by Judy Handley | Jun 11, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 163: Moving Toward Normal
Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Weather: Sunny Day; Temp 68, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
After a January back surgery, a bout with Covid, and a May knee replacement, today I felt like I am finally moving back toward ‘normal’. I had PT this morning, went to a book club meeting, did some grocery shopping, went to take Ollie to soccer practice, and I was driving!!! I actually didn’t have to take Ollie to soccer as he really needed to go to Scouts tonight to sign up for summer camp, so I came home and got prepared for an Encore board meeting tomorrow morning. Heather was going to take the boys to Scouts and then go to the boat to do a little work before sundown. The boat launch is on Friday and there is much left to do. Jed flew to DC today to drive his mother up here tomorrow. She will then drive on to Maine on Thursday. Now if I could just find the energy to do a little gardening, I’d totally feel like things are back to normal.
by Judy Handley | Jun 10, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 162: Moving Back Home
Date: Monday, June 10, 2024
Weather: Sunny Day; Temp 68, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
On the last day of May, I moved myself next door to the studio apartment as Justin and family were arriving that night and were still Covid positive. Sam and Jonah came over that day and helped move the bigger things like my exercise bike. Today, I moved it all back and spent the entire day doing laundry loads of sheets and towels, plus the covers I took next door to protect Lynda’s white sofa and chairs from Shadow. Justin and Ziggy carried the exercise bike back for me last night, but I had to make many trips to get everything back here today. Needless to say, I am exhausted, so I am making this log short.
Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco left at 3:45 am this morning and were all checked in at Logan Airport by 5:30 am. I got a text from Justin at 1:46 pm our time saying they had arrived safely in England and a little later he sent a photo of them on the train headed to Jo’s Aunt Susie’s home in a town near London. I am so glad that their travels went smoothly. It feels mighty lonely here without them, but I have wonderful memories of our days together.
by Judy Handley | Jun 8, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 160: Ollie’s Soccer Game, Trip to Boston, Dinner with Family
Date: Saturday, June 8, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny; Temp 69, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
I was up early this morning to go to Ollie’s 9 am soccer game. His team won 2-1 which means they advance to the final playoff game next Saturday.
On Thursday, Jonah’s team lost their bid for the playoffs, but Jonah scored the only two goals made my Falmouth. And tonight, Sam’s ACI team lost. Unfortunately, Sam was not able to go to the game due to the cut on his heel that he got last night at the beach. So, after Ollie’s game next Saturday, there will be no more soccer until practice starts up in August.
After I got home from the game, it was almost time for Justin to head to Boston to pick up Jo and Coco. Ziggy didn’t want to go with him, so I decided to go with him. It gave me a nice chance to just talk with Justin on the way up and a chance to hear all about the Melanie Martinez concert last night from Coco on the way home. The trip took longer than expected, however. When we go to the Quincy Adams station in Braintree, Jo and Coco were not there. Justin called Jo and found that they were waiting at the Broadway station in Dorchester for a bus. The T was not running from there to Quincy Adams due to planned maintenance that we did not know about. So, we drove on into Boston to pick them up. There was traffic, as always, but we finally made it home after 3 pm. We took time to drive by Heather and Jed’s sailboat, Ardenna, to take a peak but we missed Heather and Jed. They had been there cleaning but had to make a run to West Marine. At least Justin, Jo, and Coco got to take a peek at Ardenna. When we got home, we all had a late lunch, and then Justin headed to the T-Mobile store with Ziggy and Coco. Jo took a nap, and after I rested while elevating and icing my knee. I then fixed dinner to take to Heather’s. We bought pulled pork at Wicked & Wood on the way home from Boston, so I just had to make the buns, a red cabbage Cole slaw, and chocolate pudding pie. It was after 7 pm when I finally finished everything, and then Jo and I packed things up and headed to Heather and Jed’s for dinner. Justin was in the T-Mobile store for over two hours switching his account from Sprint to T-Mobile. Sprint was bought out by T-Mobile, but he had not been able to transfer the account to T-Mobile in Puerto Rico. It did take a bit, but he finally got everything set up as it should be. He had sent Ziggy and Coco on to walk to Heather and Jed’s instead of making them wait for the transfer process to be completed. Coco came out of the deal with a new pink i-phone and she was quite happy about that.
