A Great Blog

2011-03-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

We want to share ideas and bring interesting thoughts to this page. These articles have been selected for publishing because of their quick wit and piercing perception of the obvious. You might compare these articles to a combination of Dave Barry and E. B. White or as my neighbor says, "complete bunk".

Life from the Passenger Side

2009-03-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

Optical Help

I needed to get my glasses fixed the other day. One side of the frame that holds the lens was loose and about to let go.

So down I go to our local optical shop, Pacific Eyeware, to enlist the help of Vivian. Off she goes into the backroom workshop. With a whir here and a twist there she then reappears, glasses in hand.

Yep it was simply loose, but it needed a new screw.

Amazing, I said as I thanked her for her careful work because my wife had been right, days before I had noticed anything being wrong with my glasses, she had told me I had a screw loose. I wonder how she knew?

What's Port Townsend Like?

2009-03-18T19:10:00.001-07:00

How Far We've Come - Restaurant Health Safety

2009-03-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

Remember the good-old-days when you visited you favorite restaurant and happened to get a look into the kitchen as you go back to use the "facilities". There in the kitchen were an army of personnel going at the task of preparing your meal. But, how about all those hands dipping in to do things like distribute the salad fixings on your plate. Had they washed up before starting to work? You simply didn't know.

The sign in the bathroom wasn't too reassuring. It said," Wash your hands, It' the law". Humm must be some good reason why they felt they needed a sign, but from what I know about human nature, signs like this work best only for those who were going to do it anyway.

Now in the modern restaurant we see only latex gloved kitchen help working on your salad. Hey, that's an improvement. That's what I found in one of my recent visits to the Buffet Delight, a somewhat local dining spot we like. Yes, I know these gloves have been a health law for the past few years, I just never gave it much thought.

Now picture yourself as one of the persons working the salad line. A reach of this and a reach of that, no problem, no contact. These gloves really make the job better. Now I can pick up anything, anytime and nothing gets on me. Oh, you say its my turn to do the bathroom/s tidy-up, no problem I've got my gloves on. I'll catch it between the next salad order.

How far we've come.

Mission Accomplished

2009-03-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

These are the rocks on the corner in front of the Rose Theater that caused so much concern a little over a year ago about their being stacked in an Indian Message style, repeatedly, thus creating a dangerous situation should they fall on your toe. (Near as we can translate, the ancient meaning was, "They went that'a way")

Thru the vigilant effort on the authorities part the threat has been removed and remains under control. An unsubstantiated suspicion has it that a couple of the flatter good size rocks have been taken away to help remove future temptation.

Annual Victorian Festival and Chamber Pots

2009-03-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

Victorian Festival - Chamber Pots

2009-03-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

Each year Port Townsend has a Victorian Festival. It's an opportunity to dress-up in Victorian garb and re-live the older, simpler ways of life. How nostalgic.

All this Victorian splendor reminds me about my last visit to our local downtown antique shop Ms Bee Haven Antiques. While there I remarked to myself on how seldom we are seeing certain items now that were rather common in antique shops only a few years ago. Pitcher and bowl sets have become scarce and pricey. Butter churns of the old wooden type seem to have vanished. This then takes me back to that simpler more elegant time, a time of Victorian Splendor.

Chamber Pots, yes we don't see much of them anymore. They just aren't a popular antique. Never were. This very useful invention was as popular as the pitcher and bowl in its day in the family home but has never sold all that well in the antique market. I guess, "just being useful doesn't make it popular".

Oh, shop proprietors have tried to create a market over the years by showing them as a planter. Bright red geraniums or, in the Spring time how about cheerful Daisies? I knew one lady who used hers as a soup turin.

But, nope, just didn't seem to work. Sure the plantings grew quite nicely in there for some reason, but it wasn't a hit. Even offering only the clever chamber pots that had a picture of the Queen in the bottom, I take it as a political statement, hasn't created an enduring market.

Not to get too carried away with this remembrance from the past but, for those of us who completely missed living in this period of history we can only guess at what the world was like in the age of chamber pots.

Fortunately minimum wage laws weren't in place at that time to stifle the servant market. At those depressed wages we could more easily afford servants and needn't suffer the indignity of shuffling down the hall in the morning carrying, very carefully I might add, the pot to the back yard outhouse. How tedious. Ah, the simplistic nature of the French, they merely opened the window and slung.

Lids, you never seem to find them on the ones in the antique shop. I bet they had them. If I were shuffling down the hall I would consider the lid to be important. And, what about purchasing? Just how do you think the Proper Victorian lady handled the execution of a new purchase?

Imagine with me the fine lady of the house having decided to upgrade in elegance to a more brightly adorned piece of porcelain to fit her station in life. Does she simply trottle down to the local general store to make her selection? If so, how would this conversation take place? "Oh, no not that one, the one on the left with the pastoral view of Monticello, yes". And, do you suppose they offered a "fitting room" just for this purpose? One wouldn't want the wrong size here, would one?

