by Judy Handley | Sep 1, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 245: Dinner on Ardenna
Date: Friday, September 1, 2023
Weather: Beautiful Day; High 71, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
At the end of this gorgeous day, I had dinner on Ardenna in Quissett Harbor with the Goldstones. Heather, Jed, and Ollie took off this morning for Wings Cove in Marion where Ardenna is moored and sailed her across Buzzards Bay. I took Sam and Jonah school shopping, got lunch for them at Le Bon Jour, and then took them to soccer practice at the high school. While they were at practice, I baked the challah that Heather had made for tonight’s dinner and made fried green tomatoes to take as an addition to the dinner. The boys practice from 2 pm to 4:30 pm, but today they didn’t get dismissed until 4:45. We then headed to Quissett where Ardenna was waiting for us on the dock. We had a carload of sleeping bags and food to load onto the boat and then we were going to a mooring to have dinner. But there was a problem with the water system, and we waited on the dock while Jed drove to West Marine for a needed part. It was almost sunset by the time we were on a mooring in the inner harbor where we had dinner in the cockpit.
Today was beautiful as was this evening, but it was a bit nippy.
But I was fine in a cotton shirt so it was not cool enough to be uncomfortable.
After dinner, Sam and I headed home as he has a soccer tournament tomorrow. The rest of the gang will head to Martha’s Vineyard when the tide is right tomorrow late morning. Tomorrow evening, I will take Sam to Woods Hole to catch a ferry to MV where he will meet up with the rest of the family until Monday morning. Then I will pick up Sam and Jonah in Woods Hole as they have soccer practice on Labor Day afternoon. Heather, Jed, and Ollie will sail the boat back to Marion and the next morning will be the first day of school. This summer has slipped by way too fast!
by Judy Handley | Aug 31, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 244: Ollie’s Newest Passion
Date: Thursday, August 31, 2023
Weather: Sunny, but Cooler; High 70, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Today was all about Ollie’s newest passion, horse-back riding. He took lessons last week while I was in North Carolina and has evidently fallen in love with it. He even enjoys mucking out the stalls.
He is thinking he will not play soccer this fall. Instead, he would like to go to the stables twice a week to ride. Today he found out that if he helps clean the stalls after he rides, he can get a 50 per cent discount. This means he can afford to do this on two days after school instead of just one. And he can ride the school bus to the farm, so that is a plus as well. Maybe this Goldpebble is going to be a farmer. He has always loved his little John Deere tractors and he looks right at home with the rake and wheelbarrow at the stables. Today he rode Margo, and he was right at home with her as well.
Last night I found out that my nephew’s mother-in-law passed away. I am so glad I was able to visit with her on Sunday before I left North Carolina. I send my love to Tommy and Marilou, and to her husband Bob. And the update on my sister is that she does have a hairline fracture in the left wrist. Thankfully, she doesn’t have to wear a cast, just a Velcro splint.
by Judy Handley | Aug 30, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 243: Wine Group Gathering Under a Blue Moon
Date: Wednesday, August 30, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny, Periods of Misty Rain; High 79, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Maybe it was that full moon, but as today progressed it got crazier and crazier. It started out okay. Around noon, I went to Heather and Jed’s to check in with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie and to take Ollie to Walmart and Staples to buy school supplies. That ended up to be just a trip to Walmart where I also picked up lunch for all three boys at Subway. That’s all we had the time to do because I needed to get lunch back to Same and Jonah and then take them to soccer practice at the high school. I delivered them and came back to get Ollie. We were going to my house, and I was going to fix an appetizer for my wine group while he played. Again, plans changed. Ollie’s friend Simon, who lives in the neighborhood, stopped by to play for a few minutes. Heather was working at home, so I left them and went to the grocery store to buy what I needed to fix an Argentinian appetizer to take to my 5 pm wine group gathering.
When I got back from the store, Simon announced that he could play longer, so I took Simon and Ollie home with me and they played while I made chimichurri, Argentina’s favorite sauce made of fresh parsley and oregano, garlic, lime juice, and olive oil. It is made like pesto. The boys picked parsley and oregano for me while I grilled tenderloin steak. I sliced the steak very thin, put little pieces on toasted bread, and added the chimichurri on top of that. While the boys were picking parsley, they also found arm loads of big cucumbers I had somehow missed seeing in the garden. They thought picking the cucumbers was great fun.
