by Judy Handley | Oct 14, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 63: Goldstones Come to Dinner
Date: Friday, October 14, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High Temp 57 degrees F, Low Tonight in the 30’s
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA
It was a good day. I got up and went to the gym for the first time since joining the end of September. I chose to do bike riding rather than tread mill walking, hoping the biking would be easier on my knee. I sat there and pedaled for over 30 minutes, but the machine told me I had only biked about five miles. I feel like I would have gone farther than this on a real bicycle, but I was happy with my progress. I then tried all of the upper body strength machines before heading home. I’m really hoping to go to the gym at least three days a week and attend a few exercise classes each week. I’m terrible at disciplining myself to exercise, so we’ll just have to see how that plays out. When I got home it was time for lunch and then it was time for an appointment with a lawyer to get a new will crafted. When I returned home, I had a great phone conversation with friends Ed and Lynne Kirwin, and then it was time to get ready for dinner. I had invited the Goldstones over for tacos. I barely got the taco meat done when Jonah showed up at the door. Jed and Sam had soccer practice and were dropping Jonah off with me. Jonah brought his bicycle and some wood to make a bike jump and I hung out with him in the parking area as he did jump after jump. When he tired out, we went back to the apartment and I continued to get dinner ready. Very soon Heather showed up with Ollie and we all headed outside for more bike jumping. Sam and Jed arrived later than expected because Jed had to mark off the soccer fields for tomorrow’s games, but when they did arrive, we had a great taco dinner. When it was time for the Goldstones to leave, we had a bit of a problem. It was 8 pm and the temperature outside was already in the 40’s. But the sprinklers were on and there was no way for them to get to their car without getting soaked. There is a way to get to the parking area by climbing over the deck railing and walking behind the apartment building and back out to the parking area. None of us had ever done that, but they opted for that rather than getting soaking wet. I helped them over the railing and evidently they made it as I didn’t hear otherwise. I am going to have to find out just when these sprinklers are on so we can time arrivals and departures. It wasn’t a huge problem when the weather was warmer, but getting wet this time of year is no fun at all.
Tomorrow is soccer day. Ollie plays at 10:30, Jonah at 1:30, and Sam at 4. In between soccer games, I’m hoping to get the granola baked that I had planned to do today. And the chutney making is going to wait until Sunday.
by Judy Handley | Oct 13, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 62: Sailing Through the Fog
Date: Thursday, October 13, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High Temp in the 60’s F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA
No one enjoys sailing through the fog, but that is just what I feel like I am doing. I have some sense of direction but no radar. So I am moving very slowly, always checking for obstacles. But my bigger problem is that I’m not sure of my destination. So I’ll keep sailing along, hoping this fog lifts soon, and I’ll find a welcoming port.
In the meantime, daily tasks keep me busy. This morning I waited for the service person to arrive to fix my heat issue. At 10 am, they still were not there but I got a call from friend Linda Stuart. Linda and Mike were at the airport in Chicago waiting for their flight, with their bicycles, back to Columbia, South America. We talked for over an hour until the serviceman appeared. At that point we said our farewells and I focused on the heat issue. I have natural gas heat but I have no access to the furnace. Evidently it was just a pilot light issue. I actually kept the heat on for a bit to take the chill of, but then I turned it down to 64 degrees. Tonight the temp will be in the low 40’s, so the heat might kick on. The temp inside this week has been 61 degrees with no heat. I don’t mind that at night when I’m sleeping, but during the day that is just too cool for me. It will be interesting to see just how much it will cost to heat this apartment this winter.
Tomorrow I’ll busy myself with cooking. I need to make granola and I have invited Heather and family over for a taco dinner. And I also need to start gathering the ingredients for making apple chutney. Heather and Jed brought the apples back from Maine, so I just need to get those and start the process.
by Judy Handley | Oct 12, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 61: Return from New Hampshire
Date: Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Weather: Beautiful Day, Warming Up a Bit
Location: Back Home at The Studio, Falmouth,MA
After a lovely morning in Rye, New Hampshire, I returned home to the Cape. The weather today in both places was just beautiful and the leaves were almost at peak in Rye.
