by Judy Handley | Jul 25, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 277, Year 11: Storage Unit Progress
Date: Monday, July 25, 2016
Weather: Hot and Humid; High 84 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
Although I am totally overwhelmed with the amount of ‘stuff’ that is now in this apartment, our storage unit is almost empty. Lee’s goal is to empty that unit tomorrow so that we will finally be storage unit free. There are a few things that we just don’t have room for here in the apartment, but once again good friends have stepped forward with an offer. Bruce and Jane Woodin are willing to let us put a few things in their basement and that will help tremendously. Thank you, Bruce and Jane. I have been constantly overwhelmed with the generosity of our friends and family. We are almost there. Thank you to everyone who has pitched in to help us. And a special thanks to Lee and Mary Ellen. Today they got three boxes of books packed up and sent to Windbird’s new owners in addition to getting more things transferred from the storage unit to here.
Today was the first day of classes at the Science School in Woods Hole for Sam and Jonah. Our schedule worked out quite nicely. We all drove Sam to his class at 10:45 and then Jonah, Ollie, and I went to the Woods Hole Exhibit Center. The classes last an hour and a half, so after exploring new things to us at the Exhibit Center, we went to pick Sam up and drop Jonah off for his class. On normal days Sam, Ollie, and I would hang out doing something in Woods Hole until the end of Jonah’s class, but today Jonah had a mid-afternoon doctor’s appointment, we Sam, Ollie, and I headed home and Heather picked up Jonah and took him to the doctor. It will take us a few days to get into a workable schedule, but we are so fortunate that there are so many things to do in Woods Hole.
Tomorrow is my day off Camp Oma, so I will be able to help Lee and ME with the move of the last things from the storage unit. We have some strange items that need to find a home—cherry and walnut boards cut from trees on our farm in West Virginia in the early 1980’s, the skull of our milk cow from that same era, a musical instrument called a kora from West Africa, a djembe drum Justin made while living in West Africa, a small loom, a horse collar and hames, an antique hand wringer for clothes, a scythe for cutting tall grass, lots of things we purchased while sailing around the world, hundreds of old records, and on and on. What a weird collection of things! None of this is worth much, but it is so hard to part with these things. Stuffing it all into our small apartment, making it hard to walk around, is probably the best solution. It will not take long to know what we really want to keep and what we really want to get rid of as soon as possible. Whatever we do with the items, tomorrow is Lee’s deadline for emptying the storage unit. Once that is done, we’ll switch gears and get ready to have Heather and boys over for dinner tomorrow evening. Lee and ME are treating us to steaks on the grill. Then there is a Chicago Cubs game on ESPN. The Cubs are Lee’s and Jonah’s favorite team, so for sure we’ll watch part of the game before Heather has to get the kids home and in bed for the night.
by Judy Handley | Jul 24, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 276, Year 11: Disaster Area
Date: Sunday, July 24, 2016
Weather: Beautiful Summer Day—Sunny and Cooler; High 78 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
This apartment is an absolute disaster area, but fantastic progress has been made in emptying out our storage unit. Lee is steadfast in that we will have everything out of the storage unit before he leaves here next week. His goal is to make sure that we do not have to pay another month of storage, so today we brought seven more plastic bins from storage here and took other items to Heather’s. This small apartment has taken in about as much extra ‘stuff’ as it can and still allow us to walk around. There are plastic bins everywhere. But we just need one more full day to finish the job of emptying the storage unit and that will be on Tuesday. Since we don’t have to go to Boston on Wednesday, Heather asked me to trade my ‘off’ day to Tuesday as she needs to work on Wednesday. We switch gears this week from swim lessons to daily classes at the Science School in Woods Hole. It is a challenging schedule in that Sam has class from 10:15 to 11:45 and then Jonah has class from 12:00 to 1:30. That means hanging out in Woods Hole for a good chunk of the day. My day starts at 7:45 am at Heather’s tomorrow as she has to get to Woods Hole and be on the air by 9 am. So I will be up and out of here by 7:30, leaving the disaster area for Mark, Lee, and Mary Ellen to negotiate.
We spent all of this afternoon moving things out of the storage unit, but at 5:15 pm we stopped and headed over to the baseball field to watch a Falmouth Commodores game. Heather and boys were there and we all really enjoyed the game. The Commodores are a summer collegiate team that plays in the Cape Cod League. There are ten such leagues in the entire country and the Cape Cod League is the premier league. Luckily for us, going to see them is just a short walk down the street. All of us enjoyed the game, but Jonah and Lee were our real enthusiasts. Jonah wants to be a catcher when he grows up and at age 75, Lee still plays baseball and softball on a regular basis. And this evening he enjoyed the game so much that he will go to the next home game on Wednesday. I really enjoyed the game, but one of the highlights for me was the osprey nest at the top of one of the field lights. When the sun went down and the lights went on, the juvenile osprey peaked their heads up out of the nest to see what was going on. Go Commodores and go osprey!
by Judy Handley | Jul 23, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 275, Year 11: Continuing the Move
Date: Saturday, July 23, 2016
Weather: Sunny, Hot, Windy; Evening Thunderstorm; High 87 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
I do believe this is the never ending move. We have not even made a dent in unpacking the things Mary Ellen and Lee brought in the trailer, but today Lee and I went to our last remaining storage unit to assess whether or not we can empty it by the end of this month. We think we can, but I’m not sure where in this apartment all of the boxes are going to fit in. Mary Ellen helped me rearrange the converted entertainment center cabinet that now serves as our pantry. Our goal was to be able to fit more food in as a couple of the plastic bins they delivered are full of food. Tomorrow morning I’ll unpack more books and then I think we will go back to storage to get more things. With Jed out of town for the week, I will have the boys four days instead of three, but in the evenings and on Wednesday we’ll continue emptying that storage unit. While Lee and I went to the storage unit, Mark and Mary Ellen went to the UPS Store to send a box of things back to Windbird. The snuba gear is going with Windbird and we ended up with half of it here. So as long as were sending that, we packed in a few more items that we no longer need. Once I get all of the books unpacked we will be able to ship books back to Windbird that should stay with her. Little by little, we’ll get this job done.
