by Judy Handley | Jan 27, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 27: If it’s Monday …
Date: Monday, January 27, 2025
Weather: Sunny, Windy, Windy; Temp 39, Low 32 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
If it’s Monday … well, really only every other Monday, I spend my late afternoon and evening hanging out with the Goldpebbles. Heather has Select Board and Jed has Health Board. Select Board is not supposed to start until 6:30 pm, but often they have an Executive Session beginning at 5:30 pm. And that is the time that Jed must be at the Health Board meeting. So, I plan to arrive at 5 pm, conjure up or heat up something already prepared for dinner, and stay until Jed gets home sometime between 8 and 9 pm. Heather often doesn’t get home until 10 or 11 or even later. I love having the time with the boys, so I jump at the chance to help out. Unfortunately, Sam now has whatever Ollie had over the weekend. So far, Jonah has escaped it. He is continuing to play ice hockey with friends down on the pond every minute he can. Maybe all that time on the ice is keeping him healthy.
There is a gale warning for the Vineyard Sound, Nantucket Sound, and Buzzards Bay that is in effect until 7 pm tomorrow night. Today, beginning late afternoon, there we had winds blowing 15 to 25 knots with higher gusts offshore. So, it is a bit blustery out there tonight. We are supposed to get another dusting of snow overnight tomorrow night. Hopefully it is not enough to cancel a planned field trip to the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Wednesday. We shall see.
by Judy Handley | Jan 26, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 26: It’s All About the Wind
Date: Sunday, January 26, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny: Temp 39, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It was warmer when I walked with Shadow this morning, so I didn’t wear my warm scarf around my neck. But I didn’t factor in the wind. It was only blowing about 15 mph, but that was enough to make my face feel like it was freezing. By the time we got home, my face was still freezing, but the rest of me was on the verge of perspiring. When I checked the weather tonight, I see we are going to have winds over 20 mph for the next could of days. I guess I’ll have keep wearing that scarf around my neck. I should know from experience, that it’s all about the wind.
Around noon, I got a text from Ollie inviting me to come over and watch more episodes of The Mandalorian with him. He is feeling better, but his energy level is still not back to normal. He went ice skating down on the pond with his mom and dad this morning and when he returned, he didn’t have the energy afterwards to do anything other than be a couch potato. So why not watch more of the series we started last night? I really didn’t have anything that had to be done today, so I accepted the invitation. Watching TV all afternoon is not my usual M.O., but in another year of so, I know I will no longer get that kind of invitation. Ollie will be a full-fledged teenager, and we all know that teenagers are all about being with their friends. So, I jumped at Ollie’s invitation.
by Judy Handley | Jan 25, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 25: Date with Ollie
Date: Saturday, January 25, 2025
Weather: Sunny: Temp 32, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
It barely got above freezing again today, but it felt warm enough to spend time outside without freezing. Shadow and I started the day with a nice long walk. When we got home, I read for a bit and then I drove up to the Sagamore Park and Ride to pick up Heather who took the bus home from Boston. She attended two days of the Massachusetts Municipal Association meeting which brings together the heads of local government of all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns. When I got home, I set about making chili for Ollie. He still has a temperature and no energy, but he loves chili, so I thought that might perk him up. Then I got a text from Jonah asking if I could come over this evening so he could have friends over to play ice hockey on the frozen pond. It is such a rare occasion these days on the Cape to have frozen ponds that kids want to take full advantage of them before they melt. Heather and Jed were going to Yankee Swap, so of course I said yes to Jonah’s request. The boys are certainly old enough to be home alone in the evenings, but the house rule is that there can be no friends without an adult in the house. Sam is in New Hampshire with friends skiing, Jonah and three friends spent almost two hours out on the ice, so Ollie and I had a quiet dinner date and watched episodes of The Mandalorian. I was going to write about Heather Cox Richardson’s blog post from yesterday, but I don’t want to ruin what was a perfectly delightful day writing about the events of this week. In five short days, Trump has managed to start dismantling federal government agencies that have taken decades to build. I’ll save that for another time.
by Judy Handley | Jan 24, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 24: Lunch with a Friend
Date: Friday, January 24, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny: Temp 32, Low 15 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Not a lot to report today. I met a friend for lunch that I haven’t seen for ages. She had a morning exercise class at the Senior Center, so I met her there right after her class. The Senior Center serves good food at very affordable prices. I’ve only eaten there twice before, but it is certainly a good lunch option for seniors in Falmouth.
