Heading home

Today I am returning to Montana on the train.  I've been away too long and I miss the mountains.

I didn't get all I wanted to do done here in North Dakota.  I had hopes of going through the rest of my mother's stuff and holding a garage sale in addition to selling some other larger stuff.  I suppose it doesn't matter that I didn't sort through all the stuff as the weather all month was too crappy to hold a garage sale.

I found my mother saved almost everything the past 25 years.  I mean almost everything.  Letters, cards, bills, receipts, newspaper articles, recipes, photos, legal papers, family history research, etc., etc.  I had to go through everything one by one as it was all mixed together in drawers, cabinets, shelves and boxes in her office.  Time consuming and draining.

I got most of the office sorted through.  I tossed out four large garbage cans of stuff.  Later I noticed that I forgot the closet.  *sigh*  Hours to occupy my time the next time I am here.

It gets me thinking.  If one doesn't keep on top of 'stuff' it builds and grows.  And it takes time to mange all the stuff one has in life.  And when one is gone, most of it doesn't matter.

Happy Halloween!

24 hr flu

Just to let you know I seemed to have had the 24 hour flu. Late Tuesday afternoon I felt sick. I was able - barely - to keep from throwing up (though I made frequent trips to the bathroom ).  But keeping from throwing up took some concentration on my part.   And then I was freezing. It took forever to warm up.

I laid down at 5 pm and slept until almost 11 am the next morning. The last of the symptoms disappeared by late afternoon.

I had the exact symptoms my brother had the previous Friday. So I guess he had the flu.  Initially he blamed my cooking for his feeling ill even though I wasn't ill at the time.

Same old story... the only time I get sick is when I visit my brother and it is always three to four days after he gets ill. Co-incidence?  I think not!

Now, the question I am curious about is whether I had the dreaded swine flu.  Especially as I haven't been paying attention to it in the news.

What are the symptoms of swine flu in humans?

The symptoms of swine flu in people are expected to be similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

I don't think I had the swine flu as the only symptoms I had were diarrhea, aching muscles and loss of appetite.  I briefly had a headache when the other symptoms were subsiding.  No coughing.  And my flu was gone in 24 hours.  Doesn't the swine flu last longer?

So perhaps... one flu down, one to go?

IBM Charlie

Another stroll down the IBM memory lane...

How many of you remember the IBM PC?  And how it was advertised?

IBM thoughts

Here are photos of where I used to work at in Rochester when I worked on the AS/400 computer.  The first photo was taken prior to my working there.  The second photo when I worked there. The place looks different now.

The plant is large.  Roughly... the left half is development lab with the right half being the manufacturing plant. The buildings are two stories tall with many buildings in the lab also having a basement.  According to the Wikipedia site the plant is a mile long.  I don't remember it being that long.  More likely it was a mile if you drove around the plant.

In the second photo the open area in the lower right is now filled with businesses and box stores. Also the open area at the top of the photo is cluttered with businesses and houses.

A close up example of one of the blue buildings I had worked in (though not this particular building).

When I was in Rochester a few weeks ago I also noticed the IBM parking lots now are nowhere near full. They actually seemed empty. When I worked there in the 80s and 90s if you came late you often had a problem finding a parking spot. Apparently IBM has laid off a lot of people earlier this year.  Talking to people I am learning that a number of my peers over the age of 50 were laid off.  Apparently IBM is shipping their jobs to China.

It's too bad.  I have fond memories of working at IBM.  Lots of people working there; full parking lots; people excited about what they were doing, new computers to design and build; the promise and excitement of a future.  I wonder what it is like to work there now.  Must be a depressing place with the feeling that the best times have passed.

People no longer ask me if I wished I was still working for IBM.

