Mary Koch is a veteran news reporter and editor, avoiding retirement as she explores the mysteries and occasional challenges of aging. She was an Associated Press editor before marrying John E. Andrist in 1979, when she joined him in editing and publishing the Omak (Washington) Chronicle, a rural weekly newspaper. They sold the paper in 1996, three years after John suffered a paralyzing stroke. Mary wrote about her life as John’s primary caregiver until he died in 2007. Since then she has devoted herself to “living for two.” She spent two-and-a-half years as communications coordinator for Holden Village, a retreat center in a remote valley of Washington’s North Cascade Mountains. Then she hit the road, traveling across the country with her two dogs, Daphne and Tawny, in a small camper van, blogging about her observations along the way.  Now she’s settled down at her home by the Okanogan River, where Every New Season offers a surprise or two.