2025 Life Logs, Day 310: More Meetings, Good News About My Sister
Date: Thursday, November 6, 2025
Weather: Sky Blue, Sunny Day; High Temp 59, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I attended the Newcomers Board Meeting all morning, met with the Assistant VP of Encore Programs in the middle of the day, and then got on Zoom to see What’s the Plan? This is Indivisible’s weekly hour-long Zoom meeting that helps to keep all of the 2,700 local Indivisible Groups around the country updated on what’s happening and what we are planning to do about it. I then got on the phone with my sister’s case manager at the hospital. She needed to check some details with me and told me they think they are planning to release her tomorrow if things stay stable. Woohoo! They discovered that she has a UTI and put her on an antibiotic for that. She is feeling good and ready to go home, so this was very good news.

2025 Life Logs, Day 309: Nonviolence in Action Film Series
Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Windy; High Temp 60, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I spent my day getting ready for meetings. Late this afternoon was the third film screening in the Nonviolence in Action series. The films was about Denmark when Nazi’s occupied the country during World War II and Poland when Lech Walesa led the Solidarity movement that transitioned the country from communism to democracy in the 1980’s. The films in the series have been very well received, and most people have been very engaged in the post- film discussions. We have one more film next week. It has been quite a learning experience for me as I knew nothing about organizing a film series and very little about nonviolent movements in the 20th century. I have really enjoyed organizing and roiling out the film series, but it has taken an enormous amount of time. After the screening next week, I should have a little more time in my life!

About 25 minutes before the start time for this afternoon’s film, a doctor from the hospital called to talk with me about my sister. He was very thorough and had question after question. I had to take the call as I had waited all day to talk to someone at the hospital, but I was off with just one minute to spare before introducing the film. Whew! The good news from the doctor is that he hopes he can release Patsy to go home by Friday afternoon.

I drove home to feed Shadow after the film screening and then drove right back to the library, this time wearing my library trustee ‘hat’, for a meeting about the plans for building a new library in East Falmouth.

2025 Life Logs, Day 308: A Hopeful Night for Democracy
Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Weather: W-i-n-d-y; High Temp 55, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Democrats won the big races on the East Coast tonight—Governor of Virginia, Governor of New Jersey, and Mayor of New York City. Two young women, the first ever female governors in their states, and a young man born in Uganda, with a father from Uganda, and a mother born in India. Spanberger, are the face of the America I know and love, and obviously a lot of other people love that same ‘face’. Abigail Spanberger, Mikie Sherrill, Zohran Mamdani are that face. They are all champions of the working American and are not afraid to stand strong against authoritarianism and fascism. They are all Democrats, but that is not what they are ‘for’. And I think that is the very important thing about them. They are for something and not against an opponent of the opposite party. They are all against No Kings! in America ever—regardless of who that person might be. New York City had a huge turnout of young voters. And on the West Coast, it appears the same day voter turnout is way bigger than expected and at this time, it looks like Prop 50 will pass. I’ll be in bed before that is decided. And it goes on. All of the down ballot races seem to be going to the Democrats as well. Of course there is fear of the backlash from the current administration, but people do not seem to be letting that fear scare them away. What the voters did tonight is a breath of fresh air. The voters today are showing that Americans know that democracy is not a spectator fight. Democracy demands our participation and today, Americans participated big time.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that I just got a call telling me my sister, who lives in an assisted living facility in North Carolina, is being taken to the hospital as I write this. When the aides came to get her ready for bed tonight, she could not stand up. Her blood sugar was sky high, as was her blood pressure. So, they had to send her to the emergency room. I called my nephew that lives near my sister, and luckily, he was home and another nephew from West Virginia is there visiting. So, the two of them are headed to the hospital to be there when she arrives.

The other news today is that Ardenna is still in the water. She was supposed to be taken out of the water this morning and hauled to her winter home here in Falmouth. But when Heather and Jed got to Mattapoisett this morning, there were white caps in the mooring field and water was spraying over the top of the boat. The hauling company wanted to go ahead, but Heather and Jed called it off. They might have been able to get the boat out of the water, but they were worried about lifting the mast in the wind. They were having gusts to 40. I think they made the right call. They will try again next Wednesday when it will not be quite so windy.

