Basketball

Happy Leap Year Day! Today is a bright and sunny day after yesterday's snow.

The North Dakota State B girls basketball tournament currently is being held in Minot. I figured something was up when I saw a quite a number of cars on the main road through town. Normally there is little traffic on the roads. Over the past few days there have been dozens and dozen of cars at the stoplights waiting for the lights to turn green. "Rush hour" in a town that doesn't have one.

Class B means the smaller schools in the state. This means the people in those towns know everyone in their schools. The parents and towns really support their teams and many come to attend the games to cheer their teams on. I see lots of school and charter buses out and around, and some cars with words of support written on their windows.

Go team!

Late February snow

Yesterday I bicycled 20 miles in near 40 degree temperatures and then overnight we received several inches of fresh white wet snow. It actually is kind of pretty rather than being annoying. It is clean and white with the snow draping everything. There is no wind (unusual!) and the sun is trying to break through the clouds. Spring is going to have to wait a little longer.

Movie: Idiot's Delight

A few nights ago, very late at night, I watched an old Clark Gable movie, Idiot's Delight. The movie was released in 1939, the 'golden year' of Hollywood movies. This movie is nowhere near golden. It may almost be so bad that it is 'good'. It certainly is an odd movie.

Clark Gable plays Harry Van, a vaudeville actor with little talent who is going backwards in his career. In the beginning Norma Shearer plays Irene, an acrobat with dreams of love and fame. Then more than ten years later she reappears as Irene, a fake Russian Countess traveling on the arm of a munitions manufacturer.

Clark Gable: "You can call that sentimental, Mrs. Weber, but that is true."

Norma Shearer: "Forgive me, but that is not my name."

Clark Gable: "Oh. I thought -"

Norma Shearer: "I know what you thought. Mr Weber and I are associated in a sort of business way."

Clark Gable: "I see. Um, business is pretty good, isn't it?"

Gable plays a variation of his typical 1930s roles, a charming, rough around the edges, doing it his way, type of guy.

Norma Shearer: "But I have talked too much about myself. What about you my friend?"

Clark Gable: "Oh, I'm not very interesting. I'm just what I seem to be."

Shearer's character as a Russian Countess is so over the top one has to wonder if Shearer is a bad actress hamming it up, the part was poorly written, or a combination of both. Or maybe Shearer's character is based on a real life Russian refuge from the 1917 Russian Revolution?

For the following dialog imagine Norma Shearer wearing a long platinum blond wig, waving a cigarette in a long cigarette holder, talking with a thick Russian accent, and overacting as she talks.

Norma Shearer: "My father was old. The hardships of that terrible journey had broken his body. But his spirit was strong. His spirit that is... Russia.

He lay there in that little boat. And he looked up at me. -- Never can I forget his face. So thin. So white. So beautiful in the starlight.

And he said to me, 'Irena... little daughter'. And then... he died.

For four days I was alone with his body. Sailing through the storms of the Black Sea. I had no food. No water. I was in agony from the violent wounds of the Bolshevikii. I knew I must die.

And then.. an American cruiser rescued me. May Heaven bless those good men!"

Clark Gable: "Ahem. Excuse me Madame. But it seems to me that the last time you told me about your escape it was different."

Norma Shearer: "Well! I made several escapes."

The movie originally was a play and the movie looks and it feels like it. Not a good thing for a movie.

The movie's time line starts at the end of WWI and goes to 1939 and the outbreak of WWII. The first half of the movie, where Gable and Shearer, down on their luck, meet in Omaha, Nebraska during a vaudeville show, has the typical screwball comedy charm of 1930s movies. Their later meeting at a hotel in the European Alps is where things get strange. The movie switches to a pre-WWII anti-war message that today seems odd as we now know the reason for WWII. From my University history classes I recognize that the movie's anti-war message is a reaction to WWI because the movie blames munition manufacturers for wars.

The movie's anti-war message was also harmed by Burgess Meredith's character's strident spouting of his peace message. Meredith's character seemed as if he burst in from another movie. It felt like we were getting a lecture and I was happy when the soldiers hauled him off. It didn't help that I was thinking "The Penguin" from the Batman TV show when I saw Meredith. Even if he was skinny back then, the voice remains the same.

Burgess Meredith: "While you sit here eating and drinking, their planes dropped fifty thousand kilos of bombs on innocent people. Heavens knows how many were killed; how much of life and beauty is forever destroyed. And you sit here eating and drinking with them, the murderers. It was their planes from the very field down there. Assassins!!!"

Also odd was Clark Gable singing and dancing to the song "Putting on the Ritz". He did ok, but his body's proportions, or the suit he was wearing, made him look odd. He looked to have too short of legs for his body.

Norma Shearer: "You are a very bad dancer."

Clark Gable: "Hmmm... in Romania they thought I was pretty good."

