by Judy Handley | Dec 16, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 350: Marsh Mud
Date: Thursday, December 16, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, A Little Rain; High Temp 55, Low Temp 52 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Nothing on my ‘to do’ list for today got done. Life got in the way. I keep forgetting that you have to cook, clean, do laundry, walk and play with Shadow, and shop for groceries. That’s what I got done today. I did all of that except for playing ball with Shadow, so just before sundown we went down by the water to play. Things were going great. There was a strong, but warm wind blowing and we were watching all the geese in the water.
About that time, I somehow I managed to throw the tennis ball a little too hard and it went into the water. I could see it right at the water’s edge, so I walked down the rocky embankment to retrieve it. It was low tide and all I needed to do was make one step on what looked like sand and I could reach the ball. Big mistake. What looked like sand was marsh mud with a light coating of sand. My right shoe went into the muck about 8 inches before I could pull it back. It was like quicksand. I had on my only pair of everyday shoes, other than my tennis shoes, and the shoe was covered in thick black muck as was the bottom of my jeans. I got the ball and headed back up the embankment just in time to hear my phone ringing in my back pocket. I quickly checked to see who was calling and it was a number from Virginia. What terrible timing. I knew it was a call from a relative of my Aunt Ethel that I had been trying to reach for two days. I answered the phone and tried to sound composed, but I could feel the mud squishing in my shoe as I walked back toward the house. I managed to slip out of the shoes at the door and come inside to finish the call. Then after the call I retrieved my shoe and started the clean up process. My bathroom still smells like marsh muck and now that the shoe is drying, I can see that it is still covered in a thin layer of muck. I soaked the bottom of my jeans in water and hung them in the shower, but they still stink to high heavens. I will have to continue the cleaning process tomorrow. But at least I was successful in getting more information about my aunt’s death.
by Judy Handley | Dec 15, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 349: Day Off
Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 47, Low Temp 45 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I took the day off today and read. I started by reading emails from the past week that were not urgent but that I wanted to get back to. Every morning I read the NYT’s The Morning, but I often don’t have time to follow many of the links to other articles. The Monday, The Morning focus was the anti-democratic movement in the United States. I reread that and then downloaded an article from The Atlantic by Barton Gellman that was referenced. I first heard about that article last week on The Rachel Maddow Show when she interviewed Gellman. He was also interviewed by Terry Gross on National Public Radio. I highly recommend that you either try to find a way to read the The Atlantic article, “Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun” dated December 6 or listen to the interview on NPR’s Fresh Air aired last Thursday, December 9. That program is entitled, “The end of American Democracy as we know it?”
I took a long walk with Shadow and when I returned, I spent most of the rest of the day reading my current novel. I intended to just read while I ate lunch, but it turned into a true page turner, and I just could not put it down. In fact, I am going to head to bed and hope to finish it before I go to sleep tonight. That way, I can put my full attention to Christmas tomorrow. I need to inventory to make sure I have or have ordered everything and do some wrapping. I also have to go to Heather and Jed’s to see if there are any soccer cleats in the basement that might fit Coco. Jo sent a photo of her with her soccer team today.
The majority are boys, and Jo said Coco was unimpressed by her coach today for commending her for a girl who stuck with it all semester and for being a good player. In her mind, she thinks he should be looking at her as a soccer player, not a girl.
by Judy Handley | Dec 14, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 348: Computer Tutoring Session and Book Club
Date: Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 52, Low Temp 30 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a beautiful and a busy day. I started with an hour-long computer tutoring session. A Newcomers member, Art Gilbert, offers free one-on-one tutoring sessions at the Falmouth Senior Center. He is so popular that it takes a month or more to get an appointment, but it is worth the wait. From the computer session, I ran a couple of errands and then headed to meet with my book club. It was our first inside meeting since the beginning of Covid, but all of us have been fully vaccinated and boosted and we wore masks today ‘just in case’.
The literary interests of the members of this group are diverse and that was evident in our recommendations for books to read in 2022. Each of us brought a list of three books to present as possibilities. After each member’s presentation, we discussed the merits of the three books and chose one and paired it with a month. The one member that could not come sent her three suggestions in writing. Honestly, every book sounded fascinating, but we forced ourselves to come up with our favorites. Each choice seemed like a special gift. Since there are only eight of us, we will need to choose three more books at some point. We don’t meet in July, so we only need eleven books each year. We are set through September and at some point, we will go back over the list of recommendations and come up with choices for the last three months of the year.
Since so many people I know are always looking for book suggestions, I am going to list our recommended books here. The ones with three asterisks were the ones we chose. Happy reading in the New Year!
