by Judy Handley | Sep 30, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 327, Year 7: Happy Birthday, Heather
Date: Sunday, September 30, 2012
Weather: Rain Overnight and Early Morning, Then Overcast
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The weather certainly didn?t cooperate, but nevertheless, Heather had a very
happy birthday today. She went out with friends for lunch and then Jed
fixed dinner and we went over to join them. I made a key lime pie that
served as her birthday cake. It is one of her favorites and tonight we even
converted Sam into a key lime pie lover. Jonah liked to touch the filling,
but would have nothing to do with eating it. I made brownies as well, so
Jonah had a brownie with whipped cream. Jed gave Heather Salman Rushdie?s
new book, a memoir called ?Joseph Anton.? He also gave her new silver
earrings with a matching necklace. We gave her a cookbook called ?Food
Matters? that promotes the use of locally grown, organic foods and we also
gave her two different sets of glass storage containers. Heather is trying
to get rid of all plastic food storage containers, so our birthday
contribution will get her a bit closer to her goal. Unfortunately Heather
was not going to get to relax tonight. She has major donors coming to watch
her on-air interview program in the morning, so when we left she was trying
to get Oliver to sleep so she could prep for tomorrow. If things go
smoothly for her in the morning, I think she will feel like she has been
given a special ?day after? birthday present.
We also had a nice day despite the weather. We picked Jim and Susie up just
after 9 am. The rain was still coming down, but we all put on our foul
weather gear and headed to shore for a late breakfast at Fishmonger Caf?.
We must have sat there eating, drinking coffee, and talking for a couple of
hours. By the time we emerged from the restaurant, the rain had stopped and
we went for a walk around Eel Pond. It was early afternoon by the time we
got back to our boats. Jim and Susie headed out at the 2 pm bridge opening
and Mark took a nap while I baked. Mark is feeling a little more tired than
usual after his surgery, but otherwise, he is doing great.
by Judy Handley | Sep 29, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 326, Year 7: Dinner Aboard Reveille
Date: Saturday, September 29, 2012
Weather: Overcast and Cool
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Our day began in Boston and ended here in Eel Pond having dinner aboard the
boat of good friends, Jim Hammett and Susie Klein. They sailed across
Buzzards Bay this afternoon from their home base in Padanarum in Rhode
Island. The weather today was not beautiful, but it was a good day.
I had asked Mark to call me this morning as soon as he was up, so he was my
alarm clock. I got up when he called and went shopping at Trader Joe’s. It
was after 10 am when I arrived at the hospital, and unfortunately, it was
too late to get breakfast in the hospital cafeteria. The only thing
available was a bagel with cream cheese, so that is what I had. Mark was
not released until after 11 am, but we then immediately headed for Cape Cod.
We went directly to Woods Hole and met EJ who was delivering our dinghy.
After we got everything from the car delivered to Windbird, I then drove
back to Falmouth and delivered the things we had bought for Heather and Jed.
AND I delivered all the boxes of science teaching resources I brought from
storage for Heather to use in planning her science Fridays for Sam’s
kindergarten class. Soon after I arrived back in Woods Hole, Susie and Jim
arrived. They picked up a mooring next to us and after giving them time to
settle in, we went over for dinner. Susie made a pumpkin risotto. It was
delicious and the company was yummy as well.
by Judy Handley | Sep 28, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 325, Year 7: Successful Surgery
Date: Friday, September 28, 2012
Weather: Rain, Rain, and More Rain
Location: At Home with John Reed, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Weather wise, the day went from bad to worse with rain, then more rain, then
pouring rain. But thankfully, Mark’s surgery didn’t follow that same
pattern. It has been a long day and it was not until after 11 pm that Mark
was finally settled into a room at the hospital for the night. He spent the
afternoon and evening in a recovery room as there were just no rooms
available in the hospital. But he is doing great and the parathyroid
surgery was a success. Each of us has four tiny little parathyroid glands,
two on one side and two on the other. Dr. Stephen removed the one gland
that was ‘malfunctioning’ and could clearly see that the second gland on
that side of his body is just fine. She removed a node from the thyroid
gland and one lymph node that was in the same area. All tested as benign
and Mark’s parathyroid hormone (PTH) level went from 140 down to 50 ten
minutes after surgery, and down again to 37 five hours after the surgery.
