by Judy Handley | Jun 26, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 231, Year 7: Happy Third Birthday to Jonah
Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Weather: Mixed Sun and Clouds with Threatening Thunder Late Day
Location: At Heather and Jed’s in E Falmouth, MA
Three years ago we came home from Malaysia for Jonah’s birth. We were here
until he was three months old and now he is three years old. My, how the
time flies. Today was Jonah’s day, but his official celebration will take
place at his party on Saturday. Today he received a ukulele from mommy and
daddy and a new big boy swing from Oma and Granddad. He requested and got
French toast with strawberries and bacon for breakfast, mac and cheese for
lunch, and salmon cakes with corn on the cob for dinner. He wanted an
orange cake with sprinkles in it in the shape of a castle, and that he got
as well. Jonah was truly king for a day.
by Judy Handley | Jun 25, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 230, Year 7: Lonesome George
Date: Monday, June 25, 2012
Weather: Overcast with Rain
Location: At Heather and Jed’s in E Falmouth, MA
The sad news was announced today that Lonesome George is dead. We ‘met’
Lonesome George when we visited the Galapagos Islands in 2006. He was the
last survivor of a subspecies of giant tortoises that inhabit those islands.
He was over a 100 years old and had avoided every attempt to have him mate.
When we visited the Galapagos, George was in a corral with a female and it
was hard to get good photos. But I will post my photo of him here to record
this historic event. My nephew Rex and his new wife Diana are still in the
Galapagos on their honeymoon and I will be interested to hear their account
of the death of Lonesome George.
After today’s chemo treatment, Mark has only two more to go. And there is
no one in the happier about that then Mark. The last treatment will be on
July 23 and I think Mark is starting to count the hours. The treatments are
starting to take their toll and Mark didn’t get his usual boost from today’s
treatment. He usually feels good the day of treatment and the following two
days and then crashes. But after the crash two weeks ago, he never bounced
back. So we’re figuring we are in a gradual decline until the end of July.
Then he will have to start the battle to regain his strength and stamina.
For now we are just thankful that he feels as good as he does.
Tomorrow is Jonah’s third birthday. His party will be on Saturday once Jed
and Jed’s parents are all here. But Heather is giving him one gift tomorrow
morning and has planned a special day for him. I can’t believe Oliver is
already three months old and Jonah is three years old.
A boat note . . . I took Sam and Jonah with me late this afternoon and went
to Windbird to charge the batteries. We had left the refrigerator and
freezer running and the system was down to zero charge. We stayed about an
hour and a half and only got the charge up to 45 per cent. I emptied the
refrigerator of the few things I had in it and brought them back to
Heather’s. Thankfully I hadn’t moved the freezer items back after the
haul-out. We are only here until Wednesday, but by turning off the
refrigeration I won’t have to go back to do additional charging. That
little gas-powered charger we have been thinking about buying is looking
more and more desirable. We both hate having to run the boat engine every
day to charge, so sometime in the next couple of weeks we will look more
seriously at the addition of a generator. We have resisted this for years,
but maybe the time has come. Our wind and solar systems just can’t keep up
with our rate of consumption.
by Judy Handley | Jun 24, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 229, Year 7: The Supporting Role
Date: Sunday, June 24, 2012
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warm
Location: At Heather and Jed’s in E Falmouth, MA
Today was a bit of a day of rest for Mark and I, but unfortunately, not for
Heather. We did all slow the activity level a bit to allow Heather to have
the time in the afternoon to prep for her show tomorrow morning. Mark and I
have been trying to play the supporting role, in Jed’s absence, to allow
Heather to get the necessary work done. That role mostly consists of
watching the boys, and since that is what we love to do, it is no chore. We
started our day at 7 am which is the norm here. Mark usually stays in bed
until 8:30 or 9 am, but I’m not sure how much sleep he gets as we tend to be
a bit loud in the morning. This morning the neighbors next door were
setting up for a yard sale, so Heather, Sam, and Jonah headed there. The
neighbors have grandchildren and some of their toys were for sale. Jonah
fell in love with Fisher-Price cash register with a scanner and Sam fell in
love with a pirate ship. They both came home to the nickels they have been
earning for following the house rules and helping out with chores in order
to pay for their treasures. I think each item cost a dollar and both were
in great shape. So they really got a good deal. They played with the new
toys and somehow it was almost noon before anyone went outside to play. It
really was a laid back morning.
