by Judy Handley | Apr 21, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 111: Just a Day in the Life
Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Weather: Still Chilly, Partly Sunny High Temp 48, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I’m still wearing my winter coat, but at least there was some sunshine today. No planting got done, but maybe since tomorrow is Earth Day, I’ll get myself motivated to plant the pansies and lettuce I bought on Sunday. But I did get one thing done to prepare for warmer weather. I don’t have a concrete patio for my summer table and chairs. Instead, I have a woven outdoor rug that serves as the patio. I have one older rug for the winter months to cover the bare earth where the table and chairs sit outside my front door. And I have a new rug I put down for the summer. In the past I have had help moving the glass-topped table when replacing the winter rug with the summer one. But today, I managed to do that by myself. If warmer weather does ever return, I have a lovely place to sit outside.
Otherwise, I had two Indivisible meetings today, one in person and one on Zoom. Things are improving at the rehab where my sister is currently. I talked to her this afternoon, and she sounded good. Whatever respiratory issue I have is not improving. I think we can eliminate that the problem was a bacterial infection because the five days of Azithromycin did not to improve things at all. I still have this terrible cough. I will now go back to taking an antihistamine and using an inhaler and see if that helps. And I haven’t decided when I will fly to Charlotte to check on my sister. I really don’t want to fly while I still have this cough, but I have decided that I will not drive down. Driving two days down and two days back to be there for 2-3 days just doesn’t make sense to me. Photos on Facebook from Troop 42 show that Ollie appears to be having a good time in Florida. And Heather’s sprained ankle seems to be improving. That’s the daily update from here.
by Judy Handley | Apr 20, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 110: Treading Water
Date: Monday, April 20, 2026
Weather: Chilly, Mix of Sun, Clouds, Rain; High Temp 51, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My day started with a phone call from the physical therapist at the rehab facility where my sister is currently a temporary resident. And the entirety of my day until 4:30, with a 30-minute lunch break, was spent either talking to people on the phone about my sister’s situation or writing texts or emails about it. It was never ending. And still I have not gotten a call from the head of nursing at the rehab facility and have no clarity on her care or lack of care there. If I didn’t have this terrible congestion that is not getting better with the antibiotic, I would hop on a plane and go to Charlotte. So I spent part of the day researching flights and car rentals to go to Charlotte. But it is a full 14 hours of driving without traffic to get there, or for me, two 7 hour days of driving one way and then two more days home. And if I drove down and flew home, a one-way car rental would be over $1,000, not including gas, and then I would still have to pay to get home. I finally gave up and will work on that another day. In the meantime, I decided I will stay here until I am feeling better and keep trying to manage from a distance. Just not easy.
I felt like I was treading water today, an exhausting activity getting me nowhere. Even when I went outside with Shadow, I just wanted to hide my head and get back inside. The high temp was 51 degrees F, but it was definitely winter coat weather for me. The pansies and lettuce plants I bought on Saturday are still sitting outside waiting to be planted, but I refuse to do it until I can be outside without my winter coat on.
Desperate for some bright spot for today, tonight I asked Google to tell me something joyous that has happened on this date, April 20, in some other year. What Google came up with was the lunar landing of Apollo 16 on April 20, 1972. There was one more lunar landing that year . Apollo 17 on December 11, and we are still waiting for the next one. But at least we got close last week with Artemis II. This made me think of Ollie down in Cape Canaveral, wondering if he felt or saw the launch at 3 am this morning. Thinking of Ollie always makes me smile, so that was the bright spot in my day.
by Judy Handley | Apr 19, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 109: My Only Sunshine Today—Grandkids
Date: Sunday, April 19, 2026
Weather: Overcast, Rain, Chilly,; High Temp 53, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The weather today was my most unfavorite–chilly and rainy with no sunshine at all. But I was sent a little sunshine from my grandkids.
I saw a post by my daughter-in-law Jo on Facebook today with some photos of my granddaughter Coco in her school play last night. They did the musical “Guys and Dolls” from the mid-1950’s and Coco, in 8th grade, was a Hot Box Girl or chorus girl from the New York City nightclub, the Hot Box. I was in early grade school when “Guys and Dolls” was popular, but I remember that both of my older sisters (13 and 20 years older than me) loved it, especially the song, “A Bushel and a Peck.” As far as I could tell from the photos, Coco was the only blonde in Puerto Rican cast.
Then I got the news that Jonah got home late this afternoon from his high school band trip to Hershey, PA. They came home with two huge trophies and the video of Jonah and his friends walking through the lobby of the hotel in their black suits and sunglasses was a hoot.
I guess I have two grandkids headed to Hollywood! Then there is the other end of the spectrum. Jed sent a photo of Ollie waiting in the security line at the Providence airport headed to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a week of ‘rocket science’ and fishing and snorkeling.
The Scout Troop is staying in a house so close to Cape Canaveral that they can see it and at 3 am in the morning when a rocket is scheduled for take off, they are told the house they are in will shake so hard that even if they are asleep, they will wake up. Not Hollywood, but sounds like fun.
The question all of this leaves me with is how did my two youngest grandchildren, Coco and Ollie, get old enough for Coco to be a chorus girl in a musical and Ollie old enough to go to Florida for spring break?!!!
by Judy Handley | Apr 17, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 107: Class, Meeting, Catching Up
Date: Friday, April 17, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Still Warm; High Temp 68, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Last year I started attending a class at the Mashpee Public Library taught by a local woman who was a constitutional law professor. She has been retired for about 8 years now and has taught a class each fall and each spring. It is so popular that if you don’t enroll within a few hours after it is posted, you can’t get in. The room holds about 60 people, and it is always full. The class this spring is based on the one volume history of the United States written by Jill LePore called THESE TRUTHS. LePore is a Harvard professor and a prolific writer. This book is a full 2 inches thick. But it is very interesting, as is the class. I almost didn’t register because I am already more than too busy, but then I realized that this is one thing I do for myself. And after the first class today, I am so glad that I made that decision.
