by Judy Handley | May 29, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 149: Sunday on the Water
Date: Saturday, May 29, 2022
Weather: Sunshine, Blue Skies; High 73, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a perfect day to be out on the water. Friends Jane and Bruce Woodin, and their sailing partner Sam Patterson, invited me to tag along for their first sail of the season.
This was the shakedown cruise. Yesterday was so gloomy, but this morning Shadow and I woke up early to sunshine and warmth. The sky above was Cape Cod blue with just a few puffy white clouds around the edges. Perfect, except for one thing. There was very little wind. So, on our trip across Buzzards Bay to Mattapoisett Harbor, we motored with just the main up.
Even though we were we motor sailing, it felt wonderful to just be out on the water.
In the small town of Mattapoisett, we went a waterfront restaurant, The Inn on Shipyard Park, where Sam’s wife Hazel joined us for lunch. Then it was back to L ’Escargot to sail back across Buzzards Bay. The wind piped up and it would have been a great sail, BUT when Sam went forward to unfurl the headsail, it wouldn’t budge. Once again, we motor sailed with the just the main, but it felt like we were sailing. Sam and Bruce dropped Jane and I on the dock and then went out to the mooring to try and figure out why the headsail would not unfurl. I think there was just a line wrapped around the top of the sail, but I don’t know if they were able to fix the issue as Jane and I had come in my car and we headed home. It wouldn’t have been a ‘perfect’ shakedown cruise if there hadn’t been at least one little issue, so I say it was a great afternoon.
As Jane and I walked to the car, I had a nice surprise when I heard someone say, “Hello, Judy.” It was Gretchen Coughlin from Concord, NH, walking back to her family’s summer home across from the West Falmouth Harbor dock. She and her husband Mike, plus other family members, are down for the weekend. It is always good to see friends. Then, when I got home, I called Jed to check in. Sam’s soccer team won one and lost one game today, so they will not be playing in the tournament finals tomorrow. That means that I won’t be driving him to the Outer Cape. Instead, I will be able to attend the Memorial Day Parade downtown.
by Judy Handley | May 28, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 148: Wrong Team Won
Date: Saturday, May 28, 2022
Weather: Rain Overnight, Overcast; High 66, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This morning I took Jonah shopping for food for his UEFA Soccer Championship (Liverpool versus Madrid) watch party. Friends came and they had a good time, but the wrong team won the game. Jonah is a die-hard Liverpool fan, and they were favored to win, but they just couldn’t do it. Jonah bounced back, the boys went out to play soccer after the game, and all was well.
By the time I stopped at the store, got home, and took Shadow for a walk, it was almost 8 o’clock. I ate a quick dinner and called my friend Lynne in New Zealand. We talked for an hour and half catching up on happenings in our lives and celebrating the fact that she is flying back to the US soon to visit family for about four months. She will be coming here to visit at some point, and I can’t wait to see her. She has not been back here since the fall of 2019. Too long.
Tomorrow is a sailing day. Bruce and Jane Woodin have invited me to sail across Buzzards Bay to Mattapoisett with them to have lunch and then return home. The sun is supposed to shine tomorrow, so I am looking forward to it.
by Judy Handley | May 27, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 147: Beginning of the Holiday Weekend
Date: Friday, May 27, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 68, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It felt good to go to bed in my own bed last night, but morning came much too soon. I had a morning Mah Jongg class, my last, came home to have lunch, and found that my part-time neighbors from New York were here for the holiday weekend. Their thirteen-year-old, Charlie, came knocking on my door to make sure I was home, and then returned with a bottle of Prosecco and a tray of beautifully decorated chocolate-covered pretzels.
In their absence, they sometimes text to ask me to check on this or that, so the goodies were a thank you. Andrew and Laura then walked over to say hello. Charlie wanted to know if the Goldpebbles might be coming over to visit this afternoon after school, so I sent a text to Jonah to see if he would like to come over and play. Charlie and I then went to pick up Jonah and Ollie. Ollie loves playing with Lena, who is his age. Charlie and Jonah played soccer and all four played some complicated version of hide and seek. Then Ollie and Lena got the kayaks out of storage and put them on the dock.
While on the dock, they discovered the three- to four-inch-long eels in the water around the dock and spent time catching and releasing them.
It is only fitting that there are eels in the Eel River! It was a fun afternoon.
Jed is off with Sam early in the morning for a soccer game and won’t get home until early afternoon, so mid-morning I’ll head over to check on Ollie and Jonah and take Jonah to the grocery store to buy snacks for his afternoon UEFA Soccer Championship (Liverpool versus Madrid) watch party. That’s tomorrow’s big activity. Unfortunately, the weather tomorrow will be more of the same overcast gloom. Maybe we’ll get some sunshine by Sunday.
by Judy Handley | May 26, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 146: I Survived Quite Nicely
Date: Thursday, May 26, 2022
Weather: Partly Sunny, A Tad Warmer; High 65, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I’m not really at home in the cottage quite yet, but I am expecting Jed to get home within the hour. Then I will be at home in the cottage. My three days and two nights with the Goldpebbles has gone smoothly and I survived, as did they, quite nicely. All three of them are old enough now to really take care of themselves as long as I feed them. The time has been fun for me, all except the 6 am get up. I must admit that when I get up later, I am missing a beautiful part of the day this time of the year. But until I can get myself to bed earlier, 6 am get ups are not for me no matter how beautiful.
