by Judy Handley | Mar 29, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 88: PT, Costco, Job Fair
Date: Saturday March 29, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Cool Rain Tonight; High Temp 46, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My day started with an early physical therapy appointment, the last one for the pain in my neck. The problem is not solved, but it is better. I really didn’t enjoy traveling so far for the appointments, so I am glad the sessions are over. If there is a next time, I am going to make sure I request being referred to the therapy center at Falmouth Hospital.
After the session, I drove further north to Costco to buy a few needed items. By the time I got back to the Cape it was 12:30 pm, so I headed directly to a one-day job fair at Mahoney’s Garden Center. I love living where I am, but the rent is really more than I can afford. So, I thought I would apply for a seasonal job where I would be surrounded by plants that I love. I have no idea if they will hire someone my age, especially since lifting heavy trays of plants and carting them around the huge greenhouse is part of the job. After the initial interview, I was interviewed by the young woman in charge of the indoor greenhouse. After that interview, I was told I would be called by the woman in charge of the perennial plants sold outside. After that interview, a hiring decision will be made. I have not interviewed for a job since 1989. It didn’t seem like a big deal until I walked through the doors. I almost turned around and walked right back out. But in the end, it was a positive experience. We’ll find out in a week or so if the positive experience turns into positive results.
by Judy Handley | Mar 28, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 87: Kayaking (Ollie, not me), Sign Making, and a Protest
Date: Friday March 28, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Windy; High Temp 52, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
“This is What Democracy Looks Like. We Won’t Give Up!”
“In a Free Land, Legal Views Aren’t Crimes” “Democracy Demands the Freedom to Speak” “Free the Kidnapped Students” “Stop Arresting Peaceful Protesters” “Stop ICE Abductions” “Hands Off! Stop the Kidnapping” “Respect Existence or Expect Resistance” “And Then They Came For … Thee”
Chilling to read these signs, while holding one of them, in the United States of America I know and love. But if making my voice heard in this way might help get my country back, I will stand in every protest until we get the job done.
So, I ended my day standing out on Main Street in protest of the kidnapping of students in our universities. I started my day reading a post by Jerry Lanson on Substack. In between, I tried to live life, ignoring what the Trump regime is doing to tear down our democracy. The highlight of my day was picking Ollie up from school and helping him launch a kayak for the first time this spring. We carried and slid the kayak down the hill between the two houses across the street from 43 Grasmere. The trick was to get it into the water without getting our feet wet. We were successful and Ollie really enjoyed exploring Jones Pond.
by Judy Handley | Mar 27, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 86: Dr. Strangelove
Date: Thursday March 27, 2025
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 47, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Late this morning, I headed to the Cape Cinema in Dennis with friend Judy Fenwick to see National Theater Live’s filmed production of Dr. Strangelove. If I saw Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove film in the 1970’s, I don’t remember it. And somehow, today, what has been billed as “an explosively funny satire, about a rogue U.S General who triggers a nuclear attack” didn’t seem so funny to me. The bumbling US President and inept Generals were too close to what we are witnessing in Washington., DC, in real time to be the least bit funny.
It was late afternoon when we returned to Falmouth. I checked in with the Goldpebbles to see how things were going there. Jonah went to school yesterday and today and seems to be doing okay with that. Sam was waiting for his mom to get home to take him shoe shopping and I made sure Ollie had something to eat as I had to take him to soccer practice at 6:15 pm. Then I headed to a Meet the Candidate affair for Colin Reed who is running for Select Board and then came back and picked up Ollie and took him to his soccer practice. Whatever he did to his side at rib-cage level at the trampoline park last Friday is still really bothering him, so he mostly watched practice tonight. Unfortunately, he didn’t wear a sweatshirt thinking he would be too hot while running. But since he was mostly standing still, he was freezing by the end of the practice. If I had realized, I would have gone home to get him a coat. Bad Oma!
by Judy Handley | Mar 26, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 85: Back to the Computer Photo Project
Date: Wednesday March 26, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Some Precipitation; High Temp 47, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today I was back on the computer working on the photo project that I started weeks ago. I am getting there but not done yet.
