I saw a cartoon the other day illustrating a family driving in a car with the mother in the passenger seat looking at her phone and stating to all, “The blender just texted — we forgot to turn off the stove.”

Sound familiar? We may not be there yet, but we are close. 

Over the past few years, I have been following a series of surveys from Deloitte, which provides audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and legal services, and I continue to be amazed. The 2021 survey from Deloitteindicated that the average U.S. household had 25 connected devices, up from 11 in the prior survey. 

“Impossible,” I said.

Then I started adding them up. My cell phone. Jolene’s cell phone. Two iPads. Two Apple watches. Two laptops. Two Apple TVs. Three Firesticks. A Ring doorbell. A Nest thermostat. A MyQ garage door opener. Five Amazon Echos. Two wireless headphone sets. That brings me to 23, and I have likely missed some. Yikes.

The 2023 survey found consumers are struggling to find the balance between their digital and physical lives. They are continuing to streamline their household devices, and are slowing down with their device purchases. Many have embraced virtual experiences for the long term. At the same time, they’re trying to manage the drawbacks of too much tech.

Here are a few findings from the 2023 Deloitte report:

• Forty-one percent of consumers revealed they dislike managing their devices (updating software, handling security, or fixing problems).
• Twenty-eight percent said they are overwhelmed by the devices and subscriptions they need to manage — an uptick from 24% in 2022 but not quite reaching the 32% in 2021 when households had even more devices.
• Adults aged 18-40 are feeling more overwhelmed (37%) than older generations (23%). Some of this sentiment may stem from 18- to 40-year-olds managing a larger collection of household devices (26 on average) than older generations (18 on average).

Ready or not, the future is here. Meet George Jetson. 

A sincere thank you

I appreciate the efforts so many of you made to attend our open house at our new facility at 104 Industrial Road in Guthrie Center. More than 100 of you braved the rainy weather and joined us for food, drink and fellowship while learning how we are currently using the updated space and what we have in mind for the future. I especially enjoyed hearing from several guests who worked in the building decades ago and offered insight to many of the questions I had about the building’s configurations. Thank you again. 

Have a futuristic Friday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital editions
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707

The above were the words of Casey Kasem when he would close out each episode of his “American Top 40” radio show. I agree. Human beings have no business in the sky. That’s probably not what Casey had in mind when he coined the phrase, but that’s my interpretation… and here’s why. 

I have long believed that humans were made to roam the land. If we were intended to be in the sky, we would have wings. We don’t, but that hasn’t stopped generations of humans from trying to get into the air. Flying in an airplane is unnerving to me, but it is now an acceptable means of transportation for me and for most people.

Oh, well. I get it, and I do fly in commercial planes. But skydiving? Bungee jumping? Paragliding? The margin for error in these activities is slim. Casey was right. Reaching for the stars is fine, but keep your feet on the ground, for crying out loud. 

Meanwhile, about 2.8 million skydives are made in the U.S. each year. The United States Parachute Association, which has 40,000 members, recorded 11 fatal skydiving accidents in 2020, a rate of 0.39 fatalities per 100,000 jumps. They contrast that with a 1 in 6,000 chance of dying in a car wreck for those who drive 10,000 miles or more per year. I’m not debating their math, but I still like my odds better in an automobile. 

The thought of landing on the ground in a parachute makes my back ache. My skydiving friends tell me the impact is similar to jumping off a garage, which, to be honest, doesn’t sound appealing either. Don’t get me wrong. I am all for supporting the 73,000 or so chiropractors in the U.S., but, at my age, I prefer to avoid activities that compress my spine.

So, yes, I am choosing to keep my feet on the ground. And those stars? Well, I keep reaching. 

Have a fantastic Friday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital editions
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707

When I knock on a door, and the person on the other side answers with, “Who is it?”, my common reply is, “It’s the plumber; I’ve come to fix the sink.” It’s an obscure reference to a short cartoon that played on “The Electric Company”when I was a kid. Some people get it. Most don’t. That doesn’t stop me from continuing to use it. 

