2023 Life Logs, Day 313: VOW Presentation, New Landscape at Home
Date: Thursday, November 9, 2021
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 49 Low 43 degrees F; Sunset 4:29 pm (-1 min)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

It was quite a day here. The friend who owns this property that I rent had made arrangement for some trees to be cut down and today was the day. I got up early to take Shadow out for his walk and as soon as I returned the trucks and about five workmen arrived. I was still putting the final touches on my presentation for Newcomers this morning while chain saws were buzzing, the wood chipper was doing its thing, and my son-in-law Jed arrived to ask the tree people to save some fire wood an a large tree stump for the boys to use as the base of their forge.

Lynda arrived to oversee things as I took off for the Newcomers presentation. I was very pleased with how things went. I really think it was my best presentation yet. So, all those tweaks I made over the past few days helped.

When I arrived home around noon, the property I live on looked quite different. Two large holly trees had been taken down in front of the house, opening up the property to the street. I liked living in the shadows of the trees, but I will get used to the new openness. It rained all morning and after a lunch break, the decision was made to halt the work in the back yard for today and continue tomorrow and Saturday. Other neighbors are also using the same service to trim or take trees down on their properties. The estimate is that the whole job won’t be done until Tuesday.

2023 Life Logs, Day 312: Encore Board Meeting, More VOW Prep
Date: Wednesday, November 8, 2021
Weather: Sunny with a Chill in the Air; High 52 Low 34 degrees F; Sunset 4:30 pm (-1 min)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

There was a north wind chill in the air today despite the sunny skies. Yesterday was only 8 degrees warmer, but the wind was from the south and it felt much warmer. Despite the chill, after a morning long Encore Board meeting, Shadow and I went for a nice, long ‘city’ walk on the streets in our neighborhood. It is wonderful to be able to walk again. It is not without pain, but now that the bursitis in my hips is temporarily under control, it is my knee that gives me the most trouble on long walks. I do still have tingling and some numbness in my legs from the herniated disks, but it seems to be getting a bit better. I am also on my recumbent bike every night for about 45 minutes and I think that is helping.

In between activities, I did a little more prep on my Voyage of Windbird presentation. The last changes have been made and I will give the presentation in the morning. I dropped Ollie off at his sax lesson late this afternoon and then Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah picked him up and they were off to a Boston Revs soccer game.

2023 Life Logs, Day 311: Trivia Night
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rainy; High 60 Low 37 degrees F; Sunset 4:31 pm (-1 min)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

So I thought I had my Voyage of Windbird presentation completed yesterday. But no. I spent my entire morning making a few changes. I then had an afternoon Encore meeting, drove home to play outside with Shadow for just 10 minutes, and then I was off to an Encore Trivia Night. I do not like Trivia because I am terrible at it. But I decided to be a good sport and go tonight. I was almost no help to my team until it came to a tie breaking question. Our team was vying for second place, and I finally knew the one answer that kept us in the running. It was something I had read in The Morning, the NYT online news overview I read every morning, I’ll keep reading The Morning even though I have no plans of playing trivia again!

2023 Life Logs, Day 310: A Day at Home
Date: Monday, November 6, 2023
Weather: Overcast, Rainy; High 52 Low 50 degrees F; Sunset 4:32 pm (-1 min)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Learning to live with longer mornings and shorter afternoons is a chore for a night owl like me. But I gave it my best try today. I spent way too much time working on my latest jigsaw puzzle. It has been sitting on the puzzle table in my living room since late August, but until the past few days, I had made very little progress. I must promise myself to not walk near that table tomorrow. Thirty minutes can pass, and I have only placed four or five pieces. I really have work to do tomorrow, so no puzzle. But this puzzle is teaching me about patience. I finished making changes to my Voyage of Windbird presentation today, worked on some Encore business, and did some cooking. That’s about it for my day.

2023 Life Logs, Day 309: Fall Back
Date: Sunday, November 5, 2023
Weather: Another Lovely Fall Day; High 60 Low 40 degrees F; Sunset 4:33 pm (-1 hr, 1 min)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Today was all about the change from Daylight Savings Time back to Standard Time. That meant a ‘fall back’ of one hour during the middle of the night. I got an extra hour of sleep, but the day ended with sundown at 4:30, instead of 5:30. Ouch. From now until winter solstice, we will continue to lose daylight hours. The ‘fall back’ was sadness for me, but joy for others like my daughter who loves the earlier sunrise.

I did more house cleaning this morning, had Heather and Ollie meet me at the cottage to pick up my kayaks and store them here for the winter, walked along Falmouth Heights Beach with Shadow, and did a little more work on my Voyage of Windbird presentation. Basically, I just enjoyed another lovely fall day.

2023 Life Logs, Day 308: Beautiful Fall Day
Date: Saturday, November 4, 2023
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warmer; High 59 Low 44 degrees F; Sunset 5:34 pm (-1)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Shadow and I just enjoyed this glorious fall day. I did house cleaning interspersed with walks with Shadow. I have nothing to show for the day, but I sure enjoyed our sunset walk. The time changes tonight, so that walk will have to happen an hour earlier starting tomorrow. I am going to hate that, so I enjoyed every minute of late afternoon daylight today.

