by Judy Handley | May 3, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 123: Send-off Dinner for Sam
Date: Sunday, May 3, 2026
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 55, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My morning and early afternoon were spent continuing to deal with my sister’s return home from the rehab on Friday. Since she returned, I have been unable to talk to anyone on the med tech staff to see if she is receiving the newly prescribed glucose for other diabetes. Finally, at 8:30 am this morning I talked to a real person instead of an answering machine and found out that indeed, she has not been getting the glucose injections as prescribed. They have the meds, but no one ordered a test kit so it couldn’t be administered. But also, no one let her doctor or me or anyone know that a test kit was needed. I wrote an email to the administrative staff detailing all of the attempts by me and by my sister’s primary care nurses to reach someone on the assisted living staff since Friday at noon. When I printed out the email, it was 3 full pages long! I have spent a lot of time on hold at Terra Bella this weekend and every time I hear a man saying, “Visit us at Terra Bella, a retirement community with a country-club like atmosphere.” If this kind of service is country-club like, then put me in the poor house.
This evening I went to Heather and Jed’s for a farewell dinner for Sam. I know. He just got home on Friday, but he is off to Seattle tomorrow to meet up with a friend and head across the country, cowboy camping along the way. I had to ask for a definition of ‘cowboy camping’. It just means tucking into your sleeping bag on bare ground under the canopy of stars. Sam and Ethan are both 19. Youth is on their side, and I’m sure they will be fine. But I suggested Sam at least take a camp pad! However they decide to sleep, I just hope they have a wonderful trek across this country “from sea to shining sea.”.
by Judy Handley | May 2, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 122: Hats and Horses
Date: Saturday, May 2, 2026
Weather: Overcast, Some Rain; High Temp 57, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My saga with my sister continued today. I continue to try and talk to someone on the medical staff and all I can do is leave messages that don’t get returned. More on that tomorrow. But this evening, I changed gears and attended Encore’s spring social. This year it was called Hats and Horses, a theme built around this evening’s Kentucky Derby. We wore our crazy hats and we cheered on our horses of choice. The horse I chose, So Happy, didn’t win, but he ran a good race. And I enjoyed the evening.
by Judy Handley | May 1, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 121: May Day Telephone Game
Date: Friday, May 1, 2026
Weather: Sunny, Windy PM; High Temp 59, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My morning went great. Shadow to the groomer, phone call to the rehab and message to my sister’s son-in-law Bill to make sure everything was on track for her move back to her apartment at 11 am, on to my Friday class on the U.S. Constitution, and then to a noontime May Day protest. Just as the speeches started at 12:20, my phone rang and I answered because it was from my sister’s primary care. As I think back on the afternoon beyond that point, the whole situation seems unreal. I won’t bore you with the details, but the first call was to check with me as to why my sister’s transfer from rehab was not happening today. Really? I Just got a text saying she was in her apartment eating a sandwich from Panera. But since the med office where my sister lives had just told her doctor’s nurse that she was not returning today, I called to find out why that call was made. And then I was told that they didn’t have her new prescription list which includes much needed insulin. That launched an entire afternoon of playing the telephone game. The saga is still continuing, but I can do nothing more until morning when I can call to see if the insulin arrived and is being administered.
After I picked Shadow up from the groomer late this afternoon, I took him over to see Sam. It was really just my excuse to see Sam, but Sam and Shadow love each other. Sam took him for a long walk while I went shopping. I loved seeing my boys together!
by Judy Handley | Apr 30, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 120: Sam is Home and Jazz is Alive on CC
Date: Thursday, April 30, 2026
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Some Rain; High Temp 56, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today was all about Sam and Jonah. The Sam part is that Sam got home from the Netherlands this afternoon!!! He is only here until Monday morning when he flies to Seattle to meet up with a friend and drive back across the country with him. But I cannot tell you how wonderful it felt to give him a great big welcome home hug. Heather drove to Boston to pick him up. She sent a picture labeling it, “Proof of Life.”
His flight from Paris went without a hitch, but since Monday when he left Groningen, he has been traveling with a 6-foot-long snowboard bag packed with 60 pounds of ‘stuff’, plus two backpacks and another big bag. He is exhausted, but after a good night’s sleep, he’ll be fine.
The Jonah part of the day was driving with Jed (Heather stayed home with Sam and Ollie) to the Outer Cape to Nauset High School to attend the All-Cape Jazz 2026 Concert tonight. Jazz band students on the Cape go through tryouts and those who are selected come together for two days with guest conductors. With 12 hours of practice with two different guest conductors, a small Cape Jazz Combo performs, as well as the All-Cape Jazz BIG Band.
It is a huge commitment, as the kids miss two full days of school and have to travel from each day from all parts of Cape Cod. But the result was spectacular this year. Jonah played trombone in the big band.