Normal PTH levels are between 10 and 55, so Mark’s level of 37 looks good.
The doctor decided to keep him overnight so she can check the level one more
time in the morning, but she was very confident today that they found and
successfully removed the cause of the problem. There could always be issues
with the two glands on the other side, but the doctor doesn’t think so given
the drastic drop in the hormone level. Slowly, the amount of calcium in his
blood should lower and he will no longer have to deal with this issue.
Mark has had one health issue after another since our return last June and
all of these issues have been dealt with at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Usually when a patient is in the hospital, there is a clipboard with vital
info about the patient that hangs on the end of the bed. Not with Mark. He
has a ‘book’ about an inch and a half thick` that sits on a table in his
room at the hospital. I just had to take a photo of it and post it with
this log. For a man who has been very healthy all of his life, this past
year has been a rude introduction into the ‘senior’ years. But Mark’s
attitude is so positive and he is just not shaken by any of this. He still
moves and acts like a teenager, just with very gray hair. Or at least that
is what the nurse on duty in the recovery room noted this afternoon, and I
have to agree.
by Judy Handley | Sep 27, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 324, Year 7: To Concord and Cambridge
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2012
Weather: Mostly Sunny
Location: At Home with John Reed, Cambridge, Massachusetts
When I typed the date, September 27, a flood of memories came forth. In
1975, my first born was due on September 27. It was a Saturday in
Alexandra, Virginia, and the baby didn’t arrive. And then she didn’t arrive
on Sunday. By Monday, I decided to take action. I called a woman named
Kathy whom I had met in Lamaze classes and asked her to go with me down to
the Potomac River to just sit and watch the water. I have always loved the
water and I was sure that would start the labor process. We went, we sat
all day, and nothing happened. Then I went home to fix dinner. It worked!
While I was fixing dinner, I had the first contractions. It was a loooong
labor as Heather wasn’t born until almost midnight the next day, but finally
a beautiful baby girl was born. Even though September 30th is her birthday,
September 27 has always felt like it should have been the day.
Thanks to the graciousness of John and Sue Reed, we are spending tonight and
tomorrow night in ‘our’ room in their home. Sue is at her alma mater, Smith
College, for the weekend, so John is our host. It is so wonderful to have a
place to stay when we need to be in Boston for medical issues and we are so
appreciative. Thank you, John and Sue.
We started our day by rowing the dinghy to shore getting it loaded on the
truck. The repairman, EJ, will have it back to us on Saturday morning, and
hopefully he will be able to find and repair the leaks by then. We then
drove to Heather’s so I could so a little garden work and Mark could do his
public radio consulting work. It took us both longer that we had thought,
but we both got a lot done. Heather and I picked beans and tomatoes and
then I worked on cleaning up the bee garden and got a start on mulching for
the winter. I got the jars ready for canning the apple butter Heather made,
but it needed to cook down a little more, so I had to leave Heather with the
job of canning it as well. By doing it by the slow cooking method, we
didn’t have to add any sugar and it tasted so good. It was noon by the time
both Mark and I finished, so we had some lunch and took off for Concord, New
Hampshire. There was no traffic and we were working in the storage unit by
2:30 pm. By 4 pm we were done and the car was full. We got the winter
clothes we will need, a heater, and an extra gas can for dinghy fuel. We
also put in all of my teacher resource boxes for teaching science to little
guys. Since Heather is volunteering to teach science to Sam’s kindergarten
class every other Friday, I thought she might want to look through the
materials I have. We finished so early that we had time to go to a shopping
mall in Manchester, NH, so that each of us could buy a pair of jeans, and
then it was on to Taipei and Tokyo, the restaurant in Manchester where I
learned to love sushi when we first moved to New Hampshire in the early
1990’s. It was good sushi and it was a good day.
