by Judy Handley | Oct 6, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 279: Fun and ‘Deliciousness’ with the Goldstones
Date: Sunday,October 6, 2019
Weather: Mostly Cloudy with Some Sunshine; High 70, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage. East Falmouth, MA
Sam, Jonah and Ollie came over for dinner yesterday evening and spent the night. We didn’t do anything special, but we did have fun. Last night after dinner the boys talked me into letting them watch Home Alone 3 and we all found the silliness very funny. This morning the boys got their 30 minutes each on Mark’s tablet which is a special treat, and then we played games, played Legos, and went down to the dock for a little water play. Somehow having water battles was more inviting than seriously kayaking, but I just let them go at it. We didn’t have lunch until 1:30 and then I took them home to get ready to go to what they call pick-up soccer. Somebody decides to invite other friends and their parents to come to the field to play soccer. Heather took the boys and played the whole game with them, and Jed came a little later. It is grant writing season and he needs to spend what seems like every free minute writing and revising. Then tonight, Heather invited me to dinner as she was fixing Afghan kaddo (pumpkin) with a tomato and ground beef sauce and yoghurt. We first had this years ago at Helmand in Boston and since then about once a year during pumpkin season, Heather fixes it as a special treat. It was delicious. Thank you, Heather.
by Judy Handley | Oct 5, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 278: Fiddles, Soccer, and a Goldpebble Overnight
Date: Saturday, October 5, 2019
Weather: Sunny with a Cool Breeze; High 63, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage. East Falmouth, MA
It definitely felt like fall today, so it was a great day for Harvest Fest where Ollie performed with the Sonnay Fiddlers.
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He looks so tiny compared to the other kids as he is at least five years younger than anyone that was playing today. I am amazed the number of songs he can play and he is still three months shy of taking lessons for a year. Needless to say, I really enjoyed watching him play. And I left the Harvest Fest after Ollie finished his last song and went to see Sam play soccer. His team won their game today and they were very happy. The fall season has been tough for them, so I was so pleased to see them enjoy their win today. Jonah was busy all day today, but I didn’t see him until 5:30 pm when Ollie, Sam, and I picked him up from his friend Luke’s house. I then brought the three boys home with me for an overnight with Oma. We had steak and calamari for dinner and then watched a movie together. What fun!
by Judy Handley | Oct 4, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 277: Home Again, Home Again
Date: Friday, October 4, 2019
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High 60, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage. East Falmouth, MA
What a wonderful week . . . meeting Lynne Kirwin in Philadelphia to visit and tour with Kevin Russell and Claire McKellar . . . driving to the Nyack, New York, area to spend the night with Lynne and her friend Jane . . . home for a night . . . going to Kittery Point, Maine, for the Celebration of Life of Rick Kole, husband of good friend Leslie Kole . . . spending time with many friends from my teaching days in Concord, New Hampshire . . . spending the night with long-time friends, Tom and Detta Porat . . . stopping to have lunch with my niece Lynn in northern Massachusetts on my way home today . . . and having happy hour and dinner with friends Bruce and Jane Woodin once back here on the Cape. Now it’s time for a good night’s sleep in my own bed. I love visiting with friends, but there is no place like home.
by Judy Handley | Oct 3, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 276: Celebration of Life
Date: Thursday, October 3, 2019
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 52, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home with Detta and Tom Porat, Greenland, NH
The drive to Kittery Point, Maine, went smoothly on this cool fall morning. I drove from home to Kittery Point, Maine, for Rich Kole’s Celebration of Life. It was avice t a restaurant called The View, and indeed, it offered a beautiful view out over the Piscataqua River and on out to sea. It was a wonderful to be with my friend Leslie, and other teaching friends from our days at Beaver Meadow School in Concord, New Hampshire.
Our principal, Roger Brooks, was there as well as Detta Porat and Cheryl Dolin. We listened to stories of Rich’s life told by his two brothers and his daughter Jessica and son-in-law Tom while eating delicious food and drinking wine in Rich’s honor. It was just as he would have wanted it.
