by Judy Handley | Feb 22, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 53: Still Moving Slowly
Date: Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 50, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
I’m still moving slowly. The ‘bug’ that I got in Puerto Rico is not easy to shake, but I feel good enough to be out and about—just not at my normal pace. Coco and I got hit at the same time, but she has had a fever and a cough. I have had neither. I just heard from Justin that Coco still had a bit of a fever last night, but she was able to go back to school today. Hopefully both of us are moving on to the healthy side of life and have not infected anyone else.
Jonah and Ollie came over this afternoon to play for a couple of hours. And tomorrow and Friday I will be on Oma duty with all three boys before flying to Nashville on Saturday. Before I leave, Grammie Goldstone will arrive for a week-long visit. Hopefully we will all have dinner together on Friday evening.
by Judy Handley | Feb 21, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 52: Like a Turtle
Date: Monday, February 20, 2017
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 49, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
I felt a little like a turtle today, moving forward very, very slowly. I slept in and woke up feeling better than I did when I went to bed. So that is a good thing. Just after noon, I drove over to the Goldstones to see what was happening there. Heather and Jed were both home today, but unfortunately Heather was really not feeling good—some sort of stomach bug—and she was napping. Jed was folding clothes and getting ready to work on the upstairs bathroom forced renovation due to a leaky shower. Jonah was at the first of three Animation Camp classes he signed up for this week, Sam was getting ready to go to a friend’s house for an afternoon play date, and Ollie was still in his pajamas. I invited Ollie to go home with me to play if he would get dressed, so he did. We took his bicycle and tractor and he rode them in the parking lot of The Studio.
Then we picked up Jonah after his class and the two of them used some cardboard packing pieces I had saved for kid projects and they made new marble games.
I have a container of marbles that used to belong to Heather and Justin and the boys have had a ball making up new marble games and mazes.
I am still moving like a turtle tonight, but I done the laundry and started packing for my next trip. I fly to Nashville on Saturday for a two-week visit with my sister and brother-in-law. I was going to drive so I could visit with friends Ed and Lynne in New York and Kevin and Claire in Virginia on the way, but last night I decided to fly. I talked to Ed and Lynne to tell them of my decision. I explained that I certainly wouldn’t stop to visit with them with this cold, and even if I have totally recovered by Saturday, I am just not up for a long driving trip. I also talked to my sister last night to tell her of my decision. By flying, I’ll get to spend more time there and our plan is to just simply relax. I’m all for that!
by Judy Handley | Feb 20, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 51: Puerto Rico to Cape Cod
Date: Monday, February 20, 2017
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High in Boston 42 degrees F
Location: Back Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
The flights from Puerto Rico to Fort Lauderdale and then to Boston went without a hitch. But the timing for a person fighting a cold were less than perfect. I left Justin and Jo’s at 12:30 am and landed in Boston at 10 am. I did get some rest, but almost no sleep, so tonight I am way worse than I was at this time last night. I had a three hour nap this afternoon and hopefully a good night’s sleep will get me back on track.
Heather was in Boston at a science conference from last Thursday until this morning. Jed and boys joined her yesterday and spent the night in her hotel room and this morning went to see her host Living Lab, her Monday morning radio program, broadcast live from the Boston Public Library. They then came to South Station to pick me up as I had taken the free Silver Line bus/trolley from the airport. We loaded my luggage in the back of the van and headed for Charlestown which is just across the river from Boston. Since this was the first day of February vacation week for the boys, and it was Presidents Day, the boys were interested in doing a little history tour of Bunker Hill and the surrounding historic areas of Charlestown.
The Bunker Hill monument is an obelisk just like the Washington Monument in Washington, DC—just shorter.
