2020 Life Logs, Day 211: Happy Birthday to Coco
Date: Thursday, July 30, 2020
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Hot and Humid; High 84, Low 71 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Happy Birthday to my youngest grandchild and my only granddaughter. Coco turned 8 today as Tropical Storm Isaias barreled across Puerto Rico. It knocked out electricity at Finca Maravilla, but they switched on the solar and moved forward with the celebration. Justin said it rained so much in a short period of time that it looked like a river was running through their property, but they were fine, the animals were fine, and the only loss was a couple of banana trees. They literally have more than a hundred, so the loss of two will hardly be noticed. We had hoped to have a Skype call, but with no electricity, there was no internet, so we just had a short telephone conversation where the Goldpebbles got to sing happy birthday to their cousin.

We were at the skatepark when Justin called and we sang Happy Birthday to Coco. All three boys had been enjoying their time practicing their skills and Jonah was so excited that he had perfected a new jump. He had me video his jump in action and send it to Heather and Jed. Then, shortly after the call and the video, Jonah came walking toward me with his right hand outstretched. There was a pool of blood in his hand. He had fallen on a small piece of glass that sliced vertically from the palm of his hand upwards. He had already told Sam and Sam was on his phone calling Heather and Jed. I took Jonah to the car and grabbed a handful of tissues and told him to hold them tight over the cut. Jonah was pretty shook up and just wanted to see his mama. I promised him we would see mama very soon and then Sam then took over with Jonah while I gathered Ollie, who didn’t know anything had happened. While Sam practiced his Boy Scout medical emergency skills, Ollie and I got the skateboard and scooters in the car and then we headed home. It is only 5 minutes from the skatepark to Heather and Jed’s and they were waiting in the driveway. Sam had been successful in getting the bleeding to stop and Heather cleaned the wound. It looked like he might need stitches, so Heather quickly found the Urgent Care in town where Covid testing is not done and headed there with Jonah. I took Ollie and Sam to my house for lunch and shortly we heard from Heather that maybe we had over-reacted as the cut on Jonah’s hand was already closing up. When he did see the doctor, the decision was made to not put in stitches or even glue the cut shut. Evidently the threat of infection is greater if you do that, so the doctor wanted to leave it open to heal. Heather then delivered Jonah to my house so he could finally have lunch and we all spent a quiet afternoon searching for knee pads for all three boys and ordering some Lego sets to busy ourselves with next week while we try to avoid the skatepark for a few days to let Jonah heal.

The temperature today was not as high as the past few days. There was some sunshine in the morning, but by noon it was overcast. And there was a breeze. But for whatever reason, it was much hotter in the cottage than on previous days. That, and the fact that one of my fans bit the dust overnight, made the heat inside oppressive for the first time this summer. Sam tried to fix my fan, but he had no luck. So I borrowed one from Heather and Jed and things are a bit better tonight. As I have stated in the past few days, I love it hot. But even I thought today was a bit over the top.

As I sit here writing this log, I am listening to Morgan Freeman read the words of John Lewis’ NYT op ed, written by him before his death, with the request that it be published on the day of his funeral. He named the op ed–Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation. “Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.” He ended with these words, “So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.” Now it is up to us to figure out how to turn these words into action.