Yes, in many respects our rather recent ancestors led a quite a different life. I was thinking about that as I took the tour of our local "Old Vic's" that are on display. I wondered if any of the current residents of these Painted Ladies, who have taken such an interest in being authentic are living in the completely authentic manner?

Life From the Passenger Side...

2009-03-17T02:00:00.000-07:00

Obits

As I usually do each morning I get my first shot of caffeine along with the news in the paper. And, I am sure you share some of my same feelings as each story unfolds. There's happy. There's sad and some are just informative. But, I never quite know how to approach the Obituaries. If you asked me on the street I might not even own up to the fact that I ever notice the postings.

Often though, most recently, I have been keeping a bit of a grim scoreboard mentality and this morning was no exception. I can't say I have really thought this out but, I have two columns in mind, one "Too Bad" and one "Good". It's "Too Bad" if I come across a much younger or much older male who has died. If I come across a male of almost my same age who has "passed" I score it"Good".

Why, you might say? GOOD?

Well I figure that about the best information we have on life expectancy has to do with those actuary tables. You know, when you bought your first life insurance policy it was in that big black book your agent took off the shelf as he calculated out your monthly premium. He was looking up for your age how likely you were to die any time soon. With careful statistics they are able to tell things about your age group. So, the more I see of the demise of my fellow group members, the more likely I will be in it for the long haul. I must admit, today was a good day.
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Life From the Passenger Side

2009-03-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

Super Bowl Sunday

it’s not like I spend any real time thinking about or planning for Super Bowl Sunday. But, I do look forward to it each year. I am old enough to remember when we didn't have such an event. Now that I think about it, there was the feeling at the time that something was lacking. We couldn't quite put our finger on it.

Oh, we were grateful for all the football Sunday's we got back then but, we never quite finished off the season properly. Moving right into the basketball afterwards certainly has helped. But still there was a lacking feeling. Some how we felt there could be so much more.

What makes it so great is how it brings together in one place all this football energy. People who otherwise would never know each other are brought together to munch salty snacks, swill beer and stuff down pizza all out of reverence for this athletic sport.

And while the stadium is packed, living rooms filled to the brim and the roads are empty I can enjoy the event for its true purpose, I can shop completely unimpeded in Henery's Hardware store by that bunch of aisle-clogging weekend warrior nut-strippers

Life From the Passenger Side

2009-03-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Economic Times

With the current economic situation I have been considering what would be a good investment. In thinking about it I decided an investment in retail would be just right what with the depressed stock prices we have seen recently in that sector.

With that in mind, I set about to find the very best valued stock I could. I knew I wanted the largest retailer. Of course Wal-Mart and Target come immediately to mind but, I really wanted bigger.

It seems to have gone quite unnoticed that there is an even a larger Retailer than Wal-Mart or Target and they it have a very long history. We have seen their outlets all over the place for as long as I can remember. Talk about resilence, even if one of outlets goes out of business another "branch" takes its place rather quickly. Towns of all sizes have one or more of the shops. By now I'm sure you have guessed it, I'm talking about the Art Shop franchise. Art Shops; handmade Art; Art Sales, Art Shows and even handling big real estate sales, The Art of the Deal are common all over America.

But, in my research I wanted to know more about just who is this "Art" fellow and what's his last name? If I had his last name I could find his listing on the stock exchange.

I have to report that I've come up empty. What with all the Art this and Art that, no one seems to know his last name or will tell me. In fact, it seems to have taken on a secretive nature. Every time I ask one of the clerks at any of the shops I get this same dumb stare.

Even drawing on the power of Google hasn't helped. I get 1,243,653,891 "hits" for Art but, nothing about his last name. And, without a last name I can't find a listing on the NYSE. Maybe instead, I’ll look into the fitness market. Does any one happen to know the last name of this “Jim” guy and why does he always use the German spelling (Gym) for his name?

2009-03-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

My Feathered Friends

Knowing the importance of "keeping the troops happy", I dropped by the Food Co-op here in Port Townsend today to see how our employees are doing. Oh, I know they aren’t really my employees, but since we regularly buy 4 dozen eggs (white) I figure we are keeping six hens employed fulltime.

Actually, I haven’t ever seen our chickens, nor anyone else’s for that matter. Nor have I heard them, which seems a bit strange. Every time I visited the chicken coop at Grand Ma´s farm there was always quite a commotion of feather waving, beak pecking and barnyard two-stepping with plenty of cackling thrown in.

Nope, none of that at the Co-op. I figure they only have really serious hens who know there’s very little cackling that make up the ingredients in an egg. Plus, it’s pretty cold back in there behind the dairy case door where they must be working. All I’ve ever seen is what you can if you peek between the butter display or when you get the occasional glimpse of a fellow's hand adding to the pick-your-own egg supply. I figure that means there’re a pretty fresh supply. Oh, well. Maybe next time I'll get a lucky glance to know which six chickens are keeping us supplied.

Sunny Side Humor

2009-03-14T19:05:00.000-07:00