Even the most confident among us have to eventually succumb to death. I could reference so many metal songs on this theme. As I recently became (newly) immersed in Powerslave by again, Iron Maiden. Even its pharoahs pass on, though being sure eternity is theirs.
As they, both now and then, may go way too soon. Good character withstanding.
Read on below this brief …

– But for just a moment, speaking in a lighter tone on a demise of sorts and no disrespect intended, as I was trying to find a way and a space to fit this segment in anyway — what’s bing dadda boom dadda … bow?
That darn small light pole, in sorta the striped colors of Waldo and where he is … more on that and my red and white shirt in a later post … the pole of four feet is now bent over at 45 degrees, and its hard plastic would not save it.
It was well onto the median, several feet, that lies even as parking lots between County Market and Green Mill, and am I spending too much time there, like many do?
Its been in this writing that’s basically a post-post, or you could say in old newspapering terms a brief and as such rather off-topic, in such a mal-shaped position as a post for a few weeks, and before that was laid — or lain, should I say? — completely flat for a couple of months, then propped up again. Somebody must be driving a bit too erratically, and I just saw in a police report, while doing “research” for another post or should I say a piece, that somebody just got flagged with a ticket in the vicinity.
The last bit withstanding, I think Mary would appreciate the humor. As the apparent mishap was very near to her workplace, though she had nothing to do with it. –

Still, Mary was a little lamb. She needed to be. But strong too. Both.
This clerk at Walmart was there as long as I’ve been shopping there, but still against all odds looked youthful, and had a substantial number of typical working years ahead of her. She chiefly manned the photo development shop, back when plastic cannisters of rolled-up film were actually developed. There was no digital. But there now were photos of her, as prints, shown about a bigger than usual card table as soon as you walk in their door.
Then immediately other two store visitors, making three of us total, discussed something that can sometimes be painful and awkward to bring up. Mary suffered from a slew of medical problems, but there was one that stood out, showing itself immediately upon meeting her.
And the other two at the table, especially, said she always kept a smile, although walking a mile. There was joy shown in those pix, such as when tooting a celebratory party horn. As persuasive as an emoji.
Mary had a number of fatty tumors, on her legs mostly, that — can I say it — were almost the size of footballs. Yet Mary was very confident and not lacking self esteem, as was shown by the fact that once in a while she would blow me off and just kept the conversation at hello, sometimes barely that, although when Target called and there were gaps in seeing me, she’d show a lot of glee with me as the target, and I’m sure other regulars. (Or was the occasional brush-off shown not one of confidence, but a partial mask to deal with her very unfair life circumstances, as we all bear such masks, ala The Stranger by Billy Joel?)
As I guess confident myself, I will take the former approach as one of my memories of her, as I consider that well-retained-self-esteem so cool and impressive. (She had very far surpassed Cross-Eyed Mary.) That someone with such medically related, or should I say directly caused, difficulties regarding appearence would not mean she’d just take attention anywhere she could find it. (So in memory, Proud Mary, in a good way, will still keep on …) Thus with that old bugaboo, dealing with body image, so many of us could take a lesson from her.
Taking who you are, and just being who you are.

This is a hunch that Mother’s Day brunch was out to lunch, not to be munched in a bunch.
Maybe substitute by using the coming weekend … But don’t do Wendy’s again.
From sitting in nursing home, to alternate times and days for take-in, to hitting more than one garden or lawn, this was not one for the usual books — though that had been part of her work. At least in this case, mom didn’t have to do it. At least in most instances.
We start with Friday night, on the eve of the eve of Mother’s Day, when one couple in my family got together with the kids, most of them, and brought in the basically basic grub they had bought from a kinda fast food place. This was the closest the family got to a brunch, as like in most all families, everyone was busy with commitments. Almost to the point, I might say, of needing to be committed? Do we see a theme here, of alternate ways to celebrate, in my various posts?

– Mom always said don’t be tardy or torporous, or use too many suffixes. But her day was late in coming around, so there …
Now a last Mother’s Day moment.
My New Favorite Clerk said this, about the presence of all the flowers and candles and cake, before coming to work at 5 p.m. “She’s not even my kids’ momma!” Had to think about that one for again, a moment.
But those ladies out and about around that time were wearing sensible shoes and such dresses, or in a few cases such shorts, and in one case jeans that weren’t too tight or short around the tummy. Mom apparently thought herself too late in years for such attire.
But you still rock, mom. See the Picks Of The Week department for listening options. And psst, hey buddy, my buddy just told me his old band is looking for new rehearsal space. –

For her turn, mom was stuck in the nursing home with dad, and with his new lack of mobility, this is the first Mother’s Day would not hold the option of going out to eat. So mom snuck out to Wendy’s, just down the block, and that was the highlight of her day. (At least she could have revisited the Cinco De Mayo theme and had one of their sizzling burgers, topped with green pepper sauce, but she comes from more of a meat and potatoes family. These days mostly potatoes. Or salad, but no quiche.)
Blocks away, my brother used the time to scatter grass seed where it was needed, as it was not dad’s day yet, and he even incorporated the family dog to chase away birds that might peck at the tiny pellets, which he gladly did. Even though going after birds was a relatively new thing, as he’s more a deer and squirrels hound. I think they were blackbirds, and it would have been fitting if they were baked in a pie. He did blaze a new trail lately, and was introduced to a frog, which he merely nosed and did not lunge at and eat.
His wife and some of those kids were off to near my end of the state, where there is family — and more gardening. One such fine son, who works for an engineering firm, traded blacktop road construction for dirt row construction, not exactly how he would normally spend a weekend. So new digs. And his sister supplied more of the same, and the family got mom her only true gift, scraping off paint and repainting back at home. So for her it would, or would not, be like watching paint dry.
But back to birds, and an apparently absentee mom. I heard a robin chirping very nearby, as I walked downtown, and it didn’t take much looking to see that there was a big nest less than basketball hoop height. Mother bird quickly flew away. Being a nuisance, I stayed for a time, but she did not return. And back the same way about ten minutes later, still no mom robin in the hood.
Back at the building, I encountered in the gathering, not gardening area, a mother who had lost her own mom about the same time last year. Camping out with her son. She was soldiering through, like another middle-aged woman out on the patio who was also bearing a loss of about the same time frame, this time of her son.

Come out and cherish mom with Bo Jon’s flower shop, which boasts one of the most widely themed celebrations for her you’ll find, matching their multi-faceted retail options — and why wait until Sunday?
On May 11, that’s Saturday, is the true-to-form holiday mega-event offered by the downtown River Falls store (I personally think it is a super-store) doing business as Powers Flowers, Gift and Crafts, that features various food and drink, and even alpacas and goats, in addition to their flowers and other plants, in this eat meat and greet. So more powers to you. And Bo Jon’s even does a take on BBQ …
As the Smokey Treats Food Truck will be on location at Bo Jon’s from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The company’s recipes of BBQ-based food and more have been popular enough around the region that they have opened a new location in Hudson, too.
To follow this meaty theme, the treats offered by South Ridge Ranch Bacon will also be available.