When I picked Ollie up after school today, he was not his cheery self. He said he had a headache all day and he felt like he had a fever. He was bummed because he really wanted to go to the dance at the middle school tonight, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen. I took him home and he said he was going to go to his room to rest. I went home, but then I had second thoughts. I emailed Heather to tell her I was going back to check on him. She was in Boston all day today and won’t be home until tomorrow evening, but she was going to check to see when Jed would be home. But since I was going back to check on him anyway, she suggested I check his temperature and make sure he was staying hydrated. He did have a fever just a bit over 100, but the headache had gone away. He promised to drink lots of water and rest until his dad came home. I checked with Jed tonight and he said the fever is down a bit. Now we just have to wait to see what tomorrow brings.
I got an email today from my daughter-in-law’s father who lives in England. During the past few months, he has been sending me articles from The Guardian focused on a world with Donald Trump as President of the United States. Today’s article listed 10 things you can do to resist Trump’s ‘neofascism’. In case you are looking for something you can do, I am listing the 10 things recommended below.
Trump’s neofascism is here now. Here are 10 things you can do to resist.
Robert Reich for The Guardian
“What can I do now?” Here are 10 recommendations.
1. Protect the decent and hardworking members of your communities who are undocumented or whose parents are undocumented.
2. Protect LGBTQ+ members of your community.
3. Help protect officials in your community or state whom Trump and his administration are targeting for vengeance.
4. Participate or organize boycotts of companies that are enabling the Trump regime, starting with Elon Musk’s X and Tesla, and any companies that advertise on X or on Fox News.
5. To the extent you are able, fund groups that are litigating against Trump.
6. Spread the truth.
7. Urge friends, relatives and acquaintances to avoid Trump propaganda outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, X and, increasingly, Facebook and Instagram.
8. Push for progressive measures in your community and state.
9. Encourage worker action.
10. Keep the faith. Do not give up on America.
Here are some of the sources Reich listed that he currently relies on for the truth: The Guardian, Democracy Now, Business Insider, the New Yorker, the American Prospect, Americans for Tax Fairness, the Economic Policy Institute, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, ProPublica, Labor Notes, the Lever, Popular Information, Heather Cox Richardson and, of course, Reich’s own Substack.
by Judy Handley | Jan 23, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 23: Encore Lunch In
Date: Thursday, January 23, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny: Temp 28, Low 19 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Today’s main activity was attending an Encore Lunch In. There are usually somewhere between 6-10 people who sign up for this each month. Today there were seven of us, and each of us brought as assigned food item. I was assigned to bring dessert, so I brought a poppy seed cake with fruit salad. As always, the food was wonderful, and the conversation was most interesting.
I knew one person well, my good friend Jane Woodin, had met two others, but there were three new people I had never met. I love these small events as you can really get a chance to get to know new people.
The weather was a tad warmer today, but still the high was below freezing. I love the snow cover on the ground,
but I do not like it on the sidewalks as I constantly fear that I will slip and fall. So, when Shadow and I go for our walks through the neighborhood, I simply walk in the street. It is a bit inconvenient, but I am not wishing for a melt anytime soon. Jonah and Ollie are enjoying playing ice hockey on the pond in their neighborhood. I am not sure we have had frozen ponds in the past few years, so hopefully it will stay cold enough for at least another week so they can continue their winter fun.
by Judy Handley | Jan 22, 2025 | 2025 Sailing Logs |
2025 Life Logs, Day 22: Cold North Wind
Date: Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Windy: Temp 23, Low 14 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
For the last three days, whatever the thermometer says, it feels about 12-15 degrees colder because of strong north wind. This morning when Shadow and I ventured out the thermometer said it was 16 degrees F, but WeatherUnderground said it felt like 3 degrees. And after walking just a quarter of a mile, Shadow and I agreed. My fingers, inside my gloves, were already freezing, and Shadow was prancing telling me his ‘toes’ were freezing. So, we turned around and walked back home. No long walk this morning, but we did spend shorter periods of time outside playing ball throughout the day. Shadow will not play fetch in the snow, I guess because he doesn’t like the feel of the icy snow that sticks to the ball. It is the same with sand at the beach. But this week I found a rubber ball in the bottom of the tennis ball container. I tried that and it works.
Otherwise, I spent my day checking little things off my list that were time sensitive. I also made a poppy seed cake to take to a luncheon tomorrow. Next it was to Coffee O to meet with Jon Kaufman who co-leads the Exploring Public Policy group with me to do a little future planning for the group. He just returned from a trip to Costa Rica, and I got to see some of his bird photos from a birding trip in the cloud forest. So beautiful. And then I was off to pick up Ollie from his after school art club meeting. That was about it for my day.
Maybe it is the cold weather, or maybe it is depression over what is happening to our country since Trump took back the helm on Monday … for whatever reason, I seem to be moving at turtle speed this week. I don’t feel super productive, but then tortoise did win the race.