From the articles I am struck at how different the mindset is between Minnesota and Montana.  The economic downturn is hitting the Flathead Valley hard.  The loggers and the lumber plants are hurting with the housing downturn.  The aluminum plant is closing the end of this month. Etc., etc. Yet our Montana U.S. Senators and Representative are talking of protecting and promoting jobs and are securing and ensuring government financial and educational help to the laid of people, even when only 50 are laid off.  I noticed in the following news articles, and in other similar articles, the lack of any political help by the Minnesota officials for the laid off IBMers.

IBM Rochester layoffs may number more than 1,000

IBM Jobs: 60% of STG terminations were over age 50

Rochester thoughts

A few weeks ago I was in Rochester, Minnesota.  I was there to visit my girlfriend, Tammy.  That was my only reason to go back there.  I love my friends there, but after almost 18 years of living there and two prior visits back since moving away, after my second visit I had a strong feeling of moving on and never visiting Rochester again.

It was not because Rochester is a bad place, it isn't. It is a planned, clean, and safe place to live.  However it also is more of a sterile, safe and soulless place. I believe the main passion is to make money.  Not surprising when it is dominated by two large corporations, the Mayo Clinic and IBM.  The people are well mannered professionals.  Many jobs are medical or engineering.

Where I live in Montana it is almost the opposite of Rochester.  It is unplanned, wild, unruly, messy.  Definitely not sterile, safe or soulless.  While there is a desire for money, it seems to be more of the entrepreneurial gold-rush mentality.  But there are also other passions that make it unruly; passions for property rights, individual freedoms and the environment.  People are not well mannered professionals.

People in Rochester are rich. In Flathead county the people who are from other places and have second homes are rich.  The typical Flathead resident is not rich.

Here are some snapshots from the U.S. census web site.  As you can see Rochester (Olmsted county) is well above the national average in income while Flathead county is well below the national average.

Olmsted County (Rochester)

Flathead

Rochester continued to grow after I left.  More and more cornfields converted to subdivisions.  Huge houses - McMansions - that look alike.  In one suburb one of Tammy's daughters' house was about the only different one as it was at least painted a shade of red, out of a sea of gray or beige.  About the only way I could pick out Tammy's townhouse was the one whose garage door opened when the button was pressed.

And there were subdivision after subdivision that looked the same, each with their own cute subdivision name, large houses, manicured lawns and lack of trees.

*shudder*

It was nice to see old friends.  It was mildly interesting to see places: that is new, that is the same, that has changed.  But I seemed to have moved from liking it, feeling stifled by it, to an indifference to Rochester as we drove around it.

Some places I made no effort to revisit.  For example, the first apartment I lived at is now hidden behind a noise barrier wall as the highway has been expanded to 6 lanes now.  I never went behind the wall to see what that apartment complex is like now.  I did visit the last apartment I lived at, but that was to see if the trees I planted still were there.  They were, and thriving.  I'll post photos of them later when I get home and am able to upload photos from my camera to the computer.

Here are a few photos of Rochester.  The old photos are from a souvenir booklet I found the other day that my mother had bought when we visited Rochester prior to my moving there in the early 1980s.  The other photos are more recent ones I have found.

Note the smallish white square building a little north of the tall white Mayo Clinic building.  That is the Damon parking ramp.  I have a photo of it later before it was demolished.

The following is a building that existed when I moved to Rochester: the Damon parking garage.  Before I left the Mayo Clinic demolished it and built the large building that sits north of the Mayo Clinic building as seen in some of the previous photos.  I think they opened the new building shortly after I left.

Memories and a wrench

Friday I went for a bicycle ride on my brother's bicycle.  This is the first time I had ridden all month.  A long time for me to not be on a bicycle.  Since I am not returning to Montana - and my bicycle - until late on the 31st, I was in danger of going a month without riding at least one mile on a bicycle.  That last time that had happened was June of 1983 - over 26 years ago - back when I was in college.

Friday was a nice day.  The temperature was in the mid 50s, the wind light and the sky sunny.

I thought I'd go for a quick three mile or so ride but I ended up riding north of town and then on the way back home through the trailer park I grew up in.  It was more than an eight mile ride.

