by Judy Handley | May 8, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 128: Three Sunny Days in a Row
Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Weather: Sunny; High 64, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Three sunny days in a row. I think that is a first for this spring. We had lots of sunshine during the winter, but this spring, particularly April, has been cool, overcast, and rainy. So, the sunny days this week have been a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, when I look at the forecast in Nashville, it looks like thunderstorms for the next four days, then a little sunshine by the first of the week. But it will be considerably warmer, so that is a positive. I leave early in the morning to spend a few days with my sister in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. This is a growing community about 25 minutes from downtown Nashville. It will be two weeks on Saturday since my brother-in-law died and my sister seems to be holding up quite well. Needless to say, I am anxious to get there to spend time with her.
I drove to Hyannis this morning for an annual eye exam. Healthy eyes, no change since last year, so no need for new glasses. All good news. When I go to Hyannis, I always make a stop at Home Depot, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s, and today was no exception. After shopping, I came home and finished the canning of the last few jars of chicken mineral broth, did a little gardening, and then got ready to leave early tomorrow. I watered the plants, cleaned the aquarium, packed up food that won’t last to take to Heather’s, and packed my bag. Then I met the Goldstones at Smitty’s, their neighborhood ice cream shop. We all should have been at Ollie’s first grade music concert, but we got word this morning that it was cancelled as the music teacher couldn’t be there due to a personal issue. Ollie was really looking forward to his first school concert and ice cream at Smitty’s afterwards, thus the reason for a trip to Smitty’s. Some of his first grade friends, who were equally disappointed by the concert cancellation, were also at Smitty’s. After ice cream, I said my farewells and headed home. Tomorrow is an early one, so it is off to bed with me now.
by Judy Handley | May 7, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 127: Never a Lack of Things to Do
Date: Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Weather: Sunny; High 57, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Second sunny day in a row and second super busy day in a row. A trip to the chiropractor and a long walk with friend Jane Woodin took the entire morning. In fact, after running a few errands in town and a stop by Heather and Jed’s to put a laundry in, it was almost 1:30 pm by the time I got home. Then I was back at Heather and Jed’s by 3:30 to spend the afternoon and evening with the boys. And I managed to get my laundry done as well. Heather arrived with Sam, who had drum lessons after school, just before 5 pm and then headed right back out the door to go to a PTO meeting to give an update on the courtyard project. From there she was going to a school volunteer’s dinner. Sam helped me fix dinner. He loves the new grill and he grilled the burgers. Jonah, the one who eats no meat but has actually decided he likes hamburgers, complimented Sam telling him he thought the ones he fixed tonight were the best he has ever had. Sam really is becoming quite a little chef with a whole repertoire of things he can fix on his own. Jed got home from Boston just in time for dinner, so after dinner I headed home. I am spending my evening canning the chicken mineral broth I made yesterday. Never a lack of things to do.
by Judy Handley | May 6, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 126: Busy Monday
Date: Monday, May 6, 2019
Weather: Sunny; High 57, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
From a laid back, rainy Sunday to a busy, sunny Monday . . . making a huge batch of my magic chicken mineral broth, going to the gym to ride the stationary bike, walking the mile-long loop in my neighborhood, and working on organizing my photos. That job should have been done this winter, but somehow I made very little progress. I was super charged today and made an amazing amount of progress. Two more days like today, and I’ll be able to mark that job off my To Do list. Hurray! I begin tomorrow with a trip to the chiropractor for a back tune-up—nothing wrong, just routine. Then I head to West Falmouth to walk with friend Jane Wooden. I pick Jonah and Ollie up from school tomorrow and then have all three boys until bedtime. So I won’t have time to continue my photo project. Any time I do have will be spent packing for my trip to Tennessee to visit with my sister. I head to the bus station early Thursday morning for the trip to Boston and then fly out of Logan at 10 am. The weather there looks significantly warmer than here, but the forecast for my first few days there are for rain. I guess you just can’t escape the rain this spring.
by Judy Handley | May 5, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 125: Sunday Dinner at Oma’s
Date: Sunday, May 5, 2019
Weather: Rain All Day; High 50, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a dreary, rainy Cinco de Mayo here on Cape Cod. It feels like it has been dreary and rainy forever, but it does look like we might get a little sunshine in the next couple of days. That will be most welcomed. I invited Heather and gang over for dinner, so that was the highlight of my day. I also talked to Justin, Coco, and Ziggy via Skype. Justin and Jo found a Cinco de Mayo air flight sale on Virgin Airlines that will make their trip to England affordable, so Justin called to check out dates that work best for them to make a stop here before heading on to England. If things worked out with booking the flights, they will be here the middle week of July. Hurray! Since I didn’t get to go visit this winter due to the knee surgery, I’m very anxious to see them.
by Judy Handley | May 4, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 124: It Takes a Village
Date: Saturday, May 4, 2019
Weather: Rain Overnight, Overcast Day with Some Rain; High 56, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
One day this week when I was talking to Jed about weekend plans, it became apparent to me that he and Heather could use some help today. Today he had to go with Sam to Martha’s Vineyard for a soccer game. That meant they had to leave home by 8:30 am and wouldn’t get home until 3:30 pm. Heather has worked for two years to get a courtyard for outdoor learning up and running at the elementary school and this morning was a major worktime for the ‘village’ landscaper and parent volunteers, so she needed to be there. And then she had to be in Boston by 2:30 pm to be the emcee for the awards ceremony for the State Science Fair. So, I suggested to Jed, and then yesterday to Heather, that I come over at 8:30 this morning and take care of Jonah and Ollie for the day. 
