by Judy Handley | Jul 12, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 193—Lovely Weather
Date: Thursday, July 12, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 76, Low 58 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Not much to report today, but it was a lovely day. The weather was perfect and Sam, Ollie, and I enjoyed the beach this morning. Both boys are making great progress with their swimming skills and we all just enjoy being on the beach.
We stopped by house on the way home, and indeed, Sam was able to figure out the directions for putting the sandbox together. It took him a few minutes, but he did it. Then I took them home where we had lunch and then Sam and Ollie spent more than an hour having water battles, followed by time doing chores. Jed had cut branches from a tree in the backyard last night, so Sam and I cleaned that up while Ollie washed my car. Tomorrow is a totally free Friday with no swim lessons and no plans. I’ll arrive in the morning and we’ll figure out our day.
by Judy Handley | Jul 11, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 192—You Gotta Be Smarter Than the . . .
Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Cooler; High 74, Low 58 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Mark Handley could do almost anything he set his mind to, but unfortunately, I don’t share that ability. I seem to always have difficulty following directions for assembling things. In the past this happened, Mark would always come back with the snarky retort, “You gotta be smarter than the (whatever it was I was having trouble doing).” Well, this afternoon I needed to be smarter than the cedar sandbox I was trying to assemble for Ollie and Coco to play in next week.
The picture only, Chinese directions didn’t help me figure it out. And tonight, I needed to be smarter than my knee brace that I have managed to get tangled. For most of my adult life, I had Mark to help me figure these things out. Without him, I just struggle and will have to find someone else to help. Sometimes Sam can help me figure out how to assemble things, so maybe I’ll request his help tomorrow. In the meantime, I can’t use the knee brace and the sandbox remains only half put together. No disaster, just frustrating.
Our morning at the beach for swim lessons went well today. Sam swims from jetty to jetty each day, and after only three days, he has improved tremendously. Evidently Ollie’s swim teacher noticed this as she came over to invite Sam to join her junior life saver class. There are five girls in that class, all much older than Sam, and they do have to swim much further than Sam would be comfortable doing, but I think he felt a bit of pride in just being asked. Ollie’s swim skills are also improving with each day. Today the instructor, Jackie, started the lesson with a run on the beach. Ollie loves to run, so he led the way. Then during his lesson, he actually swam for a short distance on his own and he looked very confident in doing it. Jackie, the instructor, also had him doing the backstroke. So, swim lessons are going well despite the windy conditions. It was not as rough today, but it was still windy and without the sun, it felt a little chilly. Ollie needed three towels to warm up after his lesson!
This afternoon Sam had a friend over to play and when Jonah got home, we all watched the end of the World Cup semi-final match between England and Croatia. Jed picked Jonah up this afternoon and had a special interest in coming home to watch the soccer game. He was hoping England would win as he will be in England on Sunday for the final game. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The final game will be between Croatia and France.
Gardening is going well.
I have been eating lettuce and arugula out of my raised beds for a couple of weeks now, but tonight I picked what I would call my first real harvest.
I now have radishes, cucumbers, zucchini, Swiss Chard, and kale. If I didn’t need eggs, I wouldn’t have to go to the Farmer’s Market tomorrow. Guess I need to get some chickens!
by Judy Handley | Jul 10, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 191—Happy Birthday to My Sister Patsy
Date: Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 79, Low 65 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today my sister Patsy celebrated her 85th birthday. Happy Birthday, Patsy! She has been complaining about the unbearably hot, rainy weather in Nashville, so I had a local florist there put together a sunflower arrangement to add a little ‘sun’shine to her day. I also talked to her briefly but will hope to really celebrate the occasion when I next visit.
This morning was a repeat of yesterday as we headed to Menauhant Beach for Ollie’s swim lessons. Yesterday was windy, but today was even windier. But Sam still did his daily swim from jetty to jetty and Ollie had a good swim lesson with no complaints about the wind or the choppy weather. Go, Ollie! Unlike yesterday, we didn’t leave immediately after Ollie’s lesson. Both Sam and Ollie wanted to play with friends, so we hung out for another hour before heading to my house for lunch. Ollie spent time setting up a Star Wars village and Sam read in the hammock. Then we headed home to try to balance a little work with the play. Heather leaves a daily chart with jobs to be done, so while watching the World Cup semi-final game between France and Belgium, Sam cleaned the living room windows while Ollie swept the carpet and dusted the coffee table. That is harder than it sounds as the coffee table is big and has a shelf where games are stored. Sam needed to also clean the kitchen windows, but that didn’t happen. When Heather got home with Jonah, they played for a bit and then I took Sam to meet up with Jed who would take him to Woods Hole for his drum lesson. I then headed north to Costco to return a few things and buy some things I need for Justin and Jo’s visit next week. So it was another long day, but productive.
by Judy Handley | Jul 9, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 190—Long, but Happy Summer Day
Date: Monday, July 9, 2018
Weather: Sunny, Warm Day, Cool Night; High 74, Low 64 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I left home at 8 am and got home after 10 pm. It was a long, but good day. It ended up to be long because Heather and Jed had plans to go out to dinner with friends and the neighbor teenager, Cassidy, that was going to babysit, had to back out. I was more than happy to fill the gap. Heather and Jed rarely go out together without the kids, so I have encouraged them to do more of this and take me up on my offer to kidsit anytime.
