by Judy Handley | Jan 1, 2025 | 2025 Life Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 01: A Happy New Year’s Day
Date: Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Late Rain, Wind Building; Temp 48, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I am a chronological order person. I always feel compelled to start at the very beginning when writing about my day. But on this first day of 2025, I am going to reverse that. Is this an omen for the coming year?
Late afternoon I got a text from Heather saying, “So. This happened.” That caught my attention, but when I looked at the photos, I saw what she was referring to. Sam, Jonah, and Jonah’s friend Kaiden took their first New Year’s Day polar plunge this afternoon. I am not sure whose idea this was, but in the photo, they all look very proud of themselves!
I received that text just as I was getting home from an afternoon New Year’s Day Open House at Margaret Souz’s. I went last year with a friend who could drop me off at the door because I could barely walk. I remember going in and immediately finding a chair to sit in, where I remained the entire time. Standing was so difficult. What a difference a year (and back surgery) makes. This year I could stand and walk around freely. It was a wonderful reminder of just why I am so thankful. While I was at the open house, I got a call from Justin. It was late afternoon and he and Jo had not been out of bed all day. Coco, who had whatever it is first, was up and about for the first time since before Christmas yesterday. Ziggy, who got whatever from Coco, texted this morning telling me he was feeling a tad better today. But Justin and Jo are still down and out. I asked Justin if the power blackout in Puerto Rico was affecting them and he responded that since they have the solar back up, they haven’t noticed. They had turned off the AC and opened the house before the blackout because dryer, milder winter weather has arrived. He noted that if the blackout happened during the summer, it would be a different story. So, here’s hoping for everyone in Puerto Rico the milder temperatures continue and that everyone at Finca Maravilla is feeling better very soon.
My first day of 2025 was carefree and happy. I hope that your day was the same and that all of your days in 2025 will be the same. But I do have to share that the one project I chose to start the New Year has already been derailed. In cleaning up to get the house ready for guests while I went to Puerto Rico, I managed to put the very important pile of papers that were on my desk somewhere safe where I can’t find them. Tomorrow will begin, not with checking something off my To Do list, but with a search for that stack of papers. Instead of starting out the new year getting something productive done, I will be chasing my tail. Some things never change.
by Judy Handley | Dec 31, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 366: Garden Clean Up on New Year’s Eve
Date: Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny; Temp 49, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
On New Year’s Day, sometime between 1986 and 1988, Mark and I went to pick Justin up from an overnight at his friend Warren Decker’s house. Warren’s mother, Patsy, was out in her garden planting garlic. This was on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where winters are mild, but we had moved there from West Virginia, and gardening at that time of year seemed strange to me. But these days here on the Cape, planting garlic and doing a little garden clean up on New Years Eve no longer seems strange. We haven’t had a really cold New Year’s Eve since 2017. But the year before and after 2017, the temps were back to mild. I’m listing my Falmouth weather recordings since 2016 here in case you are curious.
2024 Mostly Sunny; Temp 49, Low 41 degrees F
2023 Weather: Partly Sunny; High 39, Low 31 F
2022 Overcast and Rainy: High 56, Low 46 degrees F
2021 Mostly Cloudy, Some Sunshine in PM; High Temp 45, Low Temp 43 degrees F
2020 Rainy Morning, Then Overcast; High 50, Low 29 Degrees
2019 Dreary and Misty; High 38, Low 28 degrees F
2018 RAIN, High 53, Low 38 degrees F
2017 Sunny and Cold; High 22, Low 7 degrees F
2016 Partly Sunny; High 50, Low 30 degrees F
I ran some errands and stopped at Heather and Jed’s around lunch time. Jed was at the boat trying to get it covered before winter truly sets in, but everyone else was at home and inside. When I mentioned that I had been working outside doing a little gardening, the “Oh, I haven’t planted my garlic yet” light bulb went off in Heather’s head, so she grabbed some garlic and went out to the planting boxes on the deck. I then realized that I hadn’t planted garlic either. November is the time most people plant it here, but this was a busy November with a lot of traveling and no time for garlic. So, I went home and planted my garlic as well. And as I did, I thought of Patsy Decker all those years ago planting garlic on New Year’s Day.
