by Judy Handley | Jan 15, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 15: Where to From Here
Date: Friday, January 15, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 46, Low 34 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
If I am still reeling from last week’s attack on our democracy, how must Joe Biden feel? He is doing a great job of trying to lay out a path to get us out of all of our current crises—the pandemic, the collapsing economy, and the attack on our democracy. To say that it is overwhelming doesn’t quite do it. Where to from here? I guess we just proceed by putting one foot in front of the other and hope we don’t find ourselves at a standstill, or worse yet, moving backwards. I have faith that we will make it, but it is going to take monumental strength to lead this nation forward. And it is going to take a cooperative effort on both sides of the aisle. But first we have to survive the next few days leading up to the inauguration of Biden and Harris. I constantly find myself holding my breath. It would be so helpful if the Republicans could collectively put this thing to rest by issuing a unanimous statement of the truth. That the November election was a free and fair election with no fraud. But the likelihood of that happening is nil. My daughter-in-law Jo sent me a link to a 10-minute video that I would like to share. It is by Matthew Cooke. If you are like me, you have never heard of him, but he is a successful director of documentaries. The video is titled, “Wake-Up Call for Republicans.” I will insert the link here, but in case it doesn’t work, to give you a flavor of what he is trying to get across, he ends by saying, “For the former Republican Party who called themselves patriots. This is your wake-up call. Your nightmare of a brainwashed, radical, anti-American movement trying to destroy the country . . . was you.” Ouch. Here’s the link. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CKE44CxAIoQ/
by Judy Handley | Jan 14, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 14: Celebrations the Covid Way
Date: Thursday, January 14, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 47, Low 34 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
There is a lot of negative in our lives these days, but it is heartening to know that we can set that aside for short periods and enjoy celebrations in a new way, the Covid way.
Today was friend Terry White’s 80th birthday and the 1 pm celebration was organized by a member of our Dining-in Group. It was a car parade which, when it was first proposed, I thought was a rather silly idea for adults. But I have to admit that it was wonderful. Thank you, Midge, for organizing this. There were about ten cars that arrived in a gathering area, some with helium balloons that I also poo pooed and still do, others with banners, and at the appointed time, we all drove through Olivia and Terry’s u-shaped driveway. They had been alerted to come outside to the driveway and we went through, each car stopping to give birthday wishes to Terry, wearing masks of course.. It only took a few minutes, but you could feel the warmth and friendship that was exchanged. Happy 80th birthday to Terry!
I started my morning by attending a monthly Falmouth Newcomers meeting on Zoom. The speaker today was Terry and Olivia’s daughter, Sheri. She is the Lead Systems Engineer for the Ocean Observatories Initiative at WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution). This means that she goes out on the research vessel Neil Armstrong a few times each year to maintain arrays of moorings and autonomous vehicles in the North Atlantic, the North Pacific, and off the coast of New England. These moorings gather scientific data used by my many scientific institutions. It was a really interesting presentation, and the timing was perfect as Sheri was able to wish her dad a happy birthday while giving her presentation. The only other highlight of the day was taking Jonah and Ollie to the skatepark after school. When I went to pick Ollie up today, I took Shadow with me. So when I dropped Ollie off, Sam wanted to know if he could take Shadow for a run—Sam on his skateboard and Shadow pulling. Shadow has had his harness on since Monday’s run without it, so I told Sam to give it a go. All went well. And then Jonah and Ollie wanted to go to the skatepark.
I haven’t been there for a while and I enjoyed watching the boys. Even though the weather was mild, Shadow and I stayed in the car and watched from there. Some of the other parents don’t wear masks, so staying in the car is safer for me.
by Judy Handley | Jan 13, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 13: Impeachment Twice
Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 41, Low 33 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
History was made today when a president of this country was impeached for the second time, the first time this has happened in the history of this nation. The real tragedy is that this second impeachment is for inciting insurrection against his own country. That seems surreal when I write it. I never in my wildest dreams I would see such a lawless US President. But he did incite insurrection right before our very eyes and now needs to pay the price. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning of the impeachment process and it appears it will have to continue in the Senate after the inauguration of Joe Biden next week. Trump will only be stripped of his right to run for office again if he is found guilty in the Senate. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to see this man be able to even run for dog catcher in the future. So, we have to live through more days of this. It has to be done, but no one knows how it will impact the beginning of the Biden administration. Biden’s cabinet needs to be approved and we so desperately need our new president to focus on this virus and take steps to get things in better control. And that is just number one on a long list of emergency measures that need to be dealt with. Hopefully the Senate can walk and chew gum at the same time, and if they can, here’s hoping we the Democrats don’t encounter obstructionist moves by the Republicans.
