by Judy Handley | Mar 13, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 72: Writing, Writing, and Writing
Date: Saturday, March 13, 2021
Weather: Sunny and Windy; High 47, Low, 33 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a sunny day, but when I went out to take Shadow for a late morning walk, I wanted to turn around and go back inside. The wind was blowing and it felt freezing to me. We completed only half our normal walk and saved the other half for later in the afternoon when I would wear something warmer. Those two walks and two short phone calls were the extent of my day other than my writing, writing, and writing. Oh, I also took an hour break late afternoon to watch the IMAX video on the Galapagos. Yes, I am still in the Galapagos, but should be on my way to French Polynesia by Monday. And I have a correction to make. Last Monday I wrote in my log that we spent 30 days in the Galapagos, but today I realized it was 38 days. We had a six-week permit and because of another transmission issue, we almost stayed the entire time. When we arrived in the Galapagos, the anchorage was filled with world cruisers. By the time we left on the 22nd of April, there was only one other sailboat in the anchorage, and they followed us out. There was a reason people had moved on and that was because you have to go all the way across the South Pacific and get south to New Zealand, north to the Marshall Islands, or to Queensland in Australia before the cyclone season begins in November. You have to keep moving because, depending on your final destination, there are about 7,000 to 8,000 miles of ocean and beautiful islands to see in a very few months.
I stopped to watch the Galapagos video because I was writing about our experience exploring the Sierra Negra volcano on Isabella Island. That day rates in my top experiences of all the things we did around the world. Heather and Jed had flown to the Galapagos to tour with us and we were anchored off Isabella Island. We had read that if went to the café on the main dirt street in the town of Puerto Villamil, the owner would arrange a tour of the volcano for you. We did that and by chance our tour guide was a young man, probably in his forties, named Mathias Espinosa. What a piece of luck that was! He was a fabulous guide. His father was a geology professor in Quito in mainland Ecuador and Mathias had grown up with a geologist’s appreciation of the earth. I read online today, “When Mathias came to the Galapagos in the late 80’s, he fell in love with the raw and untouched beauty of the Enchanted Islands and decided to make the Galapagos his life’s work and passion.” By the time we met him in 2006, he had probably been in the islands for twenty years. He was a dive master and had made a living doing that on Santa Cruz Island which is the tourist hub until he ‘retired’ to Isabella where we met him. He told us he was working with the BBC on a movie about the Galapagos, but he did not tell us he had been the featured naturalist guide in a 1999 IMAX film on the islands. All of that experience was wrapped into one person and we were the recipients of his vast knowledge. And that was just one day of the thirty-eight days we spent in the Galapagos. I have struggled to compress all of the experiences there into one chapter of The Voyage of Windbird. But I am hopeful that I will finish that chapter tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Mar 12, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 71: The List
Date: Friday, March 12, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Windy; High 63, Low, 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
If you were a common woman living in the beginning of the first century, your daily ‘to do’ list might look something like this.
Haul water.
Card flax.
Spin thread.
Weave clothes.
Mend sandals.
Make soap.
Pummel wheat.
Collect dung.
Prepare food.
Milk goats.
Feed men.
Feed babies.
Feed animals.
Tend children.
Sweep dirt floors.
Empty waste pots.
Are you tired yet? This list is from a book I am currently reading entitled The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. Heather gave me her copy of the book for my birthday. It is a novel about a woman named Ana, who, in this book, is the wife of Jesus. I am sure this offends many people, but the author did meticulous research into life during that period and the book is mostly about the life of this woman who was the wife of Jesus, not about Jesus himself. I find it a fascinating look into the life of a woman who struggles to realize her life’s dreams and am loving this book. From the background that I have read, the Sue Monk Kidd has stated that she did not want to offend with this story. In an author’s note she writes, “I am deeply and reverentially aware that Jesus is a figure to whom millions of people are devoted. His impact on the history of Western civilization is incomparable.”
