by Judy Handley | Dec 6, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 340: Shop ‘til You Drop . . . Online
Date: Monday, December 6, 2021
Weather: Overcast Turning Sunny, Very Windy; High Temp 59, Low Temp 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It’s still blowing outside, more now than earlier today. But hopefully it will pipe down a bit by morning. At least we got sunshine today, not the rain that was predicted. But enjoying the afternoon sunshine was not in my plan for today. My plan was to lock down Christmas gifts for Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. While they were here, we did not find time to talk about Christmas. We spent every second together just enjoying the moment, and the discussions about Christmas didn’t start until this weekend via text and WhatsApp. Jo is in Puerto Rico with Ziggy and Coco and Justin is in Virginia meeting with folks he works for at The Monroe Institute. He flew home to PR on Tuesday and flew back to Virginia on Friday. I knew I couldn’t wait until he gets home. Past experience told me that if I didn’t order things by today, there would be almost no chance that they would arrive in Puerto Rico for Christmas. So, we brainstormed online, and Jo came up with perfect gifts for Ziggy and Coco. The gift for Ziggy was available on Amazon, but couldn’t be sent to PR. So, I searched for another source. That was Walmart, but the item is out of stock in every Walmart in Puerto Rico. I checked Charlottesville, Virginia, thinking Justin might be able to pick it up and take it home with him. But it would not be available in the store in Charlottesville until Friday, and Justin flies home very early on Friday morning. Ugh. I started searching for the same item in another brand. You get the idea. Then I had to go through the same process for Coco. Finally, mid-afternoon, I got everything ordered and will now hope things get there on time. Coco’s is going to be tight. I will have faith.
I spent some time outside playing with Shadow and then headed into town to do some shopping for a few items needed for Christmas art projects to do with the Goldpebbles tomorrow. It is an school early release day and we hope to use the afternoon working on the projects. There is one little hitch, but we shall see how things are in the morning. Ollie is now sick with what Jonah had over the weekend that he probably got from Heather who had it last week. Justin either came down with allergies or a cold shortly after arriving, but Heather’s symptoms were more like the flu. Jonah’s symptoms only lasted for 24 hours. Hopefully that will be the case with Ollie and we can have some holiday fun tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Dec 5, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 339: Falmouth Christmas Parade, Last Night of Hanukkah
Date: Sunday, December 5, 2021
Weather: Beautiful Day; High Temp 47, Low Temp 33 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The Falmouth Christmas Parade this afternoon was the final event in the Holidays-by-the-Sea weekend. And what a beautiful day for a parade. The sun was shining, there was very little wind, so it felt warmer than the 47 degrees F showing on the thermometer. A friend, Christina Brodie, contacted me this morning to see if I would like to go to the parade with her. After being so lonesome at the lighting of the Green last night, going with a friend today was great. The only disappointment for me was that there was only one lone bag pipe player in this parade.
There are usually two pipe bands that march and play. I missed that. 
But there were the Clydesdales, Jed and his Cub Scouts including Ollie, Sam with the Boy Scouts, Jonah playing his trombone in the Lawrence marching band band (the only one wearing a blue and gray toboggan instead of a red Santa hat), and Heather as a marching band ‘chaperone’.
And I can’t leave out the Newcomers float.
The parade was shorter than usual, but there were loads of spectators lining Main Street from the beginning of the parade route to the end. The amount of community cheer was overwhelming.
This evening, we switched gears to light the last candles of Hanukkah
that burned brightly as we had artichokes for dinner and the Goldpebbles opened their last night of Hanukkah gifts—another pair of their favorite Hannah Anderson holiday pajamas. Just as they finished opening their pajamas, the last candle light went out.
Perfect timing and perfect ending for a perfect day.
by Judy Handley | Dec 4, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 338: The Lighting of the Falmouth Green
Date: Saturday, December 4, 2021
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 41, Low Temp 33 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today didn’t go quite as planned. Heather, Jed, Jonah, and Ollie were supposed to run the in the Jingle Jog this afternoon, but Jonah had a fever and that meant the Jingle Jog went by the wayside while Heather and Jed figured out their situation. The good news was that Jonah’s Covid test was negative. The bad news was that he was sick, so everyone decided to chuck the plans for the rest of the afternoon and evening and just stay home with Jonah and decorate their Christmas tree. But I decided to go ahead and go to the lighting of the Falmouth Green by myself.
The lighting of the Green is an annual event, except for last year due to Covid. The lighting of the Green happened, but you could only see it on Falmouth Community Television. When I arrived downtown this evening, cars were literally parked on every space available in town. It is always hard to find a parking spot, but it seemed especially so this evening. Then when I arrived at the Green, I was overwhelmed by the number of people. Again, maybe because I haven’t been in a large group of people since before Covid I am just imagining that it was more people than usual. Or maybe more people just decided to come out. I watched as the lights came on and the band started playing Christmas carols.
