by Judy Handley | Dec 17, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 351: Fun in the Snow and Late Day Good News
Date: Thursday, December 17, 2020
Weather: Snow Overnight, Wintry Mix Today: High 36, Low 28 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA
I’ll start with the good news. Around 5:30 this evening Heather heard from Jed that Sam’s Covid test results came back negative. WooHoo! The quarantine is over. Heather was so ready to go home and sleep in her own bed, so she wasted no time packing home for the move home. It took both cars to get everything back home—clothes, school backpacks, Heather’s work paraphernalia, musical instruments and music stand, snow gear (pants, sleds, multiple pairs of gloves, boots), various things to play with, food . . . the list goes on, but you get the picture. Heather, Jonah, and Ollie have been here for 10 days. That is a long time for a family to be separated, but Ollie was insistent that he was staying here. Heather finally talked him into coming home, but he insists he is coming back to spend the weekend. I think once he gets settled in at home, he might change his mind. But, of course, he is welcome to come back if his parents agree. I am just so happy that they all back together. I loved having them here and will miss the liveliness of having two boys in the house. During their stay we have done everything from raking leaves to building a snowman. We rearranged the house to make remote school spaces for two boys and a workspace for Heather. We walked and played with Shadow and each of the boys had special times with him. We fed swans down by the dock, made Christmas cookies, fenced with wooden swords, had remote music lessons, and today we spent a lot of time outside playing in the snow. We had many Zoom dinners together with Sam and Jed, as well as watching a movie and the Hip Hop Nutcracker with them. Whew! It is going to take me a day or two rest up. And we owe Shirley, my landlord and friend, for allowing us to use her house next door during this time. Since Shirley and Doris are not living there right now, the house was empty. So, Heather worked over there on some days and we used Shirley’s washer and dryer. The dryer was especially helpful today. The snow that fell overnight was a wet one, so playing in it today was a soggy affair requiring the drying of everything before we could go out again.
Out play in the snow started early this morning. Heather had a 9 am meeting and Jonah’s first remote meeting was at 9:30 am. That is an hour later than normal as there was a delayed start due to the snow. We were all up and ready to go a little after 7:30 am. Heather worked on building a snowman with some support from me and the boys. The boys also worked on building a snow fort wall. We were all very proud of the results, but by day’s end, the snowman had lost his carrot nose and looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Heather laughed heartily when she saw the state of her snowman. She said he looked like she felt at the end of a hard day. But with the boys helping, she was able to get the snowman righted and the boys put his carrot nose back on. Hopefully, he will survive the strong winds we are experiencing tonight and be with us for another day or so.
Tomorrow I have to focus on preparing a presentation on the Voyage of Windbird that I will give on Sunday for the Cape Cod Maritime Museum. It will be done via Zoom and I need to spend tomorrow shortening it a bit and making sure all of the photos and videos are in place. That can wait, however, as I plan to sleep in.
by Judy Handley | Dec 16, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 350: Still No Covid Test Result
Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Weather: Overcast and Cold, Snowing Tonight: High 31, Low 29 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA
We were so sure we Sam’s test results would come back today and Heather, Jonah, and Ollie would move back home. But there were no test results. When another family with a son in Sam’s class called the doctor’s office to inquire about the delay, they were simply told if there were no results by Friday to call back. So, we wait. As Jonah and Ollie went to bed tonight, the snow started falling. Some forecasts say we might get as much as 8 inches. The school system has declared it a remote school day for all. It will only be declared a true snow day if there are power outages causing half the students to be unable to get online. But in either case, I know we will be outside in the snow first thing in the morning before it melts.