– No northern lights, were given the nod by solar flares, as none were seen from a city of Hudson vantage point at midnight, right in the middle of the preferred viewing time on Friday night. That was the weekday things were supposed to flare up for the first time in about 20 years. A friend in New Richmond also had no such luck, and he held out to almost 1 a.m. So no hot flashes for mom. Her cell phone still might conk out, but not her sewing machine or flower pot.
And heathers? Back on earth? Go planting them, as I think they are a plant on this planet. As Heather Boschke of Hudson has written a children’s book about gardening that’s for the birds. Do I tell my green-thumb mother with grandchildren? (I did earlier see two women sporting big floppy garden hats at machines that were slots; I hope they did not lay an egg.)
But nevertheless, rocking out was still done. In two different ways. The chalk on a sidewalk in front of an antiques shop that spells out “Mom’s rock” should be sans apostrophe, unless taking into account the flowers drawn on the concrete, and thus giving a different meaning.
Midweek, a marquee sign of few words for a big retailer read “Mother’s Day,” followed by “Sunday,” as if we needed another reminder. Then it listed some great things you can still buy for her, but the choices as they flashed by sounded a bit cryptic, in that quick glance.
But the day to beat all days has come a bit earlier this May, it seems, just an exact week after Cynco De Mayo. So I feel compelled to again, call mom a Spice Girl, and heating things up at a brunch described in short order earlier is hurricane peppercream sauce (not peppercorn) over pasta. On several other dishes are roasted jalapenos and roasted garlic mayo. Buffalo wings at brunch feature several sauces, listed mildest to hottest. Oddly, leading the way is Jim Beam-infused, then midway through and until the end of the stack are Peking Zing, Diablo (always a popular name for such) and Extreme Jamaican. The less bold can also eat cheese pizza. –

Back to eyeballing Bo Jon’s, the Eagle Eye Farm will have their alpacas featured from 11 a.m. to noon. These creatures have the combined draw of a supple neck and furry coat, in case you try your hand at petting. Mom’s whole family will love it. By comparison, Dick’s Bar and Grill in Hudson has as its mascots similar Argentina-based animals, and they have proven popular from here to as far as Hammond, when parading at festivals and other events.
In like manner, the Bo Jon’s goats will make their appearance from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Depending how they do.) The critters would truly be the goat if by chance they bail early on Mother’s Day, as they have kids too. (Mom always groans at that kind of humor.) Just hope they don’t eat any of the flowers.
Bo Jon’s will also have other pop-up vendors … popping up. But get there before the standard 1 p.m. Saturday closing time.
Now for the adults, free wine samples will be offered by Belle Ame Vineyard, and free mixed drink sips from Delola Spritz. Mother and other adults will get to sample more than one kind of each, to put her in the mood for flowers! This supplements the beverages, alcohol and otherwise, that are regularly provided for sale at Bo Jon’s to make it truly your one-stop shop for such holidays, and even the day to day.
And also for mom, especially, Color Street Nails will be on hand, to color your world.
“We will have fresh flower arrangements, plants, blooming hanging baskets, wine and gifts!” That’s a promise from Bo Jon’s.
The first 50 customers that bring in a receipt of $30 or more from Smokey Treats, dated 05-11-2024, will receive a free blooming plant of the owner’s choice. But they are all beautiful, and this is a 15 value! So for every two dollars you spend, you save a buck.
Bo Jon’s and their hearty floral arrangements are located right in the heart of River Falls, on Main Street in the north end of the downtown.

Here is more of their story!
(Originally published last year)
Think the River Falls music fests are fine? While here, and especially if you stayed too long, stop by Bo Jon’s Flowers and Gifts, as it even has much more. If it’s any gift idea, you’ll find it at this five-some family business. In combinations. If its where you hail from, they’re branching out into Minnesota. I’ll name drop these among the bounty of brands: ikebana, Biedermeier designs, Hogart curve designs, Western Line designs …

So you went out to get her some killer flowers of a kind originating in say Kashmir — high but not in-the-desert dry as the only thing on your list, that’s filled with this and that — mixed in with those from all around our country, but that was not enough.

A cache of chocolate? And also candles? Creatively make it into a combo? Hey, she’ll cater to the crafts you’ll find here, coming for The Kinni. And extend the gift idea, even if its for other people or occasions or even rewarding yourself, much further with a bunch of newly added brands of bubbly? With wind chimes, and (rough)hewn woodworking that’s either vintage or original, also chiming in? And as they say, so much more. All under one roof in a big for River Falls bonafide floral and gift and design center, at what you could call Powers Flowers.
This is so varied and special that even if visiting from another village, say in the Twin Cities, you might want to stop off just blocks before getting to the main tourist district and take care of all your gift-giving business. Maybe why you’re here, need a quick housewarming present or two? And a makeup gift for back at home if you stayed in River Falls enjoying its various amenities way too long, as people tend to do here? Or were here, there or anywhere in the two-county area for one of its many music festivals, and needed a shopping respite between sets?

So build me up a design, buttercup, to paraphrase a popular flora-focused song?
Enter Bo Jon’s Flowers and Gifts. As a family-owned business with a tremendously broad scope, they are capable of — and indeed relish the thought of — creating exquisite arrangements of flora and beyond, while intertwining countless styles across countless countries that include the traditional, garden style, high style, and to incorporate specific brand names, ikebana, Biedermeier designs, Hogarth curve designs, Western Line designs and many more. Whew. Their experienced designers can create everyday arrangements, wedding and special event designs and installations along with stunning funeral pieces, they say. Also offered, just as importantly, are a wide range of gift items including many specialty chocolates, now even wine and beer, tropical houseplants, wooden crafts, local art and candles. As far as their big plans for expanding, they’ll be offering delivery into the Woodbury, Stillwater, Oak Park Heights and Afton areas, while still ironing out exact details. Their large crew — I even recognized an old neighbor from North Hudson, behind the counter and in one of the main floral assembly areas — agree that they love offering products from many favorite small businesses, whether located in the St. Croix Valley or Texas, or parts in-between. “Let our design team work with you to honor the relationships and moments that mean the most to you,” they emphasize, quite emphatically.
The cordial, very helpful and detail oriented young man who answered the phone, promptly, then wrote every word of my long note onto his notebook, is one of the members of the five-person family who carry on a tradition forged by a number of prior owners over many years, and now run the Bo Jon’s who got its name from them. He added that others like him in that way, including his siblings, provide their personal touch of candles and woodworking products, as those were the two biggies he specified, to round out the mix of offerings.
He added that the family was told it might take some doing to get their liquor license, for things like the bubbly for your honey on your honey-do list, as these are not always easy to come by, since for obvious reasons these licenses are in demand. Everybody wants one. So they applied back in a January time frame, hoping to get all such things in order by Valentine’s Day, and were pleasantly surprised to have them all be an actual go by the first week or two of February. It helps to stay on top of such things. Flowers and other featured products too.

