by Judy Handley | Nov 18, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 322: Monday Workday
Date: Monday, November 18, 2024
Weather: Sunny and Warmer; High Temp 60, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
It was a ‘no jacket needed’ weather day which was nice. But until I went to pick Ollie up at 2:45, I spent the whole day on my computer trying to catch up on things. I got a lot done, but I need another day. Then after I picked up Ollie, I spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen. I am still at Heather and Jed’s as they are at Town Meeting. Sam had a class in Hyannis tonight that is just now ending, so when I know he is home safely I will go home. Town Meeting could go until midnight, so once everyone is bed, I’ll head home.
We had an early dinner as Ollie had to be at a School Committee meeting at 5:45 pm to be part of a presentation with other members of the 7th grade engineering class. There were about 12 students who made short presentations. The students each made car bodies to hold the exact same motor and then competed to see what designs were fastest. Ollie’s part of the presentation was to explain which of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) Massachusetts standards they addressed in this project. I was very proud of him for speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear and appearing to be so self-assured. But he told me afterwards that although he likes making presentations, he still gets nervous. I assured him that we all do.
Yesterday at our early Thanksgiving dinner I said that I was thankful for grandchildren. Today I am thankful for historians like Heather Cox Richardson. I read her daily blog and learn something new from her every day. Last night’s blog was about the year 1883 when the new system of five standardized time zones across the United States came into being. Fifty years earlier, prior to the 1830s, most people lived by the rhythms of the sun. But as factories developed in New England, people needed to get to work at a certain time, so there was some standardization. But it was the railroads that forced the time zones because of the need to regularize train schedules. But this was very controversial. Telling time by a sundial was the custom and it was understood to be following God’s time. The idea of standardizing because of the needs of a modern world seemed sacrilegious to many. Before I read that blog this morning, I had honestly never thought about time standardization. I just accepted that it has always been this way. But it was only 64 years before I was born that the time zones came into being.
by Judy Handley | Nov 17, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 321: An Early Thanksgiving Dinner
Date: Sunday, November 17, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 59, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
Since I will be leaving next Sunday to spend the Thanksgiving week in Puerto Rico with Justin and family and Heather and family will be leaving next weekend to spend the Thanksgiving week in the Netherlands, we had our Thanksgiving dinner together late this afternoon. I made the pies and stuffing, and the Goldstones smoked a turkey breast and added the mashed potatoes and gravy and Brussels sprouts. The smoked turkey was delicious and so very moist. Turkey can be so dry, but not this Thanksgiving turkey breast.
Tomorrow night, both Heather and Jed have Town Meeting, so I have offered to be on Oma duty. Town Meeting happens twice a year and can take one or two nights. So, I might be on Oma duty on Tuesday evening as well. But beginning on Wednesday all of us will have to turn our attention to getting ready for our Thanksgiving travels. We all arrive back in Falmouth on Monday, the second day of December 2, just in time to get ready for the holiday season.
by Judy Handley | Nov 16, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 320: Social Saturday
Date: Saturday, November 16, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 54, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
The Dearman’s were summer neighbors of mine when I lived in the cottage in East Falmouth. They live in Larchmont, near New York city. but have the vacation home here. Since they have three children the same ages as my grandkids, we became good friends. Their oldest daughter, Lily, even lived with Heather and Jed while she was doing an internship in Woods Hole last summer. Now she is a freshman at Tufts in Boston. Andrew, her dad, had to come to check on the house this weekend, so Lily took the bus down to spend the weekend with him. They invited us to have lunch with them on Saturday which was a wonderful surprise. But by the time I got home from lunch, it was time to get ready to go to an Encore Mingle & Mix. I basically spent the whole day socializing. Since I had been so depressed about the political situation in this country yesterday, today was a lovely day spent with friends with no time to be depressed. And that is a good thing.
by Judy Handley | Nov 15, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 319: Election Depression
Date: Friday, November 15, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 54, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
The generally accepted stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and eventually acceptance. Well, I am grieving over the results of the election, but I skipped the denial, the anger, and the bargaining and I will never reach a level of acceptance. I am just feeling depressed as each day the choices Donald Trump is making get more and more absurd. I know the cure is to do something, but right now I am just not sure what I can do. So, today I binged on chocolate and read. The reading won’t kill me, but the chocolate binging has to stop!
Otherwise, I did try leading a normal life. Shadow and I went for a long walkabout downtown, after which I spent a couple of hours answering emails, and then I went food shopping and checked out the new Aldi’s in town. There is a lot there for those of us who buy organic, but there is some organic produce and canned organic beans that are half the price of the ones where I shop. The one thing that really caught my eye was the organic blackberries that are also half the price of the ones I buy at Stop and Shop. Since I buy blackberries about twice a week, I will be returning to Aldi’s.
After lunch, Shadow and I played outside and then I went to pick Ollie up after school. It is when I came home from dropping off Ollie that I read a very long email from my daughter-in-law Jo’s mother who lives in England. She went into detail about how tumultuous our election results have been for the people of England. That’s when I got depressed and started binging on the chocolate and decided to read away the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow, I have some cooking to do that will keep my mind off the election results. On Sunday, I will be having a Thanksgiving celebration with Heather and family. I will be in Puerto Rico and they will be the Netherlands for Thanksgiving, so this Sunday is our day of thanks and tomorrow will be a day of cooking and preparation.
by Judy Handley | Nov 14, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 318: Normal
Date: Thursday, November 14, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Cold; High Temp 45, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
You get up in the morning, take a shower, brush your teeth, get dressed, and start living a normal day. But sometime during that day, you start to realize that there is a force at work in your ‘world’ trying to change the boundaries of normal. You try to ignore it, but it is everywhere. You start questioning, asking yourself: What is normal anyway?
That is how yesterday and today went for me. While I was in North Carolina, I didn’t see or read any news at all so I could pretend that all was well in my world. But that is not reality. So you plug back in to watch and read the news. Then you realize that the ‘force’ that is trying to change the boundaries of normal is working overtime to do more and more to shape our world in his, and only his vision. Then you realize that this is going to be a rough ride.
Despite all this, I made it through most of today feeling absolutely normal and enjoying life. I walked with Shadow, went to a Newcomers Community Fair of 40 some local non-profits where you could walk from table to table and find a multitude of ways to volunteer in this community. I then went to a semi-annual dental cleaning appointment, and from there back home to walk with Shadow and have lunch. I played ball with Shadow outside and enjoyed the glorious sunshine even though it was cold outside. Then I went to Ollie up after school and life felt great. So far, so good, but then I turned on the TV to watch last night’s Colbert monologue and that jolted me back to reality. And right now reality if just no fun at all. It is much easier to live in lala land. I keep trying to convince myself that life with Trump as President again won’t be so bad, but I know that is absolutely not true. What a world. Where to from here?
by Judy Handley | Nov 13, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 317: Back At It
Date: Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Cold; High Temp 41, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
I don’t really feel with it, but I was back at it today. I had an all morning Encore board meeting, came home to have lunch, and then sent emails trying to set up future speakers for my Exploring Public Policy group until it was time to go to the November meeting of that group. When I got home from the Public Policy meeting, I took a walk with Shadow in the dark and watched MSNBC while I ate dinner. I discovered I’m not the only one back at it. Donald Trump had quite a day back in Washington. When I heard he had selected Matt Gaetz to be this Attorney General, I almost choked on my dinner. I can’t wait to see what Stephen Colbert has to say about that. Watching what Trump is doing is like watching the Little Shop of Horrors, except the Trump show is not funny. He really is like a carnivorous plant, eating alive any living thing he comes in contact with!
