by Judy Handley | Aug 10, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 222: Chasing the Mayflower II
Date: Monday, August 10, 2020
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 85, Low 72 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
As we all learned in school, the first Mayflower sailed from England to the shores of New England in the fall of 1620 bringing the Pilgrims to America. This was 400 years ago this fall. In 1956, a replica of the original, the Mayflower II, was launched in England and the next year it sailed across the Atlantic. It was commissioned by the Plimoth Plantation and calls Plymouth, Massachusetts its home. It has been in Mystic, Connecticut for the past three years to be restored. Today it was sailed, with a tow assist, through the Cape Cod Canal and back to Plymouth. I, along with the Goldpebbles, left Falmouth at 8:30 am today to go see the Mayflower make its way through the Canal.
Our plan was to drive to Scusset Beach at the end of the Canal and ride our bikes along the Canal to watch the Mayflower make its way into the Cape Cod Bay. But, unfortunately, a whole lot of other people planned to do the same thing. We sat in traffic trying to get across the Bourne Bridge and we spent over 40 minutes waiting in a line to pay for parking at Scusset Beach. When we finally got to the parking area, Ollie said that he heard a horn announcing the arrival of the Mayflower. We worked as fast as we could to get all the bicycles off the van bike rack and just as we got the last bike down, Ollie announced that he could see the mast approaching. I looked up and saw it as well. I told the boys to ride their bikes as fast as they could out to the bike path along the Canal to try and see the Mayflower before it went out into the Cape Cod Bay. I put the bike rack up, locked the van, and took off behind them. I could see the Mayflower sailing by and hoped the boys were following it. But when I got to the bike path, they were dutifully putting their bikes in a bike rack. I told them I would do the bike lock down and sent them to chase the Mayflower as it made its way out into the Bay. By the time I got the bikes locked and started walking in their directon, the boys were returning. They had seen the Mayflower turn the corner to start its trek north to Plymouth. So, we didn’t get to ride our bikes along bike path following the Mayflower, but we did still ride our bikes back to the Sagamore Bridge. Sam and Ollie went a little further, but Jonah wanted to stop and just sit along the Canal by the bridge. When we got back to the van, the boys changed into bathing suits and we walked out to the beach to get in the water to cool off. And cool off, we did. The water was much colder than we are used to. And the beach was just too crowded. So we played in the water for a short time, ate lunch, and headed home. Scusset is a beautiful sandy beach, but as the boys noted, “This is a tourist beach.” We went to my house to take showers and ended our day at the Skatepark. I don’t know about the Goldpebbles, but I know I will sleep soundly tonight with visions of the Mayflower dancing in my head.
by Judy Handley | Aug 9, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 221: Quahogs
Date: Sunday, August 9, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 83, Low 70 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Clamming in the estuaries along the coastline at low tide is a way of life on Cape Cod. On any summer weekend, you see people digging for clams using a clam rake to try and fill a special wire basket/bucket. Peter Baranowski, called Poseidon by my grandkids, offered to take us out this morning to show us how to find clams by snorkeling and then digging them up by hand. Sam and Jonah weren’t interested in doing this, but Heather and Ollie were all in. Ollie is the family clam lover, so it was fitting that he should go. We took our bucket and special permit and Peter brought his bucket and permit and we filled both. That’s about 40 pounds of clams. Of course, the shells are most of the weight, but still we got A LOT of clams. Northern hard-shelled clams are called quahogs in these parts. And depending on the size of the shell, the quahogs have different names. If the shell is 1.5 inches, it is called a little neck. If it is 2.5 inches, it is called a cherry stone. Any shell bigger than 3 inches is called a chowder quahog.
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Tomorrow the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower that brought the Pilgrims to our shores, will be making it way through the Cape Cod Canal on its way back to its home in Plymouth. It has spent the last three years in Connecticut getting restored. I am planning on picking up the Goldpebbles early in the morning and heading up to the Canal to see it. We are taking our bicycles and are hoping to ride the bike path along the canal as the Mayflower makes it way home.
by Judy Handley | Aug 8, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 220: Never Enough Time
Date: Saturday, August 8, 2020
Weather: Overcast AM, Then Mostly Sunny; High 80, Low 66 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Saturday is chore day. And as usual, I only got about halfway through my list. There is just never enough time. I did order and then picked up NexGard for Shadow. This is a very expensive pill that you give your dog once a month to keep away fleas and ticks. I have been buying just a couple of pills at a time as the particular pill given depends on the weight of the dog. For puppies 0 to 24 pounds you give one pill. The next level is for dogs weighing 24 to 60 pounds and Shadow has just moved into this level, now weighing 25 pounds. While in town to pick this up, I went to the grocery store. And as long as I was in town, I stopped by the Goldstones to see if they needed the beach gear from the back of my car. Heather and Jed were doing what they do most weekends—working on house projects. And the boys had decided they wanted to go to the skatepark. I decided to skip the rest of my chores and take them. They needed to eat lunch first and I needed to take my groceries home and put them away, so off I went. Before leaving, however, I needed to check with Heather on something and Jed said she was upstairs working in the bathroom. She has been stripping wallpaper in that bathroom for some time now, but today I walked in and the view took my breath away. She had just finished painting the room and it looked fantastic. When you open the door to the upstairs bathroom you see a very big skylight. Heather painted the room with what I call Cape Cod Sky Blue so that the walls and the skylight merge to look like a Cape sky on a clear summer day. Beautiful! Slowly, but surely, progress is being made on renovations to the new house.