The ending - or I should say "endings" - as there was a domestic and international ending - was surreal. By then I had surrendered to incomprehension as to the goal of the movie. Gable and Shearer were shouting and singing and playing piano, declaring their love, and making plans for their future against a phony backdrop of plane after plane outside the large windows dive bombing their hotel and the valley below. And the point was?

Norma Shearer: "Harry, do you realize the whole world has gone to war? The whole world!"

Clark Gable: "I realize it, but don't ask me why. I've stopped trying to figure it out."

Norma Shearer: "I know why it is. It's just to kill us - you and me. Because we are the little people. And for us, the deadliest weapons are the most merciful."

[Gable grabs her by her shoulders]

Clark Gable: "Easy..."

Norma Shearer: "I've never cared before, but now I want to live."

Clark Gable: "So do I, but if we don't, let's hope we make a fast exit."

Norma Shearer: "Then together."

[An explosion from a large bomb falling nearby. Gable turns and shakes his fist in the air.]

Clark Gable: "Nice try buddy, but you muffed it!"

Later Norma Shearer asked, "Harry, do you know any hymns?" Then they sang a hymn while Clark Gable played a piano while many planes flew in the background and bombs fell all around. The underside of a few planes were seen just outside the large hotel window as the planes dived down to the valley below.

The last line in the international version of the movie was by Norma Shearer,

"Look Harry! They've gone away."

The last line in the domestic version of the movie was by Clark Gable as he played an upbeat tune on a piano that was tilted sideways due to a broken leg,

"Hey, over here boys! Over here! See the big show. See the greatest aggregation of talent in the world."

The movie would have been helped by having a main villain to go against, a human to personify evil, instead of odd characters railing against "events" and faceless evildoers. It was confusing to see the soldiers lambasted by Burgess Meredith one minute and the next minute see the showgirls ("Les Blondes") girlishly fawn all over the soldiers.

The dialog was so over the top at times that I rewound the VCR to write down accurately some of the lines. It was late at night when I watched this movie and I didn't trust if the late hour was making the dialog sound loopy. The late hour wasn't.

Here are a few samples of the dialog. The movie had lots more over-the-top dialog, but if I wrote more down I would have been up all night.

Clark Gable and Norma Shearer are parting at a train station in Omaha, Nebraska. His vaudeville act is falling apart and she is an acrobat who unsuccessfully tried to get him to take her on as a partner in his fake mind-reading act to replace the drunken old lady who is his current partner. He has known Norma Shearer less than 24 hours, and this being a 1939 movie, it is unclear if they spent the night together, though the indications are she stayed in his hotel room at the end of their previous scene together.

Clark Gable: "The world you live in isn't a world of facts and figures; it's a world of dreams. Maybe that's what I like about you Irene. You're so beautifully phony."

Norma Shearer: "And maybe you're wrong my darling. Maybe we two cheap people, with our cheap lives, maybe we're the only ones in this crazy world who are real."

They hug, do a quick "1930s kiss", then hug again.

Clark Gable: "Well, we gotta be pulling out now babe."

Norma Shearer: "I know, but not together."

Clark Gable: "No, not together. You go your way and I go mine. But I got a hunch we'll see each other again. Sometime."

Unfortunately for the movie audience they did meet again.

You know, for such a bad movie, it sure made an impression on me. I think it is because of Clark Gable's charm. I also enjoyed the banter between Gable and Norma Shearer. When they meet again in Europe she pretends not to know him and he spends a lot of time trying to get her to admit they had met in Omaha.

Norma Shearer: "The temple of your memory must be so crowded."

Clark Gable: "Are you sure you've never been in Omaha, Madame?"

Norma Shearer: "Here we are, on a mountain peak in bedlam. Tonight war is breaking over the world. And all you worry about is whether I am a girl you once casually met in Oma - ha-ha-ha."

Clark Gable: "Ha-ha-ha. Did I say it was casual?"

Clark Gable: "Somehow or other I couldn't help feeling touched, that of all the sordid hotels you've been in, that you should have remembered that one. "

Norma Shearer: "The age of chivalry still lives!"

While I didn't care much for the part of the movie set in the Alps, I did enjoy the mountain scenery shown in the background. Beautiful!

Lastly, reviewing what I have written, and having watched modern movies since then, I realize another reason why I am growing fond of this movie. It may be because - as goofy as some of the dialog was - at least there was dialog. Today's movies are weak on dialog, and often the dialog these days is just an attempt for a character to toss off a one liner between action sequences.

"I told you then that I wasn't everybody. It's true; I'm nobody. But I learned it was no use telling the truth to people whose life was a whole lie." -- Norma Shearer as Irene

"It's a pleasure to be entertaining, but you can't get away with it." -- Clark Gable as Harry Van

"Oh, 'Kak Stranna!' How strange!" -- Norma Shearer as Irene

Trivia shirt

I got a new t-shirt at Trivia night Monday. Notice I said "got" and not "won". Darrel from my team won the shirt, the last prize to be selected in the 'quarters' contest.

