Dakota Today

**Orchid and frost on the window..photo for a cold day

Yesterday December 12, 2009 was a pretty nice winter day for this area.  Actually not a bad day to be oooght and aboot as some of the Canadian students at the U of R used to say.  Today however is not nearly so nice.  We have some of the Canadian's and Eskimo's air occupying our space today.   High temperature today seems to be about 1/10th of what it was yesterday.  Anyway, below is a photo of one of my wife's orchids and the frost on the window.

Yesterday was also a nice night for the Winner Regional Hospital annual Christmas Party.  Food was pretty good too.  My wife when she isn't watering her plants works there.  In fact, she got a 25 year pin and a certificate last night.  It even spelled her name correctly even if the envelope it came in had "Wanda Wilken" on it.   Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

** Stay tuned, there may be warmer weather coming --- Doug Wiken

**Newt Gingrich book price drops to $1.00

Slow news day here for sure.  Drizzle and chill, clouds and a few minutes of actual sunshine.  Temperature now is around 45.  Stopped at local Pamida discount store.  Their pile of books is shrinking, but some just don't move.  Newt Gingrich's "Winning the Future" hit $1.00 in the market economy today.  Got the book and made sure to keep the price sticker for it too.  So far the most interesting part is the photo of his most recent trophy wife Callista.

Far less serious is news from the refrigerator front..literally almost.  I got some of those magnetic letters for kids and could not resist decorating.  Wife has tolerated it for a few days, but suspect I am pushing my luck.

 

I looked a bit more carefully at the combines mentioned in a previous post.  With little knowledge of North Dakota towns and geography, it appeared as if the custom combiner was from both Michigan and North Dakota.  But, it appears that at some point somebody was terribly lonely for Michigan and decided to hang that name on a small town in North Dakota.  It is about 400 miles NE of  Winner, SD.  Bob Anderson, the combiner, said it was terribly cold there last year.  I guess those of us who gripe about weather in South Central SD are pansies compared to those from the frigid northlands of Dakota.

** Stay tuned even if you have a very low tolerance for trivia...or some of the less charitable might say, Stay tuned especially if you have a preference for the trivial drivel all the time-- Doug Wiken

**Don't tell Sibby, but they really were Black Helicopters.

Sometime after noon today, October 5, 2009, I was talking to a neighbor on the phone when the whole house literally shook.  The floors vibrated, the walls vibrated, the windows rattled.  About the worst noise I have ever heard.  I looked out the window and my cows were running for shelter next to a building.  Then I saw one helicopter a hundred feet or so off the ground.  Hung up the phone and got closer to the window.  Five black helicopters were landing at the Winner Regional Airport.  It was a crappy wet morning with lousy flying weather and I guess that may be why they were so low over the house.

I drove up to the airport and got a few pictures.of the helicopters, but not of the men relieving themselves next to the airport building.  They had been flying for a few hours.  I talked to one of them.  They were on the way through here and fueling up for a trip south before being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan... I guess.  I wished them "Good Luck" and expressed hope that  they weren't being wasted in a futile fight.  They sort of looked at the ground.  "At least" one of them said, "it might be warmer there".

The blotches on photo above are rain on the camera lens. I may stick another one of these into a gallery, but the next photo taken an hour or two later  is just an indicator of how drizzly wet it was here today.  Some drops on a small branch.

Click on image above for a larger version.  

More to come tomorrow on health insurance issues and the McGovern-Abourezk meeting here in Winner Saturday evening.

[[[ Dakota Today Note added Tuesday Oct 6, 2009: This afternoon I heard a news report on SDPB radio which indicated these five helicopters carrying something like 45 men later had to land at Yankton, SD and stay overnight because of the inclement weather.  I was told yesterday, but did not know if it was information the men wanted spread around, but the news today with a colonel's blessing apparently indicated the men were from North Dakota on their way to Ft. Sill in Oklahoma in preparation for deployment. That's the rest of the story more or less--- Doug Wiken ]]]]

*** Stay tuned even if "The big Noise from Winner" was never a good band or music to anybody's ears---- Doug Wiken

**Weird Weather for Winner, SD

This does not seem to have been a typical weather year for Winner, SD and Tripp County.  Last night after predictions of scattered light showers somewhere, we had about 1.82 inches of rain according to weather at Winner Regional Airport.

And now at noon, it appears as if we are going to get more rain.  Lightening and it does not seem a whole lot brighter now than it was in the nearly full moon last night at midnight.

 

And while I posted the above, heavy and apparently steady rain started to fall again. So far right here right north of Winner, we have escaped dreadful hail storms.  I saw a car from Gregory, SD this morning that had been pelted with hail there apparently a night or two ago.  The hood looked like it had been beaten with a heavy ball peen hammer.  Mother Nature can be very unkind to cars and home windows.

