Tag Archives: Washington State

May31

Time For A Change

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Time For A Change

For the longest time I’ve been posting twice a week, Sunday and Wednesday. I write about whatever happens to come to mind at the time. I’ve decided to change it up for a while. There will be one post a week for sure and the day will vary. If you’re a follower of my blog you’ll be notified in the usual way. If you’re not a follower, I’ll still be sharing to Facebook so you’ll see the announcement there.

I’m much busier here in Washington than I am in Mexico. I’m finding it hard to devote the time I want to the book I’m writing so I have to cut back somewhere. Giving up fitness classes or Tai Chi is not an option. My health is a priority at this stage of the game.

My social life is busier here as well. I have more friends, many of whom have become family to me over the years. I’m in year eight now in Washington. Yes we do go to fitness classes and Tai Chi together, but there are also activities like Leavenworth Summer Theater that I enjoy.

It also looks like a trip to Canada is in order again this summer. I’m hoping to actually be with both of my kids at the same time, something we haven’t done in almost eight years. And of course I’m looking forward to seeing my granddaughter. I enjoy the video calls but what I really want is to hug her and hold her in my arms.

Last week I was out at Lake Chelan for the day. The weather was wild. Windy and rainy when I arrived. Then in a matter of minutes it cleared up and was sunny. The museum is always interesting and they revamped it over the winter. A video about apples was added and some of the displays were changed around.

Fire season has begun. We had a Level 1 warning over the weekend over a 250 acre brush fire out near the airport, about a ten minute drive from where I live. Thankfully it was brought under control quickly. We could really use some rain here but there doesn’t seem to be any in the forecast.

I’m headed into Leavenworth today. That’s where my hair stylist is. Yes, I know there are hair stylists here in East Wenatchee. And I’m reluctant to change that. I discovered Shears during Covid and Lisa knows my hair well although I’m only up here six months of the year.

Jurassic Quest is coming to Wenatchee and I’m contemplating checking it out. The movies were all pretty great and I’ve seen them in English and in Spanish. Now to see those dinosaur up close. I remember a ride at Disney where we were surrounded by dinosaurs. That was back in the 80s and I’m sure the special effects are greatly enhanced now.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

May20

What’s in A Name

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What’s in A Name

When I first arrived in Washington, I heard a lot of strange-sounding names of places. And I wondered where they came from. Naturally I did some investigating.

Wenatchee. This is the name of a city in Washington in Chelan County. It’s interesting how the city got its name. The area was inhabited for thousands of years by an indigenous people called the Wenatchi. A nomadic culture closely bound to nature, they interacted with other tribes. Their diet consisted mainly of salmon, roots, berries and nuts.

Peshastin. This is a small unincorporated community in Chelan County. Similar to Wenatchee, several Indian tribes also inhabited this area long before the European settlers arrived. Before the white man arrived, the area’s inhabitants were the forefathers of the Sioux, or Cherokee, or Iroquois.

Chelan County. In 1899 the counties of Kittitas and Okanagan combined to form Chelan County. The name comes from a Chelan Indian word meaning “deep water.” This is mostly a reference to lake Chelan.

Douglas County. Created in 1883, it is named after U.S. Senator Steven Douglas of Illinois. He was the chairman of the U.S. Commission on Territories when the Territory of Washington was created.

Tumwater. This is an Indian word meaning “strong water” or “falling water.”

Cashmere. The original name was Mission. The name change occurred in 1904 and was named after the Vale of Kashmir in northwest India. However it was given the Americanized spelling instead.

Dryden. This town is named after Canadian horticulturalist and Minister of Agriculture John Dryden.

Monitor. Formerly known as Brown’s Flat, in 1902 the name was changed to honor the USS Monitor that fought for the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

I live in East Wenatchee in Douglas County where there are two main bridges that connect this city to Wenatchee in Chelan County.