• ***The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan (2017) 384 pages
• Maid, Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive by
Stephanie Land (2019) 270 pages
• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (2021) 626 pages
• Additional Choice—Intimacies by Katie Kitamura (2021) 250 pages
• ***This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (2019) 424 pages
• Love and My Husband’s Daughter by Emma Robinson (2020 ) 268
pages
• Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
(2008) 425 pages
• ***The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria
Christopher Murray (2021) 352 pages
• Summer on the Bluffs by Sunny Hostin (2021) 400 pages
• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, (2021) 600 pages
• ***Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (2017)
383 pages
• The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas (2017) 240 pages
• The Vanishing Half by Gail Honeyman (2017), 383 pages–Already
Read
• ***Miss Bensen’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce (2020) 368 pages
• State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton (2021) 512
pages
• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (also recommended by another
member)
• Additional Choice–Ordinary Grace by William Kent Kruger (2014)
336 pages
• ***A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allegne (2020) 336 pages
• An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff (2012) 272 pages
• Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020) 304 pages
• ***The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley (2021) 480
pages
• Beloved by Tony Morrison (1987) 324 pages
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813) 380 pages
• Non-fiction Recommendation for Personal Reading—This Land is
Their Land by Bob Silverman
• ***Circe by Madeline Miller (2018, Reprint 2020), 416 pages
• Still Life by Sarah Winman (2021) 464 page
• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell ( 2021) 320 pages
• Recommended for Historical Fiction Readers–Beatriz Williams
books
by Judy Handley | Dec 13, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 347: The Sound of Music
Date: Monday, December 13, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 48, Low Temp 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today my grandson Ziggy in Puerto Rico had his first piano recital, along with three other students.
He has only been taking lessons for a short time, but the video Jo sent of him playing at the recital was fantastic. Then I got a text from Heather asking if I would like to go to Jonah’s middle school band concert tonight. Jonah plays bass in the jazz band and trombone in the regular band. He had to wear all black tonight and he looked so grown up and handsome.
The sound of music in the auditorium was wonderful.
There were no in-person concerts last year due to Covid and tonight they took all sorts of precautions. You had to sign in with contact tracing information and you were asked to scan a QR code on the program and enter your seat number. There was also social distancing. All seats were labeled with a red or a green sticker. You could only sit in seats with a green sticker giving lots of space between people and everyone was masked. The district music director greeted people at the door explaining the Covid precautions and he started the program by saying how exciting it is to have live music programs once again. I certainly agree and really appreciate the care they took to make sure the event was done as safely as possible.
by Judy Handley | Dec 12, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 346: Great Day for a Walk in the Woods
Date: Sunday, December 12, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 59, Low Temp 38 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The sun was shining. The air was crisp. It was a great day for a walk in the woods with Shadow and a friend. We did a loop trail from Highfield Hall to the Punch Bowl and back in Beebee Woods.
The Punch Bowl is beautiful pond surrounded by woods on all sides. When I got home, I put on a huge pot of chicken mineral broth to burble for the rest of the day. I finished the jigsaw puzzle I started with Coco when she was here.
Then I read while Shadow slept at my feet. It was dark before I knew it and I had missed my chance to go out and play catch with Shadow. He didn’t seem to mind, however. He continued sleeping through most of the evening. That walk must have worn him out.
I saw a photo on Facebook of Ziggy and Coco after lighting the candles in their Advent spiral.
Each year, Jo makes a spiral candle holder and puts 25 indentations in it, one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. The spiral image is found in all cultures over time. It is associated with the cycle of rebirth, time and seasons, and sometimes a spiritual journey. Ziggy and Coco add another candle each day in December. I love their tradition and might join them in doing this myself next year.
About that time, I somehow I managed to throw the tennis ball a little too hard and it went into the water. I could see it right at the water’s edge, so I walked down the rocky embankment to retrieve it. It was low tide and all I needed to do was make one step on what looked like sand and I could reach the ball. Big mistake. What looked like sand was marsh mud with a light coating of sand. My right shoe went into the muck about 8 inches before I could pull it back. It was like quicksand. I had on my only pair of everyday shoes, other than my tennis shoes, and the shoe was covered in thick black muck as was the bottom of my jeans. I got the ball and headed back up the embankment just in time to hear my phone ringing in my back pocket. I quickly checked to see who was calling and it was a number from Virginia. What terrible timing. I knew it was a call from a relative of my Aunt Ethel that I had been trying to reach for two days. I answered the phone and tried to sound composed, but I could feel the mud squishing in my shoe as I walked back toward the house. I managed to slip out of the shoes at the door and come inside to finish the call. Then after the call I retrieved my shoe and started the clean up process. My bathroom still smells like marsh muck and now that the shoe is drying, I can see that it is still covered in a thin layer of muck. I soaked the bottom of my jeans in water and hung them in the shower, but they still stink to high heavens. I will have to continue the cleaning process tomorrow. But at least I was successful in getting more information about my aunt’s death.
