by Judy Handley | Aug 19, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 231: Day at the Cape Cod Inflatable Water Park
Date: Friday, August 19, 2022
Weather: Beautiful Day, Sunny; High 84, Low 66 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Jonah and Ollie had a fantastic day at the Cape Cod Inflatable Water Park.
We entered the park a little before 11 am and didn’t leave until 5:30 pm. When we arrived, we did the inflatable side of the park where the boys played soccer shooting goals into inflatable nets and then scrambled up an inflatable rock climbing wall.
We then moved to the water side of the park and immediately headed to lazy river where you ride through a water course while sitting in inflatable tubes. After lunch, the Jonah and Ollie connected with long-time friends from Falmouth. Molly and Joey, the next-door kids from their old neighborhood were there, along with other friends we used to spend summer days with at the beach. It was like old home week and the next five hours flew by. The park has been renovated and all the kids enjoyed the new wave pool, a new FlowRider where you lay on a body board and fight against a strong current,
the high slides, the water obstacle courses, and what Ollie calls the water playground. Ollie is now old enough that he is on his own, so I really had nothing to do today. He did keep coming back to me from time to time to invite me to ride in the lazy river with him, and I did. But in between lazy river rides, I was on my own. I didn’t bring a book with me today, so I finally had to download one from Kindle to give me something to do while the boys enjoyed the afternoon with their friends. I no longer need to be an active participant, but it was such a joy to watch the Jonah and Ollie with kids I have watched them grow up with having such a joyous time together. At one point in the afternoon when I was concerned that Jonah was going to get sunburned because he had taken off his swim shirt, his former next door neighbor, Molly, said to me, “Oma, it’s okay. He really did put on sunscreen.” It made me smile. They are no longer little ones who need Oma to constantly watch over them. They have Molly! I feel so blessed that I have been here to watch them grow to this point. And I enjoyed my afternoon of reading. The book I downloaded from Kindle is fantastic. And it is now time to go to bed and do a little more reading.
by Judy Handley | Aug 18, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 230: Tomatoes and Dinner on the Dock
Date: Thursday, August 18, 2022
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 78, Low 64 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The Goldpebbles decided they wanted a do absolutely nothing day, so while they did that, I processed tomatoes. Yesterday, Carrie of Peach Tree Farm contacted me to let me know she had 45 pounds of organic sauce tomatoes for me.
Every year at this time, I start the tomato marathon to process and can at least 52 pints of marinara sauce, one for each week of the year, for the Goldstones. I didn’t get very far today but will have to continue the process on Saturday as Jonah and Ollie want to go to the Cape Cod Inflatable Water Park tomorrow. That alone is a very full day and I know we will all be exhausted when we get home. So, the tomatoes will just have to wait.
I started my day by discovering that important texts I thought I sent last night were still trying to send. Nothing I did could get them to send, so I took my phone to have my grandson Sam try and figure out the problem. He has the same phone, so he clicked here and there, and suddenly I received about 5 texts that I should have received last night, but still the texts I wrote last night wouldn’t send. Eventually, after rebooting and doing a few other things, the texts finally sent. Later in the morning, I got a text from Kate Daniels, the Concord, NH friend who showed up at my presentation on Tuesday evening. She said that we could get together tomorrow afternoon or evening as she was free. At that point, I still didn’t know for sure what I would be doing with the boys tomorrow, so I put off responding. Then at about 4 pm, when I was up to my elbows in tomatoes, Kate sent a text saying she was still willing to drive to my house tonight to visit. Wait? Earlier she had said tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow night. But I put two and two together and realized that she sent her text to me last night saying we could get together today. I just didn’t get the text until this morning, so ‘tomorrow’ was ‘today.’ I replied that tonight would be fine, and I went into high gear to get home and throw together a dinner for the two of us. I got home at 5:10 pm and Kate arrived at 5:40 pm. Not much time, but I did it. On the way home, I picked up lobster rolls at the small specialty store, Jack in the Beanstalk, along with all the other things I needed, sped home, and turned those lobster rolls into a lobster salad. Presto! An easy lobster dinner down on the dock. We had a lovely evening catching up.
