South Dakota has a new resident and she's shaking things up!
After some poking and prodding, I figured I better start blogging again about South Dakota. I moved to Rapid City, SD October 10 to take a job with Booz Allen working on site at Ellsworth AFB. I will be here for at least a year, maybe 2 or 3. Just depends on the client and what I want to do. I'm renting a duplex - basically half of a house in the West Blvd District of Rapid City which is the historic part of town. It's a 2 bed, 2 bath so I have plenty of room for guests. Just let me know when you are coming!
This state is still considered to be the conservative Mid-West. And I would definitely agree. I work with mostly Republicans who constantly joke on me for my Obama bumper sticker. But they weren't laughing much on Wednesday. I didn't realize how conservative this state was until I saw that they were trying to ban abortion. Surprisingly it was rejected by voters. But all in all, people are pretty conservative and old fashioned if you will.
Today we had our first blizzard of the season. It actually snowed a little the first weekend I was here but it was just a dusting. It was in the 70s all last week. In the 60s Monday and Tuesday. And then blizzard conditions yesterday through today. We got about a foot of snow and with the high winds of up to 78 mph most of everything was shut down. The winds were also causing snow drifts, one of which formed in my driveway in front of my garage. It took me 2 hours to shovel the 3 foot high snow drift. Not fun. Temperatures look like they will be staying in the 30s and 40s for a while so I'm not sure when this snow will melt. I've heard that the weather is fickle here and they call this area the "banana belt." Not really sure why but it just makes me picture a belt with bananas on it.
Here are some fun/interesting things that I've noticed/learned/would like to share with you:
-Black Hills Bagels down the street has a sign with a cowboy riding a bagel.
-Lunch is called dinner and dinner is called supper.
-There are 2 men made out of tires at a tire place (I need to get a pic).
-There are bronze statues of the Presidents on each corner in downtown. They would be great photo ops.
-Praire Dogs have the bubonic plague and you can catch it from fleas.
-Electricity is just called lights.
-There is so little local news or local crime that the local news mostly reports national and world news.
-There is no local CBS affiliate so CBS comes from Sioux Fall in Central time. Prime time CBS shows start at 6pm.
-Everyone out here is really nice including mechanics who researched a warranty for me and saved me $250. Where else does that happen?
-You do not approach bison.
-The antelope are actually pronghorns.
-Native American Indian tensions are still high out here.
-The guy who played Daniel Day Lewis's father in Last of the Mohicans just ran for President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and lost.
-Deadwood is a real town and you can gamble there.
The Office is on so I'm going to go. Uploading images to livejournal used to be really annoying. It looks like they have a new feature. I will attempt that at another time or will start a Picasa online album.
Also, if someone is web savy and would be willing to fancy up my blog - please let me know and I'll just give you my log in or something.
I'm kind of hoping for a snow day tomorrow too. I didn't get around to my People magazine today.
This state is still considered to be the conservative Mid-West. And I would definitely agree. I work with mostly Republicans who constantly joke on me for my Obama bumper sticker. But they weren't laughing much on Wednesday. I didn't realize how conservative this state was until I saw that they were trying to ban abortion. Surprisingly it was rejected by voters. But all in all, people are pretty conservative and old fashioned if you will.
Today we had our first blizzard of the season. It actually snowed a little the first weekend I was here but it was just a dusting. It was in the 70s all last week. In the 60s Monday and Tuesday. And then blizzard conditions yesterday through today. We got about a foot of snow and with the high winds of up to 78 mph most of everything was shut down. The winds were also causing snow drifts, one of which formed in my driveway in front of my garage. It took me 2 hours to shovel the 3 foot high snow drift. Not fun. Temperatures look like they will be staying in the 30s and 40s for a while so I'm not sure when this snow will melt. I've heard that the weather is fickle here and they call this area the "banana belt." Not really sure why but it just makes me picture a belt with bananas on it.
Here are some fun/interesting things that I've noticed/learned/would like to share with you:
-Black Hills Bagels down the street has a sign with a cowboy riding a bagel.
-Lunch is called dinner and dinner is called supper.
-There are 2 men made out of tires at a tire place (I need to get a pic).
-There are bronze statues of the Presidents on each corner in downtown. They would be great photo ops.
-Praire Dogs have the bubonic plague and you can catch it from fleas.
-Electricity is just called lights.
-There is so little local news or local crime that the local news mostly reports national and world news.
-There is no local CBS affiliate so CBS comes from Sioux Fall in Central time. Prime time CBS shows start at 6pm.
-Everyone out here is really nice including mechanics who researched a warranty for me and saved me $250. Where else does that happen?
-You do not approach bison.
-The antelope are actually pronghorns.
-Native American Indian tensions are still high out here.
-The guy who played Daniel Day Lewis's father in Last of the Mohicans just ran for President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and lost.
-Deadwood is a real town and you can gamble there.
The Office is on so I'm going to go. Uploading images to livejournal used to be really annoying. It looks like they have a new feature. I will attempt that at another time or will start a Picasa online album.
Also, if someone is web savy and would be willing to fancy up my blog - please let me know and I'll just give you my log in or something.
I'm kind of hoping for a snow day tomorrow too. I didn't get around to my People magazine today.