by Judy Handley | Feb 1, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 32: Trip to IKEA, Dinner with Friends
Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 41, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH
Welcome, February! By the time I got up this morning, the sun was shining brightly and the temperature was already in the 40’s and was melting yesterday’s snow. I decided to make a trip north to IKEA and Costco to buy a few things to take to Puerto Rico and that took most of my day. I made it back in time to pick Sam and Jonah up from school and then this evening I went to Olivia and Terry White’s for dinner. We wanted to get together before we head out for our winter travels. I will be leaving for Puerto Rico on Monday and the following Monday, Olivia and Terry will leave for a month-long road trip to visit with friends. It was a fun evening, so thanks to Olivia and Terry for making sure we had this get together. When I got home, I talked to Ed and Lynne Kirwin. They are still on their boat, Constance, in southern Georgia, and have really enjoyed their visit. But they start the drive home to New York on Friday so Ed can have his Monday chemo treatment. But they plan to travel back down in the next couple of months for another visit. And then finally I talked with my sister Patsy about my visit to Nashville in late February, early March. That was my day and now I just have to get ready for all this travel!
by Judy Handley | Feb 1, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 31: Second Snow of the Winter
Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Weather: Sunny AM, Snow PM; High Temp 30, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH
It’s the last day of the first month of 2017 and it snowed today! This is our second snow of the season, with the first happening over the first weekend of January. That was a major snow storm whereas today’s snow was just an inch or two. The coat of white was very pretty and the warmer temps tomorrow will melt the snow quickly.
I spent my morning with a couple of Comcast technicians from Boston. When I had problems with my cable service in December, the problem was solved temporarily, but an order was issued to have new wiring put in from the street to this apartment. I got a call yesterday asking permission to come today to do just that. The two technicians came from the main office in Boston, checked out the system, and found a way to run new wiring. It was not an easy task, but the technicians were dedicated to finding a way to do this . . . and they did. Kudos to Comcast and their team of technicians.
We’ve all heard the term, “Like father, like son.” Sure hope that doesn’t hold true for mother and son. At least not in the case of Trump’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice. The nominee’s mother was the infamous Anne Gorsuch Burford who was the first woman to head of the Environment Protection Agency. This was in the 80’s under Ronald Reagan. Before being forced from office, she fostered the burning of toxic waste on ships offshore Maryland and Delaware and totally mishandled the 1.6 million dollar Superfund. Despite his mother’s indiscretions, Judge Gorsuch is an obviously highly qualified candidate. And kudos to the Trump administration for rolling out this nomination in an appropriately dignified manner. But politics is politics, even with a Supreme Court Justice nomination. Interpretations are just that, and I’m not sure Judge Gorsuch would interpret the Constitution to my liking. President Obama presented an equally qualified candidate that didn’t even make it to first base. So we shall wait and see what happens.
by Judy Handley | Jan 29, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 29: Catching Up on Correspondence
Date: Sunday, January 29, 2017
Weather: Slow Slide into Colder Weather; High Temp 42, Low 24 F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH
I devoted today to catching up on correspondence. I made some progress, but will have to continue this tomorrow. I’m so far behind that I am just now sending thank you notes to all the wonderful family and friends who contributed to New Hampshire Public Radio to celebrate Mark’s life. Although September 11, 2016, seems like only yesterday, when I look at the calendar it tells me it was four and half months ago. In addition to those thank you notes, I got one email sent out and that was to my friend Linda Stuart who is biking around the world with her husband, Mike. A few days ago they returned to Guayaquil, Ecuador, from the Galapagos Islands and today they were headed out of town on their trek to Peru. I no sooner sent that email than I got a call from Linda. They had, indeed, biked out of Guayaquil but were already in a hotel for the night. The phone communication was a bit garbled, but it was wonderful to just hear Linda’s voice and know that she and Mike are doing great. My only New Year’s resolution was to do a better job of keeping in touch with friends. I didn’t get very far today, but at least I made one baby step toward that goal.
