by Judy Handley | Aug 30, 2026 | Cape Cod, USA |
2026 Life Logs, Day 242: Morning with Ollie, FIRC Training, Dinner with Friends
Date: Sunday, August 30, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny, Windy, Rain Late; High Temp 79, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Ollie and I had a relaxed morning featuring a breakfast of crepes with fresh fruit, chocolate, and whipped cream. Not so healthy, but totally yummy. This afternoon I attend a Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition Community Watch training—what to do if you see ICE. And from there, I went to dinner with new friends who live right around the corner from me. They are sailors and they have a daughter and grand children who live in Madagascar. They invited me to dinner in return for me doing my Voyage of Windbird presentation featuring Madagascar as my favorite sailing destination. They invited another couple from Woods Hole and we had a delightful evening.
by Judy Handley | Jul 27, 2026 | Cape Cod, USA |
2026 Life Logs, Day 208: More Dealing with Sister Issues
Date: Monday, July 27, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 79, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I met with the Executive Director at Bridges today and I think we made some progress in coming up with solutions to some of the issues I am dealing with for my sister Patsy. Right now, it is a wait and see game. And then I had a nice, long visit with Patsy. These two things took my entire afternoon. I got a little reprieve this evening when I took Ollie to his golf lesson. While he was in the lesson, I ran a few errands nearby. That was about it for my day. Unfortunately, nothing new and exciting to report.
by Judy Handley | Jul 4, 2026 | Cape Cod, USA |
2026 Life Logs, Day 185: A Day of Celebration
Date: Saturday, July 4, 2026
Weather: Sunny and Hot, again; High Temp 87, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I hops this 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was a day of celebrating democracy for you, as it was for me. I started the day standing out at a busy intersection in town with my sign with a depiction of Lady Liberty and the words, “Democracy Has No Kings.” Just a little reminder! Heather came by and we got a selfie of the two of us wearing our US soccer team jerseys, making us 
look like we were wrapped in an American flag. We were definitely ready for a day of celebration.
We left the standout and headed to Heather’s neighborhood for their annual 4th of July parade, this year led by Ollie on his lawn tractor, hauling his business partner’s wagon of landscaping equipment. They were followed by children and adults from the neighborhood. Afterwards, everyone was headed to the neighborhood swim party.
But first, Heather and I went to the Green for the weekly standout for democracy where Heather spoke briefly about the importance of celebrating this day.
Then it was back to the Grasmere party for lunch. After lunch I headed to Mashpee to visit with Patsy. I was almost there when I seemed to lose power steering. It was very difficult to turn a corner and then every warning light imaginable lit up on my dashboard. I made it into the Bridges parking lot, backed into a spot, and turned the car off. I had forgotten to roll up the windows, so I tried to start the car, but the battery was dead. I knew I had to get the car towed back to Falmouth to a garage, so I called AAA. While waiting, I had a short visit with my sister but the tow truck came sooner than expected. He opened my hood and said that the problem was that there was no drive belt. Hopefully that is the only issue, but I will have to wait until Monday to find out. I had asked to be transported back to Falmouth in the tow truck, but the man driving asked me who was picking me up on the other end. I said I would figure that out when I got there, maybe take a bus into town. But because of the extreme heat, he was not going to let me get in the tow truck until I called to make sure I had a ride on the other end. I tried to convince him that I would be just fine, but he wasn’t having it. He said his grandmother would roll over in her grave if he ever dropped a customer off in such hot weather without having arranged for a ride. I made a few calls and found Karen Baranowski at home and willing to pick me up, so off we went. But then he wouldn’t let me get out of the truck until Karen had arrived. Part of me was infuriated, but part of me was very grateful that this man takes his work so seriously. Thank you to Marc’s Auto in Wareham and thanks to Karen for coming to my rescue!
The evening celebration began with having smoked baby back ribs for dinner at Heather and Jed’s. Then we were off to the beach to watch the town fireworks display. Sam and his friend Ethan were going to watch the fireworks by boat. Jonah was off to Falmouth Heights Beach to watch with friends. So Heather, Jed, Ollie, and I met up with Ollie’s friend Seton and his family to watch from the beach off Surf Drive. I love listening to the waves lapping ashore while watching fireworks. It is one of my favorite things to do. And this year it was so hot, Heather and Jed went for a swim before the fireworks began. Happy birthday to the United States of America!!!
