by Judy Handley | Mar 24, 2024 | Cape Cod, USA |
2024 Life Logs, Day 84: Goldstones Over for Dinner
Date: Sunday, March 24, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Windy, and Chilly; High Temp 38, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
Shadow and I walked a mile this morning, so we are getting back on track after a winter of inactivity. I have to wear a knee brace when walking more than around the block, but for now, that is working. I am also back on the exercise bike and doing the PT exercises. Today, by the time I did these things, had breakfast, and read the morning news, it was almost noon. I invited Heather and family over for dinner, so this afternoon I went grocery shopping and cooked. We had veggie curry, chicken tiki masala, and saag paneer. I had hoped to make pakora, but that didn’t happen. Next time.
by Judy Handley | Jan 12, 2024 | Cape Cod, USA |
2024 Life Logs, Day 12: A Lovely Day of Nothingness
Date: Friday, January 12, 2024
Weather: Clear and Warm; High Temp 47, Low 42 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
Weather rules and we are having some interesting weather these days. It was warm and sunny today, but overnight we are supposed to get rain and heavy winds until about noon tomorrow. Then the rain is supposed to end, but the wind continues throughout the day. Heather and family arrived in Bethel, Maine, tonight and they are supposed to get snow overnight. Then they should have a great morning on the slopes, but the temperature rises and will be in the 40’s for them tomorrow afternoon. Not sure what that will mean for them up on the mountain. Then Sunday they should have a sunny and cold day. Hopefully the weather allows them to enjoy their snowboarding weekend in Maine.
Things here were quiet today, Jed came over to walk Shadow and a little later I headed out on a grocery shopping expedition. I then came home and went into a cooking frenzy. I am trying to use up all the things that have accumulated in the refrigerator before my surgery on Wednesday. Then I hope to have Heather refill the fridge with my constants—kale, avocados, beets, mushrooms, cucumbers, celery, arugula, broccoli, cauliflower, sheep’s milk feta cheese, kiwis, pears, oranges, and on and on. I can’t really buy these things before the surgery, because I will be gone for two days. So, we will have to start over once I get home from the hospital. My cooking frenzy today was in an attempt to empty the refrigerator. I made a lot of cauliflower rice and then used that to make a cauliflower rice, hemp hearts, can cucumber salad, and a cauliflower rice, broccoli, cheese, and ham casserole. I have eaten no meat or cheese since watching What the Health, but I had this ham and shredded cheese in the refrig that needed to be used. I just can’t waste food, so I will eat the ham and cheese.
Tonight, I continued watching the best of 2022-23 movies with Killers of the Flower Moon. I only got half way through, so I will have to give my opinion tomorrow night, But I really, really dislike the role Leo DiCaprio plays in this movie. Beyond despicable. I just don’t have the right word for it,
by Judy Handley | Oct 5, 2023 | Cape Cod, USA |
2023 Life Logs, Day 279: Lunch at Fisherman’s View by Cape Cod Canal
Date: Thursday, October 5, 2023
Weather: Still Sunny and Warm; High 70, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Today was Lynne’s last day here, so she took me out to lunch at Fisherman’s View Restaurant up by the Cape Cod Canal. I don’t eat out that often, but I love having lunch out on the deck at this restaurant. We also stopped by the Sandwich Boardwalk to soak in the beauty of the salt marsh.
The boardwalk was destroyed in a storm a couple of years ago and has not been replaced. So instead of walking there before lunch, we drove to the Cape Cod Canal Visitor Center parking lot and walked on the bike path by the canal.
Otherwise, we had a very quiet day back at home.
I left Lynne and Shadow at home around 4:30 pm to take Ollie to indoor tennis lessons
and to go see a little of Sam’s Varsity soccer game and Jonah’s Junior Varsity game
before I had to head back to pick up Ollie. Heather and Jed had a meet the teachers night at the high school from 6 to 8 pm, so Ollie and I went back to pick up Jonah and Sam. The games weren’t over until 6:15 or so and it was dark enough by the time we returned that the lights were on the field.
Fog had rolled in causing dusk to come sooner than expected.
Tomorrow Lynne and I leave at the same time. Lynne heads back to Nyack to visit with family before driving back to Michigan on Sunday. Then in two weeks she flies back to New Zealand. I head to Cohasset to have lunch with friends. I’ll have the full report on that tomorrow night.
by Judy Handley | Jul 6, 2023 | 2023 Life Logs, Cape Cod, USA |
2023 Life Logs, Day 187: Completing Stage 1 of the Move … Almost
Date: Thursday, July 6, 2023
Weather: Beautiful Day; High 81, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
I had the day off Camp Oma today. Ollie and Jonah decided to have a laid back day at home and exploring downtown Falmouth on their own. That gave me the time to go to the cottage and load everything from the cottage (minus the basement) into my car and to deliver it here. Not all is unpacked, but hopefully that will happen tomorrow. I also made two trips to the Swap Shop with items from the cottage and from Heather and Jed’s. It was hot today and I had to move slowly, but I got it done. There is a bulletin board, one framed picture, and a few clothes to be donated that are still in the cottage. But the main thing is that there are a number of pieces of small furniture that I need to give away. I’ll deal with that tomorrow, but I feel good about what I got done today.