The Senator George Sellar Bridge was built in 1950 in order to carry U.S. Route 2 across the Columbia River. It was named after Washington State Senator George L. Sellar. The original name was Columbia River Bridge.

Odabashian Bridge is the second bridge and was formerly known as the Olds Station Bridge. it opened in 1975 and was renamed in 1991 for Richard Odabashian, a state transportation commissioner from Cashmere.

That’s it for geography and history for today.

Have a great Sunday!

May3

Do It Again!

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Do It Again!

So often people want to talk about what they could have or should have done differently. Or maybe they shouldn’t have done it at all. I like to think of things I’ve done and if I had the opportunity would definitely do again. In this post I’ll touch on four of them.

I missed the first couple of weeks of high school. My friends from middle school were all going to Kelvin High and I lived in the catchment area for Grant Park High. My parents refused to sign the form that would have allowed me to change high schools. I never did hand in the registration form at Grant Park so I wasn’t registered anywhere. Instead I hung out at Memorial Park where I met some really interesting people. Of course eventually someone did catch on and I wound up at Grant Park. But those couple of weeks were awesome!

I had just received my certification for teaching ESL from University of Manitoba. I taught in a program at Red River College over the summer. Then it was time to find a job. I received a phone call from a school in Culiacan, Mexico and decided to head south. Yes, Culiacan is notorious for having one of the strongest cartels in the country. But I had a fabulous year in Mexico. It was so fabulous that when I returned to Canada to supposedly stay, instead I turned around and went back to Mexico. The past twelve years have been amazing!

That brings to mind the summer of 2015 when I came to Leavenworth for two weeks and stayed for four months. Then I made the decision to turn into a snowbird after living fulltime in Mexico for a few years. But I have become a snowbird returning to Washington State and not Canada. I’ve lived in different areas and have done some exploring. I’ve met some wonderful people who have now all become a part of my extended family. We laugh, we cry and we have incredible adventures together. It just doesn’t get any better!

But I’ve saved the best for last. I have two fantastic kids and it was worth all the nausea during pregnancy and all the pain during childbirth to be blessed with my son and my daughter. It was well worth moving my office home so I could be with my kids from infancy to adulthood. I enjoyed numerous hours volunteering with all the activities they were involved in. I have fond memories of bands practicing (of course they practice at the drummer’s home), chauffeuring, living in bowling alleys, coaching sports, being Akela of a cub pack and so much more. Yes, those were incredible days indeed!

I would do all of these all over again given the opportunity. High school, college, adulthood. It doesn’t matter. These are all great experiences that I would gladly repeat again.

Apr19

New This Week

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New This Week

I joined the Wenatchee Valley Senior Activity Center. Now that I’m living in East Wenatchee, the Leavenworth Senior Center is just a little too far away. WVSAC is a much larger center with many more activities to choose from. Today I’m going to a writing group, staying for lunch and then will decide if I want to play cribbage in the afternoon. I’m also planning to going to Tai Chi and a book club.

I start teaching fitness classes again this week. I will be teaching mainly in East Wenatchee, although I will still be subbing in Leavenworth. Right now it looks like it will be three classes a week plus the subbing.

Back in Canada WestJet pilots have voted to strike as have the federal public servants. It figures. This is the year I need to get my passport renewed. And I watch from a distance as Trudope continues to dig himself in deeper and deeper.

I just started a course from Wesleyan University entitled Suicide Risk and Prevention. It’s interesting how the terminology has changed over the years. The rates are soaring, much of it being attributed to Covid. The ratio from a couple of decades ago was 4.5 men to 1.5 women. It’s now 4.5 men to 3.5 women. Very significant and very scary.

I had a video call with my granddaughter yesterday. Madeline told me she went camping on the weekend and slept in a tent. They cooked hot dogs and s’mores over a campfire. She also showed me her chocolate Easter bunnies that she hadn’t eaten yet. Madeline also insisted on showing me the medals her mom won in competitions. And of course she wanted me to see Tigger, one of the cats.

