by Judy Handley | Feb 9, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 40: Zoom, Zoom
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2021
Weather: More Snow; High 33, Low 21 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The second Tuesday of each month I have a jam-packed day. I get up and take Shadow for our morning mile walk and then head to the chiropractor for a monthly check-in. This is the second month in a row that Michael, my chiropractor, has said that my spine alignment is better than it has been since I started seeing him in 2014. Maybe it’s the walking, maybe the exercise bike is helping but not sure how that would affect my spine alignment, but something is different. Since I managed to herniate two discs last spring, it has been a long uphill climb. Now I just need to make sure I don’t do something stupid to screw things up!
Then, today, as on every second Tuesday of each month, I rush home from the chiropractor for my monthly Book Club on Zoom. This month’s book was Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig. None of us had ever read anything by this author and we all enjoyed his writing. As a new Book Club member pointed out, this book uses a similar theme as the Harry Potter series. A young boy loses both parents, is sent to live in challenging circumstances, and has an older man that looks over him. This book takes place in the middle of the twentieth century in the western part of the United States. And the older man is not a wizard but an illegal alien from Germany. At one point, Donal, the eleven-year-old orphan says, “Life with Herman was a size larger than I was used to, like clothing I was supposed to grow into.” Like Harry, they do travel by bus, but it is not the Knight Bus. They travel by Greyhound. And Donal collects S&H Green Stamps. Remember those? It is a delightful book. Here’s one more of Donal’s quotes, “Life can tickle you in the ribs surprisingly when it’s not digging its thumb in.” Life according to an eleven-year-old American philosopher.
Zoom, zoom. After the Book Club Zoom, I spent a couple of hours reading the articles for a late afternoon Public Policy Zoom and checked in on the impeachment trial. Just before 3 pm, I took Shadow for another short walk and then we got into the car to go pick up Ollie. We took him home and then Shadow and I came home and watched a bit more of the impeachment trial while waiting for the Public Policy Zoom. That started at 4:45 pm and the focus was the Constitutional separation between religion and government. It was a good discussion led by friend Karen Baranowski. Great job, Karen. I really enjoy the Zoom meetings I attend, but by the time that my second Zoom for the day was over, I was Zoomed out. It is easy to see how kids and parents who are spending much of their days during this pandemic on Zoom are having Zoom fatigue.
We got more snow this afternoon and we are in for cold winter weather for the forecastable future. But the Goldpebbles are enjoy this first snowy period in a couple of years. Jed took them sledding again today after school and I know they are looking forward to winter vacation snowboarding in Maine next week. I am actually enjoying the snow as well. If I didn’t have Shadow, I know I wouldn’t be out there enjoying tramping through the woods in the snow. Thank you, Shadow. And I have discovered new trails that need to be rid of briars. So as soon as the weather warms up a bit, I hope Ollie will come help me clear more trails.
by Judy Handley | Feb 8, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 38: The Amazing Tom Brady
Date: Sunday, February 7, 2021
Weather: Snow; High 38, Low 21 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I’m sure glad I finally decided to forgive Tom Brady for leaving the Patriots and cheered him on tonight in Super Bowl LV. He is an amazing quarterback. And while I’m at it, I have to also forgive him for being a Republican. His performance in the tonight’s Super Bowl was like a work of art . . . beautiful. Whatever you think of him, I think we all need to take a food lesson from him. Look at your plate when you eat. If it is not 80 percent veggies and just 20 per cent meat, then you are not making the Tom Brady team.
The other beautiful thing about today was the snow. Shadow and I went for our morning walk before the snow started and it was unnervingly quiet. I guess it was the calm before the storm. When I returned from the walk, I talked to Justin, Ziggy, and Coco on Skype video. The snow started while we were talking. After the call, I took a shower and by the time I got dressed, the world outside was white. Before the roads got too bad, I headed to Heather’s to get my first haircut in a year. Thank you, Heather! And then I returned home and played outside with Shadow in the snow. I loved watching the geese with snow on their backs. And I looked longingly at my table and chair down by the dock covered in snow hoping that spring will come sooner rather than later. I look forward to the time that I can once again sit down by the dock and watch the Goldpebbles out in the kayaks. The snowflakes this afternoon were huge and they quickly covered the tree branches making it look like a winter wonderland. Later in the afternoon, Jo sent me photos from their afternoon at the beach in Puerto Rico. Their new puppy Lenny was surfing for the first time. Lenny in tropical wonderland and Shadow in winter wonderland made for beautiful pictures.
