Houseguests

A couple of times a year my sister-in-law makes the journey from Edmonton and stays with us for several days. She takes her holiday time from work to visit her 92 year old mother who resides in a nursing home. Usually she brings a daughter but this time she brought her son and his friend. They also were using holiday time to visit at the nursing home. No one could ask for nicer house guests. The fellows took over making the morning coffee and by the time they left I was feeling like I was the guest ! They even bought me a new coffee pot. I imagine that had something to do with the convoluted process I had of twisting the coffee pot cord around the cupboard door handle to make it work. Apart from being just nice people I gave them each "Nicer Place" cards for the fact that they would willingly take their holiday time just to visit a very elderly lady in a nursing home. I also appreciated the fact that they were trying to strengthen family contact. It is so easy, with the busy lives we all lead, for cousins, nieces, nephews, grandchildren to drift apart when they all live in different parts of the world. They brought us all a bit closer again.

Ranger Rendezvous September 11-14

Very early Thursday morning we started off across the Strait of Juan de Fuca in our Ranger Tug.
We were heading for Bremerton, Washinton to meet with 30 other Tug owners. Click on the picture to see a closer view of all the boats. The ocean was very calm and we entered only one patch of fog. Unfortunately the fog patch was 25 miles long! However by the time we were past Port Townsend we had clear sky and hot sunshine for the rest of the trip.

The people we met at the rendezvous were wonderful. Everyone was happy and helpful. The first couple I gave a "Nicer Place" card to were David and Maureen. They were the organizers of the event and their effort made the weekend absolutely wonderful. Another charming and generous couple were Bob and Nita. I happily gave them a card as well.

On Friday we took the foot passenger ferry to Port Orchard, a charming little town about 15 minutes away across Sinclair Inlet. We wandered in and out of stores and stopped for a while in a framing/gift store. There we met a persistently friendly resident cat and its very nice owner. I just had to give her a card, partly for the cat and partly for the conversation. We stopped for an early lunch in a very old restaurant. The food was good and the staff was great. I left a card with them too. After lunch my husband went his own way and I found a bead store. There I met the very friendly helpful owner. She was so interesting to talk to that I will make a point of going back to her store next time I am in town, possibly next year.

Saturday all the boats (and the owners) did a trip to Poulsbro for lunch. We found a table on the balconey of a little restaurant and got talking with another couple. They were pleasant and funny so I gave them a card as we left.

On Sunday we started on a longer route home so spent the night in LaConner, a very picturesque town on a narrow channel. Dinner was at a family waterfront restaurant and our waitress not only tried to make our visit as nice as possible she had a bright and lovely smile. Definitely she deserved the card.

The next morning we found another long patch of fog and headed home.

The Weatherman

Recently I found a poem written by my daughter in about grade five. It was a school assignment and her topic was seasons. The last two lines were "All the seasons put together, Make a lot of lovely weather." When I read that I promptly thought of Ed Bain the weatherman on a local T.V.station. He has been giving the weather on CHEK TV for many years with a great smile and sense of humour. Although I don't always like what he says (rain, cold, fog, clouds, snow) , I do enjoy watching. The picture I have included is one of his forecasts for a sunny day. (just kidding ) Click on the photo and you can see just how dark 2 P.M. on a summer afternoon can be. Ed also gives much of his time to community events and projects. He makes people smile and recognizing nice people is the whole purpose of the Nicer Place project. Thanks Ed.