2023 Life Logs, Day 307: BTEO, VOW Presentation, Garden Tour, Covid and Flu Shot
Date: Friday, November 3, 2023
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Windy; High 53 Low 50 degrees F; Sunset 5:35 pm (-3)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

My dad, Hayes Winfred Martin, was born on this day in 1903, 120 years ago. That seems almost impossible to me. But then he died 50 years ago in 1973, and that also seems impossible. But those date facts don’t lie, it is just my memories that make it all so difficult for me to wrap my head around.

I started my day with a meeting with the Development Director of Belonging to Each Other (BTEO). This is an organization in Falmouth that supports homeless adults. It is quite an impressive local organization, and I was happy to learn more about it. I then had a couple of hours to work on editing videos for my presentation last week. I am still struggling to do the editing, but I am learning.

Mid-afternoon, Lynda Onthank and I went to visit the gardens at Kate Eldred’s home. Kate has a mostly shady yard, much like the yard here. Kate has an amazing knowledge of plants. I will have to visit many more times to absorb it all, but this was a wonderful introductory tour. Plus, we got to meet her 10-month-old Bishon/poodle mix named Natasha. Kate calls her a wild thing, but he is incredibly cute.

I ended my afternoon at CVS in Mashpee getting my flu and 2023-2024 Moderna Covid vaccinations. In the past I have had a strong reaction about 12 hours after the Covid injection that lasts about 6 hours. If it happens as it has in the past, it will be at 5 am and by tomorrow afternoon I should be fine. I hope.

2023 Life Logs, Day 306: Trip to the Outer Cape
Date: Thursday, November 2, 2023
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 46 Low 36 degrees F; Sunset 5:38 pm (-1)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

It was another early morning. This time I had to get up before the sunrise and head to Hyannis for an appointment with my neurosurgeon’s assistant. Her name is Shannon and after listening to everything that has been happening with my back since this time last year, she ordered a new MRI and prescribed a medication to treat the nerve pain that is caused by my herniated disks. But I have to say that once I got home and read about the drug, I am not sure I will take it. She did agree with my knee surgeon that I have bursitis in my hips caused by the nerve pain. I will see the doctor once the MRI is done, and any further recommendations will be made then.

Then I was off to Orleans to the Snow Library to hear a presentation on how and where the people of Polynesia came from. It is pretty well documented that they came from the area where Taiwan is today. But what an interesting story. The interesting thing is that not all the people in the South Pacific came from that area. Micronesians and Melanesians did not come from that far north.

I met with Sam this afternoon when I got home and he gave me a lesson in video editing. He did a lot of the editing for me, and tomorrow I will try to finish the pieces I want to include in my presentation on the Voyage of Windbird that I will be giving next week.

2023 Life Logs, Day 305: It’s November
Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Weather: Overcast, Cool, and Rainy; High 48 Low 33 degrees F; Sunset 5:39 pm (-0)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

This was a fast-paced day. I headed to Hyannis for an 8:45 appointment with my knee surgeon. The purpose of this visit was to get a cortisone shot in my left hip for the bursitis he says is the cause of the pain in my hips. For whatever reason, appointments were backed up and it took much longer than I expected. On the way home I stopped at the Cape Cod Package Store to see what Australian wines they have. As always, they came through with some interesting choices for my wine group meeting here at my house the week after I return from Puerto Rico. So, one more thing to mark off the to do list. By the time I got home, it was after 11 am and I had a friend coming at noon for lunch. So, I scurried around to get lunch ready and then had a couple of relaxed hours with friend Kate Eldred. Then it was off again, to an Exploring Public Policy meeting on gun safety and a check in with my Health and Wellness group, both meeting at the same time, one door away from each other. The gun safety meeting was a presentation by the Falmouth Gun Safety Coalition, and it was really well done. After it was over, I went next door in time for the end of the Health and Wellness Group. Again, I was off to go home and take Shadow out and go pick up Ollie from this sax lesson. Whew! What a day. But it was a good one, despite the cold weather and rain. But it is November—time to admit that summer is over!

2023 Life Logs, Day 304: Happy Halloween
Date: Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Cool; High 49 Low 41 degrees F; Sunset 5:39 pm (-3)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

This last day of October finally brought us a chilly fall day. When I walked outside with Shadow this morning, I finally knew that it is fall. I had to go back in and get a jacket, something I have not needed this fall except for rainy days.

Shadow had a 9 am appointment to be groomed, so we headed up to the Bourne Bridge where I dropped him off and then continued on across the bridge to go to Costco. I was told he wouldn’t be ready until 4 pm today, so I came home from Costco, actually took a little nap, and was then back out the door before 3 pm to take Ollie to a horseback riding lesson. Since Highlander Farm where he takes lessons was on the way to pick up Shadow, I dropped Ollie off, went to get Shadow, came back and took Shadow for a walk while we waited for Ollie to finish up. I took Ollie home so he could get ready to go Trick or Treating in the neighborhood with his friend Simon. Ollie showed me his completed jack-o-lantern again. He was obviously very proud of it. Sam and some of his soccer buddies decided to meet at the Sports Center to play indoor soccer. They needed another player, so Sam called Jonah and Heather took him to play before he headed to a friend’s house for Halloween night. The last I heard, Ollie and Simon were at Simon’s house trading candy. I did not expect to get any Trick or Treaters at my house, but I was pleasantly surprised when five kids braved the dark walk down my long drive-way. Happy Halloween!