by Judy Handley | May 10, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 129: Prom Night for Jonah
Date: Saturday, May 9, 2026
Weather: Cloudy, Sprinkles, Then Rain This Evening; High Temp 62, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The Falmouth High School Junior-Senior Prom was tonight. Jonah and his good friend Kaiden decided to go together. I think they are still afraid of girls! So Kaiden’s mom brought Kaiden to Heather and Jed’s so we could get photos.
Then we all went to Falmouth Harbor for more photos. It looked like all of the kids and parents, and grandparents showed up at the harbor. It was quite a group. It was super windy, but at least the rain held off. Group pictures were taken with soccer team friends, jazz band friends, and playmates from childhood. When Heather and Jed lived in East Falmouth, they lived next door to the Keefe’s who had two children, Molly and Joey. Molly is in Jonah’s class and she and Kaiden both sail in the summers at Waquoit Yacht Club. Lilly, who always took summer swim lessons at Menauhant Beach with Jonah and Molly was there as well. Taking photos of that foursome was a bit emotional for me. As I was framing the photo, memories of all the years of fun with them flew through my mind. But in the frame of a phot, I could see plainly that those frolicking, crazy little kids are all grown up. And it happened in what seemed like just a blink of an eye.
by Judy Handley | May 8, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 128: These Truths and Grandkids News from PR
Date: Friday, May 8, 2026
Weather: Windy, Partly Sunny; High Temp 58, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My Friday mornings this spring are filled by attending Jane Scarborough’s class about the U.S. Constitution. It is based on a book by author Jill LePore named ‘These Truths’. Jane has been obviously shaken by actions taken by actions taken by the Supreme Court to gut the Voting Rights Bill of 1965 and the Virginia State Supreme Court invalidating an election by the people. Day by day, our voting rights are being stripped away and it is depressing. But depression is not what we need. Each of us needs to take action. After today’s class, I went to lunch with two classmates, Karen Baranowski and Jane Woodin. We were supposed to talk about the big idea take-aways from today’s class, but that was just too depressing. So, we spent most of time catching up on life. We’ll get back to big ideas next week!
Today was the last day of classes of this school year for Coco and Ziggy. Jo sent me a description of the festivities, along with some photos. Coco will be moving to up to high school next year and Ziggy will be a senior. There was a big celebration for both. Coco will have an actual graduation ceremony next week and Ziggy still has one exam day to go. But no more classes until August. Both grandkids looked mighty happy about that!
by Judy Handley | May 7, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 127: Braver Angels
Date: Thursday, May 7, 2026
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High Temp 61, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
There is a new group in Falmouth called ‘Middle Ground’. They formed to try and work together to find ways that people on all sides of a political issue can talk and learn from each other. They discovered a national group with a local presence called Braver Angels that do just that. Braver Angels have a series of workshops. We provided the location and printed the handout. Braver Angels sent the presenter. They do this at no charge. The workshop Middle Ground chose to be their first was “Skills for Disagreeing Better” and that workshop was held tonight at the Falmouth Public Library, the workshop sponsor. There were 38 participants and I think I can safely speak for all when I say that each of us took away some news ways of ‘disagreeing better’.
About Braver Angels from Wikipedia: Braver Angels is a New York-based 501 nonprofit dedicated to political depolarization. The organization runs workshops, debates, and other events where “red” and “blue” participants attempt to better understand one another’s positions and discover their shared values.
by Judy Handley | May 7, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 126: Onward
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rain in the PM; High Temp 65, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
In the past five weeks, I have spent more time than I care to even think about, dealing with my sister’s healthcare situation. It has been frustrating, discouraging, and totally maddening at times, but there have also been bright spots. Doctors on call at a hospital who took the time to call me to update me and to tell me my sister has an amazing ability to rebound. She went into the hospital with double pneumonia, Covid, an insanely high sugar count, and an extremely low oxygen level. Three days later, at 92 years and 9 months old, she was rebounding. I talked on the phone daily to people from doctors to people dealing with palliative care. I read her My Chart continually to check her blood sugar levels, her white blood cell count, and a myriad of other tests. I learned to understand how to interpret a chest x-ray. A week later she went to rehab, and there I had to learn to talk to another whole group of people. Physical therapists occupational therapists, social case workers. Then after two weeks in rehab, she was ready to go back home to her assisted living situation. All of a sudden, there was no one to talk to. From last Friday to today, I have struggled mightily with communication with the med tech staff where she lives. But I am hopeful that I have finally found a path going forward. I am not sure any of this would have been easier if I were there in person because almost all of the communication is via text, email, or phone. It has taken a chunk of my life, but here’s hoping I don’t have to talk to anyone other than her physical therapist who texts me with updates for the foreseeable future. I am going to officially close this chapter right now.
