2019 Life Logs, Day 44: Snow, No Snow
2019 Life Logs, Day 44: Snow, No Snow
Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Very Windy; High 48, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Now you see it, now you don’t. That is the way last night’s snow went. When I first got up at daylight, there was still snow on the ground. But I went back to bed and when I actually got up an hour or so later, there was no trace of the snow. During the night, the temperature kept rising. The warmer temperatures and the windy conditions made the snow disappear, just like a magic trick. In the afternoon I headed to the gym to do my daily stint on the bicycle, but today I had to wear my brace. Everyday it seems my knee gets a little worse, and today I really couldn’t walk without the brace. I wore it to the gym, rode the bike for 30 minutes, and then went to the grocery store to buy things for tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day dinner with the Goldstones. We are having cheese fondue with veggies and meat for dinner and then chocolate fondue with fruit for dessert. And you can’t have chocolate fondue without strawberries, but there were no organic strawberries to be found in Falmouth this afternoon. I drove to Mashpee and still no organic strawberries. They had sold out everywhere. I was sure Whole Foods in Hyannis would have them, but that meant another 30-minute drive. But off I went. And even Whole Foods had no organic strawberries. So I started visiting other supermarkets in Hyannis. I finally found them at Shaw’s. Not the ripest, best looking strawberries I have ever seen, but at least they are organic. And why, you might ask, is it so important that the strawberries be organic? Strawberries, and all soft berries, are the most important foods to make sure buy only organic. Well, for one reason, the USDA tests have found that strawberries are at the top of the list of fresh produce items to be most likely contaminated with pesticide residue, even after they are picked, rinsed in the field, and then rinse carefully before eating. When tested, there are 7 to 8 pesticides found in non-organic strawberries. I don’t want to eat poison, and I certainly don’t want to feed poison to my grandchildren, so going the extra miles to find organic is important to me. The strawberry search meant I didn’t get some things done today that I had planned, but there is always tomorrow.
In about 30 minutes, my friend Lynne Kirwin should be flying out of San Francisco headed to New Zealand. Lynne has dual citizenship and spent a great deal of her adult life living in New Zealand. So, she is headed there to spend time with good friends who will help her to heal from the loss of Ed, the love of her life. Her first stop will be at a yoga retreat owned by one good friend. And then she gets to go sailing with other friends. Enjoy, Lynne!
and it always brings great joy to children. But on the other hand, the icy conditions caused by that beautiful blanket of white cause all sorts of problems. Knowing it was coming this afternoon, the Falmouth schools decided to follow the Early Release schedule today to avoid the risk of accidents if they released at the normal time during the snow fall. It was a perfect call as the first snow flake fell just as I was walking with Jonah and Ollie to my car to take them home at 12:40 pm. It didn’t take long for the ground to be covered and by 1:30 there was enough snow to get the boys outside to do some sledding. Of course, sledding somehow turned into a snowball fight and then tears because snowballs ended up being thrown into faces where they are never to be thrown. And then everyone was cold and wet and no longer enamored by the white stuff and they headed next door to play inside. Heather was home sick this afternoon and trying to get some work required reading done, but once the boys were next door, she fell asleep. When Jed got home she was still asleep and I do hope the rest helps her fight off this cold. By the time Jed got home, the snow was turning to icy rain. Jed cleaned the snow off my car and I headed home before the roads got any worse. Once home, I shoveled the front steps, a path to the car, and the entrance to Shirley’s home. I didn’t shovel her whole drive way as it is supposed to warm up overnight and melt the snow. But in case that doesn’t happen, there is enough shoveled to get into and out of the two houses safely.