Specialty services at Bo Jon’s

They offer a large inventory of fresh flowers that include tropicals, indoor house plants, seasonal outdoor annual plants, dish gardens, contemporary and traditional arrangements, high-style floral arrangements, funeral designs, extensive gift lines, gourmet and fruit baskets, assorted gift baskets, and greeting cards. Got all that, consummate shopper and consumer? They follow with things hard to find under one roof like those wind chimes, garden stones and sympathy-based items, and those from Valley Fudge and Candy Co. Many new vendors are coming onboard soon.
“If you have any questions or need more information, we’re always here to serve you and make your flower-sending experience a pleasure,” they again emphasize. So call them at 715-425-1522, or just stop in at 222 N. Main St. in the center of River Falls, Wis. at the zip code of 54022.
There are many special events planned. Among them, the family caters to weddings, funerals and other such gatherings, and have partnered with Belle Ame Vineyard in River Falls, where in the coming weeks they will be offering to their patrons a Bo Jon’s cart of fresh flowers. The educational facet of the business will kick-in when they host seasonal classes on how to do your own planters, flower arrangements and wreaths, while you enjoy a glass of wine, charcuterie and the beautiful landscape of the vineyard.
Arch rentals that were hand-built by them from 100-plus-year-old reclaimed barnwood, in various styles, as well as centerpieces and other items, are on hand here. This family business now supplies residential and commercial landscaping, outdoor planters throughout the changing seasons, and irrigation systems.
Customers can be supplied with almost anything related to the main focuses of their growing shop. When you are parents, you learn to foster the talents and even expertise possessed by your children and draw these out, and you can see that touch in so much of their merchandise. The kids’ marketing flair, especially in working with their own individual gifts, even is shown by the fact they wrote business plans — and shared their love of plants — for their parents to incorporate. Scores of the sources of product are truly unique. With that said, since the family, as a whole but in particular their mom, loves travel that is regional and beyond, it is only fitting that they should partner to offer their services and products via other like-minded companies in western Wisconsin and especially eastern Minnesota. And deliver to many of those areas.

Here is an article, slightly edited, that tells the tale, posted by the River Falls Area Chamber of Commerce (and Tourism Bureau):
The Powers Family moved to River Falls from Hudson during the height (or depth) of COVID. They were looking for a little more room to spread out without bumping into their neighbors and stumbled upon a house with a little land that made that possible for them. One of the things that they liked to do as a family was to go for country drives, (and there is so much fodder for this in the area, and they even will deliver to much of it). They like to explore and see nature. Ditto. On one of their drives, Erin announced with content that she was home. That was a BIG statement for anyone that knew Erin as she has lived all over the United States and traveled a lot. The next thing she asked Jeff was “Do you want to buy a business and set down roots?”
Jeff and Erin then presented the idea to their three teenagers, (a bold move, but they were very receptive). Then they asked each one of their children to write up a business plan as to what they were interested in, what they could bring to the table and what they absolutely was a non-starter. After reading what each teenager said, and what they were willing to offer, Jeff and Erin embarked on finding the right business that fit their family.
In May 2022, Erin and Jeff as her “not so silent partner,” purchased Bo Jon’s Flowers & Gifts. This allows each of the Powers Family members to bring a little of themselves into the shop, (increasing the skill sets present to five-fold). Erin runs the day to day operations as well, with her creative background, helps dream up all the projects to keep everyone busy. Liam is often seen at the front of the store waiting to welcome customers into the store, much like a Waffle House experience, (and he is a wealth of information). Jonah is often busy with his shop classes at school, (one way he uses that follows), track and his girlfriend but when he has time he likes to make wooden crafts for the store. Cara is a permanent fixture of the store. She is a self described, “plant nerd” and can often-times be found caring for those, even the exotic, in the front of the store or outside. She has a passion for floral design and will one day take over the shop when Jeff and Erin decide to hang up their hats, (and flower pots).
In their free time when not at the shop, the family loves to travel to neat little places and bring back little treasures from their trips, (near and not so near), to share with the rest of the community. Jeff and Cara have taken up pouring their own line of candles called, “Powers of a Candle,” which is sold at Bo Jon’s along with knit hats that Cara makes. The family have sixty-eight and counting animals and often sell their free range chicken eggs to the community. They grow their own fruit and vegetables as well as quite a few of their own flowers that they bring in each year to sell at the shop.
They are excited to continue their journey in River Falls and send a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported them throughout their ongoing adventure!

On Sundays they are closed, but on weekdays open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. That last part is important when you are in town for a weekend festival, and there are many.
They accept the following wide range of payment methods: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and even Apple Pay and Pay Pal.
Areas served just in Wisconsin include River Falls, of course, and bergs like Beldenville, Baldwin, Ellsworth, Hudson, Prescott, Roberts and Spring Valley. None are too small or too big.
Now talking about the tremendous scope of their store. They deliver to these facilities, so many that you’ve probably done business with some of them before and built up trust: Bakken-Young Funeral & Cremation Services, Our House Senior Living River Falls, O’Connell Family Funeral Homes, Comforts of Home, Kinnic Health and Rehab, Wellhaven Senior Apartments, River Falls Area Hospital and Keehr Funeral Home.
Email them at bojonsflowers@gmail.com. You can also find them on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

When a backyard party is based on BBQ, you need the whole crew to enjoy the who do.
So when I had such a gathering, I featured a full slathering of the grub from Old Southern BBQ on Hudson’s south side. Adhering to that, but also adding some of my own flavorings, for full effect for getting the full compliment of my guests full.
When you go to this BBQ joint, in the truest fashion, you will get several — I want to say seven — kinds of sauce to slather onto all kinds of meat, and even their tacos. You can of course select the combo and use bottles at the tables, that are almost like wooden crates in their design to give an old country feel, to squeeze on whichever one you want, or team up more than one onto beef or pork or chicken, and more. Even try some on the corn cobs, and I recommend going sideways against the grain for best taste. So when you pick out the actual entree all this goes onto, you again have about seven ways to go. And the names on the menu board are funky, especially for the few really heated up versions, invoking eveything from Memphis to mutton — OK the meat doesn’t really go that far afield. But there might be some Motown appeal. And the names either, do not include Red Hot Devil’s Spit Into A Cauldron, although they get fairly close to that.
All that said, this is perfect for mom on her day, whether you dine in, or take out and do what I did. Add to it and let her really dig in.
So to back up, and maybe back this up, be careful what you wish for, or what you agree too.

– You might wish for this. At a new venue, for breakfast and more and thus original in the downtown, called Main Plate, on a recent Saturday late morning — get brunch after a night filled with nearby music? — people were gathered in front of the hostess shelf all the way to the nearby door. Then, on a walk back past this area about 20 minutes later, it was again thus full. How many restaurants these days see that kind of fill factor at work. And later, traffic in this now-construction-season from two blocks away was backed up almost to their door. Theme here? –

