2026 Life Logs, Day 05: Back to ‘Real’ Life
Date: Monday, January 5, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 35, Low Temp 32 degrees F
Location: Back at Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The holiday celebrations and time with family over the past two weeks were absolutely wonderful. But today, reality hit like a ton of bricks. I had an early morning Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition (FIRC) Zoom meeting that started the jolt to get me back to the real world. The ‘real’ world is not so easy to deal with these days. But one really positive thing that came out of the morning meeting was the deep appreciation for what my son Justin did for the group. He built and is the webmaster for Indivisible Falmouth’s website. And since FIRC has no website, Justin built a page on our Indivisible Falmouth site and got all of their documents in five different languages up and running. This morning the woman from LatinX expressed how important that is for local immigrants that are too scared to come forward to ask for help. Now they can go to the website and read and print any of the documents they need in their own language. So, a very BIG thank you to Justin.
I spent most of my day deflating inflatable mattresses, one queen, and two twins, and washing and drying all the sheets, blankets, and comforters. I also laundered the winter gear worn by Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco, so it can be packed away for their next winter visit.
This evening at 7 pm, I picked Ollie and Jonah up from a pond in East Falmouth where they had been playing ice hockey with friends. While we were in New Hampshire, Falmouth had really cold weather freezing some of the shallow ponds. So, today was the day to take advantage of the ice. Jonah went home from school with a friend who lives near one of the frozen ponds. So, he had been there all afternoon, but Jed had delivered Ollie later in the afternoon along with lights so they could skate in the dark. Unfortunately, the weather is turning warmer tonight, and we are supposed to get some rain. The kids will have to wait for another really cold spell to continue their fun on the ice. But they enjoyed this afternoon and evening, and I so enjoyed seeing them skating on the ice by the light of the lanterns when I picked them up.
Jed had a Board of Health meeting tonight, and Heather had a Select Board meeting. Plus, they both had to go to work today. So, they really got jolted back into the ‘real’ world. Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco made it home late this afternoon and are settling in. Ziggy and Coco don’t have to go back to school until Thursday, so they have two more days before they have to settle back into the ‘real’ world. And tomorrow is the twelfth day of Christmas when I take down my Christmas tree and turn off the outside lights. The joyful holiday time is over, but the memories will linger throughout the year.