by Judy Handley | Jun 30, 2026 | Cape Cod, USA |
2026 Life Logs, Day 161: No End in Sight
Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Weather: Foggy Early, Then Partly Sunny and Hot; High Temp 79, Low 68 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
There seems to be no end to the issues that I have to deal with for my sister. Today it was health insurance and getting a new Dexcom glucose monitor up and running or not and buying a smart phone for her so that the monitor can work. The monitor was ordered for her by her doctor in NC but no one ever got it going. Now I know why. And I had to coordinate with Habitat of Charlotte for them to pick up all of the furniture left in her apartment there. And I had to get an emergency FOB shipped back to Terra Bella that was brought with her by mistake. It had to be done today as they are going to charge me $250 if it is not in their hands asap. And I had to cancel her cable and phone in NC. And I had to get online and pay TSA ConfirmID so that my sister’s caretaker who drove up here with her and then went to visit family in Pennsylvania can fly home on Friday. She has no RealID and the only way I convinced her to make the trip was to promise to find a way to get her back home. And there was more, but I think you get the idea.
Tomorrow is all about meeting her new healthcare provider and deciding how to move forward with her diabetes treatment and figure out why she is not walking. I have to be at Bridges at 8 am. And after that, I have to get back to dealing with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and North Carolina and then other financial issues. I have had to pay for everything out of pocket and it has literally been a $1,000 here and another $1,000 there. I am up to at least $5,000 and the diabetes nurse needs a check for her first week of work tomorrow. Guess what? That is another $1,050. So, I have to communicate with Patsy’s Power of Attorney to find a way that he can pay for these things directly. But he is not paid to do this job. He is just a friend who Patsy trusted to help her. This job is not something he signed on for. He got ‘appointed’. The bottom line is that I cannot continue to live like this. Hope with me that tomorrow will not be as intense as today and that I have time to try and figure out a way forward.
by Judy Handley | Jun 7, 2026 | Cape Cod, USA |
2026 Life Logs, Day 158: The Having of Wonderful Friends
Date: Sunday, June 7, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny and Warm; High Temp 76, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
In 2017, a few months after Mark died, I joined Newcomers of Falmouth. I resisted joining a club, but I really wanted to be in their biking activity group. I joined Newcomers, and I signed up for the biking activity group. Then I signed up for a dining-in group, the members of which have become my best friends. Then I signed up for a Newcomers book club which I am still in, and I cherish the friends I have made in that group. Then I signed up for a wine group, not because I drink wine, but because I wanted to learn more about wine. And I am still in that group and cherish my wine group circle of friends. And then I joined the Field Trip and the Exploring Public Policy groups and have become co-leaders of both groups. All of this means I am way too busy, but there is no way in the world I would give up being a part of any of these circles of friends. And because Newcomers made such a positive impact on my life after Mark’s death, I took on leadership roles once I moved into Encore, Co-President for two years and now VP of Programs. All of this has taken a lot of time and been a lot of work, but that work was my way of giving back. Next week I step down from the Board leadership roles and can just focus on my activity groups. I’ll drink to that!
Tonight, the best wine group ever had a ‘Red, White, and Blue’ celebration. We were all decked out in red, white, and blue in anticipation of the 250th anniversary on July 4. We have been together for 8 years, and tonight we celebrated our years together along with the upcoming birthday of this country that we love.
by Judy Handley | May 28, 2026 | Cape Cod, USA |
2026 Life Logs, Day 148: Lunch with Birthday Group and Trip to the Farmers’ Market
Date: Thursday, May 28, 2026
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds plus Sprinkles; High Temp 70, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Actually, the title of this log is deceiving. I did have lunch with my birthday friends, and I did go to the Farmers’ Market, but I spent the entire rest of my day continuing to work on assistant living placement issues for my sister. I woke up to an email requesting I come sign some medical release papers, followed by a call from Patsy’s Power of Attorney. Then a walk with Shadow, a trip to Heritage to sign papers and answer more medical questions, then off to lunch.
Lunch was a nice change of pace. We met at The Flying Bridge and, at first, sat out on the deck in the sunshine. Then we had to go under cover when it rained for a bit. After lunch, a few of us walked over to the Friday Farmers’ Market. This was my first visit to the summer market, and I bought a few more plants for the garden. Not sure when I am going to have time to plant, maybe tomorrow afternoon, maybe Sunday. Jed is in Canada until next Friday, so I am pitching in to help when Heather has evening meetings. Tomorrow she is in Boston all day, so I offered to fix dinner for the boys. Then, before the crack of down on Saturday, I head to Worcester to the Massachusetts Democratic State Convention. I am an elected delegate and will do my duty there all day Saturday. Most Falmouth delegates are going tomorrow for the Friday party night, but that just did not sound like fun to me.