We had another nice dinner together as a family once we all got to Heather and Jed’s. It dawned on me today that tomorrow is our last day together and we have not gotten a family photo with all of us in it. We decided to try for a late day photo tomorrow either on the beach in Quissett Harbor or at the Knob. Fifteen years ago, we had a professional photographer take photos of us on Quissett Beach, but there was no Coco and no Ollie in 2009. It might rain tomorrow, but hopefully the sun will come out late day just in time for our photo shoot.
by Judy Handley | Jun 7, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 159: Coco and Jo in Boston, Indian Dinner with the Goldstones
Date: Friday, June 7, 2024
Weather: Beautiful Day; Temp 73, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
The time with Justin and family is passing by way too quickly. We have only two days left before they leave at 4 am on Monday morning. Jo and Coco will return from Boston tomorrow afternoon, but then Sam and Jed have to leave by 3 pm to head almost 2 hours north for a soccer tournament game from 5 to 7 pm. And if Sam’s team wins tomorrow night’s game, he and Jed will have to do a repeat performance on Sunday afternoon and evening. If they win, maybe we can have brunch on Sunday morning so the whole family can be together one more time. But we made the most of our time this evening by ordering Indian food from the Golden Swan and eating here in the front yard. After dinner, Sam took Ollie, Jonah, and Ziggy to the beach to play with a frisbee but returned sooner than expected because Sam got a cut on his heel by stepping on a sharp piece of metal. After he got that cleaned up, we all sat together around the fire pit.
We missed Jo and Coco, but Jo kept sending photos of Coco and her friend Lily as they got ready for the Melanie Martinez concert tonight.
and more photos and videos of the girls at the concert. Jo said Coco was so excited she could hardly contain herself. I will look forward to hearing more about this from Coco when she returns tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Jun 6, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 158: Coco and Jo Off to Boston
Date: Thursday, June 6, 2024
Weather: Rainy Day; Temp 68, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
We have had beautiful weather the whole time JJZ&C have been here, but today it rained all day, ending in a foggy evening. I had PT this morning. Then in the early afternoon, Jo and Coco were off to Boston. Coco’s Christmas present last year was a ticket to a Melanie Martinez concert at TD Gardens. Ziggy asked her why she was so excited. He said, “It’s not Christmas, you know.” She replied that is Christmas for her. Justin drove them to the Quincy Adams T station south of Boston and they took the T to the Medford-Tufts stop which is a short walk from the Airbnb they are renting. Coco’s friend, Lily, and her mother were flying in from Missouri to meet them. Tomorrow they will tour Boston and then go to the concert. Then on Saturday, they will take the T back to Quincy Adams to be picked up.
Ziggy and I watched a Star Wars movie in the afternoon, followed by a taco dinner. Then Justin and I watched Dune 1. I asked him if he wanted to watch Dune 2 with me, but since he had never seen the first one, this will be a two night affair. Ziggy has zero interest in watching what he deems to be a long, boring movie. However, Justin and I really enjoyed it. But the biggest excitement here at home today was the snapping turtle in the driveway. Lots of snappers out and about these days.
by Judy Handley | Jun 5, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 157: Trip to Hyannis, Fabulous Dinner at the Goldstones
Date: Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny; Temp 68, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
The trip to Hyannis was necessary because I had my three-week post op appointment with my knee surgeon, Dr. Timothy Kinkead. I got good reports all around. The x-rays looked good, the bandage was removed from my incision, and it looks good. Next week I can stop wearing the compression stockings and stop taking the Aspirin as a blood thinner. Dr. Kinkead was very happy with my progress to date and said I can drive if I can easily push on the brake pedal. He saw no reason that I shouldn’t be able to do that now. He said that I should spend a day going in and out of the car and just practicing pushing on the brake. Once I do that and feel comfortable with it, I’ll drive a short distance and see how it goes. I don’t have another appointment with Dr. Kinkead until May of next year and that is just to check in and see how things are going. All good.
While I was at Cape Cod Orthopedics, JJZ&C walked down Main Street in Hyannis, mostly window shopping but buying a pair of Carhartt pants for Ziggy at the Army surplus store. Then it was on to the Cape Cod Mall for lunch at 5 Guys. Justin had a 3 pm Zoom meeting, so he headed to Barnes & Nobles and the rest of us followed soon. He sat in the coffee shop for his meeting while Ziggy, Coco, and Jo just enjoyed looking through all the books. They do not have a book store in western Puerto Rico, so this was a special treat. Then after Justin’s meeting, he and I took off to run some shopping errands in Hyannis while Jo, Ziggy, and Coco walked through the mall. The bookstore was definitely the highlight of their afternoon, but the successful visit with Dr. Kinkead was my highlight.
We didn’t get home until almost 6 pm, so we all took a little rest before heading to Heather and Jed’s for dinner. While I was icing my leg, Mark’s brother Steve called from Florida. I hadn’t heard from Steve for about two years, so we had a wonderful conversation, catching up on all the Handley news. Then it was on to H & J’s. Sam was not home tonight as he had soccer practice in Hyannis, but the rest of us enjoyed a meal of seared ahi tuna served with asparagus and arugula, quinoa, pumpkin seed, and dried cranberry salad
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Everything was delicious. So, another big thank you to Heather and Jed.
