by Judy Handley | Mar 13, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 72: Bracing for the Storm
Date: Monday, March 13, 2017
Weather: Still Sunny, Warming Slightly; High 32, Low 23 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Maybe I’m hiding my head in the sand, but somehow, I can’t accept idea that we are going to have a major snow storm tomorrow. I keep looking at Weather Underground which leads me to believe we won’t get more than 2-3 inches of snow. That doesn’t seem so bad to me, but we shall see about that tomorrow morning. But even if we do get the snow, the temperature is supposed to rise to 40 degrees. I guess it is the wind that comes with a Nor’easter that causes problems with power outages. So I’m bracing for the storm, but not convinced it will be all that bad. I am planning to go out at 8 am for a scheduled blood test as part of a routine physical. Then maybe I’ll return home and get those emails written that I had planned to do today.
Magically, when I checked my bank online account this morning, it was working again. So I didn’t have to spend time at the bank. Instead I spent time scouting out the possibility of finding a new place to live—not because I don’t love it here, but because I feel like I am throwing money away by renting. Heather, Jed, and I have talked about combining finances to purchase a home with an in-law apartment where we would all live together. The other option is that I find a small home for just myself. I don’t know if either option will materialize, but I’m willing to spend time searching out possibilities. I contacted a realtor and will start looking tomorrow if weather permits, or on Wednesday if that Nor’easter makes travel a problem tomorrow.
I picked Jonah up from school at 3:30. Heather arrived home with Ollie and Sam at 4:30 and we finished dinner by 5:30 so Heather and Sam could head out to Woods Hole ASAP for a Scout tour of WCAI, the public radio station where Heather works. Jonah, Ollie, and I watched a YouTube video on making fast flying paper airplanes to prepare for Jonah’s Scout meeting at 6:30. The meeting was being held in the elementary school gym so that boys could make various types of paper airplanes and have plenty of room to test which ones fly further. The design we practiced before the Scout meeting on the YouTube video ended up to be a real winner.
I’ll end on what I consider a very sad note. When I got home from the Scout meeting, I turned on the TV to watch a health care town hall meeting with Senator Bernie Sanders in McDowell County, West Virginia. Bernie is such an honorable man and it made me so very sad to compare his leadership to that being provided by the present administration. But what really made me sad was the fact that the people attending the town hall meeting had voted for Donald Trump. They took Trump at his word during the campaign that he was going to make like better for them, but they are not seeing at this point that he is going to follow through on that promise. They seemed to feel abandoned, especially by the current push to replace Obamacare. Bernie really connects with people and watching the program tonight just made me wonder where we would be today if he had been elected President. I can’t help but believe that we would be moving forward in the right direction. And I certainly don’t feel that way under our current leadership.
by Judy Handley | Mar 12, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 71: A Day with the Goldpebbles
Date: Sunday, March 12, 2017
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 24, Low 14 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
I spent most of my day just hanging out with the Goldpebbles and talking with Heather about what has been going on here in my absence. In the early afternoon, Heather took all three boys to a birthday party for one of Ollie’s preschool friends and I went food shopping. When we reconvened, we got ready for a little belated birthday party for me. We had artichokes and baby back ribs for dinner and flourless chocolate cake and whipped cream for dessert. Yummy.
I will spend most of tomorrow catching up on emails and dealing with a bank issue. For some reason, my online banking is not working. This includes my bill pay services so I need to take care of this right away. I didn’t discover this problem until late last week when I discovered that my online access has been blocked, possibly because I went to Puerto Rico and didn’t notify the bank. I have been to Puerto Rico other times and have never notified the bank, so maybe there is another problem. But in any case, in order to remedy the problem, I have to go into the bank and have someone there that recognizes me verify I am for real! Then they can call the online banking folks and get things reinstated. At 3:30 I’ll pick Jonah up from school while Heather picks up Ollie and then Sam who has after-school band practice. Then all of us will have a very early dinner and head out for Scout activities. Sam’s pack is visiting WCAI in Woods Hole tomorrow night and Heather is hoping she can go with him since that is where she works. Jonah’s pack is going to the high school for a special event and Ollie and I will go with him. At least that is the current plan.
by Judy Handley | Mar 10, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 69: Ryman Theater Tour
Date: Friday, March 10, 2017
Weather: Rain Overnight, Sunny Day; High 57, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, TN
We spent my last day here by driving to Nashville to tour the Ryman Theater, and what a fantastic tour it was. The history of that building is fascinating as it evolved from a religious tabernacle to being the home of the Grand Ole Opry to sitting empty for years before being renovated to become the Ryman as it is known today. Because this is my last evening with my sister, I’m not going to write everything I learned about the Ryman today, but I will recommend that if you are ever in Nashville, you take the tour. It is a truly interesting bit of American history.
