Badlands 2009

Badlands 2009

Badlands 2009

I finally found the cable for my camera. Now I can show you some pics from this years Badlands trip.

There are few places on this earth that are as spiritual to me as this area of the Badlands in ND.

Everytime I'm there the thought crosses my mind that it might be the last time and everytime I leave I can only think about the next time.

Absolutely beautiful.

Redundant

I can't get enough of this song.

It makes me happy and sad... sad mostly. Reminds me how short life is, not that I need to be reminded because I think about it often.

Hope you all are well.

___________________



No, I'm not colorblind
I know the world is black and white
Try to keep an open mind
But I just can't sleep on this tonight

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

Don't know how else to say it
Don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away
From fighting life out on my own

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say that life has just begun

Had a talk with my old man
Said "help me understand"
He said "turn sixty-eight
You renegotiate"

"Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
And don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly we'll never stop this train"

Once in awhile, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
Till you cry when you're driving away in the dark
Singing

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can
Cause now I see I'll never stop this train

Got Land?

If you are in the market for some land in good ol' North Dakota check this out.

I know the sellers personally. This is a great investment if your investment portfolio includes land.

If you know anyone who might be interested please pass this on.

Thanks.

North Dakota Hunting Land For SALE

http://ndhuntingland.blogspot.com/

CO

I have Colorado on my mind. I'm want to go back already. I simply can't get enough of those mountains and just being in CO.
I've also been wasting a lot of time (relatively, actually only about an hour total) the past week looking at/for Harleys. Daydreaming about the day I can actually get one. I wouldn't have time to ride one right now if I had one anyway... but that's not going to stop me from putting in a lowball offer on one today on ebay anyway!!! I'll know by Thursday if I'm the proud owner of a new Harley and on death row in my house via A.

On the way home Aug. 3 we went through Spearfish, SD which is only 17 miles from Sturgis. I haven't ever seen so many bikes and bikers in one place. It looked like a lot of fun and I will partake in that event one of these years to come.
After Spearfish we stopped at this little gas stop/convenience shack that looks like something out of the movie Dusk till Dawn. I have actually joked to A about how there is probably a pile of cars just over the side of the hill of all the naive travelers who have stopped. This place is in the absolute middle of nowhere and there usually isn't any cars parked in the lot - and there wasn't this time either. BUT, this time we had to stop because McK had to use the "potty".

It was a very pleasant experience and the ladies working there were very nice. I asked them how business was and they said sporadic. They told me that usually if one person stops and other people see the vehicle sitting out front, others will stop as well. I had parked our vehicle kind of in the back, so I went out and moved it to the front well within view of the highway. Sure enough, 3 more vehicles of people stopped and came in. I bought several items more than I needed just to support their cause and out of gratitude for the restroom. A had a turkey sandwich which was nothing fancy, but it was good she said.

Those of you who have travelled the lonely stretch between Bowman and Belle Fourche know the place I'm talking about and I would say you shouldn't be afraid to stop.

Here is some interesting history I found on the buttes and this place is right at the foot of the Buttes.

"CROW BUTTES - Crow Buttes located in Harding County, SD;at this point, was the scene of a bizzare battle between the Crow and the Sioux Indians in the summer of 1882. Sioux men ravaged a crow camp, destroying it. Crow warriors fled to the top of the buttes with the Sioux chasing them. Without water, the crow warriors died of thirst. Subsequently the nearby 'Canyon of the Skulls',to the northwest was filled with skeletons of the Sioux who died after contacting a fever from the Crows."

Stop This Train

So, I listened to this song for the third time since my last post. That makes a total of three times ever.

This song is amazing. I stumbled upon that song by pure luck and I'm so impressed with John Mayer that I want to start listening to him nearly all the time (again).

This song brings up a lot of emotion and I realize that it relates so much more to my last post than I originally thought.

Life is so damn short!

On a complete side note, I find it very interesting that all my posts revolve around music. Posting videos, commenting about how they make me feel... or something.

Better than my attempt at video blogging I guess :)

Dreaming with a broken heart

"See the thing is no one really knows what they have till its gone, and these things are so complicated, I mean we wake up one day and things are not the same..."