And now that I know Kate owns her family home in nearby Monument Beach, we can visit more often when she is down here in the summer . . . a friend found after many years.
by Judy Handley | Aug 17, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 229: Breakfast with Friends, Lunch with Ollie, No Movie
Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High 74, Low 63 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
At 9 am, I picked up sailing friends Susie Klein and Jim Hammitt at Quissett Harbor. Our preference was to find a place where we could eat outside, so I suggested we drive to West Falmouth to have breakfast at the Village Café. When we arrived, there were no cars in the parking area, but they were open. We went inside to check things out and were told they no longer have a breakfast menu—only smoothies and coffee. Bummer. They suggested we drive a little further to the Talk of the Town Diner in North Falmouth. It was not outside dining, but we had a nice breakfast and talked and talked and talked. Susie reminded me that I did see her in the summer of 2020 during the pandemic, not 2019 as I remembered, but still we had two years of news to catch up on. The big sailing news was that Jim, in their sailboat Reveille, entered and won the 2021 Bermuda One-Two race, a there-and -back race between Newport, Rhode Island and Bermuda. It is called the One-Two because you single-hand on the way to Bermuda but double-hand on the way back to Newport. Then this year, Jim entered and won in the double-handed division (Class 05) of the Newport Bermuda Race, sailing with a friend of many years. Reveille, a 36 year-old, 41-foot sloop has been getting a workout the past two years. But the biggest news was that Jim and Susie became grandparents about 9 months ago. Congratulations all around!
Jonah, Ollie, and I had planned to go out to lunch and then attend a movie (Minions) mid-afternoon, but Jonah had decided to meet a friend downtown in the afternoon, so we headed to the 12 noon movie. At 12:45, we were still sitting and waiting due to technical difficulties, so we decided to give up the idea of a movie today. We picked up a quick lunch for Jonah and he headed downtown to meet his friend. Since Sam was working today, that left only Ollie and I to have lunch together. He wanted clam chowder, always does, so we decided to go to Shipwrecked across from Falmouth Heights Beach.
It has been renovated and the windows across the beach side of the restaurant now fold to one side so that the inside is virtually outside. How delightful. And a sushi bar has been added since we were last there. We got a table by the open window with a great view of the water and enjoyed sushi and clam chowder.
It was the perfect lunch. The two of us then spent a couple of hours at my house reading and playing with Shadow before I took Ollie home at the end of another Cape Cod summer day.
by Judy Handley | Aug 16, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 228: A Wonderful Surprise
Date: Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 76, Low 63 degrees
Location: At Home in Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Months ago, I was contacted to give a Tuesday Talk at the Cataumet Schoolhouse. Tonight was the night, and I was just not in the mood to do it. But I knew I had to go, so I did. In the 1990’s a group of Cataumet residents turned a neglected 1894 building into a magnet for educational programs and community events. The summer Tuesday Talks are part of that. I arrived, got the technical details set up, and then spent time introducing myself to people in attendance.
A couple came through the door and the woman looked familiar. Suddenly I was thrown back in time and realized it was a teacher from the Concord School District, much younger than myself, that I had worked with 17 years ago. It was Kate Daniels. She has a summer home here on the Cape and saw a sign about the Tuesday Talks. Then she saw the speaker was Judy Handley and knew she had to come. What a wonderful surprise to see her after all these years. Kate reminded me that one of the last times we were together was in New Orleans when I had taken a group of teachers there for a conference. Kate was my roommate, and I spent my evenings studying Morse Code for my upcoming test to get my Ham radio operator’s license. She now teaches at St. Paul’s School in Concord, where Heather and Jed went to secondary school. And she has a husband and brought along her younger cousins to hear my talk.
It made the presentation so much more fun. And afterwards, a woman came up to talk to me that has just moved to Cataumet after living in Honolulu for the last 55 years. She has traveled to many of the places that I highlighted in my presentation and wants to get together to share more stories. You just never know when wonderful things are going to pop up in your life.
It was a day of assessing what clothes the Goldpebbles need for the start of the school year and a trip to Staples to buy school supplies. Tomorrow morning, I have a breakfast date with long-time sailing friends, Jim Hammett and Susie Klein, who sailed into Quissett Harbor today. I am not sure when I last saw them. Maybe the summer of 2019, before Covid. So, I am looking forward to that and then picking up Jonah and Ollie for lunch and a movie date. Sam can’t join us as he works tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Aug 15, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 227: Life Goes On
Date: Monday, August 15, 2022
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 77, Low 61 degrees
Location: At Home in Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was a better day. We have three more weeks until school starts, so Camp Oma continues.
