by Judy Handley | Jun 3, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 154: A Day Down Under
Date: Thursday, June 3, 2021
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High 67, Low 60 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was my plan to write and then plant tomatoes today. Neither of those things happened. I got a call early this morning from Insulate2Save saying they will be coming on June 16 and 17 to insulate the cottage attic, walls, and basement. “And you are aware that you have to clear everything away from the basement shelf and at least three feet from the walls. Right?” Yes, I was aware of that, but I had been told the insulating would be done in the fall. Evidently, the cottage is a priority, for what reason I don’t know, but the state requires that the work be done by June 30. Okay. Time to get to work. When the call was over, I headed to basement, down under, and spent much of my day just standing and staring and becoming even more overwhelmed with how much ‘stuff’ has ended up there in a haphazard way.
The cottage has a full basement with a shelf-wall on all sides. The shelf is about three feet high and three feet deep. When I moved in, I figured that shelf was the perfect place for storing things. When it was totally lined with plastic storage boxes, I then lined the entire perimeter of the basement floor with more storage boxes at the base of the shelf walls. And over the last three years, the whole middle of the basement has filled up as well. I will get everything organized and in the middle of the basement in the next few days, but it will mean making that THE priority. I do have to get the tomatoes planted, but writing is going to be put on hold. I am so close to finishing up year one, but it is just going to have to wait. The down under calls.
by Judy Handley | Jun 2, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 153: Gardening and Dog Training
Date: Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 70, Low 54 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Turning a patch ground covered in briars into a tomato patch is harder than I thought. I spent my morning pulling roots and digging holes for 16 tomato plants. Then it was time to go pick up Sam and his friend Robert who had agreed to do an hour of gardening work for my friend Olga. She has lost her longtime handyman who used to do weeding and raised bed preparation for her, so I offered Sam and Robert who had a half day of school today. Unfortunately, an hour was not nearly enough time. They worked on weeding two flower gardens and made great progress. But there is more to be done. Since I was there with them, I helped Olga prepare three of her raised beds to plant tomatoes. I hope we will have time to return to finish our jobs on another day. Olga is at least ten years older than me, lost her husband of 64 years this winter, and lost her handyman. She is struggling a bit to get going again. I hope our work today helped a little. Sam really enjoyed seeing her airplane that she still flies and does aerobatics. Olga lives in the Falmouth Airpark and the plane is kept in her huge garage along with her Mercedes convertible. When she showed Sam and Robert the Mercedes, that did it. Sam said he hated to tell me, but he wished Olga was his grandmother! I can’t blame him. She is quite a woman. And on top of all that, Olga paid them and gave each of them a Magnum ice cream bar. She is a hard act to follow.
We had to leave Olga’s in time for me to pick Ollie up after school and then go pick Shadow up from day school. His training program has turned my life upside down. I am just hoping that the results will be positive. Right now, I feel like I live in a jail. Shadow is not allowed to be on any furniture, so all bedroom doors have to closed and I have one sofa fenced off and the other one has cardboard boxes stacked on it. If I want to sit on my sofa, I have enter my fenced in living room. But when I do that, Shadow simply jumps over the back of the sofa to join me. Then I have to put him in his crate. So, I find it easier to just sit at my dining room table until bedtime. Shadow has to be in his crate or in structured time (tethered or walking and training with me) 80 percent of the day. Not sure how long I can continue this. If anyone has experience with trying to calm an exceptionally exuberant dog, I’d love to hear from you.
by Judy Handley | Jun 1, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 152: A Break from the Rain
Date: Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Weather: Some Sunshine, Some Clouds, Warmer; High 71, Low 54 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
After three overcast, cool, rainy days, the sunshine was bright this morning. It did get cloudy in the early afternoon, but by late day there was again sunshine mixed with clouds. And it was warm and the sunshine was very much enjoyed. It was a wonderful first day of June.
My day consisted of a six-week check-in with my chiropractor, a nice long walk with Shadow, and some gardening. Then at 3 pm, Shadow and I went to pick Ollie up from school, on to pick Sam up from his drum lesson, and then we took Sam to his rowing practice in Hyannis. But the highlight of my day came early when I got a call from Justin. He got his PCR test results for Covid this morning and they were negative. The rapid test was evidently a false positive and he does not have Covid. Yay!!! He and Jo were off to get their scheduled second Covid vaccine and to get back on track for their trip to England in mid-June. What a roller-coaster they have been on for the past week. But in the end, all is well.
by Judy Handley | May 31, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 151: Memorial Day 2021
Date: Monday, May 31, 2021
Weather: Overcast and Misty; High 57, Low 51 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I hate to be negative, but I believe this was the most miserable Memorial Day weekend in recent memory. I went through my logs and copied at the end of this log my personal weather reports for each Memorial Day weekend since I have lived on Cape Cod. You might not agree, but I really think this weekend deserves the Most Miserable award.
