2024 Life Logs, Day 09: A Quiet Day at Home
Date: Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Weather: Partly Cloudy Day, Stormy Night: High Temp 46, Low 40 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

It was a quiet day here at home, but it is now 10:30 pm and the wind and rain is raging outside. No longer quiet. Shadow and I just came in from our final foray for the day and he didn’t want to stay out long. He took care of his business and headed back to the door. But the rain and wind didn’t start until well after dark. The morning was partly sunny, but by mid afternoon the clouds took over.

My book group met today but I didn’t go. I decided at the last minute that taking a chance of being exposed to Covid was too great. I know of two small group meetings in the past few days where people found out afterwards that someone in the group tested positive for Covid a day after the meeting. I really don’t want to have to delay next week’s surgery. So, I am going to become a hermit for the next few days. I put on an N95 mask and did some grocery shopping and I went to Job Lot and found a much better alternative for a kitchen door rug than I bought at Walmart yesterday. So that will need to be returned. I did some writing for Encore. Before my surgery I have to submit the Presidents letter for the February newsletter and write an abstract to attach to the revised By-Laws that will go out with the newsletter. I have been thinking about these writing tasks for days and finally got something written down. I will continue that work tomorrow.

2024 Life Logs, Day 08: Annual Holiday Phone Call with Kevin and Claire
Date: Monday, January 8, 2024
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Cold; High Temp 35, Low 26 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

It wasn’t quite warm today to melt all of yesterday’s snow, but in the areas of the yard that get lots of sun, the snow is gone. And that is where I played fetch with Shadow this afternoon. I tried once again in the snowy areas, but he just won’t retrieve the ball. He picks it up and puts it right back down. Too icy cold for Shadow. But thankfully there were enough bare spaces for t was great to catch up with them.
Mr. Picky to play.

The days seem to be flying by and I feel like I am accomplishing nothing. Due to the continued nerve pain in my left hip, whatever I do, I do it slowly. And then I have to spend time resting before I continue. I just have to keep reminding myself that there is always tomorrow. But after playing fetch with Shadow mid-afternoon, I got up the energy to go shopping at Walmart to look for an entry rug for the kitchen and another bigger rug that will go behind that. That has been high on the ‘To Do’ list for quite some time. The rug I have there now is an old rag rug and I have tripped over it twice this week. So, getting a new kitchen rug to protect the floor from dripping winter boots and then muddy spring boots that I can’t trip over so easily is a priority. It is all part of adapting the kitchen to my new reality. A floppy rug that you can trip over is a disaster in the making.

This evening, just as I finished my green bean and mushroom casserole with cashew cream, a recipe I got from Kevin and Claire, the phone rang. And who should it be but Kevin and Claire. We usually have this call closer to Christmas, but this year I was in Maine and they were in California and all sorts of other things kept putting off our call. Kevin left California and headed back to Mexico when he heard that the autocratic leaning President of Mexico had given control of all marinas in Mexico to the Navy. Kevin and Claire live in their motor home in a marina in Mexico where their boat sits on the hard as they do work on it. He wanted to get the motor home back there so when the new Navy personnel came in they would see the motor home and not question it being there. So far that is working. Claire then arrived in Guaymas with her parents who are renting a home in nearby San Carlos for the next three months. She stayed with them for a few days to help them get established. So, both Kevin and Claire and been very busy. As always, it was great talking to them tonight.

2024 Life Logs, Day 07: Fabulous Snowy Afternoon
Date: Sunday, January 7, 2024
Weather: Rain Turning to Snow; High Temp 39, Low 25 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

It rained all night and all morning. Then, mid-afternoon I looked out the window and those drops of rain had turned into huge snowflakes. I was unbelievably excited. We haven’t had much snow here on the Cape in the past few years, so we have to embrace it as it falls. For a few hours our world turns white, then tomorrow it will melt tomorrow. Shadow and I went outside and had a wonderful romp, well, Shadow had a wonderful romp, in the snow. It was a wet snow, so Mr. Picky Shadow didn’t like picking up the tennis ball coated with icy snow, but he enjoyed playing in the snow and I enjoyed watching him.

Otherwise, it was a quiet day. I felt good this morning, unlike the past two days. I think I overdid it on Thursday and paid for it on Friday and Saturday. But today I was back to last Thursday’s level of pain which is tolerable. Jed came over twice today. Once this morning to walk Shadow and tonight to walk Shadow and put my recycle bin out on the street for Monday morning pick-up. Thank you, Jed. I am so thankful for the help, but I did get in trouble for not calling to ask for help in shoveling the walkway when I went outside with Shadow. It was not that hard, but I shall see tomorrow morning if it was too much. And Jed is right. I should have called for someone to come over to do it. I am just not used to calling for help. I got my first spanking when I was three for telling my dad, “I want to do it by myself.” He said that was talking back and that was not allowed. But some things never change. I still want to do everything by myself. I am a slow learner, but I am learning.