The shirt is a large size and Darrel - being a truly large guy - can only wear shirts that are extra or double extra large size. I wear a large so Darrel gave me the shirt. There hadn't been many takers as most people in the bar wanted a shirt size larger than large. Hmmm... does that give you a clue as to what lots of beer drinking does to a person's body size?

The shirt is not much of a prize as it is promotion for Crown Royal whiskey and a Spring 2008 race at Richmond. The shirt is black and has a logo with an image saying "Your name here". I thought it was a pretty lame image. Even after finding out Crown Royal had a "Your name here" contest last Fall to name the 2008 NASCAR Richmond race after a contestant winner, I still think the image is lame. The shirt will come in handy around the ranch when working on my fences.

Mona won two 'quarters' questions including the final question. The money in the bucket for the final question totaled $13.75. For her other prize Mona won a small handyman utility tool with a led flashlight. It was very small and we all had fun looking for, and making fun of, the gadgets the tool contained. Even Mona joked that it would take her 8 hours to use the tool's saw to cut a branch for making a campfire.

Other than a couple t-shirts the remaining prizes were mystery bags. One bag winner (the guy from Hawaii) said his bag's contents were pretty lame and that the contestant organizers in the future could come over to his garage to get odds and ends to make up better mystery prize bags.

This night, for once, I arrived before the trivia contests started. Between my earlier arrival, and the sun setting later, that would explain why it was still twilight outside during my walk to the Landing Bar. Yet another sign that Spring is coming.

I discovered that Rod and Al were "no-shows." It is too bad as I believe our team would have won if Rod or Al were there. In the first contest 4 teams tied for first place including our team. We all got 16 answers correct. The tie breaker question was:

"In what year was Glen Campbell born?"

I remembered Campbell was 70 or more and lobbied for 1935. Another team member agreed with me about Campbell being 70 or more, and Mona thought he was in his 30s when he had his hit songs and TV show, but we couldn't sway the others. I didn't push it considering I was wrong the previous time we had to answer the tie breaker question. Remember, the "Edsel" question?

Our team members guessed 1940 and 1942 and the team went with 1942 which I felt was wrong. The other teams guessed 1943, 1940 and 1938. Campbell was born in 1936 and the 1938 answer by the lawyers/judges (argh!) team was the closest. Darrel and Mona were frustrated as this made 6 straight tie breaker questions the team has lost. If they would have gone with my answer...

For the second contest our team got 15 correct, which is more than I expected as we struggled for answers. Our team took second place. Another frustrating week at being so close.

All we needed was one more question right and we would have won. If Rod or Al were there I know we would have won. Here are some of the questions we got wrong.

1. "What actress was originally named 'Francis Gum'?"
2. "In the Blondie comic strip, what are the first names of their neighbors, The Woodleys?"
3. "What brand of cigarettes did Humphrey Bogart smoke?"
4. "Copper and Zinc together form what alloy?"
5. "What was the name of the Sargent in the Phil Silvers show?"
6. "In 'Deliverance', how many people were in the boat?"
   

1. Judy Garland
2. Herb and Tootsie
3. Chesterfield was the preferred brand of Humphrey Bogart and Lucille Ball.
4. Brass
5. Sgt. Bilko
6. Four
   

We knew Herb but could not come up with 'Tootsie". My answer for the cigarette was Chesterfield but it was a hunch without conviction. Again considering my wrong "Edsel" answer I didn't push for it and went with the team's answer of Lucky Strikes.

For the "Phil Silver's" Sargent question, Ed (the host) phrased the question strange and some team members thought Ed wanted the Phil's Silver's boss's name. I pushed for Sgt. Bilko as I knew Silvers had played Sgt. Bilko, but was overruled as they wanted Silver's boss's name. If we thought logically we could have decided a Sargent is not the boss of a Sargent.

And why did we think it was only three people in the boat? Four makes more sense.

After the trivia contest were over, our team socialized. I found the team (named SOL) consists of two former teams that joined together. I finally remembered the names of the Native American couple: Darrel and Mona.

Mona was funny as she reminisced about embarrassing events in her past. She grew up in a small South Dakota town on an Indian Reservation. To liven things up while bar hopping she and her friends would play truth-or-dare. Mona told a funny story about her friend's dare to moon the checkout person at the local drive-thru restaurant. It didn't go as planned. Instead of the old lady who typically worked at the drive-thru, a young friend of Darrel's worked that night. And instead of speeding off, another one of Mona's friends popped the car's clutch stalling the car.

The bad thing about my team is that three of the (six this night) team members smoke. Walking home in the cool night air did little to eliminate the smoke from me and my clothes.

Red carpet rant

It appears that am in a reflective(?) mood this afternoon.

I didn't watch the Oscar telecast last night. I've paid enough attention to movies to realize that the best movies don't usually win the awards. Too many bad movies have won. There is too much movie business politics that go into choosing a winner.

