by Judy Handley | Mar 25, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 84: Time to Adjust Focus
Date: Monday, March 25, 2019
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 46, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
For the past four weeks, my total focus has been on recovering from my knee replacement surgery. Recovery will continue for months to come, but if things continue as they have, it is time to adjust focus and get back to life as usual. I will continue to go to physical therapy for at least five more weeks and need to spend part of each day doing the therapy routine at home plus walking, walking, walking. But in addition, I will try to start working through my To Do list. Today I had PT early, came home for lunch and a little recovery time, talked to Lynne Kirwin who is coming to visit on Thursday, and then did some research into what I will be getting Ziggy for his birthday that is coming up in less than two weeks. Then I headed to town to run through a long list of errands. When I got home, I wrote an email to Justin and Jo outlining my thinking about Ziggy’s birthday. I sent the email by accident before it was completed and before I could finish a second email, Justin called and we went through the pros and cons of my different ideas on the phone. That was it for today. Tomorrow’s project is to work on filing taxes. Mark did this for all of the years we were married, and H&R Block did it for me the past two years. I’m hoping to do it myself this year, but if not, I’ll head back to H&R Block.
by Judy Handley | Mar 24, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 83: Ollie’s Birthday Party
Date: Sunday, March 24, 2019
Weather: Sunshine Turning Overcast and Windy; High 48, Low 32 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was Ollie’s birthday party with his friends.
He chose to take a small number of friends to the Cape Codder Indoor Waterpark in Hyannis, so they gathered at noon to have pizza and birthday cake and then Heather and Jed took off with the five first graders plus Jonah and Sam. They needed two cars since the van still has the spare on, so I offered my car and I stayed behind and took advantage of the Goldstone laundry facilities for the afternoon. I also took a walk but unfortunately waited until the wind blew in the clouds, hiding that beautiful sunshine. With the wind, it felt so cold that I only made it a half mile this afternoon. If it is still cold and windy tomorrow, I’ll go to the community center and take advantage of the indoor walking track that is available to the public from 11:00 to 12:00 each week day. Later in the week it is supposed to warm up a bit and I am looking forward to some long walks with good friend Lynne Kirwin who is coming to visit. I can’t wait for her arrival on Thursday.
Back to the birthday party, Heather and Jed served homemade pizza and then the fantastic cake Heather made. It is called a rainbow cake and looks too beautiful to eat. She made the cake yesterday
and then put the blue icing on this morning making it into a water slide.
I knew the two boys Ollie invited, Raylan and Grayson, as we spent our mornings at swim lessons together last summer, but I had never met the two little girls, Grace and Peyton. What a group of delightful personalities! They have been learning at school about how important it is to eat the rainbow. This means eating colorful vegetables. But when they saw the rainbow cake, they immediately joked about eating something not so healthy and getting away with it by saying they were eating the rainbow.
And evidently in addition to dynamic personalities, they also had a lot of energy as Heather came home from the water park exhausted. She was the only adult in the water with the seven kids and they gave her a run for her money! But they had a great time. Ollie was very happy with his birthday celebration.
by Judy Handley | Mar 23, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 82: An Unexpected Saturday Night Date
Date: Saturday, March 23, 2019
Weather: Snow, Wind, Then Sunshine; High 43, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
What a lovely day that ended with an unexpected Saturday night date with my daughter and grandson. I stopped by Heather’s late in the afternoon to get some help with set-up of my new phone. Jed was just leaving with Ollie and Jonah for a Scout campout at the Buttonwood Zoo off-Cape, so that left just Heather and Sam at home. Sam was planning to cook steaks on the grill for dinner and he invited me to stay. I had no other plans, so I accepted. And then after dinner he wanted me to stay to watch a movie. He changed what they were going to watch to introduce me to Harry Potter. I have never read the books nor seen any of the movies, so Sam wanted to fill the gap in my ‘cultural education’. For dinner, Sam did a great job grilling the steaks and Heather added boiled potatoes, asparagus, and salad. Delicious. It was a delightful evening. There was only one low point when Heather got a call from Jed saying the van had a flat tire on I 195 . . . not really where you want to have a flat tire with two little boys in the van. But he got it changed and they were once again on their way to the campout. Sure hope the rest of the evening went smoothly for them.
I had PT this morning and am told that my knee has great flexibility but that I have a little more work to do to get it straightened out completely. It will go flat against the table with some work, but not just automatically, so more exercises were added to deal with that.
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I then went to the Falmouth School District Science Fair to see Sam and Jonah’s projects. By the time I got there, the judging had been completed and the boys weren’t ‘on duty’ by their projects as they had already been there for a couple of hours and were now enjoying some of the other activities.Sam did an experiment with yeast with two friends, Ethan and Karl, and he and his friend Robert had their underwater ROV that they built together on display. Jonah did a survey project with two friends, Kayden and Lucas, about favorite pets.
?
