by Judy Handley | Jan 8, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 08: A Blur of Activity
Date: Thursday, January 8, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny, Warmer; High 45, Low Temp 30 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
9:30 am–Indivisible Falmouth Steering Committee Zoom meeting
3 pm–Indivisible national weekly Thursday “What’s the Plan?” meeting on Zoom
7 pm–Falmouth Dems meeting in person
8 pm—Indivisible national Rapid Response meeting re Minnesota
And in between I played phone tag with the Director of Health at my sister’s assisted living facility, helped a friend who does bits for ads by videoing a session with him playing with Shadow, helped that same friend load his truck with firewood that has been stacked in my backyard for over a year, and went to visit my friend Midge who is now home from the hospital. And now I need to get on my exercise bike before heading to bed. All in a day.
by Judy Handley | Jan 7, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 07: ‘Fun’ Raising Meeting, Evening in Hyannis
Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High 39, Low Temp 30 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My day started in North Falmouth at the Daily Brew attending an Indivisible Falmouth ‘Fun’ Raising. It has nothing to do with raising money. Rather we are just trying to figure out how to inject some fun or activities of interest into our weekly rallies on the Green. I then spent the afternoon working on more Christmas clean-up. I took the lights and decorations off the tree yesterday, but I got it out the door today. I still have a ton of bedding that has been laundered but not packed away. Slowly, I will get there.
Then tonight I volunteered to take Jonah and his friend Kaiden to winter soccer indoor practice in Hyannis. While they played futsal in the gym, I did a little food shopping. Then it was home and now to bed!
by Judy Handley | Jan 6, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 06: The Twelfth Day of Christmas
Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2026
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 39, Low Temp 34 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
On this twelfth day of Christmas, sadly the snowman Ziggy, Coco, and Justin built in the front yard on New Year’s morning fell over as the temperature rose above freezing. It was a visual reminder to me that the holiday season has ended. Since I have a tradition of taking down the Christmas tree on this day, that was a second visual reminder that it is time to store the memories and get on with the winter.
I had only one meeting today, but tomorrow I have meetings all morning spilling into the afternoon. Yep, life is getting back to normal, but before it disappears, I need to figure out how to bottle up all the positive holiday spirit and put it towards figuring out what we can do locally to fight the madness that is happening in this country. It continues to get worse with each passing day, so how do we effectively make it clear that enough is enough? I wish I had a magic wand, but since I don’t, we just have to figure out what we can use instead. If you have suggestions, please send them my way.
by Judy Handley | Jan 5, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 05: Back to ‘Real’ Life
Date: Monday, January 5, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 35, Low Temp 32 degrees F
Location: Back at Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The holiday celebrations and time with family over the past two weeks were absolutely wonderful. But today, reality hit like a ton of bricks. I had an early morning Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition (FIRC) Zoom meeting that started the jolt to get me back to the real world. The ‘real’ world is not so easy to deal with these days. But one really positive thing that came out of the morning meeting was the deep appreciation for what my son Justin did for the group. He built and is the webmaster for Indivisible Falmouth’s website. And since FIRC has no website, Justin built a page on our Indivisible Falmouth site and got all of their documents in five different languages up and running. This morning the woman from LatinX expressed how important that is for local immigrants that are too scared to come forward to ask for help. Now they can go to the website and read and print any of the documents they need in their own language. So, a very BIG thank you to Justin.
I spent most of my day deflating inflatable mattresses, one queen, and two twins, and washing and drying all the sheets, blankets, and comforters. I also laundered the winter gear worn by Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco, so it can be packed away for their next winter visit.
