Category Archives: Friends & Family

A Cute Halloween Card

Just a friendly little greeting to wish you happy trick or treating


The card that K sent me this year arrived well before Halloween night. I’m just late in posting a scan of it. Yesterday when I was putting away my Halloween decorations, I took another look at Casper’s bewitching smile. I think it is one of the best cards she has ever made and well worth mentioning in the Mud Bay Blog.

K and her friends Cindy and Sheila get together at Treasure Island whenever they can to make cards for holidays and special occasions like graduations. They have hundreds of rubber stamps and a wide variety of paper, ink, glue, and cutting tools. Their hobby is called stamping, but to me they have gotten so good at it that I consider them to be card artists. I have saved every card K has ever sent me. Whenever I get one I feel lucky and privileged.

A Cell Phone Story

Ever lose a cell phone? People leave them everywhere, including in rental vehicles. This cell phone story has a happy ending.
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USS Long Beach (1959–2012)

USS Long Beach—hiding in plain sight


The USS Long Beach, the Navy’s first nuclear-powered surface ship, had been quietly moored in Bremerton, Washington, since being deactivated in 1994. Not any more. This week the big cruiser was towed away from its berth at the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (see photo), ending any chance for an easy photo op.
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A Clean Roomy Trunk

1955 Chevrolet rear view

Tri-Five Chevys look great from the rear (see photo). That’s just one of the reasons why 1955-56-57 Chevrolets are popular collector cars. Their tushes may be a bit flat by Miss America standards (or when compared to the curvy rear end shown in the photo below of a 1951 model), but the design is clean and functional. It makes for easy loading/unloading, and that was important for many families in the 1950’s.
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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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