by Judy Handley | Jun 26, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 176: Happy 16th Birthday to Jonah
Date: Thursday, June 26, 2025
Weather: Overcast with Sprinkles All Day Long; High Temp 73, Low 60 degrees
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I have been so incredibly busy that I have not posted a log for the past four days. I will be posting those logs in the next couple of days, but here is a quick summary. Sunday was Jonah’s birthday party with friends at R1, an entertainment center in Rhode Island. Monday was a beach day with Ollie and his friend Seton and my nephew Rex and his wife Diana from West Virgina arrived for a four-day visit. Tuesday, Rex, Diana, and I took off for a day trip to Provincetown. It was the hottest day of the year to date, but that didn’t deter our exploration of the town and the Cape Cod National Seashore. On Wednesday, I had an Encore Board meeting in the morning, but I made it to Heather and Jed’s in time to give Sam a farewell hug before he took off on a European adventure with friends. Then Rex, Diana, and I were off to Stony Beach for a relaxing afternoon. This morning, I woke up asking, “Where in the world is Sam?” Before I went to bed last night, Heather let me know that Sam, Robert, and Ethan had arrived in Amsterdam and were waiting for their flight to Prague. Early this morning we heard from Robert that they had arrived in Prague and were on the bus to explore the downtown area. They will be in Prague until Monday when they travel on to Freiburg, Germany.
That brings me to today. Rex and Diana left around 10 am travelling to Niagara Falls before returning home to West Virginia on Saturday. After they left, I spent the rest of my morning on my computer doing Library Trustee work and general catching up. I checked in with Ollie, but he really didn’t want to do anything today. Heather was working from home, so I left him there, checked in at the library to see if there were additional checks to write, attended the weekly Indivisible meeting at 3 pm, and before I knew it, it was time to go to Heather and Jed’s to celebrate Jonah’s birthday.
Sixteen years ago today, Mark and I took Sam to the Falmouth Hospital to meet his little brother. We spent that summer here before returning to Windbird in Australia and then didn’t see Jonah again until we finally sailed Windbird into Woods Hole just in time for his second birthday. We had left a baby and returned to a chubby cheeked, curly blonde-haired happy toddler.
Tonight, during dinner, we all shared some of our favorite memories of Jonah’s early years. My favorite story was about walking up and down the street with Jonah after a rain. He would put on his little astronaut suit and boots and pretend we were walking on the moon. He would announce when there was hot lava and we would have to tip toe at a run to get to safety.
Heather and Jed recalled his first birthday that was centered around tubs of colorful balls. He had loved playing with balls from the time he could hold one in his little hands. That hasn’t changed. Soccer is the love of his life.
Jonah loves soccer, but he also loves birthday cake. For tonight, he dreamed up a recipe and Heather executed the directions. It was a very moist, triple chocolate cake baked in two round pans. The rounds were sliced in half across the middle and warmed raspberry jam was spread on the layers. Each round was then reassembled with a layer of chocolate ganache between the two rounds. Then it was covered with chocolate buttercream icing. Decadent and delicious. Happy 16th birthday to Jonah!
by Judy Handley | Jun 21, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 171: Happy Birthday to Jo on the First Full Day of Summer
Date: Saturday, June 21, 2025
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High Temp 75, Low 65 degrees
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Summer solstice happened last night around 10:30 pm ET. In Falmouth, we consider the last day of school the beginning of summer, but officially today was that first full day of summer 2025. And it was my daughter-in-law Jo’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Jo! Along with Ziggy and Coco, Jo will soon be heading to England to visit family for two weeks. I am sure she will have birthday celebrations there, but I hope she had a special day today. I don’t know if it was related to Jo’s birthday, but yesterday Ziggy cut his hair. I honestly don’t know when the last time was that he had his hair cut, but it has been very many years, if ever. A new look, for sure!
I did not go to the weekly rally on the Green today. It is so important that we keep attending these rallies, but I had to take a pass today. I had a load of things that I really needed to do to get ready for my nephew Rex and his wife Diana to visit beginning on Monday with no other time to do it. I’ll be back at it next Saturday.
