HALF AND HALF--As this week began, we had sort of a gray but dry start, but by mid-afternoon Sunday, the rain started to fall pretty heavily and along with some wind, made for quite the racket on the windows around my place. Thankfully this dark soaker didn't last too long and we got back to some sunshine, but we're definitely doing the "half and half" routine around here. Drier but colder weather followed that but we're supposed to be back to the boots and umbrellas type weather by the weekend, so here's hoping that we don't get anymore mudslides or flooding along with it!

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from Feb. 20-26 are Mac Johson, Vicki Allenback, Sara Buennagel, Allie Helms-Lampitt, Nyomie Kuljis, Rebecca Costillo, Todd Thomason, Nick Tarabochia, Darrin Dow, Amanda Zacher, Wyatt Parker, Emery Tomlinson, Logan Blain, Morgan Spieth, Ursula Jorgensen, David A. Pedersen Jr. and Shari Gorman Parker. Belated birthday wishes go out to Debbie Olson-Beebe; hope it was great!

Those celebrating anniversaries this week are Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Wirkkala and Mr. and Mrs. Terry Heagy; enjoy your special days, everybody!

Belated "Happy 50th Anniversary" wishes to Ron and Elaine Britt, who celebrated their big day on Valentine's Day at the Duck Inn recently. In all the hub-bub, I totally left them out of my column last week. Here's to many more years together, you two!

ANOTHER ADDITION--We just learned this week that our Pedersen side of the family will add yet another member, as my cousin, Dawn Pedersen Macchione will be adding another baby to her family later on this year. Dawn is the daughter of my cousin, David, son of Holger, who was the son of Jonas Pedersen. This new baby will be welcomed into her household by her sister, Isabella, who is proudly displaying balloons and ultrasound pictures, while wearing a "Big Sister" t-shirt and looks to be quite thrilled to welcome another sibling. A hearty congratulations to Dawn and Obed on their upcoming little bundle of joy!

My nephew Ty Finkas (Kendra) will welcome a baby boy this Spring, as is my grandson, Austin Good (Nicole), so we'll be making that "new family members list" a little bit longer this year for sure. We can hardly wait!

NO FREE MOVIE--There will not be any free movie at the Community Center in Cathlamet this Friday, Feb. 21 or the next, Feb. 28, as the folks in charge of these movie nights are enjoying a little time off and there were no subsitutes to take their place. So, stay tuned for when the movies will be returning, which looks to be around mid-March.

COMING SOON--Don't forget, the Friends of Skamokawa are still looking for vendors who would like to sell their vintage or antique items at Redmen Hall/Central School at their annual "Antique and Vintage Fair," to take place in the first part of March. If you'd like to participate, you can contact Pam Emery or leave a message at the hall: 360-795-3007 and of course, for all of you shoppers, this event will take place March 6, 7 & 8 from 10 to 4 in the River Life Interpretive Center located on the second floor of the historic Redmen Hall at 1394 West SR 4.

Don't forget, there is a great bookstore located on the first floor of the hall, with various local authors, as well as a gift shop, with many locally made items being sold there, so if you haven't been down in awhile, be sure to check it all out!

GREAT CROWD--A big hats off to Logan Britt and staff at the Duck Inn, as this past Friday was their special Valentine Dinner and boy, was it ever good! The crab, prawns, steak and the rest of the dinner was truly delicious and with all the cloth tablecloths and decorated tables, it truly made for a special evening. Of course, it never hurts to have the wonderful "King Brothers" there for some good rock and roll music and there was nary an oldster in sight that was sitting still or sitting down, so the dance floor was just a hoppin'! Unfortunately, after a spell with a bad back and kinky knee, all I could do was a bit of "chair dancing" but I sure did enjoy seeing everybody out and about and having a great time! It was also very fun to bring a fresh face to the crowd, as Ellyse Brewster joined us for all the fun that evening and she truly enjoyed herself she said, and if the young folks like your friends and your music, well, that's saying something!

Also, a hearty congratulations goes out to the two big jewelry prize winners that night, as the necklace was won by Steve McClain and the earrings were won by Walt LaFontaine. Way to go, guys!