I am not offended and look forward to taking Jonah, and sometimes Ollie, to the skatepark in the afternoon so I get in a little extra reading time. Reading Ana’s ‘list’ today, I thought about my daily list versus hers. We no longer have to haul water, weave clothes, or repair sandals. But we do need to feed whoever is in our household, feed animals if we have them, tend children, and sweep floors. My daily list changes with the seasons, but right now it revolves around writing. It goes something like: take Shadow outside to go ‘potty’, read the NYT The Morning online and work the mini-crossword puzzle, prepare and eat breakfast, read and answer emails, write, take Shadow out, write, prepare and eat lunch, write, pick up Ollie and ‘tend’ to grandchildren at the skatepark, come home, take Shadow out, write, prepare and eat dinner, write some more, watch cable television while riding my exercise bike and writing my log, take Shadow out, go to bed. Obviously, writing is the center of my world right now. Oops, I forgot to sweep the floor! What’s on your daily list?
by Judy Handley | Mar 11, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 70: One Year Ago Today
Date: Thursday, March 11, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Windy; High 55, Low, 44 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I watched President Biden give his first address to the nation tonight and his comments led me on a journey back to this day last year. Since I write this log every day, I can go back and check to see what I really thought at the time, not what I remember that I thought. They are not always the same. I was amazed at the speed with which my life changed, and I think it was pretty much the same for all of us. I went back and read my logs from the beginning of last March and my first mention of the coronavirus was on March 11th.
2020 Life Logs, Day 71: COVID-19 Affecting Our Lives
Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2020
“Hopefully you, nor anyone you know and love, will get the coronavirus, but today it became clearly evident to me that it is going to affect all of our lives whether or not we get the virus. The Governor of Massachusetts declared a state of emergency this morning to further support the state’s response to the virus and that prompted a number of decisions to cancel things.”
On the day before that, on March 10th, I hosted my book club at the here at the cottage and made no mention of coronavirus. Life in my world was going on as usual. On the day before that, on March 9th, I drove to Dedham to visit with my friends the Kanegsberg and on to Chelmsford to have lunch with my niece Lynn. I took Shadow with me to introduce him. I even stopped at Costco on the way home. Again, life was going on as usual. Then March 11th hit and my world started changing, quickly and drastically. Here is what I wrote on March 12th and on Friday the 13th.
2020 Life Logs, Day 72: Cancellations, Cancellations
Date: Thursday, March 12, 2020
“As we are all aware, today was a day of many cancellations . . . public schools, colleges, basketball, baseball, Broadway theaters, even Disneyland. Those cancellations plus the stock market dive are a little scary. We are all moving into untested territory . . . It is just that we as Americans have no idea what the next days will look like. Things seem to change minute by minute . . . Heather called this evening to tell me that she and Jed will be working from home for the time being . . . I did a little more food shopping this afternoon and am preparing for the possibility of a couple of weeks at home . . . just in case.”
A couple of weeks? I guess I was truly optimistic.
2020 Life Logs, Day 73: A New Normal
Date: Friday, March 13, 2020
“Friday the 13th ushered in a new normal here in Falmouth. Basically, for now, we are all home-bound or when we are out and about, we must be very mindful of social distancing. This is hard for adults, but almost impossible for kids. Hopefully, this new normal will be short-lived, but that is yet to be determined. The decision to close public schools in Falmouth was made today.”
Short-lived? What was I thinking?
2020 Life Logs, Day 74: A Virus Changing the Way We Think
Date: Saturday, March 14, 2020
“This evening I was talking to Heather on the phone about our new lives living with the threat of the coronavirus. We are having to change the way we live very quickly, but on the phone call, I realized that I also have to change the way I think. There is no set roadmap to follow. Each of us has to make decisions about what we will and will not do to protect ourselves and to protect others in the next couple of weeks. And this requires that we change the way we think. I thought I had things under control and then I said to Heather that I would be going to play Mah Jongg on Wednesday evening. She quickly replied that I needed to rethink that decision. Basically, she was saying that if we are going to be successful in flattening the rise in COVID-19 cases, we all need to stay home for the next couple of weeks—no indoor social gatherings no matter how small. Somehow, I thought getting together with just four other people would be fine. Not so. Living with the threat of this virus demands that we change what we do AND we change how we think. This is a huge challenge and one that I have not faced in my lifetime.”
And now here we are a year later. As I listened to President Biden’s speech tonight, I felt hope. But the problem is the same now as it was from the beginning. We are not acting together as one people. Not all Americans are willing to play by the same rules. I am more hopeful, but we will just have to wait and see.
