by Judy Handley | Feb 25, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 56: The Haves and the Have Nots
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Weather: Cloudy, Some Mixed Precipitation; High Temp 38, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The decision on whether of not I was cancelling tomorrow night’s film screening at the library had to be made by 9 am this morning. That meant I needed to know if the library had power restored. It did not, so that made the decision. I then spent the rest of the morning getting all of the resources organized for Monday night’s Indivisible ‘Prepared Protester’ training.
By noon, I was ready for a break, so I took time to deliver a few books to my friend Karen Baranowski. She and Peter still have no electricity, no internet, and no cable television. So she needed something to read! The Baranowski’s have a generator, so they are not without power. But three days with no contact with the outside world has left them feeling very isolated. That reminded me of just how lucky I have been through this storm. I have been one of the ‘haves’, whereas most people in Falmouth have been the ‘have nots’. At the end of today, still 70 per cent of the town’s properties are without power. That includes, the rec center, the Senior Center, the library, I assume most stores on Main Street, but more importantly so many people without heat. I am incredibly thankful for my good luck, but very worried for so many without.
by Judy Handley | Feb 24, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 55: Snow Recovery Day
Date: Monday, February 24, 2026
Weather: Sorm Over, Beautiful Day; High Temp 33, Low 19 degrees F
Location: Back Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Last night on my last trip out with Shadow, I took a photo of the glistening snow down the driveway. When I went inside and looked at the photos I had taken, I noticed something I had not seen earlier. There are two very tall evergreens down by my mailbox and one of them was minus its top. The top was on the ground in the driveway.Obviously, the heavy snow had gotten to be too much.
But with that one exception, Shadow and I weathered the storm in style with heat and internet and cable TV, all the things many people in Falmouth didn’t have. I woke up early to bright sunshine and a clear deep blue sky. It was gorgeous outside.
My neighbor Andy arrived with his snowplow first thing, clearing a path for Shadow and I out to the road. Shadow was ecstatic, jumping up from the path to walk on the snow. On one side of the driveway, he fell through. But on the other side, he quickly learned that he could walk on the snow. He frolicked and ran and frolicked some more. Obviously, the path to road gave him the same sense of freedom it gave me. We were no longer trapped in our snow cave. Thank you, thank you, thank you to my neighbor Andy.
I did some shoveling, worked to check things off that never ending to do list, shoveled some more, and then went over to shovel off my car in Andy’s driveway. He was actually doing just that when I arrived. He was very carefully using a snow scraper to clean off the roof of my car. I grabbed a snow shovel and finished the job in a couple of seconds! Snow shovels these days have plastic guards on their edges and make great car scrapers. We finished that job and talked about the one remaining problem. He had cleared his driveway and the driveway of many neighbors today with his snow blower, but the more than two-foot wall of ice and snow that the snowplows had left blocking the entrance to his driveway was still there . He had tried to use his snowplow to get rid of it, but the pile was just too icy. I made him promise to leave it there until the guy comes tomorrow to plow my driveway. I said I would get him to do it. I went home and not even an hour later, I got a text from Andy saying the job was done. Neighbors, whose driveways he had cleared in the morning, had come to the rescue. An unlikely coalition of folks; a middle school art teacher, my neighbor on one side who is a Delta pilot, my neighbor on the other side who manages an online Cape Cod magazine. Of the four of them, I know for certain that two of them are stanch conservative Republicans, and I suspect the other two are progressive Democrats. How wonderful that those differences can be put aside to work together to get things done.
Then that euphoria of people working together for the common good was totally obliterated tonight when I watched the State of the Union spectacle. Promoting division seemed to me the core aim of the speech, along with way too much blood and gore. What kind of vicious, wicked person gives a speech like that?
Then one last thing. After the speech when I checked my phone, I saw a Facebook post by my daughter that made me so proud of her and the work she does for this community. “This is a storm for the books. As the sun was setting, just half of roads cleared, ~150 trees down in roadways, and 78% of households without power in Falmouth. This is not for want of trying. Town, contract, and Eversource crews are working as hard as they can, and I hope we can all remember that and be grateful even when the end result isn’t what we’d like. We have power, so if you need a warm place to stay tonight, let me know. There’s more info on resources in the release.”