But what we learned today is that the Bunker Hill monument was built before the Washington Monument. All of us had just thought that it was built to look like the looming monument in Washington, but not so. Sam is very interested in the history surrounding the American Revolution, so he focused on trying to mesh the information he has read about Bunker Hill with the facts posted on the information boards around the monument. Jonah was just interested in climbing the rails surrounding the monument and Ollie went sledding on patches of snow on a piece of cardboard he found.
Then we walked to the historic Warren Tavern to have lunch. Sam has been fascinated with Paul Revere and I think he enjoyed having lunch in a tavern that was once frequented by his Revolutionary War hero. Even though I felt awful, it was a fun tour. I just hope that the Goldstones don’t get whatever this bug is that I brought home from Puerto Rico.
by Judy Handley | Feb 19, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 50: Saying Farewell
Date: Sunday, February 19, 2017
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Rain; Daytime 80’s, Nighttime 70’s F
Location: At Home with JJZ&C, Finca Maravilla, Aguada, PR
Saying farewell is always difficult and the weather and this nasty cold I have didn’t help matters. But we still managed to eek out a nice day together. I worked puzzles with Ziggy and Coco this morning giving Justin and Jo a little extra sleep time. When everyone was up, we had breakfast and headed to Rincon to the Sunday Farmer’s Market. I walked down the street to a Farmacia to get some Sudafed while the kids spent their weekly earnings and Justin and Jo bought some food essentials. Ziggy has become quite a little bargainer and Coco is following in his footsteps. And I stood in line for an eternity to get fresh squeezed orange juice for the kids and myself. The woman hand presses the oranges, thus the long wait, but the juice is delicious and the smell is irresistible.
We had lunch when we got home and then I laid down for a nap—something I almost never do. I couldn’t really sleep, but the rest helped. We went to Cowboys for dinner. This is an under roof, but almost outside restaurant that serves great food and has plenty of room for the kids to run around. Tonight, Ziggy’s music teacher from school provided live entertainment. And when we got home, I got to read bedtime stories to the kids and we had our farewell hugs.
Always so hard. I leave here just after midnight to drive north to Aguadilla to the airport. I’ll turn in the rental car, check-in at the airport, and hopefully be on my way to Fort Lauderdale by 4 am. I have a short layover there and then head on to Boston, arriving around 10 am. So goodnight and farewell to Finca Maravilla, a magical little homestead that Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco now have as their very own.
by Judy Handley | Feb 18, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 49: Crash Boat Beach Day
Date: Saturday, February 18, 2017
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; Daytime 80’s, Nighttime 70’s F
Location: At Home with JJZ&C, Finca Maravilla, Aguada, PR
Today was a family beach day. We had discussed various locations and this morning it was decided we would go to Playa Crash Boat or Crash Boat Beach just a few miles to the north in Aguadilla.
It is a very popular beach, especially on the weekends. So it was a bit crowded, but it had a little of everything for everyone.
Thus, a great choice. There are a number of concrete docks that extend out into the water and make a great platform for anyone wanting to jump or dive.
And the piers that extend down into the water make for good snorkeling. The beach itself is nice and in the right conditions, it is a good place for surfing. Many of the beaches here have a coral shelf right at the shore line which makes negotiating your way out into the water a bit difficult. Crash Boat is all sand which is great, but the waves do tend to crash right at the shoreline, so you have to wait for a quiet time to get further out into the water to avoid the crashing waves. But those crashing waves are not the reason for the name. There are various stories about how the name came about. One obvious reason for the name is the huge boat skeleton that lies half on the beach and half in the water just south of the main part of the beach.
The other story is that during World War II the docks were built to accommodate the Air Force Crash Rescue Boats Squadron that rescued bombers that didn’t make the Ramey Air Force Base runway and the ‘crash’ part of the squadron name stuck. One thing is for sure. The huge concrete docks were built to accommodate fishing boats, but Mother Nature had a better use. The piers allowed the local currents to transfer a huge amount of sand to the area making it very shallow and impossible to dock a boat . . . but perfect the jumping into the water and snorkeling and diving.