It’s warming up and 60s are in the forecast for the weekend. The snow has cooperated and stayed far away atop the mountains. No blizzards or tornados in Washington.

Have A Wonderful Wednesday!

Mar1

Mi Tienda……My Corner Store

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Mi Tienda……My Corner Store

When I was a child growing up in River Heights, there were no large grocery stores in our neighborhood. The big chain stores were all located a car ride away and didn’t arrive in our area until the 60s. Until then there was a small grocery store a couple of blocks away on Grant that my mom went to occasionally. I don’t recall the name of the store but I remember going in there often just to buy popsicles or dixie cups. The owner knew just about everyone in the neighborhood.

Up in Washington, I frequent Costco, Safeway, Winnco and Walmart. I’ve been back in Mexico for almost six months and haven’t been to Walmart yet and only went to Costco once to renew my membership and buy cheddar cheese. There’s this tiny store on the corner of my street where I can buy everything from nail polish remover to onions to beer and everything in between.

And I don’t have to buy in quantity either. If I crave a bigger breakfast, I can buy one egg, two strips of bacon and a bolillo. I don’t have to buy a dozen eggs, a package of bacon and a loaf of bread. I’ve seen people go in there and buy one Tylenol or one tea bag. Even that River Heights grocery store wasn’t this convenient back in the 60s.

The interesting thing is that there are at least a half dozen more tiendas within a three block radius of where I live. They all carry an incredible amount of inventory. None of them had toilet paper shortages during Covid. My neighbors tell me they’ve all been around for years.

Later this month I’m going back to Washington and I won’t have the luxury of a corner grocery store. Instead it will be a full shopping cart. Reverse culture shock means I’ll also actually have to plan menus. No more satisfying my cravings on a whim by a few short steps to the corner.

On that note, I think I’ll head out and pick up an apple and a couple of slices of cheese for a snack.

Happy Humpday!

Feb22

Looking Back

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Looking Back

I was looking over some older blog posts. I used to share tons of photos which I don’t do anymore. That’s because I used to take tons of photos which I also don’t do anymore. Photos require time, time that I’d rather spend with people or writing. And writing has been my focus this winter. I don’t have the patience to sort through photos, edit them and store them in files. I really admire my friend Ann who has literally gone through thousands of photos and is organizing them all in files. They’re family photos that span a period of decades. My family photos are haphazardly stored in cyberspace as they haven’t really made it out of the ancient photo albums in any type of order at all. But the albums are safely stored in waterproof bins in my son’s basement. I wonder if he even looks at them or if they just come out of hiding when I’m in Winnipeg which has only been a handful of times over the last almost thirteen years.

Yes. This fall it will be thirteen years since I first arrived in Culiacan. I know. The news reports tend to focus on all the violence in that city, but Culiacan will always have a special place in my heart. I have wonderful memories of the year I lived there and I always look forward to going back to visit my family there. When I arrive at the bus station I still have a feeling of coming home although I moved away from there twelve years ago.

Coming home. When I visit Winnipeg it no longer feels like home. I’ve been away too long and the city has changed. Of course I’ve changed too. I feel like I have two homes. One is where I am right now in Aguascalientes. I’ve lived in the same neighborhood now for four years. Not much has changed despite Covid. I no longer do a marathon of museums and art galleries as I did the first couple of years. My Spanish has improved and I now am more comfortable talking with neighbors or people who work in the tiendas and restaurants here. I don’t feel like a tourist anymore.

My second home is Washington state. I lived predominantly in Leavenworth the first few years. But last spring I moved to my forever home in East Wenatchee with Christina, Danny and seven chihuahuas. I was talking to Christina last night and she’s excited that I’m coming back in a month. I think she missed me. Okay, I missed her too. It’s been a great winter but it’s time to return to family.

