As we head into a new year, many of us will take it as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­mit to health relat­ed goals. For me, I am among the many old­er adults cur­rent­ly suf­fer­ing from sleep apnea. I sus­pect that I am not alone in that my basic approach to the avail­able treat­ment can best be  Con­tin­ue Reading

Yes­ter­day I went to the Mullis Cen­ter for my reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled foot care appoint­ment. It’s a plea­sure if not a gen­uine neces­si­ty to have my feet well cared for. It was a Tues­day and the cen­ter was fair­ly qui­et. Still, it was good to see the Christ­mas trees and lights cre­at­ing a fes­tive atmos­phere. The  Con­tin­ue Reading

For the last few years the glob­al pan­dem­ic has wreaked hav­oc with many of our cher­ished hol­i­day tra­di­tions. This has giv­en us all an oppor­tu­ni­ty to shift to sim­pler sce­nar­ios. We’ve out of neces­si­ty had to shift, or in some cas­es give up, tra­di­tions that pre-pan­dem­ic seemed per­ma­nent­ly estab­lished. We have an oppor­tu­ni­ty now to  Con­tin­ue Reading

Each year Thanks­giv­ing comes around as a time­ly reminder to be thank­ful for the many ways in which we are blessed. One thing I am thank­ful for are my mem­o­ries of a fam­i­ly trip to Boston and vis­it to the his­toric Plimoth Plan­ta­tion. The main rea­son for the trip was my sis­ter Betty’s wed­ding but  Con­tin­ue Reading

I was impressed when friend and local his­to­ri­an Michael Vouri set out to hike Hadrian’s Wall across north­ern Eng­land. Hik­ing the wall is a pop­u­lar trek that fol­lows the Roman Emper­or Hadrian’s mas­sive mason­ry wall and forts. Dur­ing the Roman occu­pa­tion of Britain, the wall defined the edge of the Roman Empire leav­ing the trou­ble­some  Con­tin­ue Reading

If you have not expe­ri­enced Fri­day Harbor’s poet­ry gar­dens, you can find them at the Mullis Cen­ter, on Reed St. beside the U.S. Post Office, at the San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre, and at Spring Street Land­ing below Down­rig­gers. The poet­ry gar­dens were cre­at­ed to bring poet­ry into our town’s dai­ly expe­ri­ence. The gar­dens are a  Con­tin­ue Reading

It’s fall and time to think about tak­ing stock and stock­ing up on sup­plies in case of an emer­gency. Thank­ful­ly we are not in the path­way of hur­ri­canes, but if you’ve been around here for a while you know that we can get some mighty dam­ag­ing win­ter wind­storms. The most com­mon events to be ready  Con­tin­ue Reading

This past week, the world lost not only the longest serv­ing British monarch, but at 96 years old a woman who embod­ied longevi­ty itself. Queen Eliz­a­beth II had plen­ty of healthy habits. She start­ed her days with a pot of Earl Grey tea, a bowl of Spe­cial K cere­al, and a bag­pipe ser­e­nade. She rode  Con­tin­ue Reading

Sum­mer is wind­ing down and the San Juan Coun­ty Fair comes along just in time to offer islanders a chance to show off their finest pro­duce, baked or canned goods, quilts, baby pigs, and super­charged zuc­chi­nis. Beyond that, thanks to the San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion, Fair week also offers a vari­ety of ways to  Con­tin­ue Reading

The hot days of sum­mer are upon us. We wait all year for our beau­ti­ful island sum­mers, but still, some days are just too hot. Old­er adults are more vul­ner­a­ble to super hot weath­er. Dr. Basil Eldadah of the Nation­al Insti­tute on aging explains, “As we age, our abil­i­ty to sweat and to dilate blood  Con­tin­ue Reading

The Mullis Cen­ter Book Club has a new coor­di­na­tor. Now that Beth Hel­stien has retired from the San Juan Island Library (thank you Beth!), Wendy Wax­man Kern, the library’s new Out­reach and Tech­nol­o­gy Coor­di­na­tor, will be facil­i­tat­ing the Mullis Cen­ter Book Club. Wendy pre­vi­ous­ly served as San Juan County’s 4‑H Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor and has a rich  Con­tin­ue Reading

The equinox has passed and Fourth of July week­end is upon us. For islanders this gen­er­al­ly marks the true start of sum­mer both weath­er wise and in terms of increased activ­i­ties and vis­i­tors. One sure sign that sum­mer is revving up is that our local farm­ers mar­ket is invig­o­rat­ed with plen­ty of fresh pro­duce among  Con­tin­ue Reading

When the nutri­tion­ist at Peace Health asked me what sort of phys­i­cal exer­cise I would be will­ing to com­mit to, I declared bold­ly that I would do yoga three times a week. I had just dug up my old yoga pro­gram that with enough adap­ta­tions I could still man­age to almost do. What has helped  Con­tin­ue Reading

Last month, the Mullis Cen­ter cau­tious­ly tip-toed into restart­ing the onsite com­mu­ni­ty lunch pro­gram. With COVID cas­es remain­ing high and with guid­ance from the health depart­ment and our recent com­mu­ni­ty sur­vey, the Mullis Cen­ter is exper­i­ment­ing with a new, less for­mal, more open, and adapt­able lunch pro­gram. The com­mu­ni­ty we serve is right­ful­ly cau­tious when  Con­tin­ue Reading

The advice colum­nist known as Dear Abby once said, “These days it takes nerves of steel just to be neu­rot­ic” — and she said that in the six­ties. In today’s world there is plen­ty to fray our weary nerves. We have all the usu­al caus­es for men­tal dis­tress: anx­i­ety, iso­la­tion, loss, health issues, all mag­ni­fied  Con­tin­ue Reading

Fri­day Har­bor suf­fered a great loss recent­ly when fire took some of our most cher­ished his­toric build­ings, shock­ing­ly gone overnight. While we reach out to help those whose lives and liveli­hoods were irrev­o­ca­bly impact­ed by the loss, once again, whether we want to or not, we face the per­sis­tent life les­son of the inevitabil­i­ty of  Con­tin­ue Reading