It also seems lately that the movies take second place to the fashion. With the writer's strike hitting the Golden Globes and other award shows this year it seems as if the gnashing of teeth is more about the loss of the red carpets than the show themselves. After all, the award shows still announced the winners to a collective yawn. Who cares?

I noticed last night when flipping TV channels the inanity of the red carpets. The slow walk, the posing and preening for the cameras and photos, and the dumb 'interviews' of the 'stars' walking the red carpet. It may be because I am a guy that I feel this way. I noticed the men on the red carpet seemed to only linger in this walk because they were walking with a woman. The women seemed to enjoy the attention. They would stand and slowly turn slightly this way and that so everyone could see them and get a photo of them in their dresses. In their interviews they would quickly mention the designer of their free dress and who loaned their jewelery, then get back to basking in the attention. It was all about them and they wanted to make it last.

I've heard that Hollywood is like high school, and the academy awards is like the high school prom. So true! Everyone who has great memories of high school and of the prom raise your hand. Uh, huh. I thought so. There is much more to ones life than high school and the prom. I would pity the Hollywood stars and their silly award shows more if they didn't take it so seriously and if the 'fashion' people and others didn't spend so much time obsessing over it. Get a life people!

Dangerous jobs, etc.

This afternoon I saw on the TV news about a backhoe in Wisconsin that fell through the ice. Apparently the effort has now switched from a rescue to a recovery effort for the guy who was operating the backhoe.

This got me thinking about dangerous jobs, who does them, and an effort by some people to link differing male and female dominated occupations in an effort to legislate equal pay to close the pay gap between men and women. For example, someone would decide the skill set in a female dominated job like teacher, secretary, librarian, etc. would have the same skill set as in a male dominated job like logger, construction worker, etc. They feel the same skill set should mean the same pay for the different jobs.

What is left out of this equation is the danger level of different jobs. One can't argue against the idea that many male dominated jobs are more dangerous than female dominated jobs. One can look at the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006 ranking of fatalities by occupation to see that male dominated jobs are much more dangerous than female dominated jobs.

The image to the right lists the top 10 dangerous jobs in 2002. The list changes slightly each year, but you get the idea. Male dominated jobs are more dangerous. This is born out by the fact that according to a Center for Disease Control (CDC) study,

The risk of work-related death was much greater for males than for females; the age-adjusted death rate for males was 5.0 deaths per 100,000 U.S. standard population compared with 0.4 for females, resulting in a mortality ratio of 12.5.

Twelve and a half times more likely for a man to die on the job than a woman. Some articles I have read in the past put the percentage of male vs. female deaths on the job at 90% or more for men.

According to another CDC article a breakdown on the causes for female fatalities are robbery, which is unrelated to the skill necessary to perform the job.

Homicide is the leading cause of injury death for women in the workplace, accounting for 40% of all workplace death among female workers. Workplace homicides are primarily robbery-related, and often occur in grocery/convenience stores, eating and drinking establishments, and gasoline service stations. Over 25% of female victims of workplace homicide are assaulted by people they know (co-workers, customers, spouses, or friends). Domestic violence incidents that spill into the workplace account for 16% of female victims of job-related homicides.

One can't argue against "equal pay for equal work", but the pay gap between men and women, and the job skill sets used, are far more complicated than declaring equal pay for what is considered to be equivalent jobs.

Marketing quiz

A test on recognizing marketing brands, images, and slogans. I got 17 of 20 correct. I'm not sure if I should be proud or sad.

http://www.cramersweeney.com/smartmarketing.html

Bicycling, Spring, and light

Today I went for a bicycle ride. My first ride since the first half of January. Yup, that is right, I haven't ridden a bicycle since then.

I had to ride a bicycle before February was over. Ever since June 1983 I have ridden at least 2 miles every month since then. I couldn't let my riding streak of almost 25 years come to an end now.

The weather is cooperating. Today the temperature was near freezing after being -25 F earlier this week. The sun was clear and the sun felt warm. Adding to today's bliss was the lack of wind. Unusual for North Dakota. It was 'playing with my mind' as I always had a headwind no matter which direction I rode.

After I added air to the bicycle's tires I rode 10 miles west and north of town. I could have ridden more.

Spring is in the air. Not just the temperature, the sunlight also. Sunset is now a quarter after 6 pm and we are gaining three minutes of daylight every day. The sun isn't as low in the southern sky and the sunlight itself seems different - not so clear and sharp due to cold air.

Living outside of North Dakota for decades haven't changed a thing for me come Springtime. Today as I rode in the Spring air and light, seeing the large sky and the far flat Dakota horizon, and shaking off winter's hibernation, I began to dream of far off places to travel. Winter is over and it is time to plan of things to do and places to see and mountains to climb.

"Spring is when life's alive in everything."

Christina Georgina Rossetti (December 5, 1830 - December 29, 1894), an English poet.

