by Judy Handley | Nov 25, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 329: Settling In
Date: Monday, November 25, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny; 88 High Temp, Low 77 degrees F
Location: At Home with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco in Aguada, Puerto Rico
We called today our settling in day. Ziggy and Coco have this week off school, Justin is taking this week off work, and it was my first day here, so we spent today just settling in. First off, we talked about our meal plan for the week and Jo made a shopping list. Justin and I then went shopping at three different grocery stores, came home with four big boxes of food, and got the food stored away. We then had lunch and mid-afternoon we headed down to Marina Beach in Rincon to get in the water and bask in the sun. That was fabulous! For dinner we had pasteles that I will write more about later in this blog, and tonight we watched the second in a series of movies Coco wanted to watch. The Maze Runner film series is an action-packed and very scary American science-fiction film series. They had already watched the first in the series, The Maze Runner, so they just told me about that so that we could move on to the second film in the series, The Scorch Trials. Scary or not, we will probably move on the final film in the series, The Death Cure, tomorrow night.
Christmas celebrations begin early in Puerto Rico. I read today that there are three things you must have on the table for a Puerto Rican Christmas—pernil which we had on Thanksgiving Day last year, arroz con gandules (rice and beans), and pasteles. We started our Christmas celebrations today with pasteles which are a delicious treat wrapped in a banana leaf and then wrapped in paper and tied up like a little package.
They are delicious but a little hard to describe, so I borrowed these photos from the internet. There are two types and tonight we had pasteles de yucca with chicken in the filling. “Some people compare them to tamales except that they are nothing like tamales except that they are labor-intensive and wrapped.”
Another Christmas tradition we started on today was the making of those lists for Santa. Heather has suggested that this Christmas we limit our giving to something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read. So, I asked everyone to make of list of three things in each category. Coco and Jo got their lists written, but Justin and Ziggy need a bit more time.
I love being able to visit here at this time of year. I not only get to celebrate Thanksgiving with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco, but I also get to share some of their joy in getting ready for Christmas. In the next couple of days, we will turn our focus to the cooking preparations for Thanksgiving. Then on Sunday, the first day of December, we can go get the Christmas tree and I can help decorate. There is new kitty in the family and Justin is more than a little worried that Christmas ornaments will be too great of temptation for kitty. We shall see.
by Judy Handley | Nov 24, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 328: Arrival in Puerto Rico
Date: Sunday, November 24, 2024
Weather: Hot and Steamy, Light Rain Late; 86 High Temp, 75 Low, 86 degrees F
Location: At Home with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco in Aguada, Puerto Rico
Up at 6 am and to bed at 11 pm EST, but midnight here in Puerto Rico. Woohoo! Everyone here is great, and I survived a long day. I was up at 6 am, got dressed, took Shadow for a walk, packed my bags in the car, and was off to the Sagamore Park and Ride by 7 am. Then it was on the bus to head to Boston Logan. By 10 am I was at my gate eating a breakfast sandwich I picked up on the way, waiting for my flight to leave. We were on the plane by noon, but takeoff was delayed about half an hour while the air conditioning system was resetting itself. It is a four-hour flight, but with the time change, we arrived here sometime after 5 pm. By the time I got my checked bag and connected with Justin it was 6:30 pm. Jet Blue arrives in a different part of the airport than where I usually arrive, and it took us a while to find each other. On the two plus hour drive to Aguada, we stopped to get a bite to eat and arrived here around 9:30 pm. Ziggy, Coco, Jo, and the cats and dogs all came out to greet me and then spent awhile bringing me up to date on what is happening in their lives these days. I’ll bring you up to date on the gang here tomorrow. Right now, I am definitely ready for some sleep. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night and couldn’t sleep on the plane. Instead, I watched a movie, The Boys on the Boat. I read the book years ago but had never seen the movie. What a great story.
by Judy Handley | Nov 23, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 327: Ready or Not
Date: Saturday, November 23, 2024
Weather: Cloudy with Rain; High Temp 46, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
My bags are in the car and the house is as good as it is going to get before I leave here before 7 am in the morning to catch the bus to Boston Logan. The house is not perfect, but it will have to do. I will get up at 6 am and take Shadow for his morning walk before leaving. Then Brian and Nadia will arrive around noon to stay here with Shadow while I am in Puerto Rico. I am sleeping on the sofa tonight because there is no way I would have time to change the bed sheets in the morning. So, I will make this short and get to bed.
