit, most of the workers were disgruntled. Workers could no longer sleep in their vehicles in WalMart parking lot, the Tiger Truck Stop, or Patterson Lake. Small old campers in company parking lots became very cold and miserable to live in. The workers had not become rich over the previous six or seven months, they had saved only a few thousand dollars in most cases. They couldn’t see signing a one year lease and spending $1,500 per month on a small old apartment, with a $250 per month electric bill. They didn’t want to be in North Dakota any more, working outside in below freezing weather.

This was the last time that I saw optimism and hope in Dickinson, North Dakota. By the winter of 2011, most of the workers saw that they weren’t going to make $100,000 per year in the oil field. Even though many of them worked 12 hours per day, seven days a week, so much money was taken out in taxes, so much money was spent on food and drinks, so much money was spent on housing, there was not that much money left over. They were tired of working every day, being dirty and oily every day, eating convenience store food every day, and there being no women and no prostitutes. It was a miserable life, and not worth it.

After 2012, all the workers had the realization that they were being gouged on housing, there was a shortage of women, a lack of attractive women, no availability of prostitutes, nothing to do, no where to go, and the Dickinson police were trying to arrest everyone for DUI, when drinking was the only thing to do in Dickinson. No one wanted to be here, all of the optimism, hope, and enthusiasm was gone.

By 2013, none of the workers were under the illusion that they were going to become rich or make $100,000 per year. The only thing that Dickinson had to offer, was more availability of jobs, with slightly higher pay than the states where the workers came from. This was offset by a much much higher cost of housing, and there being no where to go, and nothing to do in Dickinson. There was no optimism, hope, or enthusiasm, the workers just did their “time”, the same as if they were in prison.

The Mood Right Now In Dickinson, North Dakota

April 18, 2017Uncategorizedeconomy in Dickinson North Dakota, information about Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, oil boom over in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, the mood in Dickinson North Dakota, what are people in Dickinson North Dakota like, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

Right now, it is the middle of April 2017. After a long and cold winter, it appeared that it was going to warm up, and the sun was going to come out. This past week, I tried several times to sit out in the sun on the back porch wearing shorts and no shirt, in order to try to get a tan. I look better and I feel better when I have a sun tan. Even though the clouds came, the wind picked up every day, and the temperature sometimes dropped into the 50s during the day, I still got a tan.

Through the winter, I had been going to the West River Community Center several times each week to walk and run the indoor track. In between laps, or after all my laps were completed, I would do six sets of pull ups, sit ups, or push ups. My physical condition is about the same or better than it was when I was 10 years old, 16 years old, or 26 years old. Sometimes I do feel physically older though, partly because I am heavier, and partly because I have less energy.

Because it is Spring, because I have been exercising and my health is good, and because I don’t have a wife or any children, I feel about the same as when I was 10 years old, 16 years old, or 26 years old. I am looking forward to riding my mountain bike, going kayaking, and going to the beach.

Sometimes at night I go to a bar or restaurant in Dickinson in order to get out of the house where I live in Dickinson. The owner of the house is about twelve years older than me, but he acts like he is in his eighties because his attitude, outlook, mental health, and physical health is so bad. His complaining, whining, drinking, and acting like an old man starts to suck the life right out of me, and I have to get away.

I feel much better when I leave the house at night to go somewhere. However, my good mood in getting out of the house, and it being Spring, is brought down when I get to where I am going in Dickinson. I was used to everyone being in a glum mood this winter because it was so cold and grey. For the past couple of weeks, when the weather has been much nicer, when I met people that were in a bad mood, I attributed it to these people having problems.

However, for the past week, when I have gone to a particular bar and restaurant, I have noticed that everyone, both the employees and the customers, are in a bad mood. I have met some high school girls, some young women that recently got engaged, some that recently got married, and some that recently got divorced, and they are all in a bad mood. I am sick of all these women being in a bad mood, and being no fun at all.

