Ned Luce

Life in Ludlow

Recently I received more evidence of the “help others” spirit prevailing in this area. Peter Joseph sent me the following email which I could have edited but figured I could not have said it better:

“Ned, I want to bring to your attention to the tremendous support generated by the Port Ludlow community for the Coast Guard personnel who were not getting paid during the shutdown. Support ranged from cash, checks, gift cards to food stores, and multiple bags of groceries. While I am proud of their service for not missing a beat and carrying out their missions, I am especially proud of the Port Ludlow community for an awesome display of support, including handwritten note cards. If there is a silver lining from this debacle, Coast Guard personnel are now aware of just how much they are admired and appreciated by coastal communities. Much of what they do is never witnessed by the public. When I presented several large checks to the executive petty officer on the cutter Osprey in PT, you could tell he was visibly moved. I could tell from my short exchanges with the crew that they are very appreciative.”

We recently went to a fundraiser for the local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter. It was held at the Elks Club in Port Townsend. The local VFW is actually located in Port Hadlock, but the spaghetti dinner was held at the larger Elks facility to accommodate a larger crowd. We sat with locals Buddy and Karen Hills, Steve and Fran Gross, and George and Dee Gebert. Rich and Laura Lovas were on the cooking crew, which provided excellent pasta and sauce. After dinner, we stayed for some dancing to music from our misguided youth.

Last week was the monthly celebration of the yacht club members who had birthdays in the current month. Since my birthday was in January, I went down to enjoy the free drink and appetizers. We were joined by at least nine others who also lamented the passing of another year. As always, it was great fun. I mean, a free drink!

We have concluded that the experience of home ownership is the result of a conspiracy to create ways to attack the money in the owners’ IRAs. Fortunately the political chaos of the past couple of years has been accompanied by a rise in the values in the stock market, so our well-used heat pump can be replaced.

Of course, this kind of event is also accompanied by gnashing of teeth and discussions about various items that could be sold. At least we will get warm and try to get the electric bill back under control since the heat pump has an electric furnace backup.  

Did any of us really care about the Super Bowl last Sunday? Wrong teams, dubious officiating, no parties, etc. The only good thing about it was the cold weather here facilitated a plan of starting a fire in the fireplace and reading a book or taking a nap — or both.

Since there seems to be plenty of whining about the referees’ eyesight, you should be reminded of an observation by Lou Holtz: “The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.”

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week!

Ned Luce can be reached by email at NedLuce@sbcglobal.net.