by Judy Handley | Sep 13, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 256: Rainy Sunday
Date: Sunday, September 13, 2026
Weather: Rain All Day, Clearing Late; High Temp 70, Low 5765 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My neighbor across the street, Andy, is a weather watcher and he keeps me posted on weather details. He texted to tell me we got 3.25 inches of rain today instead of the 5 inches he thought we would get. We need rain desperately, but I have never loved rainy days. I am trying my hardest to embrace a full day of rain, but it is just not in my DNA! Despite that, I managed to get up early and walk with Shadow before the rain started around 10 am. And then I continued my process of re-potting my indoor plants. I started that process outside and moved inside when the rain started. I am still not done, but I made more progress. Then I turned to indoor work.
I spent much of my day meshing together ideas from others to come up with an Indivisible Falmouth plan for the upcoming NO KINGS day on October 17. NO KINGS 1, 2, and 3 were all massive protests all around the country, but October 17 is to be a ‘working’ day. The national charge is to come up with creative ways to encourage early voting all across the United States this year. The goal of NO KINGS is to set a record for early voting. The rationale is to get the votes in well before election day on November 3 so that whatever new obstacles to voting Trump sends our way on election day or following, we will have the time to deal with those. The votes will already be in. The draft plan I submitted today involves activities prior to October 17, the first day of early voting in many states. It goes on to outline the activities on October 17, and then there are activities for each of the following 13 early voting days. October 17 to October 30 is going to be a busy time if this plan is adopted!
Tomorrow is Justin’s 49th birthday. Since it is on a Monday, which is a workday for him, I texted him and asked him to call me today if he was available. We had a long talk and he brought me up to date on happenings there and I filled him in on things happening here. In Puerto Rico, Justin and Jo are going to do a music gig in San Juan in a few weeks, so he and Jo drove to San Juan yesterday to make some of the arrangements. Ziggy is still recovering from having his 4 wisdom teeth removed, but he is back in school and all activities. He seems to be enjoying his senior year of high school. Coco is the busy bee. She is in a drama group at school, is part of the school’s pep rally team, participates in Model UN, sings in a choir in Mayaguez not associated with the school, and much more. It is challenging for Justin and Jo to keep up with her. I then filled him in on happenings with the Goldstone boys. Ollie is playing on the junior varsity golf team and is involved in Scouting activities, Jonah totally immersed in the high school soccer season and in being a senior in high school, and the big news was about Sam. He started online classes at Cape Cod Community College this week and then got the news that he got the job he has been wanting for the winter. He has been working as crew on a private ferry that delivers and picks people up on Martha’s Vineyard after regular ferry hours. Then he added a job plating salads and desserts at Falmouth’s fanciest restaurant, The Glass Onion. The job this winter begins on October 22 through most of February as a “snowmaker” at Stowe Ski Resort in Vermont. He will live in a dorm situation, will work 12 hour shifts 4 days a week, then probably sleep for a day and snowboard for the next 2 days until his “snowmaking” shifts begin again. As I understand it, a “snowmaker” works with another person. The pair is driven up the mountain and then they have to walk down the mountain checking all of the snow guns to make sure they are working properly. When they get to the bottom of the mountain, they are driven back to the top and they walk down another trail doing the same checking. They do this for their whole 12-hour shift. It sounds exhausting, but the perk is that you not only get paid, you get to ski/snowboard free at any Vale ski resort in the world. He is hoping to make enough money to go to the Netherlands in late February and snowboard with his friends at a Vale resort in Europe. He misses his friends so much, so that will be the incentive that keeps him going. Then he will return to attend spring, summer, and fall online semesters at the community college. Then back to Vermont. At least I think that is the current plan. The community college online semesters are only 7 weeks, so that allows him to be able to do this. That’s the full update on the Handley and Goldstone grandkids.
by Judy Handley | Sep 12, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 255: Another Day Derailed
Date: Saturday, September 12, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 73, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Another day, another call from Bridges with another issue with my sister. But this time, I was the cause of the problem. Her Dexcom sensor that has to be replaced every 15 days to monitor her blood glucose levels was today’s issue. I had it on my calendar that it needed to be replaced tomorrow. Obviously I cannot count! Her phone starting alarming around 10 am this morning. The nurse called to ask me what she should do. I really had to be on the Green today as I was delivering all the sound system. So, I told her to just turn off the phone and put it in Patsy’s room until I could get there this afternoon. When I got there, Patsy was already in the community room attending a music concert. I didn’t want to go in and take her out, so I drove to Hyannis to get a few food items that I have been needing and can’t buy here in Falmouth. I then returned to Bridges, replaced the sensor and visited with Patsy for the hour that it takes for the sensor to warm up to her body. There is no way to know if it is going to work until it is warmed up. Thankfully, it worked just fine and I headed home when Patsy headed to dinner. I then spent tonight working on some Indivisible things that I had planned to do this afternoon. The day didn’t go as planned, but at least I don’t have to go to Bridges to replace a sensor tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Sep 11, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 254: A Beautiful Life
Date: Friday, September 11, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 76, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I am loving these beautiful September days. Even my sister in memory care asked me this afternoon if the sky will always be so blue. We have had a string of sunny, blue sky days that are not too hot and not too cold. Just perfect.
