by Judy Handley | Jul 5, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 186: First Day of Swim Lessons
Date: Wednesday, July 05, 2017
Weather: Sunny; High 78, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today was the first day of swim lessons for Sam and Jonah. Since the boys spent the night with me, we had breakfast on the deck before heading to swim lessons.
These lessons are provided at a very low cost by the town of Falmouth at various town beaches. After a lot of discussion, Sam and Jonah both voted for lessons at Falmouth Heights Beach which is just a half mile walk from here. Ollie is still too young to participate, but we go to the beach and play while the ‘big’ boys have their lessons. Sam’s group meets at 10 am and Jonah’s at 10:30. Neither boy is full vested in this experience, but I am hoping to keep them involved so they will become better swimmers by summer’s end. Sam can swim but needs to work on style. Jonah has always been reluctant to jump in the water as he says it hurts his ears, so we have this obstacle to mount. He has had ear tubes implanted twice due to ear infections starting when he was just a baby. And this is the reason for his reluctance. I was so excited today when I met his instructor for this summer, Michael.
He is a high school or college student who is obviously fun-loving and very caring. He encouraged Jonah, but didn’t push. His assistant is Lauren, and she, too, spent time teaching Jonah skills. Lessons for us will end on July 20 as Sam and Jonah are signed up for a fort-building camp at Falmouth Academy the last week of July, followed by a week of soccer camp the first of August. So we have to give our best effort to swimming in the next two weeks. I was extremely proud of both Sam and Jonah today because they gave their all even though they were initially reluctant to participate.
I purchased white boards to use for Camp Oma planning and the boys and I had our first official ‘meeting’ this morning. At these meetings, we will jointly make decisions on what activities we will participate in each week. I also gave them their summer journals this afternoon and they jumped right into recording their fireworks experience from last night. They had already decided to use one of the two planning white boards to draw about their experiences, so transferring to the journals was an easy process.
So—enthusiastically making group decisions, swimming, writing, and drawing–I’ll call today a success.
Early tomorrow morning I head back to Bruce and Jane Woodin’s to try and get the first coat of varnish on Pooh’s teak before 10 am swim lessons. I’ll try to get the second coat at the end of the day tomorrow, but Friday looks like a no-go for varnishing. At this point, rain is forecast during the day. But better rain on Friday than on Saturday. Saturday morning is Jonah’s birthday party with friends. Jonah wanted to do climbing and zip lining at the Adventure Park at Heritage Gardens. Sam and four other friends will join him. Unfortunately, Ollie is also too young for this activity, so Ollie and I will visit Heritage Gardens while the others CLIMB and ZIP!
by Judy Handley | Jul 4, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 185: Happy 4th of July
Date: Tuesday, July 04, 2017
Weather: Sunny; High 83, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Happy 4th of July! Falmouth, Massachusetts, takes great pride in its holiday celebrations and the 4th of July is no exception. Although the Goldpebbles didn’t participate this morning, the day began with a parade of children on red, white, and blue decorated bikes on Main Street. Heather and boys spent the morning at home and then they came here in the afternoon and we walked to beach.
The beach looked like a Florida beach at spring-break. I have never seen so many people on one beach before, but there was still plenty of room for us. We then came home for our lobster fest. Heather brought lobsters and clams and I added corn-on-the-cob and salad. Yummy!
Then it was back to the beach with our little red beach wagon filled with blankets and beach chairs to watch the fireworks display. The barge where the fireworks are deployed sits just off Falmouth Heights Beach and we had front row seats just a few feet from the water’s edge.
We could hear the music as the speakers were not far away and each one of us really enjoyed the show of ‘lights’. None of us had ever seen the fireworks from this close, and everyone agreed that we should do it again next year.
It is very convenient to do this while I am living on the harbor. That way we can walk and avoid the terrible traffic jam that follows if you have to drive home. The fireworks were spectacular and I think the Goldpebbles really enjoyed the evening. Heather and boys are spending the night as Heather has to be at work at 8 am and Sam and Jonah have their first swim lessons of the summer beginning at 10 am back on Falmouth Heights Beach. Camp Oma is in full swing.
