by Judy Handley | Jun 2, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 153: In Over My Head
Date: Friday, June 2, 2017
Weather: Sunny Day, but Still Cool and Windy
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
I am totally in over my head with this whole genealogy project I have been working. It is painstaking, but relatively easy to record the information I have that takes us back to the late 1600’s. But then there is documentation for certain branches of my mother’s family that go all the way back to Charlemagne. Sounds cool to be related to Charlemagne until you find out that anyone whose family came from Europe is also related to him. But today I enjoyed tracing my family’s relationship to him through my great, great, great, great, great grandmother Barbary Mauzy. She was born in France in 1735 and at some point was brought to this country and met my fifth great grandfather, John Miller. He was born in Faulkner’s Swamp, Mongomery County, Pennsylvania, about ten years after his father, Jacob, come to this country from Germany. I’m not sure if John and Barbary met in Faulkner’s Swamp or in Rockingham County in Virginia. That is not clear in the recorded history, but what is recorded is that they made their way to Monroe County in southern West Virginia and lived there until they died. Barbary died at age 74, but John made it to 92. Their son Jacob had a son named Henry. Henry had a son named Moses and Moses had a son named Wilson who was my maternal great grandfather. Just tracking down this one story takes a lot of time, and I have literally hundreds of stories to track down. This is not all going to happen before the family gathering the end of June, but I will keep chipping away getting as much done as possible.
Other than sitting at this computer, I did very little today. I went to my Friday evening exercise class and on the way there, I returned to the bike shop and bought a bike. I’ll pick that up tomorrow and am excited to get on the bike path. I also talked to my son, Justin. He is headed to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Sunday to work out a last-minute business deal. Sounds like a lovely place to work for a few days!
by Judy Handley | Jun 1, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 152: Surprise Weather Day
Date: Thursday, June 1, 2017
Weather: Foggy in the Harbor, Sunny Inland; High in the low 70’s, Low 50’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today’s weather was not what was forecast. There was no rain, no clouds, and it was warmer than predicted. What a delightful surprise! There was fog here on the harbor, both in the morning and in the late afternoon, but it was bright and sunny just a quarter of a mile away. I went to the gym for my exercise class and then went to the local bike shop to seriously try-out a couple of bikes. A friend from the gym who heads a biking group in town went with me and her opinions were very helpful in my decision-making process. I didn’t buy today, but I think I am ready to return tomorrow to purchase.
It was almost noon by the time I got home. I launched into making a strawberry-rhubarb crumble for Heather and Jed that I have been promising to make for days. I then had a late lunch and got a text from Heather asking me to pick-up Jonah and take him to soccer practice as she had a last minute request to be on-air to respond to Trump’s climate accord announcement. I didn’t get any family history work done today, so I will launch into that early tomorrow morning.
I have to say that the mid-afternoon announcement by our fearless leader stating that he is withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Accords was a definite low point for me. It was not an unexpected decision, but his “America First” speech was nothing less than shameful. “At what point do they (the rest of the world) start laughing at us as a country?” When Trump asked that question, I immediately knew the answer. The rest of the world starts laughing right now because our President presents himself as such a fool. Our President has removed himself as the leader of the free world. I loved the statement by France’s new President Emmanuel Macron, “Make our planet great again.” That is the way we all need to be thinking.
by Judy Handley | May 31, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 151: Same, Same
Date: Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Weather: Overcast with Rain, Foggy Evening; High in the low 60’s, Low 50’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today was just same, same—same yucky weather and same focus on my family history project. The only difference was that I went to an exercise class and had coffee with a friend afterwards. I met the woman who attends the same exercise classes as myself at the Newcomer’s meeting where I made my Voyage of Windbird presentation in January. She heads up the Newcomer’s cycling group and I wanted to pick her brain about what type of bicycle I should buy. She was very helpful, but her advice was basically the same as my daughter’s—spring for the big bucks and buy a good bike at Corner Cycle in Falmouth. The reasons are very convincing, so that is what I am going to do. The rest of my day was spent on the computer adding family members to my family tree on Ancestry.com while watching the torrents of rain come day in the afternoon. Entering the names and basic information in Ancestry is painstakingly, slow, slow work, but I am making a bit of progress. The work will continue tomorrow . . . as will the rain. I got a real kick out of an email from friend Olivia today. She sent monsoon greetings, likening this weather to the monsoon season in her native India.
by Judy Handley | May 30, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 150: Unexpected Beginning
Date: Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 60’s, Low 50’s degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
The day had a bit of an unexpected, but very special beginning. I got up and headed out for a morning walk to the beach. I followed the Falmouth Road Race final mile course and in twenty minutes I made it to the finish line. There are some benches there and I decided to take a break, have a seat, and just enjoy the view. But as I approached the benches, I very clearly felt Mark’s presence. On the Tuesday before he died in September, we drove to this spot with my sister and brother-in-law and sat on those benches enjoying the view of Vineyard Sound. Mark must have decided to return there this morning to be with me. It was such a strong feeling it almost took my breath away. It was a very special moment that I’ll call it my belated Memorial Day experience. Mark, I miss you more than any words can express and cherish our moment together this morning. I’ll commemorate that moment by posting a photo of Mark hugging my sister on that spot last September. It is one of my very favorites.