Tomorrow Jonah is having his 16th birthday party with a few friends at R1 Indoor Karting Entertainment Center in Lincoln, RI. I had originally planned to go to New Hampshire tomorrow to see my niece Candi and her family. Rex and Diana will be arriving there tomorrow around noon and we were going to have mini-family reunion. But in the end, the number of hours that I would be driving just made no sense to be there for just two hours. I will visit later this summer when I can spend the night. So now, I can go to Jonah’s karting party. I will watch, not ride in the go-karts!
by Judy Handley | Jun 20, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 170: First Day of Camp Oma 2025, Dinner at the Dearman’s
Date: Friday, June 20, 2025
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High Temp 79, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Camp Oma this summer is just Oma and Ollie. Jonah might join us once in a while, but he has summer soccer and is working at Corner Cycle. His summer is packed. Ollie also has 12 days in July when he will be at Mass Maritime attending ASLP ( Advanced Studies + Leadership Program). But we have two weeks prior to that and two weeks after before the Goldstones head to Maine in August. Sam has definitely graduated from Camp Oma. He is headed to Europe on Wednesday for an 18-day self-guided tour of chosen spots in Czechoslovakia, Germany, Netherlands, France, and Italy. He begins the trip with two of his best friends, Robert and Ethan, and then they will pick up Sebastian in the Netherlands when he finishes school the first of July. When Sam returns, he will work at Corner Cycle until he leaves for Groningen University in the Netherlands around the 20th of August. That leaves just Ollie and me. The very first day of Camp Oma was on June 25, 2012, thirteen years ago. That first year it was just Sam and Jonah. Ollie started joining us the next year. My how those Goldpebbles have grown!
For the first day of Camp Oma 2025, Ollie and I picked up Ollie’s friend Paul and headed to Falmouth Heights Beach where the two boys brought lunch from the beach food truck. Ollie swears it is the best food option for lunch in Falmouth. And maybe that is true for 13-year-olds. Loaded fries topped with cheese and chicken bites and bacon bits. Then we headed to Stony Beach in Woods Hole, where we met up with three other friends. Simon, Seton, and Jack. The five boys frolicked in the water for two hours non-stop, riding the waves on boogie boards. Ollie was easy to spot in his bright yellow swim trunks and lime green boogie board. Even though it has not been that hot, the water was delightfully ‘warm enough’. I won’t say it was warm, but after the first shock of chill, it was great. Summer has arrived.
Tonight, the Goldstones and I went to Andrew and Lara Dearman’s for dinner. The Dearman’s are the couple from New York who bought the house next two doors down from the cottage where I lived prior to moving here. It is a vacation home for them. Because their three children are the same ages as Heather and Jed’s three, and since they arrived during the Covid years when we spent many Camp Oma days kayaking and playing in the water of the Eel River, the six kids always had great fun together. They are now a great deal taller than they were in the summer of 2021 when they met, but last night that didn’t stop them from acting just like they did four years ago. A very rambunctious six-some.
by Judy Handley | Jun 18, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 168: Stepping into Summer
Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Weather: Cloudy, Foggy Near the Water; High Temp 67, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It was not a beautiful sunny day, but many things that happened today are signs that we are stepping into summer. Today was the last day of school, so for me that means the beginning of year 14 of Camp Oma. It is now really only for Ollie, and he is a teenager, but hopefully we will still have days at the beach and some Cape Cod ‘explores’. Today was also the Installation Luncheon for Encore, which means turning over the reins of leadership. That really has nothing to do with summer, but it is a time of change. Then there was the Dress in All White party this afternoon at Cape Cod Winery. Seeing a lot of people all dressed om white is a definite sign of summer. So, through clouds and fog, summer is almost here. Officially summer begins on Friday night at 10:42 pm ET. Friday is the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. But for me, today was the beginning.
For the past 3 summers, the Encore Installation Luncheon has been on this third Wednesday of June at the Poppy Tent on the water’s edge in Mashpee. For two of those years, there was sunshine with a beautiful blue sky. Not today. There was fog on the water with a complete cloud cover. Still, it is a beautiful location, and it was a delightful luncheon.