New Hampshire has about 17 miles of coastline and the towns of Hampton and Rye are the beach towns. Rye is just south of Portsmouth. Portsmouth is a beautiful waterside city of about 5,000 people. From Portsmouth you and cross over to Kittery, Maine, or to an island where New Hampshire’s smallest town, Newcastle, is located. This island is home to about 1,000 people. And from Newcastle you can continue back to the mainland to Rye. My friends Leslie and Rich live in Rye just across the bridge from New Castle. This morning Leslie I walked, along with Leslie’s little doggie Roo, about five miles from her home in Rye, across the bridge to Newcastle, passed Wentworth by the Sea Hotel and Marina, down to the water, and then on through New Castle, and back to Rye.
What a beautiful walk! Everywhere we looked there was either water, colorful fall trees, or old historic homes. Couldn’t have been prettier. And it was so much fun for me to walk through the marina. Pre-Windbird, we kept Sky Breaker at the Wentworth Marina for a couple of summers.
After the walk, we drove across the Piscataqua River to Kittery, Maine, where I had hoped to buy a new pair of Tevas for next spring. But the shoe store where I have shopped for these in the past has changed ownership and Tevas had been put away for the winter. Guess I’ll have to return in the spring. We also stopped in Kittery’s little downtown and had a pastry at Lil’s. I don’t eat wheat products these days, but I made an exception at Lil’s. The decision between a cruller, an almond croissant, and a chocolate croissant was painful as all looked so good. The cruller won and it was “melt in your mouth” good. Unfortunately, I’m paying the price this evening with terrible acid reflux. Next time I might make a smarter decision!
I stopped by Heather and Jed’s on the way home to say hello. They were in Maine for the three day weekend and then I left for New Hampshire. It was great to see them for a few minutes and I invited them over for dinner on Friday evening. Then on Saturday I’ll see everyone at the soccer games. When I arrived back home, I unloaded the things I bought at IKEA. I now have a second set of low shelves behind the dining room table and a coat rack by the door. Well, I have assembled the coat rack, but not the shelves. That’s tomorrow’s job. I was also greeted by Ed, the maintenance guy, telling me that I still have no heat but that someone is coming tomorrow to check this out. Thankfully it is a tad warmer this evening, but it still only 64 degrees in here. I don’t mind 68 degrees, but a daytime and evening indoor temperature of 64 is just a little too chilly for me. Hopefully this will be resolved tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Oct 12, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 60: Dinner with Friends in New Hampshire
Date: Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Weather: Sunshine, but Still Cool; Low in the 40’s, High 59 degrees F
Location: At Home with Rich and Leslie Kole, Rye, New Hampshire
My day didn’t go exactly as planned, but I did make it to New Hampshire to have dinner with friends. This was a ‘girls night out’ with teaching friends Detta Porat, Leslie Kole, and Cheryl Dolin. The three of them have been getting together almost monthly during the school year for over 20 years. At one time everyone lived in Concord, New Hampshire, but now Cheryl is the only one there. Detta and Leslie live in the Portsmouth area on New Hampshire’s tiny bit of coastline. With traffic it was almost three hours from the Cape to Portsmouth to Leslie’s home, and then we drove another half hour to meet halfway from here to Concord. It was lots of driving, but well worth it. I had an evening of fun with friends and got to enjoy the colorful fall leaves here on the coast. The colors further inland weren’t this vibrant, so that was an added bonus.
I mentioned that my day didn’t go quite as expected. I had hoped to get here much earlier in the afternoon, but my departure from home kept getting delayed. The final delay had to do with the ‘no heat’ in my apartment situation. When I stopped to get my mail, The Studio maintenance person, Ed, saw me and inquired about the fact that there is no heat in my apartment. My neighbor Kat had seen him and explained the situation. He asked me to go try a few things, so I did, but still no luck. He thinks it might be the thermostat and said he would have to call a heating-air conditioning repairman. Thankfully the temperature is going back up over the next few days giving us a little time to solve this problem.
