by Judy Handley | Jan 13, 2023 | Cape Cod, USA |
2023 Life Logs, Day 13: Friday the 13th
Date: Friday, January 13, 2023
Weather: Overcast, Rain and Wind; High 54, Low 36 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:08 am & 4:35 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Being superstitious, I did not stray far from home on this Friday the 13th. It was raining hard this morning, so Shadow and I did our walking and playing in the afternoon. I basically spent my whole day working on a puzzle of 99 Beautiful Places on Earth. I see only one of the 99 squares looks very similar to a photo I took on Railay Beach in Thailand in 2008.
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Mine was not photo shopped to make the sand look so light.
I have been to some of the other places, but don’t have similar photos. I started this puzzle a few years ago when my friend Lynne came to visit. But she loves to work jigsaw puzzles and took over and finished it. So, I decided to keep it and work it again someday. I started it a few days ago and even after working on it for much of today, I am still making slow progress. But I will get there.
I’m looking forward to two more days of little activity other than puzzling and reading, and maybe watching a movie. Heather and family headed to Maine with friends this afternoon for the three-day weekend. All I have to do this weekend is feed their cats once a day and water plants for friends who are living it up in Mexico. Another friend is in Hawaii and sending photos each day to share the beauty with friends. Looking at her photos is making me long for those days of sailing the South Pacific on Windbird. Heather and Ollie return from Maine late on Sunday night so Ollie can participate with his class in reciting parts of the “I Have a Dream” speech at the MLK National Holiday Community Breakfast, hosted by No Place for Hate – Falmouth, on Monday morning. Ollie is so proud that he memorized most of the speech and he really wanted to come home to participate. I will attend the breakfast and then maybe Heather, Ollie, and I will have a fun day together. Workmen are going to be installing a heat pump system in their home on Monday and that involves cutting holes in the walls for new heating ducts. Heather might have to check in to make sure things are moving along, but there is no need for Ollie to be in the house. Tuesday I lead the field trip to the Edward M Kennedy Institute in Boston, my Dining-in group meets on Wednesday, and Friday my wine group meets here. I’ll enjoy my two quiet days before the activity ramps up again.
by Judy Handley | Jan 12, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 12: Ahhh . . . A Quiet Day
Date: Thursday, January 12, 2023
Weather: Overcast, Some Sprinkles; High 48, Low 46 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:08 am & 4:35 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
After a few days of crazy activity, today was nice and quiet. I got up and called by sister’s doctor in North Carolina, worked on my jigsaw puzzle, walked with Shadow and played fetch, and made soup. I did have to tackle a little problem with the field trip I am leading to the Edward M (Teddy) Kennedy Institute on Wednesday. Their cafeteria is not open, but I was told we could order boxed lunches from the JFK Library next door. I have called every day this week and have gotten no further than voice mail with no return calls. So, this morning I was told by my contact at the Institute that maybe I should just order lunches to be delivered from Panera. That wasn’t quite as easy as just picking up the phone and making an order. I had to register to be a ‘host’ and then send a link to participants where they can order their own lunches. But I hope I have it figured out and that people will be successful getting online to order. I also talked to my sister this morning and she seems to be holding her own against Covid. Her companion called me this evening and said she put her to bed early and that I should not call Patsy tonight as there is no phone in the bedroom. I smiled but said nothing. I am sure my sister got up as soon as Edie, the companion, left. But I will wait until tomorrow morning to call and hope I will find my sister feeling even better after a good night’s sleep.
by Judy Handley | Jan 11, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 11: Another Busy Day
Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny, Day, Snowflakes Tonight; High 38, Low 30 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:08 am & 4:34 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Another gain in daylight today—1 minute earlier sunrise and 2 minute later sunset. Yippee!