I know some of these women, and every one of them seems like their problems overwhelm them. Both the customers and the employees, the young women and the older women, seem like their problems have eliminated any fun, joy, and happiness in their lives. What they have in common, is that they all appear to be scared. They appear to be scared about money and employment.

They are scared about money and employment, regarding themselves, their boyfriends, their fiancees, their husbands, and their ex-husbands. They have on their mind, are they going to stay at the job they have now, are they going to make enough money, will they lose their job, will their hours be cut, will they stay in the same apartment, will they lose their apartment, will they leave Dickinson, will their boyfriend, fiancee, or husband leave Dickinson to work elsewhere?

I have known, and have been writing for a year and a half, that the oil boom is over in Dickinson, North Dakota. I have been writing for a year and a half, what the history of oil booms in North Dakota has been. The oil booms last for about seven years, then they go away for about twenty-five years. I have described over and over again, that the land owners and property owners gouged all of the out of state workers so bad on housing, raising housing prices 400% to 500%, that all of the out of state workers made up their minds that they were going to leave North Dakota as soon as the oil boom was over.

I guess that this prevailing bad mood in everyone in Dickinson now, is the realization in everyone that they are going to have enormous financial problems.

Imagine this, when everyone was employed in Dickinson, and working overtime, they went and rented the apartment they could afford, bought the house they could afford, bought the vehicle they could afford, and bought the jewelry or toys they could afford. They didn’t buy less than what they could afford, they spent up to the limit of what they could afford. Now when people have lost their job, or are working reduced hours, how are they going to pay for everything? What are they going to lose, and when?

Some of the people that are here now in Dickinson, moved here from Michigan, Oregon, or Idaho just a few years ago because they went broke or were nearly broke in the state where they came from. After two years of getting back on their feet financially a little bit at a time, they can now see their financial downfall coming again.

I am not in a bad mood now, because I have been angry and disgusted at Dickinson all along, for the past six years, ever since I first came here. I have written over three hundred blog posts complaining about Dickinson. Every time something bad happens to me in Dickinson, I write a blog post, sometimes two blog posts a day, and then I feel better. I saw all of this coming. In fact, something that cheers me up, and makes me want to stay in Dickinson, is the chance to see everyone in Dickinson get what is coming to them.

Why Do I Even Care About Children In Dickinson, North Dakota

April 17, 2017Uncategorizedchildren in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, parents in Dickinson North Dakota, raising children in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

In my previous blog post, I wrote about my concern over not seeing children playing in Dickinson, North Dakota. I do see that about 10% to 15% of the families in Dickinson do sign their kids up for, and drop their kids off at soccer, hockey, basketball, swimming, baseball, and tennis. It is good that these families get their children involved in sports and activities. I would say that these same families probably keep close watch over how their kids are doing in school, and what they are doing after school.

Unfortunately, outside of the small percentage of children that get dropped off at after school athletic practice, I don’t see children playing anywhere in Dickinson. In my previous blog post, I gave many lists of reasons why children aren’t outside playing in Dickinson. To simplify the reasons, it comes down to the fact that mothers and fathers are struggling with time, money, and energy, and it is easier for them to have their children stay inside where nothing can happen to them, they won’t get hurt, and they won’t get into trouble.

However in Dickinson, this is the worst that I have ever seen things for children. One of the reasons why things may be the worst for children, is probably because about half of the families with children have lived here for five years or less. These parents that moved here for the oil boom, they don’t have grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, for their children to spend time with and do activities with. Especially parents from the South, they probably don’t mix very well with the local people, and their children probably have some trouble in school getting along with local children.

That’s what is going on, but why do I care? In Dickinson, to put it politely, the adult local people here are the most hostile, unfriendly, uncooperative, unhelpful, narrow minded, ignorant, uneducated, primitive people that I have ever seen. I don’t want the local children to turn out like their parents. I don’t want the out of state children to grow up and be like the local people here.

