by Judy Handley | Aug 23, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 235: Day Off
Date: Sunday, August 23, 2026
Weather: Overcast with Rain Early, Clear and Sunny PM; High Temp 80, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I did what I said I would do in last night’s log. I took the day off. After a June, July, and beginning of August that were insanely busy and stressful dealing with my sister’s move, now that things with her are a little more settled, I have no desire to do anything at all. I just need a few days of doing nothing. So, I was happy to just putter away the day. I was going to visit Patsy, but my car wouldn’t start, so I couldn’t even do that. I have known since I got my oil changed almost 3 weeks ago that I need a new battery but did nothing about that. But that is now on tomorrow’s ‘to do’ list.. The battery went dead today just sitting in the driveway. When I had to jump start the car a few days ago, I didn’t bother to bring my little Imazing jump starter in the house to charge it, so I decided just wait until tomorrow when my Imazing is charged to jump start the car to go see Patsy. Sam came to try but was unsuccessful due to faulty jumper cables. Then later my neighbor Andy came over this evening with his device, similar to my Imazing, and got the car started. Thanks to Sam and Andy for their help. Hopefully it will start in the morning.
by Judy Handley | Aug 22, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 234: Saturday with Kevin
Date: Saturday, August 22, 2026
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Some Mist; High Temp 72, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Kevin and I had a laid-back Saturday. Every year when he comes to visit, we tackle some task that I need done. This year it was to check out the bathroom sink drain which we did yesterday and to have him help me reorganize the stacks of plastic storage bins in the basement. I dare not try to do that due to my back. It is fine for now, but lifting heavy bins is not a good idea. We spent an hour or so and made great progress before we headed to the Green for the Saturday Rally for Democracy. It was Kevin’s first rally. He enjoyed the experience but suggested some marketing strategies to try and get younger people to attend. Almost everyone on the Green is more my age than his.
Once home, we did a little more work in the basement and got all of the bins move where I wanted them. I can do the rest of the clean-up myself. We had leftovers from Thursday’s dinner for lunch and leftovers from last night for dinner, so we had no cooking to do today. But in Claire’s absence, we thought of her as we ate food made from recipes in her cookbook.
After solving all of the world’s problems and catching up on each other’s lives, on the recommendation of a friend, we watched Nicole Wallace’s The Best People podcast that had aired on MSNBC earlier in the afternoon. It was an interview with Timothy Snyder who is one of the top academics in the world on identifying and fighting fascism. Kevin was not familiar with him, so I made a proper introduction taking Synder’s books, “On Tyranny” and “On Freedom” off the bookshelf to share with him. He said he was interested enough to download and read them once back in Mexico.
Kevin leaves by 7 am in the morning and I think Shadow and I are just going to take the day off. I plan to visit my sister, but otherwise just catch up on emails and texts I have ignored while Kevin was visiting.
by Judy Handley | Aug 21, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 233: Dinner and A Movie
Date: Friday, August 21, 2026
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High Temp 69, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This morning was overcast and rainy. I decided it was the perfect morning to go see The Odyssey, so I asked Kevin if he was interested. He was, as Claire was going to see the movie in Toronto with her family. There was a 10 am showing, so off we went. We both enjoyed the movie despite terrible popcorn!
We spent the afternoon working on my bathroom sink drain which takes forever to drain. What we discovered is that the problem is not in the u-shaped trap under the sink. It is further along in the system. A plumber is going to have to solve that problem.
Kevin fixed dinner and we invited Heather, Jed, Sam, and Ollie to join us. Jonah is in New York City with friends, so he missed the Thai curry with a fennel and tomato salad, and then tropical fruit salad for dessert. Dinner was wonderful and the conversations were wild. We covered everything from all that is good and all that is bad about AI. We ended the evening discussing Sam’s theory that all life is binary. I won’t even try to recap the conversation!
by Judy Handley | Aug 20, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 232: Kevin Arrived
Date: Thursday, August 20, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 86, Low 65 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Mark and I met Kevin and Claire in 2003 when we both arrived at Shipyard Quarters in Charlestown on our respective sailboats to become live aboards. Our reasons for deciding to live aboard our boats were very different and the difference in our ages was almost 30 years, but despite the differences, we became forever friends. I actually consider the two of them as extended family. They now live in Mexico, but they visit every summer when they travel to Canada to visit Claire’s parents and Kevin’s family in New Jersey and his mother in Los Angeles. Their time for visiting is short this year as they are hoping to finally get their boat in the water after a multi-year renovation. They drove their camper van from Mexico to Canada last week. Claire stayed there to visit with her parents and Kevin drove here today. He can only stay until Sunday when he heads to New Jersey for a family reunion and they will be back in Mexico by mid-September. Our first day together was spent catching up on life, visiting my sister Patsy, and making a recipe from Claire’s cookbook for dinner. But whatever we do, we just enjoy our time together.
by Judy Handley | Aug 18, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 230: Engaged With My Life
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Back to Hot and Humid; High Temp 80, Low 68 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
A man named Peter Coyote was an actor, but for the past 34 years he has been a practicing Buddhist priest. He is engaged in political and social causes as well as being a passionate advocate for wildlife and wild nature. But this afternoon, I saw him in the documentary, “Lightworkers”, and he said something that really struck me. “I’m not an activist. I’m engaged with my life.” For those people who are working hard to save our democracy, but have trouble labeling themselves as an activist, I think this is the perfect description. I was watching “Lightkeepers” to see if I want to recommend that the Indivisible Falmouth Steering Committee sponsor a screening of this documentary locally. And after watching it, I definitely do. Another quote from the film that I loved was, “You can’t do it all, but you can do one thing—a lot of one thing.” So many people are so very frustrated by the current political place we find ourselves in, but they say they don’t have time to get involved. If they chose just one thing to do, and did a lot of it, it would be great for the cause and it I think they would no longer be quite so frustrated.