Between playing outside in the snow and the start of the Super Bowl, I made a wee bit of progress on my writing project. But while sitting at the dining table writing, I kept hearing banging noises. At first, I thought maybe it was the north wind making the outside flap on the kitchen fan vent flip open and closed. I went outside and walked around the house. I saw nothing on the roof and that vent flap was not moving. I came back in and the thumping from above continued. I went up in the attic and everything was quiet there. But when I sat back down at the dining table to write, the thumping started again. I made three more trips to the attic, one to throw balls of material saturated with eucalyptus oil around the attic floor. I think squirrels must have gotten into the attic. I needed peppermint oil to repel them. But I didn’t have any. But I know rodents don’t like the smell of eucalyptus oil that I did have, so maybe squirrels will be repelled by it. Whatever is up there has finally gone to sleep, but I figure I will be spending most of day tomorrow dealing with problem.
by Judy Handley | Feb 8, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 39: All is Quiet
Date: Monday, February 8, 2021
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 30, Low 19 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Are you old enough to remember Dean Martin and Marilyn Maxwell singing Baby, It’s Cold Outside? I can’t remember the words, but I was humming that tune all day today. It was cold outside. Even though the sun was shining, the temperature didn’t get above freezing. So, yesterday’s snow is still frozen on the ground. When I headed out to take Shadow on his morning walk, I had to turn right around. The streets were a sheet of ice. We did walk in the crunchy snow around the cottage, in the woods, and down to the water. But even the geese looked frozen in place. I tried to catch the beauty of the ice in the trees and bushes as the sun came gleaming through. The photos don’t do justice to the real thing, however.
My strategy last night of going out every two hours to drive the car around the cul-de-sac that is my driveway and out onto the road worked as well as a snowplow. The snowplow keeping the roads scraped kept piling up big balls of snow where my driveway meets the street, but I would just drive through the piled up wet snow, back up, and drive forward again. And every time I did that, I totally cleaned the car off. By the time I went to bed the snow had stopped falling, so this morning I didn’t have to clean ice off the car or drive through big balls of frozen snow to get out onto the road.
I got some writing done today, but I had to end early as I had my annual physical exam. And then I had to pick up Ollie. When I took him home, Jed was getting ready to take the boys to Woods Hole to go sledding so Heather came home with me to check out the attic. Whatever was making all that noise last night evidently found its way out of the attic. Heather and I could find nothing up there and the noises have ceased. All is quiet.
by Judy Handley | Feb 6, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 37: Mostly Writing
Date: Saturday, February 6, 2021
Weather: Sunny and Windy; High 43, Low 29 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
By 4 pm this afternoon, the sun was still shining but the winds had built to 20 to 25 miles per hour. I went down by the water to play fetch with Shadow, but even he gave out after a shorter than normal period of time due to the wind. It is calm out tonight, but we are expecting snow tomorrow, maybe as much as eight inches. But the temperature is going to be in the mid-30’s. Not sure if that will lessen the accumulation. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Other than walking and playing ball with Shadow, I spent most of the day at my computer finishing Chapter 4 of The Voyage of Windbird and making a great start on Chapter 5. Chapter 5 is about the lumpy, bumpy, wild passage from Norfolk to St. Martin in the Caribbean. I am really enjoying go back the details of the voyage and hope to head on through the Caribbean to Panama tomorrow. Hopefully that will keep me warm as the snow falls. And then tomorrow evening there is the Super Bowl. Not sure if I will be watching it at home due to the weather or going to the Goldstones for a Super Bowl party.
by Judy Handley | Feb 5, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 36: Shadow’s Special Day
Date: Friday, February 5, 2021
Weather: Overcast with Some Light Rain; High 45, Low 30 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Once every six to eight weeks, Shadow gets to go to the groomer to get a fancy hair cut. He has a cross between a curly wool coat like a poodle which needs to be groomed and a fleece textured coat that is soft like an Angora goat with a spiraling curly look.
I have not been able to convince Shadow that he should let me comb out the tangles in his curls, so I take him to a groomer who does so. On days like today when he is not home, I am constantly looking around to check on him. The house feels so very empty without him. In just a couple of hours, I begin to feel so alone. But when he is here, we have our battles. Shadow will sit and stay for me with very stern insistence, but that is about all that he will for me. He delights in snitching a sock or a glove that I have not ‘secured’ properly and it is almost impossible to get him to let loose. But his worst behaviors are jumping on up on other people and not coming when he is called. I love to take him outside to play fetch, but more and more he refuses to come when it is time to go inside. I feel like a parent who just can’t control the bad behaviors of their child and it makes me feel totally incompetent. And it is not that I haven’t tried. This dog just seems to be particularly energetic and strong willed. He doesn’t just run, he runs faster than any dog I have ever seen. And when any of the Goldstones are around, he is constantly bounding and jumping. They keep waiting for him to get older and calmer, but that is not happening. I failed my People Training for Good Dogs course and now I wonder if I am going to have to resort to a shock collar to control the bounding and jumping on others. But I hate to punish him for what I have not been able to train him to do. Still, I wouldn’t know what to do without him. So, exhausting as it is, I shall persist.
I got up early and walked Shadow before taking him to the groomer. On the way home, I went by Heather and Jed’s and put in what is becoming my weekly Friday laundry load and then I came home and wrote and edited, wrote and edited, and wrote some more. I hope to finish Chapter 4 tomorrow morning and move on to Chapter 5 which tells the story of finally leaving Norfolk and heading to the Caribbean. Chapter 4 is entitled A Rough Start. Chapter 5 is the sequel and should be called A Rough Start II. But I will try to be more creative and think of a different title.
