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This weekend of event coverage probably was the weirdest weekend I have ever had in my 46+ years of full-time work here at the Dodgeville Chronicle. Thursday night was the Bloomfield Healthcare Balloon Fest and I needed to be at the Knights Home Talent Night League game at 7:30 with the concession stand open. I went to Bloomfield at around 5:30 after closing the office and took a bunch of photos before leaving for Centennial Park around 6:45 to start cooking brats, hamburgers and hot dogs for the game. Friday night I took it rather easy due to no ball games and not really a lot to cover. I needed to be at the Iowa County Dairy Breakfast at 6:30 a.m. so I could get some photos and then head out for state track in La Crosse around 8:00. That all happened, but about 20 minutes into the track meet, the storms came. That resulted in a 5 1/2 hour weather delay with events starting up again at about 4:30 p.m. I was hungry so I found a China Buffet in a little mall and "pigged out"! What that eventually meant was not leaving La Crosse until after 11:00 p.m. - thus getting back to Dodgeville after 1:00 a.m. Then I had to get some cooking supplies to Harris Park Sunday morning around 8:00 (actually planned earlier, but couldn't get out of bed) for the Lions Club Antique Show & Flea Market. Then I went to church and then back to Harris Park to work my shift for the Lions. We closed up the concession stand early after running out of food, so it was back to the office to work on things from the days prior. Anyway, the weekend was eventful and I certainly couldn't say I was bored!
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The Dodgeville-Mineral Point track & field teams had a great showing at state again this year. The girls team brought back the silver trophy for the second year in a row, just missing the top spot by one point - and we have two of our top distance runners injured! Several of the girls individually and on relay teams made it to the podium (top 6 places) and a boys 4x800 relay team did too. The girls distance team (4x800) won gold medals with the 4x400 team winning silver medals. It was a great showing and even though there were two rain delays, the meet came off in the two days as scheduled - just running later than anyone really wanted.
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I wrote about Molly Hanson's fete in going to the NCAA track & field tournament as a University of Wisconsin runner this Thursday in Eugene, Oregon. She was at the state meet to watch her former teammates, and especially her sister (Mary) run the 800 (2nd) and the 4x800 relay (1st). She told me she was accepted into the School of Journalism. And to think she was an intern here just last summer!
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I suppose I had better explain the photo at the top of my column. Someone sent it to me as it was taken while I was taking a group photo of the Dodgeville High School Awards and Scholarship winners recently. Being so "not tall" I have to get up on a chair to be able to see everyone's faces when I take a group photo like that when they are seated in the bleachers! Everyone around me was afraid I would fall from the chair, so it was being steadied!
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This weekend is Father's Day. Brother Pat and I lost our father in 1994, so he isn't around to celebrate with. But we remember the many good times we had especially the Father's Day cookouts we had. I also remember the Father's Days dad and I spent golfing during the day. It's hard to believe that I was the one who got him into golfing when I was in middle school/high school and then he got way better than me. I guess I was a good teacher!