Washougal Writers

The Rain by Vern Schanilec In a 50's movie Gene Kelly danced and sang "I'm Singin' In The Rain". Apparently he didn't live the Pacific Northwest in the winter. I wonder who said "Into each life a little rain must fall". I'd settle for "a little" but a parking lot full of puddles or an overflowing eave filled with needles is not a little. Complain, complain, complain. Guilty. All right then, how about the other end of the spectrum. 31 years ago my wife and I looked at each other and said no more Minnesota winters. Thereafter we left MN behind the day after Christmas, headed west during which we appropriately encountered a blizzard in Bismarck ND as if an ominous sign saying "You'll pay for even  thinking of leaving MN". The blizzard ended through the night after which we encountered Montana followed by the Rockies and the Cascades. Upon descending into Seattle on New Year's Day we saw green grass...

Play on Words by Vern Schanilec My friend the Sikh was not meek as he, me and our friend Zeke decided to sneak a peek at Pike's Peak.  We climbed for a week upon which we were weak. While there we saw the tree Teak, a geek and a mouse that caused Zeke to say "Eek!". On the way back we boarded a runnell as we funneled down a tunnel. The crew decided to break and eat, but for us by the shake of the dice the price was thrice our means. Though we had the time we had only a dime which was a crime for which we did not shine. Later, in our effort to strive to feel alive we went for a drive. Since we were forcibly fasting, and resting in our nesting, we found it not to our besting. We came upon friends who through interrogation expressed fascination with our story of exasperation and gesticulation while sipping sarsaparilla under an umbrellah while watching a confused caterpillah become a millah (instead of a butterfly) to which I said "He didn...