by Judy Handley | Feb 22, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 53: Goldstones Return from Maine
Date: Saturday, February 22, 2020
Weather: Sunny and Warmer; High 41 degrees, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It’s late and I am the only one still awake. Heather, Jed, and boys returned from their skiing/snowboarding few days in Maine, but they couldn’t go home tonight as the painters were still frantically working to finish up when they returned this evening. I anticipated that and had invited them here for dinner and to spend the night once. They all had a wonderful time in Maine. Heather actually did some downhill skiing with a little coaching from Jed’s Aunt Carol and she really enjoyed it. She has always been a cross country skier, but with snowboarding boys, she might find herself doing more downhill. We had a nice dinner together where I got hear some of the stories from the week and then we watched a Harry Potter movie. Jed went on back to the bedroom to read and hopefully go to bed early as he feels like he is getting sick again. He was barely over a bad cold when they left, and it is rearing its ugly head once again. Heather is excited to go home in the morning and put the house back together. She went over later this evening to feed the guinea pigs and said the paint job looked great. Maybe by the end of next weekend their house will be ready to put on the market.
I spent a couple of hours of my day in my last private class with People Training for Good Dogs. I have learned a lot but still need lots of practice. The Goldpebbles have at least one more private class and I will start attending the weekly group lessons starting tomorrow. Shadow is still very much an exuberant puppy, but he is definitely responding to corrections and love the praise he gets when he responds. He is still having tummy issues, but during the training today, Melissa had some suggestions that I am trying. He was worse this morning, but better tonight. Hopefully the ‘better’ will continue.
by Judy Handley | Feb 21, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 52: Sunshine and Snowflakes
Date: Friday, February 21, 2020
Weather: Partly Sunny and Cold; High 29 degrees, Low 23 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Sunshine and snowflakes falling from the sky make a beautiful combination. You just don’t get to see it very often. But this morning the sun was trying to break through a thin layer of clouds that were dumping big, beautiful snowflakes. Over a period of a couple of hours, there were enough to give us a very thin and fleeting blanket of snow. And it was below freezing, so it was not only beautiful, it actually felt like a winter day. Shadow and I braved the cold to go for a long walk and then we played outside in the yard for quite a while.
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We had a couple of snowy days just after I got Shadow and he loved it. Today was no different. There was not enough snow to romp in, but he used his nose like snowplow making furrows in the blanket of snow to mark his track. And in doing so, he ate as much snow as he possibly could. It is such a delight I
Today was Midge Frieswyk’s birthday. There are five of us who go out to lunch for birthdays, but two friends are out of town. 
So today it was just Midge, Olivia White, and myself. We went to Bleu, a restaurant with French bistro fare in Mashpee Commons, and had a fabulous lunch. We weren’t planning to get dessert, but when I saw a dessert named Madame Feufeu, I insisted we order it just because I loved the name. I didn’t realize the chef’s name is Fredrik Feufeu. I was thinking of Little Rabbit FooFoo! But whether Feufeu or FooFoo, the dessert was wonderful. Happy birthday, Midge.
When I returned home, I took a couple of hours to do nothing and then launched into writing a new intro to my website. I have not updated it since Mark died, so it is way past due. Shadow and I just got back from Heather and Jed’s. While they are gone, I go over morning and night to feed the guinea pigs and to check on the painting progress. I was pleasantly surprised to find that all of the trim in the whole house has at least one coat of fresh paint, plus the kitchen ceiling and walls. This morning I was not sure the job was going to be done by the time the Goldstones get home tomorrow evening, but tonight things are looking good. The report from Maine tonight is that Heather actually did some downhill skiing today. She is cross country skier and doesn’t love downhill, but it sounded like she had fun. Jed hit a tree today, but both tree and Jed are fine despite the fact that Ollie’s text said it was a BIG tree! And everyone was having so much fun that they continued skiing into the evening. Life is good.
