LIVING HERE
The drought is over.
Almost three-quarters of Wisconsin is no longer in a drought, as April and May’s rainfall has alleviated an almost-year-long drought. The drought has been steadily improving since last summer and fall when it covered almost the entire state. In late September, 98% of Wisconsin was in some level of drought or abnormally dry condition. Now, it’s 28% of the state. Walworth County has had its thirteenth wettest April on record. That record broke one that was set 130 years ago. This year has been the seventh wettest year to date for the entire state. That certainly shows, with all the flash flooding and muddy grounds that have been seen this spring. It seems that the area has been getting one severe storm after another. Hopefully, this means that the farmers will have a better crop this year. The drought recovery is part of one of the state’s worst in the period since the U.S. Drought Monitor started in 2000, but there have been others, including in 2021 to 2022 and in the mid-to-late 2000s, but those were not as severe.
The small places of mixed repute abound in downtown Lake Geneva.
How about the rebuilt, reformed, and beautifully ugly award-winning façade of Fat Cats? That place used to be a den of iniquity with smokers putting out cigarettes while huddled out along the sidewalk. Now, they still huddle but the place is cleaned up…but to be what? A nicer-looking den of iniquity.
Someone in a political office in the city once said, years ago, that such dens are necessary for when regular people have a craven need to go slumming. There’s the supposed pool hall across the street where the gamblers all flocked to after the former bookie retreated to Illinois after it was discovered that she only took in bets while never paying out any winnings. That sounds like a lot of modern casinos but doesn’t work in small towns where such dark illegal iniquities are necessary but not tolerated over a long time.
There are also weird establishments downtown that do weird things, like axe throwing while drinking alcohol. Now there’s a clear and potentially surgical mix. There’s an oxygen bar for those with early morning hangovers, as one hundred percent oxygen is supposed to alleviate some of those sickening symptoms…if it doesn’t kill you. There was an antique shop on Broad Street that finally went away a few weeks ago. It had wonderfully beautiful antiques set in its picture windows but was never open. Ever. It’s gone now.
These ‘dens’ come and go, taking advantage of the quality places around them that seem, by association, to lend some quality or credibility where none is due.
Haberdapper, Tres Belle, Cornerstone, and so many more, are class acts with great staff, wonderful owners, quality products, and better prices than the big box stores. Even ‘anchor’ stores like the Wiggling Pig can go wrong. Used to be neat people, cheap prices, and great access but now all that’s left after the old man died and left his mean-spirited spawn in charge, is the access. Notice the giant price increases lately?