Late this morning I got a call from Ollie requesting that I come over and bring his bike to him. It was left in my car at the end of the day yesterday, and I had promised him I would bring it over this morning. Just before that call, I realized that I had not made reservations for the last “Greatest Show on Earth.” Ringling Brother’s Barnum and Bailey Circus is closing down for good in May and I want to take Sam, Jonah, and Ollie to the circus before it is no more. Heather, Jed, and I had talked about whether to go see the circus in Rhode Island in early May or in Worcester, Massachusetts in mid-April. So when I returned Ollie’s bikes, Jed and I discussed dates, and when Heather got home from a run, we made a group decision to attend on Easter Sunday in Worcester and made the reservations. And then later in the afternoon, I attended the Volunteer Fair in downtown Falmouth. People of all ages turned out to check out various possibilities for volunteering. The fair started at 3 pm and I didn’t get there until 4:45 . . . and the place was packed and more people were coming. It made me very proud to be a part of this community.
Tonight as I have been writing this log, I have also been watching “Tom Brokaw at NBC News—The First 50 Years”. I’ll have to watch this another couple of times to take in all that was presented, but for me the one thing that stood out tonight was when Brokaw interviewed Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star in the Broadway musical Hamilton. When Miranda was asked to make a comment on politics in the real world right now, this one statement stood out as profound to me, “You can get a different set of facts by just changing the channel.” Of course, there is no such thing as a “different set of facts”. There is truth and there are lies. But in todays’s mix of mainstream networks, cable networks, and social media, it is easy to be confused. I watch MSNBC, but I know they are a left-leaning cable network and I fact-check anything I hear that might be questionable. People who watch Fox need to do the same as that is cable network that caters to the extreme right. My father was a third-grade educated man from Appalachia. He was a stubborn, bigoted, hard-working man. He made me take secretarial classes in high school because he said all girls should be secretaries. My lowest grade in all of my education was in high school shorthand, so thankfully I didn’t become a secretary. He told me if I went to college, I would never be allowed to return home. But I was just as stubborn as he was. I went to college, I came home, and he never said another word about it. But the one thing I learned from him that has always made me a better person was to never, ever tell a lie and to never trust a person who lies. So that’s my bottom line. And right now, our new President is making it increasingly difficult to tell who is telling the truth and who is not as he is labeling all media as dishonest. That is so dangerous to our democracy. As I wrote those thank you notes today to people who contributed to New Hampshire Public Radio in celebration of Mark’s life, it reminded me of my faith in National Public Radio as the one place I know I can always turn to hear the truth. All people in the media are not dishonest. Most of them work hard every day to bring the truth to the American people. We must listen with discerning ears, but we must never, ever turn our backs on our mainstream media. It is the backbone of our democracy. Mark’s passion was the same as National Public Radio’s mission–“to create a more informed public.” And I, for one, am all in on that mission. Whoa. That’s my rant for tonight. Time for bed!
by Judy Handley | Jan 28, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 28: Play Day
Date: Saturday, January 28, 2017
Weather: Still Windy and Partly Sunny; High 43, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH
Today was a play day. I started out with a Zumba class and then I went to Heather’s to see if I could be helpful with projects today. Jed was gone with Sam on an all-day Scout geologic exploration of the Cape and Molly and Joey next door were not home. So it was strangely quiet at the Goldstones. It appeared that the most useful thing I could do was to take Jonah and Ollie to my house to play so Heather could get some things done. But Jonah was not about to leave his momma. So Jonah stayed with Heather and Ollie and I took off with both of his bicycles—the new pedal bicycle he got from Santa and his little wooden strider. We headed to my house to get some lunch, but we spent an hour in the parking lot riding one bike and then the other before heading inside. Once we got on the deck, I pointed out the ducks in the harbor to Ollie. There was one lone Merganser
and a few Buffleheads. He was not familiar with these birds, so I have to get the Goldpebbles over here more often so they can observe harbor life in the winter. After watching the ducks, we finally moved inside for lunch and a little quiet play time. At one point, Ollie was in the kitchen and he picked up a wine cork from my little collection. He reminded me that he and I had taken a wine cork to the beach and released it right after Granddad died. At that time, Ollie said the cork was sending Granddad a message to tell him we love him. Today he just wanted to put the cork in his pocket to help him remember Granddad. Ollie said, “I want to remember him because he was my best friend.” All I could say in return was that Granddad was also my best friend. What a kid! Then we were off for the playground across from the public library downtown. Ollie loves to play in the wooden boats there and was having a good time playing by himself.
But then Heather and Jonah joined us and the two boys had a fantastic time playing together.
