Mukilteo Musings

Welcome to Mukilteo

My church is right on the border of Mukilteo and Edmonds. Lynnwood gets mixed in there as well but the point is we are the closest Episcopal church for citizens of Mukilteo even though the church address is Edmonds. Yesterday, a new adorable retired couple came for the first time. I noticed them right away and my first thought was they were tourists from California.

I can't really explain why they looked like they were from California. Perhaps it was the fact that their faces were bronzed--or maybe because they were extraordinarily well-dressed. The woman wore a lavender leather jacket with matching lavender pumps and black pants. The rest of the congregation was dressed in sweats or jeans and sweaters and some form of boot. Scarves and Gore-tex jackets were thrown all over the pews. Anyway, they introduced themselves as being from Sacramento but recently they had moved to Mukilteo. The woman in front of the whole church of strangers explained how it was really hard to live in Mukilteo without sun and friends and she has been freezing cold the whole time.

People who have lived in sunny California often have difficulty trading blue skies for gray dampness. We moved at the perfect time. Kansas City had had a miserable windy, snowy, icy winter and we relocated to Seattle in May into a little apartment that had a view of Mount Rainier. Fortunately, that particular spring and summer were like this year with plenty of gorgeous blue skies and a visible mountain. I wondered why everybody said it rained here all of the time; it was such a relief to feel comfortable in the summer instead of sweltering and sweaty in Kansas City. Our first impression of Seattle has stayed with us for 25 years.

After the service, I chatted with this lovely couple. The woman called me cute; I love it how people old enough to be my parents still think I'm cute. She explained to me where their new condo is located and unfortunately, the area is full of big trees which block sunlight. They have a view of the water which helps but her response was, "Yes, we see the water if it is not foggy but it seems like it is foggy all of the time." Other members of my church were giving the couple advice on how to deal with the chilly grayness but I could see on her face, she was feeling like they had made a terrible mistake. Oh dear, they were not having a good first impression.

This couple looked like they would be more at home on a golf course in Arizona or sipping cool drinks poolside somewhere in Florida. Frankly, I do not know why they came to Mukilteo of all places--I hope it wasn't because they had been reading my blog. The woman did say that our church was full of warm people. I sure hope our warmth keeps them from putting up a For Sale sign which the woman said at least for now she would put off.