A couple of the grandsons were in town last week, so we did some of the traditional stuff, like a meal at the Chimacum Café, some Ferino’s pizza, several hours of swimming at The Beach Club and a trip to the library. In addition, we did something new out here on the peninsula: We took a trip to Port Angeles to see a Lefties baseball game at Civic Stadium. The food was good, even though the service was a bit slow. The baseball was played by teams populated by young men on college teams, mostly from the Pacific Northwest. However, the Lefties also had a player from Harvard who is from Los Gatos, California. Because BJ is but 5 feet 1.5 inches tall, she immediately related to the shortest player on the field, Austyn Tengan. However, he is no Eddie Gaedel, since Austyn is 5 feet 6 inches and Eddie was but 3 feet 7 inches when he went to bat for the Saint Louis Browns on Aug. 19, 1951. In the event that you are interested, Eddie only went to bat once and walked on four straight pitches. It was a fun evening at the ball game, even with the 75-minute ride each way.

We took the grandsons back to Seattle on Thursday and then stayed over a couple of days to hang out with the other grandsons. The visit included a unique sporting event at Memorial Stadium in Seattle. The “Seattle Riot” played an Ultimate Frisbee game against a team called the “Eurostars.” The players were all women with incredible Frisbee-throwing skills, and the game was faster than soccer. It also had one unusual feature: There are no referees or umpires, as all infractions are identified by the players! The game is self-officiated. The Seattle Riot was formed in 2000, the year after, you guessed it, the Seattle riot in 1999. The team has had great success, with a couple of national championships as well as a couple of world championships. It was the first time we had seen the game played, in spite of the fact that our son and daughter-in-law met while playing the game in the 1990s with far less organization. I should also note that waiting in a long line for the Edmonds/Kingston ferry on a nice Saturday afternoon in the summertime is an experience completely unnecessary for a happy life.

If you see BJ this week, wish her a happy birthday. It was this past Tuesday. Most important, don’t forget to take in the Hadlock Block Party this weekend. If you want to see a parade or eat forbidden food or see a car show, Port Hadlock is the place to be on Saturday. This event is a way to escape the condition identified by H.L. Mencken: “Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.”

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week.

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