by Judy Handley | Oct 5, 2023 | Cape Cod, USA |
2023 Life Logs, Day 279: Lunch at Fisherman’s View by Cape Cod Canal
Date: Thursday, October 5, 2023
Weather: Still Sunny and Warm; High 70, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Today was Lynne’s last day here, so she took me out to lunch at Fisherman’s View Restaurant up by the Cape Cod Canal. I don’t eat out that often, but I love having lunch out on the deck at this restaurant. We also stopped by the Sandwich Boardwalk to soak in the beauty of the salt marsh.
The boardwalk was destroyed in a storm a couple of years ago and has not been replaced. So instead of walking there before lunch, we drove to the Cape Cod Canal Visitor Center parking lot and walked on the bike path by the canal.
Otherwise, we had a very quiet day back at home.
I left Lynne and Shadow at home around 4:30 pm to take Ollie to indoor tennis lessons
and to go see a little of Sam’s Varsity soccer game and Jonah’s Junior Varsity game
before I had to head back to pick up Ollie. Heather and Jed had a meet the teachers night at the high school from 6 to 8 pm, so Ollie and I went back to pick up Jonah and Sam. The games weren’t over until 6:15 or so and it was dark enough by the time we returned that the lights were on the field.
Fog had rolled in causing dusk to come sooner than expected.
Tomorrow Lynne and I leave at the same time. Lynne heads back to Nyack to visit with family before driving back to Michigan on Sunday. Then in two weeks she flies back to New Zealand. I head to Cohasset to have lunch with friends. I’ll have the full report on that tomorrow night.
by Judy Handley | Oct 4, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 278: Trip to Woods Hole and Closet Cleanout at Home
Date: Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 76, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Lynne’s visit was delayed and delayed, but when she finally got here, she hit the jackpot on beautiful weather. It has been sunny every day and the high temperature for the day has gone up and up. Today it was 76 degrees F. Wonderful.
I spent my morning on my computer. First, I had to deal with an unexpected computer issue that took much too long to resolve. Then I needed to get the agenda out for next week’s Encore Board meeting and that took much longer than I thought. It was almost noon before I even got dressed for the day! Lynne kept busy on her phone and then went out in the backyard to do a little clean-up of small fallen branches while I finally got dressed. Then we ate lunch and took off for Woods Hole. We took Shadow and made our first stop Stony Beach. Then we walked toward Eel Pond. When we got there, I turned around to go back and get the car to come pick-up Lynne and Shadow while they walked on through the village to get their steps in today.
Late this afternoon, Lynne went with me to the first meeting of a new Newcomers-Encore activity, a Health and Wellness group. This first meeting was spent deciding what topics we might cover at the next few meetings. It was a small group, but that is fine. Maybe when the weather is not so beautiful, more people will take the time to attend. And after the meeting, we headed home to start a closet clean-out. I keep clothes for years, so today was getting rid of some perfectly good clothes from the 1980’s and 90’s. I had not worn some of the things for years, so it was time to purge. We didn’t get through the whole closet, but we filled one garbage bag with clothes to give away. I call that a success.
After dinner, Kevin and Claire called to answer a question I had sent to them via text. They were driving as they left the East Coast today, eventually headed for California to visit with Kevin’s mom and other family that live there. There will be stops along the way to visit with friends and family and after the visit in California, they will head back to their boat in Mexico. It was great to talk to them. Last year when they visited me, Lynne was here, so it was great for all of us to be together on the phone tonight.