Thankfully, I got a little break when I picked Ollie up after school today. I took him home, but as he started to get out of the car, he asked if we could go to my house to get a kayak. There is a pond the boys can access from a neighbor’s backyard that Ollie wants to kayak in. The kayaks have been stored under the adjoining studio apartment since I moved here. I have two, but we decided to clean and move one today. We’ll get the second one if someone else would like to kayaking with Ollie.
Tonight I am back on the photo project, but stopping for the night. It is time to watch the Rachel Maddow Show while getting in my exercise bike time for tonight.
Here’s a little list you might be interested in. It was posted today by Robert Reich.
20 SIGNS OF IMPENDING TYRANNY
As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically:
1. Demand personal loyalty from all appointees.
2. Organize military parades and other choreographed shows of force.
3. Threaten to fire independent prosecutors who get too close to the truth.
4. Spread conspiracy theories about “deep state” forces seeking to oust the tyrant.
5. Refer to top-ranking military leaders as “my” generals.
6. Threaten to jail political opponents.
7. Claim to have won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote.
8. Stoke tensions abroad, even the specter of nuclear war, to distract from the tyrant’s efforts to consolidate power at home.
9. Circumvent the independent press and communicate directly with followers.
10. Vilify legislators and judges who are critical of the regime.
11. Repeatedly claim massive voter fraud in the absence of any evidence, in order to restrict voting in subsequent elections.
12. Turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize the regime, calling them “deceitful” and “scum.”
13. Repeatedly tell big lies, causing the public to doubt the truth and to believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals
14. Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias and hatred against them.
15. Threaten mass deportations, registries of religious minorities, and the banning of refugees.
16. Attribute acts of domestic violence to “enemies within,” and use such events as excuses to beef up internal security and limit civil liberties.
17. Appoint family members to high positions of authority.
18. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from public office.
19. Make personal alliances with foreign dictators, but express indifference if not defiance toward leaders of democracies.
20. Maintain a powerful propaganda arm that claims to be “fair and balanced” but only amplifies the tyrant’s lies and accusations.
by Judy Handley | Mar 25, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 84: An Unexpected Hassle
Date: Tuesday March 25, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 51, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I often get my mail out of the mailbox late at night when I take Shadow out for his final bathroom break of the day, and I don’t open the mail until the next morning. This morning was no exception. After my morning walk with Shadow, I opened yesterday’s mail. I received my updated TD Bank Visa credit card, as the old one expires in April. In trying to activate the card, I ended up having to call.. As I was waiting to talk to an agent, I was sitting at my computer and bringing up my account on my computer. I’m not sure why I did that, but I sure am glad I did. I talked to the agent and got the new card activated and as I hung up I saw the balance due on my credit card was almost $4,000. What? I pay it in full every month and I’ve certainly never owed that much for one month. I only got as far as pending charges when I saw that just yesterday there were three charges from one company, Newegg, in three different locations in the US. I had never heard of Newegg, but Wikipedia says it is “an American online retailer of items including computer hardware and consumer electronics” based in Diamond Bar, California. It a multinational technology company. I have no idea how they breeched my account. Then I saw there was another charge for more than $1500 on Sunday. I wished I had noticed this before hanging up, but I called again, and waited again, to report the fraudulent charges. They could not stop payment on the pending charges. I have to call back once they have been paid to lodge a complaint. But in the meantime, my account is closed, and I will be issued a new card with a new number in a week or two. What a royal pain.