After school today was an easy one. Sam had a 2:30 dental cleaning in Woods Hole and Ollie had after school band practice, but there were no soccer practices and Sam skipped going to Hyannis to row as I had to be here to pick Ollie up from band practice. It was an extra, but mandatory practice, to get ready for next week’s band concert. And there was no way Ollie was going to miss that practice. And Sam said he wanted a job like his mom’s.
Just before dinner, Heather called. Earlier she had sent a dramatic photo of the snow-capped mountains that she took from the airplane somewhere between California and Colorado.
She arrived in Telluride this afternoon and will be there until Monday. During the video call with the boys, she showed them the view from her window. Jonah immediately said that we could all get on a plane and be there tomorrow!
After our taco dinner, the boys had time to jump on the trampoline. They were having so much fun, I let them stay out until 8:15, but then it was definitely time for them to come in to read and relax before bedtime. They are all excited that Jed would be home tonight and wanted to stay up to see him, but 10:30 or 11:00 for bedtime on a school night is just not a good idea. When Jed gets here, Shadow and I will hurry home so we can sleep in our own bed tonight.
by Judy Handley | May 25, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 145: Moving Along Smoothly
Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Weather: Partly Sunny, Still Cool; High 62, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home with the Goldpebbles, Falmouth, MA
Things are moving along smoothly in Heather and Jed’s absence. The boys have been terrific and I am doing fine. And there is only one more solo day to go. But I have gained a new appreciation for working parents. I can get the kids off to school and then attend to house cleaning or laundry or shopping for dinner. And then I can prepare an early 5 pm dinner for boys who are all off to various evening activities. But if I worked full time, I have no idea how I would do this. Sam asked me this evening how things were different when I was growing up because I made a statement about things being so much simpler growing up in the 1950’s. I was a Brownie, and then a Girl Scout, and I took piano lessons. But my parents had nothing to do with those activities. I lived in a small town where I always walked to school by myself, walked home, and then walked back to those activities by myself from the time I was six. Parenting, and life, has changed over the years, and it really just isn’t that simple anymore.
We heard from Heather this morning. She arrived in San Diego almost an hour early last night at around 11 pm our time and this morning she was up early to get in a run before the beginning of her business day. Her hotel is about a mile from the beach, so she did a four-mile run, one mile on the sand
and according to her Fitbit, she ran 39 floors worth of stairs. There are limestone cliffs along the water and wooden stairs running through those cliffs.
What an exhilarating and beautiful way to start the day! Tomorrow Heather flies to Telluride in Colorado and Jed flies home from Sweden. By this time tomorrow night, Jed should be home.
Today I saw a post on Jo’s Facebook page of Ziggy playing an original composition on the piano as an end-of-the-school-year project. When I watched the video, it brought tears to my eyes. It also brought back memories of when Justin his first compositions. He produced a play called Monochrome with all original music. He was sixteen when he started that project, so Ziggy is starting a little earlier at age thirteen. So proud of Ziggy.
by Judy Handley | May 24, 2022 | 2022 Life Logs |
2022 Life Logs, Day 144: In Loco Parentis
Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Weather: Partly Sunny, Still Cool; High 62, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home with the Goldpebbles, Falmouth, MA
No. ‘In loco parentis” does not mean parent gone loco, but it might mean ‘Oma gone loco’ by the end of the week! Starting today, I am filling in as ‘parent’ to the Goldpebbles while Heather and Jed are both out of town on business trips. My duties didn’t start until after school today and I think things went super smoothly. After school, we all got into my car to take Sam to rowing in Hyannis and Ollie, Jonah, and I went to play our first game of mini-golf of 2022.
We went to a course we had not played before, Putter’s Paradise, and had a great time. We then made a stop at Dick’s Sporting Goods and were blown away with the amount of sports gear in one store. We picked up dinner at Five Guys and then headed back to the lake to pick up Sam.
He had to get into water up to his waist to get his rowing scull out of the water and didn’t end up participating in the next activity. All three boys were to go to a special Scout event as soon as we returned to Falmouth.
Sam had clothes to change into, but he forgot one important thing—dry underwear—so he skipped the Scouting event. I dropped Jonah and Ollie off, took Sam home, and then went back to pick up J & O and on to my house to pick up Shadow. The boys, including Shadow, are now asleep and I am headed that way very soon as tomorrow begins earlier than normal for me.
This was the shakedown cruise. Yesterday was so gloomy, but this morning Shadow and I woke up early to sunshine and warmth. The sky above was Cape Cod blue with just a few puffy white clouds around the edges. Perfect, except for one thing. There was very little wind. So, on our trip across Buzzards Bay to Mattapoisett Harbor, we motored with just the main up.
Even though we were we motor sailing, it felt wonderful to just be out on the water.
In the small town of Mattapoisett, we went a waterfront restaurant, The Inn on Shipyard Park, where Sam’s wife Hazel joined us for lunch. Then it was back to L ’Escargot to sail back across Buzzards Bay. The wind piped up and it would have been a great sail, BUT when Sam went forward to unfurl the headsail, it wouldn’t budge. Once again, we motor sailed with the just the main, but it felt like we were sailing. Sam and Bruce dropped Jane and I on the dock and then went out to the mooring to try and figure out why the headsail would not unfurl. I think there was just a line wrapped around the top of the sail, but I don’t know if they were able to fix the issue as Jane and I had come in my car and we headed home. It wouldn’t have been a ‘perfect’ shakedown cruise if there hadn’t been at least one little issue, so I say it was a great afternoon.
