2022 Life Logs, Day 358: The Gift of Snow for Christmas Eve

2022 Life Logs, Day 358: The Gift of Snow for Christmas Eve
Date: Saturday, December 24, 2022
Weather: Cold and Snowy: High 30, Low 20 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:08 am & 4:18 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Merry Christmas to all on this Christmas Eve of 2022. This morning Shadow and I awoke to a world covered in a blanket of white snow, albeit a very thin blanket. But as the day progressed, we got more snow–just enough to have a White Christmas, but not enough to cause trouble with driving on the roads. It was just perfect. Tonight, Heather and family came here for a Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes. We cheated and had sushi take-out with the addition of Duxbury and Barnstable oysters and calamari. Sam shucked the oysters with an oyster knife I was given as a gift. The Duxbury oysters were by far the best and enjoyed by all. After dinner, we exchanged ornaments. Heather got gold camels for all of us while in Egypt for COP 27 and I gave glass candy canes to the boys. They looked so real they wanted to lick them! Then we opened a game I bought for us to play. It was Poetry for Neanderthals, a game I played with Justin and family when I visited for Thanksgiving. The Goldstones had played it before at a friend’s house, and we all had a great time playing tonight.

Since both families now play this game, we will have a great time playing against each other when we gather in Vermont in February.

Justin and family in Puerto Rico had high tea for Christmas Eve and lighted the twenty-four candles that they light each year on this day. Ziggy and Coco each got a stuffed animal. They looked like they were having a merry Christmas Eve and we surely had one here. Here’s hoping each of you had the same. Now on to Santa and Christmas Day.

2022 Life Logs, Day 345: Christmas Shopping with Ollie, Dinner and a Movie

2022 Life Logs, Day 345: Christmas Shopping with Ollie, Dinner and a Movie
Date: Sunday, December 11, 2022
Weather: Overcast with Light Drizzle, A Few Snowflakes: High 37, Low 33 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:01 am & 4:13 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

We lost 2 more minutes of daylight today. Surely glad winter solstice is next Wednesday.

I picked Jonah up from Joey Keefe’s where he spent the night and delivered him home late morning. Sam’s friend Robert had spent the night with him, and he was still there when I arrived. Both Jonah and Sam were supposed to go camping last night, but it was cold and raining and they opted out. Ollie and Jed did go, and they came home this morning. Shortly after getting Jonaah home, Heather and Jonah took off for an afternoon of Futsol games west of Boston. Jed had to go to work for an hour or so, and Sam was working on waxing his snowboard. Ollie had not slept well and was a bit grumpy, but he went to Highfield Hall with me to tour the mansion in holiday ‘dress’. He wasn’t enthusiastic at first, but then got all excited by the craft ideas on display. He even chose to go to the craft room and start making a Christmas present for ‘a family member’. We then headed downtown and made a stop at the French bakery which livened him up even more. Then we went to Ben and Bill’s Candy Shop for candy decorations for the gingerbread houses, to Michael’s and Walmart to get more craft items, and finally back home. I had planned to do a laundry but forgot to bring it, so I headed home and returned with my bag of dirty clothes. By this time everyone was home, and I ended up staying for pizza for dinner while we watched White Christmas. Sam was so shocked that I would eat pizza that he fell off the sofa. So “unOma” he said. My only defense was that I wanted to watch the movie and not have to go home late and fix dinner. I will survive having pizza once! And it was delicious. Heather and Jed make the best pizza ever. I don’t object to homemade pizza, it is just that I avoid eating anything gluten.

Now I need to go pack and get to bed. I leave here late morning to take Shadow to Heather and Jed’s for the week and then catch the bus to Boston. My flight to Charlotte is not until 3:50, but when you have to coordinate bus times, it takes all day for a two-and-a-half-hour flight. I talked to my sister tonight and am excited to go see her for a few days. Growing up, I always thought of my sister Patsy as Rosemary Clooney in Bing Crosby’s White Christmas movie. In my mind, my sister Margie was the dancer, Vera-Ellen, in that movie. My sister Margie loved nothing more than tap dancing on table tops. I have a Christmas photo of the three of us sisters, circa 1960, when I was thirteen. My sister Patsy was pregnant, but she still wore that Rosemary Clooney page boy hair style. And in the photo, my sister Margie looks like she is ready to hop up and dance. Wonderful memories.

2022 Life Logs, Day 313: Feeling Proud

2022 Life Logs, Day 313: Feeling Proud
Date: Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Weather: Sunny and Cool; High 51, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

My day started on a high note. I watched a live stream of Heather moderating a panel at the climate conference in Egypt. I am always in awe of her abilities, but it was a very proud moment for this mom. I watched and kept taking photos of my computer screen to preserve the moment. Tonight, I told the Goldpebbles about their mom leading the panel discussion, explaining that it was just one of probably hundreds of side panel presentations at COP27, but still quite an accomplishment. Jed mentioned that his mom had watched as well and said she had noted that you could always see Heather, no matter how far back the camera zoomed, as she had on her power red jacket. Sam got a laugh out of that as he pointed out it is the same jacket Jonah wore on Halloween as The Joker. I love teenagers!

I also felt so relieved over the election results and felt so proud to be an American. For the most part, so far it seems that most candidates are giving acceptance or concession speeches as in a normal US election prior to 2016. That feeling of normalcy feels so good. We don’t know the final outcome, and some of my favorite candidates from around the country did not win, but it felt to me that democracy won the day. This afternoon I watched Biden’s press conference and felt proud again. I thought he set just the right tone for moving forward.

