by Judy Handley | Oct 16, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 289: Class, Kitchen, and Office
Date: Friday, October 16, 2026
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 67, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My day was spent in a class all morning and in the kitchen and in my dining-room ‘office’ for the rest of the day and evening. The morning class was interesting as usual, but I almost fell asleep three times. I have been working late and getting up early everyday this week. I have looked ahead for the next week, and there is not one day that I have less than two commitments. But at least most of the events are things I just need to go to. I don’t need to do any work to get ready. Whew!
My afternoon and evening in the kitchen was spent making granola and granola clusters for Sam to take with him when he leaves on Sunday for Stowe, Vermont. He has a job for the winter at the Stowe Mountain Resort doing snow machine daily maintenance. He works 4 days a week, 12 hours a day. And as I understand it, he and a partner are taken to the top of one of the trails and dropped off. The two of them then work their way down the mountain on foot, one on one side of the trail and one on the other, stopping to check each of the snow machines to make sure they are working properly. They have to carry a shovel so that if the snow machine is covered with snow, they can dig it out. When they reach the bottom, they are delivered to the top of another trail and do the same thing. For 12 hours! Sounds hard to me, but he is a hard worker and is actually looking forward to this. Of course, one of the perks is that on your three days off, skiing/snowboarding is free. The first two weeks are training, and then the snowmaking begins. I figured some granola trail mix and granola clusters might come in handy as a snack. So that was my kitchen job.
My office job was getting ready for tomorrow’s NO KINGS Vote Early rally. I finished up making 200 Vote Early signs to pass out to people at the rally and printing handouts. I would put a batch of granola clusters in the oven, head into the dining-room where my computer and printer are located to either print or glue tongue depressors on the card stock signs, and then head back to the kitchen to rotate the granola and set the timer for another 10 minutes. I also had to make a sandwich board to wear tomorrow as I will be dressed as a yellow ‘early bird’ advertising that everyone “Be an Early Bird. Vote Early!”
by Judy Handley | Oct 15, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 288: Indivisible Falmouth Meeting
Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2026
Weather: Sunny, Cooler Than Yesterday; High Temp 61, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I spent my entire day getting ready for the No Kings rally on Saturday and the Indivisible Falmouth meeting tonight. But I could have skipped getting ready for the meeting as almost no one came. Either we are doing something terribly wrong or people are just too busy with election related activity to come to one more meeting. But we will have to figure that out after Saturday’s big rally. Still much to do to get ready for that to fret about low meeting attendance.
by Judy Handley | Oct 11, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 284: This and That Kind of Day
Date: Sunday, October 11, 2026
Weather: Mostly Overcast After Sun Early, Rain Late; High Temp 61, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This was one of those days when I did a little of this and a little of that. I did some laundry, delivered the wheelchair I got yesterday to Patsy, picked up Shadow’s dogfood from Heather’s freezer, answered emails, and then I had to stop procrastinating and get the big job done. I did the quarterly financial report for the Board of Library Trustees which always takes me more time than it should. I’ll double check the figures tomorrow, but I hope I am done.
Delivering the wheelchair was not as easy I thought it would be. The bag that holds Patsy’s phone that has to be close to her at all times so I can get her blood sugar readings somehow got permanently attached to the wheelchair she has been using that belongs to Bridges. It should just be attached by Velcro straps. But someone must have taken the chair apart and put the straps between metal and plastic strips and I could not get it off. I had already transferred patsy from the old chair to the new one, but I had to transfer her back. I am just going to order another bag and will make the transfer when it arrives. I also started packing away some of Patsy’s summer clothes and replace them with some of the new things I bought at Walmart on Friday.
Today was Cape Cod Marathon Day. Jonah worked the early shift, then Ollie and Heather handed out cups of water to participants after they crossed the finish line.
They got home around 2:30, just before I arrived to pick up the dog food from the freezer. It was goo timing as I got to visit for a bit. Jed and Sam are in Stowe, Vermont today and tomorrow trying to find housing for Sam for the winter. They found a house that rents out 8 rooms. Each bedroom has its own bathroom, but everything else is shared. It is 30 minutes from the ski mountain where Sam will be working, but he loved the concept and the owner. There is not a room available until November, so he needs to still figure out what he will do for the last two weeks of October. But progress is being made!
by Judy Handley | Oct 10, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 283: Knocking on Doors and Doors and Doors
Date: Saturday, October 10, 2026
Weather: Beautiful Day; High Temp 63, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Along with my canvassing partner, Julie Lipkin, we walked and knocked on doors for four straight hours today in a neighborhood in Mashpee. We were told it was a compact neighborhood, but the streets went in circles, and we had 70 homes assigned to us. Compact maybe, but my phone says we walked 8 miles. There was sewer work being done in parts of the neighborhood which complicated things, but after 3 hours we were mighty happy to use one of the porta potties in place for the construction workers!
I made the trip to Providence this morning and made it to the Masonic Lodge in Centerville by 10:10 am to see if they had a wheelchair for Patsy. People were going in to donate equipment and others were coming out with their free treasures. But this all happens on Saturdays between 10 and 12. No other time. After a month of Saturdays when I couldn’t get there, I was so hoping the trip was going to be worth it. But when I walked in, I saw no wheelchairs. A young man had me write my name on a paper and he said if anyone came in with one, he would call me. I was so disappointed that I just went out to my car and sat there. I had to send an email to someone, so I wrote that before driving away. And just as I finished the email, I saw a man walking in front of my car pushing a wheelchair. I jumped out and followed him and, indeed, he was taking it in to donate. I looked at the young man I had spoken to earlier, and he said it was all mine. That is two successes in two days in my search for things for my sister.–yesterday’s Walmart clothing bonanza and a free wheelchair today. A big thank you to the Masonic Lodge for this service they provide.
by Judy Handley | Oct 9, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 282: Felt Like Winning the Lottery
Date: Friday, October 9, 2026
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High Temp 68, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It was another beautiful fall day. I headed to Bridges early to replace Patsy’s Dexcom sensor. This has to be done every 15 days and when it is not done on time, her phone goes ballistic. I had until tomorrow early afternoon, but there is no way I be assured of being there by then, so I did it today. From there I went to the ‘These Truths’ class with Jane Scarborough. Class is always interesting and certainly worth the time.
It was 12:30 when I got back to Falmouth and I ran a number of errands. These days, anytime I am near a clothing store, I duck into see if they have any of the things Patsy needs to build a winter wardrobe. I went into TJ Max and came out holding my head. For a person who doesn’t like shopping, that store always overwhelms me. Plus, they never seem to have anything I need for Patsy. I have been to Walmart three or four times in the past month and have looked for things there to no avail. But I was close by, so I went in again. I couldn’t believe it. They had long sleeved shirts, sweaters, winter compression stockings, almost everything on the list except for night gowns. I bought one of every color of the long-sleeved cotton shirts and the everyday sweaters. These will only last one winter, but the price was right and I felt like I had just won the lottery. With just a bit more online shopping, I think I will have most everything she needs for now.
My job this evening was working on the quarterly financial report for the Board of Library Trustees. I have way more to do, but at least I got that started. Now it is time to get to bed as tomorrow morning is an early one.