Hence the rest of this piece is about that latter approach. I started by lathering up some beef that already had on a sauce that was favorful but bound to be a fan favorite of everyone, and applying some of the trademark dry rub that they strongly advised I make use of. Tangy and a little salty with just the right amount of grit. It was easy to rub on, and a little melted butter and such poured on first brought the taste and the ease.
This was a fave with my guests, with some going back more than once, and some just picking and grinning, with a bit of everything taken.
The rest of the bucket of BBQ’d meat was the takeout version from the restaurant. But here is where Joe comes in with his special touch on things, to round out the offerings to be given to residents of the apartment building I have lived at for just over a year, so this was a first annual affair — even though I know that is substandard journalistic use, like saying entitle when, and not where, the right term is merely title, one that I find even many TV news anchors get wrong. That would not do if reviewing my restaurant take.
The first brainstorm at such was a different take on cheddar cheese and broccoli soup. The ones, plural, that I had packages of offered a base of either rice or small pasta, so I thought why not boil it as a half and half? And also place into the mix some cauliflower, and a bit of carrot and a few green peas? With a little extra cheese, of both cheddar and other sorts, grated and then melted in the pot. This way, much more taste is provided then in the standard version. This would prove like a few of the other dishes, to be for the more adventuresome.
I had more than moral support, also, for my signature dish of “salmon” that’s got edges covered with various “Indian cheeses” and sprinkled with many different veggies. I wrote about this last Mother’s Day, offered in an earlier year to other people, if you want to scroll down that far. (I gave you search suggestions, but watch the plural form.)
So I’ll close with a summary of the other stuff, from the more recent time:
– Green beans with not only almond slivers, but bacon bits, slices of bell pepper (different colors) and onions, and a very small bit of crumbled feta cheese.
– Breakfast potato cubes topped with a variety of quasi-spicy seasonings and rubbed in an oiled pan over medium heat, with pepper jack sprinkled over.
– Pasta shells, medium and small, filled with sour cream and bell peppers, onions, ham and cheese, in a way that the sour cream conforms to the shell and holds the other pieces.
– Horseradish sauce and cranberry, jellied or with berries or both, mandarin orange slices and juice, and apple bits over the top. Great if your ham or turkey was a bit dry, like from this amateur cook.
– Various crackers with all varieties of mustard, globbed two inches apart.
These were comments for the cook, all in all:
“Thank you. Again.”
“I love the meat, the chicken and the pork.”
And then there was the salmon.

To follow this theme, and add to it homage to the just passed Cinco De Mayo, mom’s day does not have to be things (slightly bland) like souffles. For example, Green Mill in their brunch on Sunday includes some spicy pizza and pasta. The latter is a dessert fire kind with noodles, and the pie is the three-meat variety, and we hope for spicy sausage and pepperoni. There also are a choice of Buffalo Wings, and we know what kind of firey sauces you can team with those.
And you might want to buy her some as named Mom Water, which is fruit and vodka infused — maybe one more than the other. It has zero carbs, sugar and sodium, and only 90 calories (not the proof of the alcohol, mind you.) And possibly get your very mother one can of all four of the very fruity flavors, so she can be very unladylike and dance on the brunch table?
Lastly, Mother’s Day appeared to hit early at the Smilin’ Moose, as you could see foursomes of women of a certain age dining and adorning their early evening front tables on Wednesday.

One look, or two at max, at the options inside the newest store to hit Hudson and feed it, and you will see it’s different.
An example is maxing out the ways to sauce your Mexican dish. But they have more, too, and their stock in trade while serving you is keeping pace with you, and keeping you on the go.
Take that look, as Hudco To Go is right off the main drag on Locust Street. Their grand opening is most of the day (take that into account you roosters crowing and nightowls, although you might crow or hoot about their food) on Saturday, May 4.

– Two nights later, now in the spring, men’s hearts turn to … Wolves bountiful blowout basketball, and with the draft in the books and the now season of inking contracts here, though the NFL’s even training camp event is still two months away …
To wit: At Hudson Tap, on the wall above the bathroom stall, the old ad was still up for NFL Sunday Ticket and accompanying drink specials of $4 and $5. But hey, there still is that new alternate league, and do they still play Canadian pro football? Not to mention that other futbal and if needed to round out the 12 months, maybe bring back the old Lingerie Football League, with throwers with really, truly great arms and … never mind. But that could make it mongo midriff marketable, especially these days.
No mainstream pro games right now, of course, but that marquee was also hawking for another kind of stream, fishing rain suits and Chill brand summer swimsuits for men, for the only getting hotter hostile weather.
Meanwhile, in two great big clumps of patrons, and the vocal guy at the slots — who could be making comments on those in slot position — they were really getting behind their across-the-river-farther-than-the-Wild basketball domineers over the mountainers. This Minnesota team, the T-Wolves, has been feeding on all their opponents, with nary a loss in the NBA playoffs, flirting frequently with a 30-points lead over the defending chamnps, the Denver Nuggets. There was a “lets get going” chant, lighting up a usually solemn Monday, with every whirling dunk and hands-all-over defensive stop. –

Back to other feasting, take it from them, as written here. This is their mission statement: Hudco To Go is a chef driven-deli featuring housemade products and local market items. Hudco To Go will provide quick, high-quality meal options for the residents and guests of Hudson, along with the St. Croix Valley, so visit the store. It uses a co-op concept, and will partner with both Hudson and the surrounding area businesses, bringing a fast and one-stop-shop for some of your favorites from around the St. Croix Valley, along with our own chefmade options.
A more in-depth look at this business in a post coming soon.

Here’s another good place to go and take in. So go big before you go home, resort to going for a ride and dance at a resort the weekend of Aug. 18-20. Sign-up you or your dancer to get luxury coach bus transport to Sugar Lake Lodge, and once there enjoy various amenities including water activities, big swimming pool in a bigfoot shape, pickleball on a new and old courts, bonfire, a variety of games and of course … up to 10 dance lessons. While spaces last, you can signup until June 14. Check out more on their website, in case you missed theirm Kentucky Derby Party and a chance to dress in your favorite themed big, floppy hat, like that wore by Shakin’ Dave, profiled in a post below. Dance and Entertainment Studios was named Stillwater’s 2023 small business of the year.

Over at Walmart, spring was all in the air, and in the aisles. Over by the kiddie shoes, waslls and walls of them with just the pink, there was that age-old bastion of childhood in summer — the big and fat, blue plastic bat and ball, all for just $2.50. Extra innings will require an add-on of a few cents, unless you have them on retainer, (OK just kidding.) And outside, there were more than two dozen kayaks in a row, of at least five floatable types, with five being the number of the most prevalent. And back inside, close to a hundred bottles of their proprietary brand of sun screen, in a standalone breakout.
Just a bit earlier, at the Triple C church based in the downtown, they weren’t yet having the heavy on kinda contemporary music, summer Sunday services in the Lakefront Park band shell. That would come later. Summer global warming has not kicked in its heat enough yet.

With May Day on a Wednesday, not a weekend, a crowning of a May Queen in church was not going to happen, until days or more later as believers have the whole month to use, and there were no Pagan rituals to be found locally, so I would have to find a metamorphical coronation. Such as a “crown” on a beautiful cardinal. But looking for it would require a walk-about, and also appreciating the beauty, if minimalistic, of small natural enclaves in the heart of a city of parks, a designation so many strive for. Find gardening-type beauty where it exists — and it can be seen at particular spades this time of the annual cycle.
One year ago as of April 1, I moved to an apartment building in downtown Hudson. I would no longer be able to view my big yard with wild island and the beauty supplied by dozens of oak trees, forming a ring around the house and leading back into the woods, a large spiritual loss. My new experience would be much different. Would it be fertile?
Yes, in very many small ways that added up, to a bigger sum, and revived me physically with the newfound vigor from this stroll I have now made several times — and also emotionally and spiritually.
All you need to do, I found, is take the time to look.
I did, and noticed things I had not before. Even that usually routine, although entertaining, squirrel who just now first perched on the only arch of a root sticking out of the lawn. Newly found and showing opportunity, and that is the theme of this post.