3 vehicles, 3 problems

My mother and brother have three vehicles and all have problems now. The pickup with the transmission problem still is in that condition as my brother parked it for now planning to deal with it later. A few nights ago his other pickup's heater quit again. We made it home without fogging up the pickup's windshield. It turns out the problem was a faulty ignition switch. I don't know how the ignition switch affects the heater, but it does.

The repair shop had to order a new ignition switch and it was suppose to arrive today. However the delivery truck broke down in eastern North Dakota and the part will not arrive until Monday. Since the ignition switch does work - even if it is touchy - my brother decided to take the pickup home for the weekend. In hindsight this was a good idea.

I accompanied him in the car - the third vehicle. During the drive to the repair shop the car developed a "thumping" so my brother pulled off the road into a parking lot. I got out and checked the tires. No flat tires. My brother drove the car in the parking lot and there was no sight or sound of any problem.

Down the road we went. When we exceeded 25 mph the "thumping" returned.

At the repair shop the car had a smell. I checked the engine and that was not the source. The mechanics had no suggestions without checking the car. It was minutes from closing time so we decided to take the car home and bring it back Monday morning.

My bother took off in his pickup and when I went to drive the car home the rear tires spun on the icy ground. The car wouldn't move forward or backward. Huh?

The shop's owner saw through the window and came outside. The quick determination was that the car's brakes had locked. I left the car at the shop. If the car had to break down that was the best spot for it to happen.

So until Monday we only have the pickup with the bad ignition.

What else will go wrong? Oh yeah, the flu is running around the rehab facility. Last week the upper floor was closed to visitors due to the flu. It appears most of the workers have gotten the flu along with a number of residents. Mom heard most of the cafeteria employees were out with the flu today. Mom's roommate might have the flu now as she has diarrhea and is now vomiting today. Mom had not had the flu yet. I hope she doesn't get it as she is starting to improve after a number of other trials and tribulations this past month.

Trivial Purpose

Monday night was another trivia night. I was late to the contest again as I had make sure my brother had supper before I left. My brother was down with the 24 hour flu. Chicken soup was his food of choice. However, while there were many varieties of soups in the house, chicken soup was the only kind missing. Who would of thought? I was able get a can of chicken soup from our neighbor across the street.

The first contest was only half over when I arrived so I able to help with questions they hadn't answered yet. It made no difference as I couldn't remember the fourth Marx Brother who never appeared in the movies. The only name I could come up with was: Beppo. The correct answer was: Gummo. Beppo wasn't a Marx Brother, Zeppo was.

I did know that Irving Berlin wrote the song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band". It didn't matter as our team finished in the middle of the pack in the first contest as we only got 13 answers correct.

After my mistake the previous week about when the Edsel was stopped being manufactured I was gun-shy this week about being right. So for the question, "Which older TV star was featured in a nude layout in a December 1983 issue of Playboy?", I didn't argue for my answer when I questioned the group's answer. The group's answer was Jackie Collins. I thought Jackie was an author. I thought the correct person could be her sister, Joan Collins. The correct answer was Joan Collins. Oh well.

For the second contest my team didn't think we did well. To our surprise we ended up in second place with 15 correct. The winning team had 16 correct. We did a bit of second guessing afterwards on why we chose the wrong answer for a few questions. One team member from previous weeks was missing tonight so after the contests were over one person called him and asked the questions we got wrong. Wouldn't have made a difference as he didn't know the correct answers.

Rod, Alan, and I joined the same team as in the past few weeks. This team's core members are a Native American couple. The woman got two "quarters" questions correct and Rod got another "quarters" question correct. The prizes this night were mystery bags. In the bags were a mixture of a small shot bottle of liquor, a padlock, anti-freeze tester (pretty handy this time of year!), super-glue, and various other small items. The final "quarters" prize - which the woman won - was a t-shirt with a saying that used "fekkin" multiple times in place of the more obvious word. No wonder that shirt was the last prize to be chosen.

The t-shirt enlisted a comment from the couple about people back in their small hometown who'd like the shirt. This lead to them reminiscing about their initial dating and drinking experiences and a drunken and embarrassing New Year's date. Older now, they seem to have grown out of that behavior. After trivia was over they pulled out a deck of cards and played pinochle. They invited me to join them but I don't know how to play pinochle.

The players taking part in trivia night were a mixture of the same people and new people. I did notice an attractive woman part of a team around a table next to our table. She had a look of being classier than the typical people who show up at this blue collar bar. But not too classy. Her look was more of a single woman dressing nice for an evening out with friends. She was showing a little cleavage with her sweater and her blue jeans were snug. She stood out among her team as the other members were so-so looking. The team member she ended up talking with after the trivia contests were over and most of her team members drifted away, was a little overweight and completely bald on top except for long black hair growing on the sides of his head.

What did she see in him? No matter as I wasn't interested. Between winter, my mom's recovery, and being away from Montana, my sex drive is zero. Ok, maybe not exactly "zero" as I did notice her, but close to zero.