After lunch, it was time for naps. I know Heather could have used a nap as
she has been dealing with the overnight issues of three little boys all
alone, but she had to work this afternoon. And after she finished the prep
for tomorrow’s show, she had to deal with preparations for Jonah’s birthday
coming up on Tuesday. So there was not rest for her, but I got to hold
Oliver and I got the nap. Mark was supposed to work at West Marine today,
but he just was not up to it. But he did spend a great deal of the morning
and later afternoon holding and playing with Oliver. We had zucchinoes
(zucchini canoes) for dinner and the boys got to talk to their daddy via
Skype while eating. We scooped out the first zucchinis from the garden and
filled them with rice, cheese, and the scooped out zucchini, and then topped
them with meatballs that we pretended were people rowing. So, of course, we
also had to have paddles. The paddles would have been carrot sticks, but
unfortunately we are out of carrots. So I just chopped up a couple of
wooden skewers and we used those.
Tomorrow is chemo morning for Mark, work morning for Heather, and the first
day of summer camp for Sam and Jonah. Oliver and I will stay home and just
chill out together. Hopefully everyone will nap in the afternoon and then
Mark and I will take Sam and Jonah to the boat while we spent an hour or so
charging the batteries. We still don’t have the blades on the wind
generator, so it would be great if we could get that done as well. We’ll
return here to Heather’s for a pizza dinner. Tuesday will be all about
Jonah’s birthday and Wednesday we will return to Windbird as Jed will be
coming home from Italy and his parents will be arriving for a few days to
help celebrate Jonah’s birthday. The party with friends will be on
Saturday, so Grammy and Poppa will be here for that. Mark has been
compiling quite a list of boat jobs that need to be, so we’ll focus our
attention of that for the next few weeks.
by Judy Handley | Jun 23, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 228, Year 7: House and Garden
Date: Saturday, June 23, 2012
Weather: Partly Cloudy, No Thunderstorms as Forecasted
Location: At Heather and Jed’s in E Falmouth, MA
This was a house and garden day. I wanted to clean out the closet in the
den and Heather wanted to rearrange the living room. So we did. We swept
and mopped wooden floors, vacuumed the area rugs, and washed and dried all
of the winter hats, gloves, and scarves stored in the den closet.
Mid-afternoon Heather and the boys went to a birthday party, Mark went to
Windbird to run the engine to charge the batteries, and I took the
opportunity to work in the sunflower garden in the front yard. This is the
garden we planted in front of the beehive, but for some strange reason, no
sunflowers came up in one whole section. And now the grass has grown back
and the area needed to be tilled again. I did that and also started
mulching in between the rows of sunflowers that did come up. The weeds and
grass are tenacious and none of us has had time to deal with it. We are
going to plant pumpkins in the area where sunflowers didn’t grow. So
hopefully we can complete that job tomorrow. Heather also has to get her
prep work done for her show on Monday morning and we have to get ready for
Jonah’s birthday on Tuesday. The party will be on Saturday, but he will get
his big present on the real day. So as always, there’s plenty to do around
here.