I did make one tiny baby step forward today. I got together with two friends on the deck, not in the driveway as I said yesterday, of a friend’s home. We all had on masks when we arrived, but in order to drink tea, we did have to take the masks off. One of us has had both vaccines, one has had Covid and one vaccine, and I have had one vaccine. We were outside and we were far apart. I felt safe enough, but afterwards I questioned if it is too soon to be doing this. I think I will wait until after I have had the second vaccine plus two weeks before doing this again.
Writing continued today and I made my daily trip to pick Ollie up after school and then took Jonah to the skatepark for an hour. And, of course, I had my daily walk with Shadow. Tomorrow looks pretty much the same. At some point, I have to stop writing long enough to do some cooking. Right now, I am making my morning smoothies and eating a lot of salads. I should try to make soup and a casserole over the weekend to get me through next week.
by Judy Handley | Mar 10, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 69: The Enchanted Isles
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Weather: Sunny and Warmer; High 56, Low, 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Writing about the time we spent in the Galapagos during the Voyage of Windbird is taking longer than I thought it would. Maybe I am just enjoying being there so much that I don’t want to move on. I have talked with many people who have flown to the Galapagos, gotten on a tour boat for a few days, and then flew away. None of those people seem to have had the same experience that we did. Maybe it was being there on our own boat and staying for a longer period of time. Or maybe it was attention to detail and researching in the moment what we were seeing. I learned everything I could about the plants and animals there, while we were there. I carried my wildlife identification books everywhere with me. I asked questions and I wrote about everything we saw every day. Now that I am re-reading what I wrote, I want to check every little thing to make sure I had it right. It took me all day today to get through a day and a half of our five-day tour on the Sulidae. It looked like a pirate boat. It even had red sails. It was one of the most affordable five-day tour of the islands that I could find. It was not fancy, but it was perfect for us and for Heather and Jed who flew to the Galapagos to tour with us. We all became enchanted. And that sent me on a mission to find out who first called the islands of the Galapagos Las Encantadas or “The Enchanted.” There are many versions of the origin, but in the 1500’s Spanish sailors who reported that the islands appeared and disappeared right before their eyes earned the islands the name “enchanted”. To them that meant a menacing and ominous place. It was the dangerous currents and swirling mist that caused the islands to come in and out of focus, so because of that they were feared as a dangerous place. During this same time period, a bishop of Panama, Tomás de Berlanga, was on a ship that drifted off course and landed him in those islands instead of Peru. He reported seeing thousands of large galapago there. Galapago translated as turtle (tortoise) and eventually the islands were named the Galapagos Islands. I prefer to think of them as the Enchanted Isles with ‘enchanted’ carrying the meaning of magical, not ominous and menacing. Hopefully tomorrow I will make it through day three of our tour. By the way, we were on a tour boat instead of on Windbird because of the travel restrictions in the islands. We had a six-week permit allowing us to travel to only four designated islands. To go to other islands we had to hire a naturalist to travel on Windbird with us. It was much simpler, and cheaper, to go on a tour boat. And it ended up to be amongst the most treasured days of my life.
The weather here is still not enchanting. It is sunny and beautiful but today it felt too cold to enjoy my long walk with Shadow. Tomorrow and Friday look warmer with a high temp in the 50’s, BUT it is going to much windier. I guess we will see how things play out. A couple of us are going to have mid-day tea in the driveway of a friend’s home. I guess we’ll find out if a high of 50 degrees with 20 mile per hour winds feels warm. At least the wind is from the south, but it was from the south today and it did not help. Another good thing that happened today is that I got the go-ahead to have a new tankless on-demand natural gas water heater installed. Once that is done, hopefully the natural gas company, National Grid, will be able to go ahead with other energy efficient renovations on the cottage. And lastly, I enjoyed another late afternoon of reading in my car while Jonah enjoyed time on his scooter at the skatepark. That’s it for today.
by Judy Handley | Mar 9, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 68: Busy Day
Date: Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Weather: Sunny and Warmer; High 56, Low, 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was last spring that I managed to herniate two discs in my lower back. By September, things were back to normal, but I have continued to check in with my chiropractor. Today I graduated to appointments every six weeks. Sometime in the fall, I graduated and didn’t need to see him at all, but then immediately did something to throw things out of whack. So, I am hesitant to stop seeing the chiropractor completely. He is convinced I don’t need these check-ups, so if things are still fine in six weeks, I’ll wean myself away. I am just so grateful that the herniated discs healed themselves, but I sure don’t want to go through that pain again.