The trailer park looked about the same since I seen it last, which is to say, not the same as when my parents sold it decades ago.  It was neat to see the trees my father and I planted.  Quite a number of them are huge, especially the popular trees I planted and many of the evergreen trees my father planted and I watered.  The original shelter-belt trees that existed prior to the trailer park's existence are mostly gone, the victim of dutch elm disease.  Other trees need to be thinned now that they are large.

As I was on a mountain bike I rode over to the ponds for the sewage lagoon.  The trailer park my father built formerly was well outside the city limits and therefore the park had its own water and sewer systems.  The park is now hooked up to city water and sewer as the city is right across the street.  A street had been extended this year and almost matches up to one of the trailer park's streets.  On this street just across the road apartment complexes are currently being built.

One of the sewer lagoons is partially filled in.  Now that the only water in the lagoons comes from precipitation the water level is lower, and in one lagoon very tall cattails fill much of it.  No more ice skating on that lagoon during Winter.

The park also had it own landfill but that is now long buried and one could only tell where it had been if they had seen it when it was open. I walked over the buried pit.

Ah, memories.

The city now has built a street from 21st avenue all the way to 30th avenue.  It used to be a section line dirt road.  The new street is one and a half lanes wide each way with a full lane as a turn lane.  If the3 city wished it could turn the road into a tight four lane road in the future.  Right now it goes through hay fields.  That is changing as already a housing subdivision is being built just west of the large water tower.  Since at least the 1960s, well over 40 years, that red and white water tower has stood on a hill well outside the city's limits.  Now it is fenced off with a tall chain link fence.  No more will kids get a chance to play around its base and test their strength in trying to climb up one of the large cross cables.

Here are a few photos from a couple of winters ago prior to the new street.

Also during my bicycle ride I found a small wrench laying on the side of a road.  Score! 

Northwestern Bell

When going through my mom's stuff today I came across an old card from Northwestern Bell to sign up for a telephone credit card.  Judging from our address (which I blocked out), the card was sent prior to 1979 (but after  May 2, 1967 when the 1-800 numbers were originated).

What is interesting are the two 1-800 numbers, depending on if you were calling from Iowa or the rest of the U.S.   I forgot that was common when 1-800 numbers were first started.  I wonder if it was because Northwestern Bell was incorporated as a company in Iowa?

A search of the general 1-800-247-5454 number turns up nothing for me.   A search on a 1-800 lookup site for the Northwestern Bell name turns up a different 1-800 number, while Anywho (apparently part of the  company) says:

You have reached an outdated page on the AnyWho site - please retry your search.

You'd think the company would know the Northwestern Bell number.

This card is postage paid. Since Northwestern Bell no longer exists as a company under that name as it is now part of Qwest, I wonder what would happen if I mailed the card?

I guess I'll never know.  The garbageman comes tomorrow.

By the way, here is the building located at 100 S. 19th St in Omaha.

Minot trivia night

Monday night I went to The Landing Bar for their weekly trivia contest. Darrel, Mona, Jeff, Donna, Al and Marvin were all there.  I lucked out as they apparently all haven't been attending regularly this past month.

Plenty to catch up on as they all have been busy since I was here this Spring.  For example Darrel's car racing fun was ended this summer when during the second race of the year he was involved in a wreck which totaled his car.  He then got into golfing.  Golfing?!  That seems to be a long ways from car racing.

I told the group about Tammy and they all want to meet her.  I also told about hiking with her and others this past summer.  I told them about hiking up a mountain in a thunderstorm with Tammy, Joyce and Sue Ann and I got teased for having a "hiking harem".

The bar had some ribs and chicken wings left over from an earlier benefit for a couple who were involved in a motorcycle accident where they broke an arm and ribs.  Hence: ribs and chicken wings.  The wings were good.  The others felt the ribs were too salty.

