by Judy Handley | Nov 7, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 311: Time for Friends, No Time for Amazon
Date: Friday, November 7, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 58, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I have been so busy for weeks that I have had very little time to stay in touch with my friends. So, after a morning meeting and spending a bit of time making arrangements for my sister to be released from the hospital, I took a little time for myself. I spent extra time outside playing with Shadow, drove to East Falmouth to visit with Karen and Peter Baranowski, and then met Jane and Bruce Woodin at Taco Blanco for dinner. It was great to catch up. And what a nice feeling to not have a deadline to meet.
I also took time today to drop my Amazon Prime subscription. It feels a bit like losing a best friend, but I will get over it. I can no longer give money to an organization that is funding a regime that is trying to take down American democracy. When you get online to drop your subscription, you are asked to fill out a survey. I had to respond by saying Amazon was a brilliant idea, and I have always loved everything about it. But for the reason I dropped by subscription, I had to check ‘other’ and write a blurb about why. I felt really good saying I was dropping my subscription because Jeff Bezos financially supports the Trump regime. The next question was about when I might start subscribing again. The answer to that was easy. When Jeff Bezos stop funding the Trump regime. I’m sure only a computer will read my remarks, but it still felt good to write them. Now we’ll see how long I can hold out as I was truly an Amazon addict for more than a decade. Give me the strengths of my convictions!
by Judy Handley | Nov 6, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 310: More Meetings, Good News About My Sister
Date: Thursday, November 6, 2025
Weather: Sky Blue, Sunny Day; High Temp 59, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I attended the Newcomers Board Meeting all morning, met with the Assistant VP of Encore Programs in the middle of the day, and then got on Zoom to see What’s the Plan? This is Indivisible’s weekly hour-long Zoom meeting that helps to keep all of the 2,700 local Indivisible Groups around the country updated on what’s happening and what we are planning to do about it. I then got on the phone with my sister’s case manager at the hospital. She needed to check some details with me and told me they think they are planning to release her tomorrow if things stay stable. Woohoo! They discovered that she has a UTI and put her on an antibiotic for that. She is feeling good and ready to go home, so this was very good news.
by Judy Handley | Nov 5, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 309: Nonviolence in Action Film Series
Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Windy; High Temp 60, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I spent my day getting ready for meetings. Late this afternoon was the third film screening in the Nonviolence in Action series. The films was about Denmark when Nazi’s occupied the country during World War II and Poland when Lech Walesa led the Solidarity movement that transitioned the country from communism to democracy in the 1980’s. The films in the series have been very well received, and most people have been very engaged in the post- film discussions. We have one more film next week. It has been quite a learning experience for me as I knew nothing about organizing a film series and very little about nonviolent movements in the 20th century. I have really enjoyed organizing and roiling out the film series, but it has taken an enormous amount of time. After the screening next week, I should have a little more time in my life!
About 25 minutes before the start time for this afternoon’s film, a doctor from the hospital called to talk with me about my sister. He was very thorough and had question after question. I had to take the call as I had waited all day to talk to someone at the hospital, but I was off with just one minute to spare before introducing the film. Whew! The good news from the doctor is that he hopes he can release Patsy to go home by Friday afternoon.
I drove home to feed Shadow after the film screening and then drove right back to the library, this time wearing my library trustee ‘hat’, for a meeting about the plans for building a new library in East Falmouth.
by Judy Handley | Nov 4, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 308: A Hopeful Night for Democracy
Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Weather: W-i-n-d-y; High Temp 55, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Democrats won the big races on the East Coast tonight—Governor of Virginia, Governor of New Jersey, and Mayor of New York City. Two young women, the first ever female governors in their states, and a young man born in Uganda, with a father from Uganda, and a mother born in India. Spanberger, are the face of the America I know and love, and obviously a lot of other people love that same ‘face’. Abigail Spanberger, Mikie Sherrill, Zohran Mamdani are that face. They are all champions of the working American and are not afraid to stand strong against authoritarianism and fascism. They are all Democrats, but that is not what they are ‘for’. And I think that is the very important thing about them. They are for something and not against an opponent of the opposite party. They are all against No Kings! in America ever—regardless of who that person might be. New York City had a huge turnout of young voters. And on the West Coast, it appears the same day voter turnout is way bigger than expected and at this time, it looks like Prop 50 will pass. I’ll be in bed before that is decided. And it goes on. All of the down ballot races seem to be going to the Democrats as well. Of course there is fear of the backlash from the current administration, but people do not seem to be letting that fear scare them away. What the voters did tonight is a breath of fresh air. The voters today are showing that Americans know that democracy is not a spectator fight. Democracy demands our participation and today, Americans participated big time.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that I just got a call telling me my sister, who lives in an assisted living facility in North Carolina, is being taken to the hospital as I write this. When the aides came to get her ready for bed tonight, she could not stand up. Her blood sugar was sky high, as was her blood pressure. So, they had to send her to the emergency room. I called my nephew that lives near my sister, and luckily, he was home and another nephew from West Virginia is there visiting. So, the two of them are headed to the hospital to be there when she arrives.
