List of posts

  • SHE IS NINE & FINE

    SHE IS NINE & FINE

    Only invasive flies die in her story. Three months ago a nine year old girl, a Fourth Grader wearing pink glasses and named Bobbie Wilson was collecting Spotted Lanternflies. She’d learned about the dangerous-to-trees invasive species and how important it was to stomp them out. That’s what she was doing on the sidewalk where she’d…

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  • PAWNSHOPS, STARBUCKS, and RUNNING

    When we were in college in the early 1970s, my future husband and I used to take the bus to downtown Seattle and walk through the city, visiting 5 and 10 Antiques sometimes, where my mother worked part time. I have a necklace from that shop. We always went to what Gary called the “Pubic…

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  • CERTAINTY

    CERTAINTY

    I have opinions. I am sometimes overwhelming in assertion of my opinions. So I will tell you that sunsets are beautiful and so are sunrises. My opinion. The Pacific University MFA program from which I graduated in 2007 is in Residency in Seaside this week for the first time in three years. The Winter Residency…

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  • LISTENING CLOSELY

    LISTENING CLOSELY

    Gary has heard this story too many times: It’s from years ago at one of our holiday Open House events to which we invited neighbors and co-workers and hosted forty or so. I was teaching, so for a few weeks before, I came home from school and made small savory pastries and baked cakes and…

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  • BALANCE CONTROL

    BALANCE CONTROL

    I can stand on one leg long enough to put each sock on the other foot. I cannot stand on one leg for long with my eyes closed so I stopped trying to do that. I keep reading that my ability to balance on one foot is an indication of longevity. This morning I read…

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  • END-OF-YEAR

    END-OF-YEAR

    We were careful this year. The condo is a new expense and the beach house needs a new roof. Our goals were modest. We would walk, pay our bills, do our best to avoid covid, and stay in touch with family and friends. We covered over a thousand miles, mostly on the beach. I ran…

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  • BARGAINING IRL

    BARGAINING IRL

    Years ago I taught a short story by Michael Cunningham in which a teenager runs through a sliding glass door during a party. (This was before building codes required tempered glass in such doors—a change triggered by a real life incident of a child bleeding out from cuts sustained by running through such a door.)…

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  • COLD

    COLD

    We’re in Portland just now, and it’s in the 20s outside. I ran three miles here yesterday and walked a couple more, up and down NW Portland streets. I planned to walk three miles this morning, but maybe not in this cold. We tested negative again yesterday. This means I have not been sick (with…

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  • BEACHCOMBING

    BEACHCOMBING

    I literally plan to write about beach combing every single day I am on the beach and then I am distracted. I have superstitions (if I touch a stone, I should take it or stack it.) and good luck finding agates and a front yard nearly paved with my finds. We also attended an event…

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  • LOVE ACTUALLY

    LOVE ACTUALLY

    I know, I know, some of us love that movie and some hate it. I’m not going to write about the film. The 20-year anniversary documentary is playing, but either way, you are safe to read on. Truth, fact, history. Lies, fiction, invention. Racism. Yes, I went down a rabbit hole of investigation and research.

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