As is recognized by religious traditions, May Day is the epitome of a coming-of-spring fertility rite, and as such is fertile also with the prospect of opportunity and redemption, as well as regrowth, both spiritual and natural. So all of the holiday is set around the importance of the environment.
If you steer toward being Catholic, Mother Mary, the seen as the original May Queen, is a perfect choice for a representation of fertility, although technically virgin, as you’d have to have such attributes to be the bearer of the Son of God. But they’re goddesses all. These varied themes tie together.
And various religious traditions over such holidays can borrow from each other, over the passing of years and centuries, as was shown when a professor at the besieged Columbia University celebrated a Seder dinner with protestors, and some were probably from both sides of the religious aisle.
They also will meld when, dare I say it, all the beautiful women hit the beach of the national scenic riverway, in bikinis and maillots, just two blocks away from my apartment building, and also a couple of blocks away on the main streets, boasting non-stripped down versions of the same and sporty spring dresses, (after Easter but now moreso), though all bearing natural and enhanced beauty. Downtown businesses cater to these themes, from art galleries to salons, spas to fitness clubs, as the month’s past bearers of the season give way from ropes and boughs of greenery to big potted plants that already show some flowers, all demonstrating again, opportunities newly arising. That doesn’t even mention the flower shop of 50-plus years, and what they provide to the eye, and if outside.
The colors of such flowers, and the pots they were in, could be as many as four and even seemingly on the same plant.
Religious types will also notice in this outdoor decor the ebbing of Christmas and the start of the Easter season, although the continued prominence of birch logs tends to lend a segue, with Easter lilies — also on a door just down from mine — extending the motif. Other religious people, Pagans will note the importance given to the Maypole, that has overtly spiritual graces, but you can’t help but notice what it looks like. Even when positioned in the form of a carousel in the adjacent park. A nursery rhyme brings this back to being more innocent, and includes the richness of nature: “Ring around the rosey, pocket full of poseys …”

Was it chance that on the night of May Day, I saw a TV documentary on how to live 100 percent sustainably. As in totally. Trees all through the house, and beyond. So add such an earthship, and live within it, in more ways then one.
In my new climes, I first noticed that in an uncommon twist, there is beautiful architectural at 360 degrees, upper outdoor library beams, more than one big mural, well-designed office buildings, classic brick facades, and a sculpture that looks like a great big bush, as us humans create using the skills given to them by the original Creator. But also everywhere you walk are large expanses of concrete. Streets, alleys, curbs, sidewalks, parking lots, walkways and traffic bumpouts. But there is natural beauty here and there. Outside my windows, both of them, are trees framing every bit of the glass space you see through, forming golden arches that are not McDonalds. These big bows, such as they are formed, are three in number and and as I only noticed on May Day — heightened awareness? — there are three more smaller ones filling the framework and also the view through the picture window, with also just-acknowledged another three tiered up and down, small but nearer my window, so good for that. I am more and more aware about the way they take up that whole five-by-five space, almost like it is intentional, as in a painting of a planting that makes most efficient use of dirt. And I now saw that especially as there’s new growth greening out, the edges of the-window view are being filled in with beauty.
You could even invoke the little sprigs, that show new progress, that are sticking out of a few edges where sidewalk meets wall. (There always seem to be three of them, like a trinity-ish clover.) Again, the beauty of nature meets concrete.
There was an even bigger arch, of about 20 feet, that stretched between two oak treees back at the house, and gave a spiritual lift just to look at in its near perfection. I toward the end of my stay had placed a bench below, hoping that someone, other than myself, eventually could make just as uplifting use of it.
So these arches a good place to start, as the buds are just now beginning to grow.

I am reminded of an old autumn ritual of mine, and really you can practice it in any season, where I’d find a beautiful tree, any one really although the multiplicity effect of a big park is a draw, and pick out a leaf or two and rumple them in my fingers, while gazing at the color of others and listening to a faint rumble, all while praying or meditating. And those oaks at home and also at 360, that drop their leaves in phases over 12 months, although its only right now that we see the buds of various species taking their crowns at several-day intervals. Thus comes to bear a longtime question of mine, which is more profoundly spiritual, in what it represents as a ritual of choice, the mighty strength of an oak, or the frail beauty of a maple.
Spaced among my current concrete — viewed off the bottom edge of those windows — are a number of tiny mini-gardens, or just stretches of still valuable dirt that could be enhanced, with a few hostas, or other small forms of greenery. Thinking of this, those who have their gardens in their small urban yards must experience a burst of joy. Like those in my building who, also, who take full advantage of a four-by-two-foot shelf of a patio that’s also a garden. If there are April showers, you can always go inside and view, or maybe even finger the leaves, of a bunch of big potted plants, as flowers ahead of most of May. Even the scenes of somewhat-varied green are fantastic if viewed in the right way, before the numerous colors of actual flowers arrive. This again invokes the current time as a season of opportunity, and this hit home with me when viewing, out my window, and being moved by it, an empty planter with a bit of brown plant residue (that’s not an earth-friendly term considering the nature of this article) and more dirt, as there is much more beauty to be found if I just wait a month or so.
There are two other big patios aside the building at the south and west, where people can have a tree or two providing shade but, alas, their time and branches were cut short by a windstorm last year around this time, but if you look there still is more to be seen. Off in the distance is the high rise of bluffline trees that help form Birkmose Park, held sacred by indigenous peoples. To get a closer look, you have to walk several blocks. That’s the rub, a reverse of Not In My Back Yard scenario, where homeowners want what they want as far as nature, and they don’t want to have to travel a few miles or more to get it. We have a planet full of very crowded cities but also expanses of hundreds of miles of houseless forest or mountains or dessert. One thinks of such bounty or the lack of it, when crumpling a maple or oak leaf, or aspen or ash too.
So I walked on down. For the first time I noticed that the big pieces of mesh, meant to hold back any falling rock, were almost like terracing for the flora, which I could now see in three different tiers.
Even though summer is a month or so away.
For now, the Pagan version, especially, celebrates the return of youth, growth, and the warm weather that triumphs over the cold and dreary and dark. They ask the May Queen spare their life for yet another day, as the Pagan and Catholic traditions and their similar themes of redemption intersect. The former embrace the belief of her battling an evil diety to gain such, through the growing of spring.
So at their core, Mary as queen and nature are as one, and can be experienced that way.

So St. Patrick Catholic Church marked the May Crowning, days later on May 3, with a morning all-school Mass and feast on hope, as Mary did. So poignant these days. on May Day itself, there were a bunch of first communicants in attendance, but they were not crowned. But coming up shortly, though again not on May’s first morning, was a devotion to Joseph the Worker.
May Crowning is most widely observed as a traditional Catholic ritual held as a solemn procession, and at its closing a statue of the Blessed Virgin is crowned with a garland or crown of flowers, and here I go again on the nature tie-in, honoring her as “the Queen of May.” There is a special honor attached to being to crown the statue. That this year it was St. Patrick eighth-grader Megan as the lucky girl, and her two attendants.
The being honored maid of Nazareth, a term I find creative, is also called queen of heaven.
The faithful saw Mary’s attributes in the herbs and flowers growing around them. Many flowers and herbs are symbolically associated with Mary’s life and many people create varied Mary gardens. Such gardens can be seen as a spring clean for the May Queen, to borrow a term from Led Zeppelin, and can be a small sacred ones enclosed with a statue or shrine of the Virgin. Select flowers, shrubs and trees associated with Mary (and I think and now saw they are many) are planted in the garden.
“Who doesn’t love to sing a song to Mary,” a commentator asked. But there indeed are such people, and my Lutheran family would abhore such a practice. But there are many Marian hymns often sung at a May Crowning, including Hail Holy Queen, Immaculate Mary (Ave Maria), or Hail Mary (Gentle Woman). My family, in particular, was never a fan of Ave Maria, but despite my upbringing I do find some of the operatic versions impressive.
The Vatican announced Pope Francis’ decision that the church celebrate her role as “Mother of the Church” every year on the Monday after Pentecost. So again, have to wait. He added the memorial to the Roman Calendar after carefully considering how the promotion of devotion to Mary under this title might encourage growth in “the maternal sense of the Church.” So be it. This year it will fall on May 21. Three weeks away.

