by Judy Handley | Oct 22, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 295: Sunny and 70
Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 71, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
When I was a kid and there was a wonderful warm period in the fall, we called it Indian Summer. That term is no longer encouraged, seen as disrespectful of Native American people. The term Second Summer is preferable. Today the thermometer reached 70 degrees and it felt like those times in the fall when I was going up that we called Indian Summer. It made me wonder what the definition of Indian Summer was when I was growing up and why it was called that in the first place. What I found out is that a weather phase had to have 3 characteristics to be called Indian Summer. It had to sunny, it had to unseasonably dry and warm, and it had to follow the first killing frost of the season and usually a rainy period. It was also often hazy. Well, we haven’t had the first killing frost and it isn’t hazy, but it was sunny, dry, and warm yesterday and today. I’ll take that as a little Second Summer and hope that we have a third and a fourth and even a fifth! As to the origin of the Indian Summer label, there is no agreement. “The first recorded use of the term was in 1778 in a letter by French-American soldier and farmer J. H. St. John de Crèvecoeur, also known as Michel-Guillaume-Jean de Crèvecoeur. He wrote that sometimes the rain was followed by an interval of calm and warm which he said was called the Indian summer.”
I started this lovely day by taking a morning walk with Shadow. We had another coyote encounter just up the street. I didn’t see the critter, but Shadow did. He or she was crossing the street coming toward us when Shadow turned in that direction and went into his very loud ‘get outta here coyote’ barking fit. It worked and the coyote ran, but I am not liking these close encounters. When we got home, I had to deal with another issue in my sister’s life. After phone calls and emails, I put that aside for today and I prepared a fall salad for my Lunch-In at noon. It was a small group, but all of the food was delicious. After the luncheon, I stopped by Heather and Jed’s to check in on the boys. This was an Early Release Day from school. Sam and Jonah are fine on their own, but I like to make sure Ollie isn’t alone all afternoon. He had been biking with friends, but they went home to play on the Xbox. He eventually hooked up with them through Xbox and played with them that way. Then they went biking again. I just hung out and spent the time reading. I left for a bit to take Shadow out for a pee break and when I returned it was time to take Ollie to his private sax lesson. That was it for a day in this life.
by Judy Handley | Oct 21, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 294: Another Warm Fall Day
Date: Monday, October 21, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 68, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
The weather is just delightful today … sunny, warm, not too windy, just right. The trees tell me it is definitely fall. Today I noticed a tree that I can see from the end of my driveway that is just beautiful.
Unfortunately, I spent most of the day in the kitchen and on my computer. I got dinner ready for the Goldpebbles for tonight, prepped the fall salad I will take to a luncheon tomorrow, and prepped the dish I will take as my wine pairing to our wine group’s Friendsgiving on Wednesday evening. I picked Ollie up from school, took him home, and then went to the high school soccer game. It is the first time I have seen Sam and Jonah on the field at the same time and I am sure I was glowing with pride.
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Heather had Select Board tonight and Jed had Health Board, so I served dinner to the Goldpebbles and hung out with them until Jed got home. When I got home, I watched some of the Select Board Meeting and again I was glowing with pride as I watched Heather in action.
by Judy Handley | Oct 20, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 293: Just Me and My Shadow
Date: Sunday, October 20, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 65, Low 51 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
This was a quiet Sunday with just me and Shadow muddling through a beautiful fall day. I had some Encore work to do this morning and then I spent time outside weeding. There is a common, but very invasive plant that is trying to take over the edges of the backyard commonly called Lady’s Thumb. It is an annual plant in the buckwheat/smartweed (Polygonaceae) family family and is considered an herb. In folk medicine it is said to prevent gastric cancer. And some species are edible. All well and good, but it literally takes over everything. There is a wonderful patch of Lemon Balm in the same area. The Lady’s Thumb is growing under and over that, so I am pulling as much of it as I can from around the Lemon Balm because I love the way it smells. After my back had enough of weeding, I needed to take a long walk, so Shadow and I walked over to Heather and Jed’s just to see what was happening there today. They were working on the deck replacement project. Ollie had gone with his friend Seton and his family to the Wellfleet Oyster Festival and Sam and Jonah were in their rooms. Heather and Jed had friends coming to dinner, so they were stopping the deck project to go food shopping. That reminded me that I needed to go food shopping as well, so Shadow and I headed home. My little bit of food shopping required that I go to 3 different stores and took almost two hours. Part of that time was spent talking to a friend of Heather and Jed’s that I haven’t seen for a few years. Her son used to play soccer with Sam when they were in elementary school and now that son is taking a gap year, and in a few days will be sailing from Fiji to New Zealand. Somehow, we managed to talk for well over half an hour. It was almost dark when I got home, so I played a quick game of fetch with Shadow and called it a day.
Tomorrow, I will spend the entire day in the kitchen. I am fixing dinner for the Goldpebbles as Heather and Jed are both off to meetings in the late afternoon and evening. Then on Tuesday I am taking a butternut squash and beet salad to a luncheon, and I need to bake the squash and beets tomorrow. On Tuesday night I have my wine group and I am taking tiny baked honeynut squash filled with toasted walnuts as my pairing for my choice of a wine for Thanksgiving dinner. I will bake the honeynut squash tomorrow as well. I will get a break from food preparation on Wednesday as I am going out to lunch with friends to celebrate Jane Woodin’s birthday. It was a couple of weeks ago, but this Wednesday was the first date the five of us could get together. Then on Thursday I go on an all-day field trip to historic Lexington. Thank goodness my calendar is clear on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday except one soccer game on Saturday. I’m sure things will be added as the week progresses, but hopefully I can rest up to get ready for another week in the life.
by Judy Handley | Oct 19, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 292: More Soccer, Mingle & Mix
Date: Saturday, October 19, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 62, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
This is Falmouth High School’s Homecoming Weekend, and it was a beautiful afternoon to sit in the sun and watch Sam and Jonah play in the Homecoming soccer game. And even better, we won 1-0. Then this evening I went to an Encore Mingle & Mix and had a lovely evening. So, most of the day was delightful, but it started out with call telling me my sister had fallen during the night. On one of the hourly checks, she was found in the floor near her bed. The good news is that she is fine. The bad news is that she forgot that she is not supposed to get up without using her call button to summon help and wait for someone to come. I talked with her and tried to reinforce this, but her dementia allows her to quickly forget. At least this time the fall didn’t result in a fractured bone.
by Judy Handley | Oct 19, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 291: Free and Easy Day, Evening at The Narrows
Date: Friday, October 18, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny, Windy; High Temp 58, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
My calendar was blank today until mid -afternoon, so I had a free and easy morning. I did book my flight to Puerto Rico for Thanksgiving. I opted for going the week of Thanksgiving since that is when the kids will have time off school even though it was more expensive. I get to Ziggy and Coco only once or twice a year, so when I do fly down, I need to time my visits for maximum time with them. I now need to find someone to come stay with Shadow and then I can fully celebrate that I am going.
Jane Woodin dropped by to visit in the early afternoon, and we had a good chat. After she left, I baked a leaf pie that I will take as an appetizer to a Mingle and Mix tomorrow night. I went to pick up Ollie after school and then it was time to head to Fall River with Judy Fenwick to a Paula Poundstone performance tonight at The Narrows, an arts and music venue. I don’t know when I last laughed as hard as I did tonight. I know of Paula Poundstone from NPR’s Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! She is funny on that program, but I had no idea she was a stand-up comedian who absolutely hilarious. How good it is to laugh.
