Stories of horses, TV shows and The Shot | Life in Ludlow

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Regular readers of this column know that during this pandemic I have struggled each week to search out and document highlights in this space.

Regular readers also know that I can and will take something small and enhance it, at least for my own entertainment! Hence, the following.

Three or four days a week I head up to Port Townsend to fulfill the obligations of my job as CFO of the Printery in “Uptown.”

One of the enjoyable parts of that trip is to catch a glimpse of the horses in the pasture on Rhody Drive just north of Four Corners Road. I look forward to the ride because my family had horses of one sort or another, plus one ornery Welsh pony, when I was growing up and I grew to have an affection for the animals. I say the horses were of one sort or another because the only horse we actually owned was Katy, a scrawny black quarter horse I used $100 of my paper route money to buy. Actually, Katy’s story deserves a whole column of her own so look forward to that. The other horses we had were boarded for the winter from a local summer day camp.

Back to the horse influence. Like you, I suspect, the pandemic has encouraged more reading, organizing, cleaning, fixing and television viewing! 

When it comes to TV viewing BJ and I are in the middle of watching the 13th season of “Heartland,” a mostly “feel-good” fluff series about a ranching family in Hudson, Alberta, Canada. I did look it up but I couldn’t find any ranches in Hudson. 

In any case, the TV show has lots of horses! 

Since we are on the subject of TV I should mention a couple of other offerings we have recently enjoyed. The three seasons of “Wanted” chronicled the unlikely pairing of a couple of New Zealand women who unwittingly become entangled in a botched drug deal involving corrupt police officers. As you might surmise, they were “wanted” by both the drug dealers and the police and spent much time running from almost everybody in New Zealand, Thailand, and Australia. 

Our son recommended “The Night Manager,” a tension filled six-episode series which takes place in Europe and the Middle East and is based on a John le Carre book. Have no fear though, even though there is plenty of gun play and drama, love wins out in the end. 

Happily, all three of these shows are “foreign” but do not require subtitles, a key condition of the TV we watch!

Now back to the trip to Port Townsend. 

If you make the trip on Tuesday or Thursday you may have noticed the folks gathering at the Chimacum Grange starting about 9 a.m. The Tri-Area Pharmacy use the building as they make every effort to stamp out that disease known by all as “vaccine envy.” Yes, they are vaccinating the eligible locals as quickly as they can. 

BJ and I were among them last week getting our second shot, leaving the group of “have nots” and joining the group of “have shots.”

The great news is that the group of “have shots” will soon vastly outnumber the group of “have nots” and we will be achieving that heavenly state of “herd immunity.” Hallelujah. 

When BJ and I were at the Grange last Thursday it was a cold, windy morning and all of us who were scheduled to get the shot were asked to wait outside. There were a few folks who really needed to wait inside and they were given a pass. However, BJ and I bravely faced the elements on the outside ramp. 

Frankly, I was hoping my friend Ted would charter a plane to East Jefferson International Airport to pick up his good buddy Ned on his way to Cancun! 

As it turned out though, Ted fled without Ned on United, maybe for the last time. 

Love a curmudgeon, ride a horse and have a great week! 

(Hold your horses. Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive and Port Ludlow resident who can be emailed at ned@ptleader.com.)