I saw the above quote as a response on a lyrics page for this song. I can't fully express the understanding and connection I feel with that statement in regard to life, but it's strong. It is something that I have realized before and tried to explain to a few others, but never this concise.

Sometimes it's not even waking up and realizing it. It's sitting at a stop light and having the realization that nothing and everything has changed. It's knowing that someone you love is dying. It's the moment you receive news that someone you cared about has unexpectedly died and they have been dead for hours and you didn't even know it. It's that moment you fully realize there are no guarantees in life and anything can happen at anytime - including your own mortality.

I guess the longer I live, the more I realize things have been the same since our grandparents were our age. The same problems with love and marriage. The same problems with kids and teenagers. The same problems with politics and taxes.

Life is interwoven with pain and happiness. We (or at least I always have) seem to think that everything is constantly evolving and the problems we have now are so different than anytime before.

Sometimes I wonder how much control we really have over our own fate. Sometimes it seems like you step off the tracks of one train and on to the tracks of another. Eventually one of these trains is going to hit us.

The worst of it is when you can see the train coming and no matter how hard you try to get off the tracks, all you can do is run down them, away from a train that's moving 5 times faster than you can run.

Don't be alarmed, I'm not relating to anything in particular here. Just past observations/realizations.

Anyway, this is a really good song. John Mayer is an awesome writer and musician.

I know you rider

This is a great song.

Awesome cover, I like it as much as the original by the Greatful Dead.

This song is served best on a warm Sept./Oct. day on a rural gravel road in Southwestern ND or a fall day in the mountains anywhere.

The Morels

My dad and I had a great day on Sunday.
132 Morels in about 2 hours.

One thing that I really enjoy about this state is the opportunities available to live off the land.

By the way, Morels grow pretty much throughout the US, and NOW is the time to find them. Most of you still have a few days to a week left I would imagine.

They are a fantastic tasting mushroom that sells for about $20 a pound at your local co-op.

Make sure you know what you have before you eat them though.
Check this site for proper ID. Do not eat a false Morel.

To my knowledge, a true morel is completely hollow from the stem into the cap. The cap and the stem are one, unlike other mushrooms.

We could be heroes

Time to move on

I really want to move. I have never hated this state, until now. I guess I don't really hate the state as much as I hate the weather.
It is snowing again, floods are still happening and pending.

We had to move all of our stuff from the basement to the main floor.
The city has done an absolutely shitty job of keeping the roads clean this winter - absolutely pathetic.

We moved back here for 1 reason - our family. My parents and A's parents all live here.
I have a bonus in the fact that I love Western and Southwestern ND - to hike, hunt, driving the gravel roads for literally hundreds of miles or just sitting on the side of a hill taking in the rolling plains on a warm September or October afternoon. I love that.

BUT, it is getting to the point that none of this seems worth staying in this god foresaken land. I constantly ask myself why anyone willingly lives here?

1 more winter like this and I'm seriously going to consider moving - Hello Colorado.

Here is the forecast for the months of November through March for ND.

Lets blog about the weather

Today, in this wonderful state we have/had warnings for:
Flood, hail, tornado, blizzard, sleet.

Somebody let me know if they see a man riding upon a white horse in the midst of all this... :)

Linton, is currently flooding and most of the town is only accesible by boat.
Fox Island is under a voluntary evacuation due to the rapid rising of the Missouri R.
Fargo is about to be flooded as well, as expected.

Last I heard we are scheduled for up to a foot of snow over the next 24 hours or so. I hope it doesn't happen, but it is cold enough right now for snow.

Usually by this time of the year I'm done asking myself why I live here.

Random

I remember when I first met Andrea. Odd circumstances, one more confirmation for me of fate. Anyway, I particularily remember the first weeks, months and into the first year. Her working at BBB me working these ridiculous late hours at Lewis trucking with Onree and Christ. I would go see her on every one of her breaks, eating dinner or just holding hands and talking.

