2017 Life Logs, Day 19: Catching Up
Date: Thursday, January 19, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 47, Low 29 degrees
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH
I spent today catching up with myself. I spent much of last week preparing for the Thursday presentation to the Falmouth Newcomers Club, and then I went through a flurry of busy days. I headed to the gym first thing this morning and then spent a few hours trying to figure out a game plan for the next three months. I want to spend time in Puerto Rico with Justin and family in their new home. I want to return to Nashville to spend more time with my sister and brother-in-law. And Mark’s family in Florida would like us (me, Heather and family, and Justin and family) to come to Florida for a family get together. So, I spent most of my day checking flight possibilities and costs. I’m not sure I made much progress, but I do have a better idea of what all of these travel excursions might cost. Now I just need to figure out who can do what and when. That’s the real challenge. Tomorrow I have another day with minimal obligations, so hopefully I will make more progress in figuring out my schedule for the next three months.
Jed was in Boston all day for a conference, so I offered to pick Ollie up from school this afternoon. That allowed Heather to pick Sam and Jonah up after school and take them home to paint their pinewood derby cars for Saturday’s Scout derby race. It is a logistical nightmare for one parent to pick Sam and Jonah up at 3:30 in East Falmouth and then drive all the way back to Woods Hole to get Ollie sometime between 4:30 and 5:00. So, when either Heather or Jed are out of town, I offer to help out. Last week Ollie asked that the next time I picked him up from school that we make a stop at Peterson Farm, an 88-acre land trust held by the city of Falmouth. So we did this on our way home this evening. For years, the sheep and llama owned by a local veterinarian called Peterson Farm their home. But recently, the vet moved to western Massachusetts and took all of her animals with her. We won’t get to see the baby lambs this spring, and that made Ollie very sad. His way of dealing with that was to go to the farm to see if we could find some wool that might have been left behind to remember them by. The sun had gone down by the time we got there, but we walked through the barns using a flashlight and walked along the fencing looking for just a little wool that might have been caught in the fence. We found not one little bit of wool, so I’m going to make a collage of photos we have taken of the baby lambs over the past few years and share that with the boys.
The plumber didn’t show up today, so I still have only one working bathroom—better than none! Maybe he’ll come tomorrow. I have a bit of shopping to do tomorrow to get ready for Sam’s tenth birthday on Saturday. Where have those years gone? Hopefully the shopping won’t take all day and I can spend a little more time catching up before the busy weekend–Sam’s birthday dinner, Jonah and Ollie overnight at Oma’s, Women’s March on Washington “sister rally” on the Village Green in downtown Falmouth, and the Patriots versus Pittsburgh Steeler’s game on Sunday night. Busy weekend coming up.
