by Judy Handley | Dec 22, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 61, Year 11: A Winter Solstice Surprise Visit
Date: Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Weather: Overcast with High in the upper-60’s F (feels like summer)
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
What a delightful surprise we had on this winter solstice day. Just as Patsy and I were preparing to head out to drive south of Nashville to a Costco to do holiday food shopping, Mark got a call on his phone. He was in the other room, so I looked to see who was calling. It was a good friend, Susie Klein, so I took the call. Susie and her husband, Jim Hammitt, are sailing friends that we would expect to show up in Quissett Harbor in the summer, not in Tennessee in December. So why was Susie calling today? When I answered the phone, Susie immediately announced that they were in their car and had just crossed the Virginia-Tennessee border. Knowing that I am from West Virginia, the border crossing reminded them of us and they called to let us that they are headed to San Francisco for the next six months. Jim is on sabbatical and will work out of UC Berkeley instead of out of his office at Harvard. They had no idea we were in Tennessee and we had no idea they were driving through here today. When Susie told me their destination for tonight was Nashville, I invited them to stop by on their way to say hello. What an unlikely event—Massachusetts friends getting together in Tennessee! But they did stop and we had a great visit catching on happenings from this summer.
Patsy and I were able to go ahead with our shopping trip and still get home in time for Susie and Jim’s visit. After they left, we headed out for another short shopping expedition at the mall area that is two or three miles from here. We seem to make lists, buy everything on the list, and then as soon as we get home, we think of more things that we need. I’m hoping to make one last trip in the morning, but that will depend on the weather. We keep getting radar alerts on our phone letting us know that we will have very severe weather tomorrow—thunderstorms, lots of wind, and possibly large hail and tornadoes. If the front arrives early in the day, I’ll have to postpone the morning shopping trip. But if it is coming through later in the day, I’ll take off early and hope to finish all Christmas shopping by noon. Then Patsy and I will begin preparing those dishes that can be done ahead of time for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We’ll be leaving here to go to the Grand Ole Opry to see The Grinch Who Stole Christmas around noon on Christmas Eve, so we hope to have dinner prepared before we go. And it is always nice to have as much of the Christmas dinner prepped ahead of time as possible, so we’ll work on that as well. Here’s hoping that our preparations are successful and that there will some time to sit back and relax on Christmas Day.
by Judy Handley | Dec 21, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 60, Year 11: A Little of This and That
Date: Monday, December 21, 2015
Weather: Rainy and Warm, Temp in the upper-50’s F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
Today was one of those days when you do just a little of this and that. Patsy and I went shopping for Christmas odds and ends and for food for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Mark and I made the first of four batches of granola, I worked on labeling some of the photos we have been scanning, and we cooked dinner. Mark and Joe had a bit of fun going swimming in the Club House indoor pool and then sitting in the hot tub, but that was just about it. Tomorrow will be more of the same as we are making a Costco run to finish off the holiday food shopping.
We have rebounded from the cold weather late last week. As everyone else in the mid-west and east, we are enjoying the very warm weather for this time of year. We are having a little rain with our warmth here and it looks like that will continue through Christmas. Thanks to a very strong El Nino, we might have the warmest Christmas on record. It is supposed to be in the 70’s here. There will be no white Christmas in this neck of the woods this year.
by Judy Handley | Dec 20, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 59, Year 11: Handel’s Messiah
Date: Sunday, December 20, 2015
Weather: Overcast, Warming Up, High in the upper-50’s F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
This afternoon we drove into Nashville to attend the Nashville Symphony and Chorus production of Handel’s Messiah and it was fabulous. The concert was in the Schermerhorn Symphony Center which is a beautiful example of neoclassical architecture. Although Handel created the Messiah as an Easter celebration, it has become most popular during the Christmas season. And popular it was today. My niece Janet bought tickets for all of us and she and her partner Monica served as our chauffeurs. Janet drove Patsy and Joe in their car and Mark and I got to ride in Monica’s year-old Cadillac. What a nice car. It was a delightful afternoon and a wonderful way to begin the holiday week. Thank you, Janet!
