by Judy Handley | Aug 3, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 215: Family Dinner at My House
Date: Sunday, August 3, 2025
Weather: Sunny, Perfect Weather; High Temp 77, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Not too hot, not too cold … perfect summer weather. That describes the weather we are currently experiencing. Perfect weather is hard to come by these days, so we here on Cape Cod are thankful for this break from the heat and humidity. Monday and Tuesday look like they will be a little warmer, but still with coolish nights. I guess we’ll see what that means.
Heather, Jed, and Ollie leave tomorrow for Maine. Sam and Jonah follow on Thursday as Jonah really doesn’t want to miss summer soccer practice and games. Sam, Jonah, and Heather will also return early next week with just Ollie and Jed staying through the next weekend. I wanted to have everyone over for a Sunday summer dinner as it is the last chance for all of us to be together on a Sunday before Sam leaves for college. I grilled chicken, made stuffed baked potatoes with all the stuffings the boys love, and had corn on the cob and salad. It was a fun evening with lots of talk about packing for college.
But the Woodin’s were having a little happy hour gathering starting at 5:30 pm this afternoon that I wanted to drop in on. So, I made the stuffed potatoes ahead of time and had everything else ready to go. I went to the Woodin’s, had a great time visiting with friends, got home by 6:40 pm, fired up the grill, and we had dinner by 7:30. It was a fun evening. And if we don’t get a chance to have another family dinner with all of us until Sam comes home for Christmas, I will at least have the memories from tonight.
by Judy Handley | Aug 2, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 214: Looking a Lot Like …
Date: Saturday, August 2, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 74, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My Saturdays are all about the same these days. I take Shadow for a long walk, eat breakfast, check my email, and catch up on correspondence. If there is time, I read the NYT The Morning news highlights. Then I reserve the noon to 1:30 pm time slot for the Falmouth Standout Out for Democracy and Justice on the Green. So, that is what I did today. Everyone at the standout was talking about the firing of Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, because she “rigged” the data.” The reality is that all she did was report the facts and Donald Trump didn’t like the facts. That firing is what fascism looks like, and to everyone I talked with today, it feels like this one action was a huge blow to democracy. The statistics from the BLS are used by governments around the world in their economic decision making. If they cannot trust our numbers, it will affect economies around the globe, especially our own. “We the people” have to fight back with everything we have.
I met a woman at the standout today who is a member of the Resister Sisters. This is a small group of local, older women who have decided that they have to do everything they can to resist. I was invited to join them for two different protests they are planning for this next week. I don’t know if that makes me a Resister Sister, but I will certainly be there beside them.
I spent the remainder of the day doing a little house cleaning and some work on my various projects. It was a little warmer today, a perfect summer day.
by Judy Handley | Aug 1, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 213: Sam’s Graduation Dinner
Date: Friday, August 1, 2025
Weather: Cloudy, Some Rain, Clearing Late PM; High Temp 69, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It has been almost 2 months since Sam’s high school graduation, but he wanted his graduation dinner delayed until all three of his very best friends could be there. Sebastian didn’t get home from school in the Netherlands until mid-July and Robert is leaving this week for college in Florida. We knew that way back in June, so tonight was chosen for the dinner. Ethan leaves for college out West the middle of August. And less than a week after that, Sam and Sebastian leaves for college indifferent parts of the Netherlands. Four boys with four different areas of interest headed out into different parts of this world, but tonight with their families, we feasted at the Brazilian Grille in Hyannis. Sam and Sebastian were sitting at the end of the table, side by side, and I kept having flashbacks of a photo from Sam’s first birthday party where Heather was holding Sam and Jed was holding Sebastian. Seventeen years later, it was so special to see them having such a wonderful time as fully grown young men.
Today was so much cooler than it has been, almost too cool for me. Autumn with cooler weather is coming soon enough. I like my summers hot! It was also overcast with a little rain until late afternoon. On Jed’s recommendation, Ollie and I went to a hardware store the two of us didn’t know existed in Falmouth to get a ½ inch drill bit. Drilling into metal is a new skill for Ollie, but his first attempt was perfect. Now we just need to drill three more holes and we can assemble the new towing system.
by Judy Handley | Jul 31, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 212: A Trailor Hitch for Ollie’s Sunfish
Date: Thursday, July 31, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 79, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This afternoon, Ollie and I got serious about finding all the parts needed to get Ollie’s Sunfish trailer attached to my car so we can haul it to a boat ramp when he wants to sail. We have worked on this a little here and there since he bought the Sunfish, but we still didn’t have everything we needed. Getting those parts became our focus for the afternoon.
My car has a receiver hitch which is bolted onto the frame of my car and has a square tube opening. We had already bought the ball mount that fits into that square opening on one end and where the hitch ball is attached to the other end. But we didn’t have the right ball, and we needed a new trailer coupler. This is fitted on the extension of the trailer and has a socket that fits over the ball and locks the trailer to the car hitch.
If this all sounds like Greek to you, it did to me as well at the beginning of the afternoon. But as the day progressed, I learned a lot. We headed to Hyannis to buy the necessary parts and returned home with most, but not the parts needed. But when we got home and were working on this in the driveway, Heather and Jed got home from work. Jed was extremely helpful and it looks like we bought all the right parts to make things work. But we need a ½ inch drill bit to drill new holes in the trailer coupler. Tomorrow will begin where we left off this afternoon.
by Judy Handley | Jul 30, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 211: Happy 13th Birthday to Coco
Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 86, Low 71 degrees
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today was Coco’s 13th birthday. Now all of my grandchildren are officially teenagers. How did that happen? Happy Birthday, Coco! Jo sent a photo of all of her presents wrapped and ready to be opened this morning and then a few photos of her opening the presents. She looked like a happy 13-year-old.
Jonah and Jed went to Fairhaven, off Cape, this afternoon for an appointment for Jonah to get his Learner’s Permit. This was the first appointment available since he turned 16 the end of June. And it was through an AAA office, not the state DMV. Congratulations, Jonah.
And Ollie and I spent four hours at the beach from 3 to 7 pm today. Ollie met up with his friend Seton, and Seton’s friend James. They were in the water for the entire four hours and had a wonderful time at Stoney Beach in Woods Hole. And I enjoyed the entire time reading in between trips into the water to cool down. It was a sunny, hot, glorious afternoon.
by Judy Handley | Jul 29, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 210: Highfield, Highfield
Date: Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 81, Low 69 degrees
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I spent the late morning and afternoon at the Goldstones but left earlier than usual today to meet Jane Woodin and attend a class together at Highfield Hall about the history of the gardens there. George Chapman is the gardener and led the presentation. I enjoyed learning the history of the gardens, plus I learned the difference between gardens and landscaping. Landscaping is planted and is then just left to grow. Gardens, however, need constant attention, with the planting of annuals. That is my simplified definition, but it reflects the title of the class which was, “Gardening Never Ends.” So true.
Jane and I came back to my house for a quick dinner and chat time. Then after Jane left, I headed to East Falmouth to pick up my friend Olga to take her to the College Light Opera Guild’s production of Orpheus. The college students are very talented, but Orpheus was not my cup of tea. But it was nice to spend the evening with Olga.