*** Stay tuned, the sun will shine tomorrow ...or maybe next week --- Doug Wiken

**Hot today and old SDPB TV channels go cold

Some thermometers in Winner, SD today showed 100 degrees fahrenheit, but the official temp high at Winner Regional Airport (doesn't that sound impressive) was 93 degrees.  That is a rather sudden change in the hot direction after some unseasonably cool temperatures.  Sure made the air in Winner have the sweet aroma of Lilac blossoms.

Meanwhile, SDPB TV after giving notices that I forgot until this evening had switched from the temporary digital channels to the new channels which I assume will be more permanent from now on. Nope, the towers did not collapse out here in the boondocks, all that was actually required was a "New Scan" with our digital converters or if you have a newer digital TV, of your TV channels if you have one that tunes in the new digital off-air signals.

By now most of you pulling TV from off-air antennas are aware that SDPB-TV has three digital channels: one is essentially same as the old analog channel content, Channel two is the "World Channel" with mostly documentary and news content, and channel three which is the "Create" channel, with some good do-it-yourself and cooking  info and some near terminally silly cooking and decorating fluff.  There is some duplication which can be nice if you miss a good program.  I have noticed that the extra program information is often incomplete however.  Don't expect to find any extra info on a Charlie Rose program for example and check later in the morning for some information may turnup late.

Interesting technology, but some surprises in the mix if you think it is going to work without good antennas, amplifiers and splitters if you hope to use your old analog TVs with a digital to analog converter.  There may also be some tuners in the digital TVs which really don't work as well as the converters for analog TVs.  That seems a bit strange, but I tried a small Sansui "digital-ready" TV which would only produce "weak signal" messages no matter how good the antenna system.

**Stay tuned for perhaps more tuning information..ironically-- Doug Wiken

**Crap of the day news and views

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) advertises on SD Public Radio something suggesting that it is building the future. That rings sort of hollow on a campus which can't even plan effective snow removal in a city which cleans streets around the police station but not around the SDSM&T campus.

Today, the free parking areas were only partially plowed. I assume faculty parking and the slot for the President of the campus were spotlessly clean, but there was not adequate parking for off campus students and the sidewalks are poorly cleared. The streets around the campus were also unfit for parking. One street and ally was blocked by a jackknifed semi-truck

It seems that the SD Regents have built in a disincentive for making things better for students. SDSM&T has farmed out campus parking enforcement to a corporation which employs more than a few foreigners who can barely speak English. They make extra parking revenue by not having sufficient parking engineered well enough to allow room for snow removal and piling and also parking. It fits into a plan more intent on screwing students than on educating them or literally and figuratively accommodating them. As the ARGUS LEADER editorial comment on the regents' decision to raise tuition 5.9% because of a 1 percent cut in funding from the legislature and the inflation rate of around 1 percent also suggested today or yesterday.

 Last year, the regents also had credit card payment systems removed from the campus so they could force students to use a system run by a Nebraska company NelNet that would funnel payments to the board of regents and allow a profit to them which might almost have paid Tad Parry and couple other regent official salaries. That company was fined a chunk by Nebraska for misleading students, but SD decided on them anyway.

 Over the years, the percentage of college costs funded by SD has mostly steadily declined. It may still be a bargain compared to even more poorly managed systems however.

 And just to toss in a little more crap for the day... An An Argus Columnist wasted a lot of ink and newsprint whining because a driver's license clerk had asked for citizenship papers when she applied for a driver's license. This poor dear whined like a little girl who wasn't invited to the prom or broke her acrylic fingernail. What will the dear woman do after her worrying about every real and imagined slight causes her to go prematurely gray, and some store clerk asks her, "Do you want the Senior Citizen's discount?" I hope the ARGUS has a good medical plan to cover heart attacks and seizures.

 

** Stay tuned even if the best news is that the weather is not quite as frightful as it was a day or two ago-- Doug Wiken

**Pseudo Road Photo from near Winner, SD April 4, 2009

Winner, South Dakota, seems to be in kind of a radar hole. It can be raining or snowing like crazy here and it may not show up on KELO or KSFY radar. South Dakota Safe Driving site has photos from cameras on highways and interstate, but none from Winner or Tripp County.

 Below is a road photo of the kind we need from here. Note the extra data from the airport weather. That kind of info should also be a part of the actual road photos. Click on the image for a larger version. It is however mostly just more snow.

 I haven't checked any sites for road conditions here, but my guess is "No driving recommended" would be appropriate. Even so, I have to slog through it for some groceries. My back has not recovered from shoveling the previous foot of snow that was finally cleaned and melted off most roads, driveways, and sidewalks. This is a generous resupply that I don't think we really needed today or tomorrow.