Then, tonight, I enjoyed a wonderful Skype video call with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, Coco, and Jo’s parents who are taking a break from England’s gray winter skies to enjoy sunny Puerto Rico. I have only met Jo’s parents once, but we keep in touch via email and Skype video calls from time to time when they are visiting Justin and Jo or when Justin and Jo are in England visiting them. I got to see Ziggy’s aquariums, the part of his room that he uses as his inventor’s workshop, and I got see one of his inventions in action. Coco had been playing a game with her Grandma that teaches about flower families and she delighted in reading the various flower families to me. I also enjoyed seeing how they have rearranged rooms. What was the guest room is now Ziggy’s room and workshop. Ziggy and Coco’s bedroom is now the guest room and the playroom is now Coco’s room. So much changes in a year and since I didn’t get to go to Puerto Rico this winter, I hope we can have more of these Skype video calls to help me keep in touch. Otherwise, my day was just more of the same. I spent almost two hours at the gym this morning and spent my afternoon cooking and working on updating computer files. Jed and Jonah stopped by on their way home from Jonah’s guitar lesson and got the cross braces properly installed on the back of my new ‘greenhouse’ shelves. Thank you, Jed! Tomorrow I will get the plant lights installed on those shelves and continue working on computer file updates. So, more of the same, except we are expecting snow instead of sunshine. We haven’t seen much of the white stuff this winter, so we’ll see if it really materializes or manages to elude us once again. Tuesday is my day to pick Jonah and Ollie up after school, so we might be playing in the snow after school.
I purchased on Friday that will turn my living room windows into a greenhouse for growing the seedlings for this summer’s gardens—mine and Heather’s. Just thinking about gardening and summer brought warmth and the bright sunshine coming in the window added to the illusion. The shelves are simple and will hold 16 to 20 seed starting trays, more than we will need. I will add some additional grow lights, but I can’t afford the real deal from Home Depot. I stopped by Job Lot on my way to the gym this morning and found that they have the same LED shop lights I purchased last year. They cost $15 for a 4-foot light, versus $40 for a 2-foot grow light at Home Depot. Much more affordable, and with the sun that comes through the front windows, I think they will do. It is too early to start most things, but for now I am going to experiment with growing trays of arugula, not to transplant, but to cut straight from the growing trays into my salad bowl. I wanted to get this all set up before my knee surgery so that it will be easy to start the seeds when the time comes. I need a little help from Jed to get the cross braces on the shelves. Then I’ll get the lights installed and be ready to grow.
presented by the Cape Cod Symphony and the Cotuit Center for the Arts. The tickets were a Christmas present to Jonah from his Grammy Marti, and I am so happy that I was included. Thank you, Marti! The production was absolutely fabulous. The stage was filled with the Cape Cod Symphony with a big screen backdrop where scenery was projected.
The performers and chorus were dressed in costume and performed in front of the Symphony, sometimes weaving in and out of the Symphony performers, and sometimes weaving through the audience. You wouldn’t call it a play, but it wasn’t just a concert. It was the best of both. The projected images on the screen began just as the 1939 movie in sepia-colored scenes of Kansas wheat. Once Dorothy was ‘transported’ from Kansas and woke up in the Land of Oz the color appeared, just as it did in the movie. It is hard for me to decide which performer I favored. Dorothy had a beautiful voice, the Wicked Witch of the West couldn’t have been more wonderfully wicked, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion played their roles masterfully, and the Wizard was a delight. But if forced to have a favorite, mine would be the Scarecrow. Ray Bolger played the Scarecrow in the movie and I think he would have enjoyed today’s performance. There were a couple of lines, unchanged from the original movie, that got updated reactions. Dorothy asked the Scarecrow, “How can you talk if you haven’t got a brain?” The Scarecrow responded, just as he did in 1939, “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t you think?” This brought a robust chuckle from the audience, I think in honor of our President! At another point when Glinda, the good witch, brings snow to subdue the effect the poppies were having on Dorothy and ‘friends’, the Cowardly Lion’s line, “Unusual weather we’re having, ain’t it?”, brought more chuckles. I’m sure all of us have said this more than once in the past few weeks. Cape Cod Symphony Artistic Director and Conductor, Jung-Ho Pak, along with David Kuehn, Executive Director of the Cotuit Center for the Arts and Producer of this production, make an excellent team. I will look forward to seeing more of their combined efforts