Our day begins early tomorrow as Mark has a 7:30 am scan and then the
surgery at 9 am at Mass General. I’ll hang out at the hospital all day
waiting to find out whether or not they will release Mark or have him stay
overnight. Hanging out at Mass General has become one of my favorite
activities. There are lots of comfortable places to sit and read or work on
a computer and when I get tired of that, I can walk to almost any place in
downtown Boston in twenty minutes. So Boston, here we come.
by Judy Handley | Sep 26, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 323, Year 7: A Little Work, A Little Play
Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Weather: Partly Cloudy Day, Getting Cloudier as Day Progressed
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Mark spent his whole day working at West Marine. I started my day with a little work—putting the first coat of varnish on the last four of our six Dorade boxes. I put two coats on two of them when I varnished the cockpit coaming cap rail, but am just now getting to these. I barely got the job done before it was time to take Mark to work. I did a bit of shopping after dropping him off and then headed to Heather’s. I decided to boil down the apple cider for making apple butter in hopes that Heather might be able to cook a batch overnight in the slow cooker. Heather took Oliver to the doctor for his six month appointment and he got a glowing report. His weight is down from the 95th to the 85th percentile, but his height has shot up. So he is a big, happy, healthy baby. We already knew that, but it is always good to hear this officially. Then Oliver and I played (mostly napped) while Heather went to get her hair cut. I sure am going to miss cuddling that little one when we leave in November. 🙁
Tomorrow Mark and I will row the dinghy to shore at 9 am to meet EJ, the man who patched the holes in the dinghy last spring. It has continued to leak all summer, but the leaks have gotten so bad recently that we have to pump up the dinghy morning and night every day. Since we will be gone for the next two days, EJ will have the time to see what he can do about fixing the problem before we return on Saturday morning. Tomorrow we will drive to Concord, New Hampshire to get some things from our storage unit there and then drive back to Cambridge where we will spend the night. Mark goes in early on Friday morning for yet ANOTHER scan before his 9 am parathyroid surgery. I will hang out at the hospital all day waiting for a good report from the doctor after surgery and then his release. I will then take him back to Sue and John Reed’s in Cambridge for the night. If all is well, we will head home on Saturday morning, making our ‘traditional’ shopping stops at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. We are still hoping to take Heather and family out for a birthday overnight cruise, but the weather is not looking like it is going to cooperate. The forecast is for rain, rain, and then more rain. We will make a late minute decision on Saturday once we get home and see what the weather is actually doing at that time.
by Judy Handley | Sep 25, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 322, Year 7: Chutney and Apple Sauce Day
Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Weather: Cool Overnight, Beautiful Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Today was all about apples, so my boat cleaning projects got put on the back
burner. Heather made chutney and apple sauce and I helped by playing with
Jonah and Oliver, and then later in the day, I took over with the canning
process. I actually don’t know when Mark and I started making and canning
our own apple chutney, but it has been enough years ago that both of our
children grew up with that tradition. I don’t think Justin makes his own
chutney, but Heather and Jed have been doing it for a few years now. Like
us, veggie curry is a weekly favorite for Heather and Jed, and it is always
better with the addition of the homemade chutney. The recipe we use comes
right out of the Ball Canning Book. While she was peeling apples with Jonah
early in the day, Heather peeled enough to make a batch of apple sauce.
Jonah loves it and the timing was right for trying it with Oliver. Oliver
really hasn’t started eating food yet. Heather has tried a few things and
Oliver hasn’t seemed particularly interested. He did seem to like the apple
sauce even though he made these funny faces that entertained us all. You
would have thought Heather was feeding him lemon juice by the expressions on
his face. So we’ll be making more apple sauce and I want to try to couple
of batches of apple butter. My mother always talked about making apple
butter in a big black pot on an open fire. It was a two day process. I’ve
been researching recipes and am going to try the ones that take 24 hours or
more, but instead of making it outside over an open fire, I will use the
more modern method of making it in a slow cooker. Today we borrowed one
from Heather’s next door neighbor, but we might not get to the apple butter
until next week. Mark and I leave on Thursday morning for Boston and then
when we return it is Heather’s birthday weekend. So apple butter is going
to be a project for the first week of October.
Mark spent his day making phone calls related to his public radio consulting
job. He is searching for candidates for a general manager position at a
station in the mid-west. At the same time that he was one the phone,
Heather was on her phone with a technician at WGBH in Boston. They were
doing a quality check on her cell phone to get it set up to do the two-way
interviews she does once a week early in the morning from home. Tomorrow
morning’s interview is about the politics of climate change. I was amused
that so much public radio business was happening in a household full of
little boys at play. Jonah doesn’t go to school on Tuesdays or Thursdays
and Sam was home with a friend as it was an Early Release Day. And then
there was Oliver. Somehow all of their sounds of play, joyful but loud,
didn’t stop the important business of public radio.
