by Judy Handley | Aug 26, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 238–Great Evening with Friends
Date: Sunday, August 26, 2018
Weather: Perfect Summer Day; High 83, Low 67 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I spent a bit of a lazy day . . . very enjoyable. I even went to the beach to soak in the beautiful weather and take an afternoon nap on sand. That’s not my normal style, but I sure enjoyed it. Then I went to Bruce and Jane Woodin’s for an early dinner before we drove to Hyannis to see Peter Sagal of National Public Radio’s ‘Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me’. If you are not familiar with the show, it is an hour each week dedicated to news junkies around the country, treating the news with a humorous approach. Bruce is a huge fan and had bought a ticket for tonight’s presentation for himself as a birthday present. I didn’t know any of that, but I was given two tickets from another friend and offered them to Bruce and Jane. They replied that they would take one ticket and that left the other for me. So, we all got to go. Sagal has been the host of ‘Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me’ for twenty years and he gave a funny and fascinating talk tonight about bringing humor to the news through the Clinton, ‘W’ Bush, Obama, and now Trump administrations. Afterwards we met other friends of Bruce and Jane’s at Four Seas Ice Cream, serving Cape Cod since 1934. We take our ice cream seriously here on the Cape!
by Judy Handley | Aug 25, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 237—One Thing Leads to Another
Date: Saturday, August 25, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 78, Low 56 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Days don’t always go as planned, especially if you don’t have a plan! The only thing I had on my agenda for today was to go to the post office to get my mail, to drive into town to do a couple of chores, and to go to a nursery that sells milkweed plants and buy some plants for our future caterpillars. This little nursery sells regular milkweed, swamp milkweed, and tropical milkweed plants, so I bought a few of each and took them to Heather and Jed’s. A couple of Monarch eggs hatched overnight and there were teeny, tiny little caterpillars which was exciting news. When I arrived I also found that Heather and Jed had the house turned upside down. They had come up with a plan for rearranging things in the dining room, the playroom, and the den to make space for a homework workspace for each boy and they were knee deep into that project. So, I stayed to plant the milkweed plants and when that job was completed, one thing led to another. I took on the project in the playroom, with Jed’s help, and that took the rest of the afternoon. At day’s end, the dining room, playroom, and den were rearranged and ready for homework desks, but the living room had become the depository of extra things that will need to be dealt with tomorrow. I’m having a hard time believing that summer is really coming to an end but rearranging the house to accommodate homework desks made it real. I’m hoping I will be able to talk the boys into lots of beach time this week so I can soak in the last of the summer sunshine and warmth.
by Judy Handley | Aug 24, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 236—TGIF
Date: Friday, August 24, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 84, Low 59 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Even grandmothers who love spending summer days with grandkids can celebrate the end of the work week. We spent a quiet day at home playing with neighbors. We were the recipients of some Monarch butterfly eggs that we hope will hatch into caterpillars who will spin a chrysalis and then emerge as late summer butterflies. In the afternoon we headed to the beach to meet Heather. She rode her bike home from work in Woods Hole and met us at Menauhant Beach which is just a couple of miles from home. Ollie and Jonah enjoyed playing water football with Heather while Sam rolled himself into a cocoon and read.
The life guards are no longer on duty, so Jonah and Ollie climbed the life guard stand in order to jump off. We all enjoyed the beautiful, sunny afternoon at the beach.
by Judy Handley | Aug 23, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 235—Flowers for Mama
Date: Thursday, August 23, 2018
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 78, Low 58 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Heather and Jed leave a white board message for us most days listing jobs or chores that need to be done. Today the message told us to feed the guinea pigs, practice drum and guitar, work on book reports . . . and purchase flowers to plant in a pot brought home from Maine. This summer has been so busy that Heather never got the flowers planted out front that she wanted, so today Oma and the Goldpebbles were on the case. Sam stayed home to write book reports, but Jonah and Ollie were all in on going to buy flowers for Mama. Mahoney’s is our neighborhood nursery, so we went there. On the way, we stopped by my house to pick up boots for Ollie to wear and while there, Ollie and Jonah took on the job of watering my gardens.