I would like to see the children in Dickinson outside colonizing vacant lots and building forts with scavenged material and found junk. I would like to see them building tree houses. I would like to see them outside exploring drainage ditches, canals, old barns, old bridges, and woods. I would like to see them using their imagination, following their curiosity, developing an appreciation for adventure, enjoying exploring new things. Knowing that it is O.K. to have fun, to have adventure, to dream and use their imagination.

I don’t want the children here to turn out like their parents, kept down, kept ignorant, kept uneducated, scared of everything new, scared to try anything new, and sour about everything that is new, foreign, or unfamiliar. The adult local people in Dickinson remain fixed in their ways partly because of their own fear, and partly out of being conditioned to reject education, new ideas, and new ways of doing things.

Some examples:

I met a local man in his 70s, who was walking for exercise in the T-Rex Mall, which is about 150 feet long and 25 feet wide inside. I talked to him about the West River Community Center which has an indoor lap track that is 1,000 feet long. I explained that there are many older people who go there to exercise, to walk the track, to use the indoor pool, to use all the different kinds of exercise equipment. This older gentleman was just too scared to go to the West River Community Center. I know two other older local men, one 60 years old, and one 66 years old, and they are both too scared to go to the West River Community Center, even though they are both lonely and interested in meeting women.
I know more than several local people in Dickinson who are very interested in history and rodeo, but they have never been to the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora, some of them have never even heard of it. I explained that the downstairs is a museum of North Dakota history, with old photographs, old tools, old clothes, old firearms, and old wagons. They are interested, but they are too scared to go, even though it is only about fifty miles to the west on the interstate.
I have met several local people who never learned how to swim. They would like to go boating on Patterson Lake or the Missouri River, but they have never been boating in their life. They believe that if they were even fishing from the bank on Patterson Lake, they would drown if they fell in. They probably would, because they are so scared of drowning and swimming is such a mystery to them that they can’t understand how to do it.
I hired a local person to come to work with me in Watford City. This local person is almost 60 years old, and he has lived in Dickinson his whole life. The last time he had been through Watford City was about ten years ago, though he had been to Watford City many times in his life. The town of Watford City is about 1/2 mile wide by 1/2 mile long, with about 10,000 people. In the first week, he got lost three times in Watford City, once while he was following me. Twice he became very upset because he was so disoriented and confused. One of these times I was able to give him directions on the phone, the other time I had to go and get him.
A very good location for fishing, camping, and getting away from people is Cedar Dam Reservoir which is about six miles south of New England. There is a sign for Cedar Dam Reservoir on Highway 22. This would be an excellent place for high school students to take their girlfriends, because there is hardly ever anyone there, and there are miles of places to park on public land. I asked one of the wildest New England girls if she had been to Cedar Dam Reservoir, and she had never heard of it, or been there. I asked many local people who fish, if they had been to Cedar Dam Reservoir, some of them have never heard of it, most of them have never been there, though it is only about 35 miles south of Dickinson off Highway 22.

In the examples that I gave above, I was trying to explain that I have only lived in Dickinson for less than five years, but I have been many places not far from Dickinson, that lifelong residents of Dickinson have never been to, or even heard of. This should not be. They have been brought up and conditioned to believe that what they know, is all they need to know, they don’t need to know anything else. That what they don’t know, is not worth knowing. They have also been brought up and conditioned to not go looking for anything else, there is nothing else, and they need to stay right where they are, or something bad will happen.

The point of this blog post, was to explain that I don’t want children in Dickinson to be scared or unaccustomed to getting out, exploring, playing, having fun, taking risks, seeking adventure, and trying new things. I don’t want them to turn out like the adult local people here.

