by Judy Handley | Mar 2, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 62: Politics in the Fast Lane
Date: March 2, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 49 degrees, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The second day of March also came in like a lamb, so I guess we do have to brace for end of the month lion-like weather. Or maybe we can defy the saying this year and just have lovely weather right into summer. Just kidding! There’s no way that will happen. But I can dream.
With Super Tuesday approaching tomorrow, the political scene in the Democratic Primary race is changing at the speed of light. Since yesterday afternoon, Buttigieg and Klobuchar have dropped out of the race and endorsed Joe Biden. Beta O’Rourke, who dropped out very early, has also endorsed Biden. I’ll still vote for Warren tomorrow, but it is becoming increasingly clear that we are down to a Biden-Bernie race. I’m not completely giving up on Bloomberg yet, but all the money in the world might not be able to change this. Fascinating to watch it play out, but count me in as one of those Democrats that will fully support whomever can come out on top against Donald Trump. I try to avoid politics in this blog, but I feel so strongly that four more years of a Trump presidency could be the end of our democracy that I can no longer be silent. And no, I don’t think having a Democratic Socialist in the White House would be the end of our democracy. I, for one, am so grateful for Social Security and Medicare. Many view those as socialist initiatives. I just view them as government initiatives that support basic human rights. I am one that believes health care is a basic human right. And I see nothing socialist about a government that supports retirement with integrity after a life of working hard for that right. Bernie is not my first choice, but he speaks the truth and sugar coats nothing. I like that. There are many reasons for my negative feelings about Donald Trump, but my initial reaction to Trump when he first announced he was going to run for President is still my same reaction. The first-grade teacher and grandmother in me cannot support a person for President that doesn’t do anything to deserve the respect of the children in this country. A lot of people really like the fact that their 401k’s are doing well, but that’s just not enough for me. As Amy Klobuchar so elegantly points out, it is time to put decency and dignity back in the White House.
I spent my day moving stuff—moving unwanted things from Heather’s basement that we put in my car yesterday to the Hand to Hand Thrift Shop and the Swap Shop at the dump, moving things from my basement back upstairs, and moving things upstairs to the basement. I had taken area rugs to the basement when Shadow arrived and wasn’t potty trained. But he has been fully potty trained for two months now, so those area rugs could come back upstairs. I am hosting a dining-in group on Thursday night, so I needed to move chairs and a table that were in the basement upstairs. And tomorrow is trash and recycling day, so I moved trash and recycle bins to curbside. I also roasted a chicken and made chicken mineral broth and make a quick trip to Hyannis to do some food shopping. I thought I had done nothing today, but putting it writing points out to me that it was actually a fairly productive day. Tomorrow is an Early Release Day for the Falmouth schools, so I will be on Oma duty for most of the day. But hopefully in the morning, I’ll have time to go through the ever-growing pile of mail and emails that need to be addressed before heading to the Goldstones.
by Judy Handley | Mar 1, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 61: Transition Month
Date: March 1, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 34 degrees, Low 23 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Here we are in the transition month of March, the month that bridges winter and spring. Today in Falmouth I would say that March came in like lamb, so I guess we can look forward to a blustery end of the month. The last few days of February have been cold and windy, but tomorrow the temperature rises into the 50’s and I’m looking forward to that. I Googled “Comes in like a Lion, goes out like Lamb” and found that one of the earliest notations of that phrase was in Thomas Fuller’s 1732 writings in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs. I had never heard of Fuller but read that he was a British physician, preacher, and intellectual in the 1600’s and later was often quoted by Benjamin Franklin.
I went to the grocery store this morning as my refrigerator was almost empty. Six bags of groceries later, I returned home just in time for a walk with Shadow, followed by lunch. Then I got a text from Heather asking if I had some time to help with the “grand moving project.” I was happy to over and help out. Jed had to work this afternoon, so it was just Heather and me. She had just completed painting the playroom and the downstairs bathroom ceiling. Painting is now completed and I think they have decided to do minimal renovation of the downstairs bathroom. This afternoon we worked on the basement. Heather took bins and bins of ‘stuff’ to storage and I tidied up the basement getting it looking good enough that I think the house should be ready to put on the market by next weekend. WoooHooo!