It was after 12 noon by the time I was done dealing with this unexpected hassle. Not a fun way to spend a beautiful morning. But I regrouped, got a few things done, and then picked Ollie up after school. I took him to his sax lesson, went to Le Bon Jour to get dinner for him to eat on the way home, and was getting ready to take him to soccer when a little problem arose. He did not want to go. He pulled a muscle in his side while at the trampoline park last Friday. It doesn’t bother him except when he bounces or runs hard. So, he really didn’t want to go to soccer practice because of this. After texting both parents, it was decided he would not go tonight. In fact, Heather was almost home from Boston with Jonah, so I headed to my Upper Cape Indivisible meeting that I was going to skip due to soccer.
Heather said the trip to Boston Children’s was long, with a long wait as well. But after another set of x-rays, the Children’s doctor said the same thing as the Vermont ER doctor. Jonah has to limit movement while wearing a sling and waiting for gravity to get the bone back in place. No soccer for three months, no trombone for two months, and trips to Boston for weekly x-rays for the next two weeks. If gravity has done its job by then, he won’t have to travel quite as far for subsequent appointments. There is a satellite clinic outside of Boston where he will see the doctor. But this doctor does not think surgery will be necessary.
I had a great conversation with friend Lynne Kirwin in New Zealand tonight. She is coming back to the US for her summer visit earlier than usual this year. In fact, she arrives in California on Sunday and will make it to Michigan by mid-week. A nephew and his wife had a baby two years ago that died a sudden death shortly after bringing the baby home from the hospital. They have another baby due next week and they asked Lynne if she would come home early to stay with them for the first month or so. Naturally, they are fearful, so Lynne agreed to come. She thinks she will be heading to New York and to Cape Cod to visit in June. Yay! I look forward to seeing her.
by Judy Handley | Mar 24, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 83: Update on Jonah
Date: Monday March 24, 2025
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High Temp 48, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My day started with a meeting and then some phone calls I needed to make on behalf of my sister plus other calls to gather information for Encore. When I noticed it was almost noon, I sent a text to Jonah to see if he would like a sub from Subway for lunch. I had learned from Heather that he was able to sleep through much of the night but did wake up around 3:30 am needed more Ibuprofen for the pain. And I knew he did not go to school. He responded that he would love his favorite sub for lunch, so I headed out to get that and went over to have lunch with him. Heather was working from home and was waiting for a call from Jonah’s pediatrician. As I said last night, the ER doctor said to wait 7-10 days before seeing an orthopedic doctor. When Heather called Cape Cod Orthopedics this morning to make that appointment, she was told that their recommendation was for her to take him to Boston Children’s as soon as possible. Jonah’s pediatrician said the same thing and put through an emergency request. His age, the close proximity of the break to the growth plates in his shoulder, and the fact that there appears to be minimal blood flow down to his hand as his hand sometimes gets very cold made the local doctors more concerned than the doctor in Vermont. The appointment is for tomorrow at 3 pm in Boston, so Heather will be taking him there. I know all of us will rest much easier once we get the second opinion on next steps for Jonah.
Jed has to take Sam to Hyannis tomorrow afternoon after school to buy a new suit, again. He has Model UN on Saturday and Heather thought he was all set as they bought him a new suit for Model UN a few months ago. They thought he had stopped growing and that the suit would fit. Wrong! When Sam tried it on yesterday, it was so tight he couldn’t move his arms. So much for not growing. With Heather going in one direction and Jed in another, I will be on duty with Ollie tomorrow afternoon and evening. He has his saxophone lesson and then soccer practice, so it will be another busy evening.
Back to today. After having lunch with Jonah, who is managing to maintain his positive attitude through this ordeal, I went shopping for food for dinner for the Goldpebbles. Tonight was the every other Monday meeting night for both Heather and Jed. After shopping, I went home and precooked what I could and prepped the rest. Then Jane Woodin stopped by to say hello. She and Bruce have been in Mexico for the past six weeks. They had a fabulous time, and it was great to catch up. Then it was off to Heather and Jed’s to have dinner with the boys. Heather and Jed got home tonight before 9 pm. This was a record for Heather as Select Board often goes on for another couple of hours. And now it is time to head to bed and rest up for another day in the life.
