by Judy Handley | Feb 14, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 45: Happy Valentine’s Day
Date: Sunday, February 14, 2021
Weather: Overcast and Warmer, but Felt Colder; High 38, Low 32 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Happy Valentine’s Day to all. I spent a quiet, but delightful day doing very little. I answered some emails and sent some overdue emails to others, did a rereading of what I have been writing and made some edits, and talked to family members and good friends. I heard from Heather that they had arrived in Bethel, Maine, and that the kids were really psyched about the house they are renting. They were especially loving the heated garage with ping pong, darts, and a golf simulator. It looks like they are going to have a cold week with a lot of snow tomorrow night and into Tuesday and again on Thursday night. I have no idea how that will impact skiing and snowboarding, but since both require snow, maybe it will be no problem. It looks like we are going to have rain here tomorrow and into Tuesday as well as Thursday into Friday with maybe a little sunshine on Wednesday and over next weekend. It doesn’t look like a great week for outside activities, so maybe I’ll get a lot of writing done. Wherever you are and whatever your weather, I hope you have a good week.
by Judy Handley | Feb 13, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 44: Acquittal and Sushi
Date: Saturday, February 13, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Still Cold; High 31, Low 28 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
If you are a person who follows politics like I do, you spent much of your day watching this last day of the impeachment trial. And if not, you have probably at least heard that Donald J. Trump was once again acquitted. But it was not because the House Managers did not make a a complete and compelling case. A few Republications did vote against acquittal, but the majority stood by their man. I was not surprised by the acquittal, but I was taken aback by the total damnation of Trump by Senator McConnell only a few minutes after he voted to acquit him. I am not sure where all of this leads us as a nation. I guess it puts us all in the wait and see mode.
Heather and family are leaving for a week of skiing and snowboarding in Maine tomorrow, so Heather invited me over for dinner tonight. I suggested that instead of cooking we have a sushi dinner in celebration of Valentine’s Day. So that is what we did. It was a fun evening and I do hope they have a wonderful winter vacation week.
by Judy Handley | Feb 12, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 43: More Impeachment Trial, More Writing
Date: Friday, February 12, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny, Cold; High 26, Low 19 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today looks like the coldest day in the upcoming ten-day forecast, so that is good. Shadow and I have had a good time walking in the crunchy snow and I love that the Goldpebbles have been enjoying afternoon sledding, but I’m ready for the high temperature for the day to get above freezing.
I spent a great deal of my morning with another Terminix representative who came to do a further investigation in the attic. He didn’t find any carpenter ants, but there is definite evidence that they have been up there at some point. He sprinkled some pellets in the attic that should deal with the ants if they are there and he checked the perimeter of the cottage. He will return in mid-March to check again. And I now believe that the crazy noises I heard coming from the attic on Sunday evening during the Super Bowl were not caused by an animal invader. It seems almost impossible, but I now believe that limbs that overhang the roof were being blown down on the roof by the wind. The wind must have been just right to do that, but once the winds abated the noises went away. And there is a pile of small branches on that area of the roof as proof of the ‘invasion’. Hopefully, that was the problem and all is well now.
I spent the rest of the day watching the impeachment trial and doing some writing and editing. I finally gave up on the writing project as it takes my full attention. I learned I can’t watch television and write at the same time! I was very frustrated with the defense’s case today. I was not impressed with their presentation and I hated the tone, but I am sure that Trump supporters hated the prosecution’s case. So, I tried to just take a deep breath and convince myself that some way, somehow, justice will be done. It will be interesting to see if the vote comes tomorrow or if a decision is made to call witnesses.
by Judy Handley | Feb 11, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 42: Impeachment Trial and Writing
Date: Thursday, February 11, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny, Cold Tonight; High 31, Low 12 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
My day flew by, but all I did was watch some of the impeachment trial and continue writing Chapter 5 of The Voyage of Windbird. I finished the chapter today but will read it tomorrow morning to make edits. Then I will move on to Chapter 6 which focuses on our time in the Caribbean. It is so delightful to be writing about warm places in these cold times. Watching the impeachment trial is not so delightful. It is painful for two very separate reasons. One is that if you are a person who loves our democracy, it is just hard to relive January 6 for reasons that don’t need to be stated. The other reason that it is painful for me is what we are hearing from many of the Republican jurors. I saw a cartoon post on Facebook today that said, “We find the President innocent by reason of we don’t care if he’s guilty.” I think the House Managers under Jamie Raskin’s leadership have each and all done a masterful job of telling the story of January 6 and building the case that led up to that day. What stands out in my mind most is the fact that the President of the United States of America sat and did absolutely nothing for the first couple of hours that the Capitol building, all of the employees there, all of our legislators and some of their family members, their staff members, and the Vice-President were under full attack. When it became obvious that the Capitol police were totally outnumbered and overrun, still Donald Trump did nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. I guess we just have to wait and see if enough Republican Senators agree with the case as the House Managers have presented it. It almost seems like it is not Donald Trump that is on trial, but rather the Senate. And I fear that they are not up to challenge.