Concern About Children In Dickinson, North Dakota

April 16, 2017Uncategorizedchildren in Dickinson North Dakota, children's activities in Dickinson North Dakota, Dickinson Parks & Recreation, fathers in Dickinson North Dakota, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, mothers in Dickinson North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, parents in Dickinson North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, summer programs for children in Dickinson North Dakota, things to do in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Likename withheld

Approximately one year ago, I wrote a blog post titled “Children Do Not Play In Dickinson, North Dakota.” In that blog post I wrote that I hardly ever see children playing in Dickinson. I don’t see them in the street, in their yards, or in their neighborhoods throwing balls, rocks, frisbees, boomerangs, or spears. I don’t see them riding bicycles, jumping ramps, building ramps, building forts, or building tree houses. I don’t see them walking to convenience stores or grocery stores to buy candy or soda.

I wondered why I don’t see children playing, like children used to play when I was a kid. I will give a few reasons that I could think of why children don’t play in Dickinson:

Both the mother and father work, and they have instructed their children, “Come straight home after school, get off the school bus and go right in the house, do not leave the house, do not go outside, do not break anything, do not get hurt. Your mother and father can’t leave work to respond to an emergency, so don’t make us lose our jobs.”
The mother and father are struggling financially, they are very scared of hospital and medical bills, and they are always telling their children, “Get out of that tree, don’t climb that tree, get off the roof, get down from the roof, you stay away from that river, you stay away from that lake, get out of the street, don’t play in the street, stay away from those kids, I don’t want you playing with those kids, I don’t want you riding your bicycle, I don’t want you playing football……We can’t afford for you to get hurt.”
I have seen some parents, especially women, that think everything their children do is a nuisance, and they try to eliminate everything, “I don’t want you making a mess, I don’t want you getting dirty, I don’t want you ruining your clothes, I don’t want you getting hurt, I don’t want to take you there, I don’t want to come and get you, I don’t want you going over there, I don’t want them coming over here, I can’t afford that, we don’t have the money for that, I’m not wasting money on that.”

There is a small percentage of families in Dickinson, where the parents think that it is important for their children to do things, and they are able to spend some money on their children, and they have the time to drop their kids off and pick them up from cub scouts, boy scouts, girl scouts, soccer practice, swimming practice, hockey practice, tennis lessons, or music lessons. Maybe 10% to 15% of families in Dickinson do this with their children.

I feel bad for the other 85% of children in Dickinson, that stay inside, mostly because they are instructed to do so by their parents. As I already described in the numbered lists above, their parents don’t want them getting hurt or getting into any kind of trouble.

At the West River Community Center in Dickinson, which is one of the nicest gym facilities in the United States, 10% to 15% of the parents in Dickinson drop their kids off for swimming practice, basketball practice, or hockey practice. About another 10% of the families in Dickinson encourage their children to go to the West River Community Center on their own. But this still leaves about 75% of the children in Dickinson staying inside at home.

I am concerned about 75% of the children in Dickinson staying inside at home. This is not good for a number of reasons. They are not getting enough exercise, they are not developing strength, stamina, agility, balance, confidence, and learning their own abilities. I don’t think that things should be like this, especially because Dickinson has so much open space.

In many areas of the country, they used to have summer programs. Some summer programs were organized and sponsored by the Parks & Recreation Department, some were sponsored by churches, and some were “Outward Bound” programs.

Before any readers start complaining, “They already have the cub scouts, girl scouts, boy scouts, and little league baseball in Dickinson”, you have got to remember that only 10% to 15% of families in Dickinson participate in these organizations, for various reasons. Some of the reasons for non-participation include the requirement/expectation to be at every meeting/practice, penalization for not being at meetings/practice, competitiveness, politics, favoritism, and lack of enjoyment by non-athletic children.

I am concerned about the 75% of children in Dickinson that stay inside at home, and are not participating in scouts, team sports, lessons, or the West River Community Center. I want to talk about the possibilities for other summer programs.

This past summer, I was having a discussion with a well known Dickinson musician named “Boston Steve”, who is in his sixties, and moved here from Portland, Maine in 2014 with his wife Melissa. I was talking about Patterson Lake, and how nice it was that Dickinson has this lake right in the city. Boston Steve said, that he had to proposed to some people, having about ten Sunfish sailboats at Patterson Lake to teach kids how to sail in the summer. He said that he would volunteer for free, if someone would provide the boats. I thought that this was an excellent idea.