This evening at 7 pm, I picked Ollie and Jonah up from a pond in East Falmouth where they had been playing ice hockey with friends. While we were in New Hampshire, Falmouth had really cold weather freezing some of the shallow ponds. So, today was the day to take advantage of the ice. Jonah went home from school with a friend who lives near one of the frozen ponds. So, he had been there all afternoon, but Jed had delivered Ollie later in the afternoon along with lights so they could skate in the dark. Unfortunately, the weather is turning warmer tonight, and we are supposed to get some rain. The kids will have to wait for another really cold spell to continue their fun on the ice. But they enjoyed this afternoon and evening, and I so enjoyed seeing them skating on the ice by the light of the lanterns when I picked them up.
Jed had a Board of Health meeting tonight, and Heather had a Select Board meeting. Plus, they both had to go to work today. So, they really got jolted back into the ‘real’ world. Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco made it home late this afternoon and are settling in. Ziggy and Coco don’t have to go back to school until Thursday, so they have two more days before they have to settle back into the ‘real’ world. And tomorrow is the twelfth day of Christmas when I take down my Christmas tree and turn off the outside lights. The joyful holiday time is over, but the memories will linger throughout the year.
by Judy Handley | Jan 4, 2026 | 2025 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 04: Intervale to Mt. Washington to Lincoln to St. Paul’s in Concord
Date: Sunday, January 4, 2026
Weather: Overcast and Cold; High Temp from 0 to 20 degrees F
Location: Back at Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
After a whirlwind tour of parts of New Hampshire today, I am back home with my Shadow tonight. Heather and family got home mid-afternoon, but Justin, Jo, Ziggy, Coco, and I took the scenic route from Intervale to Boston Logan where they finally headed home to Puerto Rico at 10:15 tonight. They will arrive in San Juan around 3:30 am PR time (2:30 EST) where they will spend the rest of the night in a hotel before returning to Finca Maravilla tomorrow afternoon.
Today started with farewells at the Airbnb in Intervale at 10 am, the official check-out time.
Heather and family headed south to Cape Cod, but since the flight to PR had been delayed until after 9 pm tonight, I offered to take Justin and family on a whirlwind tour from Intervale northward through Crawford Notch to Mt Washington to ride the Cog Railway halfway up Mt. Washington (as far as it goes in the wintertime), to Franconia Notch and on to Lincoln to have lunch at the Gypsy Café, to St. Paul’s in Concord where Justin attended high school, and finally to Boston to have dinner at Helmand’s in Cambridge with a final drop off at Boston Logan.
It was not a clear day, so the views from the ride up Mt. Washington were not spectacular. Regardless, the ride was absolutely beautiful. When we reached the Mid-Mountain Waumbek Station at 3,800 feet the temperature was a little below zero, but not too windy, so it was just VERY cold but tolerable for a short time. There was free coffee and hot chocolate and a firepit where we could roast marshmallows. Ziggy used his new camera to take photos, and we all enjoyed the white-on-white beauty.
Once we decompressed from the ride, we continued driving northward for a bit before turning south to drive through Franconia Notch and make a stop in the town of Lincoln for lunch. We chose the Gypsy Café based on its name and it was a great choice.We arrived in Concord just before 4 pm to do a walking tour of St. Paul’s where Justin went to high school. A friend of mine who is on the staff there met us and took us inside many of the buildings. The students have not returned from winter break, so everything is locked up tight. But we got a VIP tour thanks to my friend Kate. The tour brought back many memories, and it was fun for Justin to go into the dining hall and find his name carved in one of the wooden panels for the class of ’95. We all enjoyed going into the beautiful library and then walking past the chapel. The St. Paul’s campus is so beautiful.
When we arrived in Cambridge, we had dinner at my favorite restaurant, Helmand’s. It features food from Afghanistan, and it has become a family tradition to eat there when in Boston. I then dropped JJZ&C at the airport at 7:45 pm. I headed home, hoping that the flight to Puerto Rico would not be further delayed. I got home safely and heard from Justin at 10:15 pm that they were on the plane. It will be 3:30 am Atlantic Standard Time when they arrive, but hopefully the memories of our family time together will make up for the lack of sleep. Their visit certainly started my new year out on a loving, positive note.