by Judy Handley | Feb 20, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 51: Another Run Around Day
Date: Thursday, February 20, 2020
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 33 degrees, Low 17 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
February 02, 2020, was a very special palindrome day as the date read the same forwards and backwards in all date formats—UK, USA, and ISO. Today’s date was not a palindrome, but as I wrote 02/20/2020, I enjoyed writing all those 2’s and 0’s again. What I didn’t enjoy about today was that it ended up being another run around day. I had only one thing on my calendar and that was to go to a doctor appointment at 12:40 to review the results of a recent bone density scan, so I hoped for an easy-going day. But then I read my emails and saw that I had left my Mah Jongg card behind last night at Judy Pooley’s home. She is leaving on Saturday morning, going to South Carolina for a couple of weeks, so I had to go to her house to pick up the card. It’s not far, but it delayed my morning walk with Shadow. When I got home, I did take a nice, long walk with Shadow and then it was time to head out for the doctor appointment. My primary care physician has changed locations since my last visit. I thought I knew his new location, but when I got there, it was not the right place. So, I had to make a call, put the address in Google Maps, and backtrack a bit. I had all sorts of paperwork that I had filled out due to the move and when I gave that to the receptionist, I got a bit of a lecture about not sending it in ahead of time. Did I not get the return envelope with the forms? No, I did not. And I had called at the time to find out where to send it and was told to just bring it with me. Oh, well. We got through that confusion and then I was given more forms to fill out, each requiring me to write today’s date. That’s when I fell in love with all the 2’s and 0’s. When all of this was done, I was informed that I arrived an hour and 40 minutes early for my appointment. That is not what my calendar said, but regardless, I had to wait. I had not been sent a reminder because I hadn’t turned in the forms. Ugh! I decided to drive the 20 minutes back to Falmouth to run a few errands and then returned for the appointment. But with the driving back and forth, it was late afternoon when I got home. I took another long walk with Shadow, visited with Shirley and Doris next door for a bit, and then came home and gave Shadow a much needed bath. I have been hesitant to do this for days because I know he is not feeling great, but the time had come. I am taking him back to the doctor tomorrow morning to see if we can figure out why he is just not interested in eating. Something is just not right. I then have a luncheon with two friends to celebrate a birthday. By tomorrow afternoon, I’ll finally get the time I need to catch up on returning emails and just relaxing. Maybe.
by Judy Handley | Feb 19, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 50: Post Office Run Around and Mah Jongg
Date: Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 4 degrees, Low 22 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
What a day! Something that should have been so simple ended up taking a great part of the day. Friends that are out of town asked me to pick up a package delivered to their home. I had the tracking information and once I saw it had been delivered, I went to pick it up. But it was not there. There was some confusion because the package was coming from out of the country. There was one tracking number for passage into the country, but another once it arrived. It was sent via UPS, but once in the US, it was to be delivered by the US Postal Service. I talked to UPS and then I talked to USPS Customer Service. No help. They suggested I go to the main post office in Falmouth. I did. I suggested that maybe the package was not really delivered to the house since mail was on hold. I asked them to check. No package. So I was told it must be in the North Falmouth Post Office. I drove there. No package. But there was a young postmaster who finally figured out the problem and sent me back to the main post office downtown Falmouth. I was still told there was no package, but I persisted, talked to a supervisor, and sure enough—the package was there all along. During all of this, I went to a Lunch and Learn program about horseshow crabs and picked Heather up from work mid-afternoon and drove her to the bus station for her trip to Maine to meet up with Jed and the boys. I spent late afternoon time with Shadow and then went to play Mah Jongg tonight. I got home for the last 45 minutes of the Democratic debate. And now it is definitely time to go to bed. Tomorrow should be a much quieter day with only one appointment. I’m ready for a quiet day.
by Judy Handley | Feb 18, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 49: Goldpebbles Off to Maine
Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Weather: Rainy; High 49 degrees, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This was one busy, busy day. Since all of the Goldstones had spent the night, we started with breakfast before Heather headed to work and Jed headed home to get ready for their trip to Maine for three days of snowboarding at Sunday River. Sam, Jonah, and Ollie stayed with me and we had a great morning.