If she wasn't working she was at school. I would go and sit and read while she was spending endless hours in the photolab, printing her photos. Just wanting to be where she was as close as possible.
I couldn't spend enough time with her. Everything was new and exciting.

That seems so long ago. My memories of that time and most of my time in Fargo seem like a blur or like bits from a movie. I can still feel those feelings of excitement and joy when I think about those times.

Now of course things are different. We have evolved in our relationship. Still love each other very much, but as expected things are different.

Anyway, the reason for all this randomness is that I heard a song just a little bit ago that reminded me of all those things. Andrea had bought a CD a few months after we met that had a song on it that she said made her think of us. It's crazy when I hear this song and haven't heard it for a while. It actually chokes me up a little bit, becuase it reminds me of how much I love/loved her at that time. I have never loved like that and at that time nothing had even come close. I still do love her on that level - just to clarify.

Now of course we have McKenzie and she brings so much love and joy to my life it is impossible to describe. My love for her is on a similar level, but different of course and I feel very lucky.

I always remember that song and a few others when I think of us at that time. All were songs on the radio at that time that she really seemed to like and we would seem to hear a lot.

Finally, here is the song and it is the first time I have ever seen the video.

One Thing.

God this song is powerful.

And the list got shorter

I was going to only leave this post with the title, but decided to leave an explaination... for myself I guess. As most blog posts are in my opinion.

Anyway, I'm pretty much done here with blogging... for the most part.

Tonight I realised why I originally started this thing and why I continued with it for so long. I realised that it doesn't really matter.

I will say it was fun, served it's purpose for the time. But with the list getting shorter and time becoming more precious, the posts are going to become much less frequent.

Perhaps this has spawned from a serious frustration right now of wasted time on the net, even more or less precisely it is of wasted time concerning several other aspects of the past blending in and out of the current, but I do not care to get into it beyond that.

The point is that I have found new value in several aspects of my life to the point that I simply don't want to invest my time into things that I can see are a waste of time.

Anyway, my guess is that future blogs will be even less meaningful to most everyone, but me. I will probably only randomly use it to vent something of anger or my personal enjoyment which most don't really care about anyway.

A statement that I really enjoyed the first time I saw it and still do which if you read as it is and then after that change a few words to blogs and writing blog posts will pretty much tell half of my story and like I said the other half I don't care to get into.

"I stayed up late last night, slogging through endless websites. I think I was looking for meaning online, which is about the most ridiculous endeavor I can imagine. I feel a little more sane this morning."

To my wife and daughter.

The best part of my day every day is coming home from work to see McKenzie's big smile and then hearing her say "Dadieee" and then getting a kiss from her and Andrea.



You're a falling star, You're the get away car.
You're the line in the sand when I go too far.
You're the swimming pool, on an August day.
And you're the perfect thing to say.

And you play it coy, but it's kinda cute.
Ah, When you smile at me you know exactly what you do.
Baby don't pretend, that you don't know it's true.
Cause you can see it when I look at you.

[Chorus:]
And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing.
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.

You're a carousel, you're a wishing well,
And you light me up, when you ring my bell.
You're a mystery, you're from outer space,
You're every minute of my everyday.

And I can't believe, uh that I'm your man,
And I get to kiss you baby just because I can.
Whatever comes our way, ah we'll see it through,
And you know that's what our love can do.

[Chorus:]
And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La

[Chorus:]
And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing.
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything.
You're every song, and I sing along.
'Cause you're my everything.
Yeah, yeah

So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La
So, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La

I am a ship out on the sea

The Good be Tanyas song I really like - cover. I couldn't find the original.

F* it all

Fuck:
Politics
Tv shows, especially the crime and murder shows
Magazines that glorify and idolize movie stars
Taxes and the way the government spends them
Congress
Elitist politicians
Anyone who takes advantage of or exploits a child
Anyone who abuses anyone
Anyone who thinks they are better than anyone else
Wasting money at bars
Wating money on really expensive restaurants
Wasting money
Money

Cause it's true!!

Well, almost. I doubt anyone under here under 25 yoa knows who Lawrence Welk is, but damn I find this funny.

Funny

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