by Judy Handley | May 7, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 127: Does Not Feel Like May
Date: Saturday, May 7, 2022
Weather: Cloudy, Cold and Windy; High 50, Low 44 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It’s that northeast wind that is making it feel so cold and it promises to be with us through Wednesday. It certainly does not feel like May, but I guess we just have to pretend it does and continue on. I put on my winter coat and took Shadow for his walk this morning. Then at 1:00 pm, I put that winter coat on again and went to Jonah’s soccer game. Ollie’s early morning game was cancelled due to the overnight rain, but Jonah was playing on turf, so I soggy field was not a problem. Besides, the wind had dried everything by afternoon. Jonah played his normal offense position during the first half of the game but was needed as goalie for the second half.
He is just not big enough to be a goalie, but he did a great job. Goalies don’t run up and down the field to keep warm, however, and he was frozen by the end of the game. Ollie came home with me after the soccer game to cut Shirley’s grass.
It was so high he said he felt like he was cutting hay like he has seen his Uncle Johnnie do in Maine!
Tomorrow morning, we are off to Boston/Cambridge. Sam has a 1:30 pm game in Cambridge, and I have been invited to come along. For a Mother’s Day celebration, we are going to Harvard’s Museum of Natural History and then out to lunch before Sam’s game. Since it is just too cold to enjoy doing yard work on Mother’s Day, we will just have to enjoy the beautiful glass flowers inside at the museum.
by Judy Handley | May 6, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 126: Mostly Cloudy, Rainy Friday
Date: Friday, May 6, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rainy; High 62, Low 47 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was spent thinking about gardening, buying organic garden soil to top up raised beds and fill big black felt bags that will have Brussels sprouts and tomatoes growing in them, researching things to do in the Charlottesville, Virginia area the first week of June with Ziggy and Coco, renting a car that I thought I had already rented for that trip, changing appointments during that week, researching composting toilets for sailboats, checking out Eider (on paper and on the internet), another Cape Dory 36 Heather is checking out that is located in Brooklin, Maine, and making dog food. Poor Shadow. He really struggles with gastrointestinal issues. The recent food that had been working for him is no longer available on Cape Cod, at least for now, due to supply chain issues, and my substitute last week made his issues worse. I have ordered a trial of Farmers’ Dog food, but that won’t arrive until next week and who knows if it will work. So, I made a ground beef, sweet potato, kale, and quinoa mix for him tonight and he LOVED it. Now I just have to wait and see if his system loves it. What I made is very much like Farmers’ Dog food, so if it works, I can make some and buy some to give myself a break or for when I am out of town. One thing I have discovered in all of this is that the dry kibble I have been giving him might be the culprit. I eliminated that two days ago and he is so much better already.
The weather was not inspiring today. There were moments this morning when the sun tried to shine through the clouds, but those moments were few and short-lived. At least I got a lot of indoor things done and did a lot of thinking about what I will do when the weather is sunny and warm.
by Judy Handley | May 5, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 125: Shop ‘til You Drop on Cinco de Mayo
Date: Thursday, May 5, 2022
Weather: Sunshine!!!; High 63, Low 46 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
On this sunny Cinco de Mayo, I went with friend Jane Woodin across the bridge to shop ‘til we dropped. Actually, we just made a trip to Costco, but we did make a couple of other side trips . . . more shopping than I have done for some time. It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed our little outing. When I got home, I went for a walk with Shadow, and then drove into town to pick up Jonah and bring him here to do yard work for a neighbor. Ollie and Jonah have said they will do the yardwork for two neighbors this summer season, Andrew and Lara, and Shirley. When I took Jonah home, Heather came out to say hello. We were checking our calendars and I saw a new entry for this Saturday. Sam is going to work at Corner Cycle. I am so proud of him for getting a job, but it literally brought tears to my eyes. How could he be old enough to work? My grandbabies are growing up.
by Judy Handley | May 4, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 124: Book Club Luncheon
Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Weather: Overcast with Light Rain, Fog Tonight; High 57, Low 47 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was another cloudy day with some rain. For my evening walk with Shadow, I wore my winter coat. It is not really cold out, but the damp, sunless days make it feel that way. Tomorrow we are supposed to get a glimpse of the sun before it disappears again for a few days. I can’t wait to celebrate the sunshine.
