Dustin Monke

2013: A year of curveballs

As I write this column from my future in-laws’ kitchen table in Harlowton, Mont., I can’t help but reflect on how much this year has meant in the grand scheme of my life.

This was the year I got engaged, received a life-changing promotion, remembered what it was like to live with a college student when my fiancée decided to go back to school for licensing in her field of study, adopted a military dog with about two weeks notice and, just when I thought things were settling down in time for the holidays and a boatload of changes coming at work, I lost my grandpa just days before Sarah and I were called to Montana to visit her ailing grandfather.

This year has taught me — if nothing else — that no matter how positive life can be, there is always a negative to balance out life and, for lack of a better term, bring us back to reality.

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The loss and celebration of a family patriarch

Nothing good can come from a 6:45 a.m. phone call from you mother.

When I answered, it was clear she was upset. Instantly, I knew something in my world was about to change. Then she said it. … “Honey, Grandpa died.”

I was silent for a few seconds as I listened to her quietly cry on the other end of the line.
“Grandpa died?” was the only response I could muster, almost in a childlike voice. What she said didn’t seem real. It was early enough in the morning, I wondered if I was dreaming.

I wasn’t. Reality quickly began to sink in. One of the men who I considered a hero in my life was gone.

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Constructive homecoming: Boom helps Dickinson native return home, coordinate major projects

1208 MELLMER1 — Marc Mellmer, an operations coordinator for JE Dunn Construction in Dickinson, stands on the outside of the St. Joseph’s Hospital construction site. Mellmer, a Dickinson native, has climbed the ladder with JE Dunn is now part of the management team in charge of more than $250 million worth of construction projects in western North Dakota.

At just 29 years old, Dickinson native Marc Mellmer has found himself at the forefront of western North Dakota’s construction boom.

As an operations coordinator for JE Dunn Construction, Mellmer is responsible for building the new St. Joseph’s Hospital in Dickinson and numerous other infrastructure projects. All told, Mellmer estimates he and his management team will oversee about $250 million in vertical construction in western North Dakota over the next three years.

“My goal is not to leave,” Mellmer said with a smile. “I don’t plan on moving JE Dunn out of here ever — if I had it my way.”

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Love it or hate it, Black Friday brings ’em out

On Thanksgiving night — or Gray Thursday, if you want to call it that — crowds of shoppers gathered inside of Walmart awaiting the proverbial 6 p.m. starting bell that allowed them to buy discounted items such as TVs, iPads, video games, vacuums and even Tupperware.

Yes, Tupperware. But to be fair, at less than $7 for 30 items, any 1950s housewife will tell you it was a steal of a deal. And any 2013 gamer will say you’re crazy if you’re not in line for $30 copies of Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto V.

Love it or hate it, Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales sure do have a way of bringing out customers.

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Shoppers Holiday: Dickinson store owners, managers prepare for Thanksgiving, Black Friday rush

1128 Black Friday 1 — Sara Spradley puts a tool set on a rack at Newby’s Ace Hardware on Wednesday in preparation for the store’s early morning opening on Friday.

Lenny Johnson calls the sound similar to a “stampede of horses.”

The co-owner of Starboard, an apparel store in the Prairie Hills Mall, has been a part of three Black Friday doorbuster sales pushes. Each one has been more interesting than the last, he said, as the mall doors open and customers flood in — some of them running — toward stores looking for deals.

“It is absolutely the craziest thing you will ever see,” Johnson said. “You can literally hear the feet.”

Dickinson’s population has practically doubled in the past five years and many who work in retail businesses said sales have improved during that span.

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