I took them home at 11:15 so they could pack their bags for the trip. That was bigger job than anticipated and the 12:30 pm take-off time just didn’t happen. But they did finally get underway. I headed home to take Shadow for a walk and give him lunch, then I returned to Heather and Jed’s and spent the afternoon taping off the living room so that it would be ready for Heather to paint the walls once she got home from work. When she got home, I went back to walk and feed dinner to Shadow before returning to get the kitchen and dining room ready for the crew that will be coming tomorrow to paint some walls and all of the woodwork throughout the house. What a big job it is to get ready for painting. But the job did get done. I left Heather as she was still painting the living room and headed home to spend some time with Shadow. Heather arrived a couple of hours later and we spent too long talking and got to bed after midnight. It has been a crazy few days trying to move things to storage, Heather and Jed will have to do the walls and trim in that room next weekend. Hopefully after that, the house will be ready to put on the market.
by Judy Handley | Feb 17, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 48: The Work Continues
Date: Monday, February 17, 2020
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 46 degrees, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
We were all up early this morning, as Heather had an early morning appointment to get her hair cut and Jed went home to get the stairwell painted. By the time the boys and I arrived at their house around 10 am to get clean socks and a shirt for Ollie, Jed had finished the stairwell. Ollie, Jonah, and I left Sam at my house with Shadow and we went into town to find some sort of storage box for each of them to pack up everything on their desks. We wanted a wooden box with a lid, but we ended up with plastic as that was the only alternative in the size we needed. We then rushed home to get their desk items packed up. Once done, they went off to play Harry Potter with Joey and Molly next door and I went home to get Sam and Shadow. We got back just in time to fix lunch and head to the our ‘people training for good dogs’ class. The Goldpebbles and I spent a couple of hours with Melissa Berryman learning how to think like a dog. Melissa asked the boys to tell her how people greet one another. They answered that sometimes people shake hands. Then she asked them how many times they had seen dogs shaking hands. Well, never. But she explained that people often extend their hand with outreaching fingers to a strange dog to show that they are friendly and that some dogs will see that as an invitation to bite. She recommends patting your leg and inviting the dog to come to you. If it does, then you can pet it. Otherwise, no petting of dogs you don’t know. And if you are walking your dog and people ask if he is friendly before attempting to pet him, tell them that your dog is friendly with you, but that you suggest they ask the dog if he would like to be petted. You then directing them to pat their thigh along with a friendly greeting and see if your dog goes to them. If so, then they can pet him. If not, walk on. This is just one example of what she teaches, but today she spent most of her time explaining how to use high and low pitched sounds to get a dog to do what you want—low tones for the no-no’s and a really high-pitched ‘good’ immediately when the dog responds. The thing we are having to work so hard on with Shadow is getting him not to jump up on us. He is responding beautifully to the training method, but we do all have to be on the same page. Thus, the classes.
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I took the boys to my house after the training session to give them a treat for successfully completing their first class. I then left Shadow at home to take a nap and returned to Heather and Jed’s with the boys. Heather was still completing the painting of the second upstairs bedroom and Jed as loading things into the van to take to the storage unit. I continued to helped pack things that need to be put in the storage unit, but it had become apparent that the goal of getting all of the downstairs rooms painted before a professional painting crew comes on Wednesday to paint all of the trim in the house was just not going to get done. I left at 5 pm to come home and fix dinner and the rest of the crew arrived a couple of hours later to eat. Heather had bought artichokes as it is the season, and an array of cheeses, a loaf of rustic Italian bread, and raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries to add to the feast. All I had to do was cook the artichokes and get everything on the table. After a wonderful dinner, Heather and Jed returned home to keep painting. Heather has to go to work tomorrow and Jed leaves mid-day with the boys to go for three days of snowboarding at Sunday River near Bethel, Maine. Heather will join them on Wednesday evening. They are coming back here to spend the night and I expected them before now. I can’t wait to find out what the new plan is for proceeding, depending on just how much they got done tonight. Heather still has tomorrow night and I have offered to do what I can tomorrow afternoon. They have accomplished so much this weekend, but the work continues.