Because of all the time I have spent overseeing Patsy’s healthcare for 5 weeks, I am more than a wee bit behind on other responsibilities. But I’ll get there. Heather’s new podcast was launched in the middle of this medical mess, but tonight I watched two of the four podcasts she has out there so far. Wow! I know she is good at whatever she attempts to do, and this new venture is no different. She is a great interviewer and the information I have learned from just two episodes is huge. More on this tomorrow night after I listen to the other two episodes. If you haven’t watched one yet, I highly recommend you do so. Just Google ‘Not a Climate Scientist’. I watched on YouTube.
by Judy Handley | May 5, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 125: Happy Cinco de Mayo
Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warmer; High Temp 60, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
A message from Sam last night that his flight to Seattle went smoothly and that he was in the car with his friend Ethan and Ethan’s dog Cosmo, headed out on to the Olympic Peninsula. Happy travels to Sam, Ethan, and Cosmo.
A call this morning from my neighbor Andy who left yesterday morning for a cross-country trip to California and back. He got as far as Washington, Pennsylvania last night, and called this morning to say that the news about the war in Iran and gas prices in Pennsylvania had changed his mind. He is going to do a little trek down through West Virginia, maybe as far as South Carolina, and then head home.
Another day on the phone dealing with my sister’s healthcare, but not surprisingly, no call back yet from Terra Bella in response to my very long email of complaint on Sunday. My sister is fine, but if I do not hear back from Terra Bella tomorrow, I have to decide what action I will take next.
Then tonight, I put all of that behind me and went to a Cinco de Mayo celebration with my wine group. It was great to be with friends and think about nothing other than enjoying time with friends for a couple of hours.
by Judy Handley | May 4, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 124: Sisters, Sisters
Date: Monday, May 4, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Windy; High Temp 58, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This was one of those days when the Irving Berlin song, “Sisters, Sisters” made popular in the movie White Christmas, kept reeling though my mind. This was day four of having to spend all of my energy dealing with my sister Patsy’s health issues. In the song, the words say, “Lord help the mister, that comes between me and my sister.” Take out the word ‘mister’ and put in ‘incompetent people’ and you have the song I was singing today. Finally, yesterday, the senior living facility where she lives started giving her the insulin she needs. But today I got a text from her paid companion saying that they waited until Patsy was seated for lunch and then came in and got her and took her to the med tech station to inject the insulin. The med tech doing this then turned to Patsy’s companion, who has not one ounce of medical training, and asked her where she should give the injection. Oh, my. And I still have not heard back from the administrative staff in response to my very long email of yesterday. My nephew who lives near enough to Patsy to help out when needed was on a flight to Miami this afternoon, and in flight, he was researching to whom in North Carolina you report this kind of negligence. It is the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services that regulates assisted living/nursing home facilities. But Patsy lives in a senior living community that offers Independent Senior Living, Senior Assisted Living, and a Memory Care program. Now I have to switch to lawyer mode to figure out who does regulate this place. In the meantime, I have this one photo of me with my two older sisters that keeps me grounded. My oldest sister was born in 1928 and died in 2005, my sister Patsy was born in 1933, and then I came along 14 years later in 1947. I was never friends with my sisters because of the age difference, but family is family. Patsy’s husband died in 2019, her oldest daughter died in 2022, and her youngest daughter lives in an assisted-living memory care facility in Ohio. She suffers from post cortical atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer’s. And our brothers died long ago. Patsy and I are what is left of my immediate family. So, I will battle on because we are family.
