david98014Jan 3, 20142 minHow are you listening?Rather than get into a TLDR situation, I’m going to break things up. How to listen to audio books and podcasts. Most listening these days is private rather than public or communal. Everyone is plugged into their own thing through their portable devices. As I mentioned, this is a loss. It’s possible to play the audio book (or podcast or music or news) through a speaker system so that more than one person can share the experience at once. The devices plug into speakers and ther
david98014Dec 29, 20131 minHe survivedAccording to the South Whidbey Record, the man spent fifteen minutes in the water and was rescued. Huzzah to the first responders of South Whidbey. Here is the whole story. #Whidbey
david98014Dec 27, 20131 minIsland DramaYesterday afternoon Matt noticed something odd on the bay, properly called Holmes Harbor. There was an aluminum boat with an outboard engine spinning out of control a mile distant. We couldn’t tell if the boat was occupied or not, but from the only moderate reaction from a couple of boat owners, there was no urgency. Our hunch was that someone was starting the outboard, had it set to full throttle, and it got away. Once the engine fell to one side the boat simply spun in tigh
david98014Dec 22, 20131 minHoliday TraditionAs a youngster one of the rituals exercised by my mother was, “David, would you go find some chairs please?” I then had to go about the house, not that it was very big, and find all the extra chairs and bring them one at a time to the dining room. For some reason this exercise annoyed me. It was natural that I should help with the dinner and finding chairs is about as low-skill as you can get. It’s not like the chairs are not done or cold or too salty. How simple can it be? W
david98014Dec 21, 20131 minIsland LifeLast night I was minding my own business here on Whidbey when the living room lit up with flashing red lights. This happened once before when a sheriff’s deputy made a stop of some erratic driver or something. But I had to see. The lights increased and there were two units of our local volunteer fire department in the park. Then it really got busy. A rescue in the bay? That has happened, but not in the evening. More lights and now sirens. This was a major response. More light
david98014Dec 10, 20092 minChristmas 2009It’s been a year of premiers, the big events that mark chapters in life. Where to start? We all strolled the red carpet to meet Kellen Richard Wilma on August 29 (don’t ask what we wore). He is our first grandchild and he continues to enrich all our lives. He even has his own Facebook page. One forgets how, with an infant around, the conversation changes to erp rags, oneseys, and the contents of diapers. Lorraine and I have signed up to watch him one day a week when his mom g
david98014Sep 22, 20091 minHistoric Photos of Puget SoundMy own copies are in and they are beautiful. The publisher is arranging local media interviews and a launch party. Stay tooned. #books #history #Publishing #Whidbey
david98014Aug 11, 20091 minIsland VacationIn order to keep up my blogging I am posting from Freeland on Holmes Harbor on Whidbey Island. We have a home here and are spending the week doing as little as possible. The kitchen here looks out onto the beach and the water and we got some rain last night, our first in a couple of months. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the area under some kind of weather. Usually we have had sunny skies and although the rain keeps us inside, it’s a nice break. I will spend my time worki
david98014May 24, 20093 minThe New HouseMy wife Lorraine and I tagged along on this property hunting trip because it seemed like a harmless way to spend a Sunday. I hadn’t been up to Whidbey in 30 or 35 years. My son, Matt, a realtor, had been showing houses and lots to my sisters Patti and Sally for some time. We all had a mild fantasy of some day owning a large family vacation property together, but for me, it was mild fantasy, very mild. Who has that kind of money these days? I have never owned vacation property
