by Judy Handley | Feb 15, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 46: Singing Resistance
Date: Sunday, February 15, 2026
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 37, Low 26 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Singing in solidarity has been a powerful form of protest throughout history. Public singing can be used to oppose authoritarianism and injustice while promoting love and solidarity at the same time. Singing has been with us throughout history as a nonviolent but powerful means of expressing dissent. Most recently it has been used in Minnesota to help turn fearful crowds into supportive communities. And because it was used so successfully in Minneapolis, it is spreading across the country and has arrived here in Falmouth.
Led by woman named Karen Nell Smith, a large group of people gathered in the sanctuary of the Waquoit Congregational Church this afternoon to learn songs of resistance from Minnesota and practice popular protest songs well known by most. Karen attended our Indivisible meeting last Monday evening and announced this practice session. She made her pitch so enthusiastically that I just had to go check it out. And I am so glad I did. The whole experience was so positive.
Otherwise, I spent my day trying to play catch up. I made some progress and will continue tomorrow in between a full day of Zoom meetings. My Zoom day starts at 9:30 am with a Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition Zoom. Then I have a two-hour break before a complete afternoon of Zoom conversations with prospective Encore board members. Those don’t end until after 5 pm, but there are snippets of time between conversations. Hopefully I can use those ‘snippets’ to try and organize the piles of papers that have taken over my dining room table.
by Judy Handley | Feb 14, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 45: Happy Valentine’s Day
Date: Saturday, February 14, 2026
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 35, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It is still cold and there is still snow and patches of ice on the ground, but the streets are finally completely clear, at least here in town. Has it really been 3 weeks since we had the winter storm whose snow has not yet melted? The calendar tells me so, but it doesn’t feel that long ago to me. But it has been a while since Shadow and I have had a nice long walk, so with the clear, dry streets, we did walk this morning. For the past three weeks, we have just been walking around the block. It felt good to do a longer walk again.
I went to the weekly rally on the Green and did some Encore work this afternoon and evening. My Valentine’s treat was a long phone conversation with my son Justin this afternoon. He is recovering nicely from his surgery but still can’t drive and won’t be able to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for many weeks. But he can walk and can once again help some with doing the chores around the farm.
That’s it from me on this Valentine’s Day. I do hope your day was more exciting than mine.
by Judy Handley | Feb 13, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 44: Friday the 13th
Date: Friday, February 13, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 36, Low 22 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I know it makes no logical sense, but I have always been superstitious. I don’t walk under ladders, I hate it when a black cat crosses my path, and I’m always a little leery on Friday the 13th. But I had to start my day with a drive to Yarmouth, about an hour away, to the RMV to renew my driver’s license. Here you do this every 5 years, but you can do it online until after you are 75. Then you must go in for a vision test. I made the trek with no problem, but then when my number came up, I was called to Window #13 on the 13th. Double 13’s! This couldn’t be good. But, actually, it all went well. I spent my afternoon doing Encore Nomination Committee Zoom conversations with people interested in various positions, wrote checks for the library and delivered, picked up Ollie from school, and then launched back into a project for Indivisible Falmouth. Pretty much the story of my life these days.
Next week is school vacation week. The Goldstones leave tomorrow for a week of skiing/snowboarding in Vermont, so tonight I went over tonight to see them before they leave. We watched Olympic half-pipe snowboarding competition, which is enough to give a grandmother a heart attack. But I survived. I’m on call to head to Vermont next week in case Ollie gets super bored being alone on days when everyone else is on the mountain. But as of tonight, he thinks he will be fine. If not, I’ll drive up and find things for us to do.
by Judy Handley | Feb 12, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 43: The Future
Date: Thursday, February 12, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 37, Low 16 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today’s them was all about the future. I met a woman in Woods Hole this morning who will be doing future trainings for Indivisible Falmouth. We had talked on the phone, but this was my first time meeting her. She is going to be great, so that was a very productive morning meeting. Then I headed to an Encore meeting where the topic was the future of media. I was asked to come an hour early and bring the Encore sound equipment in case their new equipment didn’t work. They bought it just before last month’s meeting and had the strangest knocking sound throughout their speaker’s presentation. They certainly didn’t want that to happen again. But today they got it right and all I had to do was enjoy conversations with friends and listen to the presentation. I had to leave the second it was over to go pick up Ollie, take him home, go in to give Heather a welcome home hug, and head home for the weekly Indivisible Zoom, “What’s the Plan?”
While I was on that Zoom call, a friend texted saying she was walking her dog in the neighborhood and that she would like to stop by to visit. It was Joanie and Archie, the dog I walked every day for a few weeks in the fall after Joanie’s foot surgery. Of course, I said yes. We finished watching What’s the Plan? together and then visited until it was almost dark outside.
After our company left, Shadow and I played outside for a while, came in to have dinner, and then I hopped on two Zooms at once, watching one on my phone while watching the other on my computer. The one on the computer was about lessons from Minnesota and the one on my phone was about the future we hope to build when we somehow shake loose from the orange man. Then I watched the day’s recap of the Olympics in fast forward, only stopping to watch some of the women’s snowboarding competition. I think I have found my solution for not enough time in the day. I will just work in fast forward!
by Judy Handley | Feb 11, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 42: One of Those Days
Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 41, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This was one of those everything, everywhere, all at once kind of days. I thought my morning was going to be quiet, but for various reasons, I was communicating via email or on the phone most of the morning. I am always on my computer, but I rarely am on the phone. One of the weirdest calls was from an unidentified caller from Georgia. I answered because I have family in the Atlanta area and I was not sure I had all of their phone numbers in my contacts. I thought it might be one of them. But it was a woman who was in American Samoa when Mark was there in the 1960’s, and what a talker she was. She is writing a memoir, and I really don’t know why she called other than to connect. I hardly said a word. I just listened as she talked about people I have never heard of. And how she got my phone number is beyond me. But I finally got off that call in time to eat lunch and get on Zoom for Encore Nominating Committee conversations with people interested in being on the Board. Then I was in communication with Jonah who was in try-outs for State Band. I picked him up, took him home to change clothes, and then took him to meet friends to play ice hockey on a pond. Then it was back home to play with Shadow, have an early dinner, and off to Wareham to see a screening of the film we are showing here in two weeks about Temporary Protected Status families. In between, I was finalizing the schedule of upcoming trainings for Indivisible Falmouth as I needed to get the events calendar submitted for the ‘weeklyish’ Indivisible Falmouth newsletter. The whole day was disjointed. bouncing from one thing to another. But I survived. And while I was in Wareham, Heather got home from her trip the Netherlands. I am not sure if I mentioned in a prior log that Sam was not coming home with her as planned. He will arrive next Friday.