Heather left early this morning to take Jonah to the first day of his week-long sports camp (which he loved). A little later in the morning, Sam, Ollie, and I headed to nearby Menauhant Beach for the first day of swim lessons. Sam has opted to do a daily swim from jetty to jetty in lieu of taking lessons this year. Ollie signed up for the Beginner class, but he has friends in the Advanced Beginner class and might move up to that one. His friends in the that class are encouraging him to do that, but he really enjoyed the Beginner class today.
There were only three kids, including Ollie. One was the 4-year old cousin of one of Ollie’s best friends and the other was an 11 year-old boy named George who has just moved here from Mongolia and has obviously never been swimming in the ocean. Ollie was by far the strongest swimmer and I think he enjoyed the role of leader and encourager for the other two kids. The instructor is fantastic, and she will allow Ollie to move from class to class if he does decide he wants to be with his friends. Sam completed his first long swim and we all agreed that it was a good first day of lessons at the beach. From there we went to a concert by a group called Crooked Coast at the East Falmouth Library.
This was the kick-off for daily free lunches for kids who need that, but today, and once a week all summer, the lunches with a concert will be available to all kids. When we got home, Joey from next door came over with two of his friends. The boys were playing soccer in the front yard when one of Joey’s friends got stung by a bee. He was fine, but I felt the need to get the lawnmower out to try to cut down the clover in the front yard. Heather’s bees love that clover, but it is just not safe to have the kids playing amongst the clover. So, my solution is to try and get rid of the clover. Jed picked up Jonah from his sports camp and brought him home to get ready to go to guitar lessons. That didn’t go smoothly because Jonah decided that playing with friends was much more important than going to guitar lessons. He went, crying and reluctant, but he returned home elated. He is learning to play a song that he loves and he wanted to play it for all of us when he got home. I let the boys play way past regular dinner time as they were having so much fun, but eventually I had to make then come in for dinner. Minus a couple of melt downs over shoes that don’t fit (Ollie) and not wanting to leave friends to go to guitar lessons (Jonah), it was fun and happy day with the Goldpebbles.
by Judy Handley | Jul 8, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 189—Just a Day in the Life
Date: Sunday, July 8, 2018
Weather: Sunny, Warm Day, Cool Night; High 77, Low 56 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was just a day with no drama, no excitement, just a day. And I enjoyed it thoroughly . . . and slowly. At 8 am, I met with a contractor who has done work for Shirley, the owner of the cottage. For insurance purposes, the back door steps need a handrail and I want a door installed between the bulkhead and the basement. There is a door frame, but no door, so Nilson, the contractor is going to take care of that. He also suggested that I might want him to clean out the gutters and I totally agreed. I have finally convinced myself that I don’t need to be climbing ladders and cleaning out gutters. After Nilson left, I stayed in the basement and swept and organized things a bit. That took most of the morning, and then I put on long pants and a long-sleeved shirt and went out to pull up some of the poison ivy that has returned since the goats cleared much of the property. I watched Meghan do this and used her technique. Hopefully I don’t react to poison ivy. If I don’t get it after today’s venture, then I will continue to pull those feisty roots when I see the leaves emerge. I focused on the garden this afternoon and finished my day with a food shopping trip. It seems like forever since I spent an entire day just working around the house and it felt really good.
Camp Oma will be missing one Goldpebble this week. Jonah is going to a sports camp from 9 to 3 each day, so it will just be Sam, Ollie, and myself. Swim lessons begin tomorrow for Ollie, so we’ll be at the beach in the mornings, home for lunch, and then have lazy afternoons. No big plans for the week at this point, but I have a feeling the World Cup soccer semi-final games on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons are probably on the list of things to do! There is also the annual Arts and Crafts Street Fair in downtown Falmouth on Wednesday, so we might work that in between beach and World Cup match between Croatia and England. We’ll also spend some time planning what we want to do while Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco are with us next week. They arrive on Monday evening for a week. Can’t wait to have the ‘Fabulous 5’ all together again!
by Judy Handley | Jul 7, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 188—In Memory of Mark
Date: Saturday, July 7, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High 73, Low 55 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today would have been Mark’s 76th birthday, so the day was spent with family in his memory. When Heather and Jed set this weekend as a biking and camping weekend on the Outer Cape, they invited me to join them for a day of biking together. We biked about 7.5 miles from the Wellfleet Audubon Campground to an ice cream stand in Orleans where we all enjoyed an ice cream treat.
Next door there was a public area with a huge outdoor chess set,
a bike rack in the shape of a fish,
a copper umbrella fountain sculpture,
and tiny little cabins with arts and crafts for sale. Heather wondered over to check out the arts and crafts and came back all excited. She met a woman who takes men’s ties and turns them into quilts and quilted pillows. I’ve not been able to get rid of Mark’s collection of ties that were given to him by Heather and Justin over the years . . . a tie collection featuring all manner of wild animals.
She felt like it was fate to find this woman today who can take Mark’s ties and turn them into special gifts for the grandkids. We then biked the 7.5 miles back to the campground. This is the longest bike trip Ollie has attempted and he did great.
When we got back, we had lunch, and then I took Jonah to a Ninja Warrior birthday party that was at a gym on my way home. I dropped him there and then headed on home as Heather and Jed were going to come pick him up. After a full day of biking, I hope Jonah was able to muster the energy to enjoy the Ninja Warrior Challenge.
When I got home, I grabbed a beer and headed down to the dock to sit in the evening sun at the edge of water . . . so serene.
The bird life in the marsh was very active this evening. From a distance, I watched the osprey,
the egrets,
the red-winged blackbirds, and the gulls performing aerial acrobatics. It was a lovely ending to a lovely day. Thanks to all of you who sent messages remembering Mark’s birthday.
