by Judy Handley | Jan 25, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 25: Days Are Just Too Short
Date: Monday, January 25, 2021
Weather: Sunny; High 37, Low 24 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This was day one with nothing on my calendar, so I had high hopes that I would get a lot done. And I did. But I wanted to do more. The days are just too short. I stop every weekday at 3 pm to go pick Ollie up after school and on many days we do something together and I end up not getting home until around 5:30 pm. That, plus preparing healthy meals, exercising, and walking and playing Shadow all take a big hunk of every day. But that is okay because every one of those things are important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. As I learned yesterday, when I don’t pick Ollie up after school, Shadow might be the only ‘person’ I see or talk to all day long. Dogs are great, but you need communication with humans here and there. Other things that fill my days are reading the New York Times ‘The Morning’ news round-up online every morning and working the NYT’s daily mini-crossword puzzle. And I work on my current jig saw puzzle here and there. And, and, and . . . but that still leaves about three hours to focus on projects. Today I split that time between filing end-of-the-year paperwork and researching information on something called a FODMAP diet for my sister. Isolation during Covid has been very hard on my sister and she has simply lost interest in doing the things necessary to keep her 87 year-old body healthy. I talk with her for an hour every other evening, sometimes every evening. But my tough love approach is not working. She has had gastrointestinal issues her entire life, but right now the problem is chronic. She wants the doctor to tell her what to eat to avoid this, but as you probably know, doctors don’t know a lot about nutrition. My primary care suggests eating a healthy diet, but it is up to me to figure out what that is for me. So, I suggested to my sister that she try a diet Mark’s oncologist suggested for him when he had bowel issues and was losing weight. I forgot to mention that my sister only weighs 80 pounds! It’s called a FODMAP diet. “FODMAP stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols, which are short-chain carbohydrates (sugars) that the small intestine absorbs poorly and some people have digestive distress after eating them.” Basically, you stop eating certain foods, those foods that are high FODMAP foods. After two to six-weeks you slowly reintroduce high Fodmap foods one at a time to try and identify which ones are troublesome for you. Once you know that, you limit those foods permanently. But trying to get my sister to understand this over the phone has not gone well. Today I talked to the woman who comes in three afternoons a week to help my sister. She does the food shopping and talking to her was a real breakthrough. The low FODMAP diet requires eliminating processed foods, gluten, dairy, most beans, and certain vegetables and fruits. The first three of these, processed foods, gluten, and dairy are dietary irritants that anyone with serious health issues needs to contemplate eliminating. I am constantly beating the drum for eating a healthy diet, but most people just don’t want to hear that drum beat. So if you are not interested in upgrading your diet, there are lots of other things you can do to just feel better. I got an email from Well.org that listed the following six tips for a healthy mind, body, and spirit. And they promise that doing any of these things will help fight the Winter Blues that many experience this time of year.
1. Get Enough Sleep
2. Move More and Exercise Regularly
3. Listen to Music
4. Keep Learning
5. Make a Gratitude a Habit
6. Engage with Your Community
This afternoon after school. Ollie came home with me and helped clear more brush and briars out of the wooded area where Shadow and I walk. Little by little, he is making my late night and early morning outings with Shadow so much easier. I am constantly running into a low lying limb or a briar that catches my coat. Today Ollie also helped me finally get my redwood picnic table disassembled and put in the basement. So nice to have a willing worker.
by Judy Handley | Jan 24, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 24: Very, Very Quiet
Date: Sunday, January 24, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Still Windy; High 32, Low 20 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a very, very quiet day around here. I didn’t see another person, not even on my long neighborhood walk with Shadow, and I didn’t talk to another person until just now when I called my sister for our daily check-in. I usually see Heather and family most every day, but I think we were both spending the day just catching up. January has been a busy month. First, we were all glued to our televisions watching the storming of the United States Capitol. Then we had the impeachment in the House, followed by the inauguration and the first days of the new administration. So, for people like me who follow the news closely, I have spent much of the month keeping track of happenings. January is also the month that many health and gardening docu-series are launched, and I have been watching those. These docu-series are rolled out, one program a day. But at the end of the series, there is always a weekend where all of the episodes are available one last time. That was this weekend, so I spent part of my day watching those episodes I had missed. And then there has been football. Because of my love of die-hard Cleveland Browns fans and Buffalo Bills fans, I have watched a couple of football games each weekend. Now it is down to the Kansas City Chiefs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the Super Bowl. New England’s beloved Tom Brady is no longer a Patriot. He abandoned us to become a Buccaneer. Now he will be going to the Super Bowl (for the 10th time) with a new team. He is almost old enough to be the father of the quarterback for the Chiefs, a 25 year-old that is making football history of his own. So, the Super Bowl will be a match of quarterbacks and will be interesting to watch no matter who you are cheering on. But it looks like we have a break for a couple of weeks before the Senate impeachment trial and the Super Bowl. I have absolutely nothing on my calendar until Friday, February 6, when I take Shadow to the groomer. My goal is to use these next two weeks to truly catch up on the long list of things on my To Do list. Wish me luck.
I want to pass along a link to another opinion piece from The Guardian that Jo’s father sent to me this morning. It is interesting to read about the perceived impact Joe Biden’s election might make on British politics.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/24/hurrah-for-triumph-of-the-centrist-dad-but-dont-discount-joe-bidens-radicalism
by Judy Handley | Jan 23, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 23: Day with Ollie
Date: Saturday, January 23, 2021
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High 33, Low 19 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Now I remember why our bodies are designed to have children when we are younger. I had a delightful day with Ollie, but I am tired.