I am staying with Rich and Leslie tonight and Leslie has a vigorous five mile walked planned for us in the morning. Not sure my knee will make it five miles, but we’ll go as far as I can go. Then it is to Kittery, Maine, just across the border from Portsmouth, for a little outlet shopping. And then home.
by Judy Handley | Oct 10, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 59: A Breath of Fresh Air
Date: Monday, October 10, 2016
Weather: Sunshine, but Cool; Low in the 40’s, High in the 50’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Late this afternoon I drove up to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy to hear our state’s senior senator, Elizabeth Warren, speak. What a breath of fresh air in this current political season. This was not a rally for the presidential campaign. It was an instructional presentation on the US economy from Warren’s point of view. She is the most dynamic politician I have ever seen. And she uses her skills as a professor to educate the masses. Her condemnation of trickle-down economics is pretty convincing. But at a time when our presidential race has become such an ugly battle, it is quite reassuring to know that no matter who gets elected, Elizabeth Warren will be in the Senate fighting for all us.
I had a great phone conversation with my very good friend Linda Stuart this afternoon. Linda, and her husband Mike, are my crazy friends that are attempting to bike around the world. They had to fly home from Columbia this summer because they got word that Mike’s mother was dying. Due to their situation and Mark’s failing health, we were not able to get together, but we had a great talk this afternoon. I wish them safe biking as they head back to Columbia to bike on to Equador and Peru.
My challenge today was trying to figure out why I don’t have heat in this apartment. I woke up to 61 degrees inside this morning and threatening sniffles. I decided to turn on the heat, but I got nothing but cold air. Tonight when I got home from the Warren presentation, I sent a text to my next door neighbor asking if she had heat. She doesn’t either, so when Ed, our maintenance person, returns from Boston tomorrow, Kat will ask him to look into this. It is not a major issue yet, but soon enough it will get even colder. It was a sunny day, so by the end of the day the temp in here was 64—still cool—so I am using my Little Buddy propane heater tonight to get the temp up to a more tolerable level for the night. Hopefully my sniffles today were just a reaction to the chill and not a cold coming on. I am hoping to drive up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire tomorrow to have dinner with friends and spend the night with Leslie and Rich Kole. I’ll walk with Leslie on Wednesday morning, visit for a bit, and then head back home. But if I wake up tomorrow morning and still feel like a cold is coming on, I’ll probably have to cancel my plans. If I’m really getting a cold, I surely don’t want to spread the germs.
by Judy Handley | Oct 9, 2016 | Life After Windbird 2016 |
Life After Windbird, Day 58: Four Weeks . . .
Date: Sunday, October 9, 2016
Weather: Heavy Rain and Wind, High 57 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Four weeks ago tonight, we lost Mark. Part of me left with him, but his spirit stayed with me. I have been surrounded by unbelievable love from friends and family, and every single day I have felt just a little stronger because I know that is what Mark would want me to do. So I carry on with incredible support.
I got a call this morning from friends Kevin and Claire. They are one of the two young couples that we bonded with while living aboard Windbird in Boston from 2003 to 2005. We have sailed together in our two boats, they joined us in Thailand and sailed with us for a couple of weeks in 2008, and Kevin came on a moment’s notice to sail with Mark and I this past February bringing Windbird back to South Carolina from West Palm Beach in Florida. This morning they were on their way to the Annapolis Boat Show and called to see how I am doing. I mentioned to them that Windbird’s new owners were also at the boat show today, so they connected through text messages and met. I made them promise to take a picture and they did. I’m so jealous. They were at a boat show and they had sunshine—I love both. Kevin and Claire are really more than friends. They are the same as family to me and I look forward to seeing them soon.
The weather today has been miserable. It has been pouring rain and the wind is vicious. Mark loved rainy days but I never shared that feeling. Rainy days are not my favorites. But despite the weather, I have had a very good day. I have written a few emails to friends, bought and put shelving paper in the new tool storage chest that I brought last weekend, put together a couple of small wooden crates I bought at IKEA yesterday, did the laundry, and made chili for dinner. I made the trip to Heather and Jed’s twice today to feed the guinea pigs and now I am settling in for an evening in front of the television watching the political fiasco unfolding before our eyes. Mark was a political animal and he would love watching this. So I’ll settle in to watch the debate and think of Mark.
