2020 Life Logs, Day 251: Book Club and Fun with the Goldpebbles
Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Weather: Sunny; High 77, Low 62 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

My Newcomers Book Club has been meeting monthly on Zoom, but today four of us gathered in person in one member’s backyard with two joining us on Zoom. These days we spend more than half of our meeting time just catching up on how each of us is faring during these coronavirus days. For years I have said that I didn’t want to join a book club because I didn’t want to have to read something chosen by someone else. But now that I am doing it, I like being stretched to read things that I would never choose on my own. This last month’s book was a true story of the most successful bootlegger in American History plus a murder, an introduction to the Assistant Attorney General at the time who happened to be a woman, and an eye-opening account of how the Justice Department helped cover up things that would make them look bad. Great material, but I found the book to be laborious—yet still interesting enough to finish. I’ve already started next month’s book and am finding it to be one of those books that you just don’t want to put down. It is not a book that I would have chosen, but I’m loving it.

So, it was up this morning to walk the dog, go to the Book Club meeting, and then to the Goldstones to spend the afternoon and early evening with the Goldpebbles. The boys were having so much fun playing in the water on the Rubber Dockie, that I didn’t get them home until 7 pm. When I first went to pick them up, we ate lunch and Ollie, Jonah, and I went to the skatepark. The shoes Sam likes to wear when using his skateboard were still wet from a trip into the water in Maine, so he stayed home and read. Jonah and Ollie loved getting back to using their trick scooters, but both said they felt ‘rusty’ in the skill area. It was sunny and hot, but as they persisted, they skills learned over the summer returned. Our time was cut short because one of the wheels on Ollie’s scooter was wobbly and needed tightened, but we didn’t have the right tool with us. So, we went home to pick up Sam and go to my house for kayak and Rubber Dockie fun in the water. I bought the Rubber Dockie for the boys just in time to have it sent to Maine for their use there. I heard all about the fun they had with it last night, so today I wanted a demonstration. The Rubber Dockie is a 6-foot by 12-foot closed-cell foam float that is rigid enough to allow the boys to sit, stand, and run on it to then jump into the water. Today Sam stayed in the dinghy and pulled Ollie and Jonah out on the float. They had a great time running and diving into the water. It was still a bit curled from being tightly rolled up for the trip from Maine to here, but tonight it is lying flat with the help of a little weight in the hopes that the curl will go away before our next foray out into the Eel River.

I was on the dock taking photos of the boys when all of a sudden the screen on my phone went black. I thought maybe it was low battery power, but that was not it. Unfortunately, I can’t share my photos from this afternoon as I can’t get them off my phone. My tomorrow morning will be spent having the phone checked out. I just spent a small fortune getting a new screen for the phone, so I’m hoping I don’t need a new phone. In the meantime, I have no way to make phone calls or read text messages. I feel totally isolated. I can receive email on my computer, so if you want to contact me, send an email for now. Hopefully, I’ll get this sorted out by tomorrow noon when I pick up the boys for another afternoon of fun.