Christina Brodie and I handed the gavel to a new Encore President, and we instantly became Past Presidents. It has been a good two years, but now it is time to move on. I am continuing on the Board as Vice President of Programs for one year, so all responsibilities are not relinquished, but not quite the demands of running the organization. I have to admit, I look forward to that.
Now on to Juneteenth.
by Judy Handley | Jun 17, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 167: Meeting, Meeting, Meeting, Soccer
Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Weather: Cloudy; High Temp 67, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My day was a series of informal but very important meetings. I started at 8:30 am at Coffee O meeting with two other Library Board trustees to get some guidance on my position as Treasurer. That meeting had not really ended when my next meeting started. The woman who was meeting me sat at the next table, so all I had to do was turn around. This meeting was just the two of us that make-up the entirety of a sub-committee of the Immigration Rights Coalition. I am working on a film series on non-violent resistance films, and the other woman is working on an art exhibit of art depicting what is happening on the border with Mexico. It was fortuitous for her that the chair of the Library Board overheard our conversation about her difficulties finding a space for the art show. It turns out the library has just the spot for that. So, after our meeting, we went to the library to check it out. If the artist in charge of this display agrees, the show will be there.
It was after 1 pm when I got home, answered some emails, ate lunch, and left for the last Exploring Public Policy meeting of the year. And before that ended, I left to take Jonah and another teammate, Jean Luc, to Sandwich for the first summer soccer game. Jonah (number 14)just got the go ahead from the doctor that he can resume normal activity. This was his first time on the field since last fall. I know he has missed playing soccer so much and was really happy to be out there. Pre-game warm up started at 5:30 pm.
Heather was able to join me at the game after her final meeting of the day as she wanted to be there to support Jonah. But he had to be there for the pre-game warm up earlier than Heather could get him there. That’s why I took him. That, and the fact that I wanted to see the game as well.
I got home from the soccer game around 8 pm. Whew! What a long day.
by Judy Handley | Jun 16, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 166: One Million Rising
Date: Monday, June 16, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 66, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
As I said in yesterday’s log, today was going to begin and end with a Zoom meeting, but in between I said I was going to get outside and do some gardening. That didn’t happen, but I did get a lot done today. This morning’s meeting was the Falmouth Immigration Coalition. Shh. Don’t tell anyone that I volunteered to work on another project. Then, instead of heading outside, I worked on trying to get my act together as the Board of Library Trustee treasurer position I somehow managed to elected to. I had nightmares about that last night, so for my sanity I needed to work on that. Then, I did take a break to go over and check in on Ollie and Jonah. They are still in school, but due to finals, neither had school this afternoon. Ollie wanted to go to Smitty’s. so I made my first Smitty’s ice cream run of the summer.
But there was a bribe involved. I told him I would take him to get ice cream if he would contact his friend Simon and arrange to biking when we got home. I didn’t get outside this afternoon, but at least I got Ollie outside. Then it was back home to finish getting the library board books completed that I had started earlier.
Tonight, I attended a Zoom meeting sponsored by Indivisible. It was advertised as No Kings – What’s Next? – a follow up to the very successful “No Kings” mass mobilization. On Saturday, there were over 5 million people participating in 2,169 events worldwide. A lot of time was spent showing how very successful the day was. To be a successful movement, we need 3.5% of the US population. That would be 11.89 million people. We are almost half-way there! But what comes next to grow the movement? There were many ideas presented, but the bottom line is that you and I and what we choose to do to be involved is what’s next. What action, no matter how small, are you going to take today? Tomorrow?
If you are interested in ideas, go to https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/803953
This will take you to a site where you can sign up for 3 training sessions this summer offered on Zoom called “one Million Rising.”. There were thousands of people on tonight’s call and there will be thousands taking the Zoom training on leadership. I signed up and hope you will consider doing the same. We have to build power for the long haul and that is going to take leadership. The first class is July 16. Hope to see you there.