As on all weekdays, I stopped whatever I was doing at 3 pm to go pick Ollie up after school. His positive outlook on life always gives me a mid-afternoon lift. The snow that fell on Monday and Tuesday is still on the ground, so today he was excited to get home to go sledding on the hill across the street. An older woman lives in the house across the street and it is her side yard that we walk through to get to the boardwalk and path around the Two Ponds area. She has told the boys that she doesn’t mind that they walk through. But when the snow came, they realized that the side yard path would make a great downhill sled run, they called to ask if they could sled there. The neighbor explained that she is great grandmother and is so delighted to have young children in the neighborhood. She doesn’t mind at all. In fact, she is excited to watch the action. Due to her kindness, the Goldpebbles have only to walk across the street to enjoy the lingering snow.
I saw a photo of my good friend Olivia White on her Facebook page tonight that made my day. I grew up in a football loving family and I thought they were over-the-top fans until I met Olivia. She is truly what you would call a football ‘fan’atic. Today she went to Gillette Stadium to get her Covid vaccine and posted a photo of herself standing high up in the stadium wearing her Patriots’ mask. She said that her only regret was that there were no football players. Go, Olivia!
by Judy Handley | Feb 10, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 41: Creepy Crawlies
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 31, Low 20 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It didn’t get above freezing today and this is the warmest day until at least Sunday. So, the snow that is on the ground is going to be around for a while. Knowing that, I decided to go water plants for friends who out of town today even though I knew their very long uphill driveway was going to be an obstacle. It’s not going to get better until the end of next week, so I decided to go for it. I knew I would have to walk in the snow for at W half of the uphill trek, so I wore my boots and headed out. As I suspected, I was able to drive halfway up the hill as others live on that part of what I am calling a driveway and it had been cleared a bit. It was still snow-covered, but passable. When I got as far as I could go, I pulled the car over to the side and parked. Because it was a hill, I engaged the parking brake. After watering the plants, I returned to the car and tried to turn it around. No way. It was just too slick, so I attempted to back down to the main road. I got too far to one side and got stopped by the plowed snowbank. No problem, I thought. I’ll just rock my way out of this. But that did not work. I was just about to call a friend to come push me out of this mess, when I realized I hadn’t released the parking brake. Once I did that, I was able to rock my way out of the predicament and continue on with my day. I went into town to run a couple of errands and then headed home.
Once home, I took Shadow for his Morning Mile walk and then it was time for lunch. I turned on the impeachment trial and watched some of that while I was fixing lunch. About that time, my friend Peter Baranowski knocked on the door. I rent the cottage from Karen’s (Peter’s wife) Aunt Shirley, so Peter was going to do a thorough check of the attic to see if he could see where any animals might have gotten into the attic. I explained that I really think it was tree branches laden with heavy snow being slammed onto the roof by the high winds that had caused all the noise on Sunday evening, but we still needed to check. Heather had already checked things out, but a second look was welcomed. And because Heather had also discovered what she thought might be the remnants of termite activity, Peter had called Terminix and they were coming this afternoon. A young woman from Terminix arrived and we all checked out the attic. She said the problem is not termites, but rather carpenter ants. And that means the pest control squad has to be called in to deal with the issue. But she was not satisfied with just finding the problem, she wanted to know where they were coming from. She pointed out that if you treat the problem without finding the source and dealing with that, you will still have the problem. She found a tree very close to the house that she thinks is the source of the carpenter ants. Pest control will arrive on Friday and we’ll continue to track down the problem. In any case, I will be very glad to get rid of these destructive creepy crawlies in my attic.
With creepy crawlies on my mind, I went back to watching the impeachment trial after Peter and Terminix left. The video of the insurrectionists attacking the Capitol was being shown and now the insurrectionists looked like creepy crawlies to me. Carpenter ants can destroy the wood in your home very quickly if you don’t treat the problem. In the video the House managers were showing, the insurrectionists were destroying our democracy. Same, same. One is just blatantly more violent than the other. And as the young woman from Terminix pointed out, if you don’t seek out the source of the problem, the destruction will continue. It sure looks to me like it is clear that former President Trump incited insurrection on January 6 and he needs to be held accountable for that. But there are deeper problems that allowed him to rise in power and those are the true sources of the problem to which there is not an easy solution like calling Terminix.
