by Judy Handley | Jan 10, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 10—Chapter Two
Date: Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Weather: Sunny, High 42, Low 20 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Just had a lovely evening with Jane Wooden. Bruce is out of town until Saturday, so we did a girls night out. Well, in and out. Jane invited me to dinner at her house and then we went out to the Cotuit Center for the Arts play reading of Neil Simon’s Chapter Two. The Center has free play readings on the second Wednesday of every month. And this play reading was delightful, and I got my first introduction to the Cotuit Center.
The rest of my day was spent going to the gym and coming home to winterize my little glass house. I call it that because the area of the apartment where I spend all of my time, the open living and dining area, is more glass than wall. The front wall has three floor-to-ceiling double sliders and the side walls are more window than wall. I love the openness and the view, but unfortunately all of those windows and doors leak like a sieve. I should have covered the glass with insulating plastic film in November, but that didn’t get done. So, this morning when I got home from the gym, I started cleaning all of those windows and then made great progress in getting them covered. But I still have more to go. Yesterday I got the Christmas tree taken down and gathered up all the other Christmas decorations. Hopefully I’ll get them packed away tomorrow and finish the window winterizing. That’s the goal. But I have to fit this in between a morning Newcomers monthly general meeting and picking Ollie up after school. Heather works in Boston tomorrow, but I’m hoping to hang around until she gets home so I can say hello. I haven’t seen her or Sam since I got home from Tennessee, and since Heather leaves on Friday morning and won’t be home until late Sunday, I’d like to touch bases with her.
by Judy Handley | Jan 9, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 9—Beautiful Day, Frozen Harbor
Date: Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Weather: High 42, Low 20 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
It was a beautiful, sunny day and the high temp was 42. All good. But when I look out at the harbor, all I see is ice. The harbor is frozen over, not frozen enough to walk on, but frozen.
When I left here on Christmas Day, there were still boats in the slips in front of my apartment, but now there are no boats in sight. I guess they made a run for it when the deep freeze came. The view of ice does not make me feel warm, but I think I had better just get used to it. Tomorrow will be colder than today and then we are supposed to have three days with a high temp around 50 degrees F with rain overnight into Saturday. That will probably melt some of the ice, but then the temp dips down to the freezing point again. So goes a winter in New England.
This afternoon I went to a Newcomers Singles Group get-together at the home of one of the members. This group is newly formed and this evening we discussed how we want the group to proceed. It is an interesting mix of women and I look forward to future activities.
by Judy Handley | Jan 8, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 8—Very Special Christmas Surprise
Date: Monday, January 8, 2018
Weather: High 42, Low 31 degrees F
Location: Back Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA
The trip home from Tennessee was thankfully uneventful. My niece Janet picked me up at 7 am this morning and I got home at 5 pm. The flight took only two and a half hours, but the bus and car trip home takes longer than the flight. I was very happy that after sitting in the cold for two weeks, the car started right up. I stopped by the Goldstones to say hello, went to the grocery store, and by the time I got home it was 5 pm. Thankfully everything here was fine. My grill on the deck had ‘danced’ 30 feet across the deck and was headed for the gate. I guess it was trying to make a get away! The wind here must have been hurricane force to move that grill. But everything else was fine. So that is good.
While I was gone, I had the post office hold my mail and deliver it today. A neighbor picked it up for me, and when I got it this evening, there was a very special Christmas surprise. Justin told me they were sending a package that I wouldn’t get until after Christmas, so I am assuming it is from them. It is the photo of Mark that we chose for his obituary that has been digitized and copied onto wooden panels. It is about 16 x 16 and looks like a painting.
I hadn’t planned to turn on the Christmas lights, but when I saw the picture, I turned on the Christmas tree lights and put the picture under the tree.
It is really beautiful and Mark and I spent a lovely evening together.
I had a great phone conversation with Heather tonight, catching up on all the happenings here. And then I talked to Ed and Lynne Kirwin. They are staying in Florida until the first of February and are really enjoying the warmer weather there. They sent a sunset photo from Chagos this afternoon and I want to share that here. It is spectacular.
by Judy Handley | Jan 7, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 7—A ‘Hunt and Kill’ Kind of Day
Date: Sunday, January 7, 2018
Weather: Overcast and Warmer; High 41, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, TN
Mark always used to laugh about my shopping habits. He called it the ‘hunt and kill’ approach versus those who graze. Window shopping has never been my thing. Over the two weeks here, Patsy has mentioned a few things that would make some of her projects easier—better lighting in the den and more shelving for photo albums and boxes were at the top of her list. I measured and researched online and found nothing locally that would fill the size requirements for the photo album storage. So this morning I suggested we go shopping and she jumped at the chance. Furniture stores are closed here on Sunday, but the Goodwill Store in a neighboring community was open. We started there and hit pay dirt. I had already been to the Goodwill store in Mt. Juliet, to Home Depot, Lowe’s, Office Depot, and a couple of furniture warehouses and found nothing. The little furniture area at the Goodwill had only 5 items, but two of them were small book cases that were exactly the right size. One was $10 and the other was $15 and they were in excellent shape—right size, right color of wood, right price. So we bought both and Patsy was elated. We shopped at the Big Lots store next to Goodwill and found some other treasures, and then went to Home Depot and found the just right lamp for the den. Patsy now has her corner of the den (computer room) well lit with her photo album projects neatly stored on and inside the book cabinet we bought.
