by Judy Handley | May 18, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 220, Year 10: Some Days Work, Some Days Don’t
Date: Monday, May 18, 2015
Weather: Partly Sunny, High in the Low 60’s, Fog in the Evening
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Some days work, some days don’t—and this was one of those days that just didn’t work for us. All of the things that didn’t work were minor, but combined they seemed a bit overwhelming. I’ll spare you all of the minor issues, but the biggest problem we encountered centered on buying the new-to-us Honda Fit. We got a call early this morning saying the paperwork was finally in order and that we could come in around 1 pm to pick it up. We arrived, signed lots of papers, turned over the title to the old Ford Taurus, and were told to wait at a table on the sales floor while the registration was being processed. This step can’t happen until after all the papers are signed. The salesman, Brad, sat with us while we waited. After a bit, Will, the finance guy, came out and said there was a problem processing the registration. It’s been my fear all along that there would be a problem since we have no proof of Massachusetts residency and have New Hampshire driver’s licenses. Will assured us that this was just a little bureaucratic hold-up that can be easily resolved in the morning when one of the Honda reps goes to the state car registration office. He said it has nothing to do with our residency issue. Hopefully we’ll get a call in the morning saying all is fine and that I can pick up the car. But we shall see. In the meantime, Honda had to rent a car for us to drive as the Taurus title had already been transferred. And this caused a further wait and then a drive into downtown Hyannis with the rental car agent. Their office is located in the ferry terminal in the harbor and the traffic was horrendous. The tourist season has definitely begun here with hordes of people loading and unloading from the Hyannis and Nantucket ferries. The only positive thing that came out of today was that we made a stop at Trader Joe’s in Hyannis and bought dark chocolate-covered almonds, also known as ‘Chockie Almoos’ in Ollie-ese. We ran out while in the Bahamas, so we will definitely enjoy having those aboard Windbird once again.
Weather permitting, I’ll start my day tomorrow with an early morning walk with friends Jane Woodin and Olivia White. Then I’ll return and pick Mark up to take him to work. I’ll then go to work in the storage unit until I get a call from Honda. We had both hoped to work together in the storage unit today to start the paring down process, but with all of the wait time at Honda, that just didn’t happen. Hopefully tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | May 17, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 219, Year 10: Mark Back at West Marine
Date: Sunday, May 17, 2015
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day with a High in the Upper 70’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Today was Mark’s first day back working at West Marine. As always, he enjoyed his day and seems to have more energy at the end of the day than he did when he started out. It was a busy day, even with five or six other employees pitching in. That’s a lot of people in one little store, but they were all super busy all day long. People are definitely gearing up for the summer boating season.
After I dropped Mark off this morning and headed to our storage unit to deliver the boxes of photo albums that we took off Windbird yesterday. I carried them one at a time to the elevator, off-loaded them on the second floor, carried them down the long hall to just outside our unit, and then attempted to unlock the door. I inserted the key, twisted, and SNAP! The key broke off in the lock. Oh, no. What to do? I left the boxes of photos stacked by the door and headed to Heather and Jed’s. After talking to their neighbor and jack-of-all-trades, Brian, I decided to return with a grinder and try to cut the lock off. But when Brian described how difficult it is to control the grinder, I decided to ask Jed to go with me and do the cutting. There were lots of sparks flying, but after a few minutes, Jed was able to cut through the lock and remove it. I didn’t have a spare lock with me, so we put the boxes inside the unit, closed it, and left it unlocked with a promise to return later in the day with a lock. Back at Heather and Jed’s, we all ate lunch and then I helped Heather do a little gardening while the kids played in the backyard with neighborhood friends. Ollie takes an afternoon nap during the week, but he has a hard time going to sleep on the weekends with all the kids around. He doesn’t want to miss any of the fun. So I took him for a ride out to Quissett Harbor. We took the dinghy out to Windbird to get a lock for the storage unit, and then headed back to shore. But it was just enough of a boating adventure to satisfy him and he fell fast asleep on the way home. When we got home, Ollie continued his nap in his bed and I took off in the car again. This time I went to the local garden center to pick up a few plants for Heather. By the time I got back, it was almost time to leave to go pick Mark up from work. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.
The only appointment tomorrow is my yearly dental appointment at 10 am. After that Mark and I plan to start the arduous task of going through the boxes in our storage unit and deciding which things are definite keepers, which can be sold, and which can just be thrown away. This is not an easy task for me, the one who loves to collect and keep everything, but I’m going to give it my best try. And hopefully we’ll get a call from the Honda dealer tomorrow telling us we can pick up the Fit.
by Judy Handley | May 16, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 218, Year 10: Saturday Work and Play
Date: Saturday, May 16, 2015
Weather: Overcast with a Few Sprinkles; High in the Upper 60’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
It was a Saturday filled with work and play. The work side of things focused on starting to pare down the amount of ‘stuff’ in our storage unit while at the same time unloading boxes of things from Windbird to take to storage. On the play side, we attended Sam’s soccer game and went out to dinner with friends. That’s the short story. Now here’s the longer version.
