It was a dream, building the house out on the end of the island. We worked excitedly with the architect and our builder friends coming up with the perfect plan to accommodate our growing family. Yes it’s true, they are adults now with lives of their own, but the idea was that they would come and stay off and on all through the summers and eventually bring along our grandchildren, of course. We would have such great times together, as a family, year after year, until we are gone from this earth and it doesn’t matter to us anymore. They would come to grandma and grandpas house and go crabbing and have beach fires at night and fall in love with our salt water lake, just as we have. The last thing in the world she would do is move far far away. Why would she do that? It’s perfect here. And besides, it’s were we are. And the last thing we expected them to do is build a vacation home of their own on the other side of the mountains on a different body of water. Why would they do that? Don’t they know it’s perfect here? And…
Category: Randomness
The Great Escape!
Monday morning was blustery to the point of concern. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about our old sailboat tethered to the buoy in front of the house. What if the line didn’t hold? Had we secured it properly- good enough to withstand the tug-of-war it was subject to at that moment? I’d just put my grandson down for his morning nap when I took a quick glance out the window only to witness just the thing I’d been afraid of: the old girl was on the run! My heart leapt to my throat! I literally gasped! Waves crashed all around, up and over her bow, shoving her this way and that. All I knew was I couldn’t possibly initiate a rescue on my own and if something didn’t happen to rein her in, we’d loose her forever. I tore down the road to the home of our friend and neighbor, a retired commercial fisherman, and banged on the front door. Our neighbor is as comfortable with the sea as I am with a glass of wine. I knew he’d know exactly what to do. In a state of panic I begged for help and…
The Trouble With Tony
Tag along with just-barely-legitimate, yet somehow lovable, Private Detective Tony Russo, while he uncovers the truth behind an “accident” resulting in the death of a woman whose husband has spent his life stalking the one that got away; his long ago high school crush. A story of contemporary mayhem, “The Trouble with Tony,” written by Camano Island resident Mary Ann Hayes, is the long awaited sequel to “A Friend Like Frank,” released in February, 2013. “The Trouble with Tony” is available through Amazon in paperback and ebook form, through local book stores, and through the authors web site, www.maryannhayes.com.
Living in Paradise
So here we are, the luckiest people on the planet, living in the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes it takes a particularly nasty winter to bring about total appreciation of a promising summer. So far, this summer rocks! The view from my kitchen window is startling; bright blue skies, snow capped mountains, clear smooth waters. It’s hard to imagine anything better than this. Getting here was a struggle though, especially with the steely gray winter saturated in rain, mold, and darkness. There are times when I think we must be nuts for living here. Then, just in the nick of time, along comes summer and everything changes. We dry out, it stays light past three thirty in the afternoon, and the abundance of fleece is moved to the guest room closet to make room for our cottons. We survived it again! Sitting here in the sun admiring my amazing surroundings brings on a serious bout of amnesia. What rain? What darkness? I don’t remember anything except what’s happening right now and right now is too good to do anything with but become a part of. It’s crab season for us regular folks. The pots are filling up and the cookers are steaming.…
Going Nowhere
We headed out with the faintest hint of a breeze, trusting it would whip up into a full on wind once we got our gear on board and her sails up. The four of us plus our fifteen month old grandson, loving the warm muggy day, just wanting to be on the water. The north bound current was surprisingly strong but the south bound breeze was definitely not. The neighbors said it looked as though we were standing in place out there; going nowhere. Yet, to us we were “making trees”. The breeze picked up a little bit, we tacked across the bay in extreme slow motion. We may have been going nowhere to everyone else, but to us, we were on our way to paradise. Our grandson lay his head back in his mommas arms and watched the sails in wonder. We ate cherries and nectarines and drank champagne and orange juice. It was a quiet lazy sail, so quiet we could hear the hull slip through the water, the splash of fish jumping, the gentle flutter of a sail. We were going everywhere, each one of us, in the quiet of our minds, no one saying much.…
A Good Book
