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

My friend David Bent­ley reports that he enjoys hav­ing a game of cards with friends at the Mullis Cen­ter on Mon­day after­noons. The Mullis Cen­ter is open for cards and board games on Mon­days and Wednes­days from 1 to 3 p.m. Besides the social con­vivi­al­i­ty, a study from Scot­land says that game play­ing helps keep  Con­tin­ue Reading

Spring is here and along with the rain, sun­shine, and tulips, indoor activ­i­ties are cau­tious­ly return­ing to the Mullis Cen­ter. While the Mullis Cen­ter is not quite ready to resume com­mu­ni­ty lunch­es, we are pleased to invite you to join us as in-per­­son activ­i­ties begin to open up. The Mullis Cen­ter rec­om­mends that activ­i­ty atten­dees be  Con­tin­ue Reading

As of March 12, Wash­ing­ton State has relaxed mask require­ments. Accord­ing to the Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Health, “Decreas­ing rates of infec­tion and hos­pi­tal­iza­tions, and high vac­ci­na­tion rates have allowed us to move into a new recov­ery phase of the pan­dem­ic.” That said, the March 11 media release from San Juan Coun­ty reports 23 new  Con­tin­ue Reading

Hap­py Fat Tues­day! March 1 is the last day of car­ni­val, the day before lent, and a time for feast­ing. One tra­di­tion­al dish, easy to make, eco­nom­i­cal, and good for you, is Louisiana red beans and rice. After the Hait­ian Rev­o­lu­tion of 1804 thou­sands of refugees of both Euro­pean and African her­itage fled Haiti to New  Con­tin­ue Reading

When I wrote my last arti­cle, Feb­ru­ary is Heart Health Month, I knew I should be fol­low­ing my own advice. I didn’t know how much. We tend to imag­ine heart dis­ease as that crush­ing blow to the chest deliv­ered by a heart attack but heart dis­ease can also be kind of sneaky. Last Sat­ur­day I went  Con­tin­ue Reading

Feb­ru­ary is Heart Health Month. A good reminder when we are so fix­at­ed on COVID these days it is easy to over­look tak­ing good care of our hearts. Tak­ing care of our hearts, you know what that means. Get some exer­cise and eat your veg­eta­bles. Keep your blood pres­sure and cho­les­terol under con­trol. Lose weight  Con­tin­ue Reading