Of course it would be nice if the snow would be gone. But that’s out of my hands. On Monday it even snowed in Tucson. It’s been a crazy winter for weather everywhere except here. I found it quite warm in Mexico this year. Last winter I needed an extra blanket and was glad I’d brought my lined quilted vest with me. But this year I haven’t even needed a light jacket. It did snow up in Durango about a month ago, but that’s miles away from where I am.

Time for my writer’s workshop on Zoom. Fingers crossed that the Internet cooperates today.

Happy Humpday!

Jan4

Bienvenido 2023

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Bienvenido 2023

Happy New Year! I hope you had an enjoyable holiday and are now embracing the new year with open arms. I know I am and can’t wait to see what’s in store for me in 2023.

Have you thought about new year’s resolutions? I have and am sure not going to make any. I’ve talked to friends who are eagerly writing some down. The way I see it, no matter how realistic they look on paper, they never seem to pan out the way they were planned.

The only resolution that makes any sense to me is to be a better person than I was last year. And that is something I need to keep in my heart rather than write down on a piece of paper.

I keep seeing on Facebook pics of all the snow in Washington state. The mountain passes seem to be closed more often than they’re open. Keep safe up there people!

I’m headed for the bus station later today to buy tickets. I’m planning on going to Culiacan to visit my family later this month. I can’t wait to hug my grandkids! I saw them last February before I headed back to the USA. I’m sure that two of my four grandsons are now taller than me.

Friday is King’s Day. My Mexican friend Angie told me the story behind it. There’s a lot more to this day than looking for the baby Jesus hidden in the bread. Catholics believe that the Three Wise Men were looking for the baby Jesus to protect him. Pilate was afraid that Jesus would take over his kingdom so he ordered that all children under the age of two were to be killed.

That’s it for week one in January.

Have a great Wednesday!

Nov9

Miercoles

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Miercoles

The movies have now gone from murdering cheerleaders to selling babies. Tell me again why I watch them late at night and then sleep fitfully. But my goal is to watch five movies in Spanish a week in order to hopefully improve my comprehension of the language.

Thank you to my computer guru Laura for once again coming to the rescue. Like I’m not having problems enough adjusting to Windows 11, my taskbar disappeared last night. Of course she instantly found a link and solved my problem. While I love technology it also scares me. But my WIP is safely backed up every night onto not one but two external hard drives.

The weather here is still hot. Many of my friends back in the USA and in Canada are now dealing with that fluffy white stuff and plummeting temperatures. So I won’t complain too loudly that I’m not walking as much as I’d like to right now.

Apparently I can no longer call myself a nomad. I was talking to a friend and he remarked that I’ve gotten into a familiar pattern of dividing my time between Aguascalientes and the upper valley in Washington. And as Christina and Danny often remind me, I now have my forever home in East Wenatchee.

Two events are coming up in Mexico this month. Revolution Day is an official government holiday on November 20th. But the big one is Buen Fin, the Mexican equivalent of Black Friday in the USA. It goes from November 18th-21st.

My Uber awaits and I’m off to Ags Ladies to meet up with my friends. Today is lunch rather than breakfast.

Happy Humpday!

Oct22

Sunday Sunday

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Sunday Sunday

Now that I’m back in Mexico, every day feels like a Sunday. There are no scheduled classes to teach and no regular activities to attend. The only routine in my life is how I start my day. With Christian Gospel music in the background, I check emails and texts and play Candy Crush. Yes, I’m still hooked on that game after ten plus years. And of course I’m sipping coffee throughout all this.

Sundays in Washington. Church and brunch with friends and hanging out together in the afternoon. Yard sales, frozen yogurt, shopping, perogies……………….I’ve left that all behind until next spring. I haven’t found a Christian church that I like near where I live. So I do two things. The first is that I tune in to Sage Hills Church in Wenatchee online on Sunday mornings. The second thing I do is go to a Catholic church close by for mass. No, I’m not Catholic. But I figure God hears me no matter where I am. Of course I get rather strange looks from other attendees because I don’t kneel or go up for communion.

