by Judy Handley | Sep 23, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 266: Childhood Memories
Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny, Windy; High Temp 63, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My sister Patsy was almost 14 years old when I was born and my first memory of her was when I was somewhere between 3 and 5 years old. Our older brother Bennie must have been home on leave from his 6-year stint in the US Navy. But in this memory, he was not in uniform. He and Patsy were doing the jitterbug. Of course, I didn’t know the name of the dance, I just knew they were having a great time. Bennie would ‘roll’ Patsy over his back and then slide her through his legs and out the other side. I remember them both laughing and laughing and then dancing some more. And then I don’t remember ever seeing either one of them dancing again.
This afternoon, family members were invited to Bridges to a jazz concert. It was supposed to be outside in the Courtyard, but it was just too windy. So, it was inside. Patsy is now confined to a wheelchair as she is just too unsteady on her feet, so I didn’t expect any dancing this afternoon. But I was amazed to see how deeply she felt the music. The Bart Weisman trio is known for their klezmer swing music and during almost every song in the hour and a half concert, Patsy would close her eyes and do dance steps with her feet while keeping time with her whole body. For the few songs that were smooth jazz, she just sat and listened. But as soon as they started to ‘swing’, she went into her ’dancing’ mode. There were at least 50 people in the room, and she was only one of about three people that I could see who were visibly enjoying the music. I truly don’t remember Patsy ever enjoying music or dancing other than my one distant memory, but she sure enjoyed it today. She was so into the music that afterwards she asked me where I sat during the concert. I had been right beside her the whole time, but she had no memory of that.
I spent my morning and early afternoon attending an Indivisible Steering Committee planning meeting for NO KINGS day on October 17 and then volunteering at the Falmouth Dems headquarters for three hours. After the concert, I picked Ollie up from his after-school golf practice before heading to East Falmouth to deliver some ‘vote early’ flyers to a League of Women Voters sponsored postcarding event. Tomorrow my schedule is not quite so jam-packed, so maybe I’ll get back to that ‘to do’ list.
by Judy Handley | Sep 22, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 265: Working on the ‘To Do’ List
Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 65, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My entire day was spent working on the ‘to do’ list. I added more things to yesterday’s list and managed to get halfway though today’s list. Tomorrow I am out and about all day, so will keep working on the list as I can.
I took time out to go pick Ollie up from after school golf late this afternoon. The JV team has 15 players. The top six normally play in the competitive games, but today the coach thought the opposing team would be bringing 8 players, and Ollie was going to be #7 for Falmouth. But the school bus bringing the team from Sandwich had a flat tire and never arrived. Ollie ended up just playing a normal 9 holes of what he calls 2v2—he and a partner against 2 other players. When I arrived his group of 4 was moving from the 8th to the 9th hole and I managed to get a long-distance photo of Ollie on the course. The coach hopes to reschedule today’s match, so Ollie might still get to play in one game this fall. Go, Ollie!
by Judy Handley | Sep 21, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 264: Making a List and Checking It Off
Date: Monday, September 21, 2026
Weather: Rain Early, Then Cloudy, Turning Partly Sunny; High Temp 64, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I am not an early riser, so my day begins sometime between 7:30 and 8:30 am. I’d say most of my days are about 12 hours of focused activity with downtime after 8 pm. If I round things off, I work about 12 hours a day and sleep and have downtime for the other 12 hours. My twelve hours of work is never enough to do all of the things I want to do, but I haven’t found a way to invent time. So I have to live the time I have. Since we moved my sister here in late June, some big chunk of my work time each day has gone to her. I thought it was getting down to less than hour a day plus visiting time, but the past few days have shown me that it was a pipe dream that things were settling down. Today I documented 2 hours of work time dealing with Patsy’s issues plus an hour and a half visit. And that doesn’t count the 40 plus minutes of travel time and the fact that I only got through a third of the tasks related to my sister that are on my ‘to do’ list. And this afternoon when I went to visit, some major tasks were added to my list. Deep breath. My rant is over for tonight, but my level of frustration is no less. I just have to keep on doin’.
Otherwise, my day was spent working on other items on my ‘to do’ list. I have fewer commitments on my daily calendar this week, so I will keep chipping away at that list tomorrow.
Tonight I watched the Rachel Maddow Show as I do on most Monday nights. Over the past year and a half she has dedicated a great deal of each of her Monday nights to showcasing the power of the people. Tonight she highlighted a woman who has been standing out in front of the Kennedy Center almost every day since early spring holding her handmade signs. The woman used to work for the National Orchestra in the Center and her first sign last spring said, “Hands off the Kennedy Center.” This past weekend she was joined by hundreds of other protesters who have also installed a web cam that they monitor 24/7 to make sure that if “Trump so much as takes a chisel to the Center”, they will be there en masse to surround the center with their bodies and their love. And that woman will continue to be a lone sentinel every single day. I don’t remember her name, but she is my new hero.
by Judy Handley | Sep 20, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 263: Happy 7th Birthday to Shadow
Date: Sunday, September 20, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny Early, Turning Overcast and Rainy; High Temp 64, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Shadow’s 7th birthday was today. He was a very rambunctious puppy but every one said he would calm down when he was 3. Well, that didn’t happen. Then people said that all dogs calm down when they are 7. Not true. Shadow has more energy now than he had as a puppy, so I don’t think he is ever going to settle down. But he is my best buddy and I think his energy helps keep me going. No matter what, he needs to be walked throughout the day and we have a compact to play fetch for at least 15 minutes a day, rain, shine, or snow. Happy birthday to my Shadow. I don’t know what I would do without him.
