by Judy Handley | Aug 31, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 244: Tomatoes and Dinner Aboard Ardenna
Date: Saturday, August 31, 2024
Weather: Sunny, Warmer; High Temp 75, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
More than a week earlier than last year, I got the email from Carrie at Peach Tree Farm letting me know that she had organic sauce tomatoes for me to come pick up. So, I am spending my Labor Day weekend processing tomatoes. I have to do the processing in shifts as my back doesn’t love bending over the kitchen sink processing tomatoes for long periods of time. I blanched the first batch, took a rest, and then peeled and deseeded 10-15 minutes at a time with rests in between. That process will continue tomorrow.
At the end of this gorgeous, sunny, warm day, Heather invited me to come have dinner aboard Ardenna in Quissett Harbor. They had planned to leave Quissett this afternoon and sail down to an anchorage off Naushon Island for the night and then head to Cuttyhunk tomorrow. But Sam and Jonah didn’t get back from their soccer tournament until after 4 pm, so they decided to just spend the night on the boat in Quissett Harbor and head to Cuttyhunk tomorrow. I headed to the boat around 6 pm and Ollie picked me up at the dinghy dock and took me out to Ardenna
.
I got to spend a lovely evening having dinner aboard and after watching the sun set just beyond the Knob, Ollie took me back to the dock. Lovely.
by Judy Handley | Aug 30, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 243: Final Day of Camp Oma 2024
Date: Friday, August 30, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 69, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
Twelve summers ago, in June of 2013, Camp Oma was born. This was our name for Oma and Granddad providing day care for the Goldpebbles in the summer months. That first summer, Mark and I were living aboard Windbird and Mark was working most days at West Marine. We offered to keep Sam and Jonah, who were 5 and 3, every Tuesday and Thursday, and some days in between. Ollie joined us on some days, but he was only one and not yet prepared to keep up with his brothers on a daily basis. On our first Tuesday, Mark and I took Sam and Jonah to Provincetown to go on a whale watch. The next day was Jonah’s 4th birthday. He woke up with a high fever, so Heather took him to see his pediatrician. The doctor declared he had strep throat, so he spent his birthday alternating between sitting on the deck in a big tub of water to help bring down the temperature and napping. By day’s end, he was feeling better and said he wanted to come to Windbird for day two of Camp Oma. A two-year-old Sam had announced he was Windbird’s captain when he visited us in Thailand. We explained to him that he could be co-captain, but Granddad was the captain. Jonah knew that the plan for this second day of Camp Oma was to induct him into co-captain status and he wasn’t going to miss that. Heather brought Ollie as well, and he was declared Captain-in-Training.
Captain Granddad with Three of His Co-Captains
Camp Oma grew from Tuesdays and Thursdays that first year eventually to five days a week for a few years. Now that the boys are older, it is five days a week, but not all day, every day. It is on an ‘as needed’ basis. Today was the final day of Camp Oma 2024 marking 12 summers of fun and all I could think of all day was how much those Goldpebbles have grown! What a lucky grandmother I am to have been given the opportunity to spend so much quality time with the Goldpebbles, watching them grow. On to Camp Oma 2025.
by Judy Handley | Aug 29, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 242: A Morning Meeting, Afternoon at the Goldstones
Date: Thursday, August 29, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 72, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
After an Encore meeting this morning, I headed to the Goldstones. It was a little after noon when I arrived, so the first order of business was getting lunch for the boys and then heading home to pick up the ingredients for the beef stew I was making for them for dinner. I knew Heather and Jed were going to the boat after work to either move it from Quissett to Woods Hole or just do some work on the boat, so I wanted to fix dinner for them. I returned to the Goldstones and got to work getting the beef stew ingredients in the Dutch oven so it could burble in the oven until dinner time. Sam and Jonah were off to soccer practice, and I made another trip home to pick some rosemary for the stew. Then Ollie and I ended our day together by driving to Wareham to the remote-control store. This time last year we did the same thing, and today’s trip ended like last year’s. He admired all the remote-controlled vehicles, but decided he wanted to keep looking around before committing about a huge chunk of change on one of these. They start at about $150 for very small ones and go up and up and up from there. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a couple of things we needed to round out our dinner. I then took Ollie home and gave the boys directions for the last-minute meal prep. I then went home to play with Shadow. He had been out a couple of times during the day, but he needed a little TLC and needed to go out and play ball. I got back to Heather and Jed’s just before they arrived. The boys had the rolls in the oven and the mac and cheese warming up in the microwave. It was time for dinner.
