Some fall, futball, football, and ferries | Life in Ludlow

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Fall is here with some welcome cool moisture and lessening daylight. 

It also holds fewer “touristas” and lower demand for the ferries, as long as they don’t have a breakdown of one sort or another. 

This means we can head over to the Seattle area to visit our children and grandchildren. We did that last weekend, easily making the Kingston ferry to Edmonds.  

On Sunday we had lunch at our son and daughter-in-law’s home and left her birthday presents, a bottle of fine brandy wine from Finnriver with some taste enhancing chocolates. Following lunch, it was time for some soccer games! 

The first one was the 10-year-old’s team affectionately known as the “Flying Squirrels,” the name used by the Richmond, Virginia minor league baseball team, but I digress. The good news is that they won by a score of 2-0 and the afternoon of soccer started off happily in Ballard.

The next game was played in Seattle at Garfield High School by the 18-year-old grandson. 

BJ and I noticed the incredible difference in speed and intensity of the players immediately. Having grown up in the 1950s and 60s in the fly-over Midwest, our appreciation and understanding of the game of “futbol” suffers in the shadow of Woody Hayes and Ohio State football. 

As a result, we do not really understand the nuances of the game in spite of the gallant efforts of our Whitman College soccer playing daughter-in-law. We try, but maybe not hard enough. 

However, we did thoroughly understand the “red card” given to one of the opposing players after he hurled a homophobic insult at a spectator who stole the ball after it went out of bounds! We also understood our grandson’s team won with a score of 6-2. 

We then hatched a plan to take the Bainbridge Island ferry, getting some dinner in Winslow. The 6:25 p.m. departure turned into a 6:50 departure on the Kaleetan, built in 1967. 

I am always challenged when loading on the ferries to get in a position facilitating egress from the car. That means parking the car where I can open at least the driver’s door between two adjacent vehicles, if possible. 

My recollection is that cars in the 1960s were actually wider than cars of today. 

So I was surprised to note that the lanes on the Kaleetan SEEMED actually narrower than the other newer ferries used by WSDOT. I had no problem getting out of the car, but BJ struggled some since she was against the wall. I am reminded of a quote from Steven Wright. He said, “A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I’m afraid of widths.”

Then we couldn’t find the McDonald’s in Winslow, and the Sonic in Poulsbo was closed, so we headed for the Wendy’s. 

Only the drive-thru was open, frustrating our intent to use the restroom, but they did have some food, after a 20-minute wait for the two cars in front of us to buy about $1,000 worth of sandwiches and drinks each!   

OK, back to the subject of fall sports. Here are some reports of games I understand somewhat better. 

The Seahawks won as they continue to defy the forecasts of their demise in the National Football League. The Kansas City Chiefs also won handily providing an opportunity for quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ 36-year-old backup, Chad Henne, to get some playing time. 

In sports news you probably don’t care about, BJ’s DePauw University Tigers beat Ohio Wesleyan 22-21, barely maintaining their first place standing in the North Coast Athletic Conference. 

In a tight defensive battle, my Wabash College Little Giants narrowly beat Oberlin College 66-20 (OMG).

The famous, and not to be missed, Monon Bell Game is but two short weeks from Saturday. We are planning to travel to Bellevue to join the few alumni, alumnae, and fans of the game who care, at a bar willing to show the game being broadcast on some network none of us have heard of.  

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week. 

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive and Port Ludlow resident. And much to the delight of aesthetic-obsessed Bainbridge Islanders — who incessantly lobby for more trees to be planted to hide their McDonald’s from highway travelers — Ned’s hungry eyes did not see yon Golden Arches. Contact Ned at ned@ptleader.com.)