To All my Family, Friends, and Followers, I’ve just had my novel, “The Trouble With Tony”, The Mischief Chronicles, Volume 2, released. I am excited about this book, the sequel to “A Friend Like Frank”. It is lively and entertaining and good fun, introducing a few new characters to the Friend Like Frank family. Tony Russo is a just-barely-legitimate Private Investigator looking into an “accidental” death tied to Harold Lawson who is an old high school flame of Vicki Wellington’s, and a true rival to her ex-husband, Ross. The Mischief Chronicles, Volume 3, is in the works. It is titled “All Bet’s Are Off.” I’ll let you know when it’s available, even though it won’t be for a while. If you haven’t read “A Friend Like Frank”, it is available through Amazon in both paperback or ebook form for us Kindle users. It is also available through my web site www.maryannhayes.com which is where I’d love to have you order it! I sign all copies and pay the tax and shipping on every book purchased through my web site. And if it’s more comfortable for you to just send me an email order with a shipping address, that’s fine too.…
Time
Somehow, it’s June of 2013. And somehow an incredible amount of time has crept up, then shot on by like a bullet train. All along, I’ve been deceived, believing it’s never been anything more than an innocent little choo-choo. Where have the years gone? For some reason, I haven’t liked what I’ve been viewing in the mirror lately. So, I went on line in search of the perfect hairstylist for my type of curly hair, convinced all I needed was a proper cut. You’d have thought I was going in for a facelift, I was so excited the day of my appointment. These people were reputed to be the best curly hair experts in the universe. I paid the one hundred and fifty dollars for the cut and a bottle of product and left holding back tears and feeling such a fool. Who in their right mind would actually pay money to look so bad? I went home, washed out my product heavy head of hair, then found a pair of scissors and cut it all off. I look much better now. Apparently, my hair isn’t the problem. I think the issue here is hard to admit. The issue is…
How can this happen?
It began well enough. A blue sky day, windy and great for sailing. The original plan being cancelled for a new one, yet everything working out, somehow. Off we go in a flurry with a cooler full of sandwiches and salad and ice cold beer. We watch excitedly as they lift and launch our old sailboat into the rough, churning waters of Puget Sound. She looks good, all freshened up with a new coat of paint. The main sail is caught, stuck, won’t go all the way up. There it is, the culprit; some twine tangled around the lines and the cross bars. Nothing works. There’s nothing left to try. The waves are huge and my stomach is churning because we lack direction, thrashing around as we plead for the sail to go up, jerking and pulling, then finally giving up. Down comes the main. Down comes the jib. We are relieved the motor has just been serviced and there is plenty of fuel. We sigh. It’s a beautiful day on the water wheather we are sailing or motoring, it doesn’t matter. We sit back and relax and putt-putt our way home. The food is good and a cold…
Failure to Blog!
I was out of town for about a week and didn’t get to my usual Tuesday blog. I missed it, but now that I have time to get down to business again, I can’t think of much to say. I spent the time with my daughter, Staci. She and I hit the road for Boise, Idaho. The sun always shines in Boise, did you know that? It was great to be there and catch up with our dear old friends and meet a very special new one; a sweet little two month old baby girl named Lottie. We spent every minute together, shopping all day every day, fixing dinners together and toting baby Lottie with us everywhere we went. Four sets of loving hands made it pretty easy on new momma, Kelsy. As Kathy and I followed behind our daughters, my Staci snuggling the newborn daughter of her best friend tenderly in her arms, we found it hard to hold back tears. Wasn’t it just yesterday our two girls were in fourth grade, silly little girls having the time of their lives. How is it that they are married women now, and one with a daughter of her own? Time…
Who’s Business is it Anyway?
When it comes right down to it, the only business we should be in is our own. Every time we decide to get into someone else’s business, we create a problem, more for ourselves than for anyone else. Why do we do that? It serves no purpose but to frustrate both parties. The way I see it is there are three kinds of business in the world; my business, God’s business, and everyone else’s business. Problems and frustrations arise when we intrude where we don’t belong. If you don’t agree with me, try it out. For example, I made it my business to insist on greeting my neighbor even though he has never wanted any kind of a greeting from me. When I finally realized I was intruding in his business, the business of keeping quietly to oneself, I quit and was left without the disappointment of believing I have an unfriendly neighbor, without the perceived insult of being snubbed, without any anxiety over my not being able to win him over to the friendly side of life. I am actually happy to see him now and make no attempt to greet him. He is visibly more relaxed and spends…