by Judy Handley | Feb 18, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 49: Too Much Wind
Date: Sunday, February 18, 2024
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, E 25-35 mph; High Temp 36, Low 24 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
Watching the weather is something you do religiously when you are sailing and occasional gale force wind warnings were taken very seriously. However, this past week here on land it feels like we are getting gale force winds every other day. Today was just too windy—no fun at all being outside. I knew the winds would get stronger late morning, so Shadow and I did our longer work first thing. Then around noon we headed out for our shorter walk, and I truly felt like I was going to be blown away. We only managed to do three quarters of a mile in total today, but I’m happy with that. I do hope Heather and gang didn’t have the same strong winds in Vermont. If walking was no fun, I can’t imagine trying to snowboard on the side of a mountain in that wind.
The wind today, combined with the cold, was enough to make me just want to stick my head under my pillow and not come out until the winds calmed down. I resisted, but I smiled when I thought about what I read in the NYT’s The Morning on Saturday. It said, “To ‘rot’ is to spend the day under the covers but. . . Recently, the more Seussian-sounding notion of the “hurkle-durkle,” a 19th-century Scottish term for lingering in bed when one should be up and about, has risen in popularity.” The author of the article went on to say that the “lie-down” is a more respectable way of branding an escape to spend some time off your feet resting. It is a form of rest that “manages to borrow the restorative benefits of the nap, and of bed-totting, without the suggestion of sloth.” So, the next time there is cold, cloudy day with gale-force winds, I’ll just have a “lie-down.” (Although, a “hurkle-durkle” actually sounds like more fun!)
What I did today was curl up with my book (actually my book on my tablet) and read interspersed with tackling more of the paperwork organization that has piled up. Today’s task was organizing a few years’ worth of recipes that I have copied off the internet. Many of my favorite recipes were in that messy pile of papers that are now in plastic sleeves and organized by appetizers to soups and salads. I benefited from the organization right away. I wanted to make something with mushrooms and wild rice, so I Googled those ingredients and came up with a Wild Rice and Mushroom Casserole. I was getting ready to print it when it donned on me that it was one of the recipes I had just filed away. I went to my organized piles and found in under ‘entrées’ right away.
by Judy Handley | Feb 17, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 48: Another Snowy Day
Date: Saturday, February 17, 2024
Weather: Light Snow AM, Mid-Afternoon, and PM; High Temp 32, Low 23 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
I always think I can do more than I can actually accomplish. But I will still call today a success. I got months of Encore emails and important papers either recycled or in a notebook where they belong. I did not, however, get the accumulation of other paperwork filed away. That is what tomorrow is for! I didn’t walk a mile and half today, but I did walk three-quarters of a mile. It was snowing first thing this morning, so I took Shadow on our quarter of a mile walk around the block, with a promise to do our longer walk when the snow stopped. Around 11 o’clock, we started out with the intention of walking a mile and a quarter, but my right knee thought otherwise. If it is not snowing early in the morning, I’ll try doing the longer walk then and hope my knee holds out. In between filing papers, I read. I’m on page 625 of The Covenant of Water and only have 150 pages to go. It is a long book. I normally only read at bedtime, but recently I read a page or two and then can’t keep my eyes open. It is not because the book is not interesting. I just seem to be exhausted by bedtime. So today I allowed myself to read during the day and that worked much better.
We had a beautiful light snow this morning, probably just half an inch, and then another dusting in the middle of the afternoon and again tonight. We are getting just enough to keep everything looking bright and white. Today was a cold one, but tomorrow looks a tad warmer, hopefully with some sunshine. This snowy black and white landscape is pretty,
but I like my sunshine. But sunshine or not, it is going to be windy. That makes it a good day for staying inside and finishing my projects. I have nothing else on my calendar other than going to Heather and Jed’s to feed the cats and the fish. They left just after noon today headed for Middlesex, Vermont, where they are renting an AirBnB for the week. It is about a four-and-a-half-hour drive, but it took them longer as they had to stop to charge their electric car. Jed explained to me last night that the batteries simply do not hold a charge very well in this cold weather. But they made it and will ski/snowboard Stow tomorrow and Monday. Jed said they might do Okemo on Tuesday and on Wednesday they will take the day off as Sam has a full day of visit at Norwich University in nearby Northfield. Heather will go with Sam and Jed, Ollie, and Jonah will look for a one day adventure off the slopes.
by Judy Handley | Feb 16, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 48: Artichoke Dinner with the Goldstones
Date: Friday, February 16, 2024
Weather: Sunny Day, AM Winds 20-30 Higher Gusts; High Temp 38, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
It was a day of successes. I walked a mile in the morning and another half mile this afternoon. Woohoo! My back is ‘tired’ tonight and my right knee is giving me fits, but nevertheless, it felt really good to be able to walk that far.
My second success was that I finally got busy filing away papers that have been piling up in the dining room. I’m far from done, but if I stay at it tomorrow, I could have the job done. Again, it felt so good to make progress, in this case, on something I have procrastinated doing since September.
Heather and family leave for Vermont tomorrow for winter school vacation week. Yesterday when I went to Whole Foods in Hyannis, they had the biggest artichokes I have ever seen, and I just had to buy them. I didn’t know when I bought them if the Goldstones had plans for dinner tonight. So, I was relieved when I found out they would welcome artichokes for their vacation send off dinner. Since my big pot that I would normally cook them is being held hostage at Heather’s until my back can once again handle something that heavy, I took the artichokes there.