Once I got home, I settled in for a long day of sorting through my plastic bin filled with genealogy files. After working on the family history project yesterday, I decided that I needed to go back and sort through the files to remind myself of what I already know. That escalated into a full organization project, but it was very helpful. I have been working on this project off and on for almost 25 years and throughout those years, I collected information and just piled it in a plastic bin. Now it is neatly filed in notebooks—one for Mark’s mother’s family, the Bryants and the Gramms; one for Mark’s father’s family, the Handleys and the Sullivans; one for my mother’s family, the Biggs and the Millers; and one for my father’s family, the Martins and the Goodwins. I have three weeks to get my mother and father’s story written to share with the family at our West Virginia gathering. I think there will be many more days between now and the family gathering when I find myself sitting here at my computer surrounded by those files.
by Judy Handley | May 29, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 149: Cold and Rainy Memorial Day
Date: Monday, May 29, 2017
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High 53, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
I let the cold, rainy weather keep me away from the Memorial Day observance this morning and now I am very sorry that I didn’t go. Heather, Jed, and boys stopped by afterwards for hot chocolate (that turned into lunch) and Heather shared the picture of our little fire chief Ollie helping the ‘big boy’ firemen roll up the BIG flag at the end of the Memorial Day observance. Since it was raining, Ollie had on his fire chief rain coat. The firemen saw him and immediately asked him to join them. Precious moments.
This entire weekend was cool and rainy. And I know we often have cool and rainy Memorial Day weekends, but this one seems cooler and rainier than most. I read through my logs for the past five years and found that to be the case. Last year Mark and I had moved in with Heather and Jed while we were waiting to move into our apartment. Memorial Day was rainy, but the temp was in the 60’s and the days just prior were in the 70’s. It was warm enough for a walk in the cranberry bogs to see the new crop of baby swans.
05 Poppa Swan Brings Up the Rear (photo by Sam Goldstone)
04 Ollie Plants His Flag
00 Goldpebble Crazies on the Beach
01 Lamb’s Quarter (left), Poke Greens (right)
by Judy Handley | May 28, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Days 148: Work and Play
Date: Sunday, May 28, 2017
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Windy; High 72, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
It is the end of a long and exhausting day, but it was a good one. I got up early and headed to Heather’s. I thought I was going to be taking their van to Home Depot to get the missing lumber needed for the foundation of the shed they are building, but I ended up staying with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie while Jed went to get the lumber and Heather did a 4-mile run. When she got home, I left Sam home with Heather and Jed to help with the shed construction and gardening, and I took off with Ollie and Jonah to Miskovsky Landscaping and Jenny’s Edibles. They were hosting a free fun day for kids today which included planting a ‘three sisters garden’ in a pot and a touch-a-truck experience exploring the big landscaping equipment. A ‘three sisters garden’ includes corn, pole beans, and squash. The three are planted together to complement each other. The corn grows tall and the beans grow up the stalk. The squash covers the ground and keeps the weeds down. The woman leading this activity was great with the kids and both Jonah and Ollie were very proud of their little gardens.
The corn and squash were seedlings and the beans were planted as seeds. They were told to wait until the beans are seedlings before transplanting the whole pot into the garden. We then explored the big equipment and both boys loved this activity.
Ollie immediately fell into the role of a big equipment operator and decided this is what he would like to be when he grows up.
While there, I bought a few more plants for Heather’s garden and some parsley seedlings for myself. We took the plants home and checked on Jed’s progress in getting the shed put together and Heather’s gardening and then headed to Walmart.
The boys were going to help me look for a bicycle to buy, but the Schwinn I was interested in was not on display. They have it in a box for assembly, but I really want to try it out before purchasing. So the bicycle hunt continues. While at Walmart, Sam called to put in a request for Subway subs for lunch as there happens to be a Subway in the Walmart. The boys each purchased a Lego set with money they brought with them and we got the subs and headed home again. After lunch, Sam and Jonah went to play with neighbors and I took Ollie on a triathlon adventure. In the space of an hour he went from wanting to be a big equipment operator to wanting to be a triathlete. A triathlete competes for the fasting time in three arenas—biking, swimming, and running.
Ollie put on a shortie dive skin that was way too small for him, but he was convinced he it made him look like a bike racer, and off we went. He biked a mile around the school track, flirted with the cold water at Falmouth Heights Beach and finally did one little polar bear dip in the cold water, and then he ran the distance of the waterfront park on the west side of Falmouth Harbor. Then we both did a marathon shopping trip at two different grocery stores to get everything Heather and Jed needed for dinner. Guests were arriving at 5 pm, and Ollie and I got home with the food at 4:58. Whew! To combat the cool weather, a summer meal was served. We had grilled hamburgers and sausages, corn on the cob, kale salad provided by one of the friends, and watermelon for dessert. Another couple brought pre-dinner snacks for the kids and Heather, Jed, and I threw things together quickly. It was a nice, relaxed evening with friends and great food. But despite the food, it didn’t feel like summer. The thermometer says it was 72 degrees F today, but it felt much, much cooler. It was most cloudy and windy and there was a definite chill to that wind. I don’t see things improving in the next week, so I guess we just have to realize that this is one of those northeast springs that doesn’t end until July. We’ve lived through them before, so I suppose we’ll survive this one.