by Judy Handley | Jun 22, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 227, Year 7: A Good Day in the Life
Date: Friday, June 22, 2012
Weather: Repeat–Another Beautiful Day, Very Warm
Location: At Heather and Jed’s in E Falmouth, MA
After a bit of a shaky beginning, today was a good day. Even with us here
to help, Heather is still a single parent this week. She deals with all
three boys during the night, and some nights are better than others. One
way or another all three end up in bed with her by morning, but she swears
she is still getting enough sleep to survive. Our days start early, at 7
am, when Sam and Jonah get up and come downstairs. This morning Mark and I
needed to leave for an oncology appointment by 9:10 am and Heather had hoped
to walk down to the corner with all three boys by 9:20 to catch the bus into
town. From there she would have gotten on the summer trolley to Woods Hole
where she needed to cut some promos for her show on Monday. Even though we
had two hours, Heather had to push the boys to get dressed while holding
Oliver. Sam had a complete melt down over not being able to wear his
favorite t-shirt which was in the dirty laundry. One thing led to another
and it soon became obvious that the adventure of taking the bus and trolley
was not going to work. That caused more tears because the boys, especially
Sam, was looking forward to it. We were going to take the van to the doctor
appointment and then meet Heather in Woods Hole. But at the last minute, we
ended up taking Sam and Jonah to the doctor appointment with us and Heather
stayed home to get dressed, nurse Oliver, and then drive to Woods Hole to
cut the promos. The trip to the doctor ended up to be an adventure for Sam
and Jonah. They both really wanted to go in with Mark and watch the nurse
draw blood for his bi-weekly blood tests. They got to meet a male nurse
(Sam had told me a couple of days ago that men can’t be nurses) and a female
doctor. And the nurse that drew the blood was so good with the kids. She
told them Granddad was like a juice box and she was going to put a straw in
to get the juice (blood in this case). They thought that was funny. And
then they went in with us to talk to the doctor. They were so interested
and so good and everyone loved them. Jonah says he thinks he’ll be a
hospital work when he grows up if he decides not to be a firefighter. And
even though Mark has been feeling really lousy, the doctor continues to say
that he is doing great. His blood counts are dipping a bit but everything
is still in the normal range. She is watching the calcium count with
indicates the parathyroid problem, but it is staying stable for now. We’ll
learn more about that on July 3 when we have an appointment at Mass General
in Boston.
When we arrived in Woods Hole, Mark headed to Windbird to run the engine to
charge the batteries and Sam, Jonah, and I joined Heather and Oliver on the
grassy hill adjacent to the radio station. Heather had already cut the
promos, so we just played. The boys love that hill and they preferred to
stay there rather than walk to the park. Heather and boys then took the
trolley back to town. Mark stayed on the boat to continue charging the
batteries, and I drove Heather’s van back to town to pick up H, J, S, and O.
We had lunch in town and then came home for naps. Heather had a routine
doctor’s appointment, so Mark and I watched sleeping boys. Well, Oliver
didn’t sleep, but he played quietly in his bouncy seat while I got the other
two to sleep and then assembled a new fan. The temperature in the house has
been approaching 90 degrees F, so fans are a necessity. In the later
afternoon, Heather got on her bee gear and put a new super on top of the bee
hive body. The boys and Mark watched from the living room window. Heather
was able to identify the queen and confirm that all is going well in the
hive. We had a great dinner of fish tacos and got the boys in bed by a
reasonable time. So I call that a good day in the life.
I have to share something that happened yesterday before closing this log.
Kids Say the Darndest Things . . . Art Linkletter had it right back in the
late 50’s when started that show. They also DO the darndest things. Last
night just before dinner, we were in the backyard with the boys. Somehow we
got to the topic of yoga and I asked Sam and Jonah if they could sit on the
ground with legs outstretched and touch their head to their knee. Sam tried
and couldn’t, but Jonah immediately touched his head with one hand and
touched his knee with the other hand and declared victory. Only an ‘almost’
three year-old would do that. It was just too cute.
by Judy Handley | Jun 21, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 226, Year 7: Happy Birthday to Jo
Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012
Weather: Another Beautiful Day, Very Warm
Location: At Heather and Jed’s in E Falmouth, MA
Today was our daughter-in-law Jo’s birthday, so Happy Birthday to Jo. We
didn’t get to talk with her, but we are hoping she had a great day. We had
a good day here. Sam and Jonah are adjusting to Jed’s absence and little
Oliver’s cold is getting better. I think both he and Mark are on the road
to recovery. It was another beach morning for the Sam and Jonah, but Mark
and I stayed home with Oliver. It is very warm here and all of us are
enjoying the summer days.
