by Judy Handley | Aug 28, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 240: What a Difference 20 Degrees Make
Date: Saturday, August 28, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny, Windy, Felt Cool; High Temp 73, Low Temp 60 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Yesterday it was in the nineties. Today the high was almost 20 degrees cooler and the wind was coming from the north. A high of 73 should not feel cool, but after the past few days, it did. I spent my day getting the lawn furniture out of the basement and back in the yard. I put it away to get ready for Henri, but I am hosting my dining-in group this Wednesday and needed the tables and chairs back in the yard. I also did some shopping for a few things I need for the dinner. I found compostable and biodegradable plates made of palm leaves that have fallen and are collected, dried, cleaned, and pressed to make a plate and salad bowls. Since we are eating outside, I decided to go with plates that can be composted instead of carried back inside to be washed.
I talked to two members of the dining-in group this morning, and both were celebrating wedding anniversaries. Today was the 50th wedding anniversary for Karen and Peter Baranowski and yesterday was the 55th anniversary for Olivia and Terry White. Happy anniversary to good friends!
When I got home this evening from my shopping trip, I had a wonderful Skype video call with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. I got to see Ziggy and Coco’s bedrooms that have been recently updated and they look great. Yesterday was the end of their first week of school and I got to hear all about that. They are in a school called Arts and Beyond that has grown along with Ziggy. His class is the oldest and this is the first year they have had a seventh grade. The school plans to add eighth grade next year and then Ziggy will have to find a new school for high school. He has been spending time doing animation using his iPad and adding to his repertoire on a keyboard he was given by a friend last spring. He is also continuing to write programming for games. He is one busy twelve-year-old. Coco keeps busy, but much of her time is spent socializing. She seems much more interested in friends than in school, but says she loves school because it is fun. She gets to see friends! Jo has taken a part-time position teaching English at Arts and Beyond and is enjoying that. Things are going well on Finca Maravilla.
by Judy Handley | Aug 27, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 239: Finally, Too Hot for Me
Date: Friday, August 27, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Hot; High Temp 91, Low Temp 66 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The high temperature in the past few days has been in the upper 80’s with high humidity and lots of people were complaining. But not me. I love hot. But today was a different story. I assumed the high today was the same as in the past two days, but my body reacted differently. I took Shadow for a walk at high noon and when I got home my clothes were soaking wet from sweat and I was so exhausted that I really couldn’t do anything but sit outside in the shade and eat watermelon and drink water. I finally gained enough energy to eat lunch, but that didn’t do it. I just wanted to take a nap, but it was almost time to go pick up the boys. Jonah had a school open house this afternoon making today’s pick-up time 2 pm instead of noon. By the time I got to Heather and Jed’s I was feeling better and their air-conditioned house felt so good. But I continued to move in a slower gear for the rest of the afternoon. Thankfully all I had to do was sit in the shade and watch the boys having fun in the water on the Maui mat with neighbor kids, Charlie and Lena.
At the end of the day, we met Heather and Jed at the beach and getting into the water finally did it for me. I was back to normal. As I do every evening, I check the daily high and low temperature when I start of write this log. It was just now that I discovered it was in the 90’s today. Those extra few degrees hotter must have been just a little too much for me. It is currently down to 75 degrees and that is supposed to be the high for tomorrow. Whew! We are going to get a break from the heat. But if the temperature rises again, I will check the temp before going on a mid-day walk.
by Judy Handley | Aug 26, 2021 | Cape Cod, USA |
2021 Life Logs, Day 238: Work and Play
Date: Thursday, August 26, 2021
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 87, Low Temp 71 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Jonah and Ollie did the work today and I did the playing. I picked J & O up at 10 am and they came to my house to do yard work. Jonah mowed Shirley’s yard while Ollie used the weed whacker to do some trimming in my yard. They had planned to switch jobs so Ollie could mow Andrew’s yard, but we ran out of time. I needed to get Ollie home so he could go to a playdate at Mullen Hall. This is his new school and he really only knows two kids who go there. One of the two is Simon who lives in his neighborhood. Today Simon and Ollie were going to play on the school grounds. Jonah had a playdate with his friend Kaiden. So, after dropping Ollie off, I took Jonah to Kaiden’s on my way to Midge Frieswyk’s. There I joined friends for lunch on Midge’s deck where I played away the afternoon eating good food and talking with friends. It was a great way to spend a beautiful summer afternoon.