All of this took until almost 5 o’clock, so off we went. I delivered Ollie and Simon at Heather and Jed’s and thought I was on my way. But as I walked out of the house, I was greeted by two big dogs that decided they wanted to go to wine group with me. There are never dogs running loose in that neighborhood, but these guys were enjoying their freedom and jumped all over my white pants. Then, when I tried to get in the car, they jumped in the front seat. I finally got them out, and I got in and called Heather to warn her about the dogs. Then I set off for wine group.
I no sooner got to the location of the wine group when I received a call from my sister’s doctor. It was actually a nurse who had visited Patsy and decided she needed to have x-rays tomorrow of her wrist and hip which are both very bruised from her fall on Monday. For this she needed to go to the office, so I arranged for Brian Thompson to take her and got back to the business of tasting wine.
Our focus tonight was wines from South America.
Marian and Richard, the hosts, had a big of map of South America so we could pinpoint the location of our individual wines.
That was an added dimension to our usual tastings and very informative. We started our gathering inside as it was misting rain, but then the sun came out and we carried everything outside. It was a beautiful evening and another great gathering with this fun-loving group.
by Judy Handley | Aug 29, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 242: A Day of Firsts
Date: Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Some Rain; High 73, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
First soccer scrimmage for Jonah on the Falmouth High JV soccer team,
first soccer scrimmage for Sam on the Falmouth High School soccer team,
and Ollie’s first time to ride in the front seat of my car.
That was the day of firsts. Ollie tells me he can now ride shot gun and he is loving it. Sam and Jonah are in their second week of soccer practice before school starts next Tuesday. That was the fun part of my day. Unfortunately, much of the day was spent dealing with my sister. When she went to bed after midnight last night, she fell. The assisted living facility is calling it a non-injury fall as nothing is broken and she didn’t hit her head. But she caught herself with her left hand and the thumb, index finger, and the pad on her hand are all very swollen and bruised. Her doctor will come check things out tomorrow, so hopefully the initial diagnosis is correct. But I was shocked that the med techs at the assisted living facility are not allowed to put ice on her hand. Brian Thompson had to go buy an ice pack and she has to put it on herself. The med techs can do any medical interventions without the direction of an outside physician. Hopefully her situation will be better by tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Aug 28, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 241: Good to Be Back Home
Date: Monday, August 28, 2023
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 72, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
I’ve never thought of myself as a home-body and that term certainly doesn’t describe a person who took off and sailed around the world. But more than ever, I now love getting home after a trip. Maybe it is that I just miss my Shadow and my grandkids. Just being around them brightens my life every day. Whatever, I am just so happy to be home and walk around the yard with Shadow and check on my gardens. Of course, there is much more to do than that. In my new role as co-president of Encore, there are always lots of emails to answer and I have not responded to any emails for a week now. I didn’t get through all of those today, but I will get started. Heather is in Boston today, so this afternoon I took Jonah and Sam to soccer practice at 2 pm and brought Ollie home with me. He dedicated his afternoon to climbing a very tall holly tree in front of my house, clipping branches as he went to clear a path. Sometimes I could not even see him and that prompted a game of Where’s Ollie? He would start shaking the branches around him and I could pinpoint his location.
I got home at 1:30 this morning and just couldn’t go to sleep. So, I read until 3 am and slept in until 9:00. Then I rushed to get dressed and go get Shadow. He was happy to see me and absolutely disregarded any commands to stop jumping on me or to sit. Evidently, he has been behaving for the Goldstones in my absence and Jed and Ollie were a bit shocked that he would not obey them. They were saying the same words I usually say when they come here to visit and Shadow refuses to stop jumping on them. I guess it is just whomever walks in the door anywhere that excites him. We came home and walked around the yard and then he came in and is as calm as always when he is at home with me. Jumping or not, I was happy to be reunited with him. This evening I took him with me to Heather and Jed’s for dinner and he was a bit more well behaved than normal.