There were 5 saxophone players (2 from Falmouth), 4 on trumpet (1 from Falmouth), 4 on trombone (2 from Falmouth), 2 on drums, and 1 each on piano, guitar, bass, and vibraphone (from Falmouth), plus 1 vocalist. There were also 2 students from Falmouth, out of 6 total, in the Jazz Combo, a drummer and bass player). The big band guest director this year was Dan Gable. In the Boston Globe, he has been hailed as, “the real deal, [a bandleader], that looks and sounds like the 1940’s.” He is a champion of big bands and vintage jazz and shared his passion with the students over the two days. Tonight the 20 students who had never played together until yesterday, performed songs from the Big Band Era like Take it Jackson by Vaughn Monroe, Roll ‘Em by Mary Lou Williams and Benny Goodman, and a World War II song with words you might remember … “Kiss me once, and kiss me twice, and kiss me once again … It’s been a long, long time.” What a wonderful experience for these kids.
by Judy Handley | Apr 29, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 119: Keep on Walkin’, Keep on Talkin’
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds, Windy; High Temp 56, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ’round,
turn me ’round, turn me ’round,
Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ’round,
I’m gonna keep on a walkin’, keep on a-talkin’,
Marching up to freedom land.
That’s my anthem for today. The Supreme Court 6-3 decision today weakening, some say gutting, the 1965, long fought for, Voting Rights Act is heartbreaking. But tonight, as Senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia quoted from Martin Luther King, we have to hold onto hope over darkness. So I ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ‘round. I’ll keep on doing everything I can to help in the process of turning this mess we are in around.
Tonight was the League of Women Voters Local Candidates’ Night. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet the candidates for local office, the Select Board, the School Committee, and the Planning Board, and listen as they answer questions. Seeing them up-close and personal reveals a lot. It was tonight, and always is, a very worthwhile event.
The rest of my day was spent dealing with my sister’s situation. I had to deal with the 26-page Care Plan I was sent from the Director of Health where she lives. She visited Patsy on Tuesday and did a new assessment. Her care plan assesses her daily needs with a point system. She has gone from 84 points in January to 144. That is a huge increase, and I will have to have further meetings to discuss this before I sign off.
by Judy Handley | Apr 28, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 118: Website Handoff
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Weather: Another Gorgeous, Sunny Day; High Temp 56, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I titled this log ‘Website Handoff’, but maybe it should have been ‘Taking Back a Little Piece of My Life’. I have definitely over committed my time to volunteer work to the point that I barely have time to eat or sleep properly. But finally, I am slowly finding ways to get back little pieces of time. I love being busy, but not as busy as I have been the past 8 months. It was last summer when I realized that I had to get deeply involved in fighting for our democracy, This was something I could not allow myself to watch from the sidelines. I was already on the Encore Board as Co-President moving to VP of Programs, Treasurer of the Board of Library Trustees, a new member of the Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition serving on the Media Committee, co-leader of two very active Newcomers/Encore activities, and first and foremost, an on-call Oma for my grandkids. Then Indivisible Falmouth was formed, and I became deeply involved serving as a member of the Steering Committee. As things got busier and busier, it became evident to me that my grandchildren and Indivisible Falmouth are where I want to put my energy. But I couldn’t just quit the other things. So, as I can, I am handing off responsibilities. My time on the Encore Board will end the middle of June and that will give me back a huge chunk of time. And today I handed off the responsibility of the Indivisible Falmouth website to another member of the Steering Committee. I got involved with the website because I volunteered Justin to build the site for us. He will remain the webmaster, but someone who knows more about technology than I do is taking over the day-to-day responsibilities. This doesn’t give me back a lot of time as I really didn’t spend much time doing the job. But I spent a huge amount of time worrying about the fact that I didn’t have the time to learn to do the job. I will still communicate with Justin when we need help, but knowing I am not responsible is like lifting a huge weight off my shoulders.
And then there is the responsibility I bear for my sister’s health care. Of course, I will continue to do this. There are weeks when there is little to do, but the past three weeks have been intense. Today, however, it looks like she will be leaving the rehab and going back to her apartment at Terra Bella Lake Norman on Friday. I spent more time on the phone yesterday during the Boston field trip talking on the phone to make these arrangements than I did listening to the tour guide. But it was still a great trip. Patsy has made an amazing recovery from double pneumonia and Covid. She is still struggling with fluctuating blood sugar numbers, but her primary care can deal with that when she is back in her own apartment. I think just being at home will help. I have spent countless hours on the phone for the past three weeks talking to doctors, to nurses, to her paid companions, to physical therapists, and on and on. If all goes smoothly between now and Friday, I will be so happy to have her back at home. Dealing with the staff at Terra Bella is not easy, but in the past three weeks, I have learned that dealing with the devil you know is way easier than dealing with the devil you don’t know.
One last piece of good news. My grandson Sam left the Netherlands yesterday and headed to Paris. He will fly home from there on Thursday!!! He is spending tomorrow doing a tour of Normandy and then spends Thursday flying home. It will be so wonderful to have him back on this side of the pond.