***Stay tuned and let powers that be know we need a real highway camera near Winner, SD-- Doug Wiken

** One inch, two inches or seven to 12 inches...March Snow

Predictions for snow in the Winner area varied all over the yardstick depending on which forecaster and which day and even which hour prior to the spring blizzard. First maps indicated next to nothing. Next maps suggested half a foot or so. Then came the reassuring only and inch or two report. Rapidly replaced that evening by the 7 to 12 inches or so. That was about the time the drizzle started. Later the drizzle froze and the wind blew. Then the snow. First real blizzard of the winter season. Good news was the temperature wasn't dreadful even if the windchill was not at all pleasant. Below are a couple of images. One with the snow and a street light. The next with the cars partly shoveled out before the city had cleared the street...which meant shoveling through a three-foot high ridge piled by the snowplow into the driveway. And, the backache, neckache, sore arms evidence. Driveway and sidewalks have ground about three inches off the bottom of aluminum snow scoop and the grain scoop is about shot..getting short enough for a kid...or maybe just in time for a gray-haired snow shoveler. Today, the snow on streets and highways has mostly melted or been removed. Tripp County waited until easily rolled slush turned into ice this morning. They removed a fraction of an inch of ice. The sun did most of the work this afternoon. Wind and weather as indicated by weather service and trying to stand up out here in the country was pretty dreadful for most of a day and night. Winner airport weather is available at Winner Regional Airport Weather
Well, that is enough on the weather. KELO and KSFY radar often show no precipitation in this area even if there is a raging blizzard or pouring rain. SD highway photos needs a camera by the state highway office here so the actual weather can at least be viewed in a timely fashion.
**Stay tuned. Happy weather days will be here. April showers, May flowers and all that...just remember that weather and climate are not the same thing-- Doug Wiken

** Quick trip to the Winner, SD Postoffice..a few photos

The Winner South Dakota Post Office (57580) is one of those stately government buildings from the Franklin Roosevelt Days. Corner block has a date and FDR administration names on it. Guess I should have looked closer. One of these days, I will try to get a good photo of the post office in the right light without any piles of dirty snow around it.

In the meantime, if you want to guess what the answer is to the question, "Should we find work, or just stay on the dole and reproduce?" One look at the notice below from the Interior Dept and BIA might give you a huge clue.
Outside the building, a ramp has been constructed to make the building handicap-accessible. Unfortunately, it appears to have been designed by somebody from a few hundred miles away who was clueless of the actual site. The ramp starts near the west main entrance steps and then goes south up grade for 30 or 40 feet to a flat area which allows turn to east and then up the second half of the ramp. Photo below taken from the west near south end gives an indication:
  You may be able to tell that the first half of the ramp pretty much follows the grade of the sidewalk in front of the post office parallel to the street. This seems to suggest that it would make sense to open the ramp either to the west or south near the south end as indicated below. Then extend another sidewalk to the street to the west for a parking spot labeled for the handicapped only. My guess is most people who would choose to use the ramp, would prefer having to go up only half of it instead of starting at the bottom and walking up both halves unless they were doing it just to get extra exercise.
It looks a lot like a good sorting chute for short-legged cattle. There may be some regulation that makes applying sense to this particular Winner Post Office to be impossible unless perhaps some Senator or Representative took note. I don't know. I do hope they don't have to shovel any more snow off the ramp or sidewalks this year. That wish might also mean I don't have to shovel any snow off sidewalks as well, so there is a bit of self interest implicit in that good wish.

 

**Stay tuned and make use of the PO. It is still a good deal..or at least pretty good..and the post office staff is friendly and alert-- Doug Wiken

** Happy New Year from Dakota Today

Another year nearly here. Hope 2009 is a happy one for you and your family and friends.

Hope too that a new US President can unscrew some of the messes left by the intellectually corrupt Bush Administration. South Dakota and other parts of the country as well will be searching for money in depressing times in order to make up for the funds previous administrations had used to aid states, but which Bush-Cheney decided could be better used screwing up Iraq even more than had Sad. Hussein.

 I am tired of Winter 2008 and hope the part of it that drags into 2009 will be moderate. Not wishing for perfect or ideal, just moderate.

 DRIVE SOBER TONIGHT. Better yet, just stay home and relax. There is probably no other night of the year that is better suited for sitting home and watching other crazies on TV or listening to radio as they celebrate an otherwise irrelevant day.

 

**Stay tuned, more important news to follow when I get some more information dug out of the SD cracks and crevices covered with political blather-- Doug Wiken