Grace Notes
__ Not happy with where you live? I’d suggest you just hunker down and stay put, because Kansas was just recently ranked as the 2nd cheapest state to live in during the current inflation surge. A survey titled America’s Top States for Business considered 88 different metrics and 10 categories of competitiveness. Of all 50 states, Kansas ranks number two in the category of cost of living. Take it from Dorothy and Toto who went through a great many obstacles to get back to Kansas, because: “There’s no place like home.” This landlocked territory has some of the lowest housing costs in the country, even though in the last year, prices have gone up 14.4%. Kansas is still the second-cheapest state in the U.S. The median house price in the area is $194,951. So who was ranked above Kansas? That would be Mississippi, which has the lowest housing costs of practically any state, with a median home value of just $157,885. Other advantages include below-average transportation, utility, and grocery costs.
__ Here’s another list that should have Kansans smiling. The town of Abilene recently made the “Top 10” in a nationwide poll of the “Best Historic Small Towns.” This marks the fourth time in a row that Abilene has finished in the Top 10 for the contest, earning some serious bragging rights. Abilene fell second in line to Wickford, R.I. The rest of the Top 10 included: San Elizario, Texas in third place, followed by De Smet, S.D.; Gettysburg, Pa.; Taos, N.M.; Natchitoches, La.; Berkely Springs, W. Va.; and Natchez, Miss. Of the list of Top 10, and other than Abilene, the only other place we have visited is Taos, N.M. I guess we need to hit the road and check out the other eight places.
__ There are many advantages to living in a small town—here’s just one of a million: To my knowledge, we do not have rats in our sub-systems. (Note to City of Stockton: If we DO have rats running amuck in our sewer lines and other drainage systems, please do not tell me! Some things are just best left unsaid!) I’m talking about the kind of infestation that is well known in cities such as New York, San Francisco, and L.A. So well known, in fact, that they make operas, movies and children’s cartoons about rats! (Remember Disney’s “Ratatouille?”) But in big-city culture, most municipalities have restricted the use of highly toxic rat poisoning, because the only thing worse than thousands of rats is thousands of dead rats! So a contraceptive, which is deployed in bait boxes of fat and water, is now the preferable method in targeting their reproductive capabilities. Here’s an alarming fact that I didn’t really need to know, but now that I know it, I’m going to share it with you: Rats reproduce at an incredible rate. You can’t kill them fast enough to offset their reproduction rate. Just two sexually mature rats could account for about 15,000 rats within a year. Holeymoley! I don’t know why I felt this was important enough to tell you, but I recently read this, and I’m just flabbergasted at the absurd reproduction rate of a stinkin’ rat. I’m sorry... I hope you were not trying to eat your lunch while reading this.
__ Here is a very inspirational quote from a great man, Colin Powell (05 April 1937 to 18 Oct 2021), former U.S. Secretary of State and Army Chief of Staff, and a favorite person of mine: “All children need a laptop. Not a computer, but a human laptop. Moms, Dads, Grannies and Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles... someone to hold them, read to them, teach them. Loved ones who will embrace them and pass on the experience, rituals and knowledge of a hundred previous generations. Loved ones who will pass to the next generation their expectation of them, their hopes and their dreams.”