2024 Life Logs, Day 06: Sam, Sam, A Driving Man
Date: Saturday, January 6, 2024
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 35, Low 27 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

Samuel Ellery Goldstone, my first and now oldest grandchild, passed his drivers test and bought a car, all today. He is over the top happy and, of course, I am over the top happy for him. I went over late in the day to see the car. Sam and Ollie came out and gave me the full tour. I think Ollie is as happy about the car as Sam. Jonah is still testing positive for Covid, so he couldn’t come out. But I am sure he is happy for Sam as well. The car is a hunter green 2003 VW Golf, which makes it 20 years old, but it certainly doesn’t look that old. It looks much better, inside and out, than my 2010 FIT. I hope it runs as good as it looks. It had to be towed home as it doesn’t currently have a license plate. But that will be remedied soon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sam so completely happy. Memories in the making.

Today was the day to take down the Christmas tree and the garland and lights on the fence out by the street and light pole nearer to the house. Ollie and Jonah did all of the outside decorating, but Ollie had to be the one to undo. Ollie and Jed came for a short time before Ollie’s horseback riding lesson and then returned afterwards to finish the job. They left my big plastic Christmas bin in the living room for me to finish putting the last bits away. Then it will go to the basement. Thank you to Jed and Ollie for fitting this into their busy day.

Yesterday and today have been tough ones for me. I have had more pain than usual. Maybe it is because I have been spending both days at home doing not much. I am even having trouble sitting, which is a brand new symptom. I am hoping things will be better tomorrow. But tomorrow does not look like a good day to go out and about. It will be another day inside. The big storm headed our way is expected to bring lots of rain.

2024 Life Logs, Day 05: You Make Plans, Then Life Happens
Date: Friday, January 5, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny, Windy, and Chilly; High Temp 35, Low 27 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

Jed came over this morning to take Shadow for his morning walk and reported that no one else in the family has developed Covid symptoms. Yay! And the same is true for me. But we are certainly not out of the woods yet. We just have to wait and see. However, Jonah is feeling good enough to be bored and wanting to go back to school, so he is better. After the walk, Jed helped me look through the house to see if there are modifications we need to make for my after-surgery recovery period. He is going to bring Heather with him over the weekend and we will make decisions then. When he left, I went to grab my smoothie and realized I only had half of one left. So, I decided to have bacon and eggs, just because I could. I had an open package of bacon left over from making beef stew, and I decided it needed to be eaten. But after watching a documentary called “What the Health” on Netflix last night, I think this bacon will be my last meat (except maybe for wild caught Alaskan salmon) for a long time. If you have time, watch “What the Health.” You will never want to eat meat again!

My day was off to a good start. I read the NYT’s This Morning on my phone, played Connections and the Mini Crossword Puzzle and then got on my computer to download Encore documents from recent emails. I somehow got lost in the emails, deleting things no longer needed and responding to some emails that I had not gotten to yesterday, when my phone dinged. It was a reminder that I had a 1 pm Encore Nominating Committee Zoom meeting in 30 minutes, so I hurriedly got ready for that. And after I got off the Zoom call, I needed to send some documents to the committee members. I did that, ate lunch, took Shadow out to play ball, and then came inside to do at least one thing on my ‘To Do’ list for today. Then the phone rang. It was a call from Jessica, my sister’s granddaughter, who never calls me, so I knew something was wrong. My sister lives in the same town as Jessica’s dad, Bill, and Bill had open heart surgery just before Christmas. Jessica is in Mooresville to help him through his recovery period, so this afternoon she had come over to see her grandmother and take down her Christmas tree. But when she arrived, she found my sister sitting with her leg up wrapped in a towel. Long story short, my sister has edema in her legs and her left leg was weeping. Not good. I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone dealing with this. Her doctor was already out of the office for the weekend, but another doctor in the practice actually worked in an appointment for my sister. Jessica spent the rest of her afternoon shuffling my sister to the doctor’s office and then off to get her measured for different compression stockings and on and on. We made some progress, and all is well for now. But absolutely nothing on my “To Do” list got done today other than answering a few emails. When days like this happen, all I can hear is my good friend Lynne Kirwin sternly whispering in my ear, “Judy, you can make plans, but then life happens.” Now I can’t even find my ‘To Do’ list. I’ll have to start tomorrow from scratch.