As I was leaving the bar another teammate of hers asked me if we knew one another. He was a guy about my age who I didn't recognize. That doesn't mean I didn't know him as I haven't seen many people from high school, well... since high school. Even though he swears I looked familiar, no, we didn't know one another. We compared graduation dates (he is a couple years younger than I), where we lived, what we do, who we know, and we had nothing in common.

I found out he is retired at this young age. Oil is being pumped off his farm and he said he lives off the royalties. He seemed to have had a few drinks that night. He looked to be in good shape but also had a look of someone without a purpose in life. I didn't ask him what he currently does, as my thought whether he has a purpose in life came to me later as I ran home in the cold night air with high clouds moving in and starting to obscure the moon. You know, as I don't have a "real job", I wonder if people think the same of me?

Oh well.

Flu and Comanche Moon

Tuesday I was sick with the 24 hour flu. Monday my brother was sick with this flu and then I came down with it the next day.

I'm glad it was only a 24 hour flu as I was miserable the whole time. I was able to keep from vomiting but I had all the other flu symptoms. I woke up with the flu Tuesday morning and when I woke up Wednesday morning the flu was completely gone. I do remember waking up briefly Tuesday night/Wednesday morning so soaked in sweat from head to toe that I could feel the sweat was running down my body. That must be when the flu broke as when I woke up later the flu was gone.

While laying on the couch resting I decided to finish watching the TV mini-series, Comanche Moon. I love watching westerns, and really liked the Lonesome Dove TV mini-series. However the end of Comanche Moon added to my flu misery.

Comanche Moon is the prequel to Lonesome Dove and explains how the two main male characters, Gus and Woodrow, lost the loves of their life, with one of the women dying at the end. A downer way to end the movie.

I realize the movie had to explain how Gus and Woodrow came to be the people they were in Lonesome Dove. The problem is that most everyone dies, leaves, or goes crazy in this movie. It is one thing to reminisce about past loves and missed opportunities in Lonesome Dove; it is quite another thing to go though losing those loves and missing those opportunities, especially when the movie script isn't that good.

One last thing, the temperature got down to a new record low last night: -25 F. The end of February and still cold. It has warmed up to -2 F now.

Camels in snow

After attending the antique auction and trailer show I drove by Minot's park and zoo. From the road I could see two camels outside so I stopped and looked at them for a short time. I associate camels with sand and not snow so this was an unusual sight to me. While mostly sunny, the wind was sharp in the cold air. Therefore I didn't stay long.

It appears the zoo has one of each type of camel: one hump and two. Looking at the one hump camel, how it looks and stands, it is hard to imagine a person riding one of these animals. I think the one hump camel is ugly.

Trailer show

The antique auction was held in the large ND State Fair building. In another end of the building a local mobile home company was holding an indoor trailer event. The company had moved ten large mobile homes into one room.

As I grew up living in a mobile home I decided to spend a few minutes looking at how trailers are these days. Trailers these days certainly are not like the trailers of my youth. All but one trailer were double wide trailers, that is two trailers attached together. This eliminates the feeling of the typical trailer, long and narrow. Old trailers were a long hallway with rooms off to one side. With the double wide trailers the floor plan eliminates the hallway feel to the trailers.

The double wide trailers can be quite large as one trailer had 2310 sq ft with four bedrooms and 3 baths. Most trailers seem to have jacuzzi tubs for bathtubs. These trailers are nicer than my little old house.

The number of people looking at the trailers were not huge, but most were young couples or young couples with parents. They were seriously looking the trailers over.

Here are a few floor plans ranging from a long 16 by 80 trailer to the 2310 sq ft trailer. The above interior photo was taken from the first floor plan. I was standing in the nook and took the photo of the kitchen area.

Antique auction

Sunday I attended an antique auction in Minot. I arrived 2 and 1/2 hours after the auction started. Part of the reason I was late as I couldn't start my brother's pickup. I don't have "the touch" and my brother had to come home. He was able to easily start his pickup. I am starting to think his pickup is "alive" and doesn't like me.

Even though I was late to the auction there were tables and tables of items left to sell. The auction was well organized with numbers on the tables indicating the order stuff would be sold. The items ranged from furniture, glassware, red wing crocks, old signs, clothes, metal toys, and so on. While the seller had enough items to stock an antique store, the ad said this was from his personal collection. I wonder where he stored it all? Most all items were in very good condition.

There were more people at the auction than I expected. The crowd was mostly older and seemed evenly divided between men and women. It also appeared a variety of buyers were purchasing items and not just a select few. It was hard to tell how many were antique dealers and how many were personal collectors. Some younger audience members had 'the look' some collectors have, that is they are focused on items and collecting and not so much on their appearance. Either due to their clothes or their hair styles, some people had the look of people who don't fit into a crowd.

I didn't recognize anyone at the auction. The only person I 'knew' was the auctioneer, Sundsbak. I 'knew' him from name only from back when I attended auctions around Minot 25 to 30 years ago. I didn't recognize him.

