by Judy Handley | Jul 20, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 200: From Clamming to Ice Skating
Date: Friday, July 19, 2019
Weather: Overcast Early, Then Sunny; High 84, Low 72 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Our day started out with a clamming expedition with Poseidon, ended with ice skating at the Falmouth Ice Arena, and packed in a stroll down Main Street in the afternoon. Clamming is done during low tide, so we had to be up and ready to meet Peter Baranowski, aka Poseidon, in the Menauhant Beach parking lot at 8 am. From there we headed across the road to Bourne’s Pond where we were all given a lesson on how to clam. Peter knows the bottom of Bourne’s Pond like the back of his hand as he clams and snorkels there almost every summer day. We returned with three very happy kids and our full allotment of clams. Thank you, thank you, Peter. Ziggy, Coco, and Sam really enjoyed the working lesson and all of the rest of us really enjoyed a fantastic Portuguese pot dinner—sausage, potatoes, and then clams steamed in a huge pot. This was Heather’s idea, so thank you, Heather. But we still have a few dozen larger clams that we will turn into clam chowder. Later in the morning, Justin suggested we go to Betsy’s Diner in downtown Falmouth for second breakfast. When he say the 1950’s-style diner earlier in the week, he decided that we needed to go there. So, we did. Everyone ate a huge amount of food, but Jo seemed to enjoy her choice, Eggs Benedict Florentine Style, the most as they had it over gluten-free bread. Then we ventured further down Main Street to meet up with Jed, Jonah, and Ollie. We bought 10 cent candy at Blast From the Past and sorbet from Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium. We also bought some rockets at Blast From the Past that we spent the rest of afternoon putting together. Then we headed home to put the rockets together. Launch will be on Sunday. After our fantastic clam dinner, we then went to the Falmouth Ice Arena for an hour and a half of free skating time. This was something Coco really wanted to do and I think the whole family enjoyed it. I’m not an ice skater, but I loved watching. The day ended with Jonah and Ollie coming over to spend the night with Ziggy and Coco. I could write so much more about today as each part of the day was so very special. But we have to be up early for a trip to the Cape Cod Inflatable Park tomorrow morning. On we go.
by Judy Handley | Jul 18, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 199: Rainy Day Activities
Date: Thursday, July 18, 2019
Weather: Rainy Day; High 84, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, MA
As was forecasted, it was a rainy day from start to finish. Sam spent the night last night, so he played with Ziggy and Coco in the basement all morning. Last year when Ziggy and Coco were visiting, the five grandchildren formed a club called the Bacon Bandits. They rearranged the basement as their clubhouse and when bacon was on the breakfast menu, they would make sneaky little raids back to the kitchen to get another piece. Thus the name, Bacon Bandits. They have continued the club this year and really enjoy spending time in the clubhouse together . . . certainly a great rainy day activity. I took Sam to swim lessons at 11:30 and Justin went to pick him up. That allowed me to go into town to pick-up Jonah and Ollie from ceramics class. The traffic was really intense, so the trip took much longer than expected. We were supposed to get home in time to each lunch and then all pile into the van and take Jonah to guitar lessons and then continue on to Hyannis. But we had to adjust plans. Jonah ate lunch in the car on the way to his lesson with just me and then after his lesson everyone else met us at the Mashpee mall. There was a mandatory toy store visit there before heading on to Hyannis to Barnes and Noble. The rest of the afternoon was spent in the bookstore. I really enjoyed watching my grandchildren reading away the afternoon.
When we got home, it was still raining and I suggested that we do an ‘educational’ dinner which would require eating tacos while watching the new Apollo 11 movie. It uses original film clips to tell the entire story from launch to walk on the moon to the return to earth. Coco asked to me during the movie if I was really alive when this happened and had I really watched this on television when it was happening. Yes, indeed. I did that back in the olden days! It’s a great movie for young and old alike. I highly recommend watching it this week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the landing on the moon.
by Judy Handley | Jul 17, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 198: Afternoon Exploring the Beach and Marsh
Date: Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Weather: Cloudy AM, Mostly Sunny PM, Then Rain; High 88, Low 70 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
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Before venturing into today’s activities, I need to do a little explaining. Really, we don’t eat children, not even beer can children. In last night’s log I wrote that our dinner included something for everyone . . . even those who like beer can children! One of my cheekier friends wrote and asked me to share the recipe. Too funny. Of course, I meant to write beer can ‘chicken’, but spell check gave me some unwanted help and provided those of you reading my logs with a little humor. Something else from yesterday that I didn’t mention in last night’s log was the beautiful full moon. Just before I went to bed, I took a photo of it through the pine trees in front of the cottage. My moon photos never show the true beauty, but I keep trying.