by Judy Handley | Dec 15, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 349: Not Quite So Wacky
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Colder: High 37, Low 20 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA
Today was not quite so wacky. The heat in Shirley’s house is still not quite right, but it was good enough that Heather could work over there today. Jonah works remotely from the room Ollie claims as his bedroom and he is really very independent now. So, I left to take Ollie to school and then did a little shopping. I needed to go the LL Bean to get a couple of Yankee swap gifts for Jonah to take to an outdoor Scout exchange tonight. And while I was out, I walked across the street from LL Bean to William Sonoma to get Christmas crackers, and then on to Talbot’s to get myself a new sweater. I got home in time for Jonah’s 10:30 am recess and we played outside with Shadow. Then he went back to his online Zoom classes and I started preparing for a presentation I will be making on Sunday at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum. I will go there, but only the technician will be there to make sure everything works right for the Zoom presentation. Mid-afternoon I went to pick Ollie up at the end of the school day. I left early so I could stop at the post office to pick up a package. But the line was so long that I finally had to leave and will return when I have more time to wait. All of the post offices here have been reduced to one person at the counter and it has resulted in long lines no matter what time of day you go. Waiting in line in a small lobby is not what you want to do during a pandemic, but since many people are not getting together with family, they are sending more presents than ever. I feel really sorry for the postal workers. They always try to give quick and efficient service, but now with only one person and more people sending packages, it is difficult for everyone.
Heather had her first annual review via Zoom at the end of the workday, so she was later than usual coming home from Shirley’s. Ollie got himself set up on Skype for his violin lesson and Jonah helped me get dinner ready. We were supposed to have a repeat of the first night of Hanukkah—latkes and Matzo ball soup. But with Jonah having to leave to go to Scouts an hour earlier than I planned for, he ate leftover mac and cheese and latkes in the car on the way. I took him while Heather fried the rest of the latkes. By the time I got home, she and Ollie had eaten so many latkes that they didn’t want anything else. So, I ate leftover Matzo ball soup, boiled the Matzo balls from the mix Jonah had made while I was grating potatoes, and put them in the fridge for tomorrow. Remote work, remote schooling, playing outside with Shadow, enjoying the eight days of Hanukkah . . . that is basically a typical day around here during this quarantine.
Sam is hoping to get his Covid test results tomorrow and Heather and Jed have decided that all three boys will go remote from now until Christmas starting tomorrow. So, if Sam’s results are negative, the whole family can move back in together. We will all try to limit our contact with the outside world even more than we are doing now, so we can stay healthy and be together for Christmas. Besides, no one wants to have to quarantine again. We have all tried to make the best of it, but families want to be together.
by Judy Handley | Dec 14, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 348: Interesting Day
Date: Monday, December 14, 2020
Weather: Overcast and Rainy: High 42, Low 29 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA
Wednesdays are supposed to be wacky, but this was a wacky Monday. Heather got up early this morning and there was no Google. There was no way she was going to be able to work without it, but she was most concerned because this was the day the Electoral College was going to certify the election meeting online. When I got up, we gave it a few minutes, and then I tried to send myself an email via Gmail. It worked, so she tried again and found that Google was back up and running. I said that Google needs to borrow the Dunkin’ Donuts slogan. American doesn’t really run on Dunkin’, it runs on Google.
Now for the next wacky thing. On Friday when Heather was working in Shirley’s house, I snuck over to do a laundry. I put the clothes in the washer, hit the button and heard the lid lock, and came back home. I assumed the washer had started. Later, we sent Jonah over to put the washer load in the dryer, and then I went over to get it out of the dryer. I folded things and found that some of my dish towels just hadn’t gotten clean. But everything else looked okay. Then this morning when I took Shadow out first thing, I unlocked Shirley’s house and turned the heat up so Heather could work over there again today. And I put in another load of laundry. I then took Ollie to school and Heather started her workday at Shirley’s. She was hoping it would be warmer today as she almost froze on Friday. She had to come back to the cottage to get a fleece jacket and a blanket to keep warm. But the house temp was going up a bit, so we just wrote it off as Heather being cold blooded.