I hung around a half hour or so before leaving. There was nothing I wanted to buy. While I can fall under a collecting impulse, I just couldn't see the interest in collecting stuff like this. It is just more stuff to own, move, dust and store. I guess I am too young, and the items too old, for me to have memories of owning the items in my youth. It seems as if many collectors are people who are trying to purchase memories of their youth. As the years move on the 'window' of popular (or hot) collectible items also move. Items from the 1930s and 1940s seem to have given way to items from the 1950s and 1960s.

I believe the old cylinder phonograph sold for $500. After selling the phonograph the auctioneer then sold the box of cylinders for $30. Naturally the same person bought the cylinders.

Before selling the phonograph the auctioneer put his microphone up to the speaker while another person hand cranked the cylinder. The music sounded fine, just like what we hear when one of these phonographs are operated in movies. It is interesting to think that in the age of ipods and digital music, this phonograph was cutting edge technology around 100 years ago; and prior to the invention of the cylinder phonograph the only music heard was live music.

Devil's Pond movie

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. Me? I ended up watching the movie, Devil's Pond. This was not exactly a romantic Valentine Day type of movie.

"What starts out as a romantic honeymoon on a lonely island turns into a horrible nightmare as Julianne discovers that her new husband is psychotic."

This was a straight-to-video movie so I didn't expect much from it. But to my surprise it was better than I expected. Even though there were a few choices by the movie characters that weren't entirely realistic, and Tara Reid can't act that well, it was a solid movie nonetheless.

The movie was filmed in and around my hometown of Kalispell, MT by a small movie company. I had tried out for a part as an extra for the wedding scene that opens the movie but didn't get hired. The movie company was mainly looking for people in their 20s as they would be closer in age to the couple getting married. I was no way close to being in my 20s. Oh well, the wedding scene is very brief and the audience (extras) in the church were only seen for about 10 seconds.

The church used was the United Methodist Church, which is located in downtown Kalispell near the county library. The filming at the church was done on a Saturday.  I had seen the movie stuff outside the church as filming was going on inside it.

The Montana lake used for the lake and island is between Kalispell and Libby.

Other than the wedding scene in the beginning, and a short montage of driving scenes to the lake, the rest of the movie takes place at the lake and island, and only involves the couple. It was fun to see the landscape in the driving scenes as this is how the area looks west of Kalispell.

The Devil's Pond movie's working title was Heaven's Pond.  For those of us who remember the movie Heaven's Gate, which was filmed in and around Kalispell back in 1979, and which was a disaster that brought down the United Artists movie studio, Heaven's Pond was a bad name for a movie filmed in Kalispell.


Update based on a comment: images of Horseshoe Lake near Happy's Inn, Montana.

Optical illusions

Here is a fascinating web site with 77 optical illusions and visual phenomena. Most of the illusions are pretty good. Some of these illusions I have already seen in various past emails.

This link tests your Visual Acuity ↔ Hyperacuity. I was able to align the objects to within 0.07 pixels which is when I gave up.


If you like M.C. Escher circular illusions like I do, here is a link to a short animated 3-D movie based on Escher's circular staircase.

Trivia night loss

Monday night I attended trivia night. I missed the entire first trivia contest as I was late leaving mom at Manor Care. I wanted to talk with a nurse about mom's new back/side pain before I left and this took a bit of time.

Then I had trouble starting my brother's pickup. In the cold weather (around zero F) it starts hard. Earlier my brother couldn't get a parking spot near the electrical outlets so the pickup's block heater wasn't plugged in. When I couldn't get the pickup started I had to get my brother and he started it.

The answers to the first trivia contest were read shortly after I arrived. Rod and Alan had joined the same team as last week and they answered 18 out of 20 correct. That was only good for second place as the winning team got 19 correct.

The second contest went well and we again ended up with 18 correct. This was good for a first place tie with two other teams. One of the three teams had won the first contest so we answered a sudden death question with one other team.

"What year did Ford Motors stop making the Edsel?"

Our team and the other team both answered: 1960.

Wrong. Try again.

Rod mentioned 1959 and I mentioned 1961. The guy writing our answer down went with my answer. I thought there were three years of the car and thought 1959 must have been the first year as 1960 wasn't the correct answer for the last year.

Ed said both teams were wrong again and both were equally distant from the correct answer. This time we guessed 1959 and won. Or so we thought. We had the $20 drink certificate in our hands when Ed announced he had made a mistake and the other team actually had won.

The second guess when we answered 1961, the other team had answered 1958. 1958 is closer to 1959 by one year than 1961. Ed apparently is not good at math.

We gave up our $20 certificate to the other team. I felt bad as I was the person who suggested 1961.

I checked the Wikipedia entry for the Ford Edsel and learned Ford had stopped making the Edsel in November 1959. They did have three model years: 1958, 1959, and 1960. It is just that the model years run from the Fall of one year to the next Fall and the model year does not follow a calendar of December 31.

