by Judy Handley | Nov 9, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 313: Slow Moving Sunday
Date: Sunday, November 9, 2025
Weather: Sunny to Cloudy to Stormy; High Temp 58, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This morning was sunny and warm and just perfect for a nice, long relaxing walk with Shadow. When we go on our long walk through town this time of year, there are spots where the walnut trees have dropped hundreds of walnuts. Most are still in the hulls that surround the nut shellm but many have been on the ground long enough that they hulls are gone leaving just the nut in its shell. I always want to pick them up and take them home, but I know from experience when we lived in West Virginia in the late 1970’s that hulling and cracking the nutshell of walnuts is truly hard work, plus you end up with your fingers dyed a very dark brown and they stay that way for a very long time.. So, I walked on this morning, bringing home only a few that have already lost their hulls. But cracking the nutshell is no easy task. It can take a good number of hits with hammer to crack one nut and when it cracks, the pieces fly everywhere. I was able to crack two or three to taste them, and indeed they taste like the black walnuts in West Virginia that I love so much. They taste nothing like English walnuts. Black walnuts are almost sweet. If I had a vise, I could crack them more easily, so maybe I’ll check with Jed to see if he has a vise I could use. If so, maybe I will pick up those walnuts and bring them home.
The rest of the day was uneventful (which is good). I worked on a number of projects and then had dinner with the Goldstones. We got a chance to talk about holiday plans. They are going skiing on Thanksgiving Day, so we will have our feast on Friday when they return home. I learned that we are going to Revels on Sunday, December 21. We will stay in Boston that night and then they think they will head to Maine on Monday morning, the 22nd, coming home by the 27th or 28th. I will come home from Boston unless I can find someone to keep Shadow, but that is doubtful over Christmas. So, I will have Christmas at home alone with Shadow, but before you feel sorry for me, here’s the great news. On the 28th, Justin and family are flying up for a few days. Woohoo! What a wonderful Christmas present. We will celebrate once we are all together.
by Judy Handley | Nov 8, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 312: Bringing the Outside In
Date: Saturday, November 8, 2025
Weather: From Cloudy with Light Rain to Sunshine; High Temp 59, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Last weekend I started the process of bringing plants inside for the winter. This afternoon, I continued that process. I now have the parley, sage, rosemary, thyme, and a poinsettia potted and in my living room and it is starting to look like greenhouse. Of course, one thing leads to another, and I needed to change the spacing of the shelves where the plants will live this winter. That required moving the shelving units and that led to cleaning the area under and behind the shelves. I needed to take some of the shelving I have been using to organize the various aspects of my volunteer life—notebooks for Encore, for Indivisible, for the Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition, for the Nonviolent in Action film series, for the “We the People” class I have been taking, and for the Board of Library Trustees and the Treasurer ‘box’ of supplies.. That’s a lot of notebooks! I had to move all of those notebooks off the shelves in order to rearrange. I’m still no done, so this will continue tomorrow.
My time at the rally on the Green was interrupted today because I got a call from the assisted living facility where my sister lives. Evidently, they sent her DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) paperwork to the hospital with her and it did not get returned. They wanted something immediately, so I left the Green and went home to try and figure this out. What I found out is that this can’t be done without going through her doctor. So, this will have to be done on Monday. I returned to the Green in time to help take down the banners and get the audio equipment put in the car that was taking it home. Our fearless leader, Jim Newman, usually does all of the set up and take down, but he had surgery to repair a torn muscle in his thigh last week and is missing in action for a few days. We are now much more appreciative of all he does for us each week.
by Judy Handley | Nov 7, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 311: Time for Friends, No Time for Amazon
Date: Friday, November 7, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 58, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I have been so busy for weeks that I have had very little time to stay in touch with my friends. So, after a morning meeting and spending a bit of time making arrangements for my sister to be released from the hospital, I took a little time for myself. I spent extra time outside playing with Shadow, drove to East Falmouth to visit with Karen and Peter Baranowski, and then met Jane and Bruce Woodin at Taco Blanco for dinner. It was great to catch up. And what a nice feeling to not have a deadline to meet.
I also took time today to drop my Amazon Prime subscription. It feels a bit like losing a best friend, but I will get over it. I can no longer give money to an organization that is funding a regime that is trying to take down American democracy. When you get online to drop your subscription, you are asked to fill out a survey. I had to respond by saying Amazon was a brilliant idea, and I have always loved everything about it. But for the reason I dropped by subscription, I had to check ‘other’ and write a blurb about why. I felt really good saying I was dropping my subscription because Jeff Bezos financially supports the Trump regime. The next question was about when I might start subscribing again. The answer to that was easy. When Jeff Bezos stop funding the Trump regime. I’m sure only a computer will read my remarks, but it still felt good to write them. Now we’ll see how long I can hold out as I was truly an Amazon addict for more than a decade. Give me the strengths of my convictions!
by Judy Handley | Nov 6, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 310: More Meetings, Good News About My Sister
Date: Thursday, November 6, 2025
Weather: Sky Blue, Sunny Day; High Temp 59, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I attended the Newcomers Board Meeting all morning, met with the Assistant VP of Encore Programs in the middle of the day, and then got on Zoom to see What’s the Plan? This is Indivisible’s weekly hour-long Zoom meeting that helps to keep all of the 2,700 local Indivisible Groups around the country updated on what’s happening and what we are planning to do about it. I then got on the phone with my sister’s case manager at the hospital. She needed to check some details with me and told me they think they are planning to release her tomorrow if things stay stable. Woohoo! They discovered that she has a UTI and put her on an antibiotic for that. She is feeling good and ready to go home, so this was very good news.
by Judy Handley | Nov 5, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 309: Nonviolence in Action Film Series
Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Windy; High Temp 60, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I spent my day getting ready for meetings. Late this afternoon was the third film screening in the Nonviolence in Action series. The films was about Denmark when Nazi’s occupied the country during World War II and Poland when Lech Walesa led the Solidarity movement that transitioned the country from communism to democracy in the 1980’s. The films in the series have been very well received, and most people have been very engaged in the post- film discussions. We have one more film next week. It has been quite a learning experience for me as I knew nothing about organizing a film series and very little about nonviolent movements in the 20th century. I have really enjoyed organizing and roiling out the film series, but it has taken an enormous amount of time. After the screening next week, I should have a little more time in my life!
About 25 minutes before the start time for this afternoon’s film, a doctor from the hospital called to talk with me about my sister. He was very thorough and had question after question. I had to take the call as I had waited all day to talk to someone at the hospital, but I was off with just one minute to spare before introducing the film. Whew! The good news from the doctor is that he hopes he can release Patsy to go home by Friday afternoon.
I drove home to feed Shadow after the film screening and then drove right back to the library, this time wearing my library trustee ‘hat’, for a meeting about the plans for building a new library in East Falmouth.
