by Judy Handley | Mar 19, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 78: Feedback
Date: Friday, March 19, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Windy; High 40, Low, 26 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
If you regularly read this log, you know that I am working on writing a book about Windbird’s travels around the world. I am currently finishing up Chapter 12, but still have miles to go. I have a friend that was in the memoir writing class I took last spring that spurred me write this book. That friend has offered to the ‘first reader’ and give me feedback. I got her feedback on the first eight chapters today and I was delighted with the detail of her editing and her encouraging comments. Now I want to write even faster! But I do not think that is possible, so I just need to keep plodding along. I read a quote today that shook me a bit. It said, “Get out of your story and into your life.” That reminded me of something my high school principal said. It was something along the lines of, “If you are talking today about what you did yesterday, then you aren’t doing enough today.” I really want to write this book, but I promise to keep living today. That is not easy because I get so engrossed in the writing. But reminders like these will keep me straight.
Tomorrow is the first day of spring. Yippee! Now the weather just needs to feel like spring.
by Judy Handley | Mar 18, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 77: Rainy Day
Date: Thursday, March 18, 2021
Weather: Overcast with Rain All Day; High 46, Low, 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The rain started this morning, and it has not stopped. Shadow and I made it through a half mile morning walk without getting too wet, but late this afternoon when we did the other half of our daily mile, we both came home soaked to the bone despite our rain coats.
I kept my promise to myself today and did not start writing this morning until I did three things on my ‘to do’ list. One of those things was starting seedlings indoors to get ready for summer gardening. I started San Marzano tomato plants to day and will do more indoor planting on Saturday, the first day of spring. But I chose not to sweep the cottage floors. I will do that tomorrow morning while Shadow is at the groomers. He hates the vacuum, so I decided to give him a break. My writing today was about exploring the islands in the Marquesas in search of ancient maraes (me’aes) and tikis (ti’is) and being introduced to Polynesian music and dance. The maraes are stone platforms that were once used as a meeting place and where human sacrifices were made. The tikis were stone figures of all sizes. The largest we saw was Takaii at 8 feet. I would love to finish the chapter on the Marquesas tomorrow, but I have only written about three of the five islands we visited. So Saturday is probably more realistic for going on to the next chapter about the Society Islands in French Polynesia—Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea, and Bora Bora.
This evening I got a Message on Facebook that Coco was inviting me to talk on Messenger Kids. We talked via video on our phones and she taught me how to ‘effects’ to make very funny faces. Coco loves jokes and riddles and is quite the little character.
by Judy Handley | Mar 17, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 76: Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Still Cold; High 33, Low, 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
According to my DNA story on Ancestry, I am only 5 percent Irish, but I am 39 percent Scottish, 3 percent Wales, and 37 percent English and Northwestern European. Close to Ireland! But Mark’s father’s family was from Ireland, so my children must have a much greater percent of Irish blood. For years, Mark always had some good piece of luck on St. Patrick’s Day and today I benefited from that luck. My Covid test came back much sooner than expected and it was Negative. And any cold symptoms had gone away. I couldn’t imagine how I could have gotten Covid or a cold, but it was a great relief to get the good news.
I started my day watching a Dutch violinist and an Irish musician playing The Irish Washerwoman on fiddle on YouTube. It was fabulous and I immediately fell in love with the music of John Sheahan and Andrew Rieu. And then I watched Andrew Rieu on fiddle and Florian Silbereisen, a German singer, on the accordion playing the same song. If any Irish blood courses through your veins, Google The Irish Washerwoman and watch the artists playing the song. Even if you have no Irish ancestors, you’ll love the music.
