by Judy Handley | Feb 26, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 57: Changing Focus for a Day
Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Weather: Beautiful Day, Again; High Temp 52, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
A change of focus today, from politics to sailboats … what a refreshing change of view. Jed’s mother, Marti, and I gave Heather and Jed the promise of a new dodger for Christmas. As part of that gift, I volunteered to do the research necessary to find the right place with the right price to do this. What I found out immediately was that the price of replacing a dodger has increased exponentially in the past few years, so Heather suggested I start researching the possibility of just replacing the vinyl ‘windows’ in the dodger. You might be asking about now, “What is a dodger.” It is like a roof with a windshield that covers part of the cockpit and the companionway or entrance going down into the sailboat’s interior. The ‘windows’ in the dodger are like the windshield of a car and the roof is canvas. The canvas fits on a metal frame to support it and the clear vinyl windows snap down on the cabin top. If you aren’t familiar with the term cockpit, it is the outside area of the boat where the controls are located and where people sit to navigate and also to enjoy each other’s company. On a boat, a saloon or salon is the inside living room and the cockpit is the outside living room. The cabin top is the solid roof of the boat.
So, today I drove to Chatham on the Outer Cape to get another opinion and estimate. It was a Cape Cod blue sky day, a perfect day to enjoy the beauty of the Cape. I was visiting Mike Berg at Seaside Designs whose main focus is fine cabinetry and woodworking for boat interiors. But evidently, he also does canvas work. I learned quickly that Mike is an avid sailor. He just returned from Florida where he competed in the Helly Hanson Sailing World Regatta Series in St. Petersburg. I have never had any interest in sailboat races, but I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to talk to a fellow sailor about common places we have where we have both sailed. Plus, I got a very affordable estimate on refurbishing the dodger with new vinyl windows. Mike estimates that the canvas from Ardenna’s current dodger has 5 more years of life and he recommended just sewing in new vinyl windows for now and think about a complete replacement in a few years. He will also help with the installation of solar panels on the top of the dodger. Heather and Jed will make the final decision, but the price was right, and my gut reaction was positive.
Last night just before I went to bed, I saw that I had a voice mail message. It was from the speaker for today’s Exploring Public Policy meeting telling me he could not make it to the meeting. At 11:30 pm, I sent out a ‘Cancelled’ email, but this afternoon I showed up in case not everyone read an email sent at midnight! There were a couple of people, and we had a great little mini-meeting.
by Judy Handley | Feb 25, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 56: Upper Cape Indivisible Meeting
Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Weather: Another Beautiful Day, Even Warmer; High Temp 50, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
After a quiet day at home and then picking Ollie up from school and taking him to his weekly saxophone lesson, tonight I went to an Upper Cape Indivisible meeting here in Falmouth. “Indivisible, a grassroots movement, mobilizes individuals and groups to defend democracy and tackle systems of power. With a focus on unity and shared leadership, Indivisible combines local constituent pressure with national campaigns, working both within and outside established systems.” Last week, I wrote about attending a local Indivisible ‘We Choose to Fight’ gathering on Presidents’ Day and about tuning into their weekly Zoom last Thursday. So, tonight I decided it was time to find out more about the local chapter. There are thousands of chapters nationally, and tonight the organizers were very pleased to see so many attending for the first time. The movement is growing. And people at the local, state, and national level out there protesting is powerful.
When I got home, I watched The Rachel Maddow show and I heard her say that all of the public pressure is not yet changing the song, but it is changing a few notes. She interviewed Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible tonight and he said the same thing. More public pressure is needed to keep the Republican budget bill from passing in the Senate. If it is not stopped, people’s health care is going to be compromised severely. So, get out there and make your voice heard before it is too late. What can you do?
On February 28 (this Friday) there is a national general strike. No shopping, no purchasing gasoline, no fast food, and if you must purchase, do it locally with cash. No credit cards.
Locally, there are two upcoming opportunities. On Tuesday, March 4 at noon in Hyannis at the traffic circle, there is a ‘Protest the Coup’ event.
And in Woods Hole on Saturday, March 7 at noon, there is a Stand Up for Science event.
Otherwise, I just enjoyed another beautiful day with a high temp of 50 degrees F. I don’t know how long it has been since it was this warm, but it sure felt great!
by Judy Handley | Feb 24, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 55: Field Trip to Mary Baker Eddy House
Date: Monday, February 24, 2025
Weather: Beautiful Day, Warming; High Temp 41, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Who was Mary Baker Eddy? And why did our field trip group go to tour one of her homes? Mary Baker was born on a farm in Bow, New Hampshire in 1821. She was an American religious leader, Christian healer, and author, who in 1879 founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, the Mother Church of the Christian Science movement in Boston, Massachusetts. She also founded The Christian Science Monitor in 1908, and three religious magazines and published numerous books. Eddy’s most important publication was Science and Health. She was also the author of 16 other titles that are still in print today. But the reason for the trip was not centered on her accomplishments. We went to tour the home she lived in during her last three years. It is a 3-story home at 400 Beacon Street in Chestnut Hill on the edge of Boston.
The home was built in around 1880, but was purchased an renovated by Mary Baker Eddy in 1908. After her death in 1910, her staff was allowed to live in it until their deaths. It then sat empty for almost a hundred years and was restored true to its 1908 status. Our docent-led two- and half-hour tour was fabulous. It was a long tour, but at the end we had more and more questions. The time literally flew by. The story of restoring the house with wallpaper and carpeting and furniture as true to the original as possible was truly fascinating. My favorite room was her office.