The big event with the Fabulous Five grandchildren today was an exploration of Woodneck Beach and Little Sippewissett Marsh. It was low tide when we arrived, so we first explored the marsh. We let the Fab Five explore on their own in the very shallow part of the marsh and then I caught up with them when they headed into an area where there are deeper pools. They swam in the water, ran in the water, did every conceivable kind of dive into the water known to man plus some new stunts, and just enjoyed the sunny afternoon. When we walked deep into the marsh, we found a number of empty horseshoe crab shells or ‘molts’ but only one live baby horseshoe crab. All of the kids helped me collect jingle shells to add to my collection. I never realized until tonight while doing some research on jingle shells that they are a type of bivalve crab related to scallops and oysters. The research was prompted by a question asked by Ziggy for which I had no answer. Now we know. After work, Heather and Jed joined us. By this time the tide was starting to come in, so we ended our explore with a ride down a very ‘lazy river’. Dinner tonight was sushi. It was delicious and easy. Now it is time to start thinking about tomorrow. Sam is doing a sleep over tonight and tomorrow afternoon after Ollie and Jonah’s ceramic class, I think all of us are going to Hyannis to visit the Barnes & Nobles bookstore. Justin went there when he was here after my knee surgery and he was so impressed that he really wants to share that experience with Jo, Ziggy, and Coco.
by Judy Handley | Jul 16, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 197: Fifty Years Ago Today
Date: Tuesday, July 16, 20192019 Life Logs, Day 197: Fifty Years Ago Today
Weather: Sunny; High 87, Low 71 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Fifty years ago today, the Apollo 11 manned-flight launched and headed to the moon. Those of you my age certainly remember that, but when Coco heard us talking about “we went to the moon”, she assumed that meant that those of us talking about that had gone there. We tried to straighten out that misconception, but it is interesting that young children today, as well as young adults, simply don’t know anything about that prior time. We are trying to figure out something to do on Saturday, the 50th anniversary of landing and walking on the moon, to celebrate the occasion. If you have any great ideas, please let me know.
Jonah and Ollie went to their ceramics class this morning and Sam came over to be with Ziggy and Coco. Everyone but me went kayaking and then Justin, Sam, and Ziggy rode bikes to the beach for Sam’s swim lesson. When they returned, we packed a picnic lunch and drove to the kid park in Woods Hole. We met up with Heather, Jonah, and Ollie. The kids played more than they ate as they were just so excited to be together. Eventually Heather went back to work and Jed joined us as we made our way to the aquarium, the main reason we came to Woods Hole. We done this a few times over the past years and it is fun for me to see how the grandchildren have grown between visits. When we returned home from Woods Hole, the kids played together at my house while I worked to get the food transported to Heather and Jed’s where we decided to eat dinner tonight. We had a little something for everyone—beer can children for those who didn’t want steak, marinated steak and veggies, corn-on-the-cob, cauliflower-hemp seed salad over fresh lettuce from my garden, topped off with strawberries. I bought and prepared the food and Jed volunteered to do the grilling. Thank you, Jed! We had hoped to have a music concert dinner after dinner, but the kids were too busy still playing and then Ollie got what appears to be a sprained ankle. That ended the evening, but other than the bad ending, the rest of the day was delightful.
by Judy Handley | Jul 14, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 195: Busy, Busy, Busy
Date: Sunday, July 14, 2019
Weather: Sunny; High 88, Low 65 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was busy, busy, busy getting ready for Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco to arrive tomorrow. Cooking, cleaning. You know the drill. Logs will probably be short and sweet this week, but I’ll be here.
by Judy Handley | Jul 13, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 194: Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me
Date: Saturday, July 13, 2019
Weather: Sunny; High 87, Low 68 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
So, I’m on the highway headed north listening to one of my favorite programs on NPR–Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. Peter Sagal is the host and the point of the show is to quiz the regular panelists and visiting contestants about the news of the week in a humorous way. One of the questions today was about Costco, and since that is where I was headed, I found it extremely humorous. I don’t remember the exact wording, but the question was to name a store where you can buy designer pants and a tub of guacamole at the same time. It was pointed out that Costco has really increased its sale of designer clothes in the past couple of years. And my shopping today, added to that increase. I bought a Speedo bathing suit for myself and Adidas pants for the boys for Christmas. Then I added organic Mayorga whole bean coffee, organic grass-fed uncured beef and turkey sausages, organic everything, and even a Hyper-lite life jacket for Coco for next week’s kayaking adventures. I didn’t buy a tub of guacamole, but I did buy a tub of organic hummus. All of that under one roof for half the price that any of it would cost elsewhere. And once I got home and put things away, I headed downtown to Stop and Shop to buy a few things I couldn’t get at Costco. The reason for all of this shopping frenzy is that Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco arrive on Monday evening. They will be here until next Sunday and the whole family (me, the Goldstones, and Justin and family) will be eating dinner together every evening. And lunches will include everyone but Heather and Jed. It takes a lot of food to feed ten of us for six days. I’ll buy fruits and veggies as the week goes along, but I do have most everything else now. I think!
