To appreciate this story you first have to understand that our house has been added on to, and we have a rather rinky-dink water system. This calls for special preparations when one is taking a shower in the new addition's master bathroom. If someone turns on kitchen sink water during shower time, it's like unexpectedly getting a bucket of ice water dumped on one's head. Wally and I have devised a system that works for us. During shower time we drape a dish towel across the kitchen sink to remind the person in the kitchen to not turn on the water.

One morning last July I arose early, telling Wally I was expecting someone to come measure our sunroom for new window blinds. Sure enough, Janet arrived and spent time in the sunroom, measuring the old shades that had failed. When Janet finished working up her bid, she packed up her briefcase and measuring tape and proceeded ahead of me out of the sunroom, through the kitchen and toward the living room to exit the front door. 

The timing of what happened next could only be choreographed in a Broadway farce. Wally, STARK NAKED, ready for his shower and intending to place a towel across the kitchen sink, entered the living room from the bedroom just as Janet walked into the living room a mere twenty feet away. I was following behind Janet, a rather large woman, so I did not see Wally's Act One. By the time I got to the living room it was Act Two with Wally peeking out from behind the bedroom door saying, "I'm going to take my shower now." I got just a glimpse of Wally's nudity and wondered why in the world he had come out when I had warned him someone would be in the house.

Act Three took place after the Janet was long gone. We were both fuming independently about the incident. I still didn't know what Janet had seen. Wally, who is deaf in one ear and doesn't hear very well out of the other one, had chosen not to hear my early morning advisory. He was furious as he told me he had walked out to announce his shower and had come face-to-face with a strange woman!

Finally, when we could laugh about it, we both realized it was no big deal. 
After all, the person who ran into the nudist in our living room was only the BLIND LADY!

I have to tell you a funny story that happened one morning last August.  I'm lying in bed late when I hear our dog Jacey moving strangely, quickly next to the bed. Then I hear a little chirp and think that another bird has flown into the house. (We get three or four birds a year, and we're getting pretty good at shooing them back outside where they belong.) I yell, "LEAVE IT," to Jacey, but she takes one more lunge. I hear another chirp and see Jacey flip her head. Then something flies up onto my bed. I grab the wastebasket that's next to the bed and top it over the little critter so it can't fly away. I drag the wastebasket and the bed quilt outside, hoping to let the bird go. But it's NOT a bird; the poor little thing is a very dead chipmunk. 

It's now in its final resting place. (I'm sanitizing the bed quilt he landed on!)

Whidbey Island is host to many festivals and events that we all enjoy along with guests and tourists. Among them are the Penn Cove Water Festival, the Coupeville Mussel Festival, Race Week in Oak Harbor for sailers, The Coupeville Arts and Crafts Festival, the Holland Happening (yes, really!), and the Island County Fair, to name some of our favorites. In addition our family enjoys holding bocci ball games on our "Grassy Knoll" and attending Jeff and Sue's annual Rhody Fest and Croquet Invitational. Neighbors and friends invite us to Halloween parties, White Elephant parties at Christmas, and spring tea parties. And we especially enjoy all the friends and family members who make the trek to this island for a visit. There is no end to the fun we have around here. Below are some photos to prove it.

We invite you, one and all, to come visit us on Whidbey and partake of the fun and festivities!