Heather and Sam got on the bus at noon today and headed to Boston Logan. They arrived early so had to hang out in the airport for a delayed flight to Toronto. Then at 9:41 tonight the text came saying they were on the tarmac in Toronto headed to Amsterdam. Jonah and Ollie both had things they had to do today, so they and Jed will have the same flights as Heather and Sam did today starting late tomorrow. When Heather and Sam arrive in Amsterdam in a few hours, they will then take a train to Groningen where Sam will attend a prospective student day on Monday. Monday afternoon Jed, Ollie, and Jonah will arrive in Groningen. Then as a family, they will have Tuesday to explore that city before moving on to stop number two which is Rotterdam. Here’s hoping they have a wonderful ‘explore’ in Holland and that Sam has successful visits to the universities.
If things go as scheduled, I will arrive in San Juan at 5 pm tomorrow. Justin will pick me up and we will head to Rincon. It will probably be after 10 pm their time (an hour later than here) when we arrive at Finca Maravilla, so you might not hear from me until Monday morning.
by Judy Handley | Nov 22, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 326: Running Behind Schedule
Date: Friday, November 22, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny, Turning Cloudy with Rain; High Temp 51, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
This was one of those days when I just couldn’t keep my focus centered on the tasks that needed to be done. But ready or not, I leave here by 7 am on Sunday morning. My goal was to be fully packed by the end of today so that I could focus on getting the house ready for the Shadow sitters tomorrow. I have random clothes in the suitcase, but I am far from being done. Maybe I’ll be a little more clear headed tomorrow and can give you a glowing report of being totally ready to go in tomorrow night’s log.
by Judy Handley | Nov 21, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 325: Lunch with Friends, Back to My Computer
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Weather: Rainy Day; High Temp 49, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
If my logs are correct, it has been more than a month, 36 days to be exact, since we have had any rain. That was Monday, October 14. During those dry days, we have often had high winds resulting in many Red Flag Alerts. The risk of wildfires has been high. Hopefully the rain today, and maybe more tomorrow and Saturday, will help bring down that risk.
My Vegan Lunch Bunch met today at my house. There were only three of us, but we still enjoyed good food and good conversation. And after that, I spent the rest of my day on the computer. I had to deal with an Encore issue and then I had to write another long email to the administrative staff at my sister’s assisted living facility. I went down there to get answers to a number of questions but left not knowing much more that I knew when I got there. I have needed to deal with this since I got home over a week ago, but I have had many other issues to deal with that ranked higher on my TO DO list. I still have a few more items on that list that I hope to get to before leaving for Puerto Rico on Sunday morning. But tomorrow I am going focus on packing for the trip and on Saturday I have to get the house ready for house guests who will take care of Shadow while I am away. So, I might just have to deal with the TO DO list after I get home from PR. I am hoping to have the whole week to just focus on Ziggy and Coco and not even think about things I need to do back home.
by Judy Handley | Nov 20, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 324: Encore Program, More Shopping, Food Prep
Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 53, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
The morning was spent at an Encore general meeting. The program today was a Cape Cod historian and writer, Jim Coogan. Once a classroom teacher, he that decided to write books in his retirement years. He is a good story teller and shared some very interesting Cape Cod stories that he has included in the books he has published.
I spent all afternoon returning pants I bought for Sam yesterday and finding the right size of one pair he particularly liked. I returned pants to stores in Mashpee, came home to have a late lunch, pick Ollie up after school, and then I headed to a store off Cape to get the right size of one pair of pants Sam particularly liked. For his birthday in January, I told him I would buy parts he needed for his car. However, that car is still in the garage, still in need of parts, so I decided to buy pants for him instead. This required heading to a store off Cape and that took the rest of the afternoon. But now Sam has his very belated birthday gift from me.
Tonight, I did some food prep for my Vegan Lunch Bunch that meets here tomorrow. Normally there are five of us, but tomorrow there will just be three. Unfortunately, it takes as much time to cook for three and it does for five. I will have to hustle in the morning to finish the food preparation and get this house cleaned up and presentable for guests.