Updates on Adventuring Friends: Linda and Mike Stuart left Florida today on a cruise ship headed for Barcelona. From there they will resume their biking around the world adventure. Heather and Jon Turgeon, sailing friends who used to travel aboard their sailboat Evergreen, are now traveling across the US in the overland recreational vehicle. They are in Texas enjoying Big Bend. And Donna Pascarella’s brother Tom made it to the summit of Kilimanjaro. My adventuresome friends are doing the adventuring these days and I get to travel along vicariously.
by Judy Handley | Feb 29, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 60: Leap Day
Date: Saturday, February 29, 2020
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Windy; High 37 degrees, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Every four years we get an extra day tacked onto the short 28-day month of February. This is due to a miscalculation in the former Julian calendar first implemented by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. Evidently, he miscalculated the length of the solar year by 11 minutes. Leap forward to 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII introduced his version of a calendar. All of Europe was still using the Julian calendar and it took another almost 200 years to get to our current Gregorian calendar. On Wednesday, September 2, 1752, much of the world leaped forward to Thursday, September 14, and henceforth the majority of the countries in the world starting using the new Gregorian calendar as their official civil calendar. But we still have to add an extra day every four years to keep our calendar in tune with the solar year. I hope you enjoyed your extra day in 2020.
This morning I went to the District Science Fair. This year only one of the Goldpebbles had an entry and it was Sam. 
He and his good friend Robert did an experiment to determine the favorite color of fish, specifically zebra fish. They thought that zebrafish would prefer green light over white, yellow, and light. The machine they used couldn’t record yellow light preferences, but from their visual observations, this was definitely the color they went to and were most active in. This is not backed by other research, but over and over they found the same results. Their results lead to further research. As goes scientific research. I was not successful in getting Sam to pose for me in front of their poster, but Robert was busy explaining their project to their science teacher while I was there. From the Science Fair, I took Shadow for a walk on Falmouth Heights Beach and then joined the Goldstones for lunch at the British Beer Company just across the street from the beach. Then the Goldpebbles and I left Heather and Jed at home to paint the play room while we were off to a People Training for Good Dogs class with Shadow. Then home to watch the results of the South Carolina Primary. It was a busy Leap Day.
No word today from the Mount Kilimanjaro climbers. I started reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead last night and continued early this morning. It didn’t take long to understand why Oprah’s review said, “Kept me up at night, had my heart in my throat, almost afraid to turn the next page.” Whitehead has a way with words that puts you right in the moment, and the moments in a slave’s life are not comfortable moments. I’ve only just started the book, but if it continues as it has started, I think this should be required reading for all American History students. You can never really walk in the footsteps of others, but Whitehead certainly puts you right in the moment.
by Judy Handley | Feb 28, 2020 | Cape Cod, USA |
2020 Life Logs, Day 59: Mt. Kilimanjaro
Date: Friday, February 28, 2020
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Still Windy; High 37 degrees, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
No, I’m not planning to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, but I recently met someone who is doing the final ascent to the summit tonight. When I got an email this morning announcing that, it piqued my curiosity and I decided to do a little reading about Kilimanjaro climbs. When I made my Voyage of Windbird presentation to the Bourne Newcomers Lunch and Learn Group, Donna Pascarella, the woman in charge of the event, invited her husband and brother to come. The three of them are leaving in September from Chicago to boat down the Mississippi to the Ohio to the Tennessee River and finally through a waterway that will bring them out into the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, Alabama, and then on down to the Keys. The brother is the one climbing Kilimanjaro with his youngest son. After the presentation, I asked Donna to keep me posted on the Kilimanjaro climb, so this week she has been forwarding texts sent by her brother. I didn’t really expect to get the day by day account, but I have found it very interesting. What surprised me most was that I knew almost nothing about this mountain. I thought maybe it was the highest peak in Africa, but I didn’t know in what country. Google told me, “Renowned as the highest peak in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro boats exclusive jaw-dropping sceneries, treacherous trails, and the infamous Barranco wall.” The piece I was reading went on to say that there are seven different routes to the top. I did not ask which route Donna’s brother was taking, but when he mentioned in a text earlier in the week that they had successfully climbed the Barranco wall, I looked that up. That narrowed the possibilities to four of routes and from my reading it seems the Lemosho route would be the safest bet for a successful climb to the top and it is also supposed to have the most beautiful path. I’ll be interested to find out which route they did take. And I’ll be sure and let you know if they made the summit.
