2024 Life Logs, Day 179: The Debate
Date: Thursday, June 27, 2024
Weather: Rain Early, Then Partly Sunny; High Temp 72, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
As many of you, I watched the Presidential debate tonight and I literally have no words to describe my reaction. So, I will leave it at that. No comment.
2024 Life Logs, Day 178: Happy 15th Birthday to Jonah
Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny, Turning Foggy Late Afternoon; High Temp 73, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Happy 15th birthday to Jonah Biggs Goldstone. Jonah is right in the middle of my five grandchildren. He and Ziggy are both 15, but Ziggy was born first, putting Jonah in the middle. Heather took two hours off work today to take Jonah out for a shopping trip to purchase his birthday gift, a brand new trail bicycle. He has added so many inches of height this year that he has completely outgrown his current bike.
As I was going through birthday photos through the years, I found a photo of Jonah on his 3rd birthday on his new strider bike. That brought back wonderful memories of the many days that Mark and I would stand guard on a quiet side street while the boys learned to ride their bikes.
Ollie and I worked together on a birthday challenge for Jonah today. We searched my computer for photos of all of Jonah’s birthday cakes through the years and had them printed at CVS. Instead of a birthday card for Jonah, Ollie created a game where Jonah was challenged to put the cakes in birthday order. That ended up to be great fun. When Heather and Jonah got home from their birthday shopping trip, we had Jonah’s favorite lunch that had to include salami. We each had our own version,but Jonah’s ‘rose’ made of salami was the most creative.
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In the afternoon, Ollie and I worked together to wash down the front of the house and I took Jonah to his friend Joey’s so they could trail ride together. We ended the day with a birthday dinner. Happy birthday, Jonah!
2024 Life Logs, Day 177: A Little Work, A Little Play, and a Super Soccer Goal
Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Weather: Sunny, Warmest Day Yet; High Temp 80, Low 68 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
After taking Shadow to Pampered Paws for his every 7 week ‘beauty’ appointment, Camp Oma started with a little work. Jonah and Ollie’s chore today was to clean up a pile of leaves in the driveway and get them to the leaf dump. We dropped off eight bags of leaves and then took a lunch break. Jonah and Ollie got lunch for themselves, while I ran some errands and had lunch at home before returning to pick them up for a trip to the beach. We went back to Menauhant and again it was really windy. Even though it was the warmest day we have had, the wind felt chilly. But we persisted and stayed for a while. Then I dropped the boys at home and headed back to Pampered Paws to pick up Shadow. After taking him home and playing ball with him for a bit, I went back to pick up Jonah to take him to a Falmouth High School summer soccer game. Because he is junior varsity, he didn’t think he would get to play much. But he did.
He made two of the six goals and one of them was quite the goal. He was over near the sideline, kicked the ball high with an arc so that it went into the goal just barely under the top pole, out of reach of the goalie. It was picture perfect. But I was too caught up in the moment to get a picture, so you just have to imagine it. Tomorrow is his 15th birthday and I think that by making that goal, he gave himself a birthday present. I took Jonah home and Heather and Ollie, who were making fish tacos together, invited me to stay for dinner. I accepted and enjoyed the results of their cooking project very much.
2024 Life Logs, Day 176: Summer Has Arrived
Date: Monday, June 24, 2024
Weather: Sunny and Windy Temp 76, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Camp Oma began today and for me, summer arrived with my first trip to the beach with Ollie and Jonah. After a winter and spring of doing nothing but recovering from two surgeries, it was unbelievably wonderful to walk in sand, and sit in the sun with happy kids. Because my knee incision has a couple of spots that are not completely healed, I can’t go in the water. But I was completely happy just watching from my beach chair.
Jonah and Ollie had fun together on the beach and in the water, skim boarding and playing ball, but it was when Molly, Joey, and Kaiden arrived that the joyous fun began. Molly and Joey are like a sister and a brother to the Goldpebbles and Kaiden is Jonah’s best friend. They had so much fun. It was after 5 :30 pm when Heather joined us. The kids had been out of the water for a bit, but they all got back and started the fun all over again. Great first Monday of summer
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2024 Life Logs, Day 175: The State of Recoveries
Date: Sunday, June 23, 2024
Weather: Rain Overnight, Mostly Sunny Day; Temp 76, Low 71 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
I have had two surgeries in the past six months. Recovery from both has gone really well. I can walk with no pain and for that I am so, so grateful. But as I have worked to get back to doing everyday tasks like sweeping the floors, making beds, or standing in the kitchen for long periods of time cooking, my back gets tired really easily. And if I persist, my back aches. A little sit down to rest takes care of the problem, but I fear this just might be the way things are for me in the future. I have talked to Matt, my physical therapist, about this, and he feels that I just need to give things more time and increase the strengthening exercises. I hope he is right, but for now, I am going to have to continue pacing myself, so I don’t stand too long, and limit things like sweeping with a broom and making beds to short periods of time. Tomorrow will be my 6-week PT assessment of my knee recovery. Matt tells me I am definitely ahead of the curve, but there are still so many things that I need to work on. On Friday he had me working on balance and I was very pleased with my progress in that area. Patience and persistence is the name of the game for both my back and my knee. So, the work continues.
Tomorrow Camp Oma begins for this summer. It is both easier and harder now that the boys are older. Sam is working at Corner Cycle four days a week, and on his days off, he is working on his car or the deck. Jonah still doesn’t have a summer job, so we are going to work on that tomorrow. Ollie and I will still do things every day and include Jonah when he is around. After a little job searching tomorrow, we will probably go to the beach for a couple of hours. Finding things that teenagers like to do is challenging. One thing they all still like to do is eat artichokes, so I had them over for an artichoke dinner tonight.