As we now have spring, or are near it, certain doors open, and others close, as even as we’ve seen in so many ways lately, the fickle traffic to which the nightlife scene caters, ebbs and flows, with the weather.
Or like the need to go. Literally. The news was pronounced by a doorman as I walked down that same old sidewalk, as I had done hundreds of times before, to an old club that literally had existed for much more than a century. So even though I’d many times seen an old acquaintance and his business rivaling roto rooter, maybe the older building and its ilk of plumbing could use an upgrade …. The man had been there many a night, ready to go, when the club had just closed and the time was right. That is when they do such cleaning. Just ask a longtime woman friend who just got back in the biz, across more than one city.
It was less then 11 p.m. and the door, the captain said, was closed. Even though programmed to receive, they not for once as they bill themselves as never closing, usually very true except for things like this, were in the mode where it was not, that you could never leave ….
They were ushering people out as, God forbid, as he just might consider it and its glam patron-dancers a shitshow, the glitz gave way, as their shitter had shitted out! It wasn’t working and the place was now closed.
Right away, before I could even laugh too much and get around the nearest corner, people on the near sidewalk and across the curb were lamenting about how they would now be able to pee. Both men and women, so I take it there was more than one toidie that temporarilly conked out. At least this shows that business (had been) good. The mind reels more. Would the bouncers give those who needed to leave a passcode for The John, and its door, to expire if not used in five minutes?
I assume they got all things fixed so they could fix Bloody Mary’s, a hallmark of theirs, in the morning. Maybe they made an emergency, come-after-hours call to the plumbing route-it-out guy, but he could have been out bowling or enjoying other types of nightlife, broadly.

– But other doors were opened up here, as the elements decided which way they would go, even as they again were being fickle, In Through The Out Door? Downtown, even before the Hudson Tap thrust forward its as-such open door policy, which they next-day did, the Awakened Soul shop had their main of two doors flung free, and the same was true of Seasons Gallery. All at a full 90 degrees. –

Back to my cleaning gal, who will not cut corners. See obviously has a green thumb, despite her protestations, saying she kill anything that should grow. We both like Metallica, although she as usually a fan had questions about my karoake version, now done a second time, of Welcome Home (Sanitarium). So all things considered, maybe I should try instead, The Thing That Should Never Be. As one of her new and very small plants, that never made it past the small-bit-of-stringy-stuff-stage, both of them sentimental in nature, died right away and another flourished. To the point that in this not-quite-May, it already was as big as a bush. Her gmail photo(s), of both, do prove it. So I must reference Metallica again, and their song that recently re-caught my fancy, over the Easter holiday and we’re not just talking lilies here, rather the band’s inspirations that prominently include the classic Biblical epic The Ten Commandments … that being the anthem Creeping Death. I quote: “I will be with thee, bush of fire.”
Could have used some of that, in a more balanced way, during the recent thunderstorm disparity that really pointed up climate change. Open door(s), depending on where you live. While here it was cold and windy and rainy and generally nasty, down in the other end of the state, the nearer-than-north, southeast part that is Milwaukee, they were pushing 80 degrees. A guy outside the library had on a hoodie that was closed to a parka, while down there at the beachfront, lord can only imagine, as I know what the new coeds wear this time of year, when the time is right.
They, or Iowa as they are us, were a couple of days later on the high (pressure?) end of a huge weather front that crossed the continent north-south almost to the doorstep of my niece in Texas, as in Austin. She is quite the flashy one as far as fashion, and I wonder how the disparity of her being just-south-of-the-situation effected what she did?
But doors were opened up here, as the elements decided which way they would go, even as they again were being fickle. Downtown, even before the Hudson Tap thrust forward its as-such open door policy, which they next-day did, the Awakened Soul shop had their main of two doors flung free, and the same was true of Seasons Gallery. All at a full 90 degrees. But the latter two did not replicate today, even when it got warm, replaced in that mode instead by Ziggy’s.

(Note: This is the first of an occasional series on super-cool-but-still-smokin’ area deejays, karaoke and otherwise, and charismatic bartenders.)

The longtime karaoke deejay (doing both) at Bobcat’s in downtown New Richmond and other venues, who goes by the stage name Shakin’ Dave because of his jiggly dance moves that evoke Jimmy Buffett and his lowkey shorts and floppy shirt, often shifts and shimmies left and right and does a dip of his shoulders like a Drop C chord, when in action. Dave when at Bobcat’s in the back — which is more central then you might at first note — by the karaoke booth, or when out mingling with the crowd with swagger and moves like Jagger, making me think samba or salsa, while the songs are spinning. The decorative dice are indicative of someone who can roll, and rock, as are displayed on his business card.
He has over years honed his act, where like many deejays, he has some themed music ready to go. Dave’s just-getting-the-party-started early choice when buses of bachelorettes come in to let loose, is generally to instruct the groom, who likely is not in attendance, on just how to treat a lady — and show just what he might be in for. The brief monologue is followed by a song by Shania Twain, “any man of mine better walk the line.” And that’s only the start of such musical comedy. You can add in as foils the likes of Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert, and all three are experienced country music singers — and female. Their target audience with these songs, often grouped in threes by genre, leave only one question on the table, or dance floor: Who will whoop it up most, to follow The Shaker’s suggestion, the bride or a member of her party. Mom too.
But Dave’s got other genres going too — especially anything requiring a hat, maybe a floppy or even frilly one. Dave has plenty of them as part of his costume schtick, and a main one is more like a sombrero, not somber, complete with killer bright colors and numerous strings with small attachments at the edge of the brim. They are not quite to the point of being frayed, just jangle while he jiggles, in a way that can be uniquely lowkey and also remind one of actor Bill Murray’s deadpan demeanor. Put all this together and it works. Or Dave will play a fave song for you just for your listening to it, with the only vocals being those from the original singers, and not your friends acting as backup vocalists. As Dave — who has his presence felt across several endeavors and brings that experience and its banter to this as his night gig — will also spin it that way for you.
The bridal parties usually eat it up, just like wedding cake. Dave is also a main force in bringing in a crowd of regulars singing unusually creative tunes, across genres but not straying too much from them, who have also now started going to the Wild Badger for more of the same.
More recently, Dave pointed out the derivative nature of a band that essentially covered a song by Dobie Grey and played those numbers back to back, then talked up Beyonce covering the classic song Jolene by Dolly Parton and followed it with another remake done by Miley Cyrus. Good commentary, all around.
Dave has gotten behind some of my ragers, welcoming me to the spotlight in front of the stage with screen set at 90 degrees, and expertly prepping the crowd to best enjoy my rather far-reaching takes on these tunes. To wit: Hocus Pocus by Focus that approaches the heights of wild crescendo, You Got Another Thing coming with wailing by Judas Priest, and of course Stairway to Heaven as I try my hand at introducing vocal fills as per Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. Dave doesn’t mind if I and others get a little outrageous; that’s his stock and trade when kept at controlled chaos.
But Dave is about more than just Bobcat’s. By the numbers, or the phrases, his business is called Dave’s PC and DJ, specializing in weddings, birthdays, graduations (like soon coming), anniversaries (the grandfolks love to rock too and sing more than just classic rock and country), reunions, parties and corporate events too … even maybe Martian Space Schuttle launchings?!? Featuring interactive karaoke and a sound and light show to fit any venue. Indoor or Outdoor.
New Richmond next to only Hudson is a destination place for bachelorette parties in far western Wisconsin. The pattern is for these crews that basically consist of the bridal parties and a few friends, to start at Bobcat’s, maybe even a bit before most local music typically starts, and around the time Bobcat’s weekend karaoke begins, then cross the main street over to the Wild Badger and other venues to the immediate north. Most of the nightspots are quite long and narrow, and people will filter through the venues and then go out to use the back alleys running parallel to the north-south main street, on either of the stretches to be found west and east.
You can find Dave at Bobcat’s every Friday and Saturday night from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Then back there on Sunday with a somewhat quieter and maybe folkier gig in the afternoon, from 2-6 p.m. and constitutes what usually is a rare time for karaoke. His email is a dead giveaway, see ShakinDave@Buddy-Technology.com.