I spent a good deal of today finishing the ‘just for fun’ book I have been reading so that I can do the reading for my next book club meeting. I have ten days to read The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. On the back of the book, the first review written by Oprah says it kept her up at night reading. If I am going to finish it in time for the book club meeting, I think I will need to read into the nights as well. I’ll start tonight.
Every Friday I get an email from one of my health gurus, Dr. Mark Hyman, listing his five best picks of the week. Today one of those was a research report that outlines some preliminary suggestions for dosage levels of ‘nutraceuticals’, defined as pharmaceutical alternatives that I will just call supplements, that in the words of the research summary, “ . . . might be expected to be worthwhile for controlling RNA viruses.” RNA viruses include the flu and coronavirus. I am going to copy the list of these supplements as well as a link to the research report. It can’t hurt to have this information on hand. Some of the things on the list are things many people already take to avoid colds—zinc and elderberry. Copy this link to see the whole research paper or just look at the list of suggested supplements below.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033062020300372?utm_source=Mark%27s+Picks&utm_campaign=836e435ca8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_03_29_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3eb7466668-836e435ca8-124384525&mc_cid=836e435ca8&mc_eid=18b3097ac1
Ferulic acid 500-1,000 mg
Lipoic acid 1,200-1,800 mg (in place of ferulic acid)
Spirulina 15 g (or 100 mg PCB)
N-Acetylcysteine 1,200–1,800 mg
Selenium 50-100 mcg
Glucosamine 3,000 mg or more
Zinc 30-50 mg
Yeast Beta-Glucan 250-500 mg
Elderberry 600–1,500 mg
by Judy Handley | Feb 27, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 58: A Day That Started with a Bang
Date: Thursday, February 27, 2020
Weather: Overcast, Early AM Rain, and WINDY; High 49 degrees, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Shadow and I got up at 6 am for a puppy potty break and then came back inside and went back to bed. The next thing I heard was a huge bang at about 8:30. I got up and looked out the window to the front yard and saw nothing and then walked to the back side of the house to look out, but still saw nothing. So, I laid back down even though Shadow was still on full alert. I didn’t go to sleep until after 1 am last night, so going back to sleep for another half an hour sounded like a good idea. As soon as I got settled down, however, there was another bang and then another accompanied by barks from Shadow. Obviously, it was time to get up. I looked out all of the windows, but still saw nothing. Before I hopped into the shower, I heard one more bang, so this time, I opened the front door to look out. Oops! There was the problem. The beautiful Anderson all glass storm door that opens and closes so easily was swinging in the wind and banging back against the front of the house. I’m surprised the glass didn’t break, but the door is not without damage. At first I couldn’t get it to close, but with some coaxing, I was successful. The rod that goes through the closing mechanism at the base of the door is slightly bent causing some friction. I must not have made sure it was fully closed when Shadow and I came back inside at 6 am and the strong wind caught it just right making it fly open. I hate that I didn’t figure this out after the first bang, but hopefully the rod can be straightened and it will open and close smoothly once again.
Today’s wind was blowing in colder weather and made it feel even colder that the thermometer indicated. I had to bundle up for my walks with Shadow and was reminded that I have been spoiled by the warmer than normal winter. It will stay cold until Sunday, but then it warms up again. I like that! I spent most of my time inside today staying warm and writing in preparation for my afternoon Memoir Writing class. Jerry Lanson, an Associate Professor of Journalism at Emerson College and a Falmouth Newcomers member, is offering the class as a Newcomers activity. How lucky we are to have him. He organizes the class in a way that makes sharing our writing a very positive experience. We are an eclectic group with some people who have lots of writing experience to those who are just beginning. Today Jerry asked me to share my experience in writing a blog for the last 14 plus years and I got great feedback from him and from the other members of the group. As I told them, I write every day, but I still don’t think of myself as a writer. I want to become one and possibly write a book about some of my life experiences, but I need some direction. And this class is giving me that. Thanks to Jerry Lanson and every member of that class for their positive feedback and encouragement.