Today did feel like spring. The high temperature soared into the 50’s and the sun was shining. Glorious day! After I got home from the chiropractor and running into town to put a laundry load in at Heather and Jed’s, it was time for my Zoom book group meeting. This month’s book was Susan Vreeland’s Lisette’s List. The setting was France during World War II. The descriptions of Paris and the Provence region transported you right there. The art works of Pissarro, Cezanne, and Chagall were featured in the book and I know I’ll never look at the colors in a painting the same again. The book was a great mix of history, art, and human emotions. My favorite questions for discussion were: Does learning about art teach Lisette (or any of us) to live a fuller life? Or does living a fuller life teach Lisette (or any of us) to better understand and appreciate art? I sided with the latter.
Before the Zoom book club meeting ended, there was a knock on my door. The plumber that was coming to give a second estimate on the cost of a new hot water heater arrived early. The first plumber recommended a 40-gallon gas water heater with a built-in fan. This plumber recommended a tankless water heater. With the rebate, he said the price would be almost the same as a 40-gallon gas water heater with a built-in fan and much more energy efficient. Once the estimates come in, a decision will be made. I’m anxious to see the quotes.
After the plumber left, it was time for lunch and an extra-long walk in the sunshine with Shadow. I then picked up Ollie and took him and Jonah to the skatepark and rushed home to join in on my public policy group Zoom meeting. No time for writing today. But I will continue tomorrow.
My birthday present from Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco finally arrived. Last week they had ordered a gift card for me from the garden center that is less than a mile away from here and it took a full week to arrive in my mailbox. As Justin said, someone could have walked it here much quicker! But I was delighted. It was a perfect gift for me at this time of year. Thank you, JJZ&C.
by Judy Handley | Mar 8, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 67: Continuing the Writing
Date: Monday, March 8, 2021
Weather: Sunny, Ever So Slightly Warmer; High 38, Low, 27 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I continued with my writing today and got stuck in the Galapagos. I thought that would be an easy chapter to write as it was one of my favorite places around the world. But that actually made it harder. We saw so much, and I am having trouble reining it all into something readable. We had a six-week permit, but as I wrote today, I realized we were only there for thirty glorious days. But that was long enough in one place to make us feel like residents. How lucky the people are that actually live there. Tomorrow I am going to start making a list of all the anchorages we stayed in around the world and record the number of days we stayed there. I know we anchored off Bolgatty Island near Ernakulam, a part of the city of Kochi in Cochin, India for 45 or 46 days and 43 days anchored off Ile Fouquet in the Salomon Atoll in the Chagos Archipelago. Windbird spent almost five months on a dock in New Zealand, but we were not there most of that time. And she spent months at a dock in Bundaberg, Australia, while we traveled home. And seven or eight months at a dock on Langkawi Island in Malaysia and another two months on land at the Boat Lagoon Marina in Phuket, Thailand while Mark and I lived in an apartment there while Windbird got a facelift. I am pretty sure that Mark and I spent more time in the anchorage in India than any other single anchorage around the world. We spent almost four months in Madagascar, using one anchorage as home base but moving around constantly. I will be interested in the result of my final list of anchorages and marinas and the time spent in each. I know I can’t allow myself to get sidetracked by projects like this or I will never the book written. But somehow, I feel the necessity of doing this little project.
Jed picked Ollie up after school today as they were going to the lumber yard to get supplies for an Ollie project. That meant I could just continue writing, but then Jonah called me to ask if I could come take him to the skatepark. Sam was at Robert’s, Ollie was going to be out with Jed, and Heather was in a meeting, so, of course, I went to take him to the skatepark. It was a win-win for both of us. I took a load of laundry and Shadow with me. I put the laundry load in, took Jonah to the skatepark, walked Shadow around the adjacent half mile track a couple of times, checked on Jonah, drove back to Heather’s put the washer load in the dryer, then came back and read for the remainder of Jonah’s time at the skatepark. I love taking him there and enjoy my reading time. I have more laundry loads, so hopefully I can do a repeat performance of this afternoon again sometime this week.
Tomorrow is a busy one. A monthly chiropractor check-in, book club meeting, plumber coming to give an estimate on a new water heater, pick up Ollie after school, and public policy meeting. Whew! No writing tomorrow.