I caught Jonah at his display just long enough get a photo. I then went home for lunch and to rest my knee and later in the afternoon I visited with friends Karen and Peter Baranowski. It was a busy day.
by Judy Handley | Mar 22, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 81: Cell Phone Blues
Date: Friday, March 22, 2019
Weather: Overcast, Rain, Wind; High 43, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Tonight I’m singing the ‘Cell Phone Blues’. I babied my cell phone until it just wouldn’t do the job anymore and then switched to Mark’s old cell phone about a year ago. It was a much better phone than mine, but also much older. And the transfer was painful. The AT&T guys told me at the time that I really needed to buy a new phone, but I ignored them. Since then, Mark’s phone has worked for me, but there was a problem in keeping it charged. And this morning, after being plugged in all night, I opened my email and the phone went black. It had turned itself off. I turned it back on and saw it had no charge before it turned itself off again. I plugged it in quickly and waited for it to have enough charge to function. I would turn on but there were constant pop-ups saying that this or that was no longer working. These little pop-ups had an OK button, but when I clicked on OK the pop-up would go away for a second and then pop-up again. If I got a text, I could click on it to read it, and work very hard to send an answer in between pop-ups. I tried shutting the phone off and on various times, but the problem just returned each time. It was time for a deep breath and the thought that maybe I really did need to buy a new phone. I did a search on my computer to find the recommended phones, searched Amazon to find the best prices, and decided on a particular mid-level Samsung Galaxy. I printed out the information and headed to the AT&T store. I think Mark bought this phone in 2011 and paid a fortune for it. I remember when he returned from the AT&T store with it and told me the cost. I was flabbergasted and just didn’t understand why he wanted to upgrade from his old flip phone. It took me another few years to move to a smart phone, but I paid significantly less for mine. Anyway, when I got to the AT&T store, the agent really tried to figure out my problem, but he made no progress. He finally suggested a new phone, listened to my requirements, and made some suggestions. I asked if he had the phone I had found on Amazon and, yes, he did. But it cost double to buy it in the AT&T store, literally double. When I showed him the Amazon print-out, he suggested I go home and order it online. But before heading home to order a new phone, I made a stop at Walmart. It was such an ugly day that I decided to do my daily walk-about in the store instead of outside! Never thought I’d become a Walmart walker, but here I was. While walking every isle, I came to the electronics area and decided to see what they had for phones. The phone I wanted was there and was the same cost as on Amazon. Bingo! Getting the low price meant I had to buy in on a Walmart installment plan, but the salesman said I could then take it directly to the AT&T store and pay for it in full. So I did. I have miles to go to get all of my apps back up and running, but at least I do have a phone. My goal today was to make a number of important business phone calls, but that didn’t happen. Hopefully, I’ll learn to use this new phone and get back on track on Monday.
by Judy Handley | Mar 21, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 80: PT, Post-Surgery Dr Visit, Open House at Sam’s School
Date: Thursday, March 21, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny Early Turning Overcast; High 48, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a busy day. I started with an early morning physical therapy appointment. The therapist gave my knee a good workout and declared that I am doing great. I left there and drove to Hyannis for my post-surgery doctor appointment. X-rays were taken to document the state of things and the doctor said the x-rays look great and that he is very pleased with my progress. If things continue to go smoothly, I won’t need to see him until this time next year. While in Hyannis, I did a run to Trader Joe’s and to Whole Foods before heading home. When I did get home, I had time to eat a late lunch and put my knee up for a bit before heading out to pick Ollie and Jonah up from school. Today was Ollie actual birthday and he wanted to play on the playground after school, so we did. Once Heather got home, I headed home to fix a quick dinner and then I returned to go with Heather and boys to an Open House at Sam’s School.
Student art lined the hall walls and ceramic and paper mache art pieces were displayed on tables. Sam took me on a tour to see his pieces—a ceramic elephant,
a pattern painting, and a 3-D chart art piece. We went to the Book Fair that was part of the Open House and then the boys had an ice cream sundae while reading their new books.
Thankfully tomorrow should be a little quieter, but it was good to be out and about.
by Judy Handley | Mar 20, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 79: Happy Spring and Happy Birthday to Ollie
Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 48, Low 32 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was all about ‘happy, happy’. Happy birthday to Jed’s mom, Grammy Marti. Happy spring to everyone. And happy birthday to Ollie. 
Actually, Ollie’s 7th birthday is tomorrow, but we celebrated this evening as Jed had to leave at 7 pm for a two-day trip back to Baltimore. Ollie’s present from Heather and Jed was a new bicycle with hand brakes and gears. They gave him this before dinner so he could give it a try. He loved it and was a very happy birthday boy.He opened presents from me before dinner, a new tablet and a beginner’s tennis set.
And presents from Grammy Marti after dinner, a wonderful book of backyard bird songs, violin CD’s, and a lightsaber.
Of course, the lightsaber was a big hit. Dinner was ribs, asparagus, and salad, per special order by the birthday boy, and the birthday cake was individual molten lava cakes with whipped cream. Amazingly delicious!
Mollie and Joey from next door joined us for birthday cake and then the kids were back outside playing tennis under the rising full supermoon.
Sam mentioned that the moon might look even better from the beach, so we all packed up and headed down to Menauhant Beach.
It was a beautiful birthday celebration on this first day of spring 2019.
