by Judy Handley | May 7, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 127—Heather’s Hernia Surgery
Date: Monday, May 7, 2018
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 59, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Hurray! Hurray! Heather’s hernia surgery was a great success. It started right on time and she was out of the operating room and wide awake in less than hour. The surgeon went in and repaired with what he told Heather are permanent stitches. Whatever the stitches are made of, they will evidently be with her for the rest of her life. She was in the OR by 8:30 am and we were headed home by 10:30. She is doing great and is able to move about normally, just slowly and carefully. I stayed with her until 7:30 pm when Jed got home. She will stay home tomorrow and promises to rest and will not return to work until Thursday. Wednesday is actually a personal day for her as she will be setting up for a Teacher Appreciation luncheon at East Falmouth Elementary School as part of her PTO duties. At this point she is still planning on going camping and biking this weekend, but she wait a couple of days to see how things are going before making a final commitment.
by Judy Handley | May 6, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 126—Bright Spots in a Dreary Weather Day
Date: Sunday, May 6, 2018
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 62, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Overcast morning, rainy afternoon. That’s the dreary part. Bright spots . . . assembled IKEA bookcase, brought books up from the basement to fill the bookcases, waxed the floor in the guest bedroom, enjoyed time with Heather and Ollie when they made a short visit so put drawers back in my big tool chest as I just couldn’t figure out how to do that, and talked to Justin, Coco, and Ziggy and got a full report on how things are going for them in Puerto Rico. Despite the dreary weather, it was a good day. Tomorrow morning it is off to the Cape Cod Hospital to wait while Heather has hernia surgery. I will then drive her home and hang out for the afternoon until Jed gets home. And I’ll do this for the next couple of days if needed. Heather’s surgeon has told her that because the tear in the abdominal wall is tiny, he will go in laparoscopically and just take a couple of stitches and that she should recover quickly. Sure hope for Heather’s sake that he is right.
Things in Puerto Rico are moving right along. Justin is settled into his office, electricity and water are more reliable but the electricity coming into their house is not ‘full strength’. Justin thinks the problem might be between the street and their house, but wherever the problem, it is not enough to run the pool pump. Business is tight, but they are making it. Ziggy and Coco now each have their own bedroom. Until yesterday, the slept in twin bunk beds in one room and used the other room as play room. Ziggy was feeling the need for his own space, so they made the move. Justin said Coco misses her big brother, but on the phone she told me she LOVES her new room. Jo’s Soul Food Fridays have become very popular and she has had to hire people to help her. So life is good, but there is already worry about the upcoming hurricane season. The rainy season has started early and the local word is that it is going to be another tough hurricane season. Sure hope the local word is wrong.
by Judy Handley | May 5, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 125—Fun and Productive Day
Date: Saturday, May 5, 2018
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 70, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The fifth of May, Cinco de Mayo, and a lovely day here on the Cape. I had a very productive morning, getting more done in four hours than I got done all day yesterday. And then just before noon I headed to Heather’s. Jed was coaching a soccer game on Martha’s Vineyard and Heather was headed to Boston to the Massachusetts State Science & Engineering Fair at MIT. Sam is on Nantucket until tomorrow at a Scout camp-out, so I went to spend the afternoon with Jonah and Ollie. When I arrived, I found the two boys, plus Joey from next door, in bath suits. They had Brian, Joey’s dad, inflating a swimming pool and they were raking the area under the Ninjaline. The plan was to put the pool under the Ninjaline and then fill the pool with water to mimic a Ninja Warrior Challenge that they have seen on TV. They had a great time trying to work their way across the Ninja obstacle course and falling in the water. The air temperature was about 70 degrees and the sun was shining, so it was a great activity for little boys. But soon they were on the deck soaking in the sun and having lunch. Then it was time for Joey to go to his baseball game and Jonah and Ollie decided they would really like to go watch him play. So, we spent the rest of the afternoon watching Joey’s game. Jed arrived near the end of the game and he stayed to the end with Jonah while Ollie and I went to Walmart to buy a new bike helmet for Ollie. His old one is cracked on top, and after yesterday’s encounter with a fire extinguisher, I decided it was time for a new, tough bike helmet to protect the O’s head. Rain is expected tomorrow afternoon, I might go for a bike ride tomorrow morning and continue the unpacking process in the afternoon.
by Judy Handley | May 4, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 124—Not a Lot of Progress
Date: Friday, May 4, 2018
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 60, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
There was not a lot of progress made today in terms of unpacking and organization. It was one of those days when everything I went to do was harder than anticipated . . .assembling IKEA purchases, turning the existing IKEA wardrobe into a pantry, hanging lamps and grow lights for the flats of garden plants, even buying another rug at Job Lot was problematic. Then at 3 pm, I got a call for help from Heather that saved me from further frustration with projects that weren’t working just right. Unfortunately, the reason Heather needed help was that Ollie hit his head on a fire extinguisher during PE class. They were running races and he ran with great speed right into the extinguisher that grazed the top of his head. He is fine, but it bled profusely which scared him. The principal had difficulty getting in touch with either Heather or Jed as both were out of their offices working on special projects and didn’t have their phones with them. When Heather got back to her office, she got the message and dropped everything to go pick him up. In the meantime, the school nurse and the kindergarten teacher’s aide took good care of him. Once she got him home and cleaned up, it appeared that he was just fine, no concussion. But she had to go back to work and Jed had to get Sam ready for a two-day Scout camp-out. So I gladly went over to cook an early dinner for Sam and Jed as they had to leave before normal dinner time. Ollie requested chili and mac and cheese, so that’s what I fixed. Ollie was fine, but we tried to encourage quiet activities for the evening . . . no jumping on the trampoline next door. He took all of this in stride and thankfully he does seem to be fine other than the scrape on the top of his head.
