By Seán Malone and John Sweetman Seán and I have been exchanging gifts for years. Usually, these are things we make or special odd things we acquire that would not make sense to others. I suppose this may have started in our early childhood when we began thinking about Christmas in July or August by…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman The West Seattle Bridge was closed to thru traffic going east and west. I had allowed 50 minutes to get from the Fauntleroy dock to my appointment at Swedish Hospital. I called the hospital to cancel and request a new appointment. I had waited three weeks for what I…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman Our assignment this month from The Loop editors was to write a “spooky” Halloween story. Now normally we do not take story “assignments,” but this seemed a quite reasonable request since we were running low on story ideas, and a little additional “direction” came just in time to forestall…
By Seán C. Malone and John Sweetman The origin of this story was probably about six years ago, when Seán and I were reviving a couple of old Motorola hand-held radios from his firefighting days. “Looks like we need batteries!” And Seán said, “Look in the freezer because I have several boxes of double A’s.”…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman August is the month that time pauses for 10-year-olds. Hitting a fly ball to left field? The ball seems to hang in the air forever, but maybe at 10 years old, we were closer to the ground than we are now. In August, a month with no holidays and nothing…
Seán Malone & John Sweetman Seán and I grew up on different islands, but shared so much of the same experiences. We always knew the “warning signs” of summer, which arrived in July, not June, which was typically a gloomy month. The signs of summer were not merely longer daylight hours, warm days, and the…
By Seán C. Malone and John Sweetman Seán and I have always had dogs of one kind or another in our lives, and we have a lot of “dog” stories to relate. Getting older, it would appear that we have “downsized” a bit, as we now both have members of the Terrier clan. Seán’s little…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman From John: We rarely write about contemporary things, but this story is now old enough to be a least on the edge of vintage recollections. Over 20 years ago, I had helped Seán return to the Island, and he had acquired a great place. An old cabin, situated above a…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman Seán and I have had many adventures on boats over the decades. Some involved fishing and crabbing, but most involved “outboard” motors which were always cranky and infused with “trouble.” Trouble starting, running, and just plain ordinary reluctance to do what they were supposed to do. Seán and I had different…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman Seán has always fed birds, and his deck has been full of them ever since he began to live in the cabin. At first, I noticed at least one crow would be very skeptical if Seán poked his head out the patio door. Seán’s story explains why. We were…