Ned Luce

The holidays are upon us generating many interesting subjects for your humble columnist.

The six-year-old grandson was with us for a few delightful days last week. He did all the regular stuff like Ferino’s pizza, the Jefferson County Library and the movie “Frozen II.” In addition, we stopped at the “O Yummy” emporium of frozen yogurt for a treat.

Last week’s program at the Port Townsend Rotary was the 35-year-old Lieutenant Governor of our fair state, Cyrus Habib. He has a fabulous life story of family, challenges and success. I found his talk very interesting, particularly his focus on higher education opportunities for Washington students.

The Stephen F. Austin State University men’s basketball team stopped in at Cameron Indoor Stadium to play the unbeaten and ranked number one in the country Duke Blue Devils. Yep, Duke lost in overtime on a shot by one Nathan Bain. Nathan is from the Bahamas and the church/school run by his parents was wiped out by the recent Hurricane Dorian. The “GoFundMe” page set up by Nathan to rebuild the school had $2,000 in it before the game. At my last look it has over $75,000! I suspect lots of donors enjoyed seeing Duke lose. However, I doubt you wanted to be Duke’s next opponent.

As happens this time of year, the traffic is thickening up and the road rage is closer to the surface. I particularly noticed it the other day in the line exiting from the Kingston ferry when I let two cars merge in front of me only to get the one-finger salute from the third.

The holiday lights are up and brightening everything. It is great these days to see the Port Ludlow Village Council gathering the funds and manpower to put lights in the median on Paradise Bay Road below the village center. PLPA, PLVC, and PLA all sponsored the tree lighting ceremony this week in the village center. The Chimacum High School Choir provided music for the assemblage. In addition you might note the lights in the parking lot next to Coon Plumbing in Port Townsend where all the Morris Minors are for sale. Thanksgiving eve Carol Wise turned on 40,000 lights there this year. The display is probably visible from the International Space Station and is the only thing brighter than Carol’s hair!

If you need something to pass a Sunday afternoon instead of football, there is also the “Corn Hole” competition in the basement at the Elks Club. If you get tired of watching “Corn Hole,” I’ll bet you can go upstairs and watch football.

Don’t forget to make your year-end donations to charity. United Good Neighbors or any of the other worthy charities listed on GiveJefferson.org can use any help you can spare.

BJ is busy on the internet looking for surprise gifts for me to give her for Christmas. I love it. Anyone who believes that men are the equal of women has never seen me or any other man trying to wrap a Christmas present.

The annual Polar Plunge is at the Beach Club at 11 a.m. on December 28. The whole community is invited! Please show up with your bathing suit because none of our grandsons can be there and there will be intense pressure on me to participate. Maybe your participation can take some of the pressure off of me.

Finally, as Tom Sims observed, “Did you ever notice that life seems to follow certain patterns? Like I noticed that every year around this time, I hear Christmas music.”

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week!

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive who might pass for Santa if he indulged his beard.)