I left early enough on a Thursday morning to be sure to make the 9 AM Rotary meeting at the Murano Hotel in Tacoma. Just before I got to the Hood Canal Bridge I realized I didn’t have my phone. I mean, how was I going to call BJ for the next 3 days and make sure she was having fun at home drinking wine with our daughter and daughter-in-law in preparation for the Port Ludlow Art Fest? I pulled a u-turn right at the end of Paradise Bay Road and headed for home before re-embarking on the trip to Tacoma. I just made the meeting at 9. I then realized the meat of the meeting didn’t start until 10. 

It was a weekend of training and inspirational speakers. The speakers included a woman who is one half of a couple that has climbed the tallest peak on every continent, a woman who has headed up a group getting 70,000 low pollution/high efficiency cooking stoves to families in Central America positively affecting 500,000 women, a man from New Zealand who finished third in the men’s 200 meter backstroke by four one thousandths of a second in the 1988 Olympics and others. The backstroker had a message about avoiding distractions clearly demonstrated in a video of his victory when the man who finished fourth looked over to see where he was and lost the race in that split second. 

TJ Plastow, Pete and Helen Leenhouts, Terry Umbreit, and Caleb Summerfelt were all in attendance along with about 500 other Rotarians from the Northwest. We had an opening ceremony at the Lemay America’s Car Museum, home of some truly beautiful machines. Caleb and I joined our club’s foreign exchange student, JJ Klaric, at the race car simulators. JJ did fairly well for not ever having driven a car before. I bet Caleb $20 I would do better than he in spite of my much more seasoned body. (I mean, almost 40 years!) I took my turn, crashed nary a time, and he left. I am sure he will donate the $20 to the Interact Club at Chimacum High School.

After the closing ceremonies on Saturday evening JJ and I got in the car and drove home up the peninsula in the rain. Lest you think my forgetful days were left behind, the following Tuesday I discovered my Visa credit card was missing. I figured out the last place I went was to dinner with Donna Doney from Port Townsend so I called the restaurant and they are sending it to me. BJ is hoping to reverse this forgetful trend with a quiet weekend on the coast! Then again, as the Greek historian Appianus told us, “The drug that heals our sorrows is forgetfulness.” Just so you know, the artwork BJ created whilst I was in Tacoma is awesome. Make an offer!

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week.

NedLuce@sbcglobal.net