2025 Life Logs, Day 307: Soccer Sadness
Date: Monday, November 3, 2025
Weather: Overcast, Windy, and Rain; High Temp 54, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

After a Monday morning walk with Shadow, Archie, and Archie’s mother, my friend Joanie Thompson, I returned home and tuned in a little late for a Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition meeting on Zoom. Then I switched gears. I stepped away from work for a couple of hours to dig up plants outside to bring them inside for the winter. It had already started raining by the time I got outside, but it was a gentle rain, so I didn’t mind. I got the parsley, the sage, and the rosemary potted and brought inside, as well as a poinsettia plant. I also potted a Dumb cane (Dieffenbachia sequine) house plant and delivered it to a neighbor. This is a plant I have had since the early 1970’s. It just grows and grows, and I cut off pieces and root them and give them away. By the time I got that done, it was time to have a late lunch and go pick Ollie up after school to take him to his horseback riding lesson. Unfortunately, there was another mix up and the lesson didn’t happen. Due to the rain, I texted the instructor to make sure there was going to be a lesson. She got back to me apologizing that for the second week in a row, she was going to be a no-show due to a change in her work schedule. I can understand that, but it would have nice if she had let us know. So, I just took Ollie home after school and I went home to prep for a taco dinner with Ollie and Jonah after Jonah’s soccer game.

Tonight’s soccer game was a quarter finals game for the state championship and Falmouth lost 0-1. I rained off and on during the entire game. Falmouth played hard, did a great job on defense, but just couldn’t get the ball in the net. They were visibly shaken by the loss, but I know Jonah and his good friends Kaiden and Jean Luc will soon be looking forward to giving it another go next year.

2025 Life Logs, Day 306: Dark So Early
Date: Sunday, November 2, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 54, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today was ‘fall back’ day—back to Eastern Standard Time. Farewell to Daylight Savings Time. So, when I was outside working on potting some of my herbs to bring inside for the winter on this first day of EST, I was a bit surprised when the sun went down at 4:35 pm! I’ll adapt, but I really don’t like the afternoon sunsets of November, December, and into January. By mid-January sundown is back to around 5 pm, so from there forward I’m okay. I just have to make it for the next two and a half months. That’s a long time.

I spent my morning continuing my work on the film series. Then at 2 pm, I headed to Mattapoisett to pick up Heather and Jed. They motor sailed Ardenna from her summer home in Woods Hole to Mattapoisett where she will be taken out of the water on Tuesday morning. Once out of the water, she will be moved to her winter home on land here in Falmouth.

When I got home, I spent the rest of the lovely fall afternoon outside gathering containers to pot parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme–just like the song—to bring inside for the winter. Since the sun set so early, I will continue that process in the morning. But I did manage to find the pots needed. My neighbor, Andy, has a huge supply. He had offered to give me a few, so this afternoon I headed across the street with an empty wheelbarrow and returned with the pots needed. Thanks to Andy my living room is going to be transitioned to a greenhouse.

2025 Life Logs, Day 305: It’s November
Date: Saturday, November 1, 2025
Weather: Partly Sunny, Still Windy; High Temp 57, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

On this first day of November, I attended the weekly rally on the Falmouth Green and then rushed home to meet a possible new neighbor. The house I live in has a studio apartment attached at the back. Since I moved here, no one has lived in the studio apartment as it is used as an office. But, really, it is empty most of the time. Lynda, the owner, found out from a friend that a young man just out of college just got a job at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole and he needs a place to live. His name is Billy, and he came to take a look this afternoon. Lynda wanted me to meet him to make sure I thought he would be a good neighbor. I truly enjoyed meeting him and think he would be a great neighbor, but it is not a done deal. He is looking at other places, and his choice will probably depend on the most affordable. He and Shadow got along famously, so we will both be very happy if he moves in.

I spent the remainder of the day and evening working on the format for the next film screening this Wednesday and also working on developing a resource handout. We will be introducing Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, so I decided I needed to know more about Gene Sharp. The documentary about him is titled, “How to Start a Revolution.” All I really knew about him is that he was considered the world’s foremost living expert on nonviolent revolution until he died in 2018 at age 90. The more I read about him, the more fascinated with his ideas I become. But when the I started watching the film, what I saw was a very genteel old man, not a raving revolutionary who some have called one of the world’s most dangerous men. Those ‘some’ are the world’s brutal dictators for whom Gene Sharp’s ideas have been lethal. It was his ideas, implemented by lovers of freedom and democracy around the world, that have brought down many dictators. And as long as I was at it, I decided to watch another documentary, “Bringing Down a Dictator.” This is about the student-led Otpor!Movement that led to the ouster of dictator Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia in 2000. This is another really good documentary you can watch for free on the International Centre for Nonviolent Conflict website (https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/icncfilms/).