The highlight of my day was meeting with my book club for lunch. We cancelled our normal book club meeting for this month and decided to just meet socially. It was so nice to spend time getting to know more about one another and to talk about current issues rather than a book for a change. We did all bring a recommendation for a book that we have read recently that others might be interested in, but that was the extent of our book ‘talk’. We met at the Flying Bridge on the Falmouth Harbor and they let us sit in a huge dining hall that was empty other than us. With the threat of Covid rising again, it was great to have our own dining room. This morning I got word that friend Peter Baranowski has Covid. My thoughts are with Peter, hoping he has a light case and bounces back quickly . . . and that somehow Karen manages not to get Covid.
by Judy Handley | May 3, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 123: Some Enchanted Evening
Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 56, Low 45 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
“Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger,
You may see a stranger across a crowded room,
And somehow you know, you know even then,
That somehow you’ll see here again and again.
. . . Once you have found her/him, never let he/him go,
Once you have found her/him, never let her/him go.”
I love that song and many others by Rogers and Hammerstein. Their music dominated the early lives of those of us now in our ‘twilight’ years. Lyrics from musicals like Oklahoma! (1943), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), The Sound of Music (1959) . . . just to name a few.
Tonight, my good friend Jane Woodin invited me to attend an opening celebration at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. This celebration hosted an evening of conversation, music, and art with Oscar Andrew Hammerstein, the grandson of the beloved librettist and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein. This event was free, and it was wonderful.
There was food, live music, complimentary drinks, and an intimate conversation between the Executive Director of the Cotuit Center for the Arts, David Kuehn and Oscar Andrew Hammerstein (pronounced ‘stine’ not ‘steen’), painter, writer, lecturer, and family historian.
The conversation kept me at the edge of my seat.
The current Oscar Hammerstein described his grandfather as being ‘marinated’ in the theater as his father, his grandfather, and his uncles, all were in theater in various ways. When he went to Columbia in pre-law, he met and married, had a child, needed money, and reverted to the family ‘business’ of theater to make money. And he was good at it. As his grandson said tonight, “Theatre is a communicable disease.” He also shared a family belief about theatre: “When things are too emotional to say, you sing. When things are too emotional to sing, you dance.” He talked about how some of his grandfather’s music was specifically written to match the talent as in “South Pacific” with Mary Martin and Ezio Penza, while other scripts were rewritten to fit the talent, as in the case of Yul Brenner in “The King and I.”
The current Oscar Andrew Hammerstein, known as Andy, also talked about his life’s work as an artist. There were examples of his artwork in the background during the interview, and he pointed out how some of his work expresses space over time (circles),
while other works express time over space (rectangles).
It was an enchanted evening. Thank you, Cotuit Center for the Arts. And thank you, Jane.
by Judy Handley | May 2, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 122: Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Field Trip
Date: Monday, May 2, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 54, Low 46 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Chatham is a lovely town located on the eastern most coast of Cape Cod in the area known as the Lower Cape. And located in Chatham is the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
I traveled there today with a Newcomers group. The displays are very informative and very user friendly.
After spending an hour in the Conservancy, we drove to the Chatham Fish Market where, in season, there are always lots of seals. But today not a seal was to be seen.
Obviously, we are not ‘in season’ yet. We then had lunch in a Chatham favorite, the Chatham Squire. Fun day.
He is just not big enough to be a goalie, but he did a great job. Goalies don’t run up and down the field to keep warm, however, and he was frozen by the end of the game. Ollie came home with me after the soccer game to cut Shirley’s grass.
It was so high he said he felt like he was cutting hay like he has seen his Uncle Johnnie do in Maine!
