2020 Life Logs, Day 172: Happy Father’s Day and Happy Birthday to Jo
2020 Life Logs, Day 172: Happy Father’s Day and Happy Birthday to Jo
Date: Sunday, June 21, 2020
Weather: Overcast Early, Then Sunny; High 80, Low 63 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Here’s hoping all of you fathers out there had a wonderful Father’s Day. And a very special Happy Father’s Day to the fathers of my grandchildren, Justin and Jed. I know Justin spent his day at the beach where Jo tried out her new paddleboard birthday gift from Justin. And I know Jed spent his afternoon at the beach because I was with him. We had a great time and I’m hoping that Justin, Jo, and kids also had a great day. Happy Birthday, Jo.
This morning I delivered the strawberry-rhubarb pie that I made for Jed for Father’s Day. Jed is still recovering from the biking accident he had recently, so he was the only Goldstone that did not participate in the 5k run for the Falmouth Education Association this morning. This fundraiser is usually a run on the waterfront and through the adjoining neighborhoods in Falmouth Heights. But because of the coronavirus, the run was done informally in various neighborhoods and parts of town. Heather and boys ran and biked in their neighborhood. I arrived shortly after the end of the race and was convinced by Sam that I needed to join in for a family afternoon at the beach. They had decided to go to Quissett so I could bring Shadow, so I headed back home to get things ready for the afternoon.
It was a beautiful and very warm afternoon with lots of people on the beaches. Unfortunately, when the Goldstones arrived at Quissett there was no place to park. They called me and told me to stay put. They were going to check out Menauhant and let me know if we could meet there. But that was also a no go because there was no place to park. The backup to the backup was my suggestion to try Callie’s Beach off a dirt road in Mashpee. This beach is on Waquoit Bay. I was introduced to it by Karen and Peter Baranowski and on weekdays there are usually very few people there. It was a little crowded on one end of the beach today, but on far end, there were only a couple of other families. I was able to take Shadow with me to this beach and we had a lovely afternoon. It is very shallow, so the boys could walk and snorkel far out into the bay. The boys were able to get Shadow to come out into the water a little ways with them, but he always headed back to shore to bury himself in the sand. I’m beginning to think he didn’t get the water gene. The boys and Jed and also launched into building sandcastles all along the water’s edge.
Before I left for the afternoon at the beach, I delivered a strawberry-rhubarb pie to the aunties next door and I got Shirley’s permission to plant my luffa sponge plants in her landscaped garden which gets full sun all day. I have no place in my yard that gets full sun, so I am very excited about getting Shirley’s permission to plant on her side of the driveway. I’m hoping to get that planting job done tomorrow. This evening when I got home from the beach, I gave Shadow a much needed bath to get rid of all that sand and then I headed down to the dock with him so he could dry off in the sunshine.
It was after 6 pm and at that time of day, the only sunny spot is down by the water. I love sitting on the dock in the sun, so we enjoyed almost an hour of drying time. Then it was back to The Cottage so I could bake a strawberry-rhubarb pie for myself. I watched a Masterpiece Theatre double-header and just had my first piece of that pie. It did not disappoint. But what was disappointing was that I had to spend part of the evening trying to deal with a computer issue. Something is blocking my email from coming into my Outlook account. I can get email on my phone but can’t get into it on the computer. Unfortunately, I will have to continue with that issue tomorrow.
My first official day of summer celebration was to go pick-your-own strawberries. Sam, Ollie, and Jonah went with me and we picked eight quarts. I thought it was fairly easy picking, but after about six quarts, they were tired. They found it hard to believe that some people have to do this all day, every day as a job. Sam doesn’t eat strawberries and won’t even touch them, so I sent him through the rows to scout out the best places to pick. But halfway through our picking time, he tried touching a strawberry and found it wasn’t as repulsive as he thought. So even he pitched in and helped pick. I sent them home with six of the quart baskets and I kept two and turned them into strawberry rhubarb pies—one for Jed for Father’s Day and one for me. If the Goldstones haven’t eaten all of the other six baskets by tomorrow morning, I think I’ll go get another one and make a pie for the aunties next door. In my opinion, strawberry rhubarb pie is simply one of the tastiest foods in the whole world.
