The Battery is dead on Spring

Spring just cannot seem to get going in this god forsaken frozen tundra they call North Dakota.  We have been beating the tiny scraps of snow with shovels hoping to get rid of the devil they call winter.  What causes wind towers to sprout up everywhere here. Well of course it is the wind.  Today it will finally be sunny and nice, except for the goddamn wind.  The wind will melt ice, praise be unto Jeeesus for that.  The lake is sitting up there with what people say is thirty inches of ice.   Apparently the calendars are broken. Thirty inches of ice and it is April whatever.  Summer will come and be gone so fast our heads spin.  Another thankya Jeeesus we did not stay here and endure the whole winter.

Decline

Pretend like it is not happening. That has always been a good solution.  Here in the heart of North Dakota coal country the ability to burn the crap is slowly coming to an end.  Kadizzle's whole career was involved in burning coal.  The simple minded say that means Kadizzle cannot be critical of anything the coal industry does.  A lot of things make sense at one point in history, but times change. Republicans are not prone to admitting change.  Lignite coal is a filthy low grade coal no matter how you slice it, but it is our coal.  It is like our president.  He is a terrible man, but he our president.  Now there are two lines of thought. We should support him because he is ours, or we should realize what a mess we have.  Now, back to coal.  The coal fired power plants are getting old and inefficient. The plant at Stanton has already closed.  Leland Olds has been limping along for years.  Two big things are giving coal fits.  First is natural gas, and second is wind power.  Natural gas is now cheap and plentiful, so plentiful they are just flaring it in western North Dakota to get rid of it.  The problem with wind power is the wind goes up and down.  To match demand that means the coal fired plants need to go up and down. That is hard on the old coal fired plants.  A coal fired plant takes time to go up or down.  On the other hand a gas fired turbine can quickly respond to high demand.  Gas burns much more cleaner than coal, and is more efficient. 

In coal country everyone keeps repeating the mantra "clean coal".  When you try to clean anything you burn you almost always use energy to clean it.  So when you put more and more pollution control on coal you end up using more and more of the energy just to clean the exhaust.  In the end if the Republicans fail to face the reality of coals demise the coal towns will be ghost towns.  So North Dakota needs to come up with a new game.  Kadizzle thinks the new game will be nuclear power. What?  While people have been sleeping big advances in nuclear technology have been made from an efficiency standpoint, and from a safety point of view.  If North Dakota got ahead of the curve and actively embraced nuclear we might survive, but that is unlikely.

The Crazy Club

Imagine a shortage of chairs at the Crazy Club.  As Kadizzle walked in there was Shiny, Stoupini, Marsha,  and a new member, Mrs Flower.  Now the Club has reached parity.  There are as many crazy women as men.  Mrs Flower is a nice fit, she is outspoken and plenty crazy.  Bev from South Dakota will be here next week.  Hopefully we can have the biggest meeting ever.  Perhaps Shanika can come up from Mandan.  We need to do something special.

Mrs Flower gave an excellent report on her trip to Roatan with her husband.  The report has inspired Kadizzle to consider Roatan a good place for a family gathering.  Roatan is of the East coast of Honduras.  Kadizzle checked it out an you can rent some nice beach side bungalows there pretty reasonable.

If you are subdued, shy, or easily offended, you do not want to be in the Crazy Club.  People speak their mind out loud at the club and if you think someone is full of it, no problem tell them right away.  The Crazy club has no qualms about gossip.  It is spread like butter on toast, and has about as much truth as a Trump cabinet meeting.

What do you do on a dreary day in Hazen.  Thankya Jesus for the Crazy club.  The basis of the Crazy Club is the Brooks House.  Just for historical review remember the Brooks House was originally the town phone company.  It is actually just a house where an old lady lived and operated the switch board down in the living room.  It must have been something in the days of the party line.  Now, it is a little art store.  It has all the wares of the local artist.  It does less business than the funeral home.  Shiny is good with arranging things and retail so she has it fixed up real nice.  Maybe Kadizzle can get some pictures today and post them here.  The little room has some nice windows, and comfortable chairs.  It ends up being a good place for group therapy.  It is like a bunch of mentally ill people who cannot afford treatment getting together for some kind of self cure that doesn't work.  You walk out thinking you are normal because everyone around you was the same as you are.  Of course the delusion is created because everyone in there was nuts.

Beat on the Snow

Jasper Littlebottom was out in the driveway beating on the snow before the sun went down.  Kadizzle gets a little obsessed with the idea also. It seems like there is some magic in trying to get all the ice off the driveway and street.  It is really a hopeless undertaking, but it makes you feel good to cut the ice into smaller chunks and force it to melt.  The Kadizzles have just become too accustomed to the warm weather of Arizona. Waking up in the morning and going outside with a T shirt is a thing that is a long way off in North Dakota.