Other than the little bit of garden work I did today, I spent a lot of time thinking about the many things I want to accomplish in 2025. Before I go to bed tonight, I’ll pare down that list and write my to do list of big 2025 projects before I go to bed. But this is different from making a resolution. I don’t make resolutions any longer because I have one that I will need to work on every day of my life. On New Year’s Eve in 2016, I was in New Hampshire with my friends Detta and Tom Porat. Detta and I stayed up until midnight trying to solve the world’s problems. Then, just after midnight, I turned on my computer to write my log. I opened an email from Heather, Jed, and the boys sharing a wish for the new year: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” (Mahatma Gandhi) That is a lifelong resolution and I’m sticking with it.
by Judy Handley | Dec 30, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 365: Day Trip to New Hampshire
Date: Monday, December 30, 2024
Weather: Pouring Rain Early, Then Drizzle; Temp 53, Low 39 degrees F in Falmouth
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today I drove to the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area, to have a nice, long, relaxed lunch with friend Peppe Christianson. She will fly home to the West Coast on New Year’s Day and our get together on my way home from Maine last Friday was just not long enough. Today we had planned to have lunch and then go for a seaside walk, but somehow we managed to spent four hours talking and having lunch, leaving no time for a walk. We met at the Wentworth by the Sea Hotel on New Castle Island near Portsmouth. The Wentworth was a Gilded Age grand hotel that survived until 1982 before its doors were finally shut. Then in the mid 1990’s it was listed as one of America’s most endangered old hotels. The notoriety around that listing saved it, or at least the part of it that was left, and it was totally restored. It is a lovely place to meet, eat, and talk away the afternoon. Peppe treated me to lunch, which was delicious. Thank you, Peppe. I look forward to our next meeting.
Tonight, I talked to my son Justin. I knew Coco was sick on Christmas Day, but tonight I found out that everyone in the family now has whatever Coco has. She still has a bit of a fever but is feeling a bit better. Hopefully by New Year’s Day the whole gang will be better. And after I had a late dinner, I talked to another close friend, Lynne Kirwin, in New Zealand. We managed to talk away the rest of the evening. It is New Year’s Eve there, so we finally had to hang up so she could join a few friends to celebrate. Happy New Year to Lynne.
by Judy Handley | Dec 29, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 364: Dinner with HJSO minus Jonah
Date: Sunday, December 29, 2024
Weather: Overcast with Mist; Temp 53, Low 50 degrees F in Falmouth
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This morning I visited with my 91 year old friend Olga Mitchell. Olga, Shadow, and I are walking partners, but Olga fell on Christmas Eve and is out of walking commission until she sees a doctor. But we enjoyed a “sitting” morning, eating some of her Czech Christmas bread and drinking coffee. I sure hope she is back in “walking” mode soon.
After coming home and playing ball outside with Shadow, I did a little garden clean up. The weather was so warm that it felt like spring. Of course, that is not the case, but the reprieve from colder weather gave me a chance to do some things that did not get done this fall. Then tonight, Heather, Jed, Sam, and Ollie came over for dinner. Jonah is spending the night with his friend Kaiden, so he was missing in action. We had beef stew and salad with chocolate pudding pie for dessert. The boys bought Shadow a stuffed lobster for Christmas in Boothbay and they brought it over for him tonight. He loved it.
The Goldstones are not going to Vermont for New Year’s as planned. The weather is way too warm for skiing, so the group of Heather’s friends from high school days at St. Paul’s have decided not to gather this year. Tomorrow, I am headed back to New Hampshire to spend some more time with my friend Peppe tomorrow, but I will be back tomorrow evening to spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day here at home.
by Judy Handley | Dec 28, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 363: Just a Normal Day
Date: Saturday, December 28, 2024
Weather: Overcast with Some Rain; Temp 49, Low 43 degrees F in Falmouth
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
After all of the travel and holiday festivities of the past month, today was just a normal day. I spent the majority of the day food shopping and then doing some cooking as my refrigerator was bare. I just got a text from Jed saying they just got home. They spent the morning playing on the frozen pond at the farm in Maine and didn’t head home until mid-afternoon. So, all is well here. We are headed into a few days of warmer weather and rain.