Mark is still unable to use his left arm without causing great pain, so he is restricted from lifting. We brought boxes and boxes of photo albums with us from South Carolina, so this morning I pulled them out of the v-berth and carried them up to the cockpit. We had arranged for Heather and/or Jed to come out after Sam’s afternoon soccer game and I wanted to have things ready to load into the dinghy. After prepping for the off-loading of boxes, Mark and I headed into town to our storage unit to make room for the boxes of photographs. Since 2003 we have gone from having two storage units, one 10 x 30 and another 10 x 10, to having one 10 x 20 storage unit. The goal for this summer is to get down to one 5 x 10 unit. Mark would like to approach this down-sizing by going to storage each day and getting rid of one box each day. I doubt that will happen, but today we made a start and made room for the photo boxes. We then left storage and went to Sam’s soccer game in North Falmouth. When we got there we saw Heather on the playground with Jonah, Ollie, and the neighbor kids, Mollie and Joey Keefe. Mark and I took turns watching the game and helping on the playground. We got to meet Heather’s after school helper, Kira, when she arrived to play in the game after Sam’s. She’s a goalie and that puts her in a position of great admiration with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. After the game, Heather went with Mark and I back to Windbird. We had never properly covered the main sail since our arrival last week, so Heather helped her dad do that today. You have to be part monkey to do this and I have just not wanted to test my climbing ability. She then helped me load all of the photo boxes, a huge towel-wrapped package of tomato cages for her garden, and various other items into the dinghy. Her only comment was that she didn’t realize Windbird was a freighter! We took these things to shore in a very packed dinghy and put them into our car and into Heather and Jed’s van once Jed arrived. He had taken Mollie and Joey home, left Sam and Jonah with the Keefe’s, and then drove here with Ollie. Ollie was desperate to go play on the boat, but unfortunately he fell asleep on the way. I’ll have to find a way to get him out here tomorrow to mess about on the boat for a bit.
Tonight we went to Bruce and Jane Woodin’s home for happy hour and a first installment on the story of their winter travels in Southeast Asia. Jane’s sister, Ann, was also there and we all drove together to a restaurant called Oysters Too for dinner. It’s Restaurant Week in Falmouth and this restaurant was offering a three-course, set-priced dinner. The entrée choices were a rack of lamb, salmon with asparagus smothered in a lobster sauce, or seafood ambrosia. Between the five of us, we had all of the choices and each was absolutely delicious. And the mud pie for dessert topped off the evening just right. I think we’ll all be returning to Oysters Too.
Tomorrow is Mark’s first day back at work at West Marine. I’ll drop him off and then head to storage to take the photo boxes to store and to try and reduce what is there by one more box.
by Judy Handley | May 15, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 217, Year 10: Back Home on the Cape
Date: Friday, May 15, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny with High in the Low 60’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Driving home from New Hampshire today took half the time of driving there yesterday afternoon—five hours up, two-and-a-half hours home, not counting stops along with way. It’s amazing the difference it makes to travel mid-day versus late afternoon as we did yesterday. This morning we visited with Alan and Helaine before taking off, made a quick stop at Costco and another one to wash Heather’s car, and we still got to Heather’s house around 2:30 pm. Our life sometimes feels like a relay race and that was the case this afternoon. As soon as we arrived, Heather took off for Rhode Island to go pick up her bees. She has two hives, but lost one this winter. So today she picked up the bees for the empty hive and a new queen for the existing hive. Mark and I had fun with Ollie and Jonah while Jed took Sam to soccer practice, and then when Heather returned we all had dinner. Heather picked up Cambodian food at Stir Crazy and we had a feast. Mark and I are now back on the boat. It is a little chilly onboard tonight–not chilly enough to turn on a heater, but definitely cool enough to wear a polar fleece jacket inside.
by Judy Handley | May 14, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 216, Year 10: Ugly Traffic, Beautiful Evening
Date: Thursday, May 14, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny with High in the 70’s F
Location: At Home with Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg, Bow, NH
Today was Mark’s first treatment here on the Cape for more than a year. He had to meet with a new oncologist, which took more time than expected, and that had us leaving the Cape for New Hampshire later in the afternoon than expected. As a result we were just south of Boston at 4 pm and we then battled ugly traffic for the next three hours. It was a marathon drive, but we made it to the Concord Yacht Club meeting in time to visit a bit with friends before dinner. Meetings are held at the homes of members and tonight’s meeting was on Gould Hill in Hopkinton, just outside Concord. Gould Hill Farm has always been a Concord icon, but Mark and I had never been there before. Tonight’s hosts live on the very top of Gould Hill overlooking the orchard with the mountain ranges of New Hampshire as a back-drop. The apple trees were in bloom and the view was just absolutely stunning. Because we were so late, I didn’t even take my camera in with me but Mark got a quick shot with his phone. It doesn’t do justice to the scene, but the photo will give you some idea of the grandeur of the view at sunset. It was wonderful to catch up with so many friends, so the grueling drive was worth it. We’ll just remember to never even think of driving through Boston at rush hour ever again.
by Judy Handley | May 13, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 215, Year 10: Another Day Trip to Boston
Date: Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Weather: Partly Cloudy, High in the 60’s, Wind Going SW to NE
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
It was another day of driving to Mass General Hospital in Boston for a doctor’s appointment. Actually we drove to the Quincy Adams T-station outside Boston and rode the T into town to avoid the rush hour traffic. Today we met with Mark’s oncologist, Eunice Kwak, and she is recommending that we continue treatments as we have been until a re-evaluation in mid-July. Mark will have a CT scan late next week and that will determine next steps. But at this point, things are going as well as could possibly be expected. Dr. Kwak didn’t completely buy the low sugar explanation for Mark’s disorientation a couple of days ago, so she ordered a brain MRI to check things out. She agrees that low blood sugar could be the problem, but she wants to rule out other possible causes. So we will be driving to Boston again next Friday. And tomorrow we have decided to drive to Concord, NH, to attend the last Concord Yacht Club meeting of the year. The new-to-us car is not ready for pick-up so we are driving Heather and Jed’s car. They can do with one car until Friday afternoon when we return. Making the trip is a lot of driving in an already high-mileage week, but there are lots of folks in the yacht club that we would like to see. So we’re going for it.