After the celebration, I went home with good friends Detta and Tom Porat where we had more delicious food and talked the night away. I’ve made new friends, but kept the old, one is silver and the other gold, as song that I learned in Girl Scouts as a child good. Good advice and good friends.
by Judy Handley | Oct 2, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 275: New York to Cape Cod
Date: Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Weather: Overcast Turning Rainy; High 85, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
On this unusually warm October 2nd, I made it home from New York, picked Ollie up from school and took him to meet Heather for his violin lesson, and then came home to get ready to leave again in the morning. Short as my visit home is, it is always a good feeling to get home and sleep in your own bed for a night. I can be glad to be home, but that does not take away from the wonderful time Lynne and I had in Philadelphia. Kevin and Claire were such gracious hosts. They moved off the boat and slept in their Roadtrek motorhome in the parking lot next to Pier 3, letting Lynne and I have the boat for sleeping. But we did spend our evenings together on the boat sharing stories. Chris and Georgette, who live on the boat next door, joined us for part of each evening and Claire and Georgette elicited sailing stories from Lynne and me. It was so much fun to back on a boat in a marina, sharing stories with other sailors. We enjoyed answering the questions about our circumnavigations:
What were the most fascinating things you saw? (That was a new question for us.)
What were your favorite places? (The most commonly asked question.)
What were your most interesting experiences?
What were the scariest moments?
And Philadelphia was so much fun. Despite the fact that I have blisters on my toes from walking seven and a half miles each day while there, we loved seeing the city sights. The old town historic district was my favorite, but Kevin and I had a great time on eclectic South Street at Tattoo Mom’s where we ate $1 tacos and walking along Penn’s Landing on the Delaware River. During the visit we walked to Chinatown, visited the Reading (railroad) Terminal Market, walked to Rittenhouse Square to have a fabulous organic vegan lunch, and walked through the streets of Society Hill with its million-dollar brownstones. Everyone was friendly and I did feel like I was in the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia is a great city to visit. And I just once again want to say a big thank you to two of my favorite people in this whole wide world. Thank you, Kevin and Claire.
Tomorrow morning, I leave very early to battle rush hour traffic around Boston in order to get to Kittery, Maine by 11:30 am to attend the Celebration of Life for Rich Kole, friend of mine and husband of my good friend Leslie. After the celebration, I will go home with two more of my favorite people, Detta and Tom Porat. I will spend the night at their home in Greenland, New Hampshire, and then head home on Friday. On my way I’ll stop to have lunch with my niece Lynn in Chelmsford, Massachusetts and make a couple of shopping stops before getting home again.
by Judy Handley | Oct 1, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 274: Philadelphia to New City, NY
Date: Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Weather: Beautiful Day; High 73, Low 70 degrees F
Location: At Home with Lynne’s Friend Jane in New City, NY
Today was another beautiful touring day in Philadelphia, this time with Kevin. He returned from his 24-hour business trip to Los Angeles early this morning, slept a couple of hours, and then walked back to the historic district with Lynne and me. 
We went back to the Ben Franklin Post Office so Lynne could send a letter with the special post mark and then we walked to the National Constitution Center. Once we went in, we realized it was going to take more time that we had to do the tour, so instead we headed to The Bourse. This is a food court in the historic 1895 building that was once a stock exchange. It was remodeled and opened in July of last year. The name ‘bourse’ is used to refer to a stock exchange, especially in certain European cities and now in Philadelphia. We chose the first food stall we came to as the Hawaiian Poké bowls sounded delicious . . . and they were. We had five categories to choose from, with many options in each category, to build our own bowl. We all chose to have sushi grade ahi tuna on organic salad greens and had some combination of green onions, garlic, seaweed salad, edamame, carrots, cucumber, sesame seeds, and I had wasabi aioli dressing with mine. It was delicious. We then walked back to the boat to get Lynne’s things as she was heading to New City, New York to stay with a friend and start her visit with other friends and family in Nyack. Claire was leaving for Cold Springs on Long Island for a conference, so that left Kevin and I to visit and tour a bit more. We walked the waterfront down to South Street and then walked through a funkier part of Philly. We stopped at Tattoo Mom, a kicky little bar with lots of vegan food choices, to have $1.00 tacos and a beer. We solved all the world’s problems, walked back through the Society Hill area of Philadelphia, back to the historic district where I got to see the old Customs House, and then back to the boat. By the time we got my things to the car, it was 6:30 pm and I headed to New City to spend the night with Lynne and her friend Jane. I had met Jane before, but it was so gracious of her to invite me to spend the night. This makes my drive home tomorrow much shorter and I will avoid the early morning Philadelphia and New York City traffic.
Both Lynne and I had a fabulous time staying aboard Merganser for a couple of nights and truly enjoyed touring Philadelphia with Kevin and Claire. They are the perfect hosts and are so much fun to be with. I’m so lucky to have such wonderful friends. Thank you, thank you!