As I sat in that room, I tried to picture this diminutive woman in her late-80’s sitting at that desk creating the Christian Science Monitor. She must have been quite the woman.
by Judy Handley | Feb 23, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 54: In the Kitchen
Date: Sunday, February 23, 2025
Weather: Partly Sunny and Warmer; High Temp 40, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I spent a great deal of my time in the kitchen today, but the time spent outside was much more civil. There was some wind early, but it lessened a bit as the day went on. And the temperature went up to 40 degrees F this afternoon. And when I checked the forecast, it looks like we have more days with temps around coming up 40 this week.
Heather and family headed home today after their week of snowboarding and skiing fun in Vermont. I had offered to have dinner ready for them when they got home tonight, so part of my day was spent getting that ready. And then I remembered that tomorrow night is Select Board and Health Board. In Heather and Jed’s absence on the Monday nights they both have meetings, I have been getting dinner for the boys. I will be on an all day field trip to Boston tomorrow, so I fixed tomorrow night’s dinner as well.
At 6 pm, I delivered the food and got a chance to visit. When I arrived, however, there were two surprises. One not good and one just fun. The ‘not good’ surprise could have been a lot worse. Heather and Jed store their sailboat, Ardenna, in a boat lot at a friend’s house. The friend decided to take advantage of the calm late afternoon weather to burn some brush near where the boats are located. His boat is undercover in a large storage shed covered with plastic and Ardenna is out in the open next to the shed. The brush fire got out of control and before the fire department arrived, one wall of the shed started to burn. Ardenna is okay, but the friend’s boat has a lot of damage. The gel coat on one side of the boat is blistered, plus all the dinghies and the dinghy motors were in that shed and they are destroyed. It was still too soon for him to go into the shed to fully check out the damage. We’ll get the full report tomorrow. Not good, but like I said, it could have been a lot worse.
The fun surprise was that as soon as the boys got home to a yard without snow, they went to the large parking lot at Staples and brought home buckets of snow from a ‘mountain’ of snow left over from when the parking lot was plowed. They used the snow to make a snowboard run with a jump beside the house. The run goes down to the backyard that looks like an ice rink as it is covered in ice. So, when they went down the run and over the jump, they landed on ice. They decided it would be best to go back tomorrow to get more snow to cover the ice as well as it was a bit dangerous. Good idea.
It was great to visit and have dinner with the Goldstones tonight. And tomorrow night, I will get to visit with the boys and hear more about their snowboarding adventures this past week. The short story is that the weather was a real challenge, but they still had a great time.
by Judy Handley | Feb 22, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 53: Saturday Socializing
Date: Saturday, February 22, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 32, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
This afternoon I was invited to a film preview of Unfinished Business. One of my book club members, Lynda Connolly, a judge before retiring to the Cape, and her husband Michael, who was Massachusetts Secretary of State from 1979 to 1994 after serving in the Massachusetts legislature for six years, sent the invite. Together they were the writers of this screenplay, and Michael was the director and producer. The film was shot in Massachusetts and follows the story of a young legislator, played by Michael Landes, who learns the hard way about corruption in politics in 1984. If I understood correctly, the filming was done in 2000 but put on the back burner until now. Actress Wendy Benson is in the film and according to Google, she and Landes were married that same year. The viewing was at the Falmouth Cinema Pub and everyone was served popcorn and wine. What a civil way to spend a Saturday afternoon!
After the film viewing, I went to Christina and Warren Brodie’s home for dinner. It was an impromptu dinner invitation with other friends invited. Warren did the cooking, and it was a delicious meal. He served a Portuguese kale soup with pork tenderloin, potatoes, and sauteed veggies. In addition to having a fabulous meal, it was great to get together with friends.
by Judy Handley | Feb 21, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 52: We, the People
Date: Friday, February 21, 2025
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Cold; High Temp 35, Low 18 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
As my friend Lynne Kirwin constantly reminds me, we make plans and then life happens. I had planned to drive to Vermont to spend last night and today and tonight with the Goldstones. But I got deeply involved in my current projects and the extremely cold, windy weather has caused the Goldstones to make adjustments in their plans this week. It just became too difficult for me to go visit, so I decided to stay home. I will look forward to hearing about their week of snowboarding and skiing when they get home.
Today, I continued working on my projects. One involves finding the ‘just right’ place to either upgrade Ardenna’s dodger or replace it. Ardenna is the name of Heather and Jed’s sailboat. The promise of doing this research and getting the job done was a Christmas present to Heather and Jed from the ‘mothers’—Jed’s mother and me, Heather’s mother. I somehow just got started on this today and in my first appointment, I met a most interesting woman. She is my age and has been doing upholstery and canvas work for 44 years. The appointment took much longer than it should have because both of us were interested in each other’s life stories. I had fun talking and got a very favorable estimate on the work that needs to be done. I continue next week with more appointments and will then decide who will do the work. The other project I am working on is compute-based and a secret. So, I can’t share what I am doing for hours each day. I’ll just say I am having fun doing that as well.
If you are not already reading Heather Cox Richardson on a daily basis, I recommend that it is time that you begin. Every day she is putting what is happening into historical perspective, while at the same time putting forth the most important current events. Reading her blogs is like a daily history lesson with current news flashes woven in. Just Google Heather Cox Richardson and subscribe. You will start receiving her daily bogs in your email inbox at no cost. I mention this because today’s post was so full of information. But it is what she said at the end of her post today that affected me so deeply. She outlined how the major political movements in this country have not been led by political parties. The anti-war movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement … “They depended on a mass mobilization of all of us who accepted the responsibilities of being American.” Then she ended by saying, “We will prevail because we are relearning the basic truth – that we are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.” I feel I need to repeat that. We, you and me, are the leaders we’ve been waiting for to solve this debacle. Today’s situation requires a people’s movement demanding that the attack on our democracy ends now. And it is my belief that all of us who love this country have an obligation to get involved in some way. That’s my two cents for today.
