by Judy Handley | Jan 14, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 14: Gale Warning Tonight
Date: Saturday, January 14, 2023
Weather: Overcast with Strong North Wind; High 43, Low 33 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:07 am & 4:37 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The north wind was blowing strong today and tonight we have gale warning going into effect until Monday. I just came in from taking Shadow out for his last outing of the evening, and it was obvious that the temperature is dropping, The precipitation predicted for tomorrow might come down as snow. And speaking of snow,
I saw photos on Facebook of the Goldstone gang on the slopes in Maine with friends.
Looks like they are having fun.
I slept in this morning and by the time I did my morning ablutions, traveled around town doing plant watering chores for out of town friends fed the cats at 43 Grasmere, and stopped at the PO to send a package to Ziggy and Coco, it was after noon when I got home. Lunch, walk with Shadow, puzzling, playing fetch with Shadow, taking photos of the huge gaggle of geese down by the dock (75 and counting),
more puzzling . . . and suddenly it was dinnertime. I fixed dinner and decided to kick back and watch a movie. Today there was a suggested list in the NYTs This Morning online, so I started with the first one. It was a mind trip. Not the frivolous entertainment I was looking for, but very thought provoking once I worked through the weirdness. I watched “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.” A summary I found online described the plot this way: “An acclaimed journalist-turned-documentarian goes on an oneiric introspective journal to reconcile with the past, the present, and his Mexican identity.” Much of the film is in Spanish, but it is captioned, and you really don’t even notice. As one example of weirdness, at one point, the journalist was sitting atop a pyramid of dead people having a conversation with Cortez. In another scene, Silverio, the journalist, is talking with his dead father in a huge public bathroom. Strange scene, but the father does impart words of wisdom: “Age comes without warning. Then it turns into a full-time job. Walking, eating, using the bathroom . . . everything’s a problem. No one ever told me. Nobody ever warns you about it.” Then Pa goes on to talk to his son about success: “Take a swig of success. Swish it around and spit it out. Otherwise, it will poison you.” There were many of these thought-provoking statements throughout the film, but despite that, I almost stopped watching at least three different times. I put the movie on pause each time, but then decided to persist. I’m glad I did. In my opinion, it was ‘very out there’, but one needs a mind stretch once in a while.
by Judy Handley | Jan 12, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 12: Ahhh . . . A Quiet Day
Date: Thursday, January 12, 2023
Weather: Overcast, Some Sprinkles; High 48, Low 46 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:08 am & 4:35 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
After a few days of crazy activity, today was nice and quiet. I got up and called by sister’s doctor in North Carolina, worked on my jigsaw puzzle, walked with Shadow and played fetch, and made soup. I did have to tackle a little problem with the field trip I am leading to the Edward M (Teddy) Kennedy Institute on Wednesday. Their cafeteria is not open, but I was told we could order boxed lunches from the JFK Library next door. I have called every day this week and have gotten no further than voice mail with no return calls. So, this morning I was told by my contact at the Institute that maybe I should just order lunches to be delivered from Panera. That wasn’t quite as easy as just picking up the phone and making an order. I had to register to be a ‘host’ and then send a link to participants where they can order their own lunches. But I hope I have it figured out and that people will be successful getting online to order. I also talked to my sister this morning and she seems to be holding her own against Covid. Her companion called me this evening and said she put her to bed early and that I should not call Patsy tonight as there is no phone in the bedroom. I smiled but said nothing. I am sure my sister got up as soon as Edie, the companion, left. But I will wait until tomorrow morning to call and hope I will find my sister feeling even better after a good night’s sleep.
by Judy Handley | Jan 11, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 11: Another Busy Day
Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny, Day, Snowflakes Tonight; High 38, Low 30 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:08 am & 4:34 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Another gain in daylight today—1 minute earlier sunrise and 2 minute later sunset. Yippee!
I was up early to walk with Shadow and then take him to his every 6-week appointment to be groomed. It takes 45 minutes to drive him to Pampered Pets, drop him off, and return home. I made a slight detour on the way home to go into downtown Falmouth to pick up a package for a friend who is out of town. Then it was home to finish prepping for my afternoon presentation on food and climate change. At noon, an insurance inspector came to give the thumps up, hopefully, on new home insurance. In the meantime, I learned that my friend Olga Mitchell has Covid and needed some Pedialyte from CVS. I went to pick that up and then got a text that Shadow was ready for pick up. I had begged this morning that they get him ready early today as I had to pick him up before my afternoon meeting. Otherwise he might have been spending the night at Pampered Pets as they would have been closed by the time the presentation was over. They came through, so I went to CVS for Olga, delivered the goods, and then drove back north to pick up Shadow. I barely got home to do one run-through of my proposed presentation and then it was show time. Shortly after the presentation was over, I got a call from my nephew in North Carolina telling me sister Patsy has tested positive for Covid. Her companion returned today after being out for 12 days with Covid. So far, so good, however, with my sister. She does have a cough and feels a bit tired, but otherwise is okay. I sure hope she gets no worse. I will check with her in the morning, but I am definitely ready for a day of rest tomorrow!
by Judy Handley | Jan 10, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 10: One of Those Days
Date: Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 42, Low 28 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:09 am & 4:32 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Writing and sending out the one week from today email for a field trip I am leading next Tuesday to the Edward M Kennedy Institute . . . book club . . . time with Ollie on an Early Release Day from school . . . back home to play with Shadow . . . then back to Heather and Jed’s to spend the evening with the boys . . . fixed dinner . . . took Jonah to Scouts . . . canned chicken broth . . . and then finally sat down and worked on a jigsaw puzzle with Ollie. And in between all of this, I was working on my food and climate change presentation for tomorrow afternoon. Whew! It was one of those days.
