Monthly Archives: April 2011

Oscar Wild, master mouser

For the first time since I began blogging last July, topics are not popping into my brain as they normally do when I exercise, read, or talk to friends.  This week I have seen my first dry spell, with no … Continue reading

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Are you listening?

Are you a good listener?  I’m not.  Today I found myself reading and replying to an email while someone was telling me a long story on the phone. I thought I had been tracking both conversations, until at some point I … Continue reading

Posted in inspiration, personal reflections | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Cobwebs are not Halloween decorations

Who is responsible for doing the household chores? This is not a small question at any stage of life.  I had a conversation this week with my Iranian email friend Saeide about the pro’s and con’s of having a roommate.  Saiede … Continue reading

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Tulipmania

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival website boasts that one million people a year attend this event every April.  I believe they all came today.  Who can blame people for wanting to take a road trip on this, the warmest, sunniest … Continue reading

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Little pain, lots of gain

Most people who live to the age of sixty start to have a few aches and pains.   It’s too soon to predict, but I may have come upon a way to push these aches and pains into the background, … Continue reading

Posted in exercise, health | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Shuffle your way to better health

Thanks to my new blue iPod Shuffle I am getting stronger and more fit.  I bought it a few months ago (I’m obviously not an early adopter) and around the same time began walking more often on the indoor track … Continue reading

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Peter Pan story ends, life in the U.S. begins

Today I am posting the last two parts of a six-part video interview with my friend Maria, who talks about her family’s experiences before and after fleeing Cuba during the revolution of the late nineteen fifties and early nineteen sixties. … Continue reading

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Peter Pan Airlift separates families

An article in today’s Seattle Times describes Cuba’s celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, in which U.S. political leaders trained Cuban exiles with the goal of ousting revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. The U.S. government … Continue reading

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“Pedro Pan” was no bedtime story

Fleeing their country was something many middle and upper class Cuban families did in the early nineteen sixties after experiencing life under revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.  Many children from these families were sent to Miami for safe-keeping with the expectation … Continue reading

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The mysteries of Mahjong

The domino-shaped plastic tiles, yellowed from age, made clicking sounds as we arranged them in a square, rows of 18 on each side with two layers stacked on top of each other.  The set of tiles came from eBay, the one … Continue reading

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