by Judy Handley | Feb 20, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 51: From Waterbury, VT Back Home to Falmouth
Date: Friday, February 20, 2026
Weather: Overcast with a Wintry Mix; High Temp 36, Low 30 degrees F (in Falmouth)
Location: Back Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
A big thank you to my neighbors, Billy and Andy, for sharing parenting duties for Shadow in my absence. Andy came over this afternoon when I got home around 4 pm. He seemed a little sad that he wasn’t going to get to play ball with Shadow now that I was back. I told him not to worry, that he could come borrow Shadow to play ball anytime. Shadow never gets enough of that!
The trip home from Vermont was fine, but as I headed around Boston, suddenly there was a wintry mix of snow and rain and the visibility was not good for about 45 minutes. But the closer I got to the Cape, things cleared up. Heather and Ollie left later than I did, and they had some of the same ugly driving weather. Plus, they had an encounter with a ladder that was in the road and had to stop to get a new tire. Thankfully the two of them were safe and arrived home by 7 pm.
I did not have the energy to do anything tonight other than catch up on the women’s figure skating Olympic competition. Hopefully, I can get caught up on things that need to be done tomorrow. But I learned from Any that the coming storm might be a little more serious than I have been assuming. It looks like we might get as much as 16 inches of snow starting Sunday evening. When we learned of this while I was in Vermont, Ollie and Jonah were hoping for a Snow Day on Monday. It looks like they might get that.
by Judy Handley | Feb 19, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 50: Trip to Montpelier with Ollie
Date: Thursday, February 19, 2026
Weather: Sunny and Warmer Than Expected; High Temp 40, Low 19 degrees F (in Waterbury)
Location: At Home at an Airbnb in Waterbury, Vermont
Today’s adventure took Ollie and me to Montpelier, Vermont. It is the state capital, and we both thought it would be a bigger town. It is not. It is a tiny town with a population of around 8,000 residents which grows to about 21,000 each weekday due to the large number of jobs associated with it being the state’s capital. It has a main street with some businesses and then it has the state capital complex. That is about it. Ollie and I wondered why the capital was located here, and when we looked that up, we found it was simply because of its central location in the state. When it was chosen as the capital city in the beginning of the 1800’s, the population of Montpelier was around 900 people.
Ollie and I had crepes for breakfast at the Skinny Pancake which were really yummy, and we visited a fabulous outdoor recreation shop next door before heading to the State House. It sits majestically up on a hill with its gold dome glistening in the sunshine.
The granite steps leading up the hill are bigger steps (higher) than normal making it quite a climb to the top. I got a photo of Ollie standing in front of a statue of Ethan Allen by the front door, but then we had to walk around to the side of the building to get in. We found out that the front doors that look like they are bronze are really pine painted to look like bronze. The inside doors are also pine, painted to look like they were made of mahogany. The people of Vermont are known to be frugal!
We used ‘magic wand’ listening devices on our self-guided tour which took us to the second floor to see the Senate Chambers and the Representatives’ Hall. We could enter the viewing area of the Senate Chambers, but the legislature was in session. We stood outside the open doors and watched. And while we were standing there, they adjourned. So we waited until most people vacated and then went into the viewing area to take a closer look.
We also made a quick trip to the Vermont Historical Society Museum next door. It was interesting, but we spent most of our time playing a game of checkers. The display of a typical home in the 1800’s had a checkerboard on the kitchen table. So, Ollie challenged me to a game. Guess who won. It wasn’t me!
After we got home, I took a trip just to the edge of town to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory. It was too late for a tour, but I just couldn’t be in Vermont without visiting the only Ben & Jerry’s factory open to the public.
by Judy Handley | Feb 18, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 49: Trip to Burlington with Ollie
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 35, Low 12 degrees F (in Waterbury)
Location: At Home at an Airbnb in Waterbury, Vermont
Heather, Jed, and Jonah headed to Stowe to ski and snowboard early this morning. A little later, Ollie and I drove to Burlington. He and Jed had already been to Burlington the day prior, but I wanted to go to see Lake Champlain frozen over and visit the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain known as ECHO. Jed had already taken Ollie there while Heather Jonah visited the University of Vermont yesterday. But I wanted to see the museum, so Ollie gave me a tour.
It is a science and nature museum right on the shores of Lake Champlain. Ollie took me through the nature exhibits, but we spent most of our time on the second floor, which had engineering activities interesting enough to keep us engaged for a couple of hours. At one point I saw Ollie, one-handed since he cannot use his broken right arm, discovering the power of pulleys as he was lifting himself up easily with one hand.
When we left the museum, we ventured out onto frozen Lake Champlain far enough to say we had walked on it.
And on the way out of town, I got to see a bit of the University of Vermont. It is the first school Jonah has visited in his college search.
I forgot to mention in last night’s log that soon after I arrived, we walked down Waterbury’s charming little Main Street for dinner at Prohibition Pig. It gets its name from the combination of being located in a former speakeasy during Prohibition and their focus on barbeque and smoked meats (pork). Thus, Pro-Pig.
by Judy Handley | Feb 17, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 48: From Falmouth to Waterbury, Vermont
Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 35, Low 26 degrees F (in Waterbury)
Location: At Home at an Airbnb in Waterbury, Vermont
I made the trip from Falmouth to Waterbury, Vermont today, arriving here around 6 pm. I left home at 10 am, but I had four different stops to make before leaving town. And then I made a few stops along the way, enjoying the day of traveling.
Ollie and I will hold down the fort tomorrow and on Thursday while Heather, Jed, and Jonah head to Stowe to ski and snowboard. Ollie is content to just stay home, but I am hoping I can get him to go along on a few adventures.
Today was the beginning of the Lunar New Year (the year of the fire horse), the beginning of Ramadan, Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday), as well as George Washington’s birthday. It was also the day we lost Jesse long time civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson. He was known as an “impassioned orator” and I actually met him in 1971 when he was giving one of those passionate speeches. I was the audio-visual coordinator at Glenville High School in Cleveland, Ohio, at the time. It was a huge high school of 3,000 black students and we hosted national figures from Martin Luther King (before my time at the school) to Muhammad Ali. As AV Coordinator, I was in charge of the auditorium speaker system. On the day Jesse Jackson spoke, the microphone kept cutting off and on. (It turned out to be a short in the microphone cord.) But I was frantically trying to resolve the situation as he spoke and didn’t hear a word he said. Thankfully he had such a booming voice that people could still hear him when the mic cut out, but he was publicly not too happy with me. It was truly an unfortunate situation. But on this day of celebrations, I celebrate his life and his never-ending dedication to the idea of the “rainbow coalition” through the Rainbow/PUSH organization. They are still hard at work “to protect, defend, and gain civil rights by leveling the economic and educational playing fields, and to promote peace and justice around the world.” His legacy lives on.
by Judy Handley | Feb 16, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 47: Zoom, Zoom, Zoom
Date: Monday, February 16, 2026
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 39, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today was all about Zoom meetings starting at 9:30 am and ending at 5:15 pm. I had seven different calls throughout the day, although 6 of them were really conversations, not meetings. The Encore Nominating Committee had a full afternoon of talks with prospective Board members. And I have been on my computer all evening trying to catch up on answering emails. I did go outside a few times with Shadow, otherwise I just sat here and listened, and talked, and wrote emails
I heard from Heather this afternoon that maybe Ollie could use a little companionship on Wednesday and Thursday, so tomorrow late morning, I am headed to Vermont. No more Zoom calls or meetings for a few days. Yippee!