I am not really a plumber, but I do try to be one every once in a while. A few decades ago, I learned a valuable lesson with garbage disposal units. I learned another one recently. 

Let’s start with garbage disposal unit lesson No. 1. In the mid-1990s in our first home, our garbage disposal unit quit working. I found the little tool to hand crank it, but it still didn’t work. So I bought a new unit and replaced it. In throwing out the old one, I noticed a reset button on the bottom. Ugh. With the new unit already installed and working, I didn’t even try the old one to see if it would work. I quietly disposed of it. Now I know that garbage disposal units have reset buttons. Lesson No. 1 learned. 

On to garbage disposal unit lesson No. 2. When our dishwasher wasn’t draining recently, I did a YouTube search and found a few tips. One was to take a plunger to the kitchen sink and try to knock the clog loose. Had I watched more closely, I would have learned not to plunge too aggressively. But I didn’t, and the jackhammer plunging I did apparently broke the seals in my garbage disposal unit. No big deal. The unit was old, and I had replaced these before, right?

In the meantime, our dishwasher wasn’t working, so I called a plumber friend of mine for advice. He told me to contact a sewer service, so I did. The guy who cleaned the line told me I had a leaking garbage disposal unit, which I knew by now. So, I installed a new garbage disposal unit myself. With a dishwasher still not draining and a kitchen full of dirty dishes, I did what I should have done from the beginning and called an appliance repairman. A few hundred bucks more spent, and I learned that the garbage disposal unit I installed has a knockout plug to the dishwasher hose that I apparently didn’t knock out. It was a simple fix, but, at this point, I simply wanted to knock myself out. Lesson No. 2 learned. 

So, if you are following along, you now know that garbage disposal units have reset buttons and knockout plugs. Worst of all, my “It’s the plumber; I’ve come to fix the sink” joke seems to — once again — be on me. 

Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital editions
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707

We have seen an increase in the number of subscribers to our text alert option for the Times Vedette recently, and I am glad to see it. For those of you who don’t know what this option is, it is a basic text message sent to your smart phone over the noon hour on Tuesdays and Fridays with a link to the “hot off the press” issue of the Times Vedette. Click the link, and the web browser on your phone opens up with the latest edition. It is a free service, and we don’t text you with other messages or sell your data to any other service. We simply think it is a nice way to receive your Times Vedette. I speak from experience, as this is how I receive mine. 

You may wonder why you would want the Times Vedette link texted to you when you already receive the email. You may not, and that’s just fine. You may be one of our readers who reads the Times Vedette on a computer, checks email regularly and prefers to receive communication that way. If so, there is no need to change, as we will continue to send the Times Vedette email to you that way. Meanwhile, a significant number of people don’t check their email regularly, and some choose not to use email at all. The text alert is a great option for those folks. You may have children or grandchildren who may prefer this method, and we hope you tell them about this. 

If you want to give it a try, you can sign up here. Just enter your phone number and click a couple of boxes. And, if you decide it is not for you, unsubscribing is just as easy. 

Letters to the editor

I have had requests lately to run letters to the editor. This is a common feature for many traditional newspapers, but it is not something we do in our publications, for several reasons. First, our print publications are monthlies, and the subject of the letters, in many cases, would not be timely and would not give ample response time in follow-up editions, if needed. Second, and most importantly, we don’t want the editorial content of our publications to get into the mud of politics and divisive issues. We do certainly cover government meetings and elections, but our main focus is on the positive happenings related to the people, places and events of Guthrie County. With social media sites like Facebook, Next Door and others, there are plenty of places to spew anger and venom. Meanwhile, we have accepted, and we will continue to accept, political and issue advertising, with some exceptions. The ads cannot be libelous or offensive in nature, and they must follow all federal, state and local laws pertaining to political advertising. 

