by Judy Handley | Aug 16, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 228: Hurricane Season is Upon Us
Date: Saturday, August 16, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 76, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
When I went to bed last night, Hurricane Erin was Category 1 and its trajectory looked like it was starting to curve to the north and west. Well, this morning Christina Brodie emailed saying she was worried about Justin and family in Puerto Rico because of Erin. I sent a text to Justin and asked if all was well. He replied that no one expected Erin to come near Puerto Rico. But, like mine, his information was from last night. When we both checked, we found that during the night Erin went from a Cat 1 to a Cat 4 and was on its way to being a Category 5 AND it was not heading north and west, just west for now. It did reach Cat 5 status this afternoon, but it is now back down to Category 4. The latest report I saw had the hurricane location about 150 miles north of Puerto Rico. Thankfully, no direct hit, but probably a lot of rain and wind. Hopefully all is well at Finca Maravilla, but I will check in the morning and let you know tomorrow night.
I spent the early afternoon at the weekly rally on the Green. There were more people on the Green today than last week and the downtown area was full of people here for the Road Race. The general atmosphere was more like a celebration than a rally today.
I spent the remainder of my day emailing the people I have invited to my next Community Resistance Gathering on this Tuesday evening. I invited everyone in my dining-in group plus a couple of other people. Then I turned my attention to the nonviolent film series I am working on. I did my first film viewing tonight, and I chose Selma as I had never seen it before. It is hard to watch but a very strong reminder of the struggle to get the Voting Rights Act passed in the 1960’s. It is tragic that the Voting Rights Act has been significantly weakened, almost totally gutted, in the past 10 years. The struggle continues.
by Judy Handley | Aug 15, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 227: Falmouth Gearing Up for Road Race 2025
Date: Friday, August 15, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 79, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The number of runners in the Falmouth Road Race this year is 11,400, so the town was jampacked with people today. No matter where you went, it was a traffic jam.
I had a meeting this morning with a woman from Bourne who wants to help with the nonviolent resistance film series I am planning. Then tonight, Heather, Sam, and I had a sushi dinner together. Jonah was doing Road Race volunteer work from 3:30 to 7:00 pm, and then he stayed at the high school and played soccer with friends until dark, so he didn’t join us for dinner. Heather and I took his soccer gear to him at the high school, picked up our take-out sushi, and enjoyed the beautiful weather on the deck eating sushi until the mosquitos chased us indoors.
by Judy Handley | Aug 15, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 226: No More Stitches
Date: Thursday, August 14, 2025
Weather: Overcast and Warm; High Temp 75, Low 69 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Shadow had the remaining stitches removed today, but the incision is not healed. He has to continue to wear the plastic cone and be on leash at all times when outside for at least one more week. I can take the cone off when I have him on leash or when I am watching his every move. Poor Shadow. He must feel like he is in prison. I know he misses his off-leash time chasing a tennis ball every afternoon. But he has survived two weeks of quiet time with a plastic cone around his neck, so I know he can make it for another week. It is just not fun.
Late this afternoon I attended a meet and greet with our State Senator, Dylan Fernandez, at Christina and Warren Brodie’s. It was a lovely affair and a great opportunity to mix and mingle with friends and with Dylan. State Senators in Massachusetts are elected for just two years. He has been in office for one year and now has to spend the second year campaigning. He is young, enthusiastic, and is doing a great job.
I left the Brodie’s just in time to get to the next meeting of the Falmouth Democrats. There were guest speakers tonight on the topic of housing. And then there was a young man who asked to speak. He is running for the US Senate seat that has been held by Ed Markey for the last 12 years. Markey has been a good Senator and wants to keep his job. But I think we are going to see these young candidates challenging the status quo all across the country in 2026. I was just not quite ready to get into another election season already!
by Judy Handley | Aug 13, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 225: Computer Work Sandwiched Between Meetings
Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Weather: Overcast and Warm; High Temp 75, Low 69 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It was a workday. I had an all-morning Encore Board meeting and ended the day with an Indivisible Upper Cape meeting in Mashpee and then an Indivisible One Million Rising training session on Zoom. I had saved the afternoon to drive to Boston to pick up Jonah, but he took the bus. I just had to pick him up at the Falmouth station. So, one more Goldstone is home from Maine. That just leaves Ollie and Jed in Boothbay. I am not sure exactly when they are coming home, but probably sometime this weekend. And speaking of this weekend, it is Falmouth Road Race weekend with thousands of extra people coming to town. Jonah is working at Corner Cycle this weekend and he says it will be busier than the Fourth of July.