We did well in the two trivia contests but always finished a couple points below the winners.  15 and 14 correct in the two contests.

One team who sat at the bar whooped it up pumping their arms when it was announced that team "Shortbus" was in last place having not even gotten more than 9 questions correct.  If you can't be proud of winning, then be proud of losing.

Darrel and I had a little disagreement with Mona, Jeff and Donna about the spelling for the answer to one question.

"What 1975 Broadway musical was a retelling of "The Wizard of Oz"?

The answer is "The Wiz".  Jeff and Mona spelled it: "The Whiz" while I felt - and Darrel agreed with me - that the spelling was "The Wiz".  While it does have other meanings, Darrel and I felt "whiz" was the spelling for a guy taking a leak. (Why when alcohol is involved does this meaning come to mind?)  Jeff and Mona dug in their heels regarding their spelling.  Fortunately one doesn't have to spell the answer correctly.


For the question:

"What musical group did Ed Ames leave to pursue a solo career?"

We went around and around trying to guess late 50s and early 60s musical groups.  Kingston Trio?  No.  We tossed out a few other guesses before Donna mentioned "Peter, Paul and Mary".  As you can see we don't always take it super seriously, especially with alcohol involved.  Of course the more sober of us discounted this guess.  But having run out of ideas we went with Donna's later guess: The Ames Brothers.    Surprise...correct!

One of the quarters questions was:

"What family friendly association sponsored "Disneyland" when it started in the 1950s?"

Lots of quarters were tossed in the bucket before The Diary Association was guessed.  I think the winner was helped when prior to his guess, Donna said loudly to other members on our team: Dairy.

ABC quickly found multiple sponsors for the new show, to be called “Disneyland”: It secured family-friendly advertisers such as Swift Foods, Peter Pan Peanut Butter, the American Dairy Association–and the newly formed American Motors, which built Nash, Hudson and Rambler cars and Kelvinator appliances.

Marvin won the final quarters question which was for all the money in the bucket.  The question:

"On his hit, Fingertips (Pt, 2), in addition to playing the harmonica, Stevie Wonder played what musical instrument?"

Lots of quarters were added to the  bucket before Marvin, as a lark, guessed bongo drums.  Bingo!  (Or is that... Bongo?!)

By age 13, Stevie Wonder had a major hit, "Fingertips (Pt. 2)", a 1963 single taken from a live recording of a Motor Town Revue performance. The song, featuring Wonder on vocals, bongos, and harmonica was a #1 hit on the U.S. pop and R and B charts and launched him into the public consciousness.

Window plastic

Warm Fall weather came back for the weekend. Temperatures were in the 60s and 70s.  As result my brother and I took the opportunity to place plastic over some of the house windows.  My brother is sensitive and can feel drafts from the windows where I can't.  So plastic over the windows during the winter makes him happy.  He says the drafts have already stopped from the windows we covered on Saturday.  We covered five of the windows, and I fixed the plastic he left from last Winter on one window.

Two views of the plastic over the front windows.  While from one angle it may look like the plastic obscures the view, it actually doesn't.

Back to ND

I am back in North Dakota after spending a week with Tammy in Minnesota.

I caught the Amtrak train out of Red Wing, MN last night after Tammy and I visited with Brian and Alison at their new home in Winona.  While there I tried the Walnut Veggie burger that Brian - a vegan - recommended at the restaurant. Ummm... I'm gonna continue to support ranchers and eat hamburgers.

The train was 20 minutes late.  A few other people were also getting on the train but I reached the car and boarded first.  I was able to get two seats by myself. Until Minneapolis I sat across from the stairs as those were the only pair of seats for single passengers that were open. Not the best spot. At Minneapolis I moved back to better seats. While a number of people ended up doubling up as the night wore on no one woke me up and I kept my two seats for myself which makes for better sleeping.  There were more people on the train than usual for October.