This afternoon I had a meeting with the person who will replace me as Encore Vice President of Programs and the woman who will come in as Assistant VP. We met from 3 until after 5 pm, but I think we ended up with a plan for every program for next year. There is much work left to do to make that plan a reality, but at least we have a plan. I have two more programs that I am in charge of this spring, plus helping get things planned for next year. But then, as of July 1, I will no longer have that ‘job’. I have been on the Encore Board for three years and have loved doing it, but it will be wonderful to get back a piece of my life.
Tonight, I spent the entire evening on my computer catching up on email correspondence. In fact, it is after midnight, already tomorrow, so I am closing down for the night.
by Judy Handley | Apr 16, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 106: Whew, I Made It
Date: Thursday, April 16, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Still Warm; High Temp 68, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This was truly an unbelievably busy day. I spent a great deal of time dealing with my sister’s situation. She is moving from the hospital to rehab tomorrow there were many things to coordinate. The good thing is that she is making great progress.
After a full morning of doing that, I took the time to look at the book for my class that begins tomorrow. I have been so busy that I had never read the class instructions. When I did, I realized I had bought the wrong book. I started checking the libraries, the local bookstore, the bookstore in Mashpee, the bookstore in Hyannis, and what I found is that the only copy available on Cape Cod was in Hyannis at Barnes and Nobles. And even there, I was on hold forever, while the young man tried to find the one book their data base said they had. He found it and put it on hold for me. Since the class starts tomorrow, I decided to drive to Hyannis.
While driving to Hyannis, I called my doctor to see if I could get an appointment to check out this truly awful cough I have. It ended up that the only hope for me to get an appointment before next week was to stop at the Urgent Care for my healthcare network on my way home from Hyannis. That took another hour and a half of waiting, but the good news is that I don’t have pneumonia, RSV, or the flu, or a cold, or Covid, but I probably have a sinus infection and bronchial asthma. At least that is what the doctor in the Urgent Care clinic is saying. I didn’t have time to question that as I had a 3:30 meeting in Falmouth that I was in charge of, so I just had to say thank you and get on the road.
The 3:30 meeting was the Exploring Public Policy group that I lead, and today’s presentation was on AI. One of our own members led this presentation and it could have gone on without me except that I had the LCD projector needed for his PowerPoint. I made it with 10 minutes to spare after stopping at home long enough to let Shadow out and to pick up the projector. It was a cleverly done presentation with a ton of information, all totally understandable on a very complex topic. But as soon as that was over, I had to pack up the projector, stop at home to let Shadow out once more, and then head directly to the library for the next meeting.
This was a screening of a film produced by the Boston Experimental Theatre on the plight of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) families in this country. I had arranged for this screening and had to be at the library by 5:30 to meet the producer of the film and two people from Massachusetts chapter of TPS. These folks all traveled from Boston and unfortunately, we did not get a good turnout. But for those who did come, it was an eye-opening experience that those who attended want to continue to support.
I left home to go to Hyannis at 11 am this morning and got home from the film screening at 9 pm and hadn’t eaten in between. So, I fixed a quick dinner and then started dealing with the 156 emails I had received in that 10-hour period. An announcement had gone out during the day about a field trip I will be leading to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in May and there was a mistake in the email sent out that doubled my email volume. I think I have that under control and am going to head to bed and continue tomorrow. All I can say about today is, “Whew. I made it.”
by Judy Handley | Apr 15, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 105: Another Day Inside on the Computer
Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Windy, Still Warm; High Temp 70, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today was not as sunny and beautiful as yesterday, but it was definitely a day that beckoned me to be outside in the garden. But no way. I had too many things on that ‘to do’ list that were time sensitive—had to be done today. As I have had to do every day for the past week, I spent a good deal of the day in phone calls about my sister. Today I was working with the Case Manager at the hospital to find a rehab placement for her. And at the same time, I was in communication with the paid companion who is with her a few hours every day. This morning, my sister decided that she is not going to eat and that continued through dinner. So that saga will continue tomorrow.
The wonderful thing about today was that I did not have even one meeting and that allowed me to get things done. But I am still not feeling up to par and that slows things down a bit. When I was a senior in high school, I was diagnosed with pleurisy. Tthe way I felt today caused a flashback to then. This cough feels just like the one I had then. It is so deep that it rattles my whole body. Back then the doctor just gave me an antibiotic and wrapped my mid-section below my rib cage to control the pain when I coughed. Thankfully, this time, I don’t cough often. So, I’ll head to bed, propped up by a mountain of pillows, and hope things are better tomorrow.
I had another flashback in time today. Still thinking about Frances Perkins and what she did to help poor people in this country get through the Great Depression, I flashed back to my parents. They were married 102 years ago today. Married in 1924, lost 2 children by 1928, but then then had 4 babies that survived, one in 1928, then 1931, 1933, and 1935. They had nothing, but somehow my dad always managed to find work. By the time I came along in the late 1940’s, the depression was behind them, but they still worshiped FDR for all the things his administration (really Frances Perkisn) did to bring people out of poverty. Happy anniversary on this April 15th to Ollie and Hayes Martin … wherever you are.