It takes a village . . . to develop a wonderful outdoor learning space at a school and to take care of grandkids while parents are off doing wonderful things like encouraging young people to become scientists by enthusiastically emceeing the State Science Fair awards ceremony.
Jonah, Ollie, neighbor Joey (whose grandmother was also kidsitting today), and I watched a soccer game this morning and then I took them to the elementary school to play football and to get a glimpse of the work Heather and her ‘village’ were doing on the courtyard. The boys found a great patch of grass for throwing the football back and forth and a sandy patch for drawing out their plans.
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And Heather was overseeing the landscaping in the courtyard around the pergola they installed a year or so ago. There were parents, kids, and AmeriCorps volunteers at work.
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We all came home for lunch. Heather did a quick change and headed to Boston and then the mother of one of Ollie’s friends, another member of the ‘village’, picked him up to take him to a birthday party. Jonah and I stayed home and folded laundry and played Clue. Before we knew it, Jed was home with Sam. Then it was time for Jonah to go to a soccer scrimmage. Jed had a grant due yesterday and was up until almost 5 am on Friday morning. By the time he got home this afternoon from a ferry trip to Martha’s Vineyard for Sam’s soccer game, he looked absolutely wiped out. So, I volunteered to take Jonah to his scrimmage and stay to bring him home. Hopefully Jed made it until Heather returned from Boston tonight. It has been an unbelievably busy week for both of them. I don’t see anything on the calendar until 3 pm tomorrow, so hopefully they can have a slow Sunday morning to regroup energy. I plan to also have a slow Sunday morning—not because I need it, but because I like it. I honestly feel energized just by being part of the village that makes all this crazy activity possible.
by Judy Handley | May 3, 2019 | 2019 Life Logs |
2019 Life Logs, Day 123: Connections
Date: Friday, May 3, 2019
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 53, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
According to Wikipedia, “Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six, or fewer, social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of ‘a friend of a friend’ statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.” I wasn’t thinking about this last night as I watched The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC when she was interviewing yet another democrat declaring his run for President, Senator Michael Bennet from Colorado. I had seen him before in a bit of a rant on the Senate floor, but had paid no attention to who he was. As Rachel was interviewing him, he mentioned that his parents had taught him the importance of public service. Rachel then started reading his father’s resume of public service jobs, and I exclaimed (to myself) that this guy’s dad was Doug Bennet. I knew Doug Bennet, and his second wife, Midge Ramsey, when they both worked at National Public Radio (NPR) in the 1980’s. Doug was the president of NPR when Mark was being sought after to become the next manager of the only public radio station in New Hampshire at that time, WEVO. He had been contacted by a head hunter in July of 1989 and I suggested Mark ignore this as I was not moving to New Hampshire. We had a great life on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and I had no intention of moving to the cold north country. But the head hunter persisted and Mark was very interested in the challenge of the job as the hope was to expand WEVO into a statewide public radio network. January came and the pressure increased, but I still said no. In February, I went with Mark to the 20th anniversary celebration of NPR at Union Station in Washington, DC. It was Doug and his wife Mitzi that cornered me at that celebration and made a very convincing case for why I should support Mark in his desire to take this job. Doug’s pitch was that it was what was right for public radio, as well as what was right for Mark. Mark thought of Doug as a good friend, and on that evening in Union Station, I realized that it was not just Mark that wanted that job in New Hampshire. He was being encouraged by the powers that be. A month later, I caved, and finally gave into the move to New Hampshire. It was not nearly as painful as I had envisioned and we happily spent the next fifteen years there. But it was a bit of shock last night to realize that the son of a friend is running for President. Made me feel a tad old. Doug and Mark are no longer with us, but I still feel their connection and now the connection of Doug’s son. And I realize that the idea of six degrees of separation is real.
Realizing the connection last night, led me to reflect on my connection to so many other wonderful friends. My good friends Linda and Mike Stuart who are biking around the world are currently in Australia. They are now in Queensland and when I read their blog last night, I realized they are approaching the towns that Mark and I have visited, first when Heather was in college there, and later when we sailed up the coast of Australia. I am now particularly interested in reading their nightly blog to compare our impressions of that part of the world. And then this morning, Jane Woodin and I went for a walk, and we talked about her upcoming trip to Alaska. She and Bruce are going on a cruise, not driving there as Mark and I did, but they will be visiting many of the same places. I am so anxious to hear their report of that trip and to compare notes when they return. Connections, connections.
