2021 Life Logs, Day 31: Sam’s Birthday Party
Date: Sunday, January 31, 2021
Weather: Sunny, Warming Up a Bit; High 27, Low 23 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
One of the positive things that has come out of the coronavirus pandemic is that we have all gotten more creative about how to get together with friends outside . . . even in frigid weather. Sam’s birthday was on the 21st and we had a family gathering, but the party with friends was today. Jed got permission to use the Trotting Park soccer field as the location for a rocket shoot. Sam loves shooting off model rockets and three of his best friends joined him today. We were all dressed for the weather and all masked. Because of the danger, Jed has to be the one setting the rockets on the launch pads, but the boys got to push the launch button. The first rocket was launched and retrieved and then the second rocket that was rated to go much higher was launched. We heard it blast off but almost immediately all of us lost sight of it. We searched the sky and searched the ground, but it was just GONE. Jed had planned on using that rocket for multiple launches, so a third rocket had to be built on the spot. Eventually we lost that rocket as well and everyone was getting cold, so the boys headed off to walk home along the powerline trail. Heather and Jed drove home to start a fire in the fire pit in the back yard and I headed off to check on Shadow and then pick up pizzas for the boys. I dropped the pizzas off at 5 pm and they had been outside since 2:00. Even with the fire, they were getting cold, but the plan was for parents to pick them up at 6 pm. I headed home with a smile on my face. If you had told me a year ago we would be having a four hour long birthday party outside with temps in the 20’s, I would have thought you were crazy. It is amazing what we can do when we imagine differently.
I hear there is snow storm barreling up the Eastern Seaboard but we are mostly going to have rain. The deep freeze we have been in for the past few days is thawing and we are going to get rain for the next two days. There might be some snow flurries overnight tonight, but by noon tomorrow it looks like it is just going to be wet. Sounds like perfect weather to stay inside and write. At least that’s my plan.
