A part of it felt like I was again somewhere on a foreign shore. The lector at Saint Joachim church gave a short introduction in the Lummi language. The priest was father Nguyen Khanh and his accent recalled going to the English language mass at Our Lady of Saigon cathedral. Instead of ringing a bell at the consecration one of the Lummi women beat a traditional drum skin. Today is the feast of the Epiphany, the Three Kings.

I will spending the day on Tuesday and Thursday in Vancouver, visiting friends. The two cats are slowly warming up to me. I plan to head back to Tacoma on Sunday morning and take off for Portland and Eugene Monday the 16th and return the rental car on the 20th to SeaTac.

Father Khanh at St. Joachim

I am listening to one of my favorite radio programs, Prairie Home Companion, on NPR (National Public Radio). The host Garrison Keillor, I call him the Irreverent Reverend. This was a good show.

Rose Marie dropped me yesterday at 5.30 a.m., on her way to work, at Starbucks in Des Moines. Dick Lyons came to pick me up an hour later. He lives nearby. This was our first meeting. It will not be our last. We had a lot to talk about. Dick was asked by his pastor father Williams of the St.Elisabeth of Hungary parish in Portland, Oregon, back in 1958, to come up with a plan for the “Groote Beer” which had been donated by Bob Johnson to the church. Most of you will know that I am the self proclaimed historian on this well known botter yacht. See www.cometosea.us/albums/GrooteBeer.htm  Dick and his wife Betty took me to the car rental place, nearby. At lunch time I met my long time friend Ken House in Mt. Vernon. Ken has built one of the NAJA’s, like “Fleetwood” and we have done a lot of sail boat races together in the eighties and nineties.

I took the scenic route from Mt. Vernon along the shore line where I used to sail and through the town of Edison where “Fleetwood” was built in the winter of 1979-1980, on Chuckanut Drive. I am house and cat sitting here at my friends home right on the beach, looking west to the San Juans and Vancouver Island. I plan to go to 8.30 mass on the Lummi Reservation here tomorrow.

I was rummaging through the drawers in Sid’s office  looking for, I already forgot what, something and I discovered his tape measure stash. Now I know where they all ended up over the fourty years that I have known Sid.  His famous last words: “I’ll give it right back” 

It is so still here. I’m hearing an owl calling.