Category Archives: Friends & Family

Reciting the Alphabet Backwards

Last Sunday I watched the National Football Conference championship game at my neighbor’s house. He had also invited two friends over who live on Marine Drive, Jerry and Marilyn. Jerry is a great storyteller. Marilyn has a talent I didn’t know about.
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Bungalow Brown

New top, new paint


Bungalow Brown. That’s the color I used when I recently repainted the picnic table K’s dad made for us about 20 years ago. He died in 1994, but I think if he were still around he would be happy with the job. Sporting a new cedar top and fresh paint (see photo), the old table is ready for the coming summer.
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Please ID This Cat

Kitty mug shots: Viking Epic (left), UNSUB (right)

I know almost nothing about collectible glassware. So I was easily duped when I bought what I thought was a Viking Epic glass cat last month for my sister’s collection of feline figurines. In the photo her cat is the one on the right. She likes the latest addition to her cat family, but I’m left wondering what I did buy.
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A Gas Story

We've seen this before


My local Shell station (see photo) has hiked the price for regular gas by 9 cents a gallon in the last two days. This latest round of price increases reminds me of a long-ago trip when I experienced a severe case of “pump shock.” The story goes back to the 1970’s, a decade of oil embargoes, gas rationing, and steadily increasing fuel prices. The media summed things up then by coining the term “gas crisis.”
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“Hippos” Provides an Insight

Saying I don’t like poetry would be too strong a statement. A better way to put things is that generally I avoid it, especially modern free-form verse that doesn’t rhyme. So yesterday when my sister called to read “Hippos on Holiday” to me while I was waiting for the ferry to Seattle (poetry by cell phone), I was pleasantly surprised. I also had an insight and wondered if I have been missing something by only reading prose.
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Dennis and Eugene

My Texas brother has recently become interested in tracing family history. One of his first projects was to compile a list of the ancestors and descendants of my paternal grandmother, who died in 1928. When he shared it with me, there was an interesting side benefit. I had not realized how many times the descendants have honored my father when naming their male children.
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Active People

A cool new ride


My cousin T.H. and his wife L.H. are fun active people. They surprised me with a visit late yesterday, ended up spending the night, and are gone again. That’s what’s neat about seeing family—get-togethers aren’t always planned. We don’t visit often enough, so there’s always something new (to me) in their lives. I was expecting the Camry or VW van, not a sporty convertible (see photo).
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Ghosts in Port Gamble?

I like visiting Port Gamble, the restored lumber mill town on Port Gamble Bay in North Kitsap. I drove my old Chevy there today—a gorgeous Sunday in May. There are acres of open space, a couple dozen historic homes, stunning views of Hood Canal, an old post office and general store, antique shops, a summer car show, and an annual Civil War reenactment. If that’s not enough the town’s promoters have scheduled several ghost-related events for the coming October.
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A Lot of Dough for the Dough

Ever have an idea that bogs down when it gets to the implementation details? Like when some person or organization doesn’t do what you had expected or hoped? Last Saturday my friend R. B. and I thought of a great way for him to save time and effort while creating masterpiece pizzas at home. But our brillant plan was derailed by a real-world issue—cost.
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Why I Want to Help Tiger

In everything I have read or seen about the Tiger Woods scandal, no pundit has addressed what I think is the most important question: Is there anything the average person can do to help Tiger? Of course to even begin to answer the question assumes the public would want to help Tiger, whose downfall seem to be self-inflicted. For purely personal reasons, I do. I would like to see him save his marriage and rejoin the PGA tour next year.
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