by Judy Handley | Jul 13, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 265, Year 11: Kevin and Claire Are Here
Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day; High Temp in the 70’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
We are so excited that Kevin and Claire are here for a short visit. It took them the same amount of time to drive here from Ashburn, Virginia, as it did for us to drive to Boston for Mark’s infusion and CT scan and return. In fact, our timing was almost perfect. They made a stop in New Haven for lunch with one of Kevin’s best friends that he hasn’t seen for years and we made a stop at a Home Depot to buy a grill on our way home. Mark and I arrived at our chosen restaurant destination, Stir Fry, at 6:21 pm and about two minutes later Kevin and Claire walked in the door. Kevin and Claire treated us to a wonderful dinner and then we headed home. We were all tired, but we spent part of the evening on the deck and then came inside so Mark could sit in his recliner and get those feet up. We just couldn’t stop talking about what has been happening in our lives since we last saw each other in February. We have no special plans for tomorrow. We just want to hang out together. But I do think we will all go to our storage unit in the morning and make some decisions on what stays and what goes. Kevin and Claire say they will be ruthless and help us get rid of things that we should be gotten rid of years ago.
And by the way, Mark LOVES his new recliner. And as a result of sitting in it with his feet up, the swelling in his feet and ankles has all but disappeared. His children couldn’t have chosen a better birthday present for him! Thank you to Heather, Jed, Justin, Jo, and the Fantastic Five—Sam, Ziggy, Jonah, Ollie, and Coco.
by Judy Handley | Jul 12, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 264, Year 11: Beach Morning, Library Afternoon
Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day, a Little Windy, High 80 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
Today was another Camp Oma day and we spent the morning at the beach playing in between swim lessons and after lunch, we headed downtown to the public library for a special event. On Tuesday afternoons the library hosts a guest presenter for children ages 3 to 10. Today it was a man whose program was very entertaining. The theme was Reading Olympics with Jungle Jim and his presentation was a really fun balloon magic show. The balloons were shaped so that children from the audience could engage in archery, basketball, fencing, and even Scottish caber toss. Sam and Jonah really enjoyed the show and Sam even got to be the audience participant to engage in a Star Wars light saber battle with Jungle Jim as the finale to the show. Ollie was not quite as enthusiastic about the presentation, but he loved seeing Sam engage in the light saber battle. After the show, we walked across the street to the Mullen Hall elementary school playground and played with friends who also attended the show.
Tonight was all about cooking dinner and making a casserole for Mark’s midnight ‘snack.’ Trying to come up with choices for his five meals a day is quite a challenge. But he is steadily gaining weight at about the rate of a half a pound a week. That doesn’t sound like much, but just a month ago, he was losing weight at that same rate. Gaining is better than losing, so we’ll continue to multiple meals a day. Tomorrow we head to Boston for another treatment and a CT scan. We won’t know the results of the scan until next week, but we will anxiously await knowing whether or not the trial drug is still effective. When we return home tomorrow night, our good friends Kevin and Claire are arriving for a short visit. Actually we are hoping to coordinate our arrival times so we will meet at Stir Crazy, a Cambodian restaurant, for dinner. It is on the way home and the food is fantastic. We’re really hoping our timing works out for that.
by Judy Handley | Jul 11, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 263, Year 11: Windbird Update
Date: Monday, July 11, 2016
Weather: Mix of Sun, Clouds, a Little Rain, High 71 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
The time has come for an update on Windbird. On March 8, I wrote in my log that a decision had been made to put Windbird on the market. It was a heart wrenching decision, but a decision that needed to be made. Since then, with the help of wonderful friends and family, I have reported on how Windbird has been emptied and made ready for the transition to new owners. What I have not reported is that we do have a couple who has made an offer that we accepted. The survey and sea trials were set to be last Friday, but we ran into a little hitch. The place where Windbird was to be hauled out for the survey was too shallow and Windbird was sitting in the mud at high tide. There was no way to get the straps under the boat so she could be raised out of the water. So our agent, John Schwab, is searching for another location with deeper water. Unfortunately the chosen surveyor doesn’t have another appointment availability for at least a month, so a second surveyor will be chosen to do the bottom survey. Once that is done the prospective buyers make their final decision. We knew, through the agent, the first names of the prospective buyers—Sam and Dawn. And we knew they were planning to become live-aboard cruisers. We also knew Sam is a pilot and that they currently live in Minnesota. Over a month ago, Sam sent a comment to this blog site, but I somehow did not see his comment until late last week. I felt terrible that he has written and I had not responded. My only excuse is that it has been a VERY busy time. But when I did finally read Sam’s comments, I learned his last name. I Googled that and found that he has a blog focused on aviation. I quickly read through his most recent posts and saw that he was sharing online that he and his wife are seriously considering purchasing Windbird and that Sam was starting a new blog to deal with their new sailing life. It is called “Weigels on the Water” and Sam said we could share the site with our readers. It can be found here: http://wotwater.blogspot.com/
Sam and Dawn have been reading our blog and now we are reading theirs. It is so exciting to learn about the couple that we hope will be Windbird’s new captain and admiral. Sam and Dawn are much younger than we thought, have some sailing experience through charters, and are obviously eager to learn more. Windbird can teach them what they need to know, and being able to follow Windbird’s new adventures through Sam and Dawn’s blog would be quite a gift to us. Sam said it best in his email to us, “There will always be a piece of you in Windbird and always a piece of Windbird in you.” So true!