When Boston Steve was a kid, and when I was kid, I used to go sailing quite often. Sometimes on larger boats with other people, but also by myself on two-person boats. These were some of the best times in my life. On a nice warm day as a kid, I could not wait to get to the water, to put the mast, rudder, and centerboard on a boat, to wade out into the water with it, to jump in, and silently and effortlessly take off going 5 mph to 10 mph, without having to peddle or paddle!

Boston Steve was not an uptight asshole, a drill sergeant, or a coach like some youth activity directors. All he was talking about was having kids sign up, giving them all swimming lessons, and having every one of them wear life jackets. Teaching them in a friendly manner, knowing that all the kids couldn’t wait to get in the water and get in a boat. And at first, not allowing anyone to go past the rope line and buoys. He would not have had many demands, rules, or expectations. It was for fun, not a competition.

The sailing would not have to cost the kids or their families anything. It would be nice if a city transit bus, or another transit service could pick the kids up and drop them off.

If you can have a sailing class for kids in the summer, you can also have a horseback riding class in the summer, and also a hiking class on local buttes. Every week, the hiking class could climb a different local butte.

The Dickinson Summer Outdoor Recreation Program Schedule could be:

Mon. 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon……….Kids Rock Climbing Wall Class at WRCC

Tue. 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon…………Kids Sailing Class at Patterson Lake

Wed. 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon……….Kids Horseback Riding Class at Fairgrounds

Thu. 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon…………Kids Sailing Class at Patterson Lake

Fri. 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m……………….*Kids Butte Climb (new location each week)

Sat. 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon…………..*Kids Mountain Bike (new location each week)

*Parents welcome to climb or ride along.

What would the costs be? Let us say that each class requires two WRCC personnel, in addition to an unpaid volunteer or two. 14 hours of classes x 2 employees x $30/ hour = $840 per week. (I use $30 to account for the wage, plus payroll taxes, plus workers comp., plus overhead). 12 weeks x $840 = $10,080. This is the labor cost for the summer.

What do the horses cost? Could someone provide 6 to 8 horses with saddles for two hours, once a week for $500? 12 week x $500 = $6,000.

What do the Sunfishes or equal cost? Used ones, about $500 to $1,000 each. 10 x $800 avg. each = $8,000 one time cost. Twenty-five life jacket = $1,000 one time cost.

What do the Mountain Bikes and BMX Bikes cost? They cost just about nothing if you take what the City of Dickinson Police Department has in lost and stolen bicycles. I have bought five of these bicycles for $25 each, and they don’t cost a lot to fix. There are about fifty for sale at the Dickinson Public Auction each summer. The inmates at the jail could fix them. Tires, tubes, and twenty five helmets = $1,000.

Of course, of course there has to be liability insurance to cover the liability of Rock Climbing Wall class, Sailing class, Horseback Riding Class, Butte Hiking class, and Mountain Bike riding class. What would this insurance cost be, $10,000 each summer?

Labor Cost……………$10,080

Horses…………………..$6,000

Bicycles………………..$1,000

Insurance……………..$10,000

Total = $27,080 per summer

The sailboats and life jackets would be a one time cost of $9,000.

Where does the money come from, this $27,000 per summer? Many activities in Dickinson, such as the downtown summer concerts, raise more money than this through donations and sponsors.

The Theodore Roosevelt Airport, West River Community Center, WRCC Hockey Center, Beisiot Activities Center, St. Joseph’s Hospital, other facilities, and projects were funded through private donations. It should be a goal of the Dickinson Parks & Recreation Department, to seek to create a charitable trust with the help of private individuals, to permanently fund summer recreation programs for children in Dickinson. Old people like children, they don’t have anything against the poor little children. Just a $1 million endowment, could permanently fund a $30,000 summer program. But you would continue to seek donations to keep growing this fund.

