by Judy Handley | Jun 21, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 172: Big Day—Happy BDay to Jo, Heritage with Ollie, Sam’s 4th Grade Graduation
Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day with Foggy Harbor Tonight; High Temp 77 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Happy Birthday to my daughter-in-law Jo. Since we will be together this weekend, celebrations will happen then. And I know she was busier today than we were here as Justin, Jo, and kids are flying to New York City in the middle of the night. They arrive at JFK at 9:30 am and then head to West Virginia in a rental car. It sounds like a crazy thing to fly from Puerto Rico to New York and then rent a car to head back south, but actually it was much cheaper than any other option. They are going to enjoy their drive south by doing a quick tour of New York City tomorrow. Ziggy really wants to go to the American Museum of Natural History located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, so hopefully they will get to do that tomorrow.
We are a busy family. It would have been enough to just spend the day getting ready for the trip to West Virginia tomorrow, but that was not in the cards. Ollie and I had a great day at the Heritage Gardens. We love visiting there and today Ollie really enjoyed finding turtles,
frogs,
and tadpoles in the waterfall pond, riding on the carousel,
and playing in Hidden Hollow.
We both enjoyed our time there.
Before and after Heritage, we searched for new socks and shoes for Ollie. He has outgrown everything he has. But the bottom line is that if you live on the Cape and need any clothing, you have to order it online. We did find some socks at Walmart in Falmouth and a pair of sneakers in Hyannis on the way home from Heritage. But there was not a pair of sandals to be found anywhere. There used to be Stride Rite in Hyannis, but it is no longer there. Olympia Sports and Sears seem to be the only options, and they have a very limited selection. Sooooo frustrating.
Since Ollie and I could not get home in time to pick Sam and Jonah up from school, the next door neighbor did that for us. Thank you, Melissa. It takes a village. And when we did get home, it was time to get ready to go to Sam’s 4th grade graduation. I was teary-eyed through the whole graduation because I just really cannot believe my first-born grandson is so grown up. He’s almost as tall as I am.
And he is such a handsome young man. I am very proud of him. School has not always been easy for Sam, but he has made such huge advances since kindergarten. East Falmouth Elementary School supported him in just the right way and by third grade he was flying high.
Congratulations, Sam.
Even though this felt like the shortest day of year since there was no way to get everything done that I would like before leaving for West Virginia tomorrow, this was actually the longest day of the year. Summer solstice happened in the Northern Hemisphere at 12:24 am this morning. Welcome, Summer!
by Judy Handley | Jun 20, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 171: Time to Press the Panic Button
Date: Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Weather: Partly Sunny and Still Windy; High Temp 72 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
The calendar tells me it is June 20. Really? How did that happen? But despite my skepticism, I must believe what the calendar tells me. And that being the case, we leave here headed to West Virginia on June 22. That’s day after tomorrow. Yikes! It is time to press the panic button. Of course I’m not ready, so I’m going to have to kick in the high gear. Right now I’m listening to an online healthy food course while writing this log and at the same time catching up on today’s political news by watching the TV with the sound off. Tomorrow I will be with Ollie and maybe I can get a few things done during the day. Today we went to the children’s book store in town and bought a few fun things to do on the 12-hour trip. Tomorrow I need to go to the grocery store for the last bits of things to take with. But the biggest job is packing everything so it will fit in the van. I’m going to sign off and start packing food and genealogy notebooks right now. Hopefully I’ll have this under control by this time tomorrow night.
by Judy Handley | Jun 19, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 170: Family History AM, Shopping PM, Dinner with Marti
Date: Monday, June 19, 2017
Weather: Partly Sunny Day, VERY Windy, Stormy Evening; High Temp 77 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today was fast moving . . . from a morning trying to tie up loose ends with the family history project to an afternoon of shopping with Grammie Marti and Ollie for end-of-the-year presents for school personnel to shopping for food items that need to be transported to West Virginia to having Grammie Marti over for dinner. There is never enough time, but it was a good day. I especially enjoyed having Jed’s mom, Marti, come over for dinner. We sat on the deck, despite feeling like we were going to blown away by the wind sweeping in from the Vineyard Sound, and truly enjoyed the end of the day together. Marti heads to Maine tomorrow morning and I start Camp Oma with Ollie. And on Thursday, we head to West Virginia.
