By Marc J. Elzenbeck “All creatures great and small,All things bright and beautiful;All things wise and wonderful,The Lord God made them all.” Sipping a second cup of coffee at around 10:00 a.m., the phone rang. The caller said, “So, your cow. She wrecked my truck.” Stronger words may have been used. Bottom line, our girl…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman When Seán and I talked about this story, the original intent was to reflect our adventures in sailing various boats. Things got out of hand in that Seán had his own darn good story to tell. His boat was a wooden rig ketch of indeterminate age powered by some…
By Marc J. Elzenbeck It’s true that when you travelyou’re never free of Woody Allen.Every sidewalk artist knows himand four score more sketchable actorswho’ll ambush you from here to Thailandicons of the monoculture from which we come. Such harbingers. It reminds me how the prophetssaid the ends of earth express a single sum.Some foretell of…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman We drank water out of hoses, ate dirt and raw oysters, and fell down steep cliffs. We had other dangerous hobbies, such as climbing the nearly vertical clay bank down at the beach or paddling logs out to the middle of Colvos Passage to wait for a freighter and…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman Seán and I spent several decades in Ferry County and had a number of adventures, some of which we can tell now that time has passed. The county is not the largest of the 39 counties of Washington state, but is the most remote, and like Vashon, is basically…
By Suzanna Leigh Rich and Suzanna on Eli-Oh My beloved and I had a “Qufi” wedding; I am a Quaker and Rich is a Sufi, so we combined traditions. We were married on the solstice, on the beach at Lincoln Park in Seattle, where friends from Seattle could find us easily, and friends from Vashon…
By Seán C. Malone and John Sweetman “How many of these joints have you done?” “Well, only one today, but it’s not even lunchtime yet.” That refers to the “Mortise and Tenon” joints we were making to assemble a “picnic cover” for our friend Bill who had a property on Indian Point. It has been…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman We were poking around the old Ford F-250 four-wheel drive three-quarter-ton pickup that Seán acquired from me about 30 years ago. It seemed to have a problem with steering. This truck still is a formidable beast, with an 8,000-pound winch and oversized custom bumpers and guards, but it was…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman As we passed by Mikey’s Fish Stand … now selling Christmas trees, naturally our conversation turned to Christmas seasons long past. Never to argue with John, but there is no “bad Santa Claus,” as he is modeled after a saint and always produces positive thoughts. Seán always argues with…