2026 Life Logs, Day 293: 2nd Day at Peg Noonan, Public Policy, Soccer, Election Protection
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Weather: Clear to Partly Cloudy, Windy; High Temp 58, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It was windy today, but tomorrow will be windier. I headed to Peg Noonan Park on Main Street to set up for my noontime event to spread the vote early message and found it incredibly difficult to set up due to the wind. I have a 4-foot banner that I taped to a small folding table yesterday with no problem, although id did blow a bit in the wind. Last night I glued a board across the bottom to keep it from blowing in the wind, but today’s wind was just too much for it. So, I found a way to use duct tape by attaching it to the bottom of the banner and running it under the table and back to the top. I did this in three places and just as I was feeling so proud of my work, the banner became a sail and flew forward , dragging the table along with it. I caught it just as it ran into the photographer from the local paper, the Falmouth Enterprise. He helped me get the table back in place, instead of in the middle of the sidewalk, and he said to me, “You must be Judy.” I asked him how he knew my name and he just said jokingly that the Enterprise knows everything. He had come to photograph my vote early effort. He took many photos before an ally arrived to be with me. So, I asked him to take more pictures including her. Then a woman walked by and I asked her if she was a Falmouth voter. She said she was and I gave her my ‘song and dance’ about the importance of voting early. The photographer was taking photos this whole time and then the woman said she thought she would go vote right then. I looked at the clock that looms above the park and saw it was already noon. I told her that I was walking to Town Hall as I plan to do every day of early voting. I invited her to walk with me. She accepted, and the photographer followed us, taking more photos right until we entered Town Hall to vote. I had not yet voted, so the two of us did it together. I don’t know if any of those photos will be in Friday’s paper, but I will share if they are. Anything to get out the Vote Early message! I just hope I can control my flying banner in the 30 mph winds tomorrow.
Later in the afternoon the Exploring Public Policy group I co-lead with Jon Kaufman met. We had a 15-minute presentation from the Chair of Falmouth’s Board of Trustees about Question 10 on the ballot—a ballot question to support the East Falmouth Library building project. Then Michael Palmer, our just retired Town Clerk of 23 years, along with Troy Clarkson who was an early member of the Town Select Board, gave a presentation.. They are working to get a charter commission on the ballot next May to study our current form of town government to see if it is the best form going forward. It was a very informative meeting, and they were able to convince a number of people to help them in their endeavor.
My next stop was Falmouth High School to watch the last quarter of Jonah’s soccer game. He played a good game, and we won 4-0. As the team members excited the field afterwards, they got a first look at the banners displaying photos of each of the seniors on the team. They had just been put up, and it was fun watching their reactions. There are four more games in the regular season and then playoffs.
Tonight I was on a Zoom a leadership call with the No Kings alliance discussing what needs to happen now in terms of election protection. There is another call tomorrow night on this same topic with Indivisible, and another on Thursday night. As soon as the Vote Early effort is completed, we move on to election protection and that could, and probably will, be quite intense taking all of us out of comfort zone. But careful plans are being made. Hopefully, they will not have to be implemented.
