by Judy Handley | Apr 5, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 95: Attainable Housing in Falmouth
Date: Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Sprinkles; High 49, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
My day got off on the wrong foot. I forgot I had a follow-up appointment with my pain management doctor about my recent spinal epidural, so I was relaxing a little before going to remove more varnish from Eider. When my phone reminded me that I had 15 minutes to get to my appointment, I had to scramble to get to North Falmouth on time. If I had remembered I had that appointment and planned right, I could have stopped at the boat on my way home. But because I had to leave so quickly, I didn’t have everything I needed to do the boat work. And by the time I got home and remembered other things I needed to do, it was too late to go to the boat and get back home in time to get ready for my Public Policy meeting this afternoon. So the boat work was put off until tomorrow morning.
The good thing about today was that the Public Policy meeting about affordable or attainable housing that I was chairing was a success. I had reached out to friends who are not in the Public Policy group to come this afternoon because so many of our members couldn’t come. The friends came through and our invited speaker, Michael Kasparian of the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce, gave a great presentation. I’ve written previously about how difficult it is find a rental in this town and I learned why this afternoon. The rule of thumb is that 30 percent of housing in a community should be rentals. Falmouth has 6 percent. And according to Michael, increasing the number of rentals is the first goal that needs to be reached. Right now we have a shortage of workers in all areas from service workers to scientists to surgeons because no one other than retirees can afford to move here. And at the current rate, by 2030, 65 percent of the people in Falmouth will be over 70. It is a huge problem to tackle that is going to take the cooperation and creative ideas of everyone in the community. In order to get cooperation, everyone needs to be informed. Hopefully our little meeting today was a tiny baby step in informing a few community members of the problem.
by Judy Handley | Apr 4, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 94: Happy 16th Anniversary to Justin and Jo
Date: Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warm; High 57, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Justin and Jo were married atop Eagle Rock near Los Angeles on this day sixteen years ago. Happy Anniversary!
Leaving Home
I took advantage of the mostly sunny and wonderfully warm day to go to the boat to start the removal of old varnish. It is always the hope that once teak trim on a boat is varnished that the owners will keep up and recoat the varnish before it starts to crack and peel. But Eider is an older boat whose varnish was not kept up. That means the all the remaining varnish needs to be stripped and sanded before varnishing. It is not a easy task, but it is very rewarding and I have always enjoyed doing it. Eider’s cockpit is surrounded in teak, so that is where I started—on the inside only. I got the rear cockpit board and the half of the board on the port side of the cockpit done today.
I will continue to do a little each day using a heat gun and scraper. Once that is done, the teak needs to be sanded and then varnished with many coats. The boat gets launched the end of May, so I will try to keep at it, a little each day.
I took Shadow to spend the afternoon with Jane Woodin while I worked on the boat. Jane is going to spend some time with Shadow in the next week or so to see if she thinks she can handle keeping him for me while I go to North Carolina for five days at the end of the month. Today went well, so next week Shadow will go back for an overnight trial. Bruce is going to be out of town at the same time that I am, so Jane will have to handle Shadow by herself. Brave woman! I truly appreciate her willingness to give this a try.
by Judy Handley | Apr 3, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 93: Side-tracked
Date: Monday, April 3, 2023
Weather: Sunny and Windy; High 48, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was supposed to be my day to start removing varnish on Heather and Jed’s Cape Dory. But that didn’t happen. As I was getting ready to go, all of sudden the driveway was full of vehicles. Caroline, Shirley’s niece that is handling the sale of Shirley’s home and the cottage, knocked on my door to explain that the realtor and the landscaping people were here to survey things and that there has been a change. They are contemplating putting the two properties on the market at the same time with the option to sell as one. So, the landscapers will need to tidy-up the cottage yard and gardens as well as Shirley’s. And the realtor will call me when there is a showing. But now I need to get the cottage ready to show. This is not what I expected and it threw me off balance. Many of the things that I planned to do in June, now need to be done immediately. For instance, I have to decide if I am moving my raised beds and, if so, get it done now so he landscapers can plant grass. And the list goes on and on. Just as I was hoping to fully focus on the boat, I have to do double duty. So, I scrapped going to the boat today, tried to regained my balance, did a little garden work to see how long it will take me to remove fencing and metal fence posts, and then changed gears and took a huge load of laundry to the laundromat. While I was waiting for clothes to wash and dry, I made phone calls I needed to make regarding my sister’s medical plans. About that time, Heather called and said she was headed home in the new ID.4 Volkswagen electric mini-van but was stuck in Boston traffic. She was going to get home too late to pick up Ollie after jazz band practice. So, I finished up at the laundromat, picked up Ollie, and then headed home to walk and play with Shadow. I texted Heather once she was home and asked her to send photos of the new ID.4 and she sent photos of “out with the old, in with the new.” Since the exhaust system in the van is completely defunct, they have told Sam he can spend the next two years getting it ready to be in a demolition derby. You can’t drive in a demolition derby until you are 18, so that is the reason for the two years. The boys got started on that project this evening.
And Ollie and Jonah greeted the ID.4.
They love it. Then Jed drove Sam and Jonah to Harwich for soccer in the new mini-van, where it got its first rapid charge while Jed was waiting for the boys.
