2026 Life Logs, Day 210: From Falmouth to Boothbay, Maine
Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Weather: Rain; High Temp 70, Low 62 degrees F (Boothbay)
Location: At Home with the Goldstones in Boothbay, ME

After dealing with yet another issue with my sister this morning, I drove from Falmouth to Boothbay, Maine this afternoon. This morning’s issue was the Dexcom sensor that she wears. I receive her blood sugar numbers on my phone, sent via Bluetooth from a phone that is always with her. When the system works, it is wonderful. But making sure staff at Bridges charge it every night and get it back in the pocket of her wheelchair every morning is challenging. The diabetic nurse had to replace the sensor this morning (has to happen every 15 days), and she had a difficult time getting that done. But by 10:30 am, I was once again receiving the information. The results from my sister’s first 24 hours on Jardiance were good, so I was then able to decide for sure that I could leave for two days to go to Maine. I stopped by Bridges to see Patsy and got on the road at 1:45 pm. I rolled in here around 7 pm. I had pouring rain on Route 24 just before Boston and again as I neared Portsmouth, NH. That lasted until I got well across the border into Maine and then it was just fog. I made good time, however, despite the ugly weather.

Heather and family left about 3 hours before I did and didn’t have the pouring rain. But when they got here, they went for a walk and all of them got soaked in a late afternoon downpour! We are here for the funeral tomorrow of Jed’s Aunt Becky, the wife of Marti’s brother, John Welch. And after the funeral, everyone will come back to the farm to visit. Tonight Marti fixed a delicious stir fry for us. And she served the same blueberry squares with lemon sauce that she made for the 120 some people who came to Heather and Jed’s rehearsal dinner that was held here at the farm 23 years ago. Delicious food and warm memories.

2026 Life Logs, Day 209: Never-Ending Story
Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny, Humid; High Temp 80, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today’s issue was transitioning my sister from insulin injections to a pill, Jardiance. I spent all day yesterday making sure this was going to happen on Friday, but despite all my efforts, there was a glitch in the communications, and it started today. She got both the insulin injection plus the replacement med this morning and that was not supposed to happen. So far, so good, but it was a truly nerve-wracking day for me.

I am planning to drive to Boothbay, Maine, tomorrow afternoon to be there on Thursday for Jed’s Aunt Becky’s funeral. If Patsy makes it through the night okay, I am going ahead. But if there are more complications, I might have to abort my plans. I just won’t know until tomorrow. But if I am going, I have some new sister issues that arose today that I will have to deal with in the morning before I leave. This is the never-ending story, and I am literally exhausted dealing with so many problems over the past four months with her.. But the show must go on, so I have to rally. Maybe a quick trip to Maine will give me the break I need.

I did take time this afternoon to take Ollie and his friend Seton to the beach. I got to sit on the beach for an hour and read. That was a wonderful break, but I couldn’t fully enjoy it as I still had to be my phone texting Bridges, the insulin nurse, and my sister’s primary care. It just never stops.

2026 Life Logs, Day 207: Protest Update, Reconnecting, Dinner with Family
Date: Sunday, July 26, 2026
Weather: Some Sun, Some Clouds; High Temp 72, Low 61 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

This morning I got a text from my friend Jane Woodin giving me a link to a social media piece about yesterday’s protest in Plymouth that I described at our dinner last night. The Falmouth social media influencer who was at the protest posted video evidence of the ugliness, giving her narration of what happened. The interesting piece to me is that she gave the name of the young man who was the leader of the extreme right-wing group who tried to disrupt the peaceful protest. He was Jake Lang, who spent four years in prison for assaulting police officers during the January 6 assault on our nation’s capital. And then he was pardoned by Trump, just so he can travel around the country and cause trouble. Some accounts say he was also arrested in Texas more recently and is walking around with an ankle bracelet on. I don’t know if that is true, but I was able to verify the part about being imprisoned and getting a pardon from Trump. I also saw a social media article, probably written by the Falmouth social media influencer, stating that Jake Lang and his group were run out of the protest by the few women who were yelling nasty things at him. That may or may not be true. But either way, I don’t approve of the behavior on either side. Yelling and screaming expletives is not the way to solve any problem.

