by Judy Handley | Nov 16, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 320: Lost Day
Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Weather: Sunny and Cool; High Temp 48, Low Temp 30 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I’m literally not at all sure how I spent this whole day doing almost nothing. But I did. My ‘to do list’ is a mile long and maybe I was just overwhelmed by it. So, I procrastinated. Whatever, I’d better do better tomorrow. I salvaged my day by at least doing something to help someone else. Good friend, Bruce Woodin, has his knee replacement surgery today. Late afternoon I went to pick up Jane Woodin who had a knee replacement three weeks ago to take her to PT session. That was a three-hour commitment, so at least I know what I did for three hours today!
Tomorrow is house cleaning day. Wish me luck!
by Judy Handley | Nov 16, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 319: Shop ‘til You Drop
Date: Monday, November 15, 2021
Weather: Sunny and Cool; High Temp 51, Low Temp 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a last minute decision to go shopping today, but Shadow and I took off and returned seven hours later. Costco was our first stop, and it is an hour and a quarter drive from home to Costco with no stops or traffic. When we arrived, I took Shadow for a walk and then went into Costco. I emerged two hours later with a cart load of clothes and food. I am usually a hunt and kill shopper, in and out in no time. But today I was shopping for a few winter clothing items for Justin and family and that took me longer than usual. When I did emerge, I packed the things in the back of the car, took Shadow for another walk, and then went back into Costco because there was an item I had forgotten to purchase. On the way home, I made another stop at Whole Foods to pick up some things I didn’t find at Costco. It was a shop ‘til you drop day, but a successful one.
The sun had set by the time I got home but there was still enough lingering light to play ball with Shadow. I had an early dinner and then took off again. This time I went to pick Ollie up after his Cub Scout meeting and take him home. Both Heather and Jed were attending the annual Town Meeting, so I volunteered to come get the boys to bed and stay until Heather got home. Jed is a Town Meeting member and is probably still at the meeting. But Heather just had to go make a quick presentation on behalf of the science community supporting the need for more affordable housing. The presentation was short, but she had to wait for her slot on the agenda. Even with the wait, she was home before lights out and got to say goodnight to the boys while I headed home.
by Judy Handley | Nov 14, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 318: Endings and Beginnings
Date: Sunday, November 14, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Much Cooler; High Temp 62, Low Temp 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The storm last night blew in cooler weather. It looks like our wonderfully warm fall weather is ending, bringing us the beginning of more normal, cool fall weather. I was loving the warmth, but all good things must come to an end.
And speaking of coming to an end, the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, came to an end with agreements but no major steps forward. The diplomats struck an agreement that called on governments to return next year with stronger plants to curb emissions. I heard Bill Nye, the Science Guy, in an interview tonight say something that stuck with me. Personal decisions to recycle our plastic water bottles is not going to do it. We need whole government, whole world stronger plans now. But COP26 has ended. Bill Nye said the most important personal decision we can make is to talk about the climate emergency relentlessly to everyone we know. This can be our new beginning of heightened awareness.
According to an opinion piece in the NYT last week, one of the most compelling voices in Glasgow was the earth system scientist Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “We have more and more evidence that the planet is more fragile than we thought,” said Rockström. So it may be hard, it may be impossible, but his is not time to give up on trying to phase out fossil fuels and prevent these tipping points from tipping. Otherwise, we will be the punchline to a bad joke that made the rounds in Glasgow. Here’s the not at all funny joke.
Two plants are talking to each other. One looks like a beautiful blue marble and the other a dirty brown ball.
“What on earth happened to you?” the beautiful planet asks the brown one.
“I had Home sapiens,” answers the brown planet.
“Don’t worry,” says the blue planet. “They don’t last long.”
Let’s all begin talking about the climate emergency to spread awareness and hopefully to save Homo sapien selves!
by Judy Handley | Nov 13, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 317: Ollie’s Soccer Game, Planting Bulbs, Stormy Evening
Date: Saturday, November 13, 2021
Weather: Sunny Day, Stormy Evening; High Temp 59, Low Temp 38 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This day went from beautiful to stormy and scary. I’ll start with the beautiful part. Ollie’s soccer team, the Tidal Waves, had their final game of the fall season first thing this morning. After yesterday rain, this morning was warm and sunny. Some of the kids on Ollie’s team, including Ollie, have been playing soccer together since they were two years old. Back then, they were just kicking a ball around at the Woods Hole Day Care Cooperative. It has been fun to follow them through the years. 