Tonight, Jed went with Heather to a staff gathering at Woodwell to celebrate the beginning of a new year. They had a great time and picked Jonah up from Scouts on their way home. I got home around 9 pm, took Shadow for a walk, and then finished up the PowerPoint for tomorrow’s presentation. Now it is time to go to bed!
by Judy Handley | Jan 9, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 09: A Trip to Newbridge on the Charles
Date: Monday, January 9, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 41, Low 31 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:09 am & 4:31 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Okay. I admit that I am obsessed with tracking the increase in daylight minutes. But I just have to report that today we gained 2 minutes of daylight when sunset moved from 4:29 pm yesterday to 4:31 today. I love it!
I picked Heather up this morning, and we drove north to Dedham to Newbridge on the Charles. When you Google Newbridge online, it is described as “modern senior living community offering dynamic, top-tier amenities.” And from my visits there with my good friends Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg I would definitely agree with that description. Helaine is part of a Newbridge environmental group that invited Heather to come speak today. Before her presentation, we had lunch with Helaine and the three women who help set the agenda for the environmental group. What a dynamic group of women!
Sixty members of their environment group came to hear Heather speak. I overhead people saying what a masterful speaker she is, and I have to agree. She takes very complex information and somehow breaks it down so that you as the listener can easily understand. Today, I heard people gasp when they saw a few of the PowerPoint slides she presented. One slide showed a graph of world climate changes over the past 800,000 years. After the last ice age, climate variations have gone up and down, but within reasonable ranges. Then around the time of the Industrial Revolution, the rate of change started climbing radically. You could instantly see how out of line it is now as compared to what it had been for the previous 800,000 years. I’m probably not describing this exactly right, but the point is that it was immediately obvious that we are now off the charts. Heather also left the audience with a sense of empowerment. Yes, we need to take immediate action, any action that can help. Things are dire. But the good news is that we caused problem. When Heather said that, you could hear the questioning in the audience. How can causing a problem be good news? Her answer was that if we caused the problem, then we can fix it. And one thing we can all do is to just start talking about climate change with other people. According to a survey, only 35 percent of Massachusetts residents discuss climate change at least occasionally. It has become so politicized that we are afraid to talk about it for fear of alienating others. According to Heather, it is better to start talking which will hopefully lead to more action. Good job, Heather. And thank you Helaine and your Newbridge friends for hosting us.
by Judy Handley | Jan 8, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 08: Futsal Afternoon and Evening
Date: Sunday, January 8, 2023
Weather: Mostly Sunny but Colder; High 35, Low 26 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:09 am & 4:29 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Just three months ago, I had never heard of futsal. But Jonah being Jonah, the grandson who cannot get enough of soccer, needs to play it in all four seasons. He plays spring soccer, does soccer camp in the summer, plays fall soccer, and now plays futsal in the winter. So how is futsal different from outdoor soccer? When I looked that up online, this is what I found. “Soccer is normally played as an outdoor game on large fields, whereas futsal is a type of soccer that is played indoors on a much smaller court. The smaller field size ensures a game of Futsal is fast-paced and more intense, with more opportunity for goal scoring.” The closest place for Jonah to play is a little more than an hour’s drive north. He plays two games each Sunday and this afternoon I volunteered to take him. The court looks a basketball court.
Each half is 20 minutes in length. But when you add in half time and time outs, it is more like 50 minutes per game. The first game was not good one for Jonah’s team, but they came back for the second game fired up and ready to go. The game ended in a tie, but Jonah scored three of his team’s five points. That helped to gloss over the first game loss.
Until I left home at 3 pm, I had continued to work on my presentation for Wednesday’s Public Policy meeting. My dining room table was piled with papers,
so I gathered them up and took them with me. Before the first game started, I sat in a plastic chair outside the futsal court and got the whole mess organized and put in a notebook. I went in to sit on the bleachers to watch the first game a little late, but it felt great to be organized. I could then concentrate on the games. I’m not completely ready for Wednesday, but almost, and had a great time watching Jonah play.
Tomorrow, I drive back north with Heather. She is making a presentation at Newbridge on the Charles, the retirement community where Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg live. I couldn’t resist the invitation to come with Heather and have lunch with Alan and Helaine plus a few climate change movers and shakers at Newbridge. So I had better get myself to bed so I can be ready for a big day tomorrow.
I saw photos on Facebook of the Goldstone gang on the slopes in Maine with friends.
Looks like they are having fun.
more puzzling . . . and suddenly it was dinnertime. I fixed dinner and decided to kick back and watch a movie. Today there was a suggested list in the NYTs This Morning online, so I started with the first one. It was a mind trip. Not the frivolous entertainment I was looking for, but very thought provoking once I worked through the weirdness. I watched “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.” A summary I found online described the plot this way: “An acclaimed journalist-turned-documentarian goes on an oneiric introspective journal to reconcile with the past, the present, and his Mexican identity.” Much of the film is in Spanish, but it is captioned, and you really don’t even notice. As one example of weirdness, at one point, the journalist was sitting atop a pyramid of dead people having a conversation with Cortez. In another scene, Silverio, the journalist, is talking with his dead father in a huge public bathroom. Strange scene, but the father does impart words of wisdom: “Age comes without warning. Then it turns into a full-time job. Walking, eating, using the bathroom . . . everything’s a problem. No one ever told me. Nobody ever warns you about it.” Then Pa goes on to talk to his son about success: “Take a swig of success. Swish it around and spit it out. Otherwise, it will poison you.” There were many of these thought-provoking statements throughout the film, but despite that, I almost stopped watching at least three different times. I put the movie on pause each time, but then decided to persist. I’m glad I did. In my opinion, it was ‘very out there’, but one needs a mind stretch once in a while.