A GOOD TIME--The Wah. Chamber of Commerece held their big crab and oyster feed on Puget Island this past weekend and it looked like everyone had a good time. It was great to see the pictures and hear from some of the new folks in the area that had never been before. One thing I believe we need to improve upon is forewarning all "newbies" about the need for them to bring their own crab crackers/picks and oyster shuckers and any other utensils that would make their job of opening those things a little easier. We also like to bring the heavy duty kitchen scissors, which can be used to cut into the crab legs and remove nice chunks of meat in one piece. Also, many like to bring dipping sauces that they might prefer, other than what is provided, so for us, bringing our own garlic butter is a must. However, most folks are more than willing to help out the new folks, so they did just fine, but next year, I'm betting they'll be bringing that extra bag of stuff with them!

WELL WISHES--We were sorry to hear about Cora Irving's latest mishap as according to her daughter, Sheryl, she took a fall and broke her hip on Valentine's Day. We were so sorry to hear this news and hopefully she will have a successful recovery after her surgery. In the meantime, keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Mike McLaughlin had to undergo some foot surgery recently, and beings he's been wanting it for ages, we hope that now that he's had it, he will feel much better once he heals up. I know that chronic pain is no fun to deal with, so we wish him the very best.

Sandra Gibson underwent some surgery this past Monday, so here's to that being successful; our get well wishes are being sent to her too!

Gail Steilgleman has been dealing with some long chemotheapy sessions and we hope and pray that her treatments bring about positive results.

Rick Foster not only underwent brain surgery recently to remove a large tumor, but he has also been diagnosed with an esophageal tumor and will be undergoing treatment soon, so we hope he can remain strong and deal with all of these latest health issues. He is trying to keep a positive attitude amongst all the negative findings, and keeping quite busy, so we want to wish him all the best in the coming days.

Tracy Tomlinson has been dealing with some painful issues lately and we hope her physical therapy yields some positive results, but if not, hopefully the surgery will.

According to Cheryl Backman, her Mom is back home after her hospital trip last week, but she's still struggling to recover from her stroke, so everyone in her family is hoping for more improvement soon.

No matter what or where it is, pain is not our friend, so we hope everyone gets better soon and/or recuperates from their various surgeries and illnesses.

MORE LOSSES--We were sorry to hear of the passing of Ray Bauer recently and we offer our sincerest condolences to his family members. A gathering was held this past Saturday afternoon on Puget Island after a service at the cemetery.

We also heard on Sunday that Bob Brons had passed away and once again, we offer our sincere sympathies to his wife Betty and all of his family members.

One of our long time locals, John Hendershot, lost his battle with cancer recently and we were certainly saddened to hear this news. His surviving family members certainly have our condolences as he'd been a neighbor for many years and been battling one thing after another these past few years. May he rest in peace now.

GREAT INFO--A big thanks goes out to Howard Wittman Jones, as lately he has been posting old pictures on the Wahkiakum East-Side History, People and Memories Facebook page, and they have been really fun to see, and informative too. Those of us who grew up on Puget Island really enjoyed the photo of chronology of things that happened there, and I'll list a few: Many of us "younger" Puget Islanders don't remember that there was more than just one school on Puget Island, the first of which was built in 1891 and the second one was built in 1895. Then the Central School was built in 1920 and was closed in 1952. The First Lutheran Church was built in 1895 as well, and the Vik Post Office was built in 1905. The Blix Boat Business started up in 1907. The Puget Island Grange was organized in 1917 but the building was not built until 1928, and now the building situated on SR 409, is used as a church. In 1920, two more churches were put up, one of which was the Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, just south of the old Grange and there was also a Seventh Day Adventist Church built (although I don't know where it was located.) In 1936, a Library and the Karlen Creamery opened up and a couple of years later, in 1938, the Norse Hall was built. There was much more listed, but a major one was of the Puget Island bridge being built which finally linked Cathlamet and the Island, in 1939. One thing I had never heard of before was that there were Fairs held on the Island from 1943 to 1945. One learns something new everyday. At any rate, if you are on Facebook, you might want to join this group as it's super fun to see all the old flyers, stories and pictures of our towns and the schools and surrounding areas!

MAKING YOURSELF SICK?--In this time of colds and flu, one may want to rethink some of our daily habits, as we may not even realize that we may be making ourselves sick. I was surprised by this, but it seems some folks are using their hand towels or bath towels for a week at a time (some longer) and not only do they dry themselves off after a bath, but they use them to dry their hands and faces too. After some testing by professionals, some towels not only came back with a ton of bacteria, but some came back with a fungus and even e-coli. Yikes! After a week's worth of use, the towel came back with a staggering amount of bacteria on them, as in 650 million! In case you didn't know, terry cloth towels were made with those tiny loops in order to take off your dry/dead skin cells after you bathe, therefore lending them full of "yuk" after the very first use.