Heather drove it 90 miles home from Medford, just north of Boston and Jed drove it 35 miles to Harwich and it still had ‘140’ left. Jed said that theoretically, at 80% standard charge, it would get about 250 miles per charge. There is no rapid charge station in Falmouth, but both WHOI and Woodwell have charge stations for employees.
I had hoped to watch more of Ted Lasso tonight, but only got in one episode. I spent time contacting sailing buddies, Kevin and Claire in Mexico and Alan in Dedham, to get some advice for barrier coat and bottom paint. Thanks to both for sharing their wealth of knowledge. But tomorrow at 1 pm I have a date on Eider (whose name will change soon) to start removing the varnish and I’m hoping to not break that date.
by Judy Handley | Apr 2, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 92: An Afternoon ‘Down Under’
Date: Sunday, April 2, 2023
Weather: Sunny and Windy; High 50, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Cape Symphony under the direction of visiting conductor Carolyn Watson, originally from Australia, and featuring performances by William Barton, an Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo virtuoso, presented an afternoon of music from the land “down under.”
Heather invited me to go along to the performance with them since they had an extra ticket–Sam had soccer game. Lucky me. The orchestra and conductor were great, but William Barton was the highlight as he performs like a musical magician. He can make sounds through the didgeridoo like none I have ever heard. Plus, he can play the guitar and the didgeridoo at the same time, has a beautiful singing voice, singing in his tribal language, and was the composer of some of the pieces he and the orchestra performed. Barton, only 41 years old, was born in Queensland and learned to play from his uncle, an elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga tribes of Western Queensland. If you are not familiar with a didgeridoo, it is a musical instrument made from a hollowed out piece of wood.
I have tried to play one but found it incredibly difficult. Traditionally the wooden tube was hollowed out by termites, but these days humans help with the tunneling. I became fascinated with didgeridoo music when Mark and I visited with Heather when she was in college in Queensland. Barton is one of the most commanding performers I have ever seen and his talents filled our afternoon with fantastic music. There were also other Australian pieces played by the orchestra plus one from New Zealand, SYMPHONIC SUITE FROM THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, which was accompanied by photos showcasing NZ’s natural beauty.
Afterwards, we met up in Hyannis with Sam, Sebi, and Sebi’s mom who was their transport to the afternoon soccer game. Heather and Jed treated us all to dinner in Hyannis before returning home. It was a wonderful afternoon. Thank you, Heather and Jed.
by Judy Handley | Apr 1, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 91: April Fool’s Day
Date: Saturday, April 1, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny, Rainy Evening; High 45, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I have no April Fool’s jokes. I won’t even try. But April roared in like a lion with wind and rain all day. I spent a quiet morning at home starting a second hydroponic growing system for lettuce and cleaning part of the inflatable kayak in the bathtub. Heather and I had planned to go to the boat so she could show me exactly what she wants done in terms of varnish removal, but she was planting mushrooms in her front yard that that took twice as long as she thought. Then she had to drive to Hyannis to pick Jonah up from a Scout camping weekend so he could play an afternoon soccer game in Falmouth, on turf, rain or shine. We met at the high school where Heather dropped Jonah off for a pre-game warm-up and then she and I drove to the boat where I got my marching orders. Then we returned to the high school and watched the game in the pouring rain.
At least it wasn’t freezing! Heather then drove Jonah back to Hyannis and I headed home. Tonight, I got sucked into the Ted Lasso world and watched more than half the episodes in the first season. For whatever reason, I have always thought about Ted Lasso seemed very silly. But I am loving Ted Lasso. That’s the news from my world on this first day of April.
by Judy Handley | Mar 31, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs |
2023 Life Logs, Day 90: Clearing Out ‘Stuff’
Date: Friday, March 31, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny, Rainy Evening; High 45, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
My back and my knee are not so happy tonight, but I did manage to clear out a lot of ‘stuff’ today. This morning when I learned that a dumpster would be arriving across the driveway early in the afternoon, I knew I should take advantage of that and get ‘stuff’ out of the basement and over to the dumpster staging area. I used my little red beach wagon to transport a plethora of things. Then I realized that my inflatable kayak that has been stored on the concrete pad outside Shirley’s two storage sheds needed to be moved out of the way. I got Steve, Shirley’s niece’s husband, to help me get it onto a tarp and drag it to my side yard. From there I was on my own to clean it up a bit and get it into my basement until I can get help to properly clean and roll it up to be stored. This is a two person inflatable that is about 15 feet long. Getting it down the steps and into the basement was a bit of a trick, but since it is not fully inflated, I was able to manage that by myself.
After all that physical activity, my back and right knee were telling me to go inside and do something a little less physical. I attacked the stacks of paperwork on my desk in my bedroom and got much of that filed. But as always, one thing leads to another, and I started purging old files in the filing cabinet. There were two bulging folders of information on possessions that I attacked first, and then I cleaned out the tax files all the way back to 1973. I could have just thrown all but the last few years out, but I decided I might like to keep the 1040 Forms from all those years. So, I went through and recycled all but the 1040’s. It will take another day to get all my stacks of papers filed or thrown out, but I made great strides in that direction today.
Hopefully, tomorrow is boat day. Heather and I had planned to go start removing varnish. But it is supposed to rain all day and even though the boat is covered, I’m not sure we will want to brave the weather. I’ll check with Heather in the morning. If not a boat day, it sounds like the perfect day to complete that paperwork project.