I slept late - until after 9 am. It was snowing outside and the grass was covered.  The train lost lots of time in eastern North Dakota due to the snow. Amtrak announced that the signal switches indicating train traffic were snow covered as the BNSF railroad hadn't cleared them yet. Therefore Amtrak had to go slow. Very slow. We got to Minot 2 and 1/2 hours late.

Poor Dick. He called the station for the train's arrival time before the train slowed down and was told the train would arrive at 9:30 am, about an hour late. He arrived at the train station then to get me. The train didn't arrive until after 11 am.

In Minot it was still snowing lightly.  The roads are wet and the grass is white.  It looks like Winter.  Bring back global warming, or at least normal Fall weather.

Snow

It is cold and snowy here in Minnesota, and in North Dakota, and in Montana.

We had 1.7 inches of snow here in Minnesota.  The good news is that it melted right away.

In Montana I was told that there was snow also.  The temperature is colder as Kalispell set record low temperatures the past three nights.  The former record lows had been in the teens and twenties, and the last three nights the lows were 6, 5, and 2.  Hmmm... I guess I should have turned on the furnace in my house before I left.   I hope the water pipes in my house did not freeze and break.  What happened to global warming?!

In MN

I made it to Minnesota today.  My brother took me to the train last night.  After getting my seat and putting my luggage on board I stood outside talking to my brother.   A man carried his sister's luggage on board and upstairs to the top level for her.

A few minutes later I noticed a man trying to open - with no success - the opposite door on the train.  I called out and asked him what he was doing as that door led to the train tracks on the other side.  He then noticed me and the open door on my side.  It was the man who carried his sister's luggage upstairs.  He sheepishly mumbled something and exited the train through the open door.

The train was on time the whole time.  It also had few people on my car.  I easily was able to find a pair of open seats.  I even had my choice and chose a pair of seats where I had part of the wall to lean my pillow against.

I brought my larger pillow along  and a thin blanket so I was set for the night.  I slept fairly well although not deeply.  Lots of half remembering dreams.

In Minneapolis/St Paul lots and lots of people boarded.  I stayed asleep spread out over my two seats.  Once the train left the station I woke up to find most of the seats filled.

At Red Wing, MN an older woman and I were getting off.  We were in the third from the last car and were not near the station.  The train attendant mused wondering if the others remembered we were getting off the train.  I told her I was willing to walk to the station but the attendant wouldn't open the door because there was no platform, only train tracks.

At the station a large group of people were on the platform.  Once they were loaded the train started up.  Is the train picking up speed? Will it stop?  Well,  the train did stop at the station and let us off the train.   And there was Tammy waiting for me.  Yay!

Before heading to Rochester we drove up to a park on a bluff overlooking Red Wing and the Mississippi River and valley.  It has been many years since I had been there so after crossing the river into Wisconsin (oops, my bad), we used Tammy's Garmin GPS unit to find the park. After the GPS unit kept telling us to turn right on non existent intersections we stopped listening to "her".  We stopped at a visitor center and I found the park using a map.

This photos are of Red Wing.  The bluff on the right in the second photo is Barn Bluff.  I don't have a photo editor right now that stitches photos so you'll have to see them in two photos.

Notice, this is Minnesota.  There are no mountains.

Fat and lazy and up a tree

I feel like I am moving through mud.  I have such intentions of getting lots of stuff done while here in North Dakota but there is something about the place that sinks me into lethargy. 

Perhaps my mood is because of the weather as it is wet and cool and cloudy.  We have had under two inches of rain since I arrived in Minot less than a week ago and that is much much more rain than I have seen in many months back in Montana.  The grass here is green and lush and I am used to brown and dry.  I visited one of the neighbors this afternoon and walking across the lawn it was soft and springy and not hard like in Montana.

I also haven't been outside like normal.  This lack of being out in the fresh air, and the lack of exercise, is making me feel fat and lazy. I am getting stuff done but I don't feel like I am living up to my potential.

