I don't claim to be a writer. I have known quite a few writers and they are well educated, smart and disciplined. I have been disciplined, but it’s usually for being a bad boy! I prefer to think of myself as a describer, sharing things that interest me, people I know and stuff that I've done over the 40+ years of our lives here. There have been plenty of opportunities to accumulate material. Wonderful people. Fascinating adventures.

Still in all, I never quite know what the next adventure will be, and that's the fun part. Often things pop up from out of nowhere. Take this week for example.

Mike Valentine, who visits here often, has a place here, and is moderately inquisitive, gave me a call. “This isn't about me.” he said. I wasn't sure where we were headed. “My wife is retiring,” and she has long-time connections to Maine. He was planning a small (surprise) dinner gathering for his wife Amy at the Ocean Point Inn, to be in the same room as her grandfather's retirement dinner in 1983.

S. Warren Cable (Amy's grandfather) loved Ocean Point and started his visits, coincidentally, when Amy's mother was a classmate of David Dudley at University of Maine. David and partners took over running the Inn from Mr. and Mrs. Barnes around 1984.

The “surprise” part of Mike's message got my attention. He suggested I attend his get together for Amy. “Maybe Amy isn't interested in my being a surprise at her surprise,” I offered.

“Naw,” Mike said. “I'll take care of that. Don't worry.”

Red flags went up! I'd been down that road before. This could be a slippery slope. And I wasn't too far off the mark. When introduced to Amy as a surprise visitor to her party, I think Amy gave Mike “The Look!”

“What's he doing here and why does he have a camera?” I detected running through her mind and out her eyes.

Amy is shy, private and reserved (unlike her husband) but she also has been a hugely influential and resourceful supporter for women's empowerment all over the world, in China and most recently Hyderabad, India. She has literally been instrumental in helping to create careers for hundreds (perhaps ultimately thousands) of women in the past 20 years of her work.

But now, she will become more a part of our community and quite possibly fire husband Mike as her events coordinator!