I heard back from Bruce Tedder, my sailing friend from South Africa, today. I found an old cell phone number and put it in WhatsApp and there he was. He and Nadine are in Greece aboard their Italian fishing boat, spending the summer in the Mediterranean getting the boat to Italy to put it on the market. They are really sailors, not motor boat people, but they have enjoyed three summers in the Med living aboard this boat. Their daughter Tristen has finished graduate school in finance and decided that she is not quite ready for the corporate world. She is working aboard a big boat as social director and deck hand. The amazing thing was the photos they sent. Bruce is a tall man, but Tristen is taller! That was a shock to me. But it feels so good to be in touch with them again. My friend Midge, who was the impetus for reaching out, will not get to see them in Cape Town, but I have reclaimed a special friendship.  But what a difference 10 years makes!

I got a late afternoon call from Justin. He reported that they had a wonderful time while in England. They enjoyed being with family and really enjoyed their few days touring in Liverpool. All is well at Finca Maravilla, and they are gearing up for Coco’s 14th birthday on Thursday.

Tonight I invited Heather and family over for dinner. I used my new grill for the first time making Oma’s marinated chicken, steak, and veggies. All three boys were here, and it was a fun evening together.

2026 Life Logs, Day 206: Day of Protests, Then Dinner with Friends
Date: Saturday, July 25, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 73, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I attended the Saturday rally on the Green and then headed to Plymouth for an ICE Out of Plymouth protest near the Plymouth County Correctional Facility. The facility in Plymouth is THE ONLY facility in Massachusetts with an IGSA (Intergovernmental Service Agreement) to rent out 526 beds for immigration detention. ICE pays the Sheriff’s Department $215 per detainee per day (at full capacity for a year that totals more than $40M). According to Amnesty International, immigration detention in the U.S. is unnecessary, rife with systemic abuses, arbitrary, and unlawful under international human rights law. The ongoing protests in Plymouth are to let the Sheriff’s Department know loud and clear that we believe this needs to stop.

So, I arrived at the protest site expecting it to be something like our weekly standouts for democracy on the Falmouth Village Green. But it was immediately obvious that this one was different. There were 6-8 policemen patrolling the edges, and there was a small group of very loud protesters flying flags, waving signs, and who had a leader with a microphone. In the beginning, I observed the young man trying to push the limits by moving his group from standing on the grassy area to pushing toward a policeman standing in front of him on the edge of the very busy highway. The policeman was obviously telling him he had to stay on the grass and I heard him respond that it was his right to be in the street and to be heard. Then I started reading the signs and flags flown by this group and saw that they were flying a huge Mega Maga flag and holding signs that had derogatory statements about immigrants and other minority groups, specifically Muslims. This group obviously had not been invited by the United for Plymouth group. Of course, this group had every right to be there, but the way they were doing it was rude and obnoxious. The leader with the microphone also had a bullhorn with a police siren that screamed over and over. And the whole group was shouting nasty remarks. I thought it best to just ignore them, and I went to the hear Senator Ed Markey give the opening speech. The angry mob of anti-protesters also decided to give up their prime real estate on the street corner and move closer to the speakers. And at least while Markey spoke, they turned off the siren. After Senator Markey spoke, some of the organizers of rally were going around asking people who were willing to move to the street corner to reclaim that position. I decided to do that, as I was not about to let them take back the street corner prime position if it could be peacefully done. Standing quietly can do no harm, so I placed myself right up front. The megaphone siren was still going as the speeches continued, but from where I was standing, things seemed to be settling down. Then, when the speeches had ended, at about 3:15, the young man with the microphone and screaming siren bullhorn started heading back to the street corner. So, I dug in for whatever might come. They were walking right towards me as I was in the entrance to the street crosswalk. When they got to where I was standing the policeman nearby motioned for me to step aside so the anti-protesters could walk though. Good, I thought, they are leaving. As they walked past me, I saw a young woman from Falmouth who is a social media influencer and was one of the speakers at the event, marching right behind them yelling and screaming into her bullhorn things like, “Get the f#%* out of Massachusetts.” And “You are nothing but a piece of sh*#.” And worse. There were also at least two other young women I didn’t recognize who were also following them and yelling. They all crossed the highway and kept walking down a side street. A few minutes later, I left using the same path as the anti-protesters, as my car was parked down the same side street. It was then I noticed that a police car had blocked that street and were talking with the entire group. I left not knowing what was happening, figuring I would find out in online news tomorrow. But the whole event was unsettling as it made me wonder if this is what we are going to up against at future rallies even here on Cape Cod. So far, we have been lucky, but we have to organize and be ready should it happen. And I strongly believe “being ready” is not screaming ugly things at people through a megaphone. We have to be smarter than that no matter how ugly or violent the opposition might get. We do have to be strong, but we do not have to act like them.