The border battle that has framed Minnesconsin started with booze but has hit with hemp another stage, and not one with just mainstream pot back there, and backstage, by the roadies.
What is legal in one state is not in another. And vise versa. Makes it tough as thick rope to “weed” it all out.
When Minnesota non-marginalized marijuana, as in making it legal, it set in place a whole series of changes in the non-mainstream marketplace for various hemp and/or cannabis derived products. And not just involving the purchase of Grateful Dead tickets.
Drinks infused with garden variety CBD, and virtually no THC, had been found in some grocery store aisles in western Wisconsin for a few months running, but apparently the stigma that can be associated with having it on your shelf caused them to take it off in almost all cases, a store worker said. And there were market conditions effecting this, as the drinks apparently just didn’t sell all that well and were not as popular as joints. One medium-size grocer on the north end of St. Croix County simply sold out what stock had remained, on special in a mini-fridge next to some juicy energy drinks, then did not reorder, back in late 2022.

– A newer local CBD shop made the claim in an ad, back around Christmastime, that seemingly because of loopholes in regulations between states, you can get a higher THC value with some Wisconsin drinks, and maybe gummies, than across the river. –

That said, most of this was before Minnesota legalized weed. Since then, you can’t find these CBD-infused-only drinks such as seltzer water anywhere in my region, and not too much in the other end of the state, either, (with Illinois and its own laws to obey in tow.) They have been replaced, at least in Minnesota, with such juices infused with full-fledged cannabis — the now legal kind — with no CBD juice to be found, as of a few months back. I first noticed this, about a year ago, when going to a major upscale grocer, and the clerks, two of them, had no clue in which aisle to find CBD-infused drinks, which they had carried. With green veggies? Juices? And they weren’t just one row off. It turned out that the newer version, with real THC, was available at their liquor store component separated by a glass door, in a refrigeration unit. At about $25 for a small pack.
And even Wisconsin has its own version of its stronger CBD adaptation, inspired from The Delta, and not that of the Mississippi. Here in the Badger State, you can buy both Delta 8 (the equivalent, to make a caffeine comparison, of cola), and Delta 9 (more like Dew or even the Old School Jolt, before such CBD things rather than caffeine content were even conceived of.)
And now local companies such as Lift Bridge (although having fingers in both states) are jumping into the fray, with THC-infused juices that up the ante to 10 mg of the hemp-derived stuff in their 12-ounce mixes — labeled as two servings worth and no alcohol — up from the typical 5 mg. Then enter their peer from just down the highway, Oliphant Brewing, which has upped the ante to, a couple of notches up the scale, a 25 mg product — for only a few bucks more per pack — and one with 10 mg of both THC and the now-far-to-find CBD. The higher level drink shows, in one such case of its uncanny container art, showcasing a skeleton crawling on hands and knees and named Extinct, as in T Rex, the creature is pictured with that telltale leaf infused into its forehead. On either side, it shows vapes streaming from the eye sockets, but makes no reference to being a Delta product on its packaging.
A suggestion: In your best effort not to become yourself extinct, ha ha, it might be best to consume the 25 mg drinks in “fifths” to make the total only 5 mg, if you know what I mean, (in an NA and AA way to measure that kind of thinking.)
These products are right now the fodder of and for liquor stores and the burgeoning number of dispenseries, as Wisconsin debates fully becoming a state where you can smoke marijuana. There exist legal and marketplace reasons, and the word is out that six packs that are variety packs are coming, not just the four cans, but for right now, the gist is they are slimly found and run about $17.99 or higher with their cost not lessened by volume discount. Delta 8 runs you about three bucks less.
All of this placement in the market, not of a grocery store but as a business niche, means that kratom, which is said by devoted followers to make ebb a variety of ills, and is legal in most states such as Minnesota but not Wisconsin, has come way down in price at smoke shops in the Gopher State. It was once fairly pricy, but now people can buy enough to last a month, or more likely two or three or more as it can have bad side effects in higher doses, for less than a Benjamin. A question remains from this quagmire: It is staunchly illegal to sell kratom in Wisconsin, but are there major fines if you simply have it on your person, (there is now not much monetary incentive to have “intent to deliver.”)
How do the cops respond to the whole disparity, as the downfall of states rights is that any time you cross such a border you encounter a whole new set of laws, and they say ignorance of such is no defensible legal defense. The barflies have an opinion, back from the start of The Changes: If you are in a neighboring state and have THC on your person — but maybe moreso in Hudson than say, New Richmond — the nice officer just might preach to you that hey, you’re just so many yards or a few miles away from one of the 50 states where it’s legal, so just be quickly, but within the speed limit, on your way back there — if you have not indulged and thus are not intoxicated, a small sampling of patrons have said they believe. Of course these are some of the same people who have sworn that when police stop you, and if they have a squad blinker out, you can use that to get out of your own ticket. And if your drivers license, and I assume you have one, shows you live in the purple state where it’s legal, will that cut you any slack with the officer?
A quick review of a month’s worth of police and sheriff’s report records revealed that there were an average of between one and three incidents a week concerning THC possession in the River Falls and St. Croix County jurisdictions. (The most alleged violations seen continue to involve methamphetamine.) The breakdown provided to the Hudson Star-Observer each week by Hudson Police is not that specific in defining the nature of offenses.
All these new situations point up the need to better train the officers who have to deal with them, like they didn’t already have enough to be astute about. In the state of Wisconsin, the minimum education requirement for a police officer is only a high school degree, although individual jurisdictions can require them to continue further with their education. But don’t have to get a degree in molecular chemistry.