It was frustrating to have 18 correct for each contest and still come up losers.

The bar held karaoke after the trivia contests were over. The Captain was not there to sing this night but plenty of other people were. Quite a few people sang and half or more of them were women. All these people didn't mean that more people were good and could actually sing. A few songs I couldn't even recognize.

I had driven to the trivia contest so I didn't have the opportunity to walk/run home and partially air the bar's cigarette smoke out of my clothes. *sigh*

Cold here, snow there

A cold blast came to North Dakota over the weekend. Lots of -20 F temperatures with the highest temperatures nowhere near 0 F. But very little snow. I thought about visiting an antique and glassware auction this afternoon before visiting mom at Manor Care but decided against it due to it still being -12 F. There will be other auctions.

In Montana however, I am missing lots of snow. Peter and Edwina, in a snowier part of the Valley, said they have had 165 inches of snow so far this year - a little more than average. Here is a photo Peter and Edwina sent me of their place once they cleared the roofs of snow.

I spoke with my neighbors Bob and Jan. Jan had checked on my house last week and everything is fine. Due to the snow she had to walk from the road to reach my house. Another neighbor who other years had plowed my driveway a few times as a courtesy hadn't plowed my driveway this year. Other than a few deer tracks Jan noticed no other tracks in the snow at the ranch.

Glacier Park has closed more of their roads. The cross country skiing must be fantastic.

Snow closes Glacier park road

Posted: Feb 9, 2008

Officials with the National Park Service at Glacier National Park have been forced to close down St. Mary's Lake Road on Saturday at the entrance.

Snow caused the road to be blocked off. Previously, it was open to the foot of St Mary's Lake.

There's no word from officials on how long St. Mary's Lake Road will be shutdown.

Drake Livestock show

Wednesday I drove 50 miles to Drake, ND to attend their annual Drake Breeders cattle show. Each year in early February the small town of Drake has a showing of cattle on their downtown Main street. This event is held to get cattle together in one place rather than have potential buyers travel miles on back roads to check the cattle out.

I have not visited the event in the past as the weather usually was poor. I remembered the livestock show as being on the first Wednesday in February, but I wasn't positive. I tried to find an article in the local newspaper listing the event's date and time but found nothing. And I couldn't find anything about it on Google when I searched using "Drake", "cattle", "livestock", and "February 6". After attending the event and learning it was called the "Drake Breeder's Classic" I found a listing online about the event.

Even if I wasn't positive I had the correct day for the event, what the heck? I decided to drive down to Drake in hopes the event was being held.

The weather was ok for my drive to Drake. There was little traffic on the road - as usual. Halfway there the wind was blowing the loose snow across the road. ...Winter in North Dakota.

Along the way I watched jet contrails in the sky.

After waiting for the long Canadian Pacific train to slowly move down the track past the railroad crossing I was able to drive from the highway into the town of Drake.

Drake, population 322, is an old slowly dying small town. The buildings on Main street were old and could use sprucing up. The mainly brick buildings looked to be past their prime. A few bars, a cafe, and I'm not sure what other businesses there were.

For about a block and a half in length I found about 30 pens in the middle of the Main street. The street was wide enough that traffic could pass on each side of the pens, but I saw no vehicles pass by.

In each of most pens were three to four head of cattle. The cattle appeared to be mainly bulls. Signs were on many pens listing the farm/ranch the cattle were from, and a number of pens had fliers and brochures for upcoming bull sales. The brochures had statistics on bloodlines, birth weight of offspring, semen count... stuff that is helpful in finding the right bull.

The cattle all looked excellent. I found the number of Black Angus cattle to be lower than I expected and the number of other breeds like Herefords, Simmenthal, and Gelbvieh to be higher than expected.

At the far end in a pen by himself was a huge Hereford bull. In another pen, as I made my way back to my car, were five bulls. Two bulls did not like each other and were head to head in a pushing contest. As the pen was relatively small they pushed one side of the pen out slightly and the owner occasionally had to push the panels back and encourage the two bulls to quit their pushing contest.

I noticed that most all of the signs listing the cattle's farm/ranch listed both a man and woman's name and not just the man's name. It makes sense.

It seemed to me that the only people around, other than me, were other people showing their cattle. Small groups of two, three, or four people were here and there discussing farm stuff. I spoke for a little bit with one guy standing alone, but between my lack of in depth knowledge and the North Dakota farmers' natural reticence, the conversation was slow going before another exhibitor joined us and the conversation moved elsewhere. I wandered down the line of pens.

While the temperature was around 20 F, the sharp wind and cloudy skies put a chill in one's bones. I left after 20 minutes of looking. The exhibition left me wanting. Maybe I would have been more excited by the exhibition if I was in the market to buy a bull.

During my drive back to Minot I drove through a weather front. I passed under a thick line of gray clouds and it began to snow. Less than 20 miles later I passed through the front and returned to the same type of weather as prior to the front.