by Judy Handley | Apr 21, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 111: Almost There with Varnish Removal
Date: Friday, April 21, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 54, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was dedicated to varnish removal. My plan was to be at the boat by 10 am, come home for lunch and rest at 1 pm, and back to the boat at 3 o’clock. I did not expect another house showing today as tomorrow there is 3-hour Open House. But just before I left for the boat, the realtor called and said there would be a showing at 2 pm and the dog and I would need to vacate. I got things ready, which delayed my departure a bit, and headed to Karen Baranowski’s to pick something up before going to the boat. When she heard that I might not be able to return to the boat in the afternoon because I had nowhere to leave Shadow, she offered to babysit for the afternoon. That worked out great. Thank you to Peter and Karen. And the thing I picked up was a tube of NAID arthritis topical pain reliever for my right knee. She suggested that I try it, and it did the trick. I am going to try applying it each morning and at night and hope it keeps working as well as it did today. Another thank you to Karen.
I returned home at 1 pm to pick up lunch and Shadow, dropped him at Karen and Peter’s, and then went into town to Heather and Jed’s to feed the kitties. I ate lunch there, relaxed a bit, and then headed to the boat. I still have the bowsprit, the outside of the toe rail, and a few tight spots in the cockpit to tackle tomorrow. I would be elated if I could get that done tomorrow so I can start sanding on Sunday. Shadow and I leave here tomorrow at 10:30 am as the Open House begins at 11 o’clock. I am going to leave him in the bonus room over the garage at Heather and Jed’s tomorrow. Since I have never done that before, I’ll come check on him and eat a late lunch around 2 pm and then go back to the boat for another hour or two. Here’s hoping I complete the varnish removal tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Apr 20, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 110: Meeting Here, Meeting There, Meeting, Meeting Everywhere
Date: Thursday, April 20, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 54, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
What a day! It started like any normal day with a walk with Shadow. But then I had to go ‘meet’ with my chiropractor in Mashpee. From there I drove to Falmouth to ‘meet’ with Leo and Mel Mel to feed them. I came home and got lunch ready for my lunch meeting with Christina Brodie who will be co-president with me for Encore starting on July 1. We invited the current co-presidents to ‘meet’ with us so we could pick their brains on what they have learned during their tenure. That two-hour meeting lasted an hour and 15 minutes longer than expected, so I had to quickly take Shadow out for a pee break, go pick up Karen Baranowski, and head for Midge Frieswyk’s condo to ‘meet’ for an early dinner with my dining-in group.
I got home, talked to my sister for a few minutes, and then my neighbor Andrew popped in for an impromptu hello. We had a great ‘catch up on life meeting’. He just left and it is now time to go to bed. I will be so glad to ‘meet’ my pillow tonight!
by Judy Handley | Apr 19, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 109: My First Encore Meeting
Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 52, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
After seven years in Falmouth Newcomers, or at any time you choose, you move on to the sister organization called Encore. That move for me was today, one year early. The premature exit from Newcomers was because my name was brought forth today to serve as Co-President of Encore with my good friend Christina Brodie for the next two years. The proposed slate of officers was approved, so Christina and I will take over the helm on the first of July. I am so happy to be able to serve in this position as a way of thanking Newcomers for all it has done for my life after losing Mark. Nothing really changes will you move ‘up’ to Encore. I’ll be in the same book club, the same dining-in group, the same wine group, and will continue as the co-leader of the field trip and the public policy groups. And while doing that, I hope to help make the transition from a Newcomer to an Encore member seamless for all.
Tomorrow, I host a working lunch here at the cottage with Christina and the current Co-Presidents of Encore. And just as that ends, I head to an early gathering of my dining-in group. Two members have to drive to the Boston area tomorrow evening, so we are having a very early dinner. I am providing dessert, so this afternoon and evening I have been baking a flourless chocolate decadence cake for dessert (a three hour affair) and a quiche for lunch tomorrow. There was no time for boat work today and there won’t be time tomorrow. But Friday and Saturday, I have dedicated my full time to varnish removal and sanding.
I got a text from Jonah today asking how the kittens are doing. They are now full-grown cats but will always be kittens to all of us. He also sent me some photos he took when they toured the Capitol today. He said they are having a great week in DC, but obviously they miss Mel Mel and Leo. I’ll send photos tomorrow morning when I feed them.
by Judy Handley | Apr 18, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 108: Celebrating Earth Day a Little Early
Date: Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Weather: Foggy with Drizzle, Windy; High 57, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
My day started by taking Shadow to his every six-week ‘beauty shop’ appointment to be groomed. I dropped him and went to the boat to work for a couple of hours. Just before noon, I headed into Falmouth to feed the cats at Heather and Jed’s and then home to grab a bite of lunch before going on a little field trip to the MASSTC (Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center).
The Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center is the nation’s leading third-party testing and research facility for innovative/alternative (I/A) onsite septic treatment technologies. There are only three test centers in the United States and the work they are doing is so important for the environment. Thus, the title of this log. I felt like I was celebrating Earth Day just a couple of days early. Our guide was a young man named Bryan Horsley. Bryan is the site Operator and is passionate about protecting the local environment.