Now for the other six Sundays of the week. Routine is totally out the window other than the morning one mentioned above. I didn’t have my first cup of coffee until 12:30 pm on Friday. That’s what happens when you stay up all night writing. One minute it’s 11 pm at night and then suddenly it’s 4:45 am the next day. Yesterday was a little better. I actually was on my second cup of coffee by 12:30.

I’m trying to get back in the groove of immersing myself completely in Spanish again. This results in some interesting conversations with some of the locals. Next door to me, this elderly couple are always sitting outside with all kinds of clothes hanging from their front fence. The other day the lady was trying to convince me that I needed to add to my wardrobe with some of the stuff they sell. She opened the door to their home and I saw a front room that rivals the stock at Macy’s……packed with clothes. Of course, everything is very used and polyester and definitely not what I’d ever even consider wearing. So far no one has successfully talked me into buying a dress and my neighbor sure isn’t going to either.

My neighbor on the other side makes potato chips, the really greasy ones that taste so amazing. I first discovered those when I was up in the Copper Canyon on El Chepe. The guy himself is really nice and great to talk to, but I’m really going to have to watch myself with those chips. I’ve decided one bag a month is probably more than enough. Of course one a month is only the goal.

I was looking for a bottle of antibacterial gel to keep in my room. I have the small purse ones I buy at Bath and Body works in the USA. And I’m not interested in the industrial size that can be found everywhere here. That was one entertaining conversation with the lady in the farmicia. She was super impressed with my Warm Vanilla Sugar small ones. It took three visits, but she finally came up with just the size I wanted for my room. She has connections with other vendors.

There’s a new chicken place nearby. Chicken is a huge of my diet as I seldom eat red meat. Rotisserie chicken is one of my favorites so I was delighted to discover that I now have one close to where I live. I struck up a conversation with the owners. One of them gave me a card and explained to me that they will sign the card after every purchase. When the card is full, (I think it’s four), the next one is free. That will definitely be an easy one for me.

I also checked out a breakfast place this week as I was craving a bolillo. So many fillings to choose from! I told the guy that I’m not into spicy anymore and he let me try samples to make sure the heat wasn’t too high. Naturally he asked me where I was from. And naturally I answered Washington State. Canada wasn’t even close to being on the radar.

That’s my Sunday. Hope yours is a good one.

Oct16

Three

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Three

It’s been an interesting week. It’s nice to be back in Las Flores. It hasn’t changed much since I left in the spring. Most of the tiendas and restaurants are as I remember them. And on my walks I’ve discovered new ones as well.

On Wednesday I went to breakfast with the Ags Ladies group. It was great to see my friends again and I also met new people. And yes, we all talk in English. A rare time when I do talk English. In my neighborhood everyone speaks Spanish. Some are eager to learn English but haven’t quite grasped the fact that when I tell them I’m retired, I really mean that I am retired.

I was wandering through the tienguis the other day when an adorable little boy asked me if I’d teach him English. I guess I’ll always sound like a gringa speaking Spanish. He overheard me talking with a woman selling fruit. In my opinion my grammar leaves a lot to be desired, and I don’t roll those Rs well, but I am pretty fluent.

The weather here is similar to when I left East Wenatchee. Temperatures are in the 80s but it’s sunny here instead of smoky. And I really should switch back over to Celsius from Fahrenheit. And I should also trade out my American chip for my Mexican chip in my phone.

I’m excited. My characters are still talking to me. I’d been writing up a storm back in the USA and I was concerned that they might be affected by the move to Mexico. But they seem to be quite content here. And of course I’m enjoying my new laptop. Much better for writing than on a tablet.

Final thoughts for today. There are three big differences between Aguascalientes and Washington state. In Mexico masks are still very visible and are required in some tiendas. People smoke cigarettes in Mexico. No vaping. And there are no pot shops in Mexico where I live.

Happy Sunday!