by Judy Handley | Dec 31, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 365: Happy New Year!
Date: Monday, December 31, 2018
Weather: RAIN, High 53, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Sister in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee
This is it. The 365th day of 2018. I’ll leave reflections for tomorrow night’s log and just enjoy the moment. I spent the morning grocery shopping and talking with my sister, had an early afternoon massage thanks to the generosity of my niece Janet, survived an afternoon torrential rain, went with my sister to visit my brother-in-law Joe who is in the hospital, went out to dinner with my sister, and then spent a fun evening together watching New Year’s Eve celebrations on TV. My niece Janet and her partner Monica braved the rain to enjoy Music City New Year’s Eve in downtown Nashville and I look forward to hearing about that tomorrow. I talked with my son Justin and with Heather and Ollie. Justin and family were enjoying the evening on the beach in Puerto Rico and Heather and Ollie had come home from a party a little before midnight, leaving the older brothers and Jed to ring in the New Year. Here’s hoping you and yours have a healthy, happy, peaceful 2019. Happy New Year!
by Judy Handley | Dec 30, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 364: Massachusetts to Tennessee
Date: Sunday, December 30, 2018
Weather: High 57, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Sister in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee
Success! I drove from East Falmouth to the Park and Ride in Sagamore, caught the bus to Boston Logan, and flew from Boston to Tennessee with no problems. My sister hates driving in the airport traffic, so a neighbor came to pick me up and brought my sister with him. Thank you, Marty! It was warmer here this afternoon when I arrived than it was at home yesterday, and tomorrow it is going to rain with a high temp of 68 degrees F! Last year when I was here at this time, we got down to single digits at night. Doesn’t look like that will happen this year. Temperatures should be moderate the whole week that I am here. So, I will enjoy that and brace for cooler weather when I return home.
As soon as I arrived, my sister Patsy and I drove to the hospital to visit with my brother-in-law Joe. He comes home on Wednesday, so a lot of this week will be centered around getting him settled in at home. Patsy and I went out to dinner and then came home and watched two episodes of Victoria on Masterpiece Theater. That’s about it from here. Tomorrow night at this time, we will be ushering in a new year.
by Judy Handley | Dec 29, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 363: A Gift
Date: Saturday, December 29, 2018
Weather: High 53, Low 24 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today Mother Nature gave us a gift here on the Cape. The weather was just absolutely glorious—full sun, blue skies, and a high temp in the 50’s making wearing a winter coat totally unnecessary. Of course, tomorrow will be almost 20 degrees cooler, so the key is to just enjoy the warmth and sunshine when it comes. Tomorrow morning, I leave for a week-long visit in Tennessee with my sister Patsy, my brother-in-law Joe, and their daughter Janet who lives nearby. The flight is only 3 hours, but it takes all day to get there. I leave here at 9:15 to drive to a Park & Ride where I will catch a bus to Logan in Boston. If all goes well, I will touch down at 3:40 pm Central Time. Weather looks okay, so hopefully travel will go smoothly. My fear is not the weather, but my unpredictable knee. I am wearing a brace, but even that is not enough when my knee ‘decides’ to become excruciatingly painful. When that happens, I can’t walk without crutches. But I have decided to leave the crutches at home and hope for the best. I am getting more and more anxious for that end of February knee replacement.
When I got home last night, I was shocked at how much my baby fish grew in one week. The vacation feeder allows them to eat at will and that must agree with them. I started the aquarium with two Platys. These are tropical fish that look like goldfish, but they have live babies. I now have one adult and babies in three different sizes.
So much fun to watch them grow.
by Judy Handley | Dec 28, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 362: Nyack, New York to Cape Cod USA
Date: Friday, December 28, 2018
Weather: High 54, Low 45 degrees F
Location: Back Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Traffic, traffic, traffic. Rain, rain, rain. And now safely back home on Cape Cod USA. Revels in Cambridge on Sunday afternoon, drive to Boothbay, Maine on Sunday night, a fabulous Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Maine with Heather, Jed, the Goldpebbles, and Jed’s family, drive to Nyack, New on Boxing Day, a delightful day in Nyack with Lynne yesterday, a ‘puzzling’ morning with Lynne today as we starting putting the 1,000 piece puzzle I brought to her as a gift, and then the rainy drive back to Falmouth. It has been quite a full six days of celebration . . . holiday celebrations and the celebration of Ed Kirwin’s wonderful life. As we move into the new year, he is going to be missed by so many, but by none so much as by Lynne. She has lost her best friend, her loving partner of 24 years, her fellow adventurer, her anchor. I am so glad I was able to be with her to reflect on Ed’s life and to help her begin to take the beginning steps forward to her new life without him. Ed was kind, a gentle soul, a natural teacher, a man who lived his dreams. And Lynne and I were able to share memories.
02 Sushi and Sundowners on Constance with Lynne and Ed
I have spent my evening watching the PBS News Hour, the Washington Week in Review, and some of my favorite cable news programs. Since I haven’t seen television news for a week, I wanted to catch up. Everyone is talking about the same thing—the government shutdown and the wall. When I was catching up on Facebook posts, I read the following on Bruce Woodin’s timeline: “Rather than a wall, America needs to build a giant mirror to reflect on what we have become.”
I think that sums up the present situation completely.
by Judy Handley | Dec 27, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 361: Delightful Day with Lynne
Date: Thursday, December 27, 2018
Weather: High 49, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home with Lynne Kirwin, Nyack, NY
It was a delightful day with Lynne. We started our day with a Kirwin green smoothie plus some Handley additions. Then we were off to see the movie, Green Book, which we both recommend as a ‘must see’ movie. A quick trip to the grocery store after the movie gave us a head start on dinner. I fixed artichokes and ‘leaf’ pie and we spent the in between times just visiting with each other and with members of Ed’s family. Lynne has received so many wonderful tributes to the life she and Ed led together. These make her a bit teary-eyed, but at the same time, these tributes make her feel loved by so many people. I will be leaving tomorrow and another friend who has been out of town for the holidays will return on Saturday so she and Lynne can spend some time together. Then next Thursday, Lynne will fly to Michigan where her family lives. She will spend a week with them before returning home. And she is considering some other travels that will help get her through this initial time without Ed. I’ll return home from here today knowing things here are on a positive track. Then on Sunday, I fly to Tennessee where I will spend the first week of the New Year with my sister and brother-in-law, Joe. If all goes as planned, he will be coming home from a three week hospital stay next Wednesday. The timing is good as I will be there as extra support when he first comes home.
by Judy Handley | Dec 26, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 360: Boothbay, ME to Nyack, NY
Date: Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Weather: High 38, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home with Lynne Kirwin, Nyack, NY
Today I drove from Boothbay, Maine to Nyack, New York to be with my good friend Lynne Kirwin. It felt so good to get her to give her a hug. I mentioned in Monday’s log that Ed passed away late Sunday night. Naturally Lynne is devastated, but she is doing her best to carry on as Ed would want her to do. We spent the evening talking about the two very special men we were so very lucky to have as our ‘captains’.
01 Mark and Ed