by Judy Handley | Aug 25, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 237: Beach Day with a Surprise Ending
Date: Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 88, Low Temp 69 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a hot, sunny day today with a high temperature of 88. This morning Ollie and I went to the Falmouth Arts Center weaving open house and then went to pick Sam up from soccer practice 30 minutes early. The coach decided it was just too hot to continue practice. Tomorrow is supposed to be about the same, so he might need to be picked up early again. Because of the heat, it seemed like a good afternoon to spend time in the water, so we went to Menauhant Beach. We had to leave to take Sam to do yardwork for friend Olga Mitchell, but then Ollie, Jonah, and I returned to the beach before ending the day at my house. I left Ollie and Jonah to take showers while I went back to pick up Sam and then took all three boys home. Just as I was getting ready to leave to take them home, I got a call from Midge Frieswyk. She had an extra ticket for a Jamaica Night dinner at Coonamessett Farm and wanted to know if I could join her. And I did. The dinner was great and Midge and I had a lovely evening together. Thank you, Midge.
by Judy Handley | Aug 24, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 236: Just a Fun Summer Day
Date: Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 84, Low Temp 69 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
As I have all summer, I let Sam, Jonah, and Ollie basically set our agenda each day for Camp Oma. I offer ideas, as do they, and then they decide what we will do on any given day. Their goal for the summer was to have mornings at home to read, relax, and play and then spend afternoons doing low-key summer activities. Their plan for today was to go to the Sandwich Glass Museum or go play mini-golf. We ended up doing neither. Sam made last minute plans with a friend to go downtown for lunch after his morning soccer practice and when I picked him up he expressed interest in going to the Glass Museum on a day when he could go. I let Jonah and Ollie make the decision and they definitely wanted to wait and go with Sam on another afternoon. Then they decided that rather than go play mini-golf, they would like to play at home, go to Trotting Park to practice soccer kicks, and I added to that the suggestion that we go to Highfield Hall to have a picnic lunch and play in the stick house built by artisans last summer. We went with this revised plan.
Our picnic lunch at Highfield was at the base of a huge old American Beech tree (Fagus grandifolia) planted by the Beebee family when they lived on the property in the late 1800’s. We then moved to the front lawn of the mansion and had dessert sitting on a stone bench in the shade with the stick house as our view. Just looking at it invites you to want to play hide and seek in its twists and turns, so we did. Since we were there, I asked the boys if they would like to go inside the mansion to see the current art exhibits focused on the sea. One is named SeaChange and is “a call to action that explores the interconnectedness of all living things: our responsibilities toward our environment, our efforts to recognize the fragility of our Earth, and the need to restore balance to preserve it.” The second exhibit was Turn the Tide which “explores the dual threats of climate change and ocean acidification.” Ollie and Jonah both seemed to enjoy the exhibit, but the thing that impressed them both the most was a visit to the men’s room at the end of our visit. They went in and came right back out with Jonah almost screaming, “Oma, you have to come in here and see this.” There was no one else in the bathroom, so I looked in. It is a jaw-dropping beautiful bathroom with tiled floors and walls that made it look like an art exhibit. Next time I am at Highfield, I will have to find the women’s room and check it out.
We went home to pick up Sam and go to the Crooked Coast store. Crooked Coast is a local music group that has a small shop that sells their paraphernalia. We have tried to catch them open all summer, but once again we were unsuccessful. So, we headed to soccer field for the boys to practice kicking goals with the new soccer balls they bought yesterday. We then had to head home for the Goldpebbles to get showered and dressed for an evening of outside fun for the families of Woodwell Climate Change Research Center on their campus. And I had to rush home to pick up Shadow and go to a 5:30 pm dog training class. It was a day filled with summer fun.