Then we continued our trek to Mahoney’s. I told the boys to watch carefully to see what kind of flowers Mahoney’s has planted along the highway as those are probably the flowers that will best produce blossoms at this time of year. Both boys were very observant and then chose flowers for our planting project using their observations as a guide. Jonah was really the main decision maker and he added another guideline. He wanted flowers that had lots of bees attracted to them as he knew that would make Heather happy. We ended up with Black Eyed Susans and Veronia (Speedwell), a perennial with long spikes of lavender-colored blossoms. We got some Coreopsis with red and yellow bi-colored blossoms that I wanted to plant outside the pot and a pot of Lucifer Crocosmia, a lily with beautiful red summer blossoms that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. We know it is almost time for chrysanthemums, but we had a great time planting flowers for Heather that will help us all hold on to summer for a few more weeks. As I mentioned above, Sam didn’t go shopping with us, but he was instrumental in the planting process. It was a cooperative, fun morning.
After our morning of yard work, we spent our afternoon doing a little back-to-school shopping. We decided to go to Subway for lunch and that led to the decision to also do some school supply and sock and underwear shopping. The boys actually enjoyed this little shopping trip. Not an exciting day, but it was a wonderfully happy, productive day.
by Judy Handley | Aug 22, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 234—Camp Oma is Back
Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Weather: Overcast, Turning Sunny and Warm; High 81, Low 65 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The morning was overcast and that gave me and the Goldpebbles a chance to slowly get back into the swing of Camp Oma. We stumbled upon a video on television called Big Pacific. It focused on various marine life throughout the Pacific and we all found it fascinating. While in Maine, the boys discovered World, a public television channel, and this morning we were searching to see if we could find that here. We found it and got immediately sucked in. After that, we played a very complicated board game called Caton for way over an hour. Then we launched into writing book reports which was not on a priority list for anyone but me. But the boys did it without too much complaining. If they write 10 book reports and submit them to a local bank, the bank will put $25.00 in a savings account for each boy. To sweeten the pot, today I offered a cash match. If they complete their 10 reports and submit them to the bank, I will match the bank’s donation. Then we realized it was 1 pm and we hadn’t even thought about eating lunch. The boys kept writing while I fixed quesadillas and after lunch, neighbors Molly and Joey came over and the kids played the afternoon away. Today’s focus was food pranks. I was not at all on board with these pranks, but the kids were having a ball and I just let it go. It started at Molly and Joey’s house where there was a whipped cream pie in the face and continued at our house with toothpaste between vanilla wafer treats. Each prank got a little more ‘creative’, but I’m hoping we will move on to something more productive tomorrow. Heather has asked us to declare tomorrow a home work day where we will work on beautifying the front yard along with some specific indoor chores. It is going to be sunnier and even warmer, so we might have to build in a little water play.
Thinking of my sister and brother-in-law tonight. This morning Patsy took Joe to a lung specialist for some testing and Joe got sick at his stomach and then passed out before the blood tests could be completed. The doctor sent him to the hospital Emergency Room and they found that he has a urinary tract infection and that he was very dehydrated. They started hydrating ASAP but decided that he should spend the night at the hospital. Hopefully a hydrated, and much happier Joe will return home tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Aug 21, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 233—The Goldstones are Home
Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 71, Low 66 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Heather, Jed, and the boys returned home from Maine this evening. I had dinner ready for them when they got home and I enjoyed hearing all about their wonderful time in Maine. They surprised me with a gift from Edgecomb Pottery, one of my favorite little shops in the world. It is a small dish shaped like the cross-section of a nautilus shell . . . my favorite. It is beautiful.
And that reminded me of other beautiful things in my life today. The monarch butterflies that hang out in my gardens brighten my days even when there is no sunshine. I got a couple of photos of one on this cloudy day. So beautiful.
And then there is my granddaughter, Coco. For her birthday, July 30, I sent her something called a Secret Garden Hideaway Canopy. It took forever to get to Puerto Rico, but today Justin sent a photo of Coco sitting on her bed under the canopy . . . beautiful. I am so happy that she loves it.
Tomorrow it is back to Camp Oma. The boys just want to hang out at home and enjoy a lazy summer day, so that is what we will do. That, too, is thing of beauty. On the not so beautiful side of life, I spent a great deal of today once again emptying my refrigerator and giving it a full day to defrost. The ugly noise returned last night, but hopefully the day of rest has cured its ills. I also took my car in today for another check. I’m hoping the problem is an air bubble in the transmission fluid line. Stay posted on that one.