I divided my day between going to see my sister and working on a list of things that need to be done. The visiting nurse came to see Patsy today about the skin tear on her right leg and said it is healing just fine. Patsy’s blood sugar did go down overnight, but not as low as it normally goes. Then it started back up this morning and by evening was in the high 300’s. But at least it was not in the 400’s like yesterday. So, I will continue to watch it and talk with her primary care to see if we should increase her diabetes meds.
I really didn’t get very far on my to do list, but I will definitely continue that tomorrow. But tonight I put that aside as I was invited to Heather and Jed’s for a special dinner for the last night of Yom Kippur. Heather baked a big, beautiful challah to go with pot roast with potatoes, onions, and mushrooms. And then crème brulee for dessert. Heather outdid herself with the crème brulee. It was perfectly done and perfectly delicious. The sound of three teenage boys in the kitchen using a blow torch to melt the sugar on top was a bit disconcerting! But they did a perfect job.
One interesting thing I did this afternoon was to do a required and much overdue refresher on the conflict of interest law training required by all municipal workers and anyone elected to any office in Massachusetts. I am an elected member of the Board of Library Trustees. The people in power in Washington right now need to take this same refresher:
• Gifts and gratuities. Asking for or accepting a gift because of your official position, or because of something you can do or have done in your official position, is prohibited.
• Misuse of position. Using your official position to get something you are not entitled to, or to get someone else something they are not entitled to, is prohibited. Causing someone else to do these things is also prohibited.
• Self-dealing and nepotism. Participating as a municipal employee in a matter in which you, your immediate family, your business organization, or your future employer has a financial interest is prohibited.
by Judy Handley | Sep 19, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 262: Rally, Farming Falmouth, Dinner with Jonah and Ollie
Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
Weather: Sunny, Turning Partly Cloudy, Cooler; High Temp 66, Low 51 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Yesterday was in the upper 70’s , but today was much cooler. And as I look forward to the forecast for the next nine days, it is going to more of today, not yesterday. Days will be in the mid-60’s and nights in the mid-50’s. Fall comes officially this Tuesday, by I think it arrived today. And when I turned the corner to drive down Lyn Street on my way home from the Farming Falmouth event, I was shocked to see that half of the tree in front of me had turned to autumn colors overnight. I drive down that street toward home every day and this is the first time I have seen those bright orange leaves.
So fall is here. Every day this month I have tried to find time to go to the beach so I can at least say I got in the water one time this summer. But that didn’t happen. I did take Ollie and his friend Seton to the beach one afternoon in July, but I sat on the beach and read and didn’t get in the water. Moving my sister here and getting her settled in at Bridges literally took my whole summer. Things are better now, but even in September, every time I think I have everything under control, something else happens and I am off to Bridges in Mashpee. I am going to look forward to next summer, and when I go to Puerto Rico for Thanksgiving, I am going to make sure I get to the beach there!
This morning I took a long walk with Shadow, went to the Saturday rally for democracy on the Green and then took in the last hour and a half of an all-day Farming Falmouth event. Heather had been there all day and Jed and Ollie came for the last hour. Ollie’s Scout Troop is doing volunteer work with Farming Falmouth and Ollie was on the clean-up crew for the event today. While talking to Heather afterwards, I found out that she and Jed were going to a dinner in Woods Hole tonight, so I volunteered to fix dinner for Jonah and Ollie. Sam was not going to be able to join us as he was working tonight.
That was it for my day. I was looking forward to a day of playing catch-up tomorrow as I have nothing on my calendar. But then tonight, my sister’s blood sugar level rose to the highest level since I have been following. It was dangerously high for a short time but is now going down and will probably continue to do that until morning. Still, I will have to spend part of my day with her tomorrow making sure she is drinking plenty of fluids. If it goes back up again tomorrow evening, I will have to contact her primary care on Monday to figure out what to do. Such is life.
by Judy Handley | Sep 18, 2026 | 2026 Life Logs |
2026 Life Logs, Day 261: Sound, Sister, Soccer
Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warm; High Temp 78, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It was an ‘SSS’ day. It started with a ‘S’ound check at the Museums on the Green for upcoming events around Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday, October 12. Because I have learned to deal with sound systems through Encore and Indivisible Falmouth, I was asked to come for the sound check this morning to make sure everything is all set. It is pretty straight forward, so I think it is all set, but with tech issues, I always hold my breath.
The next ‘S’ had to do with my sister. I got an email this morning saying that her incontinence supplies were running low and needed to be replenished today. I have been trying to figure out just how many Depends briefs are needed in a month, but it obviously more than I estimated. I’ll get better at this and can hopefully start having things delivered each month. The problem for me is that it is Amazon that delivers and I have stopped supporting Amazon. In this case, I just might have to cave because the list of supplies needed each month is long—liquid body soap, special kinds of skins moisturizing lotions, Depends, all different kinds of washable and disposable pads, wipes, disposable washcloths, sensors for monitoring her blood sugar, and on and on. This is not my area of expertise, but I guess it will become so out of necessity. A woman named Brenda who was a privately paid companion for Patsy did this for her in North Carolina. I now have a much deeper appreciation of everything she did for Patsy during the past three years.
And finally there was a fun ‘S’ activity. At 4 pm, I went to see the first half of Jonah’s soccer game. I left at half=time to pick Ollie up from the golf course so that Heather and Jed could stay to watch Jonah. This was the 3rd game this week and they won all three. I am so hopeful that the team continues to have a good season for Jonah’s senior year as it means so very much to him.
