by Judy Handley | Dec 28, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 67, Year 11: Just Not Enough Time
Date: Monday, December 28, 2015
Weather: Overcast with Rain, Warm Morning but Cool by Afternoon
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
There is just not enough time in this life to do all of the things one would like to do . . . at least not all of the things I would like to do. This week’s projects include scanning old negatives and photos and working on family genealogy. While I lose myself in Ancestry.com, Mark works on scanning in negatives from our photos from the time we met in 1973 until we got a digital camera around the ‘turn of the century.’ I just love saying that! He has scanned a lot of the negatives for the first ten years, but not all of them. My job is to go through and group and label the photos, but I have barely started that process. We are working on this here and now because the scanner we bought jointly with Patsy and Joe a couple of years ago lives here. It is not something we can take to the boat, so we’ll do as much as we can while we are here and start again when we visit next. Scanning is time consuming, but researching on Ancestry.com is time consuming AND tedious. One problem is that I haven’t taken the time to really learn how to use the site and the other is that I am having a hard time staying focused. My goal on this trip was to do research on my father’s side of the family. But it is tough going and I get distracted looking up things on my mother’s side of the family which is much easier to find. I just have to keep reminding myself that there is nothing pressing about either the scanning and or the researching, so we’ll continue to work this week and be happy with what progress we have made. Then we will switch back to being sailors and our projects will change to food provisioning and researching the weather and the next destination. In between, we will have a brief period of time back on the Cape where grandchildren will make sure our focus is on them, not all of these other inconsequential things. And then there is that Happy New Year letter I hope to write to friends, the photos from Puerto Rico that I have never named and posted, and the Shutterfly calendar for 2016 featuring photos of grandkids that I had hoped to complete before the end of this year. Oh, yes, and then there’s that book about sailing around the world that I have intended to start writing for the past five years . . . the list goes on, but the time just slips by too quickly.
In between projects today, Mark and I drove to a Bed, Bath & Beyond to return king size pillow cases for smaller ones. We also stopped to get our car washed, but that was useless as the drive-thru wash left all of the dirt on the car. I know the car was dirty, but we still can’t figure out how that happened. When we got home, Mark decided to wash the car again. Patsy and I were supposed to do a Christmas returns shopping trip with Janet this afternoon, but it was raining. So we switched gears and went the movie theater. Janet gave us all movie gift cards for Christmas, so we just HAVE to fit in a few flicks this week. Today Janet and Mark went to see ‘Concussion’ with Will Smith and Patsy and I went to see ‘Joy’ with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Robert De Niro. Joe didn’t get to go with us, but we’re going to see the new ‘Star Wars’ movie tomorrow afternoon and Joe will definitely go with us for that. We’d all like to go to see ‘Spotlight’, so maybe we’ll go to see that on New Year’s Eve afternoon. Mark and I rarely go to see a movie unless we are visiting with Patsy and Joe, and then we binge. Maybe we’ll even go see ‘The Danish Girl.’
by Judy Handley | Dec 27, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 66, Year 11: A Quiet ‘Summer’ Day
Date: Sunday, December 27, 2015
Weather: Overcast, High Temp in the mid-70’s F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
We are really enjoying the relaxed, quiet days here. We have been moving at a pretty fast pace all fall, so this is a welcome change. Today was even warmer than yesterday, but by Thursday of this week the temp is going to dip into the 40’s during the day and the 20’s at night. That is going to be quite a shock after having days that truly feel like summer. But it is almost January and time for a little winter weather. So I dare not complain.
I got up early and worked on my genealogy project. It is tedious work and progress is slow, but I am making progress. I have miles to go, but I’ve made a good start. When Mark got up, we ate breakfast and went for a walk. After lunch we looked for another excuse to be outside to enjoy the ‘summer’ day, so we ended up vacuuming out the cars and cleaning the windows on the inside. I made a ham and asparagus casserole out of left-over ham for lunch and then fixed a Mexican casserole with left-over turkey for dinner. It’s going to take a little more creativity to get rid of all the left-over ham and turkey, but I have taken that on as a challenge.
by Judy Handley | Dec 26, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 65, Year 11: The Day After
Date: Friday, December 26, 2015
Weather: Overcast with More Rain, High Temp in the 70’s
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
We had a very quiet day after Christmas. Joe spent most of his day battling a problem with downloading apps on his phone and I lost myself in the Ancestry.com world trying to find family connections. Neither of us was successful, so we’ll continue our little battles tomorrow. Mark started the weather watch for our sail south in a couple of weeks and together we baked about 12 pounds of granola. I’d like to say we are finished with that job, but in order to have enough granola to make it until spring, we’ll have to do one more marathon baking day while we are here. We have decided to stay put until next Saturday. We thought about driving from here to Charlotte on New Year’s Eve and on to Little River to Windbird on New Year’s Day. But when we looked at the statistics for accidents on those days, we decided to sit tight until January 2. With this schedule, we will only be in Little River for two days and then we will drive north to Massachusetts. We will be visiting along the way, so we won’t get home on the Cape until Saturday, January 9th. Mark has his doctor appointments on the 11th and 13th and then we fly back to South Carolina. If weather and health permit, we’ll be sailing south by the middle of the month.
