---

Sunday I was asked to take a group photo at the Piggly Wiggly parking lot in Dodgeville of a bunch of "Crubaughs" just before they loaded a bus to go to the Milwaukee Brewers baseball game that day. The nearly 40 were accompanying Florence (my late buddy's wife) on her birthday to the game against the Colorado Rockies. A group of about 15 was meeting the bus in Verona, but here's the lion's share of them. Oh, and I reminded Flo that the Brewers were on a roll and that this group better not bring them bad luck. She didn't let me down as the Brewers were 3-1 winners!
*****
Cell Phones - Cell Phones - Cell Phones....what did we ever do without them? We can say that about pretty much everything we have in the day and age - computers, FAX machines, gas grills...the list goes on - but the cell phone is maybe taking over in popularity from all of those other things. Having one has real pluses like being able to call 911 in case of any emergency - I'm sure a lot of accidents and stalled vehicles or medical problems get called in every minute.  But, many times there is just too much "using" them! Here are a couple of instances with one being told to me and the other I personally witnessed - both were similar in nature. The first happened in Cobb when an older lady was crossing the highway form the south to the north. A car coming from the east stopped to let the lady (who was walking rather slowly) cross. She was in a marked intersection (not that that matters). As she was walking across, a vehicle pulled out from behind the stopped car and came really close to hitting the lady in the intersection. The driver of that vehicle pulled out as she was probably in a big hurry to get somewhere and was on her cell phone. She probably didn't even look ahead to see if the reason the car in front of her was stopped was to let a pedestrian cross! The second one happened to me while I was heading back to the Chronicle office. I had my directional on to turn left at the Corner Drug corner and a vehicle heading toward me was stopped to make a right turn at that same intersection, but was turning away from me. Since there was another vehicle right behind me that other turning vehicle let me make my turn first. As I was doing so, a car went out around the other stopped vehicle and if I hadn't been watching the two of us would've collided. That driver also was on a cell phone and again probably wasn't really paying attention to me turning or anything else for that matter!
*****
I also have a third cell phone incident that was a near hit that happened when someone was turning to proceed into traffic as they were coming out of a business parking lot. The turn was fairly sharp to the right as it was from the Golden Crown lot onto Highway 23. That driver could only use one hand as they too were on their cell phone. Have you ever tried making a sharp right turn using only one hand? Hint - you swing out too far into the left lane! It's not easy as I tried it once holding onto food and coffee coming out from Kwik Trip North one time. No cell phone, though, but the turn isn't easy. I DID make sure that there were no other vehicles around when I did that though!