by Judy Handley | Nov 6, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 310: Serious RAIN
Date: Friday, November 6, 2026
Weather: Rain, Rain, and More Rain; High Temp 66, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth MA
The unofficial reports from friends and neighbors say we got about 5 inches of rain today and it continues to come down. It was raining so hard this morning and there were so many deep puddles in the roads that driving was really a little scary. It was the huge wave of water from cars passing you in the opposite direction that covered your windshield so that you literally couldn’t see anything for a second or two and you just had to hope that you were going slow enough that if you did hit something while you were blinded, it wouldn’t be a major problem. I walked Shadow this morning when the rain was steady but not pouring, but there was thunder and he was so frightened he couldn’t go to do his morning business. By the time I finally got him to go pee, we were both soaked. When we come inside, I put both of our rain jackets in the dryer. I had my Friday morning class today and I got absolutely soaked going from the house to the car and then the car to the building where the class is held. This is the second, or maybe the third, super rainy day we have had this fall. These storms used to be once every couple of years, but now they happen much more often.
We spent our class time today digesting the midterm election. And I then spent the afternoon running a few errands that I have put off for weeks and then catching up on email communication. I also took time to make a ‘Clean Out Corruption in Washington’ sign for tomorrow’s rally on the Green. People keep saying to me that I must feel a huge weight off my shoulders with the election over, and I do. But the hard work is yet to come. People need to understand that we won the election, but that democracy is still on the brink. It is going to take the involvement of everyone to make sure we get back on track. Democracy is not a spectator sport, so we have to stay involved. The first thing everyone needs to do is to call your senators and your representative on Monday or Tuesday of this coming week to ask them what criteria they are using in determining who they will vote for as Speaker of the House and Majority Leader. Those positions will be decided in the next two weeks, so we need to our feedback on what we are expecting of them. You can do this, beginning on Monday, by calling the US Capitol switchboard and asking to be connected (202) 224-3121. You will have to call multiple times to talk to both of your state senators and your representative. And if you don’t hear back from them in a day or two, call again. This is one way you can participate directly in the democratic process.
by Judy Handley | Nov 5, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 309: American Tsunami
Date: Thursday, November 5, 2026
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Still Warm; High Temp 67, Low 61 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth MA
The weather has been unseasonably warm with lots of blue skies and sunshine for days now. But this morning, it was cloudy. But once I got outside with Shadow, I realized that a long sleeve thermal shirt was too much for today. It was even warmer than yesterday. But starting around 3 am in the morning, the heavens are going to open and give us 32 hours of rain. My neighbor Andy says we could get as much as 6 inches. Ollie is supposed to go camping this weekend with Scouts, but 6 inches is a lot of rain for a camping trip. I have my “These Truths” class in the morning, but nothing else on my schedule until noon on Saturday. I think I will come home from class and hibernate.
My friend Christina Brodie called this morning to check in on how I felt about the results of the election and my answer was ‘elated’. Both of us have done a great deal of door knocking in the past few months and we both feel really good about what we did. We think door knocking really makes a difference. Christina also mentioned that she liked what Hakeem Jeffries said yesterday in his remarks on the election, “It wasn’t simply a blue wave, it was an American tsunami.” I love this because it is inclusive. Then this evening, I was working with the Indivisible Steering Committee to get a message out to members tomorrow about Saturday’s weekly rally for democracy on the Falmouth Green. We want it to be a fun celebration of the election, but with a message. So, we chose “Clean Up the Corruption in Washington” as our theme. We are asking people to bring a feather duster, broom, mop, vacuum or some other cleaning implement and we will collectively, symbolically, start to CLEAN UP the Corruption in Washington! And as long as we are going to have a little fun on Saturday, I decided to ask AI to write new words to the song American Woman, making it American Tsunami. Here’s what AI came up with in about 30 seconds. Not bad. Anyone know how to add music to this?
AMERICAN TSUNAMI (AI generated)
American Tsunami, come on over to me
American Tsunami, it’s a sight to see
Come on knockin’ round my door
Yeah, we wanna see your wave some more
We got great big things to do
Watchin’ all the red turn into blue
Now woman, I said come on stay
American Tsunami, changin’ the day
I love your midterm shifts
I love your Senate flips
Gained twenty-five in the House, they say
Washed the old roadblocks right away
Go look at Texas, Kansas too
Even the red states are turning blue
It wasn’t a wave, it’s a tidal roar
Come on knockin’ around my door
American Tsunami, come on over to me
American Tsunami, it’s a sight to see
Come on knockin’ round my door
Yeah, we wanna see your wave some more
Go look at Georgia, look at the map
Historic wins just closed the gap
Now woman, come on close to me
American Tsunami, you’re a sight to see
I love your veto threat
Countin’ up the seats we get
Don’t need no more partisan fuss
The working class is steering the bus
Gonna lower the costs, gonna change the track
Ain’t no way that we’re lookin’ back
Now go, gotta spread the word
Gotta spread the word, gonna tell them now
Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!
Bring on the wave some more!
I’m gonna look, watch the power grow
High water’s flowin’ at the midterm show
American Tsunami…
Swept right through the USA…
American Tsunami…
Washed the old regime away…
by Judy Handley | Nov 4, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 308: Day After Historic Election
Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 64, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth MA
The Guardian Headlines … Democrats win control of Congress as voters punish Trump … US voters rebuke Trump as Democrats win control of Congress in ‘blue wave’ … Resounding wins for Democrats is a wholesale rebuke of Trump’s Maga. US headlines all included words like rout or blue wave or tsunami, or they said things like, “Voters reject Trump’s GOP as Democrats rack up wins.”
