Mike Usinger

Focus. One simple world, one often impossible task, especially if—guilty as charged—you tend to suffer from screaming ADHD. When faced with a hard deadline when the train is leaving the station at 11 a.m. and not a second later, laserbeaming a project becomes easy. With an extended runway, not so much. Hands up if you can crank out 2,000 words with a four-hour deadline, with the weird thing being it takes three days to write 300 words when there’s a two-week runway.

Time to pull out the Tony Lamas and 10-gallon hat, but maybe leave the vintage Buscadero holster and 1876 Peacemaker at home. The 10-year anniversary edition of the Truck Stop Concert Series, a.k.a. Red Truck Beer Company’s annual country-themed blowout, takes place this Saturday (August 15) at 295 East 1st Avenue. This year’s headliner is Texas-based Eli Young Band, whose hit singles have included “Crazy Girl”, “Drunk Last Night”, and “Even If It Breaks Your Heart”.

At first, the initial thought was it’s a great gift: thoughtful, practical, and invaluable once the West Coast storm clouds gather round this year and the heavy rains descend. (Which is to say January to June, November to December, and sometimes July and August). The selling point for the gift in question, the new-on-the-market Anker Solix S2000, is that the portable power bank makes a compact and reliable backup for emergency situations.