by Judy Handley | May 25, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 145: Moving Along Smoothly
Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Weather: Partly Sunny, Still Cool; High 62, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home with the Goldpebbles, Falmouth, MA
Things are moving along smoothly in Heather and Jed’s absence. The boys have been terrific and I am doing fine. And there is only one more solo day to go. But I have gained a new appreciation for working parents. I can get the kids off to school and then attend to house cleaning or laundry or shopping for dinner. And then I can prepare an early 5 pm dinner for boys who are all off to various evening activities. But if I worked full time, I have no idea how I would do this. Sam asked me this evening how things were different when I was growing up because I made a statement about things being so much simpler growing up in the 1950’s. I was a Brownie, and then a Girl Scout, and I took piano lessons. But my parents had nothing to do with those activities. I lived in a small town where I always walked to school by myself, walked home, and then walked back to those activities by myself from the time I was six. Parenting, and life, has changed over the years, and it really just isn’t that simple anymore.
We heard from Heather this morning. She arrived in San Diego almost an hour early last night at around 11 pm our time and this morning she was up early to get in a run before the beginning of her business day. Her hotel is about a mile from the beach, so she did a four-mile run, one mile on the sand
and according to her Fitbit, she ran 39 floors worth of stairs. There are limestone cliffs along the water and wooden stairs running through those cliffs.
What an exhilarating and beautiful way to start the day! Tomorrow Heather flies to Telluride in Colorado and Jed flies home from Sweden. By this time tomorrow night, Jed should be home.
Today I saw a post on Jo’s Facebook page of Ziggy playing an original composition on the piano as an end-of-the-school-year project. When I watched the video, it brought tears to my eyes. It also brought back memories of when Justin his first compositions. He produced a play called Monochrome with all original music. He was sixteen when he started that project, so Ziggy is starting a little earlier at age thirteen. So proud of Ziggy.
by Judy Handley | May 24, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 144: In Loco Parentis
Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Weather: Partly Sunny, Still Cool; High 62, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home with the Goldpebbles, Falmouth, MA
No. ‘In loco parentis” does not mean parent gone loco, but it might mean ‘Oma gone loco’ by the end of the week! Starting today, I am filling in as ‘parent’ to the Goldpebbles while Heather and Jed are both out of town on business trips. My duties didn’t start until after school today and I think things went super smoothly. After school, we all got into my car to take Sam to rowing in Hyannis and Ollie, Jonah, and I went to play our first game of mini-golf of 2022.
We went to a course we had not played before, Putter’s Paradise, and had a great time. We then made a stop at Dick’s Sporting Goods and were blown away with the amount of sports gear in one store. We picked up dinner at Five Guys and then headed back to the lake to pick up Sam.
He had to get into water up to his waist to get his rowing scull out of the water and didn’t end up participating in the next activity. All three boys were to go to a special Scout event as soon as we returned to Falmouth.
Sam had clothes to change into, but he forgot one important thing—dry underwear—so he skipped the Scouting event. I dropped Jonah and Ollie off, took Sam home, and then went back to pick up J & O and on to my house to pick up Shadow. The boys, including Shadow, are now asleep and I am headed that way very soon as tomorrow begins earlier than normal for me.
by Judy Handley | May 23, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 143: Planning and Transplanting
Date: Monday, May 23, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Cooler; High 68, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Tomorrow I move to Heather’s for the next three days to take care of the Goldpebbles until Jed returns late on Thursday night. I spent time today planning out those three days and was shocked that it took me almost two hours to figure it all out. But I did it and now hopefully the days will go smoothly for Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. Then I transplanted Matt’s Wild Cherry tomato plants from their small growing cells to larger containers. They will be planted outside next week, but they desperately needed more room to grow. Then I headed out for the Monday night shuffle. Mondays are absolutely crazy for the Goldpebbles. Sam and Ollie have soccer practice and Sam’s practice is 45 minutes away. Jonah and Sam have music lessons. And Ollie has Scouts. And then there is eating dinner and homework. It normally takes Heather, Jed, and I to do all the shuffling, so without Jed, Heather and I were doing a double shuffle. But we did it!