Part of that is because we took a walk with Heather and Jed mid-afternoon and went further than we intended due to taking a wrong turn. I think we were out there walking for two hours and it was cold and windy. Just being outside in the cold saps your energy. We started our walk at Peterson Farm and checked out the sheep in the fields. Ollie and I will try to go back every month in the hopes of seeing baby lambs. We walked around the fields and into the woods where Ollie enjoyed climbing on the rocks along the way and Shadow had a great time pulling us along. Jonah and Sam went on an all-day outdoor Scout outing today. When I took Ollie home tonight at 8:30 pm, Jonah was just getting into a hot bath trying to get warm. I assume Sam was upstairs taking a hot shower. But other than being cold, Jonah said they had a good day.
by Judy Handley | Jan 22, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 22: Educating Oneself, A Lifelong Commitment
Date: Friday, January 22, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 44, Low 25 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This afternoon, I hopped on my exercise bike and turned on the TV to catch up on the news while I biked. It was announced that Greta Thunberg, the young climate change activist, would be coming up in the next segment, so I was excited about that. I saw her in the interview with the Dali Lama a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to hear what she had to say now that we have a new administration in this country. The interview was great, but she was still ‘selling’ the same message. “Educate yourself about climate change. Educate, educate, educate.” This reminded me that I need to go back and watch the five films on Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops. Here’s the link if you are interested: https://feedbackloopsclimate.com/. And this afternoon Heather reminded me that I need to actually read Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. It is on my coffee table, but it has not been read.
The past eight days, I have been watching a docu-series called the Longevity Roadmap. I do want to summarize what I learned for you, but there was so much information and I need to watch some of the programs again this weekend during the replay. Then I’ll write my summary. I have also been watching a series of short programs each afternoon on winter gardening. It was not the best I’ve seen, but it did get me into sprouting lentils. They will be ready tomorrow to incorporate into a couple of new recipes that were shared, so I’ll let you know how that goes. I’m reading Obama’s autobiography which is a “deeply personal account of history in the making” and this week I have been glued to the TV watching history happening before our eyes. So, for sure, I have been doing my part to continue the lifelong learning process these past two weeks.
Tomorrow I am taking the day off to be with Ollie. Jonah and Sam have an all-day Scouting activity, so Ollie and I are going to do some special things together. One thing we are going to work on is making a nice walking path for me and Shadow in the woods on the street side of the property. This morning at 6:15 am when we went out for his early bathroom break, we almost ran into the neighborhood coyote in the woods on the water side of the property. We were way too close for comfort. I’ve known the coyote was around, but this is the first time that I saw him. He quickly ran away when Shadow barked, but I think I’ll avoid walking on that side late at night and in the very early morning. A new path, free of briars and low hanging branches, is definitely needed!
by Judy Handley | Jan 22, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 21: Happy Birthday to Sam
Date: Thursday, January 21, 2021
Weather: A Mix of Sun and Clouds, A Few Snowflakes; High 38, Low 29 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I woke up this morning feeling an unbelievable sense of relief that there is a new administration in Washington, but it was almost as if I had an inauguration hangover. Was this really true? Are Joe Biden and Kamala Harris really our new President and Vice President? Or was I dreaming? I shook my head and turned on the TV to make sure all was well. Whew! It is not a dream.
I started my day with my exercise and walking rituals, watched a couple of docu-series, and before I knew it, it was almost time to go pick up Ollie at the end of the school day. A little before that, I got a phone call from Heather preparing me for some bad news Sam’s received today, on his 14th birthday. This is a remote school week for Jonah and Sam, so Sam was at his friend Robert’s today. Sam and Robert are both drummers and had both just submitted their video auditions for the position of drummer for the high school jazz band next year. Yes. Sam is going to be in high school. They found out today that Robert got the position. It was unfortunate that this news had to come on Sam’s birthday. He is disappointed but seems to be handling it okay. But then tonight when I went over for Sam’s birthday dinner, there was more bad news. Just before dinner, Ollie went up to feed the guinea pigs and came back downstairs saying Jonah’s guinea pig, Max, was laying on his side. Heather and Jed headed upstairs while Sam and I stayed in the kitchen. The news we heard was not good. Max was obviously struggling to stay alive. At first Jonah headed to his bedroom, but then he decided he wanted to say goodbye to Max. He was a brave little boy and held his guinea pig and then everyone came down to the dining room. Max was resting for a bit and Heather kept going to check on him. None of really felt like eating dinner, but Sam heated up pieces of the duck breast that he loves so much and he ate standing up in the kitchen. Heather came down to try and get Jonah to eat. And eventually, Ollie, Heather, Jed, and I ate a little. But there was no sit down celebratory dinner. Sam opened a couple of presents and that distracted Jonah for a bit. Eventually, Heather took Jonah back upstairs and when she came back, she announced that Max had died. When Jonah rejoined us, Sam cut his own birthday cake and brought Jonah the first piece. Brothers can fight like crazy, but in a time of need, they are there for each other. And even though Sam had a very disappointing day and his birthday dinner was derailed, he handled it all really well and did enjoy opening the remainder of his birthday gifts at the end of the evening. So Happy Birthday, Sam. So hard to believe my first born grandchild is 14 years old!