Lynne leaves on Friday morning, so tomorrow is our last day together. I’m not sure what we will do, but we do plan to go out to lunch up by the canal at Fisherman’s View. Our time together is going by way too fast.
by Judy Handley | Oct 3, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 277: Basement Redo and Sail on L’Escargot
Date: Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 68, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Lynne and I spent our morning rearranging the boxes of things stored in my basement and then taking the purged items to the Swap Shop. I have a very difficult time getting rid of things, but it felt incredibly good to let go of things that I longer need. Then after lunch, we headed to the West Falmouth Boat Club to get aboard L’Escargot with the Woodins and one of their sailing friends, Martha. There was no wind at my house when we left, but it was windy on the dock when Lynne, Jane, and I arrived in West Falmouth Harbor. Bruce and Martha had arrived earlier to take the dinghy out to the mooring and bring the boat to the dock to pick us up. There was a bit of drama as somehow in getting the dinghy tied to the mooring ball, the dinghy escaped and blew into the tall grass on a near shore. Bruce and Martha rowed a boat club dinghy out to make the rescue.
And in spite of the escaped dinghy and the white caps outside the jetty that gave us a lumpy, bumpy ride at first, things settled down a bit and we had a great sail.
Lynne has lived aboard a sailboat and sailed most of her adult life, but this was her first time on a sailboat since 2018. Despite the rowdy sail, we all managed to embrace the beautiful weather and really enjoy our time on the water.
Thank you to Bruce and Jane for the invite!
We ran some errands on the way home. One of the errands was to stop by Heather and Jed’s to pick up Shadow’s frozen dog food and to drop off some empty plastic bins that I had borrowed from them during the move. Again, it felt so good to know that Lynne and I had emptied those bins. Heather was giving Ollie a haircut when we arrived,
and we had a short but good visit. Then it was home for dinner and to watch two more episodes of Drops of God. This is an Apple TV series recommended by folks in my wine group as it is all about wine. There are eight episodes and we finished episode six tonight.
Tomorrow we have no plans other than to find ways to enjoy this beautiful weather outside and inside, to go through my closet and get rid of clothes that I have not worn for years.
by Judy Handley | Oct 2, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 276: A Beautiful, Relaxed Day with Lynne and Shadow
Date: Monday, October 2, 2023
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 67, Low 51 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Lynne, Shadow, and I enjoyed this beautiful day. In between walks, we worked in the basement to try and get rid of some of my things that are hard to part with, but no longer needed. It is good to have someone pushing me along on this project. We also did some work in my herb garden which made me super happy. We drove down to Falmouth Heights Beach for our afternoon walk.
I have to stop and rest my back while Lynne and Shadow go ahead and then come back to pick me up, and that seems to be working for all of us. Shadow is loving his longer walks with Lynne and is enjoying cuddle time with her.
And Lynne and I are just enjoying having a relaxed time together.
by Judy Handley | Oct 1, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 275: Lynne Arrived
Date: Sunday, October 1, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny, N Wind; High 65, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
After many changes in plans and much anticipation, my friend Lynne finally arrived this afternoon!!! I am so happy to have her here and Shadow is over the moon. During most of the year, Lynne lives in New Zealand and pet sits. She loves taking ‘her’ dogs for long walks and today she took Shadow for one short walk and then a longer walk to go to Main Street downtown and back. He was one happy doggy after limping along with me and my knee and back issues this summer. I went part of the way on the longer walk but when my knee and back reached their limits, I sat on a park bench and waited for Lynne and Shadow to return. Lynne will be here until Friday morning. We have no specific plans other than a sail aboard L’Escargot with Bruce and Jane Woodin on Tuesday afternoon. We just want to spend a low-key week together, but who knows where our week will really lead us.
The boardwalk was destroyed in a storm a couple of years ago and has not been replaced. So instead of walking there before lunch, we drove to the Cape Cod Canal Visitor Center parking lot and walked on the bike path by the canal.
Otherwise, we had a very quiet day back at home. 
and to go see a little of Sam’s Varsity soccer game and Jonah’s Junior Varsity game
before I had to head back to pick up Ollie. Heather and Jed had a meet the teachers night at the high school from 6 to 8 pm, so Ollie and I went back to pick up Jonah and Sam. The games weren’t over until 6:15 or so and it was dark enough by the time we returned that the lights were on the field.
Fog had rolled in causing dusk to come sooner than expected. 