I promised myself that I was going to attend to some things on my ‘to do’ list today instead of writing. But I didn’t. I wrote the day away once more. The weather was warmer, so I did have a nice long walk with Shadow before I started writing. And I did pick Ollie up after school and took Jonah to the skatepark. But then I came home and wrote until 8 pm. Tomorrow morning, I won’t allow myself to turn on my computer until I have done at least three things on my ‘to do’ list.
by Judy Handley | Mar 16, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 75: Philosophical Kind of Day
Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Still Cold; High 33, Low, 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
My morning was spent chasing down a Covid 19 test. I thought I could just go to the Urgent Care Center and get a Rapid Test, but not so if you have symptoms. I ended up getting a test at CVS at noon, but not a Rapid Test. I will not have the results for a day or two. I still have cold symptoms, no better but no worse than last night—which is whole lot better than yesterday morning. Where in the world did I get exposed to cold germs? At least, I hope it only a cold. For the past week, I have seen very few people and none of them have a cold or Covid, at least not that they are aware of. I have mostly been sitting at my dining room table writing.
And while I was sitting at my dining room table writing this afternoon, I found myself writing with tears streaming down my face. During the last four days of Windbird’s twenty-two day passage to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, we were part of a radio net support team for a boat that was having a serious medical emergency. The boat was Procyon and Sheri and Randy had become friends. They were much younger than us, but we had immediately liked them when we met in Panama and again in the Galapagos. Randy was in his forties and had been in the Coast Guard. He was the most fit of all of the cruisers we had met. At least he looked the most fit. But he had suffered a back injury a few years prior and had taken too many pain relievers. He had to be air-lifted from the Galapagos back to mainland Ecuador to have surgery to remove stomach ulcers and then on the passage to the Marquesas he fell on his back on deck while making a sail change. That fall resulted in the medical emergency. Within 24 hours, he could eat or drink anything and was in so much pain he could hardly move. Over the next four days, the radio net we were a part of, worked with Sheri trying to support her. It finally became evident that we had to take action. A doctor on our radio net had been talking with Sheri three times a day, but he agreed something had to be done. I sent emails to four boats that I knew were already in the Marquesas. They sent emails to other boats. Other boats with doctors aboard got involved. Boats hundreds of miles apart on the longest passage in the world with no land to be found were willing to do whatever necessary to help. One sailing doctor that was already in the Marquesas went to shore to a hospital and got a French doctor there involved. He contacted the French Navy and found a cargo ship that could divert to pick up Randy and take him to Tahiti to a major hospital. Two boats from Norway that none of us had ever met were closest to Procyon and they went to sail on either side of Sheri. With all three boats on auto pilot. they could do watches for her while she slept. The reason for the streaming tears was reading about the outpouring of support given to Sheri and Randy from people who did not even know them. On land, I have never experienced a community quite so willing to take huge risks for one another. I miss that sailing community. I don’t mean that I don’t have wonderfully supportive friends, it is just that I don’t see most people taking the time to stop and help someone they don’t know that is in need. This is when things get philosophical. What makes one community more caring than another? Why could we walk through any little village in the South Pacific and have people invite us into their homes to have tea and food when they had never seen us before? They had nothing, but wanted to share what they had out of a sense of humanity. Back in New Hampshire, I didn’t know my neighbors, and no one had ever invited me in as I walked by their home. My mind kept going this afternoon. Why? Why? Why? Then, out of the blue, tonight my daughter-in-law Jo sent me a link to a song by a female duo called Mamuse. I had never heard of Mamuse, but I loved their music, especially the words to the one song Jo had sent to me called “We Shall Be Known.” To me, it fit so perfectly with my thoughts while writing and finishing another Chapter in the Voyage of Windbird, as well as with the times we are going through trying to find our way out of this pandemic. I know. I am not usually this philosophical. But this was just one of those days.
“We shall be known by the company we keep
By the ones who circle round to tend these fires
We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
The seeds of change, alive from deep within the earth
It is time now, it is time now that we thrive
It is time we lead ourselves into the well
It is time now, and what a time to be alive
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love”
Lyrics by K. Longaker, performed by Mamuse.
by Judy Handley | Mar 15, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 74: Two Times Cold
Date: Monday, March 15, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Windy, and Cold; High 28, Low, 18 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It is not only winter-time cold outside, I woke up this morning with cold symptoms. I felt fine, I just had sinus drainage and a runny nose. I think this is an allergy-related sinus issue rather than a cold, but what started the allergic reaction? This has happened to me in the past, and in each case, the next day I woke up symptom free. So, I’m hoping for that. But in any case, I will go get a Covid rapid test in the morning to eliminate that possibility. In the meantime, I asked Jed to pick up Ollie today. If it is Covid or just a cold, I don’t want to pass either on to him as he is already dealing with Lyme disease. His little body immune system doesn’t need a second assault.