by Judy Handley | Dec 25, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 64, Year 11: Merry Christmas from Tennessee
Date: Friday, December 25, 2015
Weather: Rainy All Day, High Temp in the 60’s
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
Merry Christmas from Tennessee! If you live in the eastern half of the country, you probably had a warmer than normal Christmas day as we did. But possibly unlike the start of your day, ours started off with a bang. We had early morning thunder and lightning. Not the usual for Christmas morning, but then nothing about the weather the past few months has been quite usual. Enough about the weather, but not being the norm was a theme for today. Instead of getting up and opening presents, we got up and cooked dinner. Then while the turkey ‘rested’, we opened gifts in the late afternoon. Cooking the turkey and then giving it a three hour rest before eating was the recommendation of our good friend Kevin Russell. Kevin and Claire came to Little River to have Thanksgiving at Patsy and Joe’s last year and Kevin cooked the turkey. It was delicious and juicy, so Joe asked me to call him earlier this week and find out exactly how he cooked it. We remembered that he basted it with butter quite often and then when it was done, he took it out of the oven, covered it with foil and then with bath towels and let it sit. When we talked to Kevin this week, he had an update on his process. He had always known that you should keep the fully cooked turkey covered with towels for a full three hours, but he and Claire had never had the nerve to leave it that long. They were sure it would cool down too much. But this Thanksgiving they did it and found that the result is an even tenderer, juicier, perfectly warm bird. We tried it today and it worked just as Kevin and Claire said it would. They were having Christmas in California with Claire’s family and Kevin was cooking the turkey there. Hope theirs was as good as ours. I love this process as it not only gives you a tasty turkey, but it also gives you three hours of free oven time to cook the other dishes after the turkey is done . . . no fighting over oven time. And we even had time to open all of our presents. Thanks, Kevin and Claire!
What we thought was going to be a very small Christmas gift-wise, turned into a very big Christmas. In addition to the chocolate-covered strawberries from Justin and Jo, this morning we got an Amazon gift certificate from them. Heather and gang sent us new micro-fiber towels and Mark got me new sheets for the boat. I got Mark a new shirt and I got three new shirts from everyone here. In addition, Mark got all sorts of electronic gadgets. So it was a bountiful Christmas. Thank you to everyone.
We talked to Heather, Jed, and boys this morning and got to see them as they were opening presents in Maine. And then we received photos via email from Justin and Jo and talked to them on Skype as well. All of the grandchildren had more than enough new toys to keep them busy. We miss them all so much, so it was great to see them in action on this very special day of the year.
by Judy Handley | Dec 24, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 63, Year 11: Christmas Eve
Date: Thursday, December 24, 2015
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny, High Temp in the 70’s F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
Merry Christmas Eve! We spent our morning getting dinner ready. A little before noon, the door bell rang and it was the delivery of an “edible” delight for Mark from Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. It was addressed to Mark with a note that he must share the box of chocolate covered strawberries. Some of the strawberries were covered with milk chocolate and others were covered with white chocolate with little chocolate medallions attached wishing us a Merry Christmas. Soon after that arrival, Janet and Monica arrived to take us to the Grand Ole Opry House for a performance of “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” I never thought the Grinch could make me cry, but he did. It was a beautifully staged performance and the music was spectacular. Cindy Lou Who from Dr. Seuss’ Whoville was performed by a second grader from Memphis. She is tiny but mighty. The staging for the performance at The Grand Ole Opry House was spectacular, as was the music. We all really enjoyed the afternoon performance. That you to Patsy and Joe for underwriting this event. After “The Grinch” we all headed back to Patsy and Joe’s for a Christmas Eve dinner. We had Smithville ham, baked spring vegetables, and salad. It was a wonderful dinner at the end of a wonderful day, but I must admit that my very favorite part of the day was seeing photos of our grandchildren enjoying Christmas Eve. We saw a photo of Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco on Facebook and Heather sent us photos of the Goldpebbles all dressed up for Christmas Eve. We miss the Handley-Hunts and the Goldstones so very much, but we feel blessed to be able to be here with Patsy and Joe, Janet and Monica. Merry Christmas Eve to all of you wherever you may be. And make sure you do your part to make sure the Grinch doesn’t steal Christmas!
by Judy Handley | Dec 23, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 62, Year 11: More ‘Getting Ready’ for Christmas
Date: Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Weather: Overcast, Warm Day; Threat of Severe Weather Tonight
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
Like most of you, we are hurrying and scurrying to get ready for Christmas. Shopping for more food, making one last run to the post office, shopping for the last Christmas presents, starting the food preparations for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner . . . that was our day, and probably yours as well. In the late afternoon, we started watching the weather more seriously and with the threat of tornadoes and large hail, we made room in Patsy and Joe’s garage for our car. We are still in a tornado watch area, but at this point, the very severe weather has passed us by. By morning this weather system should have moved out of our area and we can make the last run to the grocery store. I forgot to buy gelatin for the cranberry salad. There always seems to be one more thing.
I haven’t heard from my children today, but when I check Facebook I see that Heather, Jed, and boys got a late start on their drive to Boothbay, Maine, where they will spend Christmas with Jed’s family. Sure hope they made it safely. Justin and Jo’s car broke down a week ago and they have been struggling to hitch rides to get the kids to school and do their food and gift shopping for Christmas. On a friend’s recommendation, they took their car to a repair shop that ended up to be a bit of a disaster. This week they had the car towed to another shop and things are looking up. But they still don’t have the car. Hopefully they have been able to get what they need to have a wonderful Christmas. We’ll call Maine and Puerto Rico tomorrow evening and hope to find that everyone is ready for Santa.
