by Judy Handley | Sep 11, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 254: A Beautiful Life
Date: Friday, September 11, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 76, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I am loving these beautiful September days. Even my sister in memory care asked me this afternoon if the sky will always be so blue. We have had a string of sunny, blue sky days that are not too hot and not too cold. Just perfect.
Today is the tenth anniversary of Mark’s passing. I spent the day trying to remember only the wonderful life we had together, not the sadness of it ending. And, of course, it was a national day of remembrance of 9/11. I spent much of the morning and early afternoon dealing with issues for my sister. Later in the afternoon I headed to Bridges to visit Patsy and we spent our time together out in the garden sitting in the sunshine. I picked Ollie up from his golf lesson on the way home and then I prepared a dessert to take to Heather and Jed’s for our Rosh Hashanah dinner. I asked Heather what she would like me to bring and she said, “Whatever you want to do to channel ‘granddad’. Well, Mark loved sweets and he loved chocolate. So, in the time I had, I decided to make a giant chocolate chip cookie. And Ollie and I stopped at Smitty’s to buy chocolate chip ice cream to go with it.
Before putting the huge cookie in the oven, I decided to place chocolate chips on top to form a spiral. When I arrived at Heather and Jed’s I told them this was not really a cookie. It was a story that they needed to figure out. Heather and Ollie didn’t see the spiral at first, but Jonah had one look and identified the spiral. Heather counted the chocolate chips in the spiral, which happened to be 82, and tried to identify the importance of that number. There was no importance as I had no idea how many chocolate chips I had used. But I learned that if you add the ages of my five grandchildren you get 81. But not 82. The reason I decided to add the spiral to the top of the cookie was a tribute to the way Mark lived his life. Some people are linear. Their lives go in a straight line. But Mark’s life was a series of spirals. He would put all of his talents and energies into one thing. And when that ‘thing’ ended, he would start a new ‘thing’, building on the lessons learned in the last one. The end of one ‘thing’ was always the beginning of another. There was never a failure, just lessons learned, and never an end, just a new beginning. It was a beautiful life.
by Judy Handley | Sep 10, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 253: Spoke Too Soon
Date: Thursday, September 10, 2026
Weather: Most Sunny, Windy; High Temp 81, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I spoke too soon. In last night’s log I stated that my life is back to normal after a very crazy summer dealing with moving my sister here from North Carolina. Things seemed to be settling down. But this morning at 6:39 am, a call from Bridges jolted me out of bed. My sister is okay, but I need to reassess and figure out what can be done to prevent these falls. Then while I was walking Shadow, I got a call from the medical company that supplies Patsy’s glucose sensors. They need proof that she actually needs this and they say Patsy’s primary care’s office is not cooperating. I had to do the prep work for tonight’s dining in group dinner, so I decided to put off the diabetes issue until tomorrow. I didn’t check my calendar and found out tonight that I missed the Falmouth Newcomers Activity Fair. Since I am a co-leader of two groups and my co-leaders expected me there, I feel terrible. But I just totally spaced. I did squeeze in enough time to go watch the first half of Jonah’s soccer game against Nantucket. Unfortunately, we lost this season opener against Nantucket. Ten minutes into the second half, I left and got home just 10 minutes before the first friends arrived. It was a lovely evening to sit outside for appetizers. But when the burgers came off the grill, we headed inside for dinner. The days certainly are getting shorter. There just wasn’t enough light to stay outside.
by Judy Handley | Sep 9, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 252: The Political Me
Date: Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Weather: Cloudy and Warm; High Temp 78, Low 70 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
After a couple of months of stepping back from my normal activities to deal with my sister, I think the political me is back. I spent 10 am to 2 pm manning the Falmouth Town Democratic Committee headquarters, 3-4 pm on a Zoom call with national Indivisible leaders, 8-9 pm on a Zoom call with the ACLU about election safe-guarding, and the time in-between developing a handout for next week’s Indivisible Falmouth general meeting. Doing that required contacting the acting Town Clerk’s office to get details on early voting in Falmouth which led to an email exhange with the Town Clerk. I did take time to go pick up Ollie after his golf practice and go food shopping for dinner tomorrow night that I am hosting for my dining in group. Otherwise, the entire day was centered around political issues. I am back to normal!
by Judy Handley | Sep 8, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 251: Book Club, Board of Library Trustees
Date: Tuesday, September 08, 2026
Weather: Perfect Summer Day; High Temp 82, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My book Club meets at 11 am, so I had time earlier in the morning to take a carload of things to Hand in Hand and the Swap Shop at the town dump. It always feels good to fill your car with things you no longer need or ever needed and instantly get rid of them. So, my day was off to a good start. Plus, I was feeling much better, having mostly kicked whatever ailed me the past two days.
I was hosting the book club today and I decided to meet outside. It was warm and beautiful and so nice to spend a couple of hours outside discussing an interesting book. The book this month was The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown. I read The DaVinci Code, and then Angels and Demons, while we were sailing around the world, but I have not read other Dan Brown books since then. This one was a little too close to what might really be possible in today’s world making it a bit frightening, but fascinating. Netflex is turning it into a series. The story takes place in Prague and all of us agreed that if we never previously wanted to visit Prague, it now sounds like a good idea.
Between the end of book club discussion and the beginning of my monthly Board of Library Trustees meeting, I worked on an Indivisible project, went to pick Ollie up from his golf practice, and finalized the final budget for the coming year for the Library Trustees.
by Judy Handley | Sep 7, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 250: Sunny and Warm Labor Day
Date: Monday, September 07, 2026
Weather: Warm and Lovely; High Temp 79, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Summer returned today. There was none of the slight chill of a fall day on this Labor Day. For some, this is the official end of summer. But not me. I hold on to summer as long as I can.
Whatever I had yesterday, persisted today. The only symptoms are a runny nose, itchy eyes, and feeling tired. Maybe it is a cold, but I tend to think it is a ragweed allergy response. Whatever, I am running at 50 percent. I did get a lot of house cleaning/rearranging this morning, went to visit with my sister and helped her with a video call with her granddaughter who introduced Patsy to her almost 3-week-old grandson, Jack. What an alert baby he is. And so cute. Once home, I spent time resting and then repotting a few indoor plants that I started to do in June and just got back to it!
by Judy Handley | Sep 7, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 249: Happy 23rd Anniversary to Heather and Jed
Date: Sunday, September 06, 2026
Weather: Feels Like Fall; High Temp 70 Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Twenty -three years ago at Spruce Point in Boothbay, Maine, Heather and Jed were married. Happy twenty-third anniversary to them!
I was invited to dinner to celebrate, but late morning I got this instant runny nose that just wouldn’t quit and decided not to go and take the chance of exposing everyone to a cold. It happened just after I came back inside from trying to pull some of the very prolific ragweed out of the perennial (currently mostly weeds) garden in front of my house. I didn’t make much progress as it was very hard on my back pulling hard enough to get the roots out of the ground. But the time I did spent was either just enough to set off a terrible allergic reaction, or I have a cold.
I spent the afternoon napping, house cleaning and re-arranging, and baking a flourless chocolate cake for the anniversary dinner. I delivered that and spent a quiet night at home.
