Along The Ad Routes

by Mike Reilly

We received a nice note from Pat Laufenberg of Dodgeville with her renewal of the Dodgeville Chronicle. She said, “Thank you Pat & Mike for your great service. You do a great job every week. I know we keep getting older and sometimes it takes a little longer to get things done! Thanks Again - Pat Laufenberg”

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I was hoping to write about the Packers winning over the Bears in the first-round of the National Football League playoffs. For one half of Saturday night’s game, I could’ve written about a win! They were leading 21-3 and I thought no way can they lose. I was wrong! Since it was on Prime TV I wasn’t watching it. I went to bed at halftime and didn’t check the score after that. I don’t know what happened. People told me thay had their chances, but just couldn’t do it. Kudos to the Bears, who have won seven games in the second half of games, this season, some on the very last play - isn’t that right Packers!

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I don’t know what the reason was for the NFL to put that Packers/Bears playoff game on Prime? All of the other playoff games were on regular TV stations!

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Our breakfast group was in limbo about where to go this week due to what the weather predictions were. We were expecting 1-3 inches, then less than an inch, then 1-3 again with some spots showing 2-5 inches. So we decided to meet at the Chronicle office at 7:30 Saturday morning and decide from there! I arrived around 6:50 and soon Royce came in from Cobb. He said the 18/151/23 intersection at the north end of town was very slippery. He also said we had a lot more snow in Dodgeville than there was in Cobb! Potsie was next to show with Terry following, both from town. Bob was the last to show and he said he almost did a 180 degree turn heading here. Tom was under the weather and Dave was up north skiing. After all that our decision was just to stay in town and Country Cafe was our choice. We were the only ones there when we arrived, so we had our choice of seats. Amy Jo (who some call Mary Jo, Jo Jo or whatever) was our waitress. We had an assortment of things from skillet to country breakfast, to strawberry waffle to biscuits & gravy. Craig, the owner, even had time to come out of the kitchen to chat. He did so until people started coming in and then he had to head back to the kitchen to prepare some more food. We sat around and talked for a good half hour after we were done eating. It was a good day!

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Oh, and how much snow did we get? We got about an inch and it was pretty much gone by early afternoon. The sun came out and took care of a lot of it!

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If all went well the first part of this week, Carson and Ariel Blabaum are the new owners of Dino’s in Dodgeville by the time you read this! They are exited to take on this new venture with very little change in the place or menu!

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Well today, January 15 means we are halfway through the first month of this new year! For my “special day” however I’m going to jump to Friday, January 16 which is National Nothing Day! It’s a day with an unofficial observance on January 16th dedicated to doing absolutely nothing, proposed by columnist Harold Pullman Coffin in 1972 as an "un-event" to provide a break from celebrating other holidays, allowing for relaxation, recharging, and a rebellion against constant festivities. It's a day to just be, with no specific activities, though some interpret it as mindfulness or a chance to intentionally do nothing to find clarity.

Guess what though? I will probably come to work as it is a work day!