Along The Ad Routes

by Mike Reilly

Temperatures near 50. That’s great because baseball season is on the verge of starting! High School teams have been having open gym and are getting the rust out from the fall and winter layoffs. I’m in the process of working on goods for the concession stand at Centennial Park too!

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With the weather warming up some I finally broke down and got a hair cut. So if you run into me and don’t recognize me, that’s the reason why!

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We wanted to stay close to home Saturday morning for breakfast as most of us wanted to make it to the wake/funeral for Pat Thym. He was famous for owning Thym’s Supper Club and many knew him for his antique collection. Pat played cards with our lunch group from time to time. It was always an enjoyment to have him around gaining his knowledge!

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So, our breakfast trip was a little ways to the east as we went to The Golden Eagle Bar and Grill in Barneveld. We had been there a few times before and, as usual, had Emily as our waitress. She is always smiling and does a great job keeping us in liquids! It was Terry driving Bob, Tom, me and Royce Wehrle making the trip from Dodgeville. We met Dave Stone there as he comes from the east! Dewey was still in Indiana so he didn’t make it!

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As usual we ran into Leo Clerkin, a longtime friend. We had to put two tables together to seat our six people, so that took an extra table away from Leo’s group. They had to sit in the lower level of the place. Tom DeMuth and I went down to apologize to them. They said not to let that happen again - just kidding! If it wasn’t for two people sitting at a table near us we would’ve moved another table together for them. Oh, and Wanda Owens told me I could put her name in my column for being at the table eating with their group. Actually she was trying to use reverse psychology on me so I wouldn’t name her - it didn’t work!

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Our coverage area will be well represented this weekend at the WIAA State Individual Wrestling Championships at the Kohl Center. Competition begins on Thursday (tonight) and goes through Saturday evening. There are 19 boys and two girls competing from around here with a lot more from southwestern Wisconsin. Mineral Point leads with 8 boys and 2 girls while Iowa-Grant/Highland has 5 boys, Dodgeville 4 and Pecatonica/Argyle 2. There should be a few championships and a lot of medals coming back out of that group. Good luck to all!

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Girls basketball playoffs began Tuesday night with most playing again tonight and hopefully Saturday. Our gymnastics Sectional is here in Dodgeville Saturday too. Good luck to all the teams!

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Several people said they saw me on TV.  I thought they were talking about the John McGivern segment on Dodgeville but they were talking about the Central Asian Productivity Research Center’s Annual Chinese New Year luncheon on Friday at Dodgeville’s Chinese restaurant (China One). I was lucky to be seated between two representatives of the Chinese Counsul. I had some very interesting conversation with. One talked a lot about wanting to fish around here!

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Today, Thursday, February 27 could be one of my favorite days. It’s National Chili Day! It’s honors one of America's favorite winter dishes–chili, which is also known as chili con carne (chili with meat). In Spanish, chili refers to “chili pepper” and carne means “meat”. I could almost eat chili every meal!