I created a flier to sell my mother's Jazzy power chair. I closed my mother's probate and helped my brother with some financial and city assessor questions.

I am working on going through the items in my mother's office.  Four hours later I had the top of the desk cleared and that was no small matter.

Tuesday I trimmed many dead branches and some live ones from the Scotch pine tree in the backyard that always abandons branches and loses oodles of long needles.  I used an extension ladder to reach branches so I could climb the tree to near the top.  I had to take care as the branches were still wet.

I raked the dead long needles from the lawn and it looked nice, but after today's strong wind the lawn is littered with more dead needles and other tree leaves that were in the process of turning.

When I was up in the pine tree I saw and heard people at the neighbor's house beyond the apple picking neighbor.  A half dozen men were outside between the house and the detached garage talking.  They all had thick Cajun accents.  It is one thing to go to a place where the locals have strong accents - it is quite charming - but it is odd to hear such strong accents and ways of talking outside their environment, especially in North Dakota about as far away as you can get from swamps, spicy food and accents.

I guess I was working quietly as the old neighbor next door, who was out in his backyard with his wife picking apples from their tree, needed to pee.  Instead of going into his house he came around the garage, and in the narrow area between his garage and my brother's hedge of bushes and trees he watered the bushes.  Oh well.  I am a guy and I live on a ranch so I am not offended.  The hedges are thick and the only reason I knew what he was doing was that he told his wife that is what he planned to do.  TMI!

The neighbor came over later that afternoon and gave my brother a couple bags of the apples he picked.  Another reason not to embarrass him.

The contractor for the local telephone company came by in the afternoon to check on their phone line and the trees.  My brother and I had trimmed the tree branches away from the power and phone lines this past Spring and the trees have not filled in this area yet.  Bye, bye.

Last night I visited my friend Rod.  He had ridden on the RAGBRAI bicycle ride in Iowa this past July and he showed me photos and told me stories from the ride.  Looked to be a fun time.

Rod also gave me a few bottles of wine he had made this Summer.  That will come in handy as tonight I catch the train to Minnesota to see Tammy.  She had won a free several night stay at a resort in northern Minnesota.  The weather forecast for this weekend is so-so, so we may have to sit in the jacuzzi and drink Rod's wine. Oh! Life is hard.

Frigid forecast

According to the Farmer's Almanac, this winter is going to be cold. What happened to global warming?! Click here for more info.

Back to ND

Wednesday night I arrived back to North Dakota to visit my brother.

The train trip was uneventful. I slept off and on as I only had a little over 2 and 1/2 hours of sleep the night before what with all the last minute stuff I was trying to get done before leaving. Thankfully the rain held off Tuesday and I was able to get more done outside before I left.

I got most of my garden harvested.  I pulled all the tomato plants.  I had tons and tons of green tomatoes but I was surprised to find one red tomato.  I took a photo of it before picking it but unfortunately I left the photo on my computer back in Montana.

I dug 11 of my 14 hills of potatoes and filled a five gallon plastic pail with potatoes. I left the last three hills for when I return to Montana.

I ended up killing four small fat mice that were using the thick tomato and potato plants as a home.

I dug a few carrots and found they didn't grown much this year.  Odd.  Joyce said the same thing happen to her carrots.

Since it was nice outside I painted the rest of the primer I had on the part of the garage's little addition that I'm not going to replace later.

I also trapped another seven pocket gophers so my total is up to 204 for the year.  I then removed the traps from the field so as not to have disgusting messes when I get back.

Snow fell as the train went over Marias Pass and east of the divide to East Glacier. Then it rained off and on throughout MT. It is wet here in ND.

Once people could get cell reception again after coming out of the mountains lots of people jumped on their cell phone to tell others that they just saw snow. A number of other times people around my seat yakked away on their cell phones. Train rides used to be so quiet.

The train's time was all over the place. It was early, on time, or late at different times throughout the day. I got to Minot close to on time.