by Judy Handley | Oct 20, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 293: Just Me and My Shadow
Date: Sunday, October 20, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 65, Low 51 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
This was a quiet Sunday with just me and Shadow muddling through a beautiful fall day. I had some Encore work to do this morning and then I spent time outside weeding. There is a common, but very invasive plant that is trying to take over the edges of the backyard commonly called Lady’s Thumb. It is an annual plant in the buckwheat/smartweed (Polygonaceae) family family and is considered an herb. In folk medicine it is said to prevent gastric cancer. And some species are edible. All well and good, but it literally takes over everything. There is a wonderful patch of Lemon Balm in the same area. The Lady’s Thumb is growing under and over that, so I am pulling as much of it as I can from around the Lemon Balm because I love the way it smells. After my back had enough of weeding, I needed to take a long walk, so Shadow and I walked over to Heather and Jed’s just to see what was happening there today. They were working on the deck replacement project. Ollie had gone with his friend Seton and his family to the Wellfleet Oyster Festival and Sam and Jonah were in their rooms. Heather and Jed had friends coming to dinner, so they were stopping the deck project to go food shopping. That reminded me that I needed to go food shopping as well, so Shadow and I headed home. My little bit of food shopping required that I go to 3 different stores and took almost two hours. Part of that time was spent talking to a friend of Heather and Jed’s that I haven’t seen for a few years. Her son used to play soccer with Sam when they were in elementary school and now that son is taking a gap year, and in a few days will be sailing from Fiji to New Zealand. Somehow, we managed to talk for well over half an hour. It was almost dark when I got home, so I played a quick game of fetch with Shadow and called it a day.
Tomorrow, I will spend the entire day in the kitchen. I am fixing dinner for the Goldpebbles as Heather and Jed are both off to meetings in the late afternoon and evening. Then on Tuesday I am taking a butternut squash and beet salad to a luncheon, and I need to bake the squash and beets tomorrow. On Tuesday night I have my wine group and I am taking tiny baked honeynut squash filled with toasted walnuts as my pairing for my choice of a wine for Thanksgiving dinner. I will bake the honeynut squash tomorrow as well. I will get a break from food preparation on Wednesday as I am going out to lunch with friends to celebrate Jane Woodin’s birthday. It was a couple of weeks ago, but this Wednesday was the first date the five of us could get together. Then on Thursday I go on an all-day field trip to historic Lexington. Thank goodness my calendar is clear on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday except one soccer game on Saturday. I’m sure things will be added as the week progresses, but hopefully I can rest up to get ready for another week in the life.
by Judy Handley | Oct 19, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 292: More Soccer, Mingle & Mix
Date: Saturday, October 19, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 62, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
This is Falmouth High School’s Homecoming Weekend, and it was a beautiful afternoon to sit in the sun and watch Sam and Jonah play in the Homecoming soccer game. And even better, we won 1-0. Then this evening I went to an Encore Mingle & Mix and had a lovely evening. So, most of the day was delightful, but it started out with call telling me my sister had fallen during the night. On one of the hourly checks, she was found in the floor near her bed. The good news is that she is fine. The bad news is that she forgot that she is not supposed to get up without using her call button to summon help and wait for someone to come. I talked with her and tried to reinforce this, but her dementia allows her to quickly forget. At least this time the fall didn’t result in a fractured bone.
by Judy Handley | Oct 19, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 291: Free and Easy Day, Evening at The Narrows
Date: Friday, October 18, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny, Windy; High Temp 58, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
My calendar was blank today until mid -afternoon, so I had a free and easy morning. I did book my flight to Puerto Rico for Thanksgiving. I opted for going the week of Thanksgiving since that is when the kids will have time off school even though it was more expensive. I get to Ziggy and Coco only once or twice a year, so when I do fly down, I need to time my visits for maximum time with them. I now need to find someone to come stay with Shadow and then I can fully celebrate that I am going.
Jane Woodin dropped by to visit in the early afternoon, and we had a good chat. After she left, I baked a leaf pie that I will take as an appetizer to a Mingle and Mix tomorrow night. I went to pick up Ollie after school and then it was time to head to Fall River with Judy Fenwick to a Paula Poundstone performance tonight at The Narrows, an arts and music venue. I don’t know when I last laughed as hard as I did tonight. I know of Paula Poundstone from NPR’s Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! She is funny on that program, but I had no idea she was a stand-up comedian who absolutely hilarious. How good it is to laugh.
by Judy Handley | Oct 17, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 290: From Dermatologist to Soccer to Full Moon
Date: Thursday, October 17, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny, Cold N Wind; High Temp 56, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
My day went from my annual dermatology visit in the morning to attending another high school soccer game in the late afternoon to observing the biggest full moon of 2024, the October Hunter’s supermoon, tonight. And in between all of that, was the normal day-to-day routine and searching for the cheapest round trip flights to Puerto Rico around Thanksgiving. It used to be that if you flew on the holiday it was cheaper, but that is not true this year. I am not finished with the search, but it looks to me like flying from Providence will be cheaper than flying out of Boston. That is fine with me, but the other thing that I am finding is that traveling the week before Thanksgiving and flying home the day before Thanksgiving is cheapest. I need to talk to Justin and Jo to see what they think about that. The downside of staying for Thanksgiving Day is that the cost of the cheapest flight doubles coming home the next day or Saturday and triples if I stay until Monday or Tuesday. The upside is that the cheapest price is only $200, so doubling that makes the higher price just a little more than $400. But in my budget, every dollar counts. More on this tomorrow night after more research.
by Judy Handley | Oct 16, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 289: Encore Meeting, Then Public Policy Meeting
Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny, Cold N Wind; High Temp 56, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
The Encore General Meeting program today was about ticks and tick-borne diseases presented by an entomologist from the Plymouth County Extension office. His name was Blake Dinius and he shared a lot of really helpful information. He says the science supports spraying your outdoor ‘play’ clothing and shoes once a month year-round with permethrin and using Deet or picaridin on your skin. He also gave advice about getting your yard sprayed, or not. For the most part, you are probably just throwing your money away doing this. There was nothing new in the presentation, but the approach to this problem that is never going to go away was refreshing.
I came home, had lunch, read the material for the next meeting, and then was off to my Exploring Public Policy meeting. Jon Kaufman, who is co-leader of the group with me, was presenting today on the state of estuaries and ponds in Falmouth. Jon gave a very informative presentation and we had a good discussion.
Tonight I have done very little. I am exhausted and am going to bed early. Tomorrow is a new day with NO meetings!
by Judy Handley | Oct 15, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 288: Work Day and FHS Soccer
Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Felt Like Fall; High Temp 55, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
It was a sit at my computer all day kind of day. Not much to report other than I got everything done I needed to do and also dealt with more sister issues. I wasn’t completely finished with the PowerPoint for tomorrow morning’s Encore general meeting, but at 4 pm I headed to the high school for Sam and Jonah’s soccer game. It was sunny, but it felt cooler than the 50 some degrees and truly felt like fall sitting in the bleachers.
Heather met me at the game and at 6 pm she heard from Jed that he and Marti were just entering Maryland just in time for rush hour traffic in DC. But at least they were almost there.
