Talking Story Archives - Page 52 of 114

Thoughts on death and surfing, part 3

Posted by Ken Campbell March 18, 2011 1 Comment 1126 views

Sometimes I feel like I could just follow the grooves in the pavement from our house to Port Angeles, I go there that often. (So often that at some point, I should probably figure out why I don’t live in Port Angeles). I’m going up today for a hearing involving Amber Steim, the enormously drunk […]

Duvalin

Posted by Ken Campbell March 17, 2011 0 Comment 4035 views

I had a quick meeting with our insurance agent the other morning, the annual joust over how much for how little. I had the boy with me and my agent asked if he’d like a piece of candy. She had a bowl of Mexican sweets, a variety of individually wrapped sugar bombs, and I didn’t […]

Storm in the Narrows

Posted by Ken Campbell March 16, 2011 0 Comment 1008 views

I am sitting at the kitchen table, looking out at a squall whipping through the Narrows. What was calm water 2 hours ago is a frothy mix of wind waves and whitecaps, strafed by large caliber rain drops. I can feel the waves breaking against the house pilings. Looking over to the other side, I […]

Rambling through a mine field

Posted by Ken Campbell March 15, 2011 3 Comments 1956 views

I went to a kayak club meeting the other night. Of the people in the room – about a dozen, more or less – I was, by my reckoning, one of the two youngest there. I will be 50 next year. This is not really a reflection on the others who were at the meeting; […]

Conflicts

Posted by Ken Campbell March 14, 2011 0 Comment 1128 views

Sometimes I wish there were two of me. Sunday is both the memorial for Ellen DeBondt up at Crescent Bay as well as the 2nd Annual Great Place Paddle Race, here at Point Defiance. I am going to Crescent… which is a pretty easy decision, really. And it’s probably for the best that there’s not […]

Don’t forget to change your clocks

Posted by Ken Campbell March 12, 2011 0 Comment 1981 views

I’m worried I may be turning into Andy Rooney, the iconic reporter who used to round out each broadcast of 60 Minutes with questions that always began, “Didja ever wonder why…” And then he’d go on to offer curmudgeonly insights about one non-story after another in that old-man-on-the-bench-in-front-of-the-barbershop kind of way. While I couldn’t say […]

Traveling time again

Posted by Ken Campbell March 11, 2011 2 Comments 1099 views

March brings the start of the gray whale migration. Longest migratory route of any mammal, 12,000 miles from the peaceful lagoons of Baja to the feeding grounds of the Chukchi Sea. Once close to extinction, numbers are now upward of 20,000, and stable. It’s the adult males who come this way at this time of […]

High country musings

Posted by Ken Campbell March 10, 2011 0 Comment 1133 views

I have been spending an inordinate amount of time lately thinking about the things I still want to do and see in the Olympics. Maybe it’s that we had such a good time at this year’s Pummel or that I’m looking ahead to traveling around the peninsula this summer. It could be simply that I’ve […]

Marketing 101

Posted by Ken Campbell March 9, 2011 0 Comment 1198 views

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.” The above is from an ad placed by one Sir Ernest Shackleton, trying to generate applicants for his Antarctic voyage. At least, that’s the way the story has come down; I […]

Sad

Posted by Ken Campbell March 7, 2011 4 Comments 1163 views

Ellen DeBondt was killed yesterday by a drunk driver. I can’t bring myself to say that last sentence out loud. Not yet. It doesn’t seem possible, that this woman who was perpetually full of energy and enthusiasm is gone. I saw her just last week in La Push, at the Pummel, a winter paddle surfing […]