by Judy Handley | Jul 3, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 184: Boat Work
Date: Monday, July 03, 2017
Weather: Sunny; High 88, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today was all about boat work. As I explained in an earlier log, I am working with Bruce and Jane Woodin to get their 17’ sailboat, Pooh, ready for launch. In return for the work, Heather, Jed, and I will get to use Pooh a few times this summer. The timing of the work has precluded Heather and Jed from helping since Jed is in Japan and either Heather or I need to be with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. And since the boys will be with me most days this summer, I suggested that I do the work today and Heather spend time with the boys since she had the day off work. The boat job was stripping varnish from the teak trim on the boat. My specialty has always been varnishing the teak and Mark always stripped the varnish and did the sanding. But I have watched the process many times and today I did the stripping with a heat gun and Bruce followed with the sander. We started at 11 am and ended at 5 pm with an hour break for lunch. So I really only worked for 5 hours, but I am totally exhausted. I almost got the job completely done, but I gave out before stripping one last piece. Bruce will try to get that done, and on Wednesday after Camp Oma, I will work with Bruce to wipe down the teak and tape it off so the varnishing process can begin on Thursday. I’m going to try to varnish before and after Camp Oma on Thursday and Friday, weather permitting. There is a chance of rain on Friday, so the afternoon varnishing might have to be delayed until Saturday. The goal is to try and launch on Sunday. I’m not sure we can make that deadline, but we are going to keep trying. But tomorrow we are taking the day off to celebrate the 4th with family. Heather and boys are coming here midday and then walking to the beach for the afternoon. For dinner we are having a lobster and clam fest. Jed is allergic to lobster, so we are taking advantage of his absence to do this. Then we will walk down to Falmouth Heights Beach to watch the 4th of July fireworks. Heather has to be at work at 8 am the next morning, so she and the boys are spending tomorrow night here. That way she will closer to work the next morning and the boys and I will head down to the beach for the first swim lessons of the summer. And with that, I’ll close and get my tired self to bed.
by Judy Handley | Jul 2, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 183: Wampanoag PowWow
Date: Sunday, July 02, 2017
Weather: Sunny; High 83, Low 65 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
This afternoon, Heather and boys and myself went to the Wampanoag PowWow. This event happens every year at this time. We have wanted to get there for the past few years, and today we finally made it. It runs for all day and evening for three days and what we saw this afternoon was some of the dance competition of the younger set. The adult competition was tonight, and maybe next year we will plan to attend that. And I’ll do some follow up with the boys later this week on why the local native Americans hold this yearly PowWow to keep their customs alive.
by Judy Handley | Jul 1, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 182: July 1—No Way
Date: Saturday, July 01, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Still Windy; High 83, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
The calendar tells me it is the first of July, but I say, “No way!” The spring was so wet and cool that I was never convinced that summer was coming. We left for West Virginia last week and when we returned it was warm and now it is July. Life is moving too fast for me, but I figure I had better run to catch up because time is not going to slow down. I slept in this morning and got a deliciously slow start to the day, but then things went into high gear. Friends Bruce and Jane Woodin have offered to let Heather and Jed use their Cape Cod Cat 17” sailboat in return for help in preparing the boat for launch. Due to the long, rainy, cool spring, they are just now getting the boat ready, so I offered to come do the bottom painting today. Bruce has been sanding the teak, and today I took him my heat gun to speed up the removal of old varnish. I have offered to help with varnishing this week, before and after Camp Oma activities, and Jed will be home to help with the launch next weekend. Mark’s last sail was aboard this boat named Pooh, so it has special meaning for me. And hopefully, I’ll get in a sail or two this summer.
Tonight I had a nice long conversation with Lynne of Ed and Lynne in Nyack. Ed continues to be successful in battling cancer that was not supposed to allow him to live this long. But he fought back by making drastic changes in this diet and so far, so good. I am so impressed with the results Ed has gotten from the diet change. They are leaving next week to spend a couple of weeks in Michigan with Lynne’s family and Ed is looking forward to a few good rounds of golf. Go, Ed! Tomorrow Heather and boys, as well as myself, are all taking a day off work. In the morning I head to Heather’s to do a little gardening (not considered ‘work’) and tomorrow afternoon we are hoping to attend a little of the annual Wampanoag PowWow. Jed doesn’t return from Japan until early Thursday morning, but Heather has this four-day weekend off work. On Monday Heather hopes to help out with work on Pooh and on Tuesday we will all celebrate the 4th of July, Falmouth style. It starts with a downtown parade and ends with fireworks off Falmouth Heights Beach.
by Judy Handley | Jun 30, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 181: Free Fun Friday at The New Bedford Whaling Museum
Date: Friday, June 30, 2017
Weather: Mostly Cloudy with Sun Here and There; Very Windy, High 70’s, Low 60’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
When I arrived at Heather’s this morning, everyone was in the garden harvesting peas. And Sam decided to harvest a good crop of edible weeds, a lemony clover, that has been growing amongst the asparagus.
Once the harvesting was completed, we headed out for the The New Bedford Whaling Museum that is about 45 minutes north and west of here. Every summer, the Highland Street Foundation offers free admission to various museums and cultural venues around the state of Massachusetts on Fridays. They call it Free Fun Fridays and Camp Oma often takes advantage of this wonderful gift. Today the whaling museum was one of the choices, so off we went. We first visited there in 2013 when Ollie was just a toddler,
17 The Goldpebbles
The guide explained to them how it took a whaling ship about four years to leave New Bedford and head around the world in search of whales. He explained how the huge creatures were hoisted out of the sea and how ‘blankets’ of skin and blubber were cut off the whale and brought aboard the ship and rendered into oil.
We spent about two hours in the museum and then drove to a nearby fort to play while eating lunch. It was definitely a fun Friday.