Heading toward Wisconsin and need a quick fix, so to speak, eloquently or not?
And especially so, if its 4-20 and want to even moreso up the tempo and party down, and get specials for the occasion? As April 20 is a Saturday, so it and the nextday are not typical workdays, and you can hit it earlier, or keep it going longer. (The place I’m going to recommend is open until 10 p.m. and their varied goods have a “shelf life” of somewhat of a high, in a good and safe way, feeling for hours beyond. So starting up at 10 a.m., check out a loyalty program that’ll keep you coming back, and with that, imagine what specials they’ll offer on Saturday.)
Thus, if you happen into Hudson, just a minute over the border, stop by The Hideaway (in the middle of the Coulee Road shopping district) a vape store that you can trust and can be seen from the freeway (and even view some of their great offers hawked). They even are clever enough to note that the digits in 4202024, as shown upper left, are a direct reversal of themselves.

– And in a special not exactly hidden away from full view, on 4-20 at Hideaway, you get 50 percent off select glassware, and between 20 and 30 percent off everything else in the store. —

And visit Hideaway’s other stores in various places around Minnesconsin, mostly in the vicinity of and in the Twin Cities metro, but also including Duluth and Menomonie — simply as it’s all about ease, by following the Hideaway Hudson shore, on the frontage road just north of Interstate 94 — and taking that freeway 50 miles down the road, and look at the specials they offer for your special day that is 4-20 …
At Hideaway, you get between 20 and 30 percent off everything in the store, and 50 percent off select glassware. These are at buy one and get one free, THC drinks and cigars; 30 percent off, all other glass, THC gummies, E-juice and devices, and disposables; 20 percent off razor grinders and Ultimate Box grinders. Everything else in the store is discounted at 25 percent off.
They offer, and the list is long so to find that little bit of extra something, you might have to scroll a bit, (like one customer said, this is the only place where she found non-tobacco pouch grinds, so try something new like that for 4-20): cigarettes, chewing tobacco, snuff, tobacco bags, tubes, wraps, cigarillos, E-Cigarettes, E-Liquids, RYO, smoking accessories, incenses, premium cigars and cigars cases, for starters. They say they have one of the widest collections of such products in the state of Wisconsin, not to mention Minnesota, all at prices that can’t be beaten. And they have some time ago added a humidor, too.
The product range can be shown by their dozens displayed across more than one or two long shelves. Time and time again.
“Hideaway Hudson is your friendly vape and tobacco expert with a line of products you are certain to be excited about,” they say.
So, whether you are looking for this or that — or are a vaping expert, or looking to learn more about this simple way to enjoy a relaxing smoke break, Hideaway Hudson has the customer service and knowledge (and wit) to help you find the products that fit your needs. They are people who have the lengthy of experience, and breadth of humor, to joke with you about old Cheech and Chong movies, and even come up with new quips.
Since 2012, Hideaway Hudson has happily, that’s key here, served customers throughout the broad area to find vaping products with ease. Check it out and let them put their knowledge on display. A vape can be an easy way for this, and you need not worry about safely disposing a used cigarette, or having to carry around multiple packs of them.
A vape can fit easily in your pocket, your car, or your backpack for when you’re on the go. In case you don’t have room for a hookah. But they have them too. Lots of them.
“Additionally, vapes save you the hassle of carrying additional needed products like a lighter. Traditional vapes can last you up to 400 puffs, which can save you time and money that you’d spend on regular cigarettes,” they say. But Hideaway offers those also.
One of the biggest draws to vaping, though, is the choice of flavor you get to make — as this is all about your needs. Hideaway Hudson has a long list of delicious flavors that won’t be as “offensive” as traditional tobacco smoke. “It’ll also taste much better and some of our brands are infused with calming flavors,” they add. I’d bet they even have peppermint, (and all the music-based symbolism that comes with that!) When you need a quick smoke break, a vape can be the perfect addition to your routine.
So stop by their vape shop or visit the website to learn more about their wide range of vaping products. To learn more about the shop and what we they, give a call at (715) 808-0491.
But now more on the loyalty program, the main info you’re interested in: Points are earned at 15 points per dollar spent on Minnesota Legit products, and at 10 points per dollar on mostly everything else, excluding tobacco, butane, discounted items, and other applicable items, but you’d expect that. So for every $10 in savings you need to use, you know where to go …
Loyalty program terms may change, but you’ll be promptly sent information about any changes … and your information is kept confidential, and will not be shared or sold. So they’ll use it to send updates and special offers, which you can opt out of at anytime.
Loyalty points are not earned on sale days, but may be redeemed on most sale-day purchases. So use what you can build up on all the offers, on something like 4-20!

An expanded version of Bluegrass Bourbon and Brews as a River Falls tasting festival, and they’ve added more stops for (small) shots of bourbon as well as a shuttle to take you from music venue to tasting site — more than a dozen total — continues today with many bands new or newer to the area.
Here are those still going on right downtown and a jog north in a few cases, and not before pumped on this website, late Saturday afternoon and night, that you might want to take in: Lou Shields (not Reed), Side String Band, Potluck String Band, High and Rising, Maura Dunst, Wise Jennings (not Waylon), Dig Deep (not purple or Depp), Crooked Window, Steam Machine, Danny Frank & The Smoky Gold, Don Harvey, String Diggers, Tres Osos (not Hombres), Chicken Wire Empire (a headliner), The High 48s, Texas Toast, Kind Country Band, Thirsty River, People Brothers Band (a headliner), and Miles over Mountains.

More haze daze, read below …
With that, there are other things going on this weekend and through April’s end:
To frame this next one, there are close to 100 bar and grills on the western end of Pierce and St. Croix counties.
So when the GasLite near Ellsworth repeatedly offers, like just a few venues in that whole area, live shows by that group that seems to have been around since The Stones, but likewise continues to keep their show fresh, The Dweebs, it is indeed something special. So when the band performs with trademark style on Friday night, it’s teamed with something just as special offered beforehand. The boom before the bass drum. Big fireworks to be done at dusk via this company, the Victory Wholesale Demo, as the GasLite has the rarely found surrounding grassy areas to allow seating for such a show. See their website for two different ways to blaze a trail around the area’s road construction. Use those tips as well, for the devue Lipstick-n-Dynamite show at the GasLite on Saturday, April 27, as they feature shows of the region’s best as far as a combo of band experience (several decades worth and guitarist Krister even played with critically acclaimed American Head Charge) and beauty (lead singer Marissa shows what you would expect from such a group’s name.) They go on at 7 p.m.
The previous Friday night, at the other end of this area, it’s also something different, in duplicate. On April 19th, find The Wild Badger with a repeated duo of a music offering in New Richmond, with a battle of brothers as deejays, Ryan and BDay, who also come highly recommended. (And on the day following, the infamous April 20 day, there will be Haze Day, hosted by DJ BDay.)
Last in this theme in pairings, is the absense of the long-seen-sign, in the form of a trailer set-up with rows for letters, on the west side of the Willow River Saloon in Burkhardt. It’s been gone for at least a couple of weeks, not to be viewable by commuters. But after the work week ends, to let it be known, going on stage to bring on the party mix in both their cases, is Rock Bridage on Friday night and Jazmin and the Gents on Saturday.