M is for Merriment

Mrs. Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday, now in its seventh round, has reached the letter M. Thank you, Denise, for your original vision and continued involvement. To see how other participating blogs have been by the letter M, click on banner or link.




A little over a week ago my son Stan and his wife Dianne, visiting from Colorado, took me to the Port Townsend waterfront to see the kinetic race. "Kinetic" means that the entries must be human-powered both on land and in the water. It is an all-day race, ending when the last remaining participant reaches the fairgrounds. There is also a judging of the floats for cleverness and decor. These first few pictures are of the participants racing toward the launching spot for the water leg of the race.

Completely unaware!

Some entrants use bicycle type pedals. Others, like the man above, jump or teeter-totter. All of them must have adequate floating devices for the water leg of the race.

The fantastically costumed Kinetic Kops enforce the racing rules. The course is rigidly set. They also act as announcers.

Some Kops ar Kind to Kiddies.

The floats (literally!) must race around a distant marker, out of sight of the launching site. Here one of the leaders in the water leg of the race races toward shore.

Here come they come!

To add to the merriment, there are a variety of prizes, I understand. One for 1st place, of course, but also for last place, middle place and others equally ridiculous.

I can take no credit for the photos. My son Stanford is the photographer.

Bye, bye,Berkeley

B is for beginning life in my new (to me) home. I shot the above photo at the height of the rhododendron season.

Bye, bye, Berkeley, the city where I was born and where I lived for most of my life, first as a child, then for the more than sixty years that my husband Otto was a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California.

This little house in Port Townsend, Washington, is now my legal address. It belongs to my son Otto and is right across the street from the house where he and his wife and my dear friend Kristin live. As I become more and more dependent on others because of age, arthritis, etc., they are the angels in my life, taking care of me in a thousand ways and claiming to enjoy it.


All of my children have been wonderfully helpful. Daughter Candace will meet me in Berkeley next week to help me with the disposition of a few of my belongings in the big house on the hill which I still own. The grand piano will be sent to Port Townsend, where it will dominate my small living room. But what is nicer than a house with home-made music?!

I have had a wonderful time redecorating the interior of my new home with sometimes unusual color schemes that I have dreamed of but never tried before. My dragons will move here too, in fact will be the theme of my house which I have named Dragonhaven. There will eventually be a sign out front proclaming it!

Since the photo above was shot, ramps have been built to enable me to encircle the house in my wheelchair or reach the wheelchair-friendly walks of Port Townsend or be loaded in an auto for longer trips. (I'll tell in some future blog of some of memorable trips we have already made.)

This blog is definitely egocentric, not to be confused with the educational, informative, and creative entries of other ABCers. For their entries, click here or on banner.

W is for Wild, Wierd, Washington Weather

ABC Wednesday round 3. Go here for links to other participating blogs.

ABC Wednesday Anthology for non-comment posts.


This is a late ABC entry due to unexpected circumstances. Otto (husband) was transported to the local hospital here in Port Townsend early Monday morning with abdominal pains. We had to go by emergency fire dept. ambulance since there wasn't a single surface anywhere outside that wasn't covered with snow or ice after a heavy overnight snowfall on top of the one I posted about on Sunday. He is fine now (although a little tired) and we arrived back at Kristin's and Otto's (son) about a half hour ago.

Kristin took all of the following pictures except for the ones below of the glamorous view from our hospital window. ("Our" because I stayed with husband Otto at the hospital).

1

View from hospital window (most snow had melted from trees).

View from hospital window

of downtown Port Townsend

And Joy oh Joy! Anna just arrived 5 days late from London via New York and storms! We're all together for Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas!

No Longer Dreaming of a White Christmas

This is the cozy Port Townsend, Washington, home of our son, Otto, and of his dear wife, Kristin. This photo was taken this morning by Kristin after last night's snowfall. Otto (husband) and I are here to celebrate Christmas with them and Granddaughter Anna. Anna has been studying drama in London with her Adelphi class this last semester, and we were all looking forward to seeing her yesterday. The storms across the country have put off her expected time of arrival in Seattle until tomorrow - a disappointment, but her late arrival will make our reunion even sweeter. She slept last night on the floor of the JFK terminal but tonight will be in the New York home of the grandmother of a simillarly stranded friend.

We Californians are unaccustomed to snow. Port Townsend has snowfall almost as rarely as Berkeley, situated as it is on the coast of Puget Sound in the rain shadow of the Olympics. Kristin also snapped these following pics of bird tracks in the snow and heather with snow caps.



The next photos are mine - the first showing why I hesitated to put my foot on the snow-slicked front stairs and the second, of shadows on snow, from inside a nice warm car.


I hope you are enjoying the season as much as we are! Have good fellowship and fantastic music and fun in the snow.

FLASH! A disappointed Anna has just phoned to say that her flight has been cancelled until Christmas Day!