In addition to the unpacking, sorting, and getting more things from storage, Lee and I spent part of the afternoon with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie in the nearby park practicing pitching and catching. My role was watching, but Lee still plays in a softball league which really impresses the boys, so he has become somewhat of a baseball hero to them. He is also a diehard Chicago Cubs fan as are Jonah and Sam, and that just enhances the relationship. While we did that, Mark and Mary Ellen got an afternoon nap. Tomorrow will be more of the same, but we do plan to end early and go to an early evening Falmouth Commodores baseball game with Heather and the boys.
Justin called in the late afternoon and we did a Skype video call so we could see the newest additions to their family. Their goat named Cloud had twins, Hannah and Cooper, and they are absolutely the cutest little things you have ever seen. Both the father and mother are light-colored goats with very long white, hanging ears but the babies are black and white and beautiful. It was a treat to see the baby goats and to see Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. They returned to Puerto Rico after a month in England just in time for the birth of the twins.
It was great to hear from so many of you in response to yesterday’s log about the sale of Windbird and the search for a new name for this blog. Thanks for being there for us!
by Judy Handley | Jul 22, 2016 | Sailing Logs, Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 274, Year 11: Launching a New Era
Date: Friday, July 22, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day with Lots of Wind; High 82 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
The paperwork has been signed, sealed, and delivered, transferring ownership of Windbird. Congratulations to Sam and Dawn Weigel! The ‘Voyage of Windbird’ will continue with new owners. We couldn’t be happier for Windbird and for Sam and Dawn, but this leaves a huge void in our lives. At the same time, this void gives us the opening for launching a whole new era. We have owned Windbird for 15 years and lived aboard her for almost 13 of those years. In 2005, we started on our voyage around the world. I wrote my first log on Tuesday, October 18, 2005, which is the day we left Boston Harbor. Since then we have traveled the world, met incredible people, and seen things we never dreamed of seeing. According to the stats on my website, I have written 3,524 logs, detailing our adventures. We have no idea what this new era will bring, but we are ready to launch. I do know the first adventure is to unpack all of the boxes and bins that arrived from Windbird yesterday. Once we get all of that sorted out we can start to focus on next steps. I’m probably going to continue writing the log, but I will need to give the website a new look and a new name. If you have suggestions, please send them our way
by Judy Handley | Jul 21, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 273, Year 11: Mary Ellen and Lee Arrive and . . .
Date: Thursday, July 21, 2016
Weather: Sunny Day; High 82 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
Mary Ellen and Lee, Mark’s sister and brother-in-law, arrived this afternoon. They will be staying with us for a week or so and we are so excited to have them here. They arrived pulling a U-Haul trailer filled with the remainder of our belongings from Windbird. How could one sailboat hold SO MUCH STUFF! Mark spent his morning putting together the bookshelf we bought yesterday at IKEA and putting up the wall-bracketed shelves above the computer desk in our bedroom. As he assembled the shelves, I unpacked most of the books that were already here and put them on the shelves. But when Lee and Mary Ellen arrived, there were five more big boxes of books. There are a number of books that need to be returned to Windbird.
And speaking of Windbird, here comes the ‘and’ part. Today we got a call from our agent, John Schwab, saying we have a verbal agreement with the prospective buyers, Sam and Dawn. We love Windbird so much and are absolutely elated that a young, energetic couple will be the new owners. I’ll hold off doing my happy dance to celebrate until we all officially sign off on the deal. But in the meantime, as I unpack things from the boat, I am repacking some of it in boxes to send back to Windbird. Lots of house warming gifts for Sam and Dawn.
by Judy Handley | Jul 20, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 272, Year 11: Back on the Roller Coaster
Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Weather: Sunny Day; 80’s in Boston, 70’s on the Cape
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
Yesterday I wrote that things here were moving right along, but today we are back to the ups and downs of a roller coaster ride. We went to Mass General this morning to meet with Mark’s oncologist to discuss the results of last week’s scan. The report was not positive. The trial drug has been effective in a few specific areas, but Mark’s cancer has become more aggressive in other areas. Dr. Kwak met with the team before we arrived this morning to go over the scan results and the consensus was that the trial should be suspended because it is just not working for Mark. We had read the scan report this weekend and knew that the results were mixed, but I’m not sure that either of us was prepared for today’s news. In the name of science, Mark will undergo biopsies in three different areas (requiring three different specialists) and we will wait for the results of those biopsies before a decision will be made on the next step. Options will be to go back to the first chemo treatment Mark received in 2012, Folfox, or to choose between two different chemo drugs delivered via pills, not infusion. But there is no guarantee than any of these will work. The fourth option would be to stop chemotherapy altogether. Dr. Kwak was clear that we might not gain any information from the biopsies that will help guide the decision, but Mark wants to do this as the information could help the team better understand how his cancer has progressed. And hopefully that can help with future patients. In the next couple of weeks, he will make his decision on next steps by weighing pain versus gain. Not an easy task and not an easy time, but Mark always sees the bright side of everything. When he found out that the trial was ending, he was immediately excited by the idea that he will now be able to eat without being on the strict schedule the trial drug required. One thing is for sure. Mark is going to fight this thing to end with a positive attitude, living life to its fullest as long as he can.
