by Judy Handley | Jun 24, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 175—Ed and Lynne Head Home
Date: Sunday, June 24, 2018
Weather: Overcast; High 69, Low 64 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was so wonderful to have Ed and Lynne here, but all good things must come to an end. They had to head home this morning, but not until Lynne finished working the coffee table puzzle. She persisted, and she did it!
I spent the rest of the day doing a little Camp Oma planning, taking the ‘equipment’ I’m giving Jonah for his birthday to a music teacher to have it all checked out, and then doing laundry. I went to the laundromat, but it was closed. There was a note on the front door that made me think it might be closed permanently. I sure hope not, but for today, I took the laundry to Heather’s. I also took leftovers from last night’s dinner and we had a nice Sunday night dinner together. And then I spent my evening talking on the phone to various family members. What I didn’t do is fix my leaky kitchen faucet. I have purchased a new faucet and watched various YouTube videos on how to install. Some evening this week, I’ll give it a go.
Camp Oma begins tomorrow morning. There are no big plans for the first couple of days. I think the boys just want time to play and I want to involve them in the planning for the summer. So we will play and plan for a couple of days and then Grammy Marti will arrive for Jonah’s birthday dinner on Tuesday evening. I’m sure the boys will want to spend time with her on Wednesday and I’m hoping to talk the boys and Marti into taking the ferry to Nantucket on Friday to visit the Nantucket Whaling Museum. It is one of the Massachusetts museums that are free on Friday. Of course, it costs a bit to get there, but I think it would be a great adventure for the Goldpebbles and their two grandmothers. Let the summer begin!
by Judy Handley | Jun 23, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 174—Fun with Friends
Date: Saturday, June 23, 2018
Weather: Overcast with Drizzle Off and On All Day; High 64, Low 61 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Lynne and I did what we do on many days. We spent most of the day in the kitchen ‘playing’ with food. Actually, we weren’t playing, but we were having fun. We were prepping for tonight’s dinner with Judy and Dave Howell and their friends who flew out from Oregon.
We fixed a Mexican “build your own” dinner with chicken fajitas and ground beef taco fixings. For dessert we had fresh fruit and the big hit was the mangoes. I think I mentioned in last night’s log that Ed’s son in Fort Lauderdale sent him the mangoes from his back yard and they were absolutely the best! Just being together was so special, so it was a wonderful evening. Here’s hoping it won’t be another eight years before we see each other again. 
Ed and Lynne leave in the morning. I have enjoyed every moment with them, but the time has passed much too quickly.
by Judy Handley | Jun 22, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 173—Last Day of School, Plus More Friends Visit
Date: Friday, June 22, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 72, Low 57 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was the last day of school for the Goldpebbles. Heather had been told that Jonah was getting a special award at this morning’s school-wide Town Meeting,
so I decided to go. I left Ed and Lynn on their own and went to the school by 9:15 am. I haven’t been to a Town Meeting since my days of teaching in Concord, New Hampshire, and I was very impressed by the East Falmouth meeting. There were numerous year-end awards, music, student-produced videos, recognition of a retiring teacher, and more. Jonah and Ollie both got a certificate of attendance for missing less than 5 days of school and Jonah got the Academic Achievement Award for his third-grade classroom.
Go, Jonah! Jonah has also been part of Peace Builders group that meets for lunch once a week and that group read The Peace Book for the whole school.
Near the end of the meeting, the kindergarten classes sang a very cute little song about moving up to First Grade.
Can’t believe Ollie is going to be a First Grader. The students were all well-behaved and the meeting helped end the school year on a very positive note. I got back home after 11 am and then at 12:15 I got a text from Heather asking if there was any way I could pick the boys up at 12:40 as this last day was just a half-day. She got up to go running at 4:30 am and then went to work in Woods Hole for three hours, rushed back to East Falmouth for the Town Meeting, but then had to go back to Woods Hole to finish getting her program “in the can” for airing. I went to pick up J & O and took them Smitty’s for an end-of-the-year ice cream treat (the boys splurged and both got frappes) and some play time with other friends there.
When Heather arrived, I headed home and found that Lynne had made a lot of progress on the coffee table puzzle. But I stole her and Ed away to work on screwing down the loose boards on the dock. They did a great job and I got some gardening done while they did that.
Later in the afternoon, David and Judy Howell arrived in their motorhome.
The last time we were together, Judy and Dave in their catamaran named Freebird, Ed and Lynne in their sailboat named Constance, and Mark and I aboard Windbird, was in Cochin in southern India in 2010. A lot has happened in all our lives since then and none of us still owns our sailboats, but it was great to be reunited as the ‘new’ us.
Dave and Judy left their home on the California-Oregon border the first week of May and have been traveling across the country since then. From here they will head north to Boston and eventually on to Nova Scotia. But tomorrow they will return here from dinner and more visiting, bringing with them friends who are flying in from the West Coast to be with them for about week in the Boston area. Unfortunately, it is supposed to rain, but we’ll find a way to enjoy.
One last note. In the afternoon after I left Ollie and Jonah with Heather, Heather took them to the beach to celebrate the last day of school with friends. She sent me a great photo of Jonah with his friends that I just had to include here.
by Judy Handley | Jun 21, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 172—Happy Birthday to Jo . . . and . . . and . . .
