Ned Luce

It was late last Friday evening, around 10:15 p.m., when I was pondering the weekly insights into Port Ludlow life I might write in this week’s column. 

I could report on the annual outpouring of dentist’s delights provided at the Trunk’n Treat with more than 20 vehicles showering hundreds (?) of costumed kids with Halloween candy. 

I could tell you about Emily Froula’s presentation at Rotary describing her Rotary club’s growing program to gather Christmas cards to be sent to people in the area who appreciate being remembered during the holidays. Although she is in the Kingston Rotary club, she is a CPA working out of her office in the “Port Ludlow Mall” near the convenience store. 

Even with those topics and yesterday’s election and the Port Ludlow Performing Arts (PLPA) concert by the “Four C Notes,” and the upcoming Monon Bell game between Wabash and DePauw, and the passing of Jerry Lee Lewis, and so much more, the power went out for over 30 hours and gave me plenty to write about. 

Like so many of you, we were just watching some television around 10 p.m. Friday night when our little corner of the world went dark. I mean, all the lights went out, including the neighbors as far as we could see. Unlike some of you, we do not have a generator. In fact, in the 14 years we have lived here we have not needed a generator, but this time started to feel different. 

BJ located a flashlight and we gathered a few other sources of light, like candles, and went to bed. 

My golly it was cold in the morning, so I built a fire and hoped it would put some heat into the house. 

Then I realized there still was no way to brew coffee. A desperate call to Cass at the Dusty Green Café found them open. They were using their gas-fired stove to heat water for coffee and cook food! There ended up being several of us having breakfast including the Sorensons, the Brunstads, the Shaws, Don Clark, Jim Watson, and others. 

After lingering over breakfast for much longer than usual we headed home to refuel the fire. The temperature in the living room become fairly comfortable, but we then needed a lunch plan. We decided to head to Poulsbo for lunch and stop in at Big 5 sports to purchase a camping light. A first-time delightful lunch at “Tizley’s” preceded a successful shopping stop at Big 5! It was cheaper than a generator. We passed a restaurant with the following on the door: “The whole world is experiencing a worker shortage, please be kind to those who show up.”

We made a stop at some unnamed friends’ home on the way home to check on them. As it turns out they have a generator they use for their refrigeration and another one for pumping water from a well since they do not have OWSI. (City water service.) Unfortunately, they can get water into the house, but they do not have a generator providing electricity to the pump they use to send waste water to the septic system. Given that part of the reason for the stop was to use the restroom following our drive back from Poulsbo, you can accurately surmise we did not stay very long. 

Late breakfast and late lunch provided the ability for a late and light dinner of yogurt and pretzels at home in a warm living room enjoying each other’s company on a Saturday evening. We also met the challenge of watching a movie on an iPhone. We won’t do that again. 

Of course, we went to bed early, around 9:15 p.m. Oh wait, that ended up being 8:15 because of the time change. Thank goodness we got in bed early so we got plenty of sleep before the lights and radios came on at 3:40 a.m. providing an unexpected but welcome wake-up call.

The power did not come back on in the South Bay until about 10 a.m. Sunday. The PLPA was sponsoring the concert by the “Four Seasons” tribute group, the “Four C Notes,” at 2 p.m. and there was much concern about whether or not the sold-out concert would go on and where it would be. 

After much scurrying about, everything came together and the show went on. 

The conversations before the concert and at the intermission all centered on the power outage and how we each faced the challenges and it was great to see Bev Rothenborg again!

Monon Bell Game results next week!

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week. 

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive and Port Ludlow resident who really is not a fan of shivering by the light of the silvery moon. Contact Ned at ned@ptleader.com.)