And now I am off to bed as I can hardly keep my eyes open.
by Judy Handley | Feb 16, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 46: Phone Success
Date: Thursday, February 15, 2024
Weather: Sunny Day, A Little Snow Tonight; High Temp 37, Low 32 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
It is after 10 pm and I just took Shadow outside and found there was a light snow falling. But the temperature is rising tonight by a couple of degrees and the snow is supposed to turn to a mix and then to a bit of rain. We are certainly getting a taste of winter this season but not too extreme. The snow is beautiful, but I am not liking the ice that comes with it because it interferes with my walking. Jed came over this morning to take Shadow for a walk. I was already outside with Shadow as I was going to try walking in the neighborhood. We decided Jed would take him first and report back to me the condition of the road and sidewalks. The report was not good. The sidewalk that runs in front of this property and on down the street is one snowy, icy mess. That meant I could not even do the short loop around the block because of the icy sidewalk. And I can’t walk in the street on Lakeview as it has too much traffic. So, Jed suggested that I stick to the roads and walk where there is very little traffic. He recommended a loop walk through a neighborhood that is not far from here. I did that walk and then drove it to check the mileage. It was almost a mile. Hurray! It was my longest walk since the surgery and my goal. I just reached the goal a week sooner than expected. That same neighborhood has another a little loop that will extend the walk to more than a mile. Until the sidewalks are cleared, I’ll stick to that walk for the next few days.
Next on my agenda was going to T-Mobile in Mashpee. As soon as the young man helping me heard me say that incoming voices on my phone sound garbled, he thought he knew the problem. He asked me some questions about battery life and internet search speed, both of which are fine. He then went into settings and started turning things off. I cannot explain to you want he really did, but whatever, my phone is fine. I think that somehow, probably when I was on a public wifi network, something he was called a free wifi network attached itself to my phone and was constantly monitoring everything I do and then placing marketing ads to match my needs on my phone. Somehow that was overloading my phone and interfering with calls. He turned the setting off that allows these networks in and somehow erased my phone’s memory of that network so it cannot return. If none of this makes sense to you, welcome to the club. I’m sure I got most of this wrong, but at least my phone is working fine. Phone success! And he told me my phone is not “too old”–that actually I probably have two more years before I will have to replace it. And now I know where to go to get help if the same thing happens again.
by Judy Handley | Feb 14, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 45: Happy Valentine’s Day
Date: Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Weather: Sunny, Windy, Cold; High Temp 33, Low 21 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
Valentine’s Day here on the Cape was a beautiful sunny day, but it was cold and windy. The snow that fell yesterday and clunk to every tree branch making our world a winter wonderland was even more beautiful today as the sun sparkled on the ice crystals. All of the beauty of yesterday was simply frozen in place and enjoyed again today without the falling snow and the added bonus of plowed streets. Of course, the challenge with snow that lingers because the temperature is hovering around freezing is that it melts a little during the day and then freezes solid again at night. Today my driveway was plowed, but because everything froze solid during the night, some of the driveway is now clear, but other parts are almost solid ice. I moved my car as close to the house as I could get it so I won’t have to walk on those icy patches. And I will walk through the snowy yard to get out to the road to walk with Shadow until the driveway is clear. I certainly do not want to fall.
This morning early, I drove over to Heather and Jed’s to deliver my Valentine’s gifts and to take Shadow over so Jed could do double duty—walk Ollie to school and take Shadow along. While I was waiting inside, I was looking out onto their deck and I was very surprised at the amount of snow on their deck compared to mine. We are less than a mile from each other, but their deck had a good two inches more of snow. As I was talking to Heather about that, I mentioned how windy it was yesterday and how it blew much of the snow off the tree branches and maybe off my deck railing. Heather responded that they were surprised that they did not get the wind that was forecast for yesterday. I am not sure why, but even this morning when I got home, it was windy here. But when I was at Heather’s just minutes before it was totally calm. All I can figure is that I live on a major street that runs through town and they live in an enclosed neighborhood that is heavily wooded. Maybe the wind doesn’t get a chance to build speed like it does coming down my street. Bottom line is that they had at least 5½ to 6 inches of snow yesterday to my 3¾ inches.
Part of my afternoon was spent trying to figure out why I have such poor phone reception here even when my phone shows I have a strong signal. I checked with Sam, Heather, and Jed this afternoon after visiting the T-Mobile shop. The consensus is that it is time to buy a new (refurbished) phone, but I am going to make one more stop at the T-Mobile shop in Mashpee before ordering the phone. My friend Midge says that they have very knowledgeable staff that might be able to help. People can hear me just fine, but on my end, everything is garbled and every few minutes my calls drop. Today new things started happening. Incoming calls go directly to my voice mail when I hold the phone up to my ear, where my face touches the screen, the screen senses that touch and starts scrolling though various websites. Part of me wants to continue to troubleshoot to make sure it is not a wifi issue rather than a phone provider issue. But the other part of me just wants to order a new phone and move on. I have had this phone since September of 2019 which doesn’t seem that long ago, but the young man at the T-Mobile shop was like, “Lady, this is an old phone. It doesn’t even have 5G. It’s doing crazy things because it is old. You just need to order a new one.” Yikes. What does that attitude imply for those of us who are getting older?
