by Judy Handley | Aug 7, 2025 | Cape Cod, USA |
2025 Life Logs, Day 219: One Million Rising Community Resistance Gathering
Date: Thursday, August 7, 2025
Weather: Still Perfect Summer Weather; High Temp 76, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My morning was spent in a Newcomers board meeting. As Past Presidents of Encore, Christina Brodie and I have to serve this year as the Encore liaisons to the Newcomers board. We share the job, and this was my month to attend. Once home, I got to work on the PowerPoint presentation for the Indivisible Community Resistance Gathering I was hosting tonight. There were eight of us, which seemed to be a perfect number for an informal living room meeting. It was a wonderful mix of people and ideas. I felt good about the meeting and think I will host another one next week.
Sam and Jonah headed to Maine this afternoon, so all the Goldstones are together again tonight. Heather returns home on Monday, Sam and Jonah next Thursday, and Jed and Ollie the following Sunday or Monday. I miss them already.
by Judy Handley | Aug 6, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 218: Walking at Highfield, Dinner with the Dearman’s
Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Weather: Still Perfect Summer Weather; High Temp 77, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
How lucky we are here on the Cape to have such perfect summer weather. I started my perfect summer day with a walk with Shadow, followed by taking Jonah to the high school for soccer practice, and then on to Highfield Hall for a walk with Jane Woodin. Jane and I attended a presentation at Highfield last week about the history of the gardens there. We wanted to walk around afterwards to see how the gardens had changed, but I had another commitment that evening. So, we set today as a date for walking through the gardens and into Beebe Woods. The main garden, which most refer to as the sunken garden, has been changed from a garden with annuals, to a garden mostly of perennial hydrangeas
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Jonah didn’t really get to practice this morning as his foot was injured in yesterday’s game. But he needed to go to practice anyway. The top of his foot either got kicked or stepped on. He has been icing it and thinks it will be fine by the time he returns from Maine. Special wishes for a quick and total recovery.
My afternoon was spent on library treasurer tasks, and then tonight I was invited to Lara and Andrew Dearman’s for dinner. It is always wonderful to visit with them. The food was great and we had quite a ‘rousing’ political discussion. We are all on the same side but have differing views on the best way to move forward. It was an enlightening exchange of ideas.
by Judy Handley | Aug 6, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 217: M+M+M+M+S
Date: Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Weather: More Perfect Summer Weather; High Temp 77, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
M=Meeting
S=Soccer
So, my day start at 9:30 with a meeting Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition Events Committee meeting to explore possibilities for a non-violent resistance film series. We also have an upcoming book talk and an art exhibit. So that committee is alive and well. From there I went to the library to meet with an administrative assistant who helped me figure out why the library treasurer reports I completed yesterday would not print on my computer. The assistant, Mary, is wonderful, and she had all of my issues sorted out for me. Then it was home to walk with Shadow, gulp down half my lunch before the next meeting began at my house. I met with the Encore’s Assistant Program Vice President where we developed a ‘to do’ calendar from now until the end of December. That, plus reviewing some other issues, took us almost two hours. I finished just in time to get to the library at exactly 3 pm for a Resource Committee meeting to review this past year and set the budget for next year. At 4 pm we adjourned that meeting, and I headed home to take Shadow out and give him his pain meds before picking up Jonah and heading to Hyannis for a summer soccer game. I think the score was 12-1 with Falmouth winning. Jonah played a great game and then we grabbed dinner At Five Guys before heading home. We got home around 8:30 pm. Since I had not even had time to check my email today, I did that, answered the necessary email, watched some TV news, and am now headed to bed. No meetings tomorrow!
by Judy Handley | Aug 4, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 216: Shadow’s Surgery Day
Date: Monday, August 4, 2025
Weather: Sunny, More Perfect Weather; High Temp 77, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Shadow developed a cyst right above his eye in June, and by mid-July it was evident that it needed to be removed. Today was that day and tonight I have one very sad doggy. The doctor says the surgery went well and sent Shadow home with one of those big, plastic cones around his head. I had to lift him up to get him in the car and lift him down when we got home. He would walk on a leash, but the minute I took the leash off, he would just stand in that position and not move. He was not a happy dog.
Sometime during the first hour he was home, he finally laid down just where he was standing. I sent a text to my friend Lynne to let her know how Shadow was doing and she suggested that I might want to buy a soft, inflatable ring to put around his neck rather than the cone. I went out to buy one, and what a difference that made. He is still groggy from the drugs, but he will now get up on the sofa and sit with me. For the surgery, they shaved all the hair around his one eye. It gives the appearance that he is wearing a pirate patch on his other eye. He gets the stitches out next Thursday, but it will take a bit for the hair to grow back. For the next couple of months, I have Shadow the Pirate Dog.
by Judy Handley | Aug 3, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 215: Family Dinner at My House
Date: Sunday, August 3, 2025
Weather: Sunny, Perfect Weather; High Temp 77, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Not too hot, not too cold … perfect summer weather. That describes the weather we are currently experiencing. Perfect weather is hard to come by these days, so we here on Cape Cod are thankful for this break from the heat and humidity. Monday and Tuesday look like they will be a little warmer, but still with coolish nights. I guess we’ll see what that means.
Heather, Jed, and Ollie leave tomorrow for Maine. Sam and Jonah follow on Thursday as Jonah really doesn’t want to miss summer soccer practice and games. Sam, Jonah, and Heather will also return early next week with just Ollie and Jed staying through the next weekend. I wanted to have everyone over for a Sunday summer dinner as it is the last chance for all of us to be together on a Sunday before Sam leaves for college. I grilled chicken, made stuffed baked potatoes with all the stuffings the boys love, and had corn on the cob and salad. It was a fun evening with lots of talk about packing for college.
But the Woodin’s were having a little happy hour gathering starting at 5:30 pm this afternoon that I wanted to drop in on. So, I made the stuffed potatoes ahead of time and had everything else ready to go. I went to the Woodin’s, had a great time visiting with friends, got home by 6:40 pm, fired up the grill, and we had dinner by 7:30. It was a fun evening. And if we don’t get a chance to have another family dinner with all of us until Sam comes home for Christmas, I will at least have the memories from tonight.
