Less than ten cars showed up last week for the Port Ludlow weekly car show down at the Village Center. One of them was a beautiful 1962 Cadillac convertible. I opined the color was Burgundy but then was told it was merlot. Frankly, it could have been a zinfandel but no matter, they say anything red is good for your heart in moderation. Unfortunately this car oozed excess, not moderation. I mean there was more steel and length in that thing than the rest of the cars put together! Be still my heart.

Olivia Guerth is the seventeen-year-old granddaughter of Bob and Sienna Sowatsky of Port Ludlow. On a recent sweltering day in Ulm, Germany she won the fifteen hundred meter steeplechase for girls eighteen and under by a full second, beating the number-one ranked runner in Germany. Consequently Olivia became the newest German National Champion in that age group. Congratulations to the Sowatskys and Olivia.

The Port Ludlow Art Festival is coming up on August 31 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the front lawn of the Port Ludlow Resort. Jewelry, woodworking, paintings, garden arts, collage and encaustic art will be in full display and much of it for sale. You and I both may have no idea what encaustic art is so I did some research to save you some time. I quote from the website “encaustic.com”: “Encaustic (to burn in) is a fascinating and versatile genre. (I’m sold!) It refers to the use of beeswax as a constituent of a painting process involving the melting of the wax at some stage.” BJ now points out that we have two encaustic works of art in our home. In addition, our daughter and daughter-law also have some of it in their home. This is the third time this show is at the Resort so you can again get honey with your lunch!

Many of you are regular readers of this column for which I, and the management of this newspaper, are grateful. I recently had an eye exam at the Port Hadlock Vision Clinic operated by optometrist David Schores and his fine staff. One of the ladies on the staff recognized me and said she reads this column on occasion since Doctor Schores has a subscription for the office. Given my motivation to improve the lives of others, I strongly encouraged her to read the column every week and get her own personal subscription! I got some glasses that are nice because I can see better through them.

As an employee of the Printery in Uptown Port Townsend I occasionally see acquaintances from around the county. I walked past the conference room the other day and noted that Herb Cook, local luminary due to a number of volunteer roles in the area, was in town. I am optimistic he needed something more than business cards printed!

(Note, I do NOT construct the description of this columnist which you can find below my plea for you to love a curmudgeon. My editor Dean Miller claims responsibility for these pithy additions to an otherwise erudite literary masterpiece. If you are offended call him. If you are offended by my opinions, you should hear the ones I keep to myself.)

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week!

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive who has traded in the “sincere neckties” of the IBM uniform for the inky fingers of the printer’s trade.)