When I got up this morning, I looked at the calendar I share with the Goldstones, and I saw that Heather had to take her aging Honda Civic to Hyannis Honda for a 9 am appointment and leave it for the day. I texted to see if she needed a ride back home from Hyannis because I knew she wasn’t going to stay there all day and wait for the work to be done. I had to go Mashpee anyway to try and solve the ‘disconnection’ issue between my sister’s phone and mine. It takes 20 minutes to get to Mashpee from here, and only another 15 minutes to Hyannis, so after some convincing, Heather agreed to let me come get her instead of her riding the bus home. On our way home, we stopped at Bridges in Mashpee and solved the disconnection problem and then headed home. She was going to work, and I was going home to clean house to get ready for Kevin’s arrival. Sorry, Kevin. Instead of house cleaning, I chose to watch “Lightworkers” so that I could make my recommendation at tomorrow morning’s Indivisible Falmouth Steering Committee meeting. And I am so glad that I did. It is the perfect film to help those who already working hard to save our democracy to feel really good about what they are doing, while at the same time nudging those not yet involved closer to doing so.
I did go food shopping for the first time in ages this evening. My refrigerator was so empty that on Sunday it prompted me to take the shelves out to clean them. But now they are filled. I might not have a perfectly clean house when Kevin arrives, but I will have food! Plus, I still have part of the day tomorrow to tidy up the house a bit before his arrival on Thursday.
The last activity of the day was a Board of Library Trustee Resource Committee meeting. And just before heading to that, I got a text from my sister’s granddaughter announcing the arrival of Patsy’s first great grandchild. We will arrange a Face Time ‘meeting’ with Patsy and Jack Ryan Miller (9 lbs 1 oz) later this week. Congratulations to the parents, Jessica and Josh, Grandpa Bill, and welcome to Jack!
by Judy Handley | Aug 17, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 229: Disconnected
Date: Monday, August 17, 2026
Weather: Rainy Off and On; High Temp 71, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
At 7:45 am this morning, my phone let me know that I was no longer following by sister’s glucose sensor readings on my phone. We were somehow disconnected. This has happened a few times in the past 7 weeks since we set up the system. But all of the other times, all I had to do was reboot my phone and things were fine. One time they had forgotten to charge her phone overnight and once her phone was low on power, we lost connection. I had a 9 am meeting and another one at 11 am, so I was not able to go to Bridges until early afternoon to check things out. I called company that supports the sensor she wears and he app, and they told me the first thing to do was reboot my phone. Been there, done that. But suddenly while I was on the phone with customer support, we got reconnected. I hung up and Patsy went to an afternoon concert, and as soon as she left the room, I lost connection again. Long story short, I called customer support again and they think we have an interest issue at Bridges. I gave up and came home and will return tomorrow morning to continue working on this. If I reboot her phone, disconnect and recommend with the app, and we will have the problem, I will need help in figuring this out. I love technology when it works, but I find it baffling when it doesn’t. The good thing is that although Patsy’s sugar levels have been a little high, they have been consistent for days now. So, I am not going to panic if we are disconnected for a day or two. But beyond that, I have to get the problem solved.
I ate breakfast/lunch in the early afternoon, ran a few errands, and then decided to go to Lobster on the Lawn at Saint Barnabas’s Episcopal Church with friends. On Mondays during the summer, they serve a lobster roll dinner on the lawn and today they had live music. I don’t believe I have ever done this in the 15 summers that I have lived here. The lobster roll was really delicious and there was a great band playing. It was fun and I will certainly plan to do this couple of times next summer.
I ended my day doing what I love most … being on Oma duty. I mentioned in yesterday’s log that Jed and Ollie are in Maine and that Heather had Select Board tonight. She thought both Sam and Jonah were going to be home tonight, so I was off duty as the two of them could easily fix dinner. But Sam ended up working this evening and Jonah wasn’t going to get home from soccer until 8 pm. So, I went over and fixed a simple spaghetti and meatball dinner for Jonah and his friend Kaiden. When I left, they were sitting at a table full of food and contentedly eating away.
And speaking of food, I also mentioned in yesterday’s log that Kevin is arriving on Thursday. So, tomorrow’s job is to figure out what we will eat while he is here. My refrigerator is bare. Kevin and Claire strictly adhere to a diet that avoids all animal products and any processed foods. So not meat, fish, eggs, cheese, dairy of any sort. They eat whole grains, but no flour. And no oil. For those of us not used to cooking like that, it can be challenging. Kevin always does the cooking when he is here, but I do need to have something ready for dinner when he arrives late on Thursday afternoon. Claire has written a cookbook, so tomorrow I will check that for ideas.