Later in the afternoon, I went to Heather and Jed’s to do a laundry and then take the Goldpebbles to Menauhant Beach for a couple of hours. The boys seemed to really enjoy the afternoon. They skipped rocks on the water and then treaded water. Jonah treaded water for 15 minutes and then Sam had to do the same. At one point, Jonah sat down and scooted his way down to the water. It looked like track a sea turtle would make coming ashore to lay eggs. But to Jonah it looked like a water slide and he and Ollie worked all afternoon to try and find ways to get water to slide down rather than just sink in the sand. They added rocks. When that didn’t work, they embedded a boogie board in the track and that did shed water. Sam didn’t join in with the water slide project. Instead, he spent a lot of time reading on the beach. Jonah’s comment was, “That’s what teenagers do.”
The Knob in Woods Hole may well be the most beautiful spot on Cape Cod. It offers a nature trails and stunning views of Quissett Harbor plus three different beaches, and all are dog friendly. You are required to keep your dog on a leash, and in these days of the coronavirus, you are required to wear a mask on the trails and when close to others on the beach. We were not aware of the mask requirement and had to go back home to get masks for the boys before heading down the beach. This afternoon we only accessed only one of the beaches and Sam did take Shadow down one of the nature trails. He had hoped to be able to get down to the beach from the trail, but the first few trails were blocked off. Once we all gathered on the beach, we did find one path from the beach that led up to an open trail.
Today’s adventure was catching a pufferfish. Evidently the boys saw it when they were out in the shallow water and herded it to shore where Jonah put it in a bucket. It was a large pufferfish and the bucket was just too small, so I suggested they dig a pufferfish swimming pool so they could observe it for a few minutes before releasing it. This was a northern pufferfish, Sphoeroides maculatus, in the family Tetraodontidae. It is found along the Atlantic coast of the US and Canada, and unlike many other pufferfish, the flesh of the northern puffer is not poisonous . . at least not as far as I know. Some pufferfish have enough tetrodotoxin to kill 5 adult humans and it has no antidote. I did not know this until I did some research tonight. And some pufferfish have a stronger bite than a piranha. Yikes! I need to do a little more research to know how to manage a situation like this in the future. Bruce, if you are reading this, weigh in and let me know if I let my grandkids unknowingly engage in a risky activity. I sure hope not. I do know people eat the northern puffer, so they must not have the tetrodotoxin that can kill adult humans who eat them. In any case, it was a gorgeous day and the boys really enjoyed their adventure with Fluffer Nutter, their name for this particular pufferfish, and with Shadow.
It was another 30-minute drive to get there, but I was determined to find a suit for Ollie. United Divers is tiny little shop. I parked in front and went in to find that they did, in fact, have exactly two wet suits for kids, and both were a size 8. That was lucky. They looked a little too big, but I bought one anyway and headed home. I got home with just enough time to take Shadow for a short walk, feed him lunch, and pack the car with the beach gear. Last night I thought we would be spending the afternoon with Meghan Hannawalt’s goats at the Goldstones, but Heather had sent a text this morning saying the goats were not arriving until 5 pm. So, that gave us the beach time. I was a bit late picking up the boys, but they were ready to go. We had to wait for Ollie to put on his wet suit and he was so happy that finally something fit him. It is a tad too big, but not enough to be a problem. And I don’t know who was happier, Ollie or me. Now we have three Goldpebble Surfer Dudes.
Ollie and I were the last ones to get to the car and when I put the key in the ignition and tried to start the car . . . nothing but a click, click, click. I have noticed a clicking noise for a couple of weeks now when I go to start the car, but it has always kicked over. Not this afternoon. Since I had been hearing this clicking noise, I had convinced myself that it was a starter issue, not the battery. But I called Jed and he came with battery cables. And that did the trick. I had been delayed by about 30 minutes, but at least I had a car that was running. Jed took the boys and I headed home to again walk and feed Shadow, get the food ready that I was taking to the dinner, and off I went. I was a few minutes late, but I felt lucky to be there at all. We met on the Frieswyk’s deck which is large enough to accommodate the nine of us with plenty of room for physical distancing. We each brought food to share that we had packaged in individual servings. And when we were distributing the food, we all wore masks which we removed once we were seated and eating. It was great to be together with this group of good friends and we’ll try this again in July. Thanks to Bruce Woodin for taking photos of some of us tonight.