That said, today was the best of the of three-day weekend. We haven’t seen the sun since Friday, but at least it was only misty today. There was no real rain. The temperature was the same as yesterday, but without the rain, it felt a little warmer. Ollie came over early afternoon to meet Leana, the new neighbor that is his age. Ollie, Leana, and Leana’s older brother Charlie who is Jonah’s age, immediately hit it off. I gave them buckets and nets and they started catching little critters in the water off the dock. Shadow was running and playing with their dog Hugo while the kids were on the dock and somehow Shadow managed to knock Ollie in the water. He easily scrambled back on the dock, but we had to go do a clothes change. He didn’t have extra clothes, but he had his wet suit with him. He put that on and then went to launch the kayaks. Charlie and Leana are new to kayaking, so Ollie took them out to give them a lesson. Charlie managed to capsize, but Ollie retrieved the kayak and Charlie swam to shore. The Goldpebbles often capsize, but it has always been on purpose. They love nothing more than capsizing and trying to sink the kayaks. Ollie explained this to Charlie and Leana telling them that it is a great exercise in water survival. And I think he is right. As I watched him kayaking today, I realized just how confident he is because he knows that even if he goes in the water, he knows how to right the situation. And as always, everyone had on life vests, so all was safe.
During all of this, Jed and Sam arrived to cut a couple of limbs off a tree close the cottage. The two limbs were high up, so Jed brought his super safe extension ladder. Jed did the chain sawing and Sam did the clean-up. They cut the branch hanging over the roof first and then the branch over an area where I will plant tomatoes. A piece of one branch dropped into one of my raised beds and mangled two tomato cages and bent a bean tower, but no plants were harmed. So, all is well. I just have to do a little straightening. But now more sunshine can get through to the tomatoes. That’s the important thing.
I went to Heather and Jed’s for a special Memorial Day dinner tonight. Dinner was delicious, but dessert was even better—strawberry shortcake which is a Memorial Day tradition for us.
Below I have listed my Memorial Day weekend weather reports for the past ten years. I think you will agree with me that 2021 wins the award for Most Miserable. But we still managed to have some fun.
Saturday, May 26, 2012–Mixed Sun, Clouds, and Fog
Sunday, May 27, 2012—Beautiful, Sunny Day
Monday, May 28, 2012—Another Beautiful Sunny Day
Saturday, May 25, 2013–Rainy, Windy, and Cold for Late May
Sunday, May 26, 2013–Windy and Cold for Late May
Monday, May 27, 2013–Warming Up, Sunny and Windy
Saturday, May 24, 2014–Mostly Sunny, Windy, High Near 70
Sunday, May 25, 2014–Cloudy Early then Mostly Sunny, High Near 70
Monday, May 26, 2014–Overcast with Rain Early, High Winds
Saturday, May 23, 2015–Sunny, Wind SW 20+, Temp in the Upper 50’s
Sunday, May 24, 2015–Sunny, Wind SW 20+, Temp in the Lower 60’s F
Monday, May 25, 2015–Partly Sunny, Temp in the Lower 60’s F with Wind Settling a Bit
Saturday, May 28, 2016–Mix of Sun and Clouds, High 77 degrees F
Sunday, May 29, 2016–Mix of Sun and Clouds, High 77 degrees F
Monday, May 30, 2016–Mostly Overcast with Rain, High 67 degrees F
Saturday, May 27, 2017–Partly Cloudy; High 67, Low 49 degrees F
Sunday, May 28, 2017–Mostly Cloudy and Windy; High 72, Low 50 degrees F
Monday, May 29, 2017–Overcast and Rainy; High 53, Low 49 degrees F
Saturday, May 26, 2018–Sunny with Building Winds; High 75, Low 55
Sunday, May 27, 2018–Overcast, Rainy, and Cool; High 65, Low 51 F
Monday, May 28, 2018–Overcast and Cool, Some Clearing Late Evening; High 64, Low 54 F
Saturday, May 25, 2019–Mostly Sunny; High 72, Low 55 degrees F
Sunday, May 26, 2019–Mostly Sunny; High 72, Low 58 degrees F
Monday, May 27, 2019–Sunny; High 76, Low 51 degrees F
Saturday, May 23, 2020–Rainy Day; High 63, Low 45 degrees F
Sunday, May 24, 2020–Partly Sunny Day; High 60, Low 50 degrees F
Monday, May 25, 2020–Cloudy Early, Some Sunshine Late; High 60, Low 54 degrees F
Saturday, May 29, 2021–Rainy, Cool, Gale Warning for Tonight; High 48, Low 46 degrees F
Sunday, May 30, 2021–Still Overcast and Rainy; High 57, Low, 50 degrees F
Monday, May 31, 2021–Overcast and Misty; High 57, Low 51 Degrees F
