2020 Life Logs, Day 182: Record Breaking First Day of July
Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Weather: Overcast with Rain in the Afternoon; High 73, Low 63 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The US broke a new record on this first day of July, but it is not record-breaking event to be proud of. Today there were 50,000 new cases of coronavirus in our country. There are approximately 331 million people in the US. The European Union is larger, having 445 million people, and today they had only 3, 500+ new cases. They had only 28,000 new cases per day at the height of the coronavirus there in May. What is it that they are doing and we are not? I don’t think I need to answer that question. It is obvious. But despite our lack of national leadership, we have got to do more to turn this around. It is particularly hard with this holiday weekend ahead of us. The 4th of July is always a time of getting together to celebrate the independence of our nation. I hope each and everyone of us finds a way to celebrate without being together. It is so hard. Sam and Dawn Weigel, the young couple that are the now owners of Windbird, are going to be sailing Windbird into Falmouth in the next day or two. They have invited me and all of the Goldstones to go for a sail. There is nothing I would rather do, but there is no way that is the responsible thing to do. Hopefully we will be able to get together on land with appropriate physical distancing. But so sad that we can’t sail together.
This morning Ollie and Jed traveled to Hyannis where Ollie had a dentist appointment. He had to get a crown on one tooth and came home not feeling so great. So, Sam, Jonah, and I headed out, promising to return in an hour or so to see if Ollie would be ready to join us. We drove downtown to deliver our shellfish license applications to the drop box at City Hall. While downtown, I went into Blast from the Past to see if they had any rockets the boys might like to build for a 4th of July weekend celebration. They did not, but I did pick up a few balsa wood airplane kits as a possible afternoon activity. Then we went to the Skate Park. The weather was fickle—cloudy one minute, sunny the next—but good weather for skate boarding and scootering. It was iffy weather for the beach, but still we thought about going to the beach later in the afternoon. When we returned to pick up Ollie, we headed to my house for a mid-afternoon snack and lunch for Ollie. A decision was made to skip the beach today and spend the rest of the afternoon building and flying the planes. But first, we headed to Smitty’s for a mid-afternoon ice cream treat.
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When we got back to my house, Sam immediately flew his first plane up high and it landed on the roof. It is still there, but we have a plan for getting it down tomorrow. 
Then I gave all three boys identical kits that they immediately adapted to their own design and they did trial runs to see whose design was most successful. I loved it when Ollie said, “This is the most fun I have had for weeks.” I’m sure he has had much more fun in the past few weeks, but I was glad that he enjoyed the airplane activity. On the way home, we stopped once more at the Skate Park. Ollie and Jonah were on their scooter and Sam was on the skate board. He attempted a jump, had a tumble, and ended up with skinned up knee and what he said felt like a sprained wrist. I used, for the first time, the First Aid kit that I have had with me every summer day for the past three years. We patched up his knee and wrapped his wrist. By the time this was done, it was time to head home. I went to tell Jonah and Ollie it was time to go and got my chair and the skate board. I also had my keys and my phone in my hand and when I went to unlock the trunk of the car, I dropped my phone. It fell, facedown, and one little pebble shattered my screen. Ouch. That will be an expensive fix, but for now, the phone is still usable.
Tomorrow morning I take Shadow to the dog groomer. This is the long-awaited appointment I made in May. Then the plan for the afternoon is to go to beach with the Goldpebbles.