Thank you, Mother Nature.
We all had a great afternoon playing in the water. All except Justin. He has his post-surgery appointment on Tuesday but was given strict orders not to go in the water until then. He is still struggling with a low level of pain but he hung in there today as an observer. And he spent a little time repairing Ziggy’s surfboard.
Jo and Ziggy did a lot of jumping off the docks and Coco did a lot of climbing up and down the ladder to join them while Justin and I watched that activity. Justin, Ziggy, Coco, and I walked down to see the crashed boat and the kids climbed the cliffs and in and out of the little caves and tunnels above the crashed boat. It was definitely a fun day.
Tonight was supposed to be a home movie night. I was excited because I was going to get to see Moana. But before I could get dinner ready, Coco was falling asleep on the sofa. It was then we discovered that she had a temperature. For two days she has been telling me she has a cough, but it was not really noticeable. I have been fighting off a cold for two days, and at the same time that Coco crashed tonight, so did I. I’m hoping that both of us will wake in the morning feeling just fine, but my drippy nose tells me otherwise.
by Judy Handley | Feb 17, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 48: Putting the Laundry to Rest
Date: Friday, February 17, 2017
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; Daytime 80’s, Nighttime 70’s F
Location: At Home with JJZ&C, Finca Maravilla, Aguada, PR
This morning I was on a mission to finish all the laundry loads from the old house. Once all the loads were done, I could head to the laundromat for the required drying on high heat to make sure there would be no transfer of the tick infestation from the old house to the new. I’ve been doing a couple of loads every day and line drying, but today I did five more loads and put those in bags to dry at the laundromat. As the clothes came out of the dryers, I piled them on a long table in the center of the laundromat. I didn’t take a photo of the mountain of clothes, but believe when I say it really looked like a mountain. The good news is the push to complete the job was a success. Justin, Jo, and kids joined me at the laundromat to fold as much as we could before their 4 pm school conference. There is still a huge bag of unfolded laundry that can be dealt with over time. But for now, the laundry has been put to rest.
While Justin and Jo went to the parent-teacher conference for Ziggy, I headed to Marina Beach with the kids. Today there was not a trace of the crashing waves we had yesterday. The water was almost flat when we got there, but there was enough action to keep the kids entertained. In the evening Justin and I took Ziggy and Coco to the downtown plaza for a once-a-month outdoor moving night. Tonight’s movie was The Little Prince. Justin ordered personal pizzas for each of us from a restaurant across the street. The dough is yucca-based, and therefore, gluten-free . . . and delicious. After the movie, the kids love playing with friends on the plaza. It was a fun evening.
Jo couldn’t join us as she had to take Barney and Yaya to meet the adoption lady. Last week Jo finally gave up on trying to break this duo of their chicken killing habit. She took them to the pound where they would have been put down by now if no one wanted them. But then she found out that the dog adoption lady in town might take them and find a home for them on the US mainland. So Jo had to go back to the pound and officially adopt them back from there and then keep them until the adoption lady was ready for them. Thankfully she could keep them at the old house so the kids didn’t have to go through losing them a second time. I know this whole process has been hard on Jo, and unfortunately tonight didn’t put this job to rest. Things were going great, but before Jo left them, Barney somehow scaled a five-foot wall and stood there right beside Jo. The woman who does the adoptions still wanted Barney and Yaya, but Jo had to bring them home tonight until the woman can get the fence fixed. Hopefully tomorrow that job will be done and Jo can make a final trip to get the dogs settled. Evidently the dogs will go through a training process and then be sent to Virginia for adoption.
I’m hoping we can get a little beach time in tomorrow and Sunday before I leave here at 1:30 am on Monday morning. My flight is not until 4 am, but I have to go early to return the rental car. But when I do get on the plane, the return is much quicker than the trip down. I should arrive in Boston by 10 am. It’s going to be hard to give up wearing sandals!
