2020 Life Logs, Day 163: Stoney Beach and Goldpebbles Rock
Date: Friday, June 12, 2020
Weather: Rainy, Foggy Morning, Beautiful Afternoon, High 72, Low 57 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This morning was a little rainy and totally overcast and foggy. But the weather forecast for the afternoon was for sunshine. At exactly 1 pm, the transformation happened. So, I got ready to head to the Goldstones to see if I could convince the boys to go to the beach with me this afternoon. At first there was not a lot of excitement, but eventually all three boys decided that if we could go to Stoney Beach in Woods Hole, they were in. So off we went. We had a back up plan as Stoney is a small beach with a small parking lot. But it was not full and we were able to find a space well away from others. Longtime friends from one family from the Goldstones’ new neighborhood were there, but at first the Goldpebbles decided to stay away.
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As the afternoon wore on, however, the boys from the two families ended up playing together. And then another friend of Ollie’s arrived and Davey was added to the group. All of these families are good friends and are all taking super precautions in their lives to avoid the coronavirus, but somehow it just seemed okay to the let the boys play together at the beach. Then things got even more complicated as the boys met new friends out on the jetty as they were trying to catch crabs. There were two boys that live in one of the homes on the beach each summer. I watched as everyone tried very hard to keep a good six feet apart, but playing on the jetty made that a little difficult. So, they all headed out to play in the water. The boys love the little beach in Woods Hole, but as the summer progresses we might have to limit our visits there as more and more people head to the beach. For now, however, we will enjoy it. Today was the first beach day that Jonah has worn a full wet suit as it just arrived yesterday. The water really is still very chilly and the wet suit made all the difference in the world for Jonah. He is often freezing as there is not ounce of fat on his body and he is ready to leave the beach after a short time. But this afternoon, there were no complaints. He was warm the whole time. Ollie’s wet suit still hasn’t arrived, but he didn’t complain. At the end of the day, however, I could see he was really chilled. I sent him to the car to warm up while Sam and Jonah got all of the beach things together. Hopefully, Ollie’s wet suit will arrive early next week.
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All three boys really enjoyed their afternoon. At the end of the day, Jonah and Sam wanted me to get a photo of them in their wet suits and Jonah asked me to post it on Facebook with #surferdudes. They look so grown up.
Things went a little down hill from there. And it was all my fault. I stayed at the beach too long with the boys, so it time for dinner when got home. Heather and Jed had invited me over for artichokes for dinner, but I hated to leave Shadow alone for so many hours, so I dropped the boys off and headed home to get the puppy. By the time I got back, it was almost 7 pm and we were supposed to join my family on a Zoom call to discuss a possible family vacation trip to Great Britain next summer. I had already decided that I will probably not be joining this family vacation as I am just not sure the coronavirus will be under control by then. But I still wanted to join the call to see everyone. We set things up so we could eat and talk. That worked, but Shadow was just not cooperating. I suppose he just needed attention after being left alone all afternoon, but I could not stop him from jumping up on everyone. A jumping puppy, while trying get connected to family on a call with some technical issues, and eating dinner at the same time, got a little tense. If I had left the beach an hour earlier, much of this could have been avoided. Lesson learned, but because the Goldpebbles and I all love the beach so much, I know we will continue to have trouble tearing ourselves away. I just have to do a better job of planning.
After dinner, the boys headed down to the basement to practice for an open mike music event tomorrow. Evidently late morning they had done the same thing while Heather was upstairs on a Zoom staff meeting. She kept her mike muted except when she had to talk, but everyone on the call eventually heard the Goldpebbles playing Ironman. No one said anything, but staff members were texting her with messages about the awesome background music. Tonight, the Goldpebbles were practicing a different song in preparation for tomorrow’s open mike time and I was really amazed at how good they sounded.
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I have heard Sam playing drums and know that he is good, but I haven’t heard Jonah play the bass all that much. Tonight, the duo sounded fantastic and Ollie was serving as their manager and tech support. It was a delight to watch and to hear. The Goldpebbles rock.