Patsy and I are scurrying about this evening trying to wrap up a few projects we started while I was here. There is never enough time, so we will just continue when I come to visit again.
by Judy Handley | Mar 9, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 68: Stormy Night
Date: Thursday, March 9, 2017
Weather: Sunny Day, Stormy Night; High 75, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, TN
What a stormy night it is here. It was 75 degrees this afternoon, but soon after the sun went down, the thunder and lightning started. Then the rain came. And then we got a short blast of hail. At first the hail was as big as malted milk balls, but then it got smaller and smaller until it was the size of pearls. So much came so fast that there was a flood of the little pearls shooting out of the gutter downspouts.
Then the hail ended just as abruptly as it started. Tomorrow will be 20 degrees cooler than today, but I won’t complain. In checking the weather back home I see that school has already been cancelled tomorrow due to snow. Arriving home on Saturday is going to be a bit of a weather shock, but then it is supposed to snow here on Saturday evening. I guess spring has been put on hold for a bit.
I was so excited to make a smoothie for Patsy this morning in her new Vitamix blender. I got all the ingredients in it and tried to turn it on. Nothing. I could get it to pulse, so I knew the motor was working. But there was no way the start button for blending was going to work. So Patsy and I spent our afternoon driving back to Costco to get another Vitamix. Hopefully tomorrow morning I will be able to successfully make a smoothie for my sister and hopefully she’ll love it.
This evening we met Janet and Monica at a new restaurant called Burger Republic. We all agreed that this place was a winner. Janet and Monica fly to Florida on Saturday morning at 5 am, so we said our goodbyes tonight. The stormy weather is supposed to end during the night, so tomorrow Patsy, Joe, and I will head into Nashville to tour the Ryman Theater, formerly the Grand Ole Opry House, and before that the Union Gospel Tabernacle. The Ryman was the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. We are looking forward to the tour.
by Judy Handley | Mar 8, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 67: Fences
Date: Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Weather: Sunny and Clear; High 68, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, TN
It was a gorgeous day, but somehow we managed to spend most of it inside. Joe and I went to the gym this morning. We had planned to drive south to the Jack Daniels Distillery, but when we looked at the time we have left before I leave, we had to drop the Jack Daniels trip. Joe really wanted to go see Fences with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis and since tomorrow might be the last day it is showing here, it moved to the top of our list. We found the movie to be one of those deeply sad stories that is hard to watch, but the acting was fantastic. Since we had to drive all the way to the theater south of Nashville, we returned to Costco afterwards so that Joe could visit the optical department to pick out new frames for his glasses. And today we were successful in buying a Vitamix blender for Patsy. They were there yesterday. I just didn’t see them and didn’t ask for help. I called this morning to see if maybe I had overlooked them and found that I had. Tomorrow morning will be a smoothie morning with the new Vitamix and then we will just hang out for the rest of the day. I think we will be going out to dinner with Janet and Monica tomorrow night and we will visit the Ryman in Nashville on Friday. Snow is forecast for here on Saturday and I’m really hoping the forecast is correct and that the snow won’t come until after I leave.
by Judy Handley | Mar 8, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 66: Lion
Date: Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Weather: Overcast with Wind and Rain; High 64, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, TN
The rain and wind started during the night and continued through the morning. We had thought we might drive about an hour and half south to tour the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, but the pouring rain discouraged that idea. So, we decided to go to another movie. We all wanted to see Lion, so that was our choice. And it was a good one. We all thought it was a much better movie than Moonlight. Now Joe wants to go see Fences. I’m not sure we can work that in before I leave on Saturday, but we will try. We still want to go to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery and we also want to visit The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, home of the original Grand Ole Opry. So lots to do this week.
After the movie, we went to Costco to buy a Vitamix blender for Patsy. She wants to start making smoothies, but Costco had only Oster blenders today. Too bad. But we bought lots of food, went to a Macaroni Grill for an early dinner, and then headed home. The rain had stopped by this time and just as we arrived home we saw red sails on the sunset. All indications are that tomorrow will be a nice day.
In between activities, I am working on finding accommodations for a Martin family reunion in southern West Virginia the end of June and a Handley family reunion in Florida during Thanksgiving week. Both are challenging, but I was really struggling with the southern West Virginia venue. Monroe County in West Virginia has been our goal, but it is really country with very few places to stage a multi-day reunion with more than 30 people. And certainly I knew, or thought I knew, there was nothing close to where we used to live. But yesterday while researching on the internet, I stumbled on a resort about six miles from where we had lived and Heather and Justin started their school careers. And I was familiar with this place. When we lived there, a family from New Jersey had moved in and were building a health spa. I had no idea that was still there, but it is and it has grown into an international destination for people seeking rejuvenation, and a destination for weddings and reunions. I called this morning and Natalie Sandel, the same women I knew over 25 years ago, answered the phone. So the same family still owns Creekside Resort and tomorrow I will get an estimate from her on the costs for hosting our gathering. And we are also moving forward in finding a location on Fort Myers Beach for Heather, Jed, and boys and Justin, Jo, and kids to stay for our Thanksgiving gathering of the Handley family.
I fly home on Saturday. I just checked Cape Cod weather and it looks like it is going to be very ccccccccccold when I arrive. Earlier it looked like the temp would be in the 40’s, but no more. I will have to brace myself for the cold.