After a fabulous dinner of grilled salmon, potatoes, and salad out on the deck. It is much cooler here than in North Carolina. The daily low there is the high temperature for the day here. But sitting out on the deck for dinner was delightful, not too cool. After dinner we went into the living room where I hooked by computer to their television to show them the photos of Jessica’s wedding. That prompted memories of Heather and Jed’s wedding. They have their 20th anniversary a week from tomorrow, so they dug out their wedding album to share with the boys. They were married at Spruce Point in Boothbay, Maine, which is right on the water. Mark and I sailed Windbird up and delivered the bride and groom to the gorgeous wedding destination. All of my family, Mark’s family, and Jed’s family were there. Last night we came across a couple of photos of Jessica, the most recent bride, at Heather’s wedding dancing with her father just as she did last Friday night at her own wedding. The years certainly do pass quickly.
by Judy Handley | Aug 27, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 240: New Hill to Mooresville to Huntersville and Home
Date: Sunday, August 27, 2023
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Late Day Thunderstorm; High 97, Low 76 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
The party is over. This morning I packed up my sister, myself, and my niece Janet while Rex, Diana, Rachel, and her two children, Kit and Emma, got ready to drive home to West Virginia. Diana and Rex got the left-over food packed up and we all pitched in to follow the Airbnb directions for checking out. Because this was such a huge home, it was a bigger job than usual, but we were all on the road by 11 am. Janet was picked up by a friend who was driving her back to Nashville, and Patsy and I headed back to Terra Bella in Mooresville, the assisted living facility where she lives. I got her unpacked and settled in just as her home helper who spends four hours with her every afternoon and early evening arrived.
The helper today was Renee. I met her last Wednesday for the first time, and she is a perfect fit for my sister. She replaced a woman named Edie who we all loved, and thought could never be replaced. Edie is my age, but Renee is half that and looks like a teenager. She is soft spoken, caring, and yet firm in getting my sister to walk about with her and go to dinner everyday even though my sister is always resistant. She hates the food at Terra Bella and thinks having breakfast and lunch is enough. But because she is diabetic, going without food from noon until the next morning is just not acceptable. I am so grateful the agency was able to find a young woman that is working out great. And that made saying farewell to my sister a little easier. The three of us sat together and looked at the photos and videos from the wedding before I left. Patsy really enjoyed reliving the wedding evening where she danced the night away and Renee enjoyed seeing photos of members of Patsy’s family and learning a little more about them.
I lingered a little too long at my sister’s and then had to rush to drive south about 20 minutes to my nephew’s home in Huntersville. It is on the way to the airport, and I had a cooler full of food that Rex could not take home that I wanted to give to Tommy and Marilou. I also wanted to say hello to Ginny and Bob, Marilou’s parents who now live with Tommy and Marilou. Ginny and Bob are both in their nineties and have medical issues and can no longer live alone. Marilou’s mother’s health has declined rapidly in the past few weeks, so much so that Marilou could not leave them to go to the wedding. Marilou had hosted a shower for the bride, went with her to pick out her wedding dress, and both of her daughters were in the wedding. It was really too bad that she could not come to enjoy the affair. She had already seen photos on Facebook posted by Rachel, but she and Ginny and Bob also enjoyed looking at my photos.
But as we were looking at the photos, the sky outside suddenly turned black, and the trees were more than swaying in the wind. That was my cue to bid farewell and get to the airport ASAP.
As I drove to the airport, there were sprinkles and lots of thunder and shockingly bright lightning. As I arrived in the Rental Car Return garage, the rain started pouring down, but I did not have to walk outside in it to get to the Terminal. My flight was scheduled for 8 pm, so I arrived two hours early. What I had forgotten was that at 6 pm, only one security check-in is open and it is at the opposite end of the airport from where I needed to check in. I don’t know how far it is, but when I checked-in, the young woman took one look at me and asked I wanted assistance getting to the security check-in and then the 25-minute walk from there to the gate for my departing flight. I did this walk in April when I was there. I knew I could do it, so I reluctantly declined the wheelchair. I didn’t get to my departing gate until 7:15 pm, and I walked that entire time. Next time I might take wheelchair assistance! The 8 pm flight was delayed by 15 minutes and there were a few bumpy moments as we flew through the storm, but otherwise, my return home went smoothly, and I slept the whole way. I caught the 11 pm bus to Braintree (which didn’t arrive until 11:20) where my car was parked, walked with my luggage and backpack to the far end of the parking lot, and drove home arriving here at 1:30 pm. Considering some of the horror stories I have heard about flight delays this summer, I was thankful for the smooth trip, both going down and coming back. Thank you, Spirit Airlines. I give them an A+ for this trip.
Today was beautiful as was this evening, but it was a bit nippy.
But I was fine in a cotton shirt so it was not cool enough to be uncomfortable. 