While in Home Depot she spotted some 55-gallon plastic storage containers that were the perfect size for her Christmas tree. We could only fit one in the car, but I went back this evening and bought another. Now she can get rid of all the cardboard boxes in the garage. That made her doubly happy. And making her happy made me happy. So this was a win-win day. We celebrated by going out to Asian Fusion for dinner.
Janet picks me up at 7 am to head to the airport. If all goes well I will be in Boston by 12:30 and home on the Cape by the time the Goldpebbles get out of school. I will stop by to say Happy New Year in person and then head home. Of course, if my car is frozen in place, the timing might be delayed, but one way or another I will be home by tomorrow evening.
by Judy Handley | Jan 6, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 6—A Visit to the Parthenon
Date: Saturday, January 6, 2018
Weather: No Change—Sunny and Cold; High 29, Low 13 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, TN
Hard to believe I have only one more day here before I fly back to the frozen north country. But it has also been ‘freezy’ here as I was reminded this morning when I drove out and noticed the frozen flows of ice where there was flowing water when I got here.
Tomorrow the Mt. Juliet high will be in the 40’s for the first time since I arrived. That will seem warm, but I am reminded that it is not when I see news reports of iguanas falling out of the trees in Florida because they are literally ‘frozen’ when the temp reached 45 degrees. The iguanas are probably not dead and will come back to life when the temp warms up a bit, but that has to be one scary sight to witness.
Monica came over this morning to install a back-of-cupboard door spice race I ordered on Amazon for Patsy and Joe,
I went shopping for some needed items from Lowe’s, and then I went to pick up Janet and Monica to take them to downtown Nashville for a University of Tennessee Titan’s football party. The Titans were not playing her today, but they would enjoy a pregame party with free drinks and food and then watch the game in a sports bar atmosphere at the George Jones Bar. Joe watched that game from the comfort of the livingroom and Patsy and I joined him for the past few minutes. Tennessee was behind by 21 points and then somehow pulled this one out, winning 22 to 21. After dropping off Janet and Monica, I went to visit Nashville’s Parthenon.
This is the only full-sized replica of the Greek Parthenon in the entire world. I had seen it before, but had never toured the museum inside. I got to see the larger than life Athena
, the largest bronze doors in the world,
and finally, I learned why there is such a structure in Nashville! It was built in the late 1800’s as part of the Centennial Expo celebrating the 100th birthday of Tennessee. It was a huge affair covering all of what is now known as Centennial Park across from the Vanderbilt University campus. Many temporary buildings modeled after famous places around the world were built for this expo and the Parthenon was such a hit that it was reconstructed of lasting materials to remain as the heart of today’s Centennial Park.
I then ‘shopped’ my way home as Janet and Monica were going to hitch a ride with Uber after the game.
My day started with a text from Jane Woodin. She and Bruce were in the Sagamore Park and Ride where I left my car. They sent a photo of the conditions there to let me know that they think I should have no problem getting my car out on my return on Monday. From the looks of the photo, I think they are right, but we shall see.
by Judy Handley | Jan 5, 2018 | 2018 Life Logs |
2018 Life Logs, Day 5—Special Treats
Date: Friday, January 5, 2018
Weather: Sunny, Still Cold; High 29, Low 11 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, TN
My niece Janet made sure I had special treats on this twelfth day of Christmas. Whether or not today was really the twelfth day of Christmas differs. Some count Christmas Day as the first day. Others say the day after Christmas is the first day. Either way, January 6 is usually observed as Epiphany, so I’m going with today, January 5, as the twelfth day. In any case, Janet made sure I had a special day. She insisted that I go have another massage and tonight she took me and Monica out to dinner. Patsy and Joe were going to go out with us, but Joe woke up this morning with a very upset stomach and going out to dinner was the last thing he wanted to do. Both the massage and the dinner were great. Thank you, Janet!
I am here for two more days. On Monday morning I fly home to Cape Cod and I’m really hoping the current forecast holds. If it does, when I fly out of here at 9 am, the temperature will be 38 degrees and by the time I land in Boston and take the bus to the Cape, the temp there will also be 38 degrees. The thing that is special about that is that 38 degrees F will be the highest temperature at home since I left there on Christmas Day. And I like above freezing weather!
