by Judy Handley | Mar 19, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 78: Shopping Day
Date: Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 44, Low 26 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This morning I headed off-Cape to do some shopping. It takes a little more than hour to drive north toward Boston to reach Costco, and that was my destination. I also made a stop at Home Depot, but both stops were a bit disappointing. I was not able to find what I went after at either Home Depot or Costco which furthered my belief that I should do all my shopping online. But I did enjoy the outing. I made it back in time to pick Ollie up after school and then Ollie, Sam, and I made a trip into Falmouth to West Marine. I was looking for some for items for a building kit I am putting together for Ziggy for his upcoming birthday in early April. Ziggy is constantly building robots from bits and pieces and is interested in building an underwater vehicle. Sam has some experience with this, so he came along to make sure I was getting the right parts. Again, I didn’t find what I needed, but when Jed got home he told me the parts are available on Amazon. Online again! Coming up tomorrow . . . first day of spring beginning at 5:58 pm with a super full moon, Grammy Marti’s birthday, and Ollie’s birthday dinner. Ollie’s 7th birthday is on Thursday, but Jed leaves town tomorrow after dinner. So, we will have the birthday dinner before daddy has to leave.
by Judy Handley | Mar 18, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 77: Physical Therapy Assessment
Date: Monday, March 18, 2019
Weather: Sunny; High 42, Low 26 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today marks three weeks since my knee replacement surgery. I feel like my recovery has been going great with the help of the in-home physical therapy visits. But today I had my first out-patient visit to a physical therapist and she confirmed my feelings. She put me through all sorts of timed tests and did strength tests with some sort of meter.
She declared that I still have a way to go, but for three weeks out, I’m doing great. And the best part to me is that I am able to do all of the therapy without the use of any pain relievers. The therapist gave me a few pointers on getting the most out of the exercises I have been doing and suggested that I spend more time walking, trying to walk at least a mile each day. So, more time moving now, and less time sitting with that leg up. The best part of the therapy session came at the end when I got to experience the ‘freezy squeezy’. The therapist attached a velcro contraption around my leg from thigh to ankle. Ice cold water runs through tubes and the whole thing slowly tightens and loosens around your leg giving it a great massage. I’ll look forward to that at the end of each session.
by Judy Handley | Mar 17, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 76: Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Date: Sunday, March 17, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 41, Low 24 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It was a very quiet St. Patrick’s Day around here. More of the same—exercising, rest, reading. The only green I saw today was in my window garden. I have two generations of arugula growing,
one planted three weeks ago and one planted one week ago. I’m experimenting to see how long it takes to get arugula to the ‘eating’ point when growing in the window garden. The other cool weather plants are almost ready to plant outdoors.
Tomorrow I go to outpatient physical therapy for the first time. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
by Judy Handley | Mar 16, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 75: Spoke Too Soon
Date: Saturday, March 16, 2019
Weather: Sunny, Windy, Continued Warmth; High 52, Low 40 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Last night when I wrote my log, I spoke too soon. I wrote that I heard “thunder in the distance, but no significant amount of rain thus far”. Well, that changed quickly. As soon as I shut down my computer, the thunder and lightning show got serious and close-by. And a while after that, there was driving rain. I honestly don’t remember when I have experienced a storm this fierce. I went to bed and tried to read my mystery novel, but unfortunately I was at a spot in the book where a person was murdered during a séance. Too scary for me, so I just went to sleep. The storm during the night, the storm worked itself out and this morning dawned with bright sunshine. There was still some wind, but it was a beautiful day. Yesterday was my first trip to grocery store and today was my first outdoor walk. Heather called to invite me to go for a nature walk with them in the afternoon. When the time came, however, Jonah and Ollie were so completely into playing backyard baseball that there was no way to get them into the van to drive somewhere to take a walk. So, we ended up just walking in the neighborhood and it felt great to be out walking again. I made it for the half-mile with an uphill bit just fine. And I now feel confident that I can go out walking on my own without fear of falling. Every day my knee gets a little better and the signs of spring are popping up everywhere. The crocus in Heather’s front flowerbed showed their first blooms today
and the daffodils are ready to bloom. The crocus blooms appeared on March 2 last year, so even though it has been a mild winter, the cold spell that started the end of February delayed those little purple blossoms by a couple of weeks. So exciting to see them this afternoon.
by Judy Handley | Mar 15, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 74: March Winds
Date: Friday, March 15, 2019
Weather: Overcast, Warm and Windy; High 59, Low 40 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The March winds are a blowin’. It was a warm and windy day and tonight I keep hearing thunder in the distance, but no significant amount of rain thus far. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and windy, but wind and the month of March do go together. I made my first major trip to the grocery store this afternoon and found walking from one end of the store to the other a couple of times exhausting. So obviously, I need to get out and do more walking. Otherwise, nothing new is happening here.
by Judy Handley | Mar 14, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 73: Celebrations and a Little Learning
Date: Thursday, March 14, 2019
Weather: Overcast; High 48, Low 35 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
There was not a lot of time for exercise and rest today as it was full of celebrations and a little learning. 
There was a St. Patrick’s Day luncheon at Liam Maguire’s Irish Pub at 11:30 am hosted by the Newcomers, a 3 pm Technology Class, and then a Pi Day celebratory dinner at the Goldstones. I came home between activities and did a few exercises and put my leg up with a cold pack for a few minutes, but probably not long enough. I’ll try to do better tomorrow. But today was fun. The invitation to Heather’s for dinner was a last-minute affair, but I really enjoyed eating ‘pies’ to celebrate ‘pi’. We had a meat pie as our entrée and chocolate and pumpkin pie for dessert. Pi is celebrated on March 14 as 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits in pi. And eating lots of pie has become the way of celebrating this mathematical concept.