Newspapers of past generations used their influence to attempt to get certain people elected, have certain bond issues passed, and meddle in politics. Most of those newspapers are now gone or remain in a diminished form today. I am not trying to change the world, and I am not arrogant enough to think you should all have the same opinions I have. I simply want to share the news and information that is important to local residents and to hopefully bring a smile to your face. 

Have a fantastic Friday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital editions
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707

I put on a belt the other day and missed one of the loops on my pants. My brother Steve and I used to call this “pulling a Wayne,” a reference to our father who would frequently do this. Yes, we do become like our parents — whether we want to or not.

A 2020 article in Psychology Today explains that this happens due to “family scripts” that describe the acceptable ways we behave, speak and think. It says there are three types of these scripts: replicative, corrective and improvised. Without getting into the weeds too much, here are some brief explanations of each, according to the story. 

Replicative scripts are ones you repeat from your family of origin, whether consciously or unconsciously.

Corrective scripts occur when a person consciously chooses to do things very differently, or even opposite from, the scripts they experienced growing up.

Improvised scripts are born out of necessity or curiosity. They are not a replication or a correction of the past but are rather new and often spontaneous.

A more humorous explanation of why we become like our parents can be found at cracked.com, which says the behaviors of the elderly that we write off as “old-person lameness” are all based in biology, and that, no, we can’t stop them.

This story says as we age, our brains will stop getting pleasure from new music (agreed); our physical urge to rebel will fade away (sure); our brains will start getting pleasure from boring stuff (yep); it will become physically impossible to sleep in (no doubt); us men will stop trying to change the world (never wanted to); we will find ourselves eating bland food because we can’t taste it (or because spicy foods don’t digest like they used to?); and our memories of the past will become “The Good Old Days” (explains most of my columns). 

As for missing the belt loops? Well, I will chalk that up to three things: 1) the odds have increased since I now wear a belt every day; 2) a decrease in my range of flexibility; and 3) I really don’t care — and not necessarily in that order. 

Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital editions
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707

As most of you know, we have been working on collecting photos of veterans with ties to Guthrie County for an upcoming special section we will be publishing in the month of November in Panora Times, Guthrie Center Times and Lake Panorama Times. 

A total of 222 veteran photos have been submitted so far and are now posted at https://gctimesnews.com/veterans. If you were one of the folks who sent in a photo and information, please visit the site and let us know by Oct. 31 if anything needs to be changed before we send the pages to the printer. The website will stay up year-round and can be edited and updated, but the print edition cannot. We will accept a few more photos until Oct. 31. You can submit them on the website at https://gctimesnews.com/veterans or you can contact Cheryl Castile at or cheryl@gctimesnews.comor 641-332-2707. 

I thank each of you who submitted a photo for this effort. More importantly, I thank each of the veterans who served our country to ensure that we can all enjoy the freedoms we too often take for granted.

If you own or manage a business and want to show your appreciation to these veterans as well, contact Kerry Jacobsen at kerry@gctimesnews.com or 641-332-2707 for ideas on how you can do that in this section, too. 

Ribbon cutting and open house events

We had our official ribbon cutting for our new office at 104 Industrial Road in Guthrie Center on Wednesday, and I thank those in the business community who took time to join us for this celebration. I had a good friend who once told me that ribbon cuttings are to a business what a wedding celebration is to a newly married couple. It is a milestone event to be shared with people who are important in your life. 

If you were able to attend our ribbon cutting, I thank you. If you were not able to attend, we are having a community open house for everyone on Wednesday, Nov. 13 from 4-6:30 p.m. I look forward to showing the work we have done to the building and sharing more about our company and our plans for the future. I also found a box of unnamed photos from many years ago that may be of interest to some of you. You are more than welcome to take any of them.

I hope to see you Nov. 13.

Have a fantastic Friday, and thanks for reading. 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital editions
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707