2025 Life Logs, Day 305: Happy Halloween
Date: Friday, October 31, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Warmer, Strong W to SW Winds; High Temp 60, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Here in Falmouth, we had a windy Halloween day and evening, and the winds are getting stronger as we go into the overnight period. Things settle down in the early hours of Sunday morning but tomorrow promises to be another windy one. I had lawn chairs blowing around today, lots of small branches falling, the cables for my internet and cable tv blew down from their attachment point at the peak of the roof. They are still attached down lower on the house but hanging precariously low from that point out to the street. For now, I still have access, but if the weight of the sagging lines should pull the lines loose from the pole on the street, I am not sure what will happen. Comcast says they will be here tomorrow afternoon to remedy that situation. Fingers crossed.

I had my “We the People” class this morning and a meeting with the film series committee this afternoon. I got home around 5:30 pm and realized I needed to go buy candy. I stopped by Heather’s and got an invitation to come over there for dinner. So, I rushed to the store to buy the candy and drove home to put it in a bowl on my front stoop with a sign saying, “Take 3.” I then went to Heather and Jed’s for the evening. I came home to a full bowl of candy that I will need to share with Ollie and Jonah. Otherwise, I will gain 10 pounds! Ollie and two friends went out trick or treating tonight and before I left Heather and Jed’s to come home, Ollie gave me his only Almond Joy from his bag of candy. He knows how much I love Almond Joy candy bars. It is an emotional love as when I was in early grade school, my dad would bring home an Almond Joy candy bar in his lunch pail for me to have every day after school. My dad was not one to show emotion of any kind ever, but we had that daily ‘Almond Joy’ bonding!

2025 Life Logs, Day 304: That’s How the Light Gets In
Date: Thursday, October 30, 2025
Weather: Overcast, Windy, Rain Late; High Temp 57, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

In last night’s log, I explained that I hated the sense of hopelessness I feared people who attended the second session of the nonviolence film series felt as they went home last night. I wrote in last night’s log that I would spend today trying to figure out how to avoid that feeling of hopelessness at next week’s screening. I read myself to sleep each night, and last night I started a new book, Civil Resistance by Erica Chenoweth. She started the introduction with a poem (really lyrics from a song) by the late Leonard Cohen from his song “Anthem” off the 1992 album called The Future. The four lines she used really struck me:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

The message, of hope in darkness, is particularly relevant these days. I spent my day today looking for the cracks. Here are the complete lyrics of “Anthem”:

The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what has passed away
Or what is yet to be

Ah, the wars they will be fought again
The holy dove, she will be caught again
Bought and sold, and bought again
The dove is never free

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

We asked for signs
The signs were sent
The birth betrayed
The marriage spent
Yeah, and the widowhood
Of every government
Signs for all to see

I can’t run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
A thundercloud
They’re going to hear from me

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

You can add up the parts
But you won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march
There is no drum
Every heart, every heart
To love will come
But like a refugee

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

That’s how the light gets in
That’s how the light gets in

2025 Life Logs, Day 303: Second Nonviolence in Action Film Screening
Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Weather: Overcast, Light Rain On and Off; High Temp 50, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

The second screening in the Nonviolence in Action film series went smoothly and was moderately well attended, but it was an emotionally difficult evening. At least it was for me, and my reading of the room told me it was equally difficult for others. I had watched the film at least three, maybe four times at home alone. But watching it is a group situation was very different. It seemed to multiply the sadness and anger I had felt when watching it alone. Part of the film showed original footage from the student-led Nashville lunch counter sit-ins in 1960. It is always hard to watch people who have done nothing wrong be attacked physically, to watch the hatred of prejudice in action, but knowing that all those students fought for is currently being ripped away makes it way more difficult to watch. I felt like people left the screening feeling hopeless. And that is never a good thing. I will spend tomorrow trying to figure out the best way to avoid this with next week’s screening.

2025 Life Logs, Day 302: Soccer in the Misty Rain
Date: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Weather: Overcast, Chilly Wind, Misty Rain Late; High Temp 51, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

As with many of my days, today was a mix of meetings, preparing for tomorrow’s film screening, and a soccer game. Tonight was the final regular game of the season for Jonah who plays on a team of spirited of Falmouth High School Clippers (names after clipper ships). After a win at their last game assuring they would move on to the semi-finals, most of the team decided to bleach their hair blonde. This is why I can them spirited. Tonight, when I got to the game, it took the first half to recognize who was who on the field. A whole field of bleached blondes all looked the same! Jonah and his soccer friends always seem to find the joy in life and spread it around. And the world certainly needs more joy these days.