Kathy Watson

Finest moments
What she's reading
Work samples
Words worth

Stu Watson

Finest moments
What he's reading
Work Samples
Words worth

Stu's Finest Moments

• Learning that the state Land Use Board of Appeals on Aug. 16, 2004, had affirmed a decision by Hood River County to reject as incompatible a 186,000-square-foot Wal-Mart SuperCenter proposed for a woodsy area about one-half mile from our neighborhood. For three years, I co-chaired the Citizens for Responsible Growth in its opposition to the project on those and other grounds.
• Boogeyboarding at Shipwreck Beach in Kauai and having the Hawaiian kid ask how old I was, and when I told him 38, hearing him say, 'You jammin' "
• Learning that I had won the first Best Writing award for newspaper journalists from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Writing matters, but writing well matters more.
• Every time I step onto a sailboard and feel the wind and start to go.
• Saying 'I do' and kissing Kathy, on a beach, at sunset, in Hawaii, and hearing the spontaneous applause from the condo balconies afterward.
• Out of breath and wondering if I would reach the summit of 14,433-foot Mt. Elbert in Colorado, stopping to chat with the climber on his way down, learning that the climber with one artificial leg was on a quest to climb the tallest peak in every state, and then finishing the climb with surprising ease.
• Slam-dancing, at age 46, with my mates from Ingenius to the last concert tour of The Ramones, in Denver.
• For the second or third time, jogging around the track toward the two middle-aged big-haired Alabamans, one of whom as I approached looked at me and said as syrupy-as-you-please, "Niyass layeggs! (i.e. nice legs)."
• Every time I hike, or drive through, or consider from another angle, or turn a corner and am surprised to see, or look up from something else and see another explosive skyscape, and remind myself each time that I am blessed to live in the Gorge.