At 3 pm I had to stop writing, go pick up Ollie and take him home, put my washer load in the dryer, drive the 25 minutes north to pick up Shadow, and then come back to pick up my laundry. I continued writing when I got home and finally quit at 8 pm to fix dinner. I get so immersed in the story I am telling that I just don’t want to stop writing.
This afternoon I asked Jed if they are going to have a Super Bowl party on Sunday. They are not football fans and Heather has suggested having an anti-Super Bowl party where you only watch the commercials and the halftime show. I smiled as I know the boys won’t allow that. And I have to watch this game just to see the battle of the quarterbacks. Like many New Englanders, it is going to be painful to watch ‘our’ Tom Brady play for another team. It felt almost treasonous when he left the Patriots. But even if he did desert us, I can’t help but cheer him on. He is almost old enough to be the father of the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, but he still is at the top of his game. He just stays there. I loved the Kate McKinnon skit on SNL last week. She was posing the question “What Still Works” in American society. Government? No. Stock Market? No. Social Media? No. Vaccine Roll-out? No. Tom Brady? Well, yes. But unfortunately, he is a “weird Trump guy.” I guess I must forgive him for that as well.
by Judy Handley | Feb 4, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 35: Blood Test, Writing, Tech Tips Class
Date: Thursday, February 4, 2021
Weather: Icy Precip Overnight, Overcast All Day; High 41, Low 28 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Yesterday I realized that my annual physical that was cancelled in September is coming up on Monday. I had not gotten a reminder and had not gone in for the blood test that is part of the physical. So, I called this morning to confirm the appointment and then headed to the Quest Lab for the blood test. I was really taken back by the number of people in the small reception area. It was one of the first times in the past year that I have felt unsafe. But as long as I was already inside, I went ahead and checked in. The young man doing the check in was extremely efficient and he had me checked, blood drawn, and out the door in about five minutes. I then returned home to walk with Shadow and settled into my writing project. I’ll also mention here that after picking Ollie up after school, I rushed home to catch the last half of a monthly Tech Tips Zoom class. I missed most of the refresher on using Google Drive, but enjoyed the second half of the class giving an overview of using Ancestry.com.
Now to today’s Voyage of Windbird writing progress. I continued working on the chapter entitled, A Rough Start. Not only did we have extreme weather, we lost our transmission. This was not so dangerous as long as we were at sea, but when we had to come into the Delaware Bay with heavy cargo ship traffic, it became very dangerous. We could use the engine, but we had to pour transmission fluid in continuously to keep it going. The more I wrote about this today, the more I realized just how much we didn’t know when we left Boston in 2005. But more than that, I realized just how very rough and dangerous those first few days of the Voyage of Windbird really were. I’m amazed that we just didn’t turn around and come home, but I am so glad that we didn’t.
It was our lack of knowledge of the weather, coupled with insanely complex weather systems, and then the loss of our transmission that made the situation so dire. We were getting daily weather faxes via our Ham radio, but did we really know how to read them to get a full picture of the weather? In hindsight, I don’t think so. We left Boston on October 18, three days after a tropical depression formed in the Caribbean near Jamaica. But it was headed westward, so we dismissed it as a problem. On October 17, it intensified to tropical storm status, turned southward, and was named Wilma. Still, it was not headed our way, so on October 18, we left Boston. On that day, Wilma intensified again and became Hurricane Wilma. Due to weather, we pulled into Quissett Harbor and stayed there an extra day to wait for the strong south winds to abate. When Windbird left Quissett Harbor on October 20, Hurricane Wilma was crossing the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, still headed to the west. No problem, right? But, then she immediately did an about face and headed northeast just north of the Florida Keys, crossed the state of Florida exiting near Jupiter, entered the Atlantic Ocean, intensified again as she passed north of the Bahamas, absorbed a smaller Tropical Storm named Alpha to the east, and then headed offshore up the East Coast. Wilma finally transitioned to an extratropical cyclone on October 26 just south of Nova Scotia.
Hurricane Wilma was the sixth major hurricane of the 2005 season which included Rita and Katrina. Now I know it was the most intense tropical cyclone every recorded in the Atlantic basin and the second most-intense tropical cyclone recorded in the Western Hemisphere. I also realize that neither Mark nor I had any idea of the strength of the storm or of all the associated weather systems that had impacted us from the time we exited the Boston Harbor. It took my breath away to read about this today and then write about our experiences during that time. I got a bit side-tracked while researching information on Hurricane Wilma, but I still made good progress.
I will continue tomorrow morning after I drop Shadow at the groomer for what I think of as his beauty shop appointment every six to eight weeks. I then have to run a few errands, come home and write, and then go back and pick up Shadow just before I pick Ollie up after school. I won’t finish the chapter tomorrow, but hopefully I will come close.
Photo By Supportstorm – Created by Supportstorm using WikiProject Tropical cyclones/Tracks. The background image is from NASA. Tracking data is from the National Hurricane Center, Public Domain.