Tonight, Bruce and Jane Woodin invited me over for dinner. What a wonderful treat. I have struggled with eating properly during the past three weeks while moving and their invitation tonight was just what the doctor ordered. They are dogsitting for their grand dog, Fern. She is a ginormous Bernese Mountain Dog. They invited me to bring Shadow to meet Fern, which did not go well at first. Fern is as gentle as she can be, but Shadow was afraid and did his crazy yelping. Finally, however, he settled down and the two dogs tolerated each other for the remainder of the evening. The meal was delicious, and I got to admire all of Jane’s beautiful flowers
and Bruce’s Earth Box gardens. Impressive. Thank you, thank you, to Bruce and Jane for a lovely evening.
by Judy Handley | Feb 18, 2023 | Cape Cod, USA |
2023 Life Logs, Day 49: In Vermont
Date: Saturday, February 18, 2023
Weather: Cloudy, Some Rain; High 53, Low 13 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset in East Falmouth: 6:33 am – 5:21 pm (+4 minutes)
Location: At Home at Cinnamon Sticks, West Dover, VT
We all made it! Our AirBnB is called Cinnamon Sticks. It is perfect for the ten of us. I left Falmouth with Shadow just afternoon and we arrived in North Hampton three hours later. I met up with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco who drove up from New Haven, Connecticut. They spent yesterday afternoon in New York City and left there after 5 pm. They only got as far as New Haven when they decided they were too tired to continue and then traveled on north today. Ziggy and Coco came with me, as Justin and Jo were going to a show in Springfield tonight. Heather and Jed didn’t leave Falmouth until mid-afternoon, so Ziggy and Coco and I unloaded my car that was fully loaded top to bottom, front to back with food. There was barely room for the kids to sit, but we made it. There is snow on the ground here, so Ziggy and Coco played outside in the snow while I fixed dinner. Everything was going great until I turned the oven on. I heard a pop and then saw a wisp of smoke. I turned it off immediately and that stopped the smoke and electrical burning smell, but whatever happened in the oven, blew out the breakers for the heating in the house and for the stove top which is separated from the stove. All of this happened just as Heather and Justin arrived, so there was a flurry of activity to try and reset breakers. Heather was communicating with the owner who was in flight to Singapore. He was very apologetic and once he landed, he was able to help Heather and Jed troubleshoot so that we finally got the stove top working and the heat back on. There was a second set of breakers in the garage we didn’t know about. The oven will need an electrician and we might just have to do without one. I had turned in on to heat hard taco shells. While we were troubleshooting the kitchen stove, Sam started a fire in the wood stove in the living room and we used a cast iron skillet I brought with me to fashion a stove top oven. All is well that ends well. The important thing is that we are all together, and other than the electrical glitch, the house seems perfect for us.
by Judy Handley | Jan 13, 2023 | Cape Cod, USA |
2023 Life Logs, Day 13: Friday the 13th
Date: Friday, January 13, 2023
Weather: Overcast, Rain and Wind; High 54, Low 36 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 7:08 am & 4:35 pm
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Being superstitious, I did not stray far from home on this Friday the 13th. It was raining hard this morning, so Shadow and I did our walking and playing in the afternoon. I basically spent my whole day working on a puzzle of 99 Beautiful Places on Earth. I see only one of the 99 squares looks very similar to a photo I took on Railay Beach in Thailand in 2008.
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Mine was not photo shopped to make the sand look so light.
I have been to some of the other places, but don’t have similar photos. I started this puzzle a few years ago when my friend Lynne came to visit. But she loves to work jigsaw puzzles and took over and finished it. So, I decided to keep it and work it again someday. I started it a few days ago and even after working on it for much of today, I am still making slow progress. But I will get there.
I’m looking forward to two more days of little activity other than puzzling and reading, and maybe watching a movie. Heather and family headed to Maine with friends this afternoon for the three-day weekend. All I have to do this weekend is feed their cats once a day and water plants for friends who are living it up in Mexico. Another friend is in Hawaii and sending photos each day to share the beauty with friends. Looking at her photos is making me long for those days of sailing the South Pacific on Windbird. Heather and Ollie return from Maine late on Sunday night so Ollie can participate with his class in reciting parts of the “I Have a Dream” speech at the MLK National Holiday Community Breakfast, hosted by No Place for Hate – Falmouth, on Monday morning. Ollie is so proud that he memorized most of the speech and he really wanted to come home to participate. I will attend the breakfast and then maybe Heather, Ollie, and I will have a fun day together. Workmen are going to be installing a heat pump system in their home on Monday and that involves cutting holes in the walls for new heating ducts. Heather might have to check in to make sure things are moving along, but there is no need for Ollie to be in the house. Tuesday I lead the field trip to the Edward M Kennedy Institute in Boston, my Dining-in group meets on Wednesday, and Friday my wine group meets here. I’ll enjoy my two quiet days before the activity ramps up again.