And the weather outside is frightfully cold for mid-March. It was in the teens last night and did not get above freezing today. As I write this log, it is 24 degrees F outside but feels like 13 degrees according to Weather Underground. That is due to the wind from the north. Tomorrow will be a little warmer and then Wednesday and Thursday we will have time temps in the 40’s before it cools off again for the weekend. I’m hoping the forecast for next week with highs in the 50’s and lows above freezing is correct. The first day of spring arrives on Saturday and I’m ready for a little warmth.
In my writing, I made it half-way to the Marquesas Islands today. Hopefully I can complete the chapter on the twenty-one day passage from the Galapagos to the Marquesas tomorrow and maybe even begin the next chapter about our Marquesas visit. After spending a week writing about our time in the Galapagos, today’s progress was encouraging.
I made a couple of corrections to last night’s log online but should set things straight here as well. First of all, my lack of knowledge of football was made blatantly clear when I misquoted Dr. Fauci. Don’t spike the ball before you reach the end zone, not the in-zone as I wrote. And I misunderstood what Heather had said about the date for sending all Falmouth students back to the classroom full time. The return date is April 28th, after the week of spring vacation, not the 1st of April. That gives teachers almost five to six weeks to prepare, not just two weeks. I still worry that we are moving too fast, but I do understand how important it is to get students back to school. I just want it done in a way that is safe for all.
by Judy Handley | Mar 14, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 73: Too Slow, Too Fast
Date: Sunday, March 14, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny and Windy; High 47, Low, 17 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I did it. I completed my book chapter on the 5+ weeks Windbird spent in the Galapagos Islands.
And I completed my food jigsaw puzzle—artichokes, peach halves, kiwi, arugula, spinach, and pink Peruvian lilies (Alstroemeria, only the roots are edible once cooked). The puzzle has been on my dining table for two months, so it was definitely time to finish it. It is beautiful, but I am ready to move on to a new puzzle. On both projects, Chapter 10 of my book and the puzzle, I was moving a snail’s pace. Maybe the writing will go faster on the passage to the Marquesas Islands. We were in the Galapagos for 38 days, but the passage took only 21 days and we saw almost nothing along the way. There will be the story about running over a sleeping female sperm whale, but otherwise, I remember it as a calm passage without much drama. When I go back and read the logs from that time, I might find out differently.
So, I have been moving too slow, and I think Governor Charlie Baker is moving too fast. Heather stopped by late this afternoon to deliver some packages of mine that were delivered to her house and she told me that as of the 28th of April, Jonah and Sam, and all Falmouth students, will be returning to school full-time. I wanted to call Governor Baker and sing the old Simon and Garfunkel song “Feelin’ Groovy” to him. If you remember, the song begins with the words, “Slow down, you move too fast.” Since September, pre-school through fourth graders have been in school full-time, but all other grades have only been in school four days a week, every other week. The rest of the time, they are remote. It has not been perfect, but the virus transmission rate has been very low. Now, in just six weeks, all students will be back in school full time. Teachers, who have just been elevated to essential worker status, might not all be vaccinated. I can’t imagine this is going to go well. If I ran the world, I would have added one grade at a time or just left things as they are until next fall. I remember last spring when all of us were very unhappy with remote learning. It has its good and its bad. But under the current system in Falmouth, coronavirus cases have been kept in control. When Sam and Jonah heard the news that they would be going back full-time they didn’t understand why they couldn’t do part of their schooling remotely. Many adults are having the same reaction to going back to work in their offices full-time. It is going to be very interesting to see how we handle this transition as a nation. And about going more slowly, I heard Dr. Anthony Fauci say today, “You don’t spike the football on the 5-yard line. You wait until you are in the end zone.” Great advice.