Today is the tenth anniversary of Mark’s passing. I spent the day trying to remember only the wonderful life we had together, not the sadness of it ending. And, of course, it was a national day of remembrance of 9/11. I spent much of the morning and early afternoon dealing with issues for my sister. Later in the afternoon I headed to Bridges to visit Patsy and we spent our time together out in the garden sitting in the sunshine. I picked Ollie up from his golf lesson on the way home and then I prepared a dessert to take to Heather and Jed’s for our Rosh Hashanah dinner. I asked Heather what she would like me to bring and she said, “Whatever you want to do to channel ‘granddad’. Well, Mark loved sweets and he loved chocolate. So, in the time I had, I decided to make a giant chocolate chip cookie. And Ollie and I stopped at Smitty’s to buy chocolate chip ice cream to go with it.
Before putting the huge cookie in the oven, I decided to place chocolate chips on top to form a spiral. When I arrived at Heather and Jed’s I told them this was not really a cookie. It was a story that they needed to figure out. Heather and Ollie didn’t see the spiral at first, but Jonah had one look and identified the spiral. Heather counted the chocolate chips in the spiral, which happened to be 82, and tried to identify the importance of that number. There was no importance as I had no idea how many chocolate chips I had used. But I learned that if you add the ages of my five grandchildren you get 81. But not 82. The reason I decided to add the spiral to the top of the cookie was a tribute to the way Mark lived his life. Some people are linear. Their lives go in a straight line. But Mark’s life was a series of spirals. He would put all of his talents and energies into one thing. And when that ‘thing’ ended, he would start a new ‘thing’, building on the lessons learned in the last one. The end of one ‘thing’ was always the beginning of another. There was never a failure, just lessons learned, and never an end, just a new beginning. It was a beautiful life.
by Judy Handley | Sep 10, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 253: Spoke Too Soon
Date: Thursday, September 10, 2026
Weather: Most Sunny, Windy; High Temp 81, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I spoke too soon. In last night’s log I stated that my life is back to normal after a very crazy summer dealing with moving my sister here from North Carolina. Things seemed to be settling down. But this morning at 6:39 am, a call from Bridges jolted me out of bed. My sister is okay, but I need to reassess and figure out what can be done to prevent these falls. Then while I was walking Shadow, I got a call from the medical company that supplies Patsy’s glucose sensors. They need proof that she actually needs this and they say Patsy’s primary care’s office is not cooperating. I had to do the prep work for tonight’s dining in group dinner, so I decided to put off the diabetes issue until tomorrow. I didn’t check my calendar and found out tonight that I missed the Falmouth Newcomers Activity Fair. Since I am a co-leader of two groups and my co-leaders expected me there, I feel terrible. But I just totally spaced. I did squeeze in enough time to go watch the first half of Jonah’s soccer game against Nantucket. Unfortunately, we lost this season opener against Nantucket. Ten minutes into the second half, I left and got home just 10 minutes before the first friends arrived. It was a lovely evening to sit outside for appetizers. But when the burgers came off the grill, we headed inside for dinner. The days certainly are getting shorter. There just wasn’t enough light to stay outside.
by Judy Handley | Sep 9, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 252: The Political Me
Date: Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Weather: Cloudy and Warm; High Temp 78, Low 70 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
After a couple of months of stepping back from my normal activities to deal with my sister, I think the political me is back. I spent 10 am to 2 pm manning the Falmouth Town Democratic Committee headquarters, 3-4 pm on a Zoom call with national Indivisible leaders, 8-9 pm on a Zoom call with the ACLU about election safe-guarding, and the time in-between developing a handout for next week’s Indivisible Falmouth general meeting. Doing that required contacting the acting Town Clerk’s office to get details on early voting in Falmouth which led to an email exhange with the Town Clerk. I did take time to go pick up Ollie after his golf practice and go food shopping for dinner tomorrow night that I am hosting for my dining in group. Otherwise, the entire day was centered around political issues. I am back to normal!