Monday night of this week I drove Jonah to soccer practice, last night I went on a full moon walk to a beach, and tonight I again drove Jonah to soccer practice. I think I get to stay home tomorrow night. Then on Friday morning, I will head downtown for the Veteran’s Day parade and program as the Goldpebbles will be in the parade. Then I am going to focus on getting ready for my visit to Puerto Rico. I will arrive there next Wednesday, and spend eight days with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco, before returning home in the wee hours of day after Thanksgiving. I am really looking forward to spending time with Ziggy and Coco, and of course, Justin and Jo.

2022 Life Logs, Day 162: Reunion with My Shadow

2022 Life Logs, Day 162: Reunion with My Shadow
Date: Saturday, June 11, 2022
Weather: Sunny; High 76, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Shadow might possibly be ill-behaved, but I sure was so happy to be reunited with him today. I really missed him, and I think he missed me. As soon as I arrived to pick him up, after jumping all over me, he got in the back seat of the car and somehow managed to shut the door behind him. It was obvious he was ready to head home.

I picked up Jonah on the way home so he could cut Shirley’s grass, and while he was doing that, I gathered sailing charts for the northeast. Next weekend Heather and Jed go to Maine for the the survey and sea trials for the sailboat they hope to own soon. If all goes well, the following weekend they will return for the closing and begin sail home. That will happen in stages over a couple of weekends. But sometime in July, there should be a new ‘Goldstone’ sailboat on a mooring in Marion.

2022 Life Logs, Day 161: Roberts Mountain to Richmond to Boston

2022 Life Logs, Day 161: Roberts Mountain to Richmond to Boston
Date: Friday, June 10, 2022
Weather: Another Sunny, Beautiful Day, Cooler; High 74, Low 55 degrees F
Location: Back Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

This morning I drove Jo, Ziggy, and Coco to the airport in Richmond where they got on their Spirit flight to Fort Lauderdale and then on the San Juan. My flight to Boston was supposed to be at 2:30 pm, but there was yet another issue and I ended up on a 7:30 pm flight back to Boston. I dropped Jo, Z, and C off at the airport and drove back to downtown Richmond to check out the city. I drove by the capitol, designed by Thomas Jefferson, then down to the James River to see a section of the canal system that George Washington had hoped would become a continuous transportation system from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. That never materialized as rail transportation took the lead. I walked along the river and came to the Tredegar Iron Works, the biggest ironworks in the Confederacy during the Civil War and one of the main reasons Richmond became the capitol city. It is now the Civil War Museum. Then I headed back to the airport to take an afternoon nap in the rental van before returning it and heading home. I knew I would be driving home from Boston late at night and thought a nap was the best way to spend my afternoon.

The flight home was without drama with a fiery red sky as we landed in Boston at 9 pm. Nighttime road construction caused the drive to the Cape to take longer than usual, so I didn’t get home until midnight. But I was bright eyed and busy tailed after that two-hour afternoon nap. After a wonderful week in Virginia, it felt good to be home . . . but lonely. I look forward to picking up my Shadow tomorrow morning.

2022 Life Logs, Day 107: We Made It!

2022 Life Logs, Day 107: We Made It!
Date: Sunday, April 17, 2022
Weather: Sunny & Windy in Boston, Hot in PR; Cold in Boston, Warm in Puerto Rico
Location: At Home in an Airbnb in Rincon, Puerto Rico

Despite Heather’s bout with Covid and a delayed flight, we made it to Puerto Rico on this Easter Sunday. The timing of Heather’s Covid made the lead up to the trip a little nerve wracking, but miraculously she tested negative yesterday. We flew on Frontier Airlines which was also a little nerve wracking this morning. Just as we got on the road, Heather got an email saying the flight was delayed by two hours. We decided to keep going as the Frontier website continued to say the flight was on time. Then she got another email saying the flight was delayed by only an hour and twenty minutes. When we reached the airport, we parked the van in front of the terminal, left the kids in the van, and Heather, Jed, and I went in to check the luggage and check on the actual flight time. When we told the attendant we planned to leave the airport and come back later for the flight, she warned us that the time might change again. It could be earlier. It seemed no one really knew what time we would depart. We left anyway and took a walk on the East Boston side of the Harborwalk along the water. We parked on the street by a park with soccer fields and a playground and an on ramp to the Harborwalk. The boys wished they had brought a soccer ball but had to be content watching others play. We were literally blown away in East Boston as the wind was so strong and cold. So we quickly returned to the airport to park in the long term parking garage and take the shuttle bus to Terminal E. There was only one restaurant open, so we ate an early lunch and then boarded the flight that was delayed a little more than two hours. Watching the Goldpebbles listening to music with their variety of ear buds and headphones while waiting was quite the picture.

The weather in Puerto Rico was a bit different from the sunny, but chilly Easter morning in Boston. It was hot and sultry, the kind of weather I love. We picked up our bags and our rental van and headed to Rincon. It is a two-and-a-half-hour drive from San Juan to Rincon which seemed like forever after a four-and-a-half-hour plane ride. But it was all worth it when we got to Finca Maravilla and were greeted by Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. There is nothing so wonderful than having the whole family together. The Easter bunny had left goodies for us and Justin brought the bunnies inside to give us a big Easter welcome. Then it was on to the Airbnb for a midnight swim in the pool. Wonderful beginning to our PR vacation.