We eventually moved from the playground to the circle in front of the school so the boys could ride their bicycles, but before long, Jonah got so cold that he begged to go home. Ollie, however, wanted to stay. So Ollie and I stayed and he rode and rode and rode for another half an hour.
When the sun went down, we finally packed up and went back to my house. We continued to play until 6:00 pm when we got ready to go meet Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah at the downtown Chinese restaurant to have dinner and celebrate Chinese New Year. Once we were seated and food started arriving at the table, we saw good friends enter the restaurant. We invited them to join us and we had a great Chinese New Year dinner.
by Judy Handley | Jan 27, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 27: Not Enough Hours
Date: Friday, January 27, 2017
Weather: Windy with a Mix of Sun and Clouds; High 46, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH
I know many of you will agree me when I say that there are just not enough hours in a day. My goal for today of getting my photos from 2016 in order just didn’t happen. I made a teeny, tiny bit of progress and will continue as I can. But between going to the gym, doing the laundry, going to the grocery store to do some major shopping, and doing a bit of cooking, there were just not the hours needed to get the photo job done. And the bigger problem is that when that one is done, I have a long list of additional photo-to-do projects. I’ll just say that maybe someday I’ll get these projects completed, but probably not this winter. The positive side is that I am in no danger of being bored any time soon!
I’ll start my Saturday morning at the gym attending a Zumba class and then I’ll check in with Heather and Jed to see if there is anything I can do this weekend to help them out. I have this weekend and next here before I leave for Puerto Rico. And even though I return here for about four days at the end of February to help with child care during school vacation week, I won’t be back here full-time until March 10th as I will be taking off again to visit with my sister in Nashville. So, any jobs I need to do here, need to be done this week. Could be a busy one.
by Judy Handley | Jan 26, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 26: Puerto Rico Bound
Date: Thursday, January 26, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 48, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH
I finally did it. Last night I booked my flight to Puerto Rico to visit with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco from February 6 to February 20. I talked with Justin last night about the new development that he will be having surgery in the next couple of weeks, but he felt strongly that we shouldn’t change plans because of that. If things go well, it will be an in and out surgery, and if I am there, hopefully I will be able to help-out while he is recovering. I am just so anxious to see their new home and spend time with them. And the added bonus is that it will be warm. Can’t wait. I will return here on February 20th to pitch in with child care during February school vacation week—vacation for the boys, but not for Heather and Jed. And at the end of that week I will take off again for visit with my sister in Nashville, but I will return by March 10 to help Heather while Jed is out of town for about eight days. And then last night I got an offer that will be hard to refuse. Sam and Dawn on Windbird have offered to fly me to the Bahamas in April to spend a little time with them on Windbird. I’m going to consider that offer very seriously. So lots of travel in the next couple of months.
Today was definitely a better day than yesterday. It was not an exciting day, but I did basically get my taxes done for 2016. Well, H&R Block got them done for me, but done is good. I need to get two more documents to them and then the job will be completed. I must have done my own taxes before I met Mark, but I know I haven’t tackled that job since the early 1970’s. After watching the process today, I see that my taxes are very straight forward and I probably could have done it myself. Maybe I’ll tackle that next year.
I went to the gym for the Butts & Guts class. It is a hard one and as I went through the routine this morning, I figured out how I inflamed my knee last week. It was the ankle weights I wore during this class. So I took those babies off today and won’t put them on again. The added weight just puts too much strain on my left knee. It is getting better, but I have had to baby it since the pain started last Friday. After going to the gym, I went to H&R Block, and then I spent a couple of hours at home in the early afternoon before picking Jonah up from school. Sam had an after-school enrichment program and Jonah and I returned to get him an hour later. I was so happy to see that Jonah is just fine after last night’s trauma. The gash to his head is on the right temple and is about half-an-inch long. The super glue applied in the Emergency Room is holding just fine. Jonah said it didn’t hurt at all and that he had a great time while in ER because he got to play games on his dad’s tablet! Before going to pick up Sam, I got a chicken in the oven to roast and then I stayed when get got home to try and assist Jed while he got dinner ready for the boys. But just like Heather, he works so fast and efficiently that there is no way I can keep up. So I mostly just stay out of the way. When Jen and the boys sat down to eat, I headed home. Tomorrow I hope to spend most of the day tied to my computer getting photos up-to-date. I know that doesn’t sound exciting, but I love doing it and it desperately needs to be done. I’m looking forward to a quiet day at home.