I was up early to walk with Shadow and then take him to his every 6-week appointment to be groomed. It takes 45 minutes to drive him to Pampered Pets, drop him off, and return home. I made a slight detour on the way home to go into downtown Falmouth to pick up a package for a friend who is out of town. Then it was home to finish prepping for my afternoon presentation on food and climate change. At noon, an insurance inspector came to give the thumps up, hopefully, on new home insurance. In the meantime, I learned that my friend Olga Mitchell has Covid and needed some Pedialyte from CVS. I went to pick that up and then got a text that Shadow was ready for pick up. I had begged this morning that they get him ready early today as I had to pick him up before my afternoon meeting. Otherwise he might have been spending the night at Pampered Pets as they would have been closed by the time the presentation was over. They came through, so I went to CVS for Olga, delivered the goods, and then drove back north to pick up Shadow. I barely got home to do one run-through of my proposed presentation and then it was show time. Shortly after the presentation was over, I got a call from my nephew in North Carolina telling me sister Patsy has tested positive for Covid. Her companion returned today after being out for 12 days with Covid. So far, so good, however, with my sister. She does have a cough and feels a bit tired, but otherwise is okay. I sure hope she gets no worse. I will check with her in the morning, but I am definitely ready for a day of rest tomorrow!
by Judy Handley | Jan 10, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 10: One of Those Days
Date: Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 42, Low 28 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:09 am & 4:32 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Writing and sending out the one week from today email for a field trip I am leading next Tuesday to the Edward M Kennedy Institute . . . book club . . . time with Ollie on an Early Release Day from school . . . back home to play with Shadow . . . then back to Heather and Jed’s to spend the evening with the boys . . . fixed dinner . . . took Jonah to Scouts . . . canned chicken broth . . . and then finally sat down and worked on a jigsaw puzzle with Ollie. And in between all of this, I was working on my food and climate change presentation for tomorrow afternoon. Whew! It was one of those days.
Tonight, Jed went with Heather to a staff gathering at Woodwell to celebrate the beginning of a new year. They had a great time and picked Jonah up from Scouts on their way home. I got home around 9 pm, took Shadow for a walk, and then finished up the PowerPoint for tomorrow’s presentation. Now it is time to go to bed!
by Judy Handley | Jan 9, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 09: A Trip to Newbridge on the Charles
Date: Monday, January 9, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 41, Low 31 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:09 am & 4:31 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Okay. I admit that I am obsessed with tracking the increase in daylight minutes. But I just have to report that today we gained 2 minutes of daylight when sunset moved from 4:29 pm yesterday to 4:31 today. I love it!
I picked Heather up this morning, and we drove north to Dedham to Newbridge on the Charles. When you Google Newbridge online, it is described as “modern senior living community offering dynamic, top-tier amenities.” And from my visits there with my good friends Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg I would definitely agree with that description. Helaine is part of a Newbridge environmental group that invited Heather to come speak today. Before her presentation, we had lunch with Helaine and the three women who help set the agenda for the environmental group. What a dynamic group of women!
Sixty members of their environment group came to hear Heather speak. I overhead people saying what a masterful speaker she is, and I have to agree. She takes very complex information and somehow breaks it down so that you as the listener can easily understand. Today, I heard people gasp when they saw a few of the PowerPoint slides she presented. One slide showed a graph of world climate changes over the past 800,000 years. After the last ice age, climate variations have gone up and down, but within reasonable ranges. Then around the time of the Industrial Revolution, the rate of change started climbing radically. You could instantly see how out of line it is now as compared to what it had been for the previous 800,000 years. I’m probably not describing this exactly right, but the point is that it was immediately obvious that we are now off the charts. Heather also left the audience with a sense of empowerment. Yes, we need to take immediate action, any action that can help. Things are dire. But the good news is that we caused problem. When Heather said that, you could hear the questioning in the audience. How can causing a problem be good news? Her answer was that if we caused the problem, then we can fix it. And one thing we can all do is to just start talking about climate change with other people. According to a survey, only 35 percent of Massachusetts residents discuss climate change at least occasionally. It has become so politicized that we are afraid to talk about it for fear of alienating others. According to Heather, it is better to start talking which will hopefully lead to more action. Good job, Heather. And thank you Helaine and your Newbridge friends for hosting us.
Mine was not photo shopped to make the sand look so light.
