by Judy Handley | Sep 6, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 250: Happy 21st Anniversary to Heather and Jed
Date: Friday, September 6, 2024
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High Temp 76, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
On September 6. 2003, Heather and Jed were married at Spruce Point in Boothbay, Maine.
I just spent the last hour going back through photos of the wedding and the days leading up to it and was reminded of what a crazy month it was leading up to the wedding day. On August 9, Heather defended her PhD theses in Woods Hole, becoming Dr. Heather Handley. On August 16, she had her wedding dress fitting
and a wine wedding shower that Mark and I hosted at Jed’s Aunt Sue’s and Uncle John’s in Cambridge.
Then on August 31, Heather and Jed boarded Windbird to sail to Maine with Mark and me.
Windbird was on a mooring at Spruce Point by September 3, and family and friends started arriving. There were party’s and wedding preparation. Jed’s parents hosted a rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding for everyone attending the wedding. They dug a pit and lined it with stones and seaweed for a fantastic lobster and clam bake.
And then it was the big day, an absolutely perfect day for outdoor wedding by the sea.
That was 21 years ago. Things haven’t slowed down any. Life revolves around the three Goldpebbles. But for a couple of hours tonight, Heather and Jed went out to dinner together while I held down the fort at home. Since having children, Heather and Jed have rarely taken time for just the two of them, but there will be plenty of time for that later. I am just glad they took the time tonight. Happy Anniversary!
by Judy Handley | Sep 5, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 249: Soccer and Pizza Dinner at the Goldstones
Date: Thursday, September 5, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 69, Low 61 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
It was another beautiful September day. Shadow and I had our morning walk, I spent a hour or so cleaning house, and then I turned my efforts to weeding around the edges of the yard. In between all of that, I spent time dealing with my sister’s healthcare issues. I won my third appeal today. Her Medicare Advantage keeps denying coverage and I keep appealing. So far, so good. And I also had to sneak some Encore work into my day. Heather was picking up Ollie and Simon after school today, so we didn’t have our after-school visit together. But I went to Sam and Jonah’s afterschool home soccer game. After that it was back home to play ball with Shadow and then to the Goldstones for homemade pizza for dinner. Tomorrow is Heather and Jed’s 21st wedding anniversary. They are going out to dinner, so I will go over after school and fix dinner for the boys.
by Judy Handley | Sep 4, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 248: Just Messing About
Date: Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 74, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
Today flew by. I got up early and had grand plans, but only accomplished a little bit of this and little bit of that. Then as I was eating a very late lunch on the back deck, Ollie and Simon arrived to say hello after school. Today’s treat was brownies right out of the oven smothered with whipped cream. While the brownies were cooling, they played ball with Shadow in the back yard. Shortly after they headed home, Jane Woodin stopped by to say hello and we enjoyed an early Happy Hour together. It was not a super productive day, but I enjoyed every minute of just living the good life.
by Judy Handley | Sep 3, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 247: First Day of School for the Goldpebbles
Date: Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 70, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
Early this morning there was flurry of texts between Heather, Jed, Jed’s mom Marti, and myself. It was the first day of school, and this first day was special. It is the last time all three Goldpebbles will be going to their first day of school at a Falmouth public school. Sam is a senior, so next year he will be off on a new adventure.
The boys always resist photos, but somehow Heather once again talked them into a group photo. Ollie had to get up early to do this, so his hair in the photo looks a little unlike Ollie, but they are all together. That was the important part.
All of this brought a few tears from the mom and the Oma. How could Sam possibly be graduating from high school? I went back through my photos and found my pictures of Sam on his first day of kindergarten. I remember taking those photos, and I chuckled when I saw that I labeled one of the photos, “Sam waves to Oma’razzi.”
04 Sam Waves to Oma’razzi
Some things never change. I am always behind the lens of a camera. Heather posted on Facebook the photo of the three Goldpebbles she took and said, “This morning was the last time we’ll send all three Goldpebbles off to their first day of school at Falmouth Public Schools. It was quite possibly the smoothest start we’ve ever had but I expect this to be our wildest year yet as O enters the teen years and figures out junior high school, J fully digs into soccer, music and all high school has to offer, and S charts his next big step.”
I live very close to the middle school, so I knew Ollie would be riding his bike right past my house around 8 am. That happens to be the time that I head out the door with Shadow so that we can get across the street before the twenty some buses who have dropped kids off at the middle school head back up this street. I have to time my walk with Shadow either just before that or just after as it takes quite a while for all those buses to pass. I was actually pulling a big weed out of the front garden while Shadow was going pee when Ollie and his friend Simon went whizzing by on their bicycles. I was thrilled that I got to see at least one of the Pebbles on their way to school. Sam and Jonah had an away soccer game after school, but Ollie and Simon stopped by on their way home. I had sent a text to Ollie saying that I hoped he would stop by to say hello, so I was baking cookies just in case. We had a great conversation about their first day of school while they ate warm chocolate chip cookies, and then they were off
.