My friend, Jerry Lanson, wrote a Substack post today. He wrote the same things I have been thinking. Here are some excerpts from that post:
“Americans spoke … They voted this election day in anger and disgust but with purpose. They spoke up for health care and affordable housing, for sane gas prices and utility bills, for food prices they can afford. But they spoke up for more — for decency and a roll back of overt, daily corruption … They elected a governor in Ohio abused as a child and mocked for it by her opponent. They elected a senator in Iowa, who was a para-Olympian and campaigned from a wheelchair. They elected a logger in Maine to the U.S. Senate and the pastor of a mega-church in Kansas. They elected a Native American to the Senate from Minnesota and may yet elect an African-American from the deep red, southern state of Mississippi. They elected a Muslim-American smeared as a terrorist and non-American in Michigan. They elected a Latina governor of Texas and an African-American governor of Georgia. And they elected a 37-year-old Texan, part populist, part preacher, raised by a single mother with a closet for his nursery as a babe. He ran against Elon Musk and the $212 million Musk donated to defeat him. And he beat him, and the state’s long term conservative incumbent governor, in part by casting the race as David vs. Goliath, with the voters of Texas as his slingshot. Meanwhile, close to home, I am now represented by a 24-year-old state Assemblyman who took on a long-entrenched Republican well-liked in my community but nonetheless tied in some ways to Trump’s party and brand … What an extraordinary group of candidates and now new elected officials. What a diverse group in a country in which the president has done everything he can to deport people to countries they’ve never set foot in, to erase their history — our history, to intimidate, bully and threaten anyone who stands up to him. In truth, relatively few college presidents, members of Congress, business leaders, or law firms have. The Supreme Court has largely crumbled, but the court system, federal and state, beneath that high court has not … Nor have the American people.”
Personally, I am still trying to internalize that this really happened. Since January 2025, I have worked hard for something like this to happen, but I never let myself think that this midterm election would be this successful. But as throughout history, the American public once again voted for what is right and just.
You and I–all of us—can take time to celebrate, but then we have to stay vigilant and push very hard against the widening inequalities that are corrupting our system … and keep pushing very hard for democracy and social justice.
by Judy Handley | Nov 3, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 307: On Election Day
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 62, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth MA
What an election night! The power of the people in the election was definitely stronger than the people in power and the millions and millions of dollars they spent to try and buy this election. The people of this country said loud and clear through their votes that we are not having it. Candidates willing to fight for our democracy while not taking big money in order to get elected have won the night so far. They did not have the millions from the richest man in the world poured into their campaigns, but they did have millions of people knocking on doors, making phone calls, writing postcards, sending small donations, getting out the early vote … people power is winning!
Heather and I went to local candidate Jack Richardson’s watch party tonight. Jack is only 24 years old and is running against a well-liked Republican incumbent to be the State Representative for part of Falmouth, Mashpee, and Bourne. It was a tense evening as the results from Falmouth in-person voting today showed Jack behind David Viera.
But as the evening progressed and results from early voting were added in, Jack pulled slightly ahead. But when Heather and I left sometime after 11 pm, votes from Bourne were still not in. When I got home, I turned on the television to get the latest update on the national scene. During the watch party, we had watched one Democratic candidate after another being projected to win their races. But it wasn’t until I was home, cuddled up on the couch with Shadow, that I began to truly realize what had been accomplished through this election—truly phenomenal. It is now 1 AM and I am going to bed. I still do not know if El-Sayed in Michigan is going to win. And the results in Maine are still not in. So, I go to bed feeling great about the results so far but not yet celebrating until the final votes are counted.
One thing I do know as I go to bed on this election night is that I have done everything I could in the past year, right up until the sun set today, to use my personal ‘people power’, and that feels good. I will sleep peacefully. This morning I traveled to New Bedford to be a non-partisan election observer for the New Bedford Coalition to Protect the Vote. Foreign-born residents living in New Bedford make up more than 20% of the population and the Coalition wanted to make sure those who are eligible to vote could do so. Federal agents were at the polls for the primary in September, so we were there to make sure those who are eligible to vote could do so. But the federal agents did not show up for this election, at least not at the poll where I was stationed. My only regret when I left there just before noon was that I do not speak Portuguese. So many people in southeast Massachusetts are Portuguese speakers, so maybe this is something I will add to my to do list! Then after getting home to walk Shadow and eat lunch, I went to the Dems Headquarters to get a sign for Jack Richardson and headed to one of the precinct polling places to hold the sign until the sun went down. Thankfully, Heather and Jed invited me over for dinner so I didn’t have to cook before heading to the watch party. It was a full and uplifting election day watching so many people streaming in to vote.
by Judy Handley | Nov 2, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 306: On Election Eve
Date: Monday, November 2, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 62, Low 51 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth MA
Midterms 2026. Months of work by so many people across this country have gone into preparing for tomorrow. But when all is said and done, it will not be the end of anything. It will either be the beginning of a massive effort to begin to rebuild or it will be a continuation of the work we have been doing. I am so hopeful that the people of this country will come out in record numbers to say loud and clear that what has been happening in the past two years is not representative of the vast majority of this country. But whether or not there is a blue wave (I’m hoping for a tsunami), the tide is turning and we just have to keep swimming.