I Am Going To Be The Proudest Person In Dickinson, North Dakota

April 13, 2017Uncategorizedblack people in Dickinson North Dakota, black people needed in Dickinson North Dakota, good places for black people to move, Living in Dickinson, North Dakota, Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, relocating to Dickinson North Dakota, what are people like in Dickinson North Dakota, what is Dickinson North Dakota Like, would you move to Dickinson North Dakotaname withheld

I am going to be the proudest person in Dickinson, North Dakota. Who would have thought that I would end up having the greatest and longest lasting success in Dickinson? Who would have thought that I could permanently change Dickinson for the better, and help tens of thousands of people?

On Tuesday of this week, my website was viewed by 1,102 people, on that day alone. This is pretty good readership. I was happy about this. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. I am getting the truth out about Dickinson. I am exposing the bad things in Dickinson. Slowly but surely, Dickinson is going to change, the more people that discover what is going on.

However, in addition to getting the truth out about Dickinson, I have found a more powerful way to change Dickinson for the better, and for ever. There have been three oil booms in Dickinson, the 1950s, the late 1970s, and the late 2000s. Despite thousands of workers from all over the United States coming to work in Dickinson during the oil booms, they didn’t change anything.

The early German and Ukranian settlers that homesteaded in western North Dakota in the early 1900s, had the Catholic Church as their main cultural and societal influence. Hatred, hostility, unfriendliness, mistrust, lack of cooperation, and lack of education was fostered, supported, and encouraged in western North Dakota. When there wasn’t an oil boom going on, the local people were not friendly, helpful, or cooperative with each other, and they looked upon someone else failing as satisfying, gratifying, and an opportunity to take advantage. When there wasn’t an oil boom going on, the local employers paid very low wages deliberately so that the local people could not afford to protest their mistreatment, get ahead, get an education, or get out of North Dakota.

When there was an oil boom, many of the local people, especially the land owners, property owners, and real estate agents, had no morals and no ethics in taking advantage of the out of state workers tremendously. Though there is more vacant unoccupied barren grassland outside of Dickinson than almost anywhere else in the United States, and absolutely no reason there could not be affordable housing, the local networks of Catholics conspired to create a shortage of affordable housing in order to raise housing prices by 400% to 500%.

I could point out every day, that the Catholic Church and the Catholic School in Dickinson fosters and teaches the belief that they are “better” than non-Catholics, that they are “better” and “good” in comparison to the out of state workers, and that they are entitled and have the right to take advantage of the non-Catholics and the out of state workers. I could point out every day the network of Catholics in Dickinson in political office, in every City of Dickinson administrative office and department, in law enforcement, fire department, judicial system, school system, business association, chamber of commerce, board of directors, and private company management and ownership, that seeks to promote, benefit, favor, and advance local Catholics, and to hinder, obstruct, and not advance non-Catholics and out of state workers. I could point this out, but this will not change things in Dickinson very quickly.

How I can change Dickinson for the better, and change it for ever, is to persuade as many black men as possible to move to Dickinson and impregnate as many women as possible, as quickly as possible. In this way, the heirs to the land, property, and businesses in Dickinson will be these black children. The Catholic Church will lose its control over the people in Dickinson. The greedy, hostile, uncooperative white men and women who own and control land, property, and businesses in Dickinson will lose their control over the people in Dickinson. The overwhelming number of black children will then grow up and take over Dickinson.

The culture in Dickinson will change as these black children grow up. Instead of having short, fat, pale, cankle-calved, mean women, the black mixture will make the women taller, leaner, tanner, friendlier, and more rational. The restaurants will improve, and there will be more variety in restaurants. The character of Dickinson will become more relaxed, friendlier, and less mean, hostile, and uncooperative.

As Dickinson becomes more like New Orleans or Chicago with a majority black population, then Dickinson will be less primitive and more civilized than it is now, and safer for out of state workers to move to.