I promised myself that I would do nothing today other than watch the impeachment proceedings and I pretty much kept my promise. I did pick Ollie up after school and took him home and I did take Shadow for a long walk and then gave him a bath. That was it for today.
by Judy Handley | Jan 12, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 12: Shadow is Fine
Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Weather: Sunny; High 42, Low 27 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Last night was long and scary, but Shadow seems to be fine today. Thank you to all who contacted me directly to check on Shadow. The doctor finally called at 1:30 am to say that the x-rays did not show any obstruction in his throat and that the constant hard swallowing and drooling had subsided. I went to pick him up and he was a very happy puppy. The young man that brought him out to me just said, “He certainly is energetic.” Yep. The doctor did see a shadowy area in the esophagus and asked a pathologist to examine the x-rays today. I did get a call saying it was nothing. The doctor thinks Shadow’s problem was a severe attack of esophagitis and she is treating him with ten days of Omeprazole, more commonly known as Prilosec. I can think of at least four things that happened yesterday that might have contributed to this. So maybe it was just a perfect storm and I will avoid those things in the future. Once he threw up his dinner, he continuously kept swallowing hard. I had an attack like this the morning Heather and I flew back from my brother-in-law’s memorial service in the summer of 2019. That was also scary and I was given the same prescription. So Shadow is on the mend and I do hope we can avoid any incidents like this in the future. I certainly don’t want to have another scare like that and I’m not sure I can afford one. The hours at the veterinary hospital were extremely expensive.
I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night and today was extremely busy. I had a 10:15 am chiropractor appointment and was ‘graduated’. Evidently my alignment looks better than it ever has. So I am to keep walking, riding the exercise bike, and doing my morning stretching exercises. It’s working. As soon as I got home, I had to get on Zoom for my monthly book club meeting. This month’s book was News of the World that has been turned into a movie starring Tom Hanks. It comes out on Xfinity On-Demand in a few days and I am anxious to watch it. I cannot imagine Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kidd. 
As soon as the book club ended, it was time for me to go pick up Ollie. Today was an early release day and he wanted to come do some work at my house. But before heading to the cottage to work, we went to Mahoney’s Garden Center. I wanted Ollie to pick out some house plants for a project at his house and I wanted him to see the koi (Japanese carp) in their indoor water garden. Mark and I used to take him there when he a wee little thing, but I’m not sure how many times he has been there in the past four years. We had a great time at Mahoney’s and then headed to the cottage and attacked the list of twelve things I had for him to do. Among those twelve things, we finally got the kayaks covered with a tarp for the winter and finished getting the bean towers and tomato cages put away. He did all but three things on the list which we will save for our next workday. I then took Ollie home and got back just in time for a public policy discussion group on Zoom. It was a good day, but I am exhausted. So, the plan is to head to bed a little early tonight and vow to spend the day relaxing tomorrow. Or, if not relaxing, at least watching the impeachment proceedings while riding my exercise bike.
by Judy Handley | Jan 11, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 11: Great Day Until . . .
Date: Monday, January 11, 2021
Weather: Overcast, Still Cold; High 40, Low 31 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a great day until about 7:30 pm this evening. Shadow started throwing up and when he stopped, he was still struggling like something was stuck in his throat. I drove the 25 minutes north to the Cape Cod Veterinary Hospital that is open 24 hours a day, parked in triage space #4 (my lucky number), and a nurse came out to get Shadow. Due to Covid restrictions, I had to sit outside in a cold car for an hour and half to wait to hear from the doctor. I had already been told it would be a long wait as there were many emergencies in front of Shadow. When the doctor did call, all she wanted was to get my permission to do x-rays. She suggested I drive back home and wait to hear from her. I waited here two hours and just called to check on my best buddy. The doctor has still not read the x-rays, but at least Shadow is resting, albeit still moving his head as if trying to clear his throat. I am going to get some sleep and wait for the call from the doctor. Hopefully, I can go back to get him tonight. I am a bit of a basket case, but I just have to hope that he will be okay. Whatever else happened today has faded into the great beyond. All I can think about is my Shadow.