Since I didn’t drive to Boston to pick up Jonah, I spent the afternoon following up on things from the morning Encore Board meeting. Tomorrow, I start the day with vet appointment for Shadow. I am anxious to get a medical opinion on how the incision is healing. I don’t know if the hard plastic cone he has to wear is harder on me or on him. But we are surviving.
by Judy Handley | Aug 12, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 224: Workday
Date: Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Weather: Still Warm, AC on; High Temp 82, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It was a workday for me. I had to get ready to give my first financial report to the Library Board of Trustees tonight, prepare for the Encore Board meeting tomorrow, and send out communications inviting a few people to look through a list of 125+ nonviolent resistance films for the film series I am heading up for the Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition. I feel like a juggler that always has three balls in the air!
Shadow is moping around with the plastic cone on his head, but I took him for a long walk this morning and another one this afternoon. I had to hand-feed him last night, but I refused to do it this morning, so he didn’t eat. Tonight, I tried putting the food on a plate instead of in a bowl and I put it up on a step stool and that worked. The cone was hitting the floor when the food was at floor level.
Late this afternoon, another Goldstone returned to the Cape from Maine. Today it was Sam. He drove home so he can spend a little time with his friend Ethan who leave on Friday for university in Montana. I delivered Sam’s baskets of clean clothes this evening before my Library Trustees meeting. I hope most of the clothes stay clean until he packs. Monday and Tuesday will be packing days, and on Wednesday, he and Heather leave for the Netherlands. Never a dull moment around here.
by Judy Handley | Aug 11, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 223: Shadow Update
Date: Monday, August 11, 2025
Weather: Warming Up Again; High Temp 78, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
One Goldstone is back on the Cape today. This morning, Heather took a bus from near Booth Bay to Portland and on to South Station in Boston where I picked her up. She needed to be back home to attend Select Board this evening. I jumped at the chance to go pick her up so we could have some one-on-one time to talk. Once the kids are around, that never seems to happen. It was delightful to catch up and have a little private time with my daughter!
The problem of the day was Shadow. Well, not Shadow, but Shadow’s surgical incision. Last night after my dining-in friends left, I went to Heather and Jed’s to pick Shadow up. Since I knew we were going to be going in and out of the house, there was no way I was going to be able to keep Shadow on a leash while carrying food and drinks back and forth. And until the incision is healed, I have to keep him on leash all the time. I picked him up, came home, wrote my log, and then got ready for bed. It was then that I noticed that his incision was no longer stitched together. Since I have been wearing a soft collar on him rather than the hard plastic cone given to me by the vet, I knew I was taking a chance that he could use his paw to try and rub the incision and break the stitches loose, either on purpose or by accident. It happened, and however it happened, it scared me to death to just look at it. The incision is on his eyelid, right next to his eye, and part of the incision was gaping open. I took a deep breath, put medication on the incision, and put the awful plastic cone back on him. After wearing the other collar for a week, he is a little better with the cone, but he obviously hates it. I took him to the veterinarian first thing this morning and was told that the incision will heal without doing more stitches. This just sets the timeline back a bit. They gave me a different tube of ointment to put on the incision that has an antibiotic in it (another $50) and was told to return with him on Thursday. That is when the stitches were supposed to come out, and there are still a couple of stitches in place that do have to be removed. I should never have taken the plastic cone off. Nor should I have let him off-leash in the yard a few times. Those stitches would have stayed in place if I had left the cone on. Live and learn. But it is not a good feeling to know that I have caused such great difficulty for Shadow.