Today, when I got back from taking Ollie to school, I went over to put the washer load I had put in earlier in the dryer. But the clothes were still dry. I started investigating and saw that the water was turned off. No wonder the dish towels didn’t look clean on Friday. They had not been washed! And evidently Jonah hadn’t noticed that the clothes had not been washed when he was sent to switch the load. So, I turned on the water and started that washer load again. I then went back to the cottage to gather as many things as I could remember that had supposedly been washed on Friday so that I could really wash them. When I went back to Shirley’s to take the additional laundry, Heather mentioned that the temperature in the house was not going up. The thermostat had been set at 60 all weekend and three hours after I had turned it up to 70, it was still 52 in the house. Obviously, the furnace was not working. Heather moved back to the cottage and we called the plumbing and heating guys to come take a look. They said they couldn’t come until tomorrow or the next day, but late in the afternoon a young many named Tyler arrived to check things out. I let him in and asked him to come see me when he was finished. But I saw his van leave, come again, leave again, and then another van came and two guys came to my door explaining that they were here to replace a valve in my furnace. I assured them I didn’t need a new valve of any sort, but that it was for the house across the driveway. I told them to come me see when they were done. They did, but they had taken the key I had left in the door lock and locked the inner door to the house. They gave me the key and said they locked the outer door to the entry way to which there is no key. There is a sign saying not to lock that door. But it was dark and they obviously didn’t see the sign. I won’t continue with this story as it just gets wackier. But Peter Baranowski, who is married to Shirley’s niece Karen, had to come and pick the lock so we could get into the house and check on the heat. It was still in the 50’s, but we’ll give it overnight before calling the plumbing and heating guys back. Thankfully we were using Shirley’s house in her absence or the non-functioning furnace might not have been discovered until it was too late the pipes were frozen. Tonight it is going to be 29 degrees and tomorrow night it is supposed to get 10 degrees colder. It would have to stay like that for a period of time before the pipes would freeze, but I’m glad we caught the problem now.
Even with all of the wackiness, I think we had a pretty good day. Sam should get his Covid test results tomorrow and if he is negative for Covid, I might lose my housemates. We have had a good time together, but I know all of the Goldstones are anxious to be together as a family again.
by Judy Handley | Dec 13, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 347: Hip Hop Nutcracker
Date: Sunday, December 13, 2020
Weather: Partly Sunny and Warm: High 57, Low 33 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA
Today was another warm day, but this looks to be the end of the unseasonably warm weather for now. Tomorrow the daytime high will be around 40 and then the following four to five days the daytime high will be in the 30’s. Brrrrrrr. Heather, Jonah, Ollie, and I took advantage of the warmth this morning to go for a long walk with Shadow. I then headed to town to do some grocery shopping. When I got home, I watched as Heather and the boys worked on a craft together and before we knew it, it was time to fix dinner. We had our now normal Zoom dinner with Jed and Sam and then we watched the Hip Hop Nutcracker. This is a show you have to pay for that is streamed on your computer and we then connected the computer to the television, so we could see it on the big screen. Hip Hop dancing replaced ballet and Tchaikovsky’s music was given a modern twist. The dancers were phenomenal, replacing spinning on your toes with spinning on your head. And the violin player was exceptional. I wasn’t sure I would like this, but I loved it. Thank you, Heather, for footing the bill for this show. It was a great way to end the weekend and get ready for another school week. I know all of the Goldstones are so anxious to be together as a family unit again, but I have truly enjoyed having Heather, Jonah, and Ollie here with me.
by Judy Handley | Dec 12, 2020 | 2020 Life Logs |
2020 Life Logs, Day 346: Cooking, Laundry, and Two Movies
Date: Saturday, December 12, 2020
Weather: Overcast, Misty, and Rainy: High 56, Low 50 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA
It rained all day. The rain was light in the morning, heavier in the afternoon, and back to a little lighter in the evening . . . it was a completely wet day. Ollie and I made granola, I canned chicken broth and made my mainstay veggie soup, and we did laundry. I don’t have a washer or a dryer other than my bathtub and an outside clothesline, but since Shirley has offered to let Heather work next door in her house, today we ‘borrowed’ her laundry facilities.
In between all of cooking and laundry chores, we found time to get my Christmas tree decorated and we watched two movies. In the late afternoon we watched ‘Claus’. It is an animated Christmas comedy telling a version of how Santa came into being and we all really enjoyed it. Then tonight the boys talked us into watching another animated film, ‘Spies in Disguise’. It is a James Bond spoof starring Will Smith. In the beginning I thought it was going to be too violent for me. But the character of Walter saved the film. He is a techie nerd that finds non-violent ways of fighting the enemy. Again, we all really enjoyed it. With the combination of a rainy day plus the family separated and the boys all missing each other, a little entertainment was most welcome today.
