Million Dollar Way (Some Bakken Some of the Time): A Tale of Two Cities -- Fremont, CA / Williston, ND

Million Dollar Way (Some Bakken Some of the Time): A Tale of Two Cities -- Fremont, CA / Williston, ND

GOWP is alive and going forward well

This project is taking up all my time anymore. If you follow me at all, go to the GOWP site and find my blog there as well.

Generations Of Warriors Project unleashed

This is to introduce you to the non-profit organization that I've formed to help educate the public about the struggles of those with invisible wounds...PTSD, TBI and MSA. Join us, will you? There is so much to do and so little time for some of our returning warriors.

OED Adventure

What a treat it has been to read of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Yep...you got it...I'm certifiable, I guess. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (Harper Press 1998) is the story of the making of the Dictionary with special emphasis on the extrordinary lives of two of the most notable contributors to its successful completion. It is subtitles "A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary". It is one of the few books that I have had to read non-stop for the sheer obsession that it engenders. Having an English B.S. and also having been out of academia since that degree was generously bestowed upon me, I found the experience very envigorating...intellectually. I was surprised to find that I cheered on the contributions of the Madman with much the same enthusiasm as would a baseball fan the scoring of runs...a bit geeky (a word?), I suppose.

Anyway, if you love scolarly adventure (narrow genre, to be sure) you would sure appreciate this literary success.

Daddy's little girl grows up!

I just have to tell you about my first child. I'm so proud of her. She was born Tera Charisse Oland on October 4th, 1970. She and her mother, Cheryl (Priess), split with me in 1974. I wasn't exactly the guy Cheryl wanted to spend the rest of her life with and that started Tera on a difficult journey over the next years.

She has re-entered academia and is on her way to achieving her goal of becoming a nurse. It's hard to express the joy of being a father and seeing such a turn-around. She is such a beautiful person...both inside and out.

Tera lives in the LA area (near her mother) and I'm going there for a Viet Nam Veterans' Reunion the 8th of November and I am going to try to spend a lot of time with her. She and I are both quite excited about it. We've got to sweep some floors, clear some cobwebs and chase out some vermin and then we'll try to be father and daughter for real. We're both cautiously optimistic about our reunion.

I hope I have a good report for you when I get back!

Is Nothing Sacred? (or "Bountiful Clerics")

Ain't it exciting watching the news lately? A Moslem cleric has put a $1M bounty on a cartoonist! Good grief....is nothing sacred?!

I was thinking that it's time for Lutheran pastors, Catholic priests and Jewish rabbis to put bounties on Moslem clerics. Now there's a worthy goal for a Sunday (Saturday) worship serivice collection. Can't you just see the reader board on the markee or the goal thermometer showing the growing donations? It certainly makes better use of donated money than building church buildings. Puts new meaning to bountiful religion. don't know that it's what God intended bountiful to mean, but then, who cares anymore? Religion is just a political vehicle to most anyway.

Biking in January

It's been a bone-chattering stretch, but I spent a couple of hours freezing my buns while riding my Kawasaki Police bike today. It was great. It's been years since I've had the feeling of revitlaization that motorcycling gives and it's great. These last few weeks it has been overcast and raining and that's a real blues-generating time. The bike is a good thing to cheer me up.

I bought the bike from a guy a few houses down the street here in Benton City after seeing it in his garage while I was on a walk. I just had abdominal surgery and was waddling down the street with my hands holding my gut. I musta looked like I was nearly dead. I think the guy that owned the bike was shocked that this ol gray-haired, bearded gimp was in the market for the Kaw. He was in the street tying down his powered parachute equipment onto a trailer when I first talked to him. He's another over 55 guy too...must be an ol' guy thing around here. Anyway, he asked $1,800 and I gave him $1,350 for it and we were both happy. Then I got to thinking...dangerous for me...that thinking thing.... what in the heck was I doing with a motorcycle?! The last one I owned was an 1100 Yamaha Special...1979 model. I bought it new just before I got married to Mary Peterson of Lakoita, ND, and it served as our honeymoon transportation from Grand Forks, ND, through Glacier Park, MT,and back. I crashed it doing a peg-scraping corner maneuver in Missouri while heading for work at Thomas Hill power house near Moberly, MO...a bit of gravel on an asphalt two-lane corner. That was about 1982 when I was just finishing my Electrician apprenticeship. It was also the last time I owned a scoot and was to be always known as my last one. Hmmmm. Time has a way of healing memories...or, should I say, covering up good lessons?

This new scoot is a 1992 KZ1000p...the "p" is for police. I think it's the beginning of a long and fun relationship.