Today they were all psyched. At their age, the league doesn’t keep score. But the kids do. According to Ollie, his team has won or tied all of their games. Today they tied, so Ollie announced to me that they won the league championship. There is no such championship, but the boys on the team felt like champions. One of the parents awarded a little trophy he had made on his home 3-D printer to Coach Rachel at the end of the game. The kids were so excited that you would have thought the team had won the World’s Cup.
Sam went with a friend to try out for a new (new to Sam) soccer league this morning. If he makes the team, he will play with them in the spring. Then later he joined Jed and Jonah at an Eagle Scout project workday. I came home from Ollie’s game to take Shadow for a walk and then I went to Heather’s to help her plant bulbs in her front garden area. It was still absolutely beautiful outside when I got home, so spent longer than normal playing ball with Shadow down by the water. Then I reluctantly came inside to cook dinner and do some work with photos on my computer. Heather sent a text requesting any good photos I have of the boys playing soccer this fall. As I went through the photos, I realized I really need a different camera with a good zoom lens for sports photos. This fall I have been using my phone. It takes great photos, but not at a distance. My old Canon does a better job, but it has seen better days. I have to do some research to figure out what I need going forward.
Around 6 pm I was in the kitchen and heard a pounding noise outside. I walked into the living room and realized it was pouring rain outside. What happened to that beautiful, sunny day? The wind was blowing really hard slamming the raindrops into the front windows. I turned on the television to check the Weather Channel, but I never got that far. Just as I turned on the TV, it went to a Weather Alert saying there was a tornado warning in my area. It was 6:10 pm and the wind was roaring outside. The warning said the tornado warning was in effect in the Mashpee area (about 3 miles from me) beginning at 6:20 pm. It was obviously in effect here right at that moment. I opened the hatch going down to the basement in case Shadow and I needed to make a quick escape. It was dark outside so I couldn’t really see what was happening, but I could tell the wind was blowing way more than 25 miles an hour. Just then, there was an update warning on the television saying to expect winds up to 50 miles an hour. Then electricity went off. It came back on almost immediately, but I must say I am not liking the frequency of these extreme storms. This one took me by surprise and was scary. After things settled down, I took Shadow outside and it looked like all was fine. It is now 10:30 pm and Shadow and I just went outside for his bedtime potty break. The wind feels like it is still blowing a good 25 miles an hour with higher gusts. Hopefully things will settle down by morning, but I wonder how many of the oak leaves will still be on the trees.
They are just now showing their fall colors, so maybe they will hold on a bit longer.
by Judy Handley | Nov 12, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 316: What a Great Wine Group
Date: Friday, November 12, 2021
Weather: Rainy, Windy, and Overcast; High Temp 61, Low Temp 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The weather today was ugly. I took Shadow out for the first time at 8:30 am, an hour and a half later than normal, but neither of us woke up earlier. It was windy and overcast, but not raining. But by 9 am the rain came down for about an hour. Then it cleared a bit, so I took Shadow for his morning mile walk and then took him with me to do a little food shopping. We got home around 12:30 and shortly after that the rain started again. At 4 pm I had a Wine Group gathering at David and Diana Brassards. About the time I needed to leave, it started pouring rain. I thought I might melt if I went out in the deluge, but I just put on my raincoat and took off. Good news. I didn’t melt.
This evening’s wine gathering was an Octoberfest at David and Diana Brassard’s. 
Members were to bring their favorite German wine or beer. David and Diana went all out. They were dressed in their best Octoberfest gear. Diana was transformed into a biergarten maiden wearing a platinum blonde wig. She looked great. Others had on Octoberfest aprons, and I grabbed a pair of humongous sunglasses to complete my Octoberfest look.
What a crazy but great wine group!
We first sampled German wines and then switched to the beer.
Each presentation came with a paired food. We had sauerkraut with sausage, knockwurst with potatoes, warmed large pretzels, German cheeses, fruit, and a great cheese on rye bread topped with dates. Plenty of food to complement our German samplings. It was a great evening.