It was an emotional moment for me. I felt so alone. I have never been to the lighting without Sam, Jonah, and Ollie and I really missed them. Then memories of this event in 2015 started filling my head. That year, Heather was in Paris for the Climate Conference and Jed flew out that afternoon for a work meeting in London. Mark and I had the boys, and in my memories, I could see Mark carrying Ollie on his shoulders all around the Green so that Ollie could see all the lights. He was such a little guy in 2015, only three years old. Then I saw the boys running down the Green to pose for a photo in front of Santa and his reindeer.
00 Ollie, Jonah, and Sam Waving Hello to Mommy and Daddy
by Judy Handley | Dec 3, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 337: Falmouth’s Holidays-by-the-Sea Weekend
Date: Friday, December 3, 2021
Weather: Sunny, Windy; High Temp 47, Low Temp 28 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Let the holiday season begin! Falmouth’s Holidays-by-the-Sea began at sundown tonight with the singing of carols at Nobska Lighthouse. I had been outside working all after. It was sunny, a little windy, but not terribly cold. So, when I came in and got dressed for going the Nobska, I did wear a heavy sweater, but I skipped wearing a winter hat and only wore a pair of stretchy gloves. Mistake. 
As I walked up the hill to the lighthouse, the wind was wicked. But the sight of the all the people gathered around the lighthouse and the silhouettes in the renovated keeper’s dwelling were heart-warming.
Still, I was surprised by the cold. It had been nothing like this when I was working outside at my house just 45 minutes earlier. Within a few minutes my gloved hands were stinging with the cold, and I was very grateful that my coat has a hood. 
I met Heather, Jed, and the boys there and I think we were all very thankful that the woman leading the singing shortened some of the carols to just a verse or two and even skipped a few songs. Everyone was freezing!
I’ll make sure I am properly dressed for the rest of the weekend activities. Hopefully the wind will pipe down by tomorrow.
Tonight I talked with Kevin and Claire. They arrived in Mexico in early November to begin work on their new-to-them sailboat, White Raven. She is on the hard and will stay there until the work is done.
I am so excited for them and am already looking forward to sailing with them in a year or so. They are anxious to have guests, but they need time to get to know their new boat first.
by Judy Handley | Dec 2, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 336: Slowly Getting Back to ‘Normal’
Date: Thursday, December 2, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Windy; High Temp 59, Low Temp 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Another trip to the laundromat, a morning mile walk with Shadow, started getting the kayaks the Lightning Opti sailboat tucked in for the winter, played ball with Shadow, went to a Newcomers Tech Tips class, did my 6 miles on the exercise bike. That was my day, and it was the first day recently where I got in my usual daily exercise routines. Now if I can just add working on editing the first 15 chapters of my book on the Voyage of Windbird, I’ll be totally back to normal.
It was windy today, but much warmer than it has been for the past week and a half. Tomorrow we dip back down into the forties, but that is fine for this time of year. The entire week when Justin and family were here was colder than before they came and colder than after they left. It’s too bad it was so cold while they were here, but we didn’t let the cold stop our outdoor explorations. But I must say I am happy with the moderation. Hope it stays this way for another couple of weeks as I have a lot of outside fall clean-up that still needs to happen.
by Judy Handley | Dec 1, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 335: Lonely December 1
Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 49, Low Temp 32 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
One week ago today I was surrounded by both of my children, their spouses, and all of my grandchildren. Today it was back to just me and my Shadow. Jo sent a text this morning letting me know that they got to their hotel in San Juan a little after 2 am this morning. She sent a photo of Ziggy and Coco still sound asleep looking like little angels.
It is so hard to live so far away from them and it will take a few days to get used to being alone again. So, I decided to just keep myself busy today so I wouldn’t have time to think about it.
Since it is December 1, I sent an interactive online Advent calendar to a few friends and the grandkids. I had so much fun with the one last year that I decided to spread the joy. Then I qfor the Goldpebbles. That ‘calendar’ is like a little triangular stand-up cabinet with doors numbered from 1 to 24. I also had a few treats to put behind those little doors and got those packed up to take to Heather and Jed’s. I then gathered up the dirty sheets and towels and other dirty laundry from the past week and headed to town. I first stopped at the laundromat to put in a big load of sheets and towels and then went to Heather’s to deliver the Advent things and do a smaller load of more delicate items there.
Heather had a break in her work about that time, so we worked together setting up the Advent calendar. We finished that and while waiting for things to dry, I made a quick trick home to play ball with Shadow before dark. Just as we got down to the water to play, the sun sunk out of sight turning the sky a beautiful pink with reflections of that pink on the water. So beautiful.
I made a final trip back to town to pick up all the laundry and gathered a bunch of the food stuffs I bought for last week that we did not use. Then it was home for the evening. I busied myself putting clothes and food away and fixing dinner. While I was in the kitchen, I heard the front door creaking as it was opening. Had Shadow learned to open the door? I came out of the kitchen to check and found Heather coming inside. I had left my phone at their house, and she was delivering it. I had been too busy to notice, but I would have panicked later when I couldn’t find it. Thank you, Heather, for saving me from that panic and another drive into town.