Date: Thursday, June 21, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 77, Low 57 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
So many good things happened today. I start by wishing Jo a happy birthday! For the first time since she met Justin, she is in England with her family and friends for her birthday celebration. Justin, Jo, and kids flew to England on Monday and will arrive here in a month for a visit before returning to Puerto Rico. I certainly hope Jo had a wonderful day.
. . . and the second good thing is that today was summer solstice. Summer, my favorite season, is here. Welcome, summer!
. . . and Ed and Lynne arrived for a weekend visit. We just tried to use our collective memories to come up with the last time we were together. We all knew I drove to Nyack. But when? I finally remembered that it was just a week before the first section of the new Tappan Zee Bridge was to open, so I Googled that. August 24, 2017. Ah, hah! That is when Heather and family were in Sweden, so I made a get-a-away to New York. It has been too many months, but it is so good to be with them again. Lynne has decided that the puzzle on my coffee table needs some attention, so in between conversations, she and Ed are diligently working on that puzzle this evening.
Wonderful to be with good friends on this first day of summer.
by Judy Handley | Jun 20, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 171—Getting Ready for Visiting Friends
Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 77, Low 62 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Tomorrow Ed and Lynne Kirwin arrive for a weekend visit. They are friends but feel much more like family. They will be my first overnight guests other than the Goldpebbles and that makes it doubly exciting. On Father’s Day, I got a text from Lynne telling me that they went on a hike with Ed’s family and Ed took a tumble and got lots of scrapes on knees, arms, and head. Whether it is due to all the chemotherapy or something else, Ed’s skin is paper thin. I feared this might keep them from coming, but as of this morning, Lynne says they still plan on coming. So I spent my day doing food preparation. I wanted chicken to make chicken salad, so I roasted a chicken. Tonight the chicken broth is burbling away and I’ll use that for making soup tomorrow morning. Ed and Lynne should arrive tomorrow afternoon and we will just sit back and relax. On Friday, other mutual sailing friends are arriving on the Cape and at this point the plan is for us to drive to the outer Cape to the town of Brewster where Judy and David Howell will be camping in their motorhome. The five of us haven’t been together since India in 2010. And on Saturday Judy and Dave, as well as friends of theirs that are flying in from the West Coast, will come here for dinner. I just checked the weather and, unfortunately, it looks like it might rain on Saturday, but we’ll still enjoy visiting.
Today Meghan Hanawalt came, without her goats, to pick up the last of the piles of poison ivy. Meghan still contends that this property wins the ‘most poison ivy’ award. The back of her truck was certainly piled high.
In fact, it was so high, Meghan had to get in the truck bed and stomp it down.
She and her goats did a fantastic job of clearing key areas of this property. Now it is time for me to do some brush clearing, but I have a feeling that won’t happen until late fall. Camp Oma begins on Monday and it is time to focus on enjoying the summer.
by Judy Handley | Jun 19, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 170—Appointments, Appointments
Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Hot; High 81, Low 57 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Hot! Yes, finally the temperature climbed above 80 and it really felt hot today. Not oppressive, just pleasantly warm. I had to open windows for the first time this spring. I love hot, so it was a happy day for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend the day outside enjoying the weather. I had an appointment in Hyannis to pick up a brace for my left knee. And then two hours later, I had a physical therapy appointment twenty minutes from Hyannis. So, I spent the time in between shopping. I went to a music store to finish up my shopping for Jonah’s birthday. I was able to get a used Fender amplifier for the new electric guitar that I ordered on Amazon. Jonah wants to be a rock star, so we’ll support that. I think anything that gets a child playing musical instruments is a good thing. But I had to laugh when I went to pay for the amplifier. I had to give the guy my name and he put that in the computer. He then asked me if I know Justin Handley. Of course Justin was in his data base. He’s the only person I know who graduated from college with a degree in How to Party Like a Rock Star! And I’m pretty sure Justin has shopped at every music store from Concord, New Hampshire, to here. But back to Jonah, the used amp was half the price of the new one, so that was a good deal. I left the music store and turned my attention to food shopping at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Having neither of those options in Falmouth, it is always a must to stop in when in Hyannis. Then I was on to my PT appointment which was an evaluation. There is still much work to be done on my knee, but I asked them to release me for the summer as I just won’t have time to travel back and forth to Sandwich for the appointments. Tom and his assistant Hannah are top notch and they suggested that if in two weeks things are getting worse, I give a call and find a way to resume sessions. But if I am doing okay, I will wait until my next appointment with my orthopedic surgeon in August and reassess at that time. Tom really doesn’t recommend surgery at this point, so I will continue to follow the outlined leg strengthening exercises and hope for the best. Once the brace was fitted today, I wore it while shopping and it really helped. So, I will wear it when gardening or standing for long stints in the kitchen. But as Tom cautioned, you don’t want to wear it all the time. You have to balance it with aggressive muscle strengthening. Tomorrow I have, hopefully, my last appointment with the chiropractor. All of these appointments over the past month have felt like a having a part-time job. But now I need to change my profession from patient to Camp Oma Director. Friday is the last day of school, so Camp Oma begins on Monday morning. Let the fun begin.
