by Judy Handley | Jan 31, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 31: Busy, Busy Day
Date: Friday, January 31, 2025
Weather: Overcast, Rainy, Warmer; Temp 43, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Delivered and had lunch with the Baranowski’s to ‘celebrate’ Peter’s successful knee replacement this week, met with an Encore team to discuss the best ways to store important documents to share with others, picked Ollie up after school, rushed to get to a 3 0’clock showing of the movie Conclave at the Falmouth Public Library, came home to spend a little time with Shadow before heading to a Bites and Bingo Encore social evening. Whew! It was busy, productive, and enjoyable day.
I was sad to learn from Ollie that the Goldstones are not going to Stow to snowboard this weekend. Whatever Ollie had last week, Sam had this week, and today Heather and Jed came down with it. So, no snowboarding this weekend. And unfortunately, it looks like the fun the boys have been having on the neighborhood frozen pond might also come to an end this weekend. With the temperature warming up and the rain, the ice will probably melt quickly.
by Judy Handley | Jan 30, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 30: Working on my VOW Presentation
Date: Thursday, January 30, 2025
Weather: Sunny and Cold Again; Temp 29, Low 23 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
On February 12, I have been asked to give a Voyage of Windbird (VOW) presentation to a church women’s group in town. I’m doing it as a favor for an Encore member who is also a sailor. I told her that I would ‘adjust’ the presentation to highlight churches we visited along the way. For a couple who didn’t attend church prior to sailing out of Boston, Mark and I visited churches on almost every island where we landed in the South Pacific. We did that for a number of reasons. One was to listen to the beautiful, harmonic voices of the South Pacific islanders. Some people describe their singing as having a brightness to it, an almost artificial loudness. But when you sit and listen you can begin to hear that each person is singing a different part, unrehearsed, and it always comes out to be spectacular. We also went to the churches to see examples of the fine wood carvings of each island on display. And then the main reason was to meet the local people. We were always warmly welcomed. And after a church service, we were often invited to come home with the minister for Sunday dinner. So, I spent much of my day reliving some of those wonderful moments and choosing new photos for my presentation to focus on the art, music, and unparalleled human kindness Mark and I experienced. I did not finish the new presentation, but I got a good start.
When I stopped for a lunch break, I turned on the television and saw some of the reporting of the tragic plane crash in the Potomac River in DC. Unfortunately, my timing was such that I saw the first part of Trump’s press conference about the crash. It shouldn’t shock me, but that he turned to name calling and blaming was more than I could take. I turned off the television and adopted a slogan that was put out there by Robert Reich today. “SAY NO to BIGOTRY.
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by Judy Handley | Jan 29, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 29: Field Trip to the Harvard Museums
Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Weather: Sunny and Warmer; Temp 46, Low 19 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today was a long one. I was up before 7 am to get ready to head to the Harvard campus in Cambridge. Our Newcomers-Encore Field Trip group was visiting the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the Harvard Art Museums. Four of us went to the Natural History Museum and the other six went to the Art Museum. I chose to start at the Natural History Museum because no matter how many times I visit there, I cannot get enough of the Blaschka glass flowers and marine invertebrates. My all time favorite of the glass flowers are the Ginko tree leaves, and my favorite marine invertebrate is the little Atlantic white-spotted octopus. But today I focused on the mountain laurel and the spaghetti worm. That they are made totally out of glass amazes me.
After a couple of hours, my group decided to go to the Art Museums to have lunch and tour there for the afternoon. There are three museums housed in one building with so much to see. It was a great trip.
by Judy Handley | Jan 28, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 28: A Little of This and That
Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Weather: Sunny to Partly Cloudy, Back to Sunny, Windy; Temp 42, Low 24 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
A little puzzling, a little reading, a little house cleaning, a little laundry. Then dinner with the Woodins. It was a delightful, stress-free winter day. That is, until I got home after a wonderful hearty beef stew dinner with Bruce and Jane to catch up on the news today. The blanket freeze of federal grants and loans and the ‘invitation’ to nearly all federal workers to resign and take a ‘generous’ retirement package sickens me. Trump has been telling us for months what he planned to do if we elected him to be President a second time, but I think most people thought some of his ideas were so outrageous that even he would not really do what he said. Well, I think anyone who thought that needs to think again. Remember Project 2025? If not, it is time to get familiar with it as it looks like that blueprint is being put into action. Public pressure today resulted in a lot of back pedaling. That push back must continue.
On the brighter side, when I took Ollie to his saxophone lesson late this afternoon, I dropped him off and drove to nearby Menauhant Beach. I got there just as the sun was setting. The orange glow of the setting sun was gorgeous. That is what I will remember about today.
by Judy Handley | Jan 27, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 27: If it’s Monday …
Date: Monday, January 27, 2025
Weather: Sunny, Windy, Windy; Temp 39, Low 32 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
If it’s Monday … well, really only every other Monday, I spend my late afternoon and evening hanging out with the Goldpebbles. Heather has Select Board and Jed has Health Board. Select Board is not supposed to start until 6:30 pm, but often they have an Executive Session beginning at 5:30 pm. And that is the time that Jed must be at the Health Board meeting. So, I plan to arrive at 5 pm, conjure up or heat up something already prepared for dinner, and stay until Jed gets home sometime between 8 and 9 pm. Heather often doesn’t get home until 10 or 11 or even later. I love having the time with the boys, so I jump at the chance to help out. Unfortunately, Sam now has whatever Ollie had over the weekend. So far, Jonah has escaped it. He is continuing to play ice hockey with friends down on the pond every minute he can. Maybe all that time on the ice is keeping him healthy.
There is a gale warning for the Vineyard Sound, Nantucket Sound, and Buzzards Bay that is in effect until 7 pm tomorrow night. Today, beginning late afternoon, there we had winds blowing 15 to 25 knots with higher gusts offshore. So, it is a bit blustery out there tonight. We are supposed to get another dusting of snow overnight tomorrow night. Hopefully it is not enough to cancel a planned field trip to the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Wednesday. We shall see.