I’ll sleep in tomorrow morning and then make the move to Heather’s. Tomorrow, immediately after school, Jonah and Ollie are going to go with me to take Sam to rowing in Hyannis as I just don’t feel comfortable leaving Ollie and Jonah alone until after 7 pm. While Sam rows, Ollie, Jonah, and I will go to two sports stores in Hyannis to check out soccer gear and then pick up dinner to go at Five Guys. We will eat in the car on the way back to Falmouth where I drop all three off for a special Scout Memorial Day activity. It will be almost 8 pm when we get home and time to wind down and get ready for Wednesday. I’ll try to check in tomorrow night to let you know how things are going. The log might just read, “We survived.”
by Judy Handley | May 22, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 142: Kwame Alexander Presentation; Sailboat Search Update
Date: Sunday, May 22, 2022
Weather: Sunny; High 76, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Wikipedia says Kwame Alexander is an American writer of poetry and children’s fiction. His verse novel The Crossover won the 2015 Newbery Medal recognizing the year’s “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” 
My grandson Jonah would say Kwame Alexander is his favorite author. One reason for that is that the author often uses sports and a lot of humor to get his ideas across to kids, and he tells his stories through poetry. This afternoon Heather, Jonah, Ollie, and I went to see him in person.
He is a dynamic personality that totally involves his audience in a question-answer type presentation that was truly inspiring. One of his missions is to get children to love writing as a way of making themselves heard in this increasingly complex world.
Heather returned from her sailboat search in Maine less than hour before we had to head to Hyannis to the presentation. I complicated the afternoon by directing us to the wrong location. It was sponsored by the Cultural Center of Cape Cod located in South Yarmouth, but the presentation was at Barnstable High School in Hyannis. I missed that last part and caused us to be late for the presentation. Thankfully, we missed only ten minutes. Heather had spent her whole day yesterday driving and drove home from Boothbay, Maine this morning. So causing her to drive almost twice as far as necessary to get to the presentation was not a feel good moment for me. But she remained cheery and drove on.
Yesterday Heather went to see one sailboat in Boothbay which is a four-hour drive from here in the best of times, and then on to see another sailboat in Brooklin, Maine which is another two and half to three hours from Boothbay. Then she drove back to Boothbay for the night and back home this morning. Whew! But hopefully it was all worth it. The Cape Dory 36 in Brooklin, Maine that she and Jed had already made an offer on, sight unseen, seems to be the best choice. It is structurally sound, has a brand new Yanmar engine and many new electronic updates. The downside is that there are some cosmetic issues that need attention. But then, don’t we all!!! Trying to make this decision with Jed in Sweden has added to the stress, but as I listened to her talk about meeting with the owner and going over all the details, I agree that this is a great choice for them. There is still the going and back and forth to reach the final price and then the survey before it is a done deal. But Heather is hoping that things will work out and they can have their first family sailing vacation in August.
My fondest memories of sailing are from the days when when we first started sailing on a Cape Dory 25 when Heather and Justin were about the ages of Jonah and Ollie. Heather and Justin would take their boom box out on the deck and blare Kokomo while drumming on the deck. I think Heather also has those same fond memories and hopes to make new fond memories with the Goldpebbles. Something Heather has heard since she was very young are the words from Kenneth Graham’s children’s book The Wind in the Willows. “There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
by Judy Handley | May 21, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 141: Good Day
Date: Saturday, May 21, 2022
Weather: Overcast and Misty, Moving to Sunny; High 76, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a good day. I met Heather and Jed at 6:20 am to take Sam to rowing. Heather drove on to Boothbay, Maine for an 11 am appointment to see a Cape Dory 36. The last Cape Dory 36’s were made between 1987 and 1991 and they have a slightly different interior and deck design than the earlier 36’s. So, she needed to see this one to see if it would work for them. At the same time, she was supposed to hear whether or not the owner of the Cape Dory 36 in Brooklin, Maine was going to accept their counter offer. He did, so that meant she would travel on to Brooklin to see that boat. She is back in Boothbay tonight trying to decide which boat is the best one for them. Since she has to communicate with Jed who is in Sweden and six hours ahead of us, things are a bit complicated. But they are getting closer. Heather will be home by early afternoon and I can’t wait to hear the whole report on her boat looking excursion.
Sam and I returned from rowing at 9:30 am and he did a quick change and rode his bike to work. He had his first full day of work at Corner Cycle and at the end of the day reported that he loves it. He is doing the day rentals and reported that when things are busy, they are really busy, but the middle of the day is pretty slack. He and his good friend Sebastian are working together, so they find ways to pass the time until it gets busy again. Can’t believe he is old enough to work, but so proud of him for pushing to get this job.
By 10 am Jonah was picked up by friends to take him to his soccer game a little more than hour from here, across the bridge and to the west. By 10:30 am, Ollie and I were at my house dropping off Shadow as we were headed the 45 minutes to Dennis on Mid Cape for his soccer game. He and his whole team have developed their skills and played a really competitive game. It ended in a tie, but Ollie was happy with that.
We found a seafood restaurant where we could eat outside and enjoyed clam chowder for lunch afterwards.