But what is an innovative/alternative (I/A) septic system test center? It doesn’t sound exciting, but I found it to be one of the best Newscomers field trip I have attended. It is just what the title indicates, a site where alternative septic systems are tested. But why is this necessary? It took Bryan an hour and half to explain it to us, but one of his explanations stuck with me. Our current way of dealing with human waste is linear. We flush and everything goes into a city sewer system or septic tank in our yard. If it is the latter, the solids sink in a tank and the liquids go through a pipe to a second tank and eventually into plastic pipes with holes in them in a leech field of sand. The liquid leaks out of the pipes into the ground and eventually finds its way into the water table or into a waterway. A huge amount of nitrogen and phosphates are in that liquid. The alternative systems are circular. Everything can be the same up to the leech field, but in many of the alternative systems, the leech field. There is still sand, but under the sand there can be wood chips or silt or both. As the liquid filters through this organic material, nitrification takes place. The ammonia in our urine combines with oxygen changing the nitrogen into nitrates and nitrites which plants can absorb as food or fertilizer. So instead of sending harmful nitrogen into our waterways, the nitrites and nitrates can be used to feed plants. There are all kinds of exciting innovations. I am not explaining this very well as I have a lot to learn. One of the main goals of the center, other can research and product testing, is education and outreach. Our guide, Bryan, did a great job of explaining the systems and getting all of us to want to learn more.
I headed back to the boat after the field trip and made a lot of progress in varnish removal. I won’t get to go back to the boat until Friday, but I am hopeful that I might complete the removal Friday and start sanding on Saturday. That might be a bit too ambitious, but I can hope. I stopped working this afternoon when I got the text that Shadow was ready for pick up. We came home and both of us crashed. My right knee desperately needed to be elevated and iced, so we sat on the sofa, and I watched a couple of episodes of Succession. I watched one episode the other day and got hooked.
by Judy Handley | Apr 17, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 107: Patriots’ Day
Date: Sunday, April 17, 2023
Weather: Foggy with Drizzle; High 56, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Since 1894, the third Monday in April has been a state holiday in Massachusetts. It is Patriots’ Day. The Boston Marathon is run on this day each year and I think most Massachusetts schools have their spring vacation this week so that students really only miss four days of school.
I didn’t run the in the Boston Marathon today, but I ran my own little marathon. Xfinity was arriving between 8 and 10 am to check out my equipment and update if needed. I was called last week and told that they would be coming even though I had no issues. The technician arrived at 8:30 and his speed testing showed I needed a new modem. That was up and running immediately, but then we discovered that my computer was not “accepting” the new equipment. He got that worked out, then discovered my printer had an issue as well. An hour and a half later, all was well.
At noon, I promised Jed I would be at 43 Grasmere as technicians were coming from Solar Rising to install a new monitoring system for the solar panels. They said they would arrive ‘early afternoon’ and they meant it. I arrived exactly at noon and before I got into the house, they arrived. I took the opportunity to start a laundry and feed the cats as I waited. Then I was off to the boat to continue my varnish removal project. Today’s goal was to get the varnish off the deck sides of the cockpit coaming. It is not just a straight run and the deck is narrow. Difficult to do, but I was making progress when I got a call informing me that there will be a showing of the cottage tomorrow morning. I thought the first showing was an open house on Sunday. But I was told this afternoon that the open house has been moved to Saturday. I had planned to get the cottage ready on Friday, but the showing tomorrow morning meant I needed to head home to do some quick cleaning. My bedspread was in the washer at Heather and Jed’s, so I went there, dried the bedspread, and then went home to clean. It was 6:00 when I got home and by the time I took Shadow for a walk and played fetch with him, my energy level was running low. I did a little cleaning tonight and will get up early and do more in the morning. But Shadow has a 9 am appointment with the groomer, so I will have to leave here by 8:30. Not much time to clean, so whatever I can do will just have to be good enough.
by Judy Handley | Apr 16, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 106: A Little Bit of Everything
Date: Sunday, April 16, 2023
Weather: Foggy Morning with Rain, Partly Cloudy; High 61, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Sam and I left at 7:15 am headed to Cranston, Rhode Island, just a little further than Providence. It stopped raining before the game started, but it was cloudy and chilly.
Heather and family arrived just before the end of the game and then they headed to Washington, DC, and I headed home. I got home around noon, took Shadow for a walk, ate lunch, regrouped, and headed to the boat. My focus today was removing varnish on the outside of the cockpit coaming. This requires sitting in some very awkward positions, so my old body can only do a bit a time. In between all of this, I was on the phone a significant amount of time dealing with issues with my sister. Then I changed gears again, headed home to pick up Shadow to take more bags of soil, a large, round planter, and a bag of echinacea dug out of my raised beds to transplant at the house on Lakeview. The echinacea plants were started from seed by Ollie in the spring of 2019. They thrived and have grown and spread, and I just can’t leave them all behind. Shadow and I explored what will be our new yard and found the just right place for the echinacea—in the planter with a hardware cloth fence around it so the rabbits can’t eat it. While we were at the Lakeview house, a neighbor from across the street came over to meet me and to tell me he had taken packages that arrived from Amazon and put them behind Lynda’s house. I ordered two new metal raised beds and didn’t expect them until next week, so I was very grateful that Andy put them in a secure place for me. He saw all the bags of garden soil I have been moving and offered top soil that he has piled in this driveway for our gardening project. Nice to know I will have nice neighbors.