by Judy Handley | Jun 18, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 169: Still Working on Family History
Date: Sunday, June 18, 2017
Weather: Overcast with a Little Rain, Temp in the High 73 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Researching family history is absolute addiction for me. Once I get started, I just can’t stop. I got up this morning and spent the entire day trying to pin down a few specifics. One thing that intrigues me is that this past week I found out that the place we are staying in West Virginia for our reunion next weekend is on the land originally owned by Jacob Mann, Jr., in the late 1700’s. Jacob Mann, Jr., was married to Barbary Miller, a daughter of my 5th great grandfather, Jacob Miller, Sr., who came to this country from Germany. Jacob Mann, Sr. and Jacob Miller, Sr. both lived in Rockingham County, Virginia, in the mid-1700’s. Jacob Mann, Sr., and one of his sons, Jacob Mann, Jr. and wife Barbary Miller, made their way across the mountains into present day Monroe County sometime between 1770 and 1775. John Miller, Sr., son of Jacob from Germany, married a French woman named Barbary Mauze, and they too crossed the mountains into West Virginia around 1775. Jacob Mann, Jr., settled on the land that is now Creekside where we will be staying next weekend and John Miller settled on an adjacent property. I won’t go on, but you can see from this tiny piece of history that I have put together from various sources in the past couple of days just how confusing this process can be. There were way too many people in this story named Jacob, John, and Barbary. And this is what takes so much time. I have to take notes, reread, recheck, and finally come up with what makes sense. But that’s what I enjoy . . . the story that evolves out of the names and dates. And how cool is it that we are going to be staying where the first members of our family that came into Monroe County once lived? I love that connection. But at 5 pm, I made myself stop this nonsense so I could go to Heather and Jed’s for dinner. Jed’s mother, Marti, is here this weekend, and they invited me over so we could visit. Marti is going to stay an extra day to help me out by having Camp Grammie with Ollie tomorrow morning. This will give me a little more time to get ready for the family gathering. In the afternoon, I will go over and pick-up Ollie and Marti and we will go on a shopping expedition to buy farewell gifts for teachers and parent volunteers for Sam’s 4th grade graduation on Wednesday evening. The gifts are not from Sam, but from the whole 4th grade class. Since Heather is the PTO president, she is in charge of this. As we discussed this over dinner, it just seemed like something Marti and I could do to help Heather out and Ollie will enjoy going along with us. Then the Goldstones have a kid-centered swimming party tomorrow evening with friends, so Marti and I might escape and go out for a nice quiet dinner.
by Judy Handley | Jun 17, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 168: Parade of Tall Ships 2017, Boston
Date: Saturday, June 17, 2017
Weather: Overcast with Misty Rain, Temp in the High 60’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Sam and I were up early and were off to Boston. Sam drove his rental car and I followed in my car. We drove to the airport so he could return the car, and then we went to the Hyatt Regency at the airport to a viewing area there for the Parade of Tall Ships. It should have been a seven-minute trip from the rental car return area to the hotel, but I stupidly took a wrong turn and went back through the tunnel to South Boston and then had to turn around and go back. But even with the glitch in getting there, the Hyatt venue was perfect for viewing the Parade of Tall Ships. There was no line for the security check-in and there were places to sit on the concrete sea wall. We then settled in to watch the ships with the Boston skyline in the background.
This made it even more special. The tall ship leading the parade was the US Coast Guard Eagle out of Newport, followed by some smaller US ships.
Then came the Canadian ships followed the Pictan Castle from the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.
There were some spectacular tall ships from the Netherlands and Ecuador and Peru.
The largest was the 379-foot Union from Peru.
We could not stay to watch all the ships as Sam needed to check into his hotel in downtown Boston so he could get a nap before his flight to London tonight. Thankfully pilots take their jobs very seriously and do make sure they get the required rest before flying across the ocean! But we did take time to have lunch in Chinatown before Sam headed to the hotel for a nap. At that point, I started the drive home. I made a stop at Costco to get a few things I need for the Martin Family gathering in West Virginia next weekend, and then it was home again, home again.
by Judy Handley | Jun 15, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 166: Day Off the Family History Project
Date: Thursday, June 15, 2017
Weather: Cooler–Temp in the 60’s F, Partly Sunny
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today started with a semi-annual dentist appointment for a cleaning followed by running errands about town. Then I headed home to get lunch together for my friends Jane Woodin and Olivia White. We started by sitting on the deck, but it was just too cool here on the harbor. So, we moved inside for lunch. I served my daily lunch which I call ‘everything in the fridge’ salad. Today it was a ‘make your own’ salad followed by chia pudding with fruit. When Jane and Olivia left, I did sneak in just a bit of family history work, and then it was time to head to Woods Hole to pick up Ollie. Heather was out of town today, so Jed took care of the pick-up of Sam and Jonah in East Falmouth and I did the Woods Hole pick-up of Ollie. I got a text this morning telling me that Ollie wanted to go to the East Falmouth Elementary School playground after school to continue his fun on the climbing equipment started this morning.
So that’s what we did.
I have spent my evening writing a very long email to family about our ‘gathering’ beginning next Friday. Tomorrow I will start my day by wrapping up the family history project and then I’ll host the Goldstones and Sam Weigel for an early dinner, followed by the Falmouth Commodores opening baseball game. Sam Weigel (I think you know by now that Sam is Windbird’s new owner and captain) is flying into Boston tomorrow and has a layover until Saturday evening. He’s renting a car and driving down for a visit. I’m excited to see Sam and catch up on all the work he and Dawn have been doing on Windbird since our return from the Bahamas.
