2026 Life Logs, Day 23: All Over the Place
Date: Friday, January 23, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny, Temp Dropping; High Temp 36, Low 6 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My mind and my body felt like separate entities today. My body was in one location, but my heart and mind were elsewhere. I got up early, walked Shadow, and drove up to the Bourne Bridge area to Pampered Paws to drop him off for his every 7 weeks grooming appointment. After doing that, I drove back to East Falmouth to take my car in for an ‘evaluation’. When I had new tires put on last Saturday, I was told the car needs new front brake pads. Then, later that same day, the car started sounding like it had no muffler. So, this morning’s appointment was to see what needs to be done and to determine if it is worth putting more money into a 16-year-old car approaching 200,000 miles. What they found was the very problem I have been anticipating for two years. I need a new catalytic converter (Break Out Another Thousand!), plus I need new brakes. But for the whole morning, my heart and mind were with the people in Minnesota who were having a general strike and protest today against the horrors ICE is committing there and with Ollie who was in Hyannis having his broken arm reset and pinned. Thankfully, both the people of Minnesota and Ollie stood strong, but I ached to be with them.
I had an Encore business lunch appointment with good friend Bruce Woodin, ran some errands on the way home, heard from Heather that Ollie was in a bit of pain but home and doing okay, and got home long enough to take care of a few things I needed to do there. Then I headed back up the highway to pick Shadow up. Once I got Shadow home, I was out again to take Ollie some clam chowder and a chocolate chip cookie cake. I was so relieved to see him. He was obviously experiencing a bit of pain, but he is handling it all like a trooper. And I got there in time to say goodbye to Jonah who was heading out to go snowboarding in New Hampshire with friends for the weekend.
When I finally got home for the evening, I turned on the TV to see reports from Minnesota. Over 50,000 people came out today to protest against ICE in very frigid weather. The high there today was -9 F, and much lower with wind chill factored in. Tomorrow at noon we have our Falmouth standout in solidarity with the very brave people of Minneapolis-St. Paul and the temperature here is going to be in the low teens. Not as cold as in Minnesota, but cold enough for us to truly feel the connection!
Tomorrow will be spent standing in solidarity with the people of Minnesota and preparing for Sunday’s snowstorm. We are expecting a foot of snow, so I probably won’t be driving anywhere. I went to the grocery store tonight, but there was no arugula, no kale, no broccoli, none of the things I wanted, so I’ll try again tomorrow. Obviously, everyone in Falmouth is preparing for the storm, leaving the grocery store shelves empty.
