Ah, yes, the highs and lows of living in Port Ludlow. One of the highs was how great the American flags looked around Port Ludlow, Port Hadlock, Chimacum and Kala Point on the Veterans Day weekend. Thanks again to all who support and execute this holiday celebration effort.

A new low was achieved by the thugs who stole 13 flags! The theft will cause the East Jefferson Rotary Club to invest money in new flags to replace the stolen ones. This, of course, reduces the funds available for Rotary to fund scholarships, fight polio, install wells in Honduras for clean water and so on. As a friend said, there is always an opportunity for our fellow man to disappoint us. But also, to paraphrase the late Tom Magliozzi of NPR’s “Car Talk,” the pursuit of perfection just may be irrational.

Back to the highs. We took our grandsons to the Veterans Day celebration at the American Legion Hall in Port Townsend. The Port Townsend Summer Band did a wonderful job of entertaining all of us, and it was great to see Glenn Davis, Nancy McDaniel and local Merchant Marine veteran Henry Rodgers. The 2-year-old grandson marched around to the Sousa music just like we all would have liked to do.

We received a nice high by attending the opening of the Artists League exhibition of paintings by Fran Bodman. She has her works on display in Sound Community Bank as well as at the gallery next door. I had enough of the complimentary wine to make sure there would be no low at this event. Barbara Adams commented that she was disappointed that BJ was not mentioned in last week’s column, a slight I have duly corrected this week.

For another high, we flew through Denver to Kansas City for the weekend. (I am not sure if the high was from the altitude or the Colorado air.) Then, there was a low caused by the discomfort of the seat I was in for the Seattle-Denver leg. One of the highs was the comfort of the seat in the exit row on the leg from Denver to Kansas City. We went to see old friends so that we could catch up on their activities and health. As it turns out, on the Saturday we were in town, the annual Monon Bell game pitting the Little Giants of Wabash College against the Tigers of DePauw University, the alma mater of Terry Umbriet and BJ Luce, was being broadcast. It was on an obscure TV network only available at certain taverns around the country where alums of both schools gather to cheer, eat and drink. The low was the cold weather in KC, the high was the thrashing Wabash gave DePauw (my opinion, not BJ’s).

Another high was the gathering of old friends at one of their homes to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play our Seattle Seahawks. I hate to end this on a low, but, well, BJ and I were the only Seahawks fans in the room and hence the only ones disappointed in the 24-20 final score.

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week!

(Contact Port Ludlow resident Ned Luce at NedLuce@sbcglobal.net.)