All three Goldpebbles came over to spend the afternoon and do yardwork in my yard and gardens, as well as Shirley’s yard. Jane Wooden came by and we had an impromptu lunch. Then Karen Baranowski stopped by, and I invited her to join us. So, while the boys worked, we ate lunch and had a nice visit. Tomorrow night I give a Voyage of Windbird presentation that has been scheduled for months, so my morning will be getting ready for that. Then I’ll pick up the Goldpebbles to do some school shopping. It feels good to get back to somewhat summer normal.
by Judy Handley | Aug 14, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 226: Sadness Doth Prevail
Date: Sunday, August 14, 2022
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High 80, Low 59 degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This has been a tough weekend. My neighbor and my friend Shirley Wiedemann passed away peacefully late this afternoon. Her niece Karen Baranowski and I visited with Shirley on Friday, but late last night she took a turn for the worse. Karen spent the day with her, but she was not aware. Shirley was 97 and her heart and her kidneys were simply giving up. Shirley was the owner of the cottage I live in and the three years I have lived here have been wonderful. I will always be grateful to Shirley for giving me the opportunity to live here for sharing her love of living here on the marshy end of the Eel River. She loved the marsh bird life. I caught a photo of an egret standing on the lower dock this weekend.
I think he was standing watch over Shirley.
On Friday I learned that Tom Walker died. He and his wife Bette Lee became sailing friends as Mark and I started our sailing trek from Panama across the South Pacific. Their boat was a St. Francis catamaran named Quantum Leap, large enough to host a number of people, and host they did. Tom was a friend to all and he will be missed by the members of the Class of 2005. That is the name Tom gave the group of us beginning our journey across the South Pacific beginning that year.
I also learned today that my sister-in-law’s husband, Brad, is in the hospital and has sepsis. He was also recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. When my brother died in his early thirties, he left behind his wife Sue and their three young children. Sue remarried and Brad became the father of those children, embracing them as his own. My thoughts are with Sue and Brad tonight, hoping he has the strength to fight this very serious infection.
So where is the good news? The Goldstones returned from Maine this evening and came over for a late dinner. It was so wonderful to see them. I got to hear a little more about the sailboat that I have still not seen. I can’t wait to meet Eider, the current name of the boat. They are thinking of changing the name. At first, they thought the new name would be Messin’ About. But the current favorite is Ardenna, the scientific genus name of the great shearwater bird. Another happy thing from today was seeing a photo of Jo and Coco having a mermaid experience. There is a woman in Rincon offering a merfolk school where you can explore the mermaid tail as a means of getting about the reef and exploring the underwater world.
As Jo said, “Why have two fins when you can be an actual fish?! Exciting!!!”
We entered the park a little before 11 am and didn’t leave until 5:30 pm. When we arrived, we did the inflatable side of the park where the boys played soccer shooting goals into inflatable nets and then scrambled up an inflatable rock climbing wall.
We then moved to the water side of the park and immediately headed to lazy river where you ride through a water course while sitting in inflatable tubes. After lunch, the Jonah and Ollie connected with long-time friends from Falmouth. Molly and Joey, the next-door kids from their old neighborhood were there, along with other friends we used to spend summer days with at the beach. It was like old home week and the next five hours flew by. The park has been renovated and all the kids enjoyed the new wave pool, a new FlowRider where you lay on a body board and fight against a strong current,
the high slides, the water obstacle courses, and what Ollie calls the water playground. Ollie is now old enough that he is on his own, so I really had nothing to do today. He did keep coming back to me from time to time to invite me to ride in the lazy river with him, and I did. But in between lazy river rides, I was on my own. I didn’t bring a book with me today, so I finally had to download one from Kindle to give me something to do while the boys enjoyed the afternoon with their friends. I no longer need to be an active participant, but it was such a joy to watch the Jonah and Ollie with kids I have watched them grow up with having such a joyous time together. At one point in the afternoon when I was concerned that Jonah was going to get sunburned because he had taken off his swim shirt, his former next door neighbor, Molly, said to me, “Oma, it’s okay. He really did put on sunscreen.” It made me smile. They are no longer little ones who need Oma to constantly watch over them. They have Molly! I feel so blessed that I have been here to watch them grow to this point. And I enjoyed my afternoon of reading. The book I downloaded from Kindle is fantastic. And it is now time to go to bed and do a little more reading.
