A close call

As many of you know, we had a rather spectacular boat fire on the spit over the weekend: Randy and Victoria Keller had taken Uncle Bogo over to Seattle for the winter, and some friends had kindly offered to give them a ride back to the spit in their inflatable.

Shortly after the  two couples landed and tied off the boat, it burst into flame for reasons still unknown: fire department, coast guard and harbormaster were contacted, and the blackened hull was dragged up onto the beach and eventually carted away by its owner, who fortunately had insurance.

We are all grateful -- given the southerly breezes we had that day -- that the boat was moored on the sound side; had it been tied to the dock it might have taken a few houses with it.  It's a worrisome reminder of how quickly things can go wrong...

Sad news

Our hearts go out to Jerry Balis and Joanna; Jerry's son, Mitch,  passed away earlier this morning. 

May he rest in peace, and may his family come to be at peace with their loss.

Sad news

I just got back from a week up on Orcas, and have learned that Nancy Strehlow's husband, Bob, passed away earlier this week while recovering from knee surgery.

Our condolences go out to Nancy and to Bob's children and grandchildren as they learn to cope with this unexpected loss.

... and if you've been missing Jerry and Joanna (I know I have!) they're in Florida; Jerry's son had a heart attack last week and is still in the ICU; prayers go out to all for hope and recovery.

Images from a foggy day...

The fog was intense this morning -- which meant I had an opportunity to get this great shot of the Spit Wad; don't you love the way the crow just leaped in at the last minute?

 I love the poppies the Thatchers planted just as you round that first bend...



And I wanted to publicly thank Kevin Lee's father for doing such a great job of stabilizing the mailboxes -- we look almost organized!

Speaking of which -- does anyone know who took the time to weed-whack around the mailboxes this week?  They look a hundred percent better, so thank you, whoever you are!

Walt Billing

We've just learned that Walt Billing passed away June 20th; you may remember him as the man who owned the little blue A-frame down at our end. He spent his latter years in that house sitting in the living room watching his wonderful view of the Sound and waving to us when we went on our nightly dog walks, and was sorely missed when he moved away. We send our condolences to his daughter, Christine Campion.




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That nasty pothole

The pothole in front of the Faget's house has grown considerably in the last week. Now that there's another one starting up across from it, it's almost impossible to avoid.

Today I learned of an exciting feature at the City of Bainbridge Island website: it's called "See Click Fix" and allows you to click on a map of the island, pinpoint a problem, and upload a photo to illustrate. So I've uploaded this photo to the map; if you want to track progress you can click this link and see what's happening...

Since it's not clear this will work, I've also sent the photo to Chris Hammer at the city... Hopefully they'll take care of it soon, before it eats the entire road!

Enjoy -- and happy Spring!