Life as usual continues here. Today was a Camp Oma day. We started with swim lessons at the beach, followed by playing at the beach, and then headed home when the sprinkles arrived just after noon. Mid-afternoon Sam and Jonah went to play at a neighbor’s home and Ollie and I played together. Ollie wanted to ride his little green John Deere tractor on the street as it is almost impossible to peddle it on the lawn. So he got dressed in his farmer overalls and off we went. When we returned home, Ollie wanted to do some gardening, so we headed to the garden and weeded, hoed, and raked to get ready to plant seeds. We had hoped to plant arugula as the old arugula has gone to seed. But we found that we had no arugula seeds. That task will have to continue tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Jul 10, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 262, Year 11: Happy Birthday to Patsy
Date: Sunday, July 10, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy but Warmer, High in the 70’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
Today was my sister Patsy’s 83rd birthday. Happy Birthday, Patsy! She had both of her daughters and her granddaughter with her to celebrate, so I am sure that was the best present she could get. Mark and I had a quiet day at home and Mark really enjoyed his new recliner. I think I need to get him a crown and start calling him King Mark as he looks like he is sitting on a royal throne!
by Judy Handley | Jul 9, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 261, Year 11: Auto-Lounger Supreme
Date: Saturday, July 09, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Cool, High in the 60’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
Tonight Mark has been enjoying his birthday present which I will call the auto-lounger supreme. The search for a recliner began when Mark’s feet and ankles started swelling. This kind of edema is expected with the drugs he is taking, but he has only recently developed the problem. The first recommendation for this is to lie down with your feet above heart level. But since no one wants to spend their days lying flat on their back, a recliner that can reach zero gravity seemed like the answer. So in addition to me, Justin and Jo, Heather and Jed, and Jonah, Sam, and Ollie all chipped in to get a recliner for Mark’s birthday. We had to drive north to Costco today for a hearing aid check-up, and after that was completed we just moved next door to Jordan’s Furniture outlet department to take a second look at recliners. Mark decided he wanted a power recliner that can lay back to zero gravity with feet above heart level. None of the non-powered recliners went back this far, so we went with a powered one. And actually only one of the powered recliners that were discounted actually reached zero gravity. It was a little bigger and a lighter color than we wanted, but it was comfortable and the price was right. So we bought it and headed home. Heather, Jed, and boys met us when we got home to carry the chair into the apartment. The motor makes it super heavy and there was no way Mark and I could have moved it. So once again, thank you so much to Heather and Jed. And of course, the boys loved trying out the chair with the remote control. In order to get his feet up, Mark has had to lie down on the sofa with three pillows under his feet which is very awkward. Now he just has to sit down and push a button. Maybe it is the chair or maybe it is the chair in combination with the cooler weather, but for whatever reason, the swelling in his ankles and feet is way down tonight. Mark is a very happy ‘birthday boy’ tonight.
by Judy Handley | Jul 8, 2016 | Sailing Logs Year 11 |
Day 260, Year 11: Weather Flip-Flop
Date: Friday, July 08, 2016
Weather: Overcast and Feeling Cool, High Temp 70 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
The weather did a complete flip-flop overnight. The last two days were sunny, humid, and hot. But this morning we awoke to overcast skies, fog, and cooler temps. The high temperature today was 70 degrees F, but it felt considerably cooler. Mark stayed home all day while I went to Heather and Jed’s for another Camp Oma day. I tried to convince Sam, Jonah, and Ollie that we should drive to Plymouth to visit the Plimouth Plantation as it was on the list of Free Friday Museums in Massachusetts for today. But the boys really just wanted to play at home, and so we did. After lunch, Jonah, Ollie, and I went to see the movie, Finding Dory, while Sam stayed in the neighborhood to play with his good friend Zach.
It looks like we are in for a few more days of this cooler than normal July weather before it warms up again. But overcast, cooler weather works just fine for our plans for tomorrow. We have a follow-up appointment at Costco for Mark’s hearing aids. He loves them and wishes this technology was available years ago. But they are so high tech that learning to take advantage of all of their capabilities takes a few return appointments. We will also do more shopping for a recliner for Mark. Heather and family, Justin and family, and I have decided that this is what he needs, so we need to narrow the field and find the ‘just right’ recliner.