Tomorrow afternoon I am on Oma duty with Ollie and Jonah and on Monday morning Heather has hernia surgery and I will me mom duty. She has the same kind of hernia that Justin had just above the belly button, but her surgeon says he will be able to make repairs laparoscopically which will make rehab a whole lot easier. Let’s hope that is the case. Then on Tuesday afternoon I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to get an official recommendation about my left knee. All of this means that the ‘settling in’ process is going to be slowed down for a few days. If I don’t go into the two spare bedrooms, the cottage looks just fine. Those two rooms and the basement are a mess, but I’m just going to ignore that for a few days and enjoy time with family.
by Judy Handley | May 3, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 123—Empty Boxes
Date: Thursday, May 3, 2018
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; High 77, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I continued to do my ‘turtle thing’ all morning and into the afternoon. I opened boxes and walked from room to room putting them away. I wish I had a FitBit that could tell me just how many steps I took today, but in the absence of a FitBit, my feet told the story. At 3 pm my feet just literally gave out. That usually doesn’t happen until I have walked at least two miles. But I don’t think that is possible in this small house, but I had also made many trips up and down the stairs to the basement to take the empty boxes. I LOVE empty boxes. But back to the feet that wouldn’t go any further, I felt like I needed to keep going, so I decided that sitting in the car and driving an hour to IKEA to buy some items I need in order to put things away would be a good use of my time. So that’s what I did. I bought a half-high bookcase to match the IKEA bookcases I have on one living room wall. It had to be half-high as the thermostat is on that wall and the book case has to fit under that. I bought cute little wooden storage boxes to hold bathroom items on the three-shelf wooden storage unit in the bathroom and I bought storage shelves for an IKEA wardrobe that was here and that I am transforming into a pantry. And, finally, I found a narrow kitchen cart that will fit between the stove and dining table. This will give me a little more counter space and storage space. Yeah! The trip was successful. I didn’t get home until 7:30 pm and I have spent the evening putting the kitchen cart together. Tomorrow I hope to finish unpacking the boxes that are in the house. Once that is done, I’ll continue going through the boxes in the basement to see what needs to come upstairs and what stays down. Little bit by little bit, I am getting there.
by Judy Handley | May 2, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 122—Slow and Steady
Date: Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Weather: Beautiful Day; High 80??, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I’ve always loved turtles and now I seem to moving like one! The good thing is that moving like a turtle might be slow . . . yet it is steady. I’m still stepping over and around boxes to move through the cottage, but it is getting better. I actually didn’t spend much time at home today. I went to Heather’s at 8 am to be with the Ollie and Jonah until it was time to take them to school and then I headed to the gym for my 9:15 am class. Afterwards I headed to AT&T to figure out what happened to my voice mail notification on my cell phone. It just went away and even the young man at the store couldn’t figure it out. Finally, he found an alternate way for me to access voice mail and I moved on to the grocery store. From there I went to Job Lot to purchase the carpet runners for my hallway and entry way, stopped by Heather’s to start a laundry of the new bedding for the guest bedroom, and finally headed home. I didn’t get home until 1:15, so all of that took three hours. By the time I had lunch and did a few things, it was time to go pick up Ollie after school. I had loaded up our bicycles because this morning Ollie said he would like to go bike riding on the bike path. But after school he decided he just wanted to go home and play. Fair enough. But before doing that, he suggested we stop at Smitty’s for an ice cream cone to celebrate the warmest day we have had this spring. Weather Underground tells me it was 80 degrees F today. I have a hard time believing it was that warm, but it was delightful, whatever the temperature. So, we had ice cream and found we weren’t the only ones with that idea. We ran into next door neighbor Mollie and her grandmother doing the same thing. When we finally got home, Mollie and Ollie played together and had a great time. Jonah and Sam were both at soccer practice and Mollie’s brother Joey was at an afterschool program. Heather came home just long enough to get ready to go to a PTO Board Meeting and then a general PTO Meeting. Jed got home from Boston in time to coach soccer and got home with Sam and Jonah at 6:30. In between pitching baseballs for Ollie, I got dinner ready and finished up the laundry I had started in earlier in the day. Then Jed got home with Sam and Jonah and we had dinner. Whew! That slow and steady turtle progress today wore me out. Do you think that is how turtles feel at the end of the day?!!!