Even with Trump puffing up the coal industry things are looking dim around coal country in North Dakota.  Republicans think you can stop the future from coming, but somehow change is inevitable. North Dakota has the dirtiest most worthless coal in the country, yet the politicians want to hang on. In the last few days Kadizzle has talked with some insiders in the industry.  Things are not looking good.  The gas plant in Beulah is scheduled to lose millions for years into the future.  The Spiritwood plant near Jamestown is struggling as the malt plant shuts down. The mine at Underwood is in high cover or to put it another way the coal is getting too deep to get out of the ground cheaply. Rather than face the future and go to nuclear power or come up with something new the brain dead Republicans want to outlaw wind power.  A dolt woman in the legislature in Beulah wants to tax wind power so it cannot be so competitive.  If solar comes on strong in North Dakota there will be a tax on sunshine. Maybe that is why it has been so cloudy. 

The North Dakota legislature is really a sleeping club for old white goats.  The goats snore away until a vote is needed. They awaken the goats and ask them to raise their hand.  The goats have no idea what they are voting for, but after they vote they give them lunch and put them down for the afternoon nap.  There is only one party in North Dakota. If you want elected, promise to do what you are told, buy a gun, join the NRA, and profess your love for tax breaks to the rich, and the Republican Jesus.  Almost forgot, you have to be from North Dakota. No outsiders, that might contaminate the goats sleeping sessions. If you get elected you have to give the Republican motto " If you believe it, it is true".  On the test you will be asked one question "What does education do to people?".  The correct answer is " Education confuses people".  Now you can vote and sleep with an exclusive crowd.

Sleepy Town

The tide of boredom rolls into our little town like gravity itself.  The streets are deserted, but the simple minded idiots are starting to roam the streets with their roaring cars.  Driving no where with a loud muffler seems to be the new sport of idiots.  It makes no sense, but it might be a redneck mating ritual.  The piston brained driver makes loud noises with his car to attract a mate.  If the dinger does find a mate it will be a female as devoid of intelligence as the noise maker himself. Now what kind of off spring do you think these two will produce.  McDonalds needs these people so it is not all wasted breeding.

The snow still sits around in piles and the lake is frozen solid.  They may as well cancel summer this year.  Driving around to check out the town on our return Kadizzle sees a lot of empty brand new real estate.  Out on the west end of town are about six new homes all with for sale signs that have been on the market for about a year, no takers.  The city got behind some new senior housing.  Again over thirty little senior apartments brand spanking new.  One is occupied.  If the oil boom does not get cranked up full bore we got a problem here.

Lift in the Arctic

After great consternation with the boss Kadizzle just got the Earth Module to it's summer home beside the house. The boss insisted it would not work and be a painful experience. It worked out fine and now one more job is done. Part of the goal is to let the sun hit the driveway.  With the ground frozen we did not have to plow up the yard with wheel tracks. Checked out the Sovereign up at the lake. It was like seeing an old friend. The boat came through the winter well and is raring to go. A big problem is a the lake is still frozen solid. 

It is time for a life change and the Kadizzles are throwing the dice.  The boat is for sale, and the house may soon be. If someone meets our price we may be building in AZ in the small town of Payzon.  If no one wants to pony up the cash the Kadizzles will just keep on keeping on.  Such is life.  So many of our good friends are getting shot up with the prizes of aging. The sand is running through the hour glass and there is more sand on the bottom than on the top.

Being back in the house does have it's benefits, all the showers you want, music in every room, stores nearby, and plenty of room to make a bigger mess.

Had an informal meeting of the Crazy Club on Shiny's back porch. Elected Stroupini philosopher emirates. Then we looked up the word emirates to see what it means.  If you ever have a strong desire to see nothing Happen, or watch snow melt come to Hazen. The streets are empty, the stores are deserted, and the big excitement is the sun going up and down.

Summer is bound to come bounding down the pike in a week or two then it is mow, mow, mow, and weed, weed, weed.  So the Earth keeps spinning and orbiting the sun at 67,000 miles per hour. No wonder we are getting older and worn our. 

Daniel Norgren - Everything You Know Melts Away like Snow

What is your political view?

This little illustration says a lot about how you think.  The one on the far left seems to sum up the Republican view of life.  Republicans don't care for the one in the middle, nor do they particularly care for the one on the right.  Think of the tall guy as the rich guy.  The tall guy wins no matter what.  The inheritance tax is a classic case.  If you get a bundle just because someone died you get to see the game. Not the case if you are born poor.  If your parents don't set you up you have to get your own box to stand on.  Republicans say "Dad can give you his box".  Now explain how that is fair?