FALMOUTHMA.GOV
Storm Recovery Updates • Falmouth, MA
Town of Falmouth Public Works and Public Safety personnel have been working non-stop to clear the roadways. At present, approximately 50% of the roadways have been cleared. Eversource is reporting 78% of properties are without power at this time.
by Judy Handley | Feb 23, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 54: 24 Hours of Wind and Snow
Date: Monday, February 23, 2026
Weather: Constant Snow and Wind; High Temp 32, Low 22 degrees F
Location: Back Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
We are finally down to gale force winds from blizzard-like conditions and the snow has stopped, but Hernando gave us a good 24-hour ride.
I am learning to love the sound of the whole house generator as it gives me heat and light when many have none. Thousands of people in Massachusetts are without power, and Ever Source here on the Cape is sending messages to people without power saying it is massive failure that will take 3-5 days to fix. The Baranowskis have a whole house generator, so they have power, but they have no internet or cable. Heather and Jed lost power at 3 am, but they got it back during the morning.
Since I have power and internet, I spent the day trying to catch up on projects that require the internet. When you put aside the misery some are going through due to this storm, you can enjoy the beauty. The white landscape is magical.
But today you had to appreciate it from inside. The time I spent outside was miserable because the wind was blowing the icy snow sideways and right into my face. Shadow loves snow but not snow that is this deep. And he really hates wind. So, it was chore convincing him to stay outside while I shoveled.
The clean-up will begin tomorrow morning, but today l don’t think there was a car on the road and certainly not a plow. I learned from shoveling my walk from the house to the driveway that as soon as I was finished, it was filled with snow almost immediately. Plowing would have been for naught. And besides, it would have been too dangerous because of the high wind. Most everything is closed again tomorrow, including the schools. But I imagine that there will be a flurry of activity in the morning with snowplows, snow blowers, and shovels doing their work to clear the roads and driveways.
by Judy Handley | Feb 22, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 53: Hernando Has Arrived
Date: Sunday, February 22, 2026
Weather: Suuny, Then Overcast, Snow Starting Late; High Temp 35, Low 31 degrees F
Location: Back Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
After a full day of anticipation, winter storm Hernando has arrived in Falmouth. At 8:10pm I got on the phone with my friend Lynne in New Zealand. We haven’t talked for weeks, so an hour and a half later, just before we got off the call, I looked out the window and saw snowflakes. I don’t know the exact time the first flake fell, but Hernando has arrived.
Somehow, I managed to get very little done today, but I did go to the Sunday Farmer’s Market. Later in the afternoon when I delivered some blue oyster mushrooms to Heather, I stayed and visited for a bit. Then it was home to fix dinner, talk to Lynne, and watch some of the Olympics closing ceremony. And if the forecast is correct, I will spend most of tomorrow watching falling snow.
So, okay, I watched the closing ceremonies and enjoyed the beauty of midnight on a snowy night as the storm builds. Since no snow at 8 pm, we now have one inch of big snowflakes covering everything, and the wind is beginning to howl. We shall see what the morning brings.
by Judy Handley | Feb 21, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 52: Rally on the Green and Storm Prep
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2026
Weather: A Little Snow Early, Clearing; High Temp 34, Low 26 degrees F
Location: Back Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
After my little vacation in Vermont, I am having trouble getting back up to speed. I took notes but didn’t even write my nightly logs while there. I am catching up on that right now, so there will be four logs posted today, not just one.
Today, I got up early with big plans for getting things done, but somehow the day is almost over and the only thing I accomplished was going food shopping. Not sure how that happened, but it is what it is. I did go to the rally on the Green, but otherwise I really don’t know where the time went.
I knew last night that the coming storm was forecast to be a big one, but the amount of snow was going to be around 16 inches with winds gusting to 40-45. Now there is a blizzard warning here from 4 pm tomorrow to 7 am on Tuesday. Monday during the day looks like it will be challenging with winds gusting to 60 and snow between 1-2 feet. We still have a good 4 inches on the ground, so 20 or more inches is more snow than I have dealt with since living on the Cape. Mark and I were not here during the winter of 2014-2015 which is when we last had a lot of snow. I did spend time this morning rescheduling a couple of meetings from Monday to later in the week. Monday sounds like a day to stay inside with falling snow and heavy wind all day. Just taking Shadow out will be interesting.