At the end of the day, we all came to my house for the night. We had what the boys call a ‘chilled evening’ together and now everyone but me is asleep. I have to get Sam to a friend’s house by 6 am so they can take him to his 8 am soccer game in Norwood, up near Boston. I’m hoping we can sneak out in the morning without waking up Ollie and Jonah. If that works, I’ll deliver Sam and come back home and go back to bed. Probably won’t happen, so I should stop writing and get to bed myself.
by Judy Handley | May 20, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 140: Laughing is Good for Your Soul
Date: Friday, May 20, 2022
Weather: Overcast Moving to Sunny; High 65, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Every weeknight, I record the The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and then watch his monologue and follow-up segment the next day when I sit down to eat lunch. I do it because Colbert’s humor often makes me laugh and laughing is good for your soul. But today, when I watched last night’s feature segment following the monologue, I was almost rolling in the floor with laughter. It started as a commentary on the new ‘comfortable’ look in office fashion, post Covid. It then turned into a spoof on Untuckit.com, the company that produces shirts that are “designed to be worn untucked so they fall at the perfect length.” But in the Colbert spoof, there was a guy who just couldn’t believe how hard it was to tuck in Untucket shirt so he could more easily retrieve his cell phone from his back pocket. The untucked shirt kept getting in his way. So, he designed a ‘new’ kind of shirt that was long enough to tuck in. The funny part was that the bottom of the front of the shirt was attached to the bottom of the back of the shirt with clips on an elastic band so the shirt cannot easily come untucked produced by ‘Go Tuck Yourself’. It might not sound funny but watching three very differently shaped men walk about with these shirts on, sans pants, was hilarious. At least, I thought so. And that reminded me of how different people see the same thing, and that reminded me of the book I finished reading last night, Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine written by Gail Honeyman.
For good reasons, which I will not mention in case you want to read the book, Eleanor finds herself to be a thirty-year-old woman who has not had life experiences that allow her to see the world as others. She is college educated, but because she has no normal life experiences, she takes everything literally. She gets to know the IT person who works in her office and he asks her if she is seeing anyone at the moment. “Yes,” she said, completely seriously. “I’m seeing you right now, Raymond. You’re sitting right in front of me.” She had no idea that ‘seeing anyone’ could be referring to dating someone. Another of my favorites was Eleanor’s description of dancing, or even seeing other people dance, for the first time in her life. “I joined in with what seemed to be jigging on the spot. Some people moved their arms as though they were jogging, some people were pointing at nothing; it appeared that you were supposed to move your body around in any way you saw fit, as long as it was in time with the music, which was a steady eight beats, helpfully marked out by a drum. Then the beat changed abruptly, and everyone started doing the same thing, making strange shapes with their arms above their head. It took me a moment or two to learn the shapes, and then I was able to copy them. Free-form jigging, communal shapes in the air; free-form jigging, communal shapes in the air. Dancing was easy.” What she was describing was dancing to YMCA! YMCA! Then she wondered why the band was singing about the Young Men’s Christian Association. The author’s description of this made me laugh out loud and wonder, like Eleanor, why people do such things and why I had never even thought of what YMCA stood for. Then there was Eleanor’s reaction when Raymond (the office IT guy) gave her a helium balloon to cheer her up. She looked at it and asked, “What’s it supposed to be? Is it . . . is it cheese?” Raymond replied, “It’s SpongeBob, Eleanor. SpongeBob SquarePants.” Something we would all recognize, despite its silliness, but not Eleanor. The point is that all of these descriptions in the book made me smile, while some had me rolling with laughter, but at th.e end of the book, I found that I am looking at the world a little differently, trying to understand how others can see the world so differently from myself.
Jed left on Wednesday for London to collaborate with colleagues and tomorrow he will fly from London to Sweden to a scientific conference, returning late next Thursday night. Tomorrow Heather is driving to Maine to look at a sailboat or two. She will return tomorrow night or Sunday morning, depending on whether she gets to see the second boat. It is the one that they made a bid on, sight unseen. There have been all sorts of issues preventing her from seeing that boat, so hopefully tomorrow will be the day. It is a full seven hours’ drive from here, so she is going to be doing a lot of driving. In the meantime, I, along with friends, will cart the boys to rowing practice and soccer games. If Heather does not return until Sunday, the boys will spend tomorrow night with me. Then on Tuesday, Heather flies to San Diego for one day and then on to Telluride in Colorado, returning Sunday just before Memorial Day. So, I am on Goldpebble duty for the next week. Hopefully I will have time to post my nightly logs, but if not, just know that I am having fun with my grandsons and will report on it when I have time.
and according to her Fitbit, she ran 39 floors worth of stairs. There are limestone cliffs along the water and wooden stairs running through those cliffs.
What an exhilarating and beautiful way to start the day! Tomorrow Heather flies to Telluride in Colorado and Jed flies home from Sweden. By this time tomorrow night, Jed should be home.
