Wishing Paine well after years of service

Larry Paine, our city administrator for about the past 12 years, is retiring at the end of this month. The Free Press has quoted him many times, but the story has never been about him, which is a good thing, in my opinion. I wish him the best, and enjoy your retirement.

Our home has gone to the birds. First it was a mourning dove family who used a hanging basket containing a dead fern from last summer as a nest. The parents got the two babies out of the nest on Mother’s Day. The hanging basket was then replaced with a hummingbird feeder. Now I know why they are called hummingbirds. Now we have birds from St. Louis on the front porch. We watched the cardinal parents try to get the baby redbird to fly, but we never saw the nest.

“I think I am a moth.” “I think you need a psychiatrist.” “I know.” “So why did you come in here to the gas station?” “The light was on.”

I am planning to talk about two spicy meatballs, one in this column and one next month. This one is about shopping at home, next will be about health care in this area. First this spicy meatball. Why should we all shop at home? 1) With the pandemic it’s necessary to keep our businesses alive. 2) The state and county need the sales tax to operate. If you can’t find it locally, at least buy it in the state. Once coming back from Des Moines, I ran on fumes to get to Kansas to buy gas on Stateline road. 3) Buying locally allows the businesses to support the causes you and your kids participate in. I ‘ll bet Jeff Bezos or Amazon won’t contribute to your kid’s fundraiser. I happen to like to buy gas at Jost Service because Lowell provides full service for the older people like us.

We enjoyed some good local take out meals recently from the Panda Kitchen and the new Pickup Line, located on North Main.

 

I have always wanted to try the “impossible burger” at Burger King, made from plants. We needed a quick lunch between appointments at KU Medical Center and Burger King is just across the street. I am staying with all beef from now on.

Doctor: What seems to be the matter? Patient: I have a sore throat, Doctor. I ache, I have a fever. Doctor: Sounds like some kind of virus. Patient: Everyone in the office has it. Doctor: Well then, it must be a staff infection.

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