When I came home to put the groceries away, I decided to bring Shadow with me for the afternoon. Since he loves to run with Sam on his skateboard, keeping him on the sideline just watching the boys was a bit of a challenge. Considering, he did pretty good. I did take him for a nice, long walk on the track that goes around the soccer fields and eventually I took him to the car. I moved the car into the shade and I stayed in the car with him and read so that he was not alone. Each time I take him, I’ll increase the time that he has to be on his leash watching the action at the skatepark. Maybe one of these days he’ll get to the point where he’ll sit quietly and be happy to just watch the boys. Maybe . . . one of these days.
by Judy Handley | Aug 7, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 219: Friday Fun at the Skatepark
Date: Friday, August 7, 2020
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 77, Low 66 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It is the end of another week of afternoon fun with the Goldpebbles. When the remnants of Tropical Storm Isaias swept through this area earlier in the week, it took with it the super hot, humid weather. The daytime temp today was 77 F and it almost felt chilly. There was a forecast for a rainy day, but that did not develop. So when I picked up the boys we packed the scooters and Sam’s skateboard in the car and headed out.
We went to try and replicate a great run the boys had down the hill from Falmouth Academy down to the old train depot a couple of weeks ago, but it was not as much fun today. Evidently the Falmouth Academy staff is already back at work, so the packed parking lot made the boys nervous. They felt like they were trespassing and don’t want to do that again. Plus, the restaurant at the depot is open on Fridays, so they couldn’t use the ramp there that was so much fun a couple of weeks ago. So, after one run, we ended that activity and headed to the closest Subway to get lunch to go. We ate on the way to the Skatepark which we have not visited since Jonah’s accident over a week ago. The cut on Jonah’s hand is not totally healed, but today he was feeling like he was ready to re-enter the Skatepark world. He kept his had wrapped and after the first few tricks, he came to report that his hand was fine. The stress of jumping was not on the part of his hand that was injured and he regained his confidence quickly. All three boys were enjoying their time and we were there for almost two and half hours.
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We ended the day at my house where the boys took Shadow for a skateboard run. Shadow pulls Sam on his skateboard and Jonah and Ollie follow behind on their scooters. Shadow prefers Ollie and Jonah out front so he can chase them, but we realized this teaches him to chase others. We have changed that by having them follow Sam and Shadow and it didn’t seem to stop Shadow from having a great time pulling Sam along.
by Judy Handley | Aug 6, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 218: Running Here and There
Date: Thursday, August 6, 2020
Weather: Sunny Early, Partly Cloudy Afternoon; High 84, Low 64 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
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It was a day of running here and there. Sam went kayaking with his Scout Leader and a couple of other kids. Shadow had an appointment with the groomer. I dropped Shadow off and drove across the bridge to go to Target to pick up an order. For those of you who don’t live on the Cape the words “drove across the bridge” don’t mean much. But for those of us who live on Cape Cod, “going across the bridge” is our link to the outside world. On the way home from that little trip I drove to Hyannis on a wild goose chase. Shopping in person just isn’t worth it these days. Online shopping is also frustrating as so many things aren’t available. But at least you can do online shopping in the comfort of your home. Lesson learned. Next, I drove back to Falmouth and picked up Ollie and Jonah and headed to the soccer field. Jonah practiced his kicking skills while Ollie played goalie and tried to keep him from scoring. Then we all went to pick up Sam and then Shadow and headed to my house and then home. While we were at my house, Coco called on Skype to show me some of her birthday presents that just arrived. It was great to talk with her, but then we were on the road again. Whew! I and then ‘we’ were here and there and everywhere. By the way, Shadow looks great. When we got back to 43 Grasmere, we still had time to go to Morse Pond School for some late day scootering and I was introduced to the resident ospreys who make their nest in the vent chimney for the school. It wasn’t an exciting day, but it sure was a tiring one. I’m not sure I can stay awake long enough to finish this log. But I just grabbed some chocolate and I hope that helps!
Whew! By the way, Shadow looks great. We still had time to go to Morse Pond School for some late day scootering and I was introduced to the resident ospreys who make their nest in the vent chimney for the school. It wasn’t an exciting day, but it sure was a tiring one. I’m not sure I can stay awake long enough to finish this log. But I just grabbed some chocolate and I hope that helps!
by Judy Handley | Aug 5, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 217: The Love of Soccer
Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Weather: Beautiful Day, Slightly Cooler; High 82, Low 65 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
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Since Jonah cut his hand last week, we have avoided our normal activities. No skatepark and no going to the beach. We’ve increased the Lego activity and today we headed to the soccer field. Jonah loves to play soccer but I had to do some convincing to get Sam and Ollie to go along. The age difference makes it difficult. Sam and Ollie would rather be playing with kids their own age. So would Jonah, but his deep love of the sport makes playing it with anyone just fine with him. Once we got the field, everyone had a great time. Jonah’s cut is healing nicely from the inside out, but it is still a slightly open wound. Hopefully by next Monday, we will be back to normal activities. For the next two days, however, we need to be creative.
