Our garden has been providing us with a good supply of home grown vegetables. We have already canned beets and pickles and froze some corn. Fresh corn is always the best and we have had several meals. If you haven’t gotten any yet, both Jackie Oemig’s Stand on S. Broadway and the farm east of the football stadium have it for you to purchase. *** Perhaps you have experienced an increase in your auto insurance rates. Do you wonder why? Like most things there are multiple reasons. A May 2022 Insurance Information Institute Report found while overall miles driven have decreased, riskier driving behaviors have led to increased insurance losses and fatality rates – distracted driving is being blamed in part. And related is the fact that in recent years, medical and auto body repair costs have increased at a rate faster than inflation. The cause of a recent serious accident on Highway 29 near Stanley, was speculated to have been related to distracted driving. How many people do you see, or have calling you, while driving to, during or from work? *** According to a recent survey by the American Pet Products Association, 70 percent of U. S. households have pets. Between March 2020 and May 2021, 23 million families added a pet. An interesting fact is that businesses have reacted positively to this trend and many hotels, restaurants and other attractions are now welcoming pets. *** Are you ready to be a statistic? According to the Department of Health & Human Services, back in 2019, 24 percent of older Americans will need more than two years of paid care either at home or in a group facility. That means one in four of us older folks! Not exactly something to look forward to. *** The 2022 Farm Technology Days, held July 12-14, in Clark County has been labeled by many as a “grand success.” Attendance over the three days was 46,084, thus far surpassing the expected 40,000. Chuck Rueth chairperson of the event said, “We’re very, very pleased how it turned out.” The more than 500 exhibitors in tent city were also reported as being very pleased, with some expressing that they felt it was the best show in probably 15 years. The food tents operated evciently, 1,600 volunteers before, during and after the event were suvcient in numbers needed to get the jobs done in a timely manner, and the Farm Tech Fest country music concert, featuring Madison Country, Sawyer Brown and headliner Joe Nichols sold out. This was my wife and mine fourth and final volunteering at a Farm Tech nology event. We volunteered when Chippewa County hosted the event in 2004 at Hilger Farms near Bloomer, in 2005 when it was held at the Robert and Mitch Malm farm north of Loyal, last year (2021) in Eau Claire County at Huntsinger Farms, and then this year (2022) at the Roehl Family Farms, south of Loyal. In July 2023, Farm Technology Days will be held at the Badger Steam and Gas Engine Club, which is located between Baraboo and Wisconsin Dells. And in 2024, it will be held in Chippewa County. *** Have you ever visited an amusement park? If so, you have actually experienced a range of emotions that it is hard to experience elsewhere. If you don’t know, August 16, is National Roller Coaster Day, which commemorates the first vertical loop roller coaster patented by Edwin Prescott on that day in 1898.

*** It was interesting noting recently that the Black River Falls, Hixton and Hatfield fire departments held a joint exercise of washing down the metal grandstand seating at the Jackson Coun- ty Fair Grounds. It gave rise to the thought that I wonder if the bleachers at Stanley-Boyd Oriole Park ever gets such a cleaning? Perhaps that would be a good Stanley and Boyd-Edson-Delmar fire departments joint euort? Or perhaps, that is a job that only the rains do? If so, the rains have been a little scarce lately. *** Recently, a friend told me about her experience of ordering a Bloody Mary and what a meal it turned out to be. I immediately classified myself as behind the times, as I never had heard of such a thing. Shortly thereafter, I read that it’s a Wisconsin tradition to follow a Bloody Mary with a beer chaser and it is also a Wiscon- sin tradition to jam as much food as humanly possible onto the top of the Bloody Mary. These monsters can have the standard cheese, sausage, fruit, and pickled items, but depending on price, might include fried chicken wings topped ou with a hot beef or pulled pork slider sandwich. I am not sure that makes me want to have a Cadillac version of a Bloody Mary! *** Did you know? The most compensated Fortune 500 CEO is Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO who realized $23.5 billion in com – pensation. He is followed by CEO'S from Apple, Nvidia, Netflix, Regeneron, Salesforce, Microsoft, Activision, Blizzard, Broad com, and Oracle. Those poor folks were compensated between $770.5 million to as little as $239.5 million. I would guess they are some of the individuals targeted to pay at least a 15 percent tax on their incomes. *** As I believe most of us have heard Ford, General Motors and Stellantis (the European joint venture that owns Chrysler) are racing towards a 2030 goal to put millions of Electric Vehicles (EV’s) on the road. It’s a combined investment of $120 billion and has the 200,000 people, who are employed in Michigan’s automotive industry shifting in how they think, work and live. It’s expected to be a divcult transition for many employees as the work force will need to become more digital and their employers will be competing with many other technical driven industries that need programmers and engineers. *** Smile time. Boy: I would go to the end of the earth for you! Girl: Yes, but would you stay there? +++ Victim (after a bur glary): They stole everything from my house but the soap and towels. Policeman: Why, those dirty crooks! +++ Kindness is a reflection of what lives in the heart. +++ You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair as you once did from a roller coaster. +++ I plan to live forever! So far so good. +++ I am having an out of money experience. +++ I am a nutritional overachiever.+++ I always wanted to be a procrastinator but I never got around to it. +++ I’m not interested in competing with anyone. I hope we all make it. +++ A woman answered her front door and found Little Johnny and Billy holding a list. “Lady,” Johnny explained, “we are on a scavenger hunt and we still need three grains of wheat, a pork chop bone and a piece of used carbon paper to earn a dollar. “Wow,” the woman replied, “who sent you on such a challenging hunt?” Back came the reply, “Our babysitters boyfriend.” +++ If smoking is so bad, then why does it cure salmon? +++ What do you call a tailor who only alters pants? A slacker.

BY DAVID JANKOSKI