In some traditions, today is the Twelfth Day of Christmas, but that counts Christmas as the first day. Others say the first day of Christmas is the day after Christmas. In any case, tonight is the Twelfth Night and tomorrow is Epiphany, All Kings Day to some and Three Kings Day to others. For me it is the day I customarily take down my Christmas tree and take down the outside decorations and lights. I will need a little help this year, but hopefully I will get that tree out of the house tomorrow and garland and lights off the fence.

2024 Life Logs, Day 04: Pre-Op Appointment and Shopping My Way Home
Date: Thursday, January 4, 2024
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Cold Tonight; High Temp 42, Low 22 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

It was off to Hyannis this morning for my pre-op appointment. Heather joined us on the phone and I think we both got our questions answered. I had read my MRI report many times, but seeing the images today made it absolutely clear that surgery really is my only option. I took photos of the images on the screen and will share those with Heather. But mostly we were interested in what life might be like immediately after the surgery, six weeks out, and beyond. Every person is different, but if the surgery goes successfully, I will be up and walking in a few hours, made possible by the pain meds. Then seven days out when the pain meds go away, I should be walking around the house, and starting to walk out to the mailbox and then around the neighborhood. I am not allowed to do any kind of exercise except for walking in the first six weeks. Then I can start physical therapy. I will hopefully be driving in two weeks. We shall see.

Since I was in Hyannis, I went to Trader Joe’s to get a supply of their frozen wild blueberries and I went to Whole Foods to get the tea I forgot to get when I was there a few days ago. But somehow two boxes of tea turned into two bags of food items. When I got back to Falmouth, I went to Walmart to get new tennis balls for Shadow and to buy yoga pants for me. After the surgery, I will be wearing those instead of jeans for a few weeks.

My morning appointment in Hyannis ended up to be an entire day trip. I didn’t get home until 3:30 pm, played ball with Shadow outside for a bit, and by the time we got back inside, the sun was setting. I hadn’t eaten lunch, but I literally could not keep my eyes open. Stopping in three stores was just too much and my body was telling me to take a nap. I slept for an entire hour but woke up revived. I have got to work harder at pacing my activities until this back surgery and recovery period are over.

2024 Life Logs, Day 03: Covid Rears Its Ugly Head Again
Date: Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Weather: Still Sunny and Slightly Warmer; High Temp 42, Low 31 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

It was wonderful to have all family members healthy for our Christmas in Maine, but last night after I got home from Heather and Jed’s, they texted to tell me that Jonah tested positive for Covid. He came home from school yesterday feeling terrible, so we sat far away from each other at dinner. His symptoms got even worse after I left, thus the Covid test. Heather has also tested Positive, but just barely. She thinks she must have had a very light case of Covid and exposed Jonah and thinks she will probably test Negative in the next day or so. But I have been exposed and just hope that I don’t get Covid and have to delay my back surgery. I’ll keep downing the elderberry and zinc and hope for the best. And I also hope that Jonah feels better tomorrow. He has a fever, runny nose, and chills. Heather said he stays so bundled up they can’t tell if he really has a fever. I sure hope Ollie, Sam, and Jed don’t get this.

I hope I was not being irresponsible, but I went ahead and went to two meetings today thinking that I am probably not contagious this point. Starting tomorrow, however, I will isolate except for my Pre-Op appointment with Dr. Papavasiliou’s assistant, Shannon, tomorrow at 11:30 am. I might try to call in the morning and see if we can do that appointment via Zoom. Heather wants to be included as well, so a three-way Zoom call is probably the safest route. I’ll let Shannon decide that. And I certainly won’t go to my wine group gathering tomorrow night. Bummer. I would love to see everyone, but I don’t want to possibly expose them to Covid.

The meetings I attended today were both Newcomers/Encore related. In the late afternoon I went to my monthly meeting with the Health and Wellness Group. This was a new activity added this year and each meeting has been attended by only four or five people. Today there were four of us, one a newcomer to the group. We are going to continue and hope that in the spring we will get more people. Before my next meeting, I had time to come home to eat dinner and go outside to play with Shadow, but it was dark. So, I parked the car so the headlights would illuminate part of the front yard and used the porch light and the automatic outside spotlight. I walked down the path to the spot that first turns it on and then Shadow running through that same spot kept it on the whole time we played fetch. That new activity was a success. Then it was time for the second meeting which was a Newcomers group exploring how they can best express that the organization embraces diversity. I was there as an observer from Encore. It was a very positive and successful meeting with a group of incredibly caring people. We come up with a purpose statement that includes diversity and that statement will be presented to the Newcomers Board. They will take it from there.