Tomorrow will be the last day of Camp Oma for 2024. This is the 12th summer of Camp Oma. Tomorrow night I’ll share a little about that first year. I just looked back at some of the photos of the very first day. What a difference 12 years makes!
by Judy Handley | Aug 28, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 241: The Balancing Act
Date: Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny, Windy; High Temp 77, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
Today was another of those balancing act days with many scene changes. The ‘scenes; included being on grandkid ‘watch’ and transport duty, dealing with filing another appeal on my sister’s behalf to her Medicare Advantage insurance company, attending a ‘Get to Know the Candidate’ event for Dylan Fernandez, going to hear Heather’s Sip O’ Science presentation at Aquatic Brewery on “What We Get Wrong About Climate Solutions”, and ending the day by going out to dinner with all of the Goldstones to Tiger Ramen. And somewhere in there, Heather was home long enough to help me figure out how to set up Encore’s new sound system. I took it to the Dylan Fernandez event, but it really wasn’t needed. But I am so glad that it is now ready to use. I had never met Dylan. He is a 33-year-old, Falmouth born and bred politician, and I was very impressed. He has been a State Representative and is now running for State Senate. He won my vote.
by Judy Handley | Aug 27, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 240: Eleanor Roosevelt
Date: Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 76, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
When I was in 7th grade, the school newspaper interviewed me asking me who was the most influential person in my life. My answer was Eleanor Roosevelt. In my house, FDR was right up there with God. Because of that, I had read a biography of his wife sometime in grade school and thought she was an amazing woman. So, this afternoon, when Jane Woodin contacted me to see if I wanted to go see Sheryl Faye’s one-woman Eleanor Roosevelt show tonight, I said yes. Sheryl Faye does these one-hour shows depicting historical women. I had heard that she is really good and now I know it, firsthand. Her depiction of Eleanor Roosevelt from birth to death in just 60 minutes was spectacular. Plus, Jane invited me for dinner and drink afterwards. Thank you, Jane!
by Judy Handley | Aug 26, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 239: Trip to the Wrentham Outlet Mall
Date: Monday, August 26, 2024
Weather: Sunny AM, Stormy PM; High Temp 75, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
The morning was quiet. Even though Heather and Jed were both at home working, I hung out to take care of any needs the kids might have. As I arrived, Sam was heading out the door to work for a couple of hours, but Jonah and Ollie were on the X-box and reading. I knew Ollie was going to bike to Trotting Park with his friend Simon and that I should be ready for the call to come pick them up. That happened and after we ate lunch, Sam and Jonah left to go get on the school bus at the high school to go to a soccer scrimmage in Plymouth and Ollie and I decided to drive to Wrentham to go buy a pair of school shoes. He wanted Vans and there is a Vans outlet in Wrentham. We knew it was supposed to rain, so this seemed like a good rainy day activity. But before we got off the Cape, the expected rain came in the form of a whopper of a storm with thunder, lightning, and driving rain. The raindrops were so large and coming down so hard, I could hardly see the road. Many cars were pulled over, but the bumper-to-bumper traffic was almost at a standstill, so I persisted. It took us almost 30 minutes to go the last mile and a half to the bridge, but once we crossed the bridge the traffic thinned out and the rain stopped. Our shopping trip was short and successful, and we were home by 5 pm. Because of the rain, Sam and Jonah had returned home soon after they left. They got on the school bus, but before it left Falmouth High School, the rain started and the scrimmage was cancelled. Jed had a Health Board meeting tonight and Heather had Select Board, so I offered to get dinner for the boys. We ate around 7 pm. I stayed around for another hour and then came home to feed Shadow. Ollie has a birthday party to go to tomorrow, so I have the morning and early afternoon off. I am not sure what the plan is for late afternoon. I’ll check on that in the morning.