The other news today is that Ardenna is still in the water. She was supposed to be taken out of the water this morning and hauled to her winter home here in Falmouth. But when Heather and Jed got to Mattapoisett this morning, there were white caps in the mooring field and water was spraying over the top of the boat. The hauling company wanted to go ahead, but Heather and Jed called it off. They might have been able to get the boat out of the water, but they were worried about lifting the mast in the wind. They were having gusts to 40. I think they made the right call. They will try again next Wednesday when it will not be quite so windy.
by Judy Handley | Nov 4, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 307: Soccer Sadness
Date: Monday, November 3, 2025
Weather: Overcast, Windy, and Rain; High Temp 54, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
After a Monday morning walk with Shadow, Archie, and Archie’s mother, my friend Joanie Thompson, I returned home and tuned in a little late for a Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition meeting on Zoom. Then I switched gears. I stepped away from work for a couple of hours to dig up plants outside to bring them inside for the winter. It had already started raining by the time I got outside, but it was a gentle rain, so I didn’t mind. I got the parsley, the sage, and the rosemary potted and brought inside, as well as a poinsettia plant. I also potted a Dumb cane (Dieffenbachia sequine) house plant and delivered it to a neighbor. This is a plant I have had since the early 1970’s. It just grows and grows, and I cut off pieces and root them and give them away. By the time I got that done, it was time to have a late lunch and go pick Ollie up after school to take him to his horseback riding lesson. Unfortunately, there was another mix up and the lesson didn’t happen. Due to the rain, I texted the instructor to make sure there was going to be a lesson. She got back to me apologizing that for the second week in a row, she was going to be a no-show due to a change in her work schedule. I can understand that, but it would have nice if she had let us know. So, I just took Ollie home after school and I went home to prep for a taco dinner with Ollie and Jonah after Jonah’s soccer game.
Tonight’s soccer game was a quarter finals game for the state championship and Falmouth lost 0-1. I rained off and on during the entire game. Falmouth played hard, did a great job on defense, but just couldn’t get the ball in the net. They were visibly shaken by the loss, but I know Jonah and his good friends Kaiden and Jean Luc will soon be looking forward to giving it another go next year.
by Judy Handley | Nov 2, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 306: Dark So Early
Date: Sunday, November 2, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 54, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today was ‘fall back’ day—back to Eastern Standard Time. Farewell to Daylight Savings Time. So, when I was outside working on potting some of my herbs to bring inside for the winter on this first day of EST, I was a bit surprised when the sun went down at 4:35 pm! I’ll adapt, but I really don’t like the afternoon sunsets of November, December, and into January. By mid-January sundown is back to around 5 pm, so from there forward I’m okay. I just have to make it for the next two and a half months. That’s a long time.
I spent my morning continuing my work on the film series. Then at 2 pm, I headed to Mattapoisett to pick up Heather and Jed. They motor sailed Ardenna from her summer home in Woods Hole to Mattapoisett where she will be taken out of the water on Tuesday morning. Once out of the water, she will be moved to her winter home on land here in Falmouth.
When I got home, I spent the rest of the lovely fall afternoon outside gathering containers to pot parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme–just like the song—to bring inside for the winter. Since the sun set so early, I will continue that process in the morning. But I did manage to find the pots needed. My neighbor, Andy, has a huge supply. He had offered to give me a few, so this afternoon I headed across the street with an empty wheelbarrow and returned with the pots needed. Thanks to Andy my living room is going to be transitioned to a greenhouse.