I have said this many times, but I feel so very lucky to live so close to at least three of my grandchildren and that I get to watch them grow up. It is the greatest gift a grandmother can be given.
by Judy Handley | Sep 2, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 246: Elephants, Then Tomatoes, for Labor Day
Date: Monday, September 2, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 73, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
This morning, I did travel to Newport to see a spectacular display of life-sized elephant sculptures on display on the back lawn of The Breakers and on the Salve Regina campus.
I could engage with these magnificent creations as I walked the Cliff Walk. They are crafted from the dried woody vines of lantana camara and from a distance look so life-like. Lantana is an invasive plant that threatens protected areas around the world. It is a deceptive plant as its flowers are so colorful, but it takes over any space where it is allowed and is poisonous to humans and animals. And it is threatening the habitat of elephants in the mountains of southern India where this project was born. Today was the last day of the display in Newport, so if you want to see it you will have to travel to New York City, the beaches of Miami, the mountainous regions of Wyoming, or Los Angeles where the “The Great Migration” ends this time next year. I was so glad that I made the last-minute decision to go see them.
Once home, I got back to canning the tomatoes that I processed yesterday. I canned half of it as marinara sauce and with the other half, I added a few ingredients and canned it as a thicker pizza sauce.
Tomorrow is the first day of school. Go, Goldpebbles … Sam is a senior … Jonah is going into tenth grade … and Ollie to middle school.
by Judy Handley | Sep 1, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 245: Tomatoes and Elephants
Date: Sunday, September 1, 2024
Weather: Overcast, Rainy Day; High Temp 71, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
It was overcast today with periods of misty rain. Heather and family persisted and arrived at a mooring in the pond at Cuttyhunk this afternoon. We had a couple of hours with no rain mid-afternoon, so hopefully they did, too. It was probably not a banner day for sailing, but the weather was perfect for staying inside in processing tomatoes. So, that is what I did. Until about an hour ago, my plan was to can those tomatoes tomorrow, but while watching some of the Sunday morning programs I record to watch later, I saw something that caught my eye. On CBS’s Sunday Morning I watched a piece on Ketanji Brown Jackson. Then I fast forwarded to see if anything else looked interesting. That’s when I saw the elephants. I reversed to the beginning of that piece and watched. There has been a display of life-sized elephants in Newport since the beginning of July. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard about it before, but each of the elephants on display was modelled after a real life elephant and made using dried Lantana Camara vines. Lantana is beautiful, but it is an invasive weed that threatens protected areas in India. I did some more research and found that the elephants were created in the mountains of eastern Kerala and western Tamil Nadu in southern India. Mark and I, along with our friends Lynne and Ed, traveled into those mountains while we were there. Unfortunately, the display in Newport ends tomorrow as it is moving on to New York City. And nothing says it will still be there tomorrow. What I can find says they will be there “to September 2”. Does not mean through September 2 or ending September 1? Getting into those mountains in India was quite an adventure. So, I am thinking, “If I could do that, why not take a chance and drive to Newport early tomorrow morning in the hope of seeing the elephants?” But if they have already been taken away, the drive will be for naught. The other option is to visit them in New York City. One way or the other, I have to see those elephants.
I am copying part of my log from February 2010 on the day we traveled from Kerala to Tamil Nadu (the state to the east of Kerala). Driving to Newport ought to be a piece of cake after the adventure we had traveling on a public bus in India!
“I’m so glad we decided to go ahead with our weekend trip to Periyar Wildlife Reserve. The mountains here are so beautiful and the high tea plantations are just spectacular. But our morning started off a little shaky. Dave of Freebird took Ed and Lynne of Constance and us to shore at 7:15 am. So far so good. But our troubles began when we arrived at the bus station and everyone we talked to gave us a different location for finding the bus to Kumily. The station master’s office sent us to the side of the station. People there sent us to the front. And two different people in front gave us two entirely different locations. We went back to where we started and Mark went from bus to bus asking. Finally, someone from the station master’s office came up to us and pointed to a white bus. We bolted in that direction and tried to confirm with the bus driver that he was indeed going to Kumily, but it was just not clear. Then we saw a sign on the front of the bus indicating that it was headed to Madurai in Tamil Nadu (the state to the east of Kerala) and I had read that the bus to Kumily goes on to Madurai, so we were getting closer. We finally boarded and hoped for the best. I had decided that I was going wherever that bus was headed and once we paid for our tickets, it was confirmed that we were going to Kumily. So that whole experience was a little more confusing than we had hoped for, but otherwise the bus trip went fine. It took seven hours instead of five as advertised, and we traveled 180 kilometers from Cochin through crowded towns for the first half of the ride and then climbing higher and higher on the switchback roads for the second half. We actually had to cross into the state of Tamil Nadu before getting off the bus.”
Windbird was on a mooring at Spruce Point by September 3, and family and friends started arriving. There were party’s and wedding preparation. Jed’s parents hosted a rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding for everyone attending the wedding. They dug a pit and lined it with stones and seaweed for a fantastic lobster and clam bake.