Tomorrow is not going to be nearly as exciting as today. I am going with Patsy while she does a little more Christmas shopping and then we are going to do some grocery shopping for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. If I have time, I am also going to make granola. Between now and the middle of January, I need to have all of our provisioning done so we can sail south. I can make granola here and take it to Windbird when we drive to South Carolina after Christmas. On Tuesday we are going to Costco to complete our holiday food shopping. And in between all of this, Mark and I are working on scanning photos and negatives. We did take time for a nice walk this morning and we hope to do an even longer one tomorrow morning. We had a couple of days of cold weather, but it is warming up nicely. Tomorrow it will be in the 60’s and it will reach 70 degrees F on Christmas Day. We’re going to get rain with the warmth, but better that than freezing weather.
by Judy Handley | Dec 19, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 58, Year 11: Contact with Kids and Scanning Photos
Date: Saturday, December 19, 2015
Weather: Cold Overnight, Mostly Sunny and Warmer Day
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
After breakfast we called Heather and got to talk to Jonah, Ollie, and Sam. It was great to hear their voices and get caught up with their happenings at school this past week. We then had a Skype video call with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. It was the first time we have talked to Ziggy and Coco since our visit in Puerto Rico and it was great to see them. Patsy and I then went out to do a very little Christmas shopping and afterwards we went food shopping. Once home, Mark and I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening scanning photos. When we spent the winter in Little River in 2013 we bought a scanner jointly with Patsy and Joe. We started scanning in all of their old slides and some of our negatives then and are just not continuing the process. We have miles to go on the scanning project, but we will work on it while we are here and see just how far we can get. Janet and Monica came over for dinner and then we watched the Democratic debate. Tomorrow afternoon we go into Nashville to the Nashville Symphony and Chorus’ rendition of Handel’s Messiah. We are really looking forward to this.
by Judy Handley | Dec 18, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 57, Year 11: More Christmas Shopping
Date: Friday, December 18, 2015
Weather: Snow Flurries Early, Mostly Cloudy and Cold
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
Ordering Christmas presents for grandchildren has been difficult this year. It seems a number of things we wanted were temporarily out of stock on Amazon, so we have had to scramble to find things in stores—not something we normally do. We do as much shopping as possible online, but today we had to brave the Christmas crowds to find one last item and get the last of the packages in mail. We did it and now we can take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy the holiday season.
Once we returned from the longest shopping trip in history for just one little item, we were greeted by my niece Janet. We visited for a bit before she had to leave, but we will see her again here for dinner tomorrow night. Patsy and I started going through some old family photos and got the scanner out so we can start the photo scanning process tomorrow. And then we went out to dinner at Cinco de Mayo and enjoyed Mexican for dinner. The temp overnight is supposed to dip to 25 degrees F. Brrrrrrr. And we actually had snow flurries this morning. But very slowly things are going to warm up again culminating in a 70 degree Christmas Day.
by Judy Handley | Dec 17, 2015 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 56, Year 11: West Virginia to Tennessee
Date: Thursday, December 17, 2015
Weather: Rain and Fog, Clearing Late Afternoon, High in the 50’s F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
We made it to Mt. Juliet, about 20 miles east of Nashville. We are so happy to be here with my sister Patsy and brother-in-law Joe for the holidays. Their daughter Janet lives close by, so we are delighted that we will be seeing her as well.
The drive here was a rainy one and it took us all day as we stopped twice to do a little more Christmas shopping. Our last stop was at a Tanger Outlet Mall in Sevierville, the hometown of country singer Dolly Parton. We could definitely tell that we were Tennessee. We had a great dinner with Patsy and Joe and I wrapped up the last of the presents to be sent out tomorrow. Once that is done, it is time to kick back and relax a little . . . really!
