2019 Life Logs, Day 152: Soccer, Tomatoes, Wine
2019 Life Logs, Day 152: Soccer, Tomatoes, Wine
Date: Saturday, June 1, 2019
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 69, Low 52 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
What do soccer, tomatoes, and wine have in common? Nothing that I can think of, but I spent my day watching soccer games, planting tomato plants, and going to a wine tasting on this first day of June 2019. I started my morning at Sam’s soccer game. It was still the first half and Sam’s team was trailing by one goal. Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud verbal battle between one of the referees and a father of one of the players on Sam’s team. I have been to many soccer games in the past few years, but I have never experienced anything like this. Evidently the father thought the call by the referee was unfair and he verbally expressed that. The ref on the field then yelled at the father that he could either shut up or leave. This same father has been at all of the games that I have attended over the years, and as far as I remember, he has never commented on a call before. But he would not back down this morning and the referee demanded he leave. It was awful to watch this from the sidelines and it was even worse for the boys on the field to watch it play out. Then when the father left the field and the game resumed, there was another perceived bad call and the normally mild-mannered assistant coach yelled something that caused the referee to stop game again to tell him that if made another comment he was out as well. There was another comment by the assistant coach and he was told to leave the field. We were all in shock. Never has there been any incident like this at any of our games and it certainly took the fun out of the morning. As one parent commented, the rest of this game felt like the longest in history. But it did finally end and Heather, Ollie, and I headed on to Jonah’s game at a field in a different part of town. Jonah’s team won handily. Jonah’s closet goal shot hit the goal bar and was deflected, but his good friend Luke made a couple of goals which made Jonah a happy soccer player. After the game, we all dispersed in different directions. I went to Heather and Jed’s to plant some tomato plants and then I headed home for lunch. I had planned to go to the gym to ride the stationary bike, but I opted for an afternoon nap and a mile-long walk in the neighborhood. I never take naps, but I was tired and enjoyed the down time. Then I headed to a Newcomer’s Wine Tasting event at the Cape Cod Vineyard that is only a couple of miles from here. This should have been a happy evening, but glyphosate interfered. If you don’t know what glyphosate is, it is one of the main components in Round Up, Monsanto’s (now Bayer’s) popular weed killer that I personally believe is one of the main causes of the healthy crises we are experiencing in this country. This weed killer is sprayed with abandon on our food, grapes included—especially in California. I was hoping that the Cape Cod Vineyard wine might be sans glyphosate, but tonight I found out that they use California grapes in all of their wines. Ugh. Still it was a lovely evening, despite my hope for a glyphosate-free wine being dashed.
I got across the Tappan Zee Bridge with no problem, but then my GPS headed me in what I thought was the wrong direction. Then five miles later, it had me turn around and head back the same five miles. I carefully set my GPS before leaving Lynne’s, but I struggled with it all the way to Hartford, Connecticut. When I get a chance, I’m going to retrace the trip to see what happened, but even with the confusion, I arrived at Alan and Helaine’s new home in Dedham, near Boston, by 12:45 pm.
They live in a Hebrew senior life center called Newbridge on the Charles. It is known as one of the most successful senior living centers in the country and is celebrating ten years of success this year. It is associated with the Harvard Medical School, has a variety of living situations—cottages, villas, apartments, independent living, assisted living, and continuing care. It has a K-8 school on the grounds, a fantastic central building that has restaurants, a state-of-the-art gym, an inside pool, a theater, meeting rooms, and an auditorium. And the Charles River runs through the grounds with nature walking paths alongside it. In fact, Helaine and I took off to walk on those paths having no idea where they headed. We enjoyed the walk and eventually we found our way back home. There’s even an area on the campus where residents can claim a raised bed to plant. I was quite impressed with what I will call the village and, in particular, I was impressed with Alan and Helaine’s cottage. Compared to my little cottage, it felt HUGE. It has vaulted ceilings and lots of tall windows making it light and airy. And most importantly, both Alan and Helaine already love their cottage and their new life at Newbridge. We had lunch in one of the restaurants and while there saw many people that Alan and Helaine have met. Everyone is friendly and the staff helpful. It is easy to see why Newbridge has been so successful. It was 5 o’clock on a Friday afternoon when I was ready to leave, not the best time to head south to Cape Cod, so I drove through Dedham to a shopping area that had both a Whole Foods and a Costco and did a little shopping while waiting for the rush hour traffic to calm down. From my little explore of the town, it seems it has unlimited shopping opportunities. In the future, I’ll drive to Dedham for my off-Cape shopping trips and include a visit with Alan and Helaine.
I watched Ollie and Sam walking up the library walk with their Scouting buddies and once everyone was in place, the ceremony began. Afterwards there was a group photo of all the Scouts attending and then we headed home. I stopped at the gym to ride the stationary bike on the way home and then headed to Heather’s.
She was working on assembling another raised bed and the boys were relaxing in the backyard—Sam in the hammock and Ollie in his hanging tent. I planted the tomatoes I bought yesterday in the large containers that will be their home this summer, and then mid-afternoon, we all headed to the cottage.
Heather, Sam, and Ollie went kayaking and I sat on the dock in the sun and watched them for a while. I also watched the osprey in the nest on Wallers Island and eventually walked back to the cottage to start organizing dinner. After a bit, I walked back down to the dock and found a very wet Sam. At the end of his kayaking expedition, he somehow ended up in the water not far from the dock. He actually enjoyed the spill. But then he realized that his prized Ipod was in his pocket and his world fell apart. What had been a lovely day up to that point suddenly changed. We rushed to the cottage to get the Ipod wiped down and put in a container of uncooked rice. We won’t know for a couple of days whether or not this will save his Ipod. We all tried hard to regroup and about that time Jed and Jonah arrived from their drive home from Maine. I feel so bad for Sam. He struggled, but eventually he was able to enjoy the rest of the evening. I suggested that Heather take a quick trip home with Jed to show him the things she accomplished this weekend, and while they were gone, I let the boys have a water battle before cleaning up for dinner. Evidently, blasting your brothers with water solves all the world’s problems! We had a delightful dinner together to end our Memorial Day weekend. The high temperature for tomorrow is forecast to be 20 degrees cooler than today, so I guess our little slice of early summer is over. But it was wonderful while it lasted. 
