It is time to move on from the winter!

Your 2016 taxes are done and forgotten! (Maybe.) BJ again provided federal tax return preparation assistance at the Tri-Area Community Center through the volunteer program sponsored by American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Other volunteers included locals Yvonne Starkey, Peter Ely, Paul Schaper, David Self, Bob McDaniel, Diane Holmes, Betty Zander, John Anderson, Karen Jensen, Richard Myers, Carol Self and Stephen Penning. (BJ reminds me there is also a dedicated volunteer group in Port Townsend.) In spite of occasional technical glitches, early reports indicated the volunteers assisted more folks than ever this year. Kim Redmond, community center manager, fielded phone requests for appointments and reported more than 500 calls in the waning days of tax season. The word to the wise is get your records together early and get your appointment early next year.

The annual meeting of the Ludlow Maintenance Commission (North Bay of Port Ludlow) took place last week. Even though the 49-year-old main clubhouse, The Beach Club, has some challenges and opportunities for update, the mood was celebratory. Ron Racki concluded his two years as president of the board of trustees with a solid record of organizational, physical and financial success. The new board includes newly elected member Austin Kerr, and the board elected Randy Deering as president, Linda Haskin as vice president, Mike Nilssen as treasurer and Sally Orsborn as secretary. The meeting was followed by a fun social event that went on for at least three hours. I know this because we were there for that long and there were still folks enjoying the wine and food when we left.

The Port Ludlow Artists’ League Art Fest is coming up this Saturday. BJ has signed up, along with Pang (our foreign exchange student from Thailand), our daughter and daughter-in-law. I am optimistic they will create magnificent pieces of art to share with their families and the world! However, the registration fee includes wine and cheese, so the quality may be suspect.

The annual luncheon for the Yacht Club Women is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 27. I suspect there may be some wine available at this event, too. Contact Marilyn Hampton to reserve your seat, if you haven’t already. Polly Peters suggested I might stop by the luncheon to hawk some of those famous Rotary roses, and I bit. So, if you are attending, you will have an opportunity to help beautify this part of Jefferson County and support the scholarship and community programs of the East Jefferson Rotary Club by buying a dozen roses.

Another successful year of Dine and Discover concludes on May 1 with a special program of stories of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Don and Lynn Folsom again teamed with Milt and Doris Lum to organize the series this past year, and the quality, support and interest in the program has never been stronger.

Finally, on Saturday, May 6, the Port Ludlow Performing Arts group gives its last presentation of the season, “Women of the World.” This is an award-winning quartet able to perform in 29 languages. (Reminds me of Mike Derrenger in “Nude with a Violin,” but I digress.) The good folks in performing arts here in Port Ludlow have done magnificent work bringing quality performers here.

With all these options before us, a paraphrase of an observation by Blake Pascal comes to mind: “The last thing one knows is what to do first.”

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week!

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

(Editor’s note: Our apologies for not running Ned Luce’s column last week. It got lost in a sea of emails, and we are especially sorry since April 18 was National Columnists’ Day, as Ned noted in a follow-up email.)