Grace Notes
Even though she is three years old, I still call Charley a puppy. She certainly still acts like one, especially one morning not too long ago when she was playing with a little frog. I was watching from a distance as I watered my flowers, but I suddenly realized what was going on, and I went over to her and tried to chase the little frogger away a bit faster. Charley was clearly wanting to make a point that I was spoiling her fun, so she quickly snapped at the small frog and then ran away from me. In just a matter of a few seconds, I saw Charley drop that frog, and almost immediately she began foaming at the mouth. Spitting, frothing, coughing, over and over, but still interested in where that blankety-blank frog was going. I quickly ran inside and grabbed my tablet, asking “what should I do when my dog picks up a frog and begins foaming out her mouth?” The first thing that popped up told all about this inevitable trick that frogs will do to get the last laugh when they feel threatened, and the information assured me that she would be alright; but if she continued to foam at the mouth after a couple of hours, I should take her to my pet vet. I stayed home with her for 30 minutes or so until I knew for sure that the foam factory had shut down. I’d like to think that Charley learned a lesson in this, but I would be giving her way too much credit because she was having a lot of fun with that little hoppy-toad.
One of many things we noticed after our son and his family moved to Texas was all the Whataburger restaurants which seemed to be in just about every town. It quickly became one of our favorite places to eat. Now, thanks to our favorite quarterback, Patrick Mahomes has brought HIS favorite place to eat to our great state. The popular San Antonio-based fast food chain made its debut in Kansas City, Mo., last year, but Mahomes now owns the first location in the Sunflower State. Supposedly, the Chiefs quarterback visited those Kansas City locations in 2021 incognito (how is THAT possible?), perhaps gathering intel for his eventual business venture in Kansas. The first patron of Mahomes’ Whataburger was a woman named Karen. (You just can’t make this stuff up!) Mahomes says he grew up eating at Whataburger, frequently eating at one that was just down the street from where his family lived. Now, thanks to Number 15, these restaurants will no doubt begin popping up all over Kansas. How ‘bout we get one of our own, right here in Stockton! Come on, all you Mahomies!
Early this spring, around Mother’s Day, a cute story from our neighbors to the west appeared on KSN News. The story was about a woman named Sara, in Hill City, who had lost her wedding ring nine years ago while doing some gardening. Every year when she replanted flowers she would continue to look, feeling it just had to be there. Sara had gone so far as to use a metal detector to try and locate her ring, but she never had any luck. Then this spring, her daughter Annaliese was helping prepare the flower bed when she suddenly began to scream. Sara thought her daughter had gotten hurt and went running to the front of the house, and there she found her daughter, holding a dirt-caked ring in her hand! Dirty as it was, she did not want to remove it even to clean it. A friend of hers had the perfect reaction to the story about the found treasure that Sara posted on Facebook: “Now those are the kinds of carats you want to find in your garden!”