2024 Life Logs, Day 02: Making a List and Checking It Twice
Date: Tuesday, January 2,2024
Weather: Sunny, but Cold; High Temp 37, Low 28 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA

I am writing this log as an email and will have to copy and paste it into the website as I am having difficulties with Microsoft Word. Somehow all of my files are locked and If I try to open them, my computer freezes and I can do nothing. I can get out of that with Ctrl Alt Delete, but I can’t open a new file. Hopefully, a Goldstone will know what to do to fix this problem. But in the meantime, I can at least write in email. Now on with my day,

I don’t have a written list, but I have a mental list of things to do that is a mile long. It was so sunny this morning that it was hard to keep my focus on getting things done indoors, but I persevered and checked quite a few items off my list. Everything I do takes twice as long as it should due to my back issues, but I’m okay with that as long as I really can get things done. It was hard to focus on work this morning because the sun was shining so brightly through the windows and skylights. I did get to go outside to pick the kale for my breakfast smoothie that I finally consumed at noon. Like I said, I move slowly, but surely. I loved going ou to the garden to pick the kale in January and it made a great smoothie.

Late afternoon I changed my focus. I was taking artichokes to Heather and Jed’s for dinner. We were eating early as it is Scout meeting night, so I said I would arrive with the artichokes by 5 pm and I did. The artichokes were big and delicious and we had sides of fried calamari and fried clam strips. It was a good day as I checked off many things off my list and had fun doing it. It was a gpod, productive day.

2023 Life Logs, Day 365: Happy New Year
Date: Sunday, December 31, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 39, Low 31 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview in Falmouth, MA

Happy New Year! I spent my day shopping and getting ready for New Year’s Day. Heather and gang will be home tomorrow evening and I offered to fix dinner. I had hoped we could have sushi, but our sushi source is closed tomorrow night. So I have artichokes or beef stew as the offering. The beef is marinating in wine and the artichokes are in the pantry. I’ll wait to see what the Goldpebbles vote for.

On New Years Eve I get a bottle of Pouilly-Fuisse to have with Mark. When I first met him, but was still deciding if I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, I drove to Bloomington, Indiana to spend a weekend with him. I had only met him at a public television conference, so this would be our first meeting after that. He lived in a hard to find spot, so he met me at a designated place. He arrived in his little green sports car convertible and when we got to his house, he broke out a bottle of Pouilly-Fuisse wine. I was already in love, but this sealed the deal. So Pouilly-Fuisse became our signature wine and now that I don’t have Mark, I have a toast to him every New Year with this wine. Tonight, Shadow and I sat together while I made my toast. I made a toast with a hope for peace in the world. But more realistic hopes were that we can all stay grounded during coming year which could be quite challenging on the home front, as well as in the world aboard.

Tonight Heather, Jed, and the Goldpebbles are in Vermont celebrating with good friends after a day on the slopes. Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco celebrated and then head down to Rincon for their New Year’s Silver Mouse concert. Shadow and I are here at home celebrating the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. Here on the home front, and in the world abroad, 2024 looks to be a most challenging year. But we must all plunge into 2024 with an optimistic view, hoping for the best. Here we go.

2023 Life Logs, Day 364: Trying to Catch-Up
Date: Saturday, December 30, 2023
Weather: Cloudy Turning Partly Sunny; High 46, Low 31 F
Location: At Home on Lakeview in Falmouth, MA

Everyone needs a catch-up day or days after Christmas, so I started the catch-up process today. I put away Christmas gifts, mostly stocking stuffers, got on my computer and went to my bank’s bill pay to make sure everything was being paid on time, and then took a break to start working on a puzzle I got out before Christmas. I had separated most of the pieces by color and edge pieces. I was successful in getting the framing done with the exception of a few pieces I must have missed in the sorting process. By this time, it was almost one o’clock and sun was streaming into the living room. I haven’t seen sunshine for a full seven days. Shadow and I headed outside to play fetch and just enjoy the sunshine. I have a chair in the backyard where I can sit and throw the ball for Shadow with my Chuck-It. And I can sit in that chair and let the sunshine soak in.

When we came back inside, I got caught up on Christmas letters I have received and almost got motivated to write one myself. That’s tentatively on the list for tomorrow. I am not sure where the rest of the day went, but I think that puzzle caught my attention more than once. Shadow and I drove over to Heather and Jed’s to feed the kitties and the fish, and I did a laundry and then fixed dinner. I am no longer on Prednisone, and as a result I am having a more difficult time getting around. I just have to spend more time sitting between any walking activities which slows me down considerably. But at least I am able to get around. For that I am thankful.