There was a lot of traffic getting back across the bridge to the Cape, so when I got home I only had time to change, grab my food contribution, and get to dinner with my dining-in group. We have been gathering once a month for nine years now, and as always, we had a lovely evening together. And the food was fantastic. We had shrimp cocktail for an appetizer, swordfish kebabs and corn salad for the main dish, and I brought tropical fruit salad with sorbetto for dessert. It was a perfect summer dinner. One member, Midge, is headed to Cape Town, South Africa on Monday. She will tour in and around Cape Town and then go on safari. All but one couple has been to Cape Town and on a safari in South Africa, so we added our suggestions to Midge’s itinerary. When she said she was staying at the Victoria & Albert Hotel in the V & A Marina area, I also added that I have a good friend, Bruce Tedder, whom I met in Madagascar and who has an office a few steps away from the hotel. I suggested she look him up as he runs, or at least he did 15 years ago, the big touring catamaran in the harbor.

When I got home, I realized that it has been 10 years, an entire decade, since I last talked to Bruce and his wife Nadine. I first met their 7 year-old daughter, Tristen, when I was snorkeling near Windbird in the anchorage off Nosy Sakatia in Madagascar. I then met her parents and we became instant friends. When Mark died in 2016, however, I simply stopped communicating with them and all of the wonderful friends we made while sailing around the world. I think it was just too painful for me. But tonight, I am going to try and reconnect with them. And over the coming weeks, I am going to reach out to other sailing friends, and re-establish communication.

Here’s a log entry from the afternoon in Madagascar when Bruce and his daughter Tristen visited Windbird. It sums up why I loved Madagascar so very much.

Day 325, Year 5: Why I Have Loved Madagascar
Date: Thursday, September 16, 2010
Weather: Lots of Wind from Every Direction
Location: Nosy Sakatia, NW Madagascar

Why I Have Loved Madagascar by Tristen Tedder, Age 7

Beautiful scenery, fantastic warm water and weather, turquoise water, white sandy beaches, fabulous snorkeling, shell collector’s dream, amazing wildlife and plants, friendly people, great seafood, tasty tropical fruits and vegetables, stunning sunsets, amazing star gazing.

Yes. I think Tristen has summed up the Madagascar experience beautifully so I asked her permission to include her summary in this log. Tristen and her dad Bruce came over this morning to give us a South African briefing. Nadine stayed behind on Pioneer to do more of the packing. They left South Africa in May on the catamaran Pioneer which they were slowly delivering to here. On Saturday morning at the crack of dawn, Bruce, Nadine, and Tristen will fly back to Cape Town after almost four amazing months of travel. This morning Tristen presented her school project to us. She will present this to her second grade classmates back in Cape Town as a summary of her four months of travel. The report was beautifully done and expressed her love for what she has seen in this amazing country. After the little presentation, Tristen and I took my South Africa Lonely Planet and went up to the cockpit while Mark and Bruce sat at the table with the Richards Bay to Cape Town chart. Bruce shared what he knows about the various harbors with Mark and Tristen shared with me the highlights of what we must see near Cape Town. I was absolutely amazed to see her use the Lonely Planet just as I do. When she was looking for the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, she simply flipped to the index in the back and found it in alphabetical order. This is a second grader who uses the Lonely Planet as well as any adult. I was simply amazed and felt a great deal of pride for a little girl that has become a special friend. I think we have just adopted Tristen as a granddaughter to complement our three beautiful grandsons. And I can’t wait to see all the sights she told me about near Cape Town.

Sept 16, 2010–Tristen Presents Her Madagascar School Project

2026 Life Logs, Day 205: Broken Promise
Date: Friday, July 24, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 81, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I had another one of those nights where I woke up at 4 am thinking of the all the things I need to do for my sister and trying to figure out how I am going to come up with a plan for dealing with her diabetes. I had promised myself I was going to spend the day at the beach, but when Ollie texted and said he couldn’t go to the beach because he had to mow lawns, I switched gears and spent the rest of the morning on the phone or on email with Patsy issues, and then I went to visit her and talk with the Director of Wellness. I really do feel like I have lost control of my life because of all my sister’s issues that arise constantly. I have to figure this out, but in the meantime, I just have to keep on doing.

2026 Life Logs, Day 204: What a Mess
Date: Thursday, July 23, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 80, Low 61 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

You don’t want me to write a blog tonight because it would be a total tirade on everything in the world. I am a mess, our country is a mess, the world is becoming a mess with us, my sister’s healthcare situation is a mess. So, there you have it. But I can’t help myself.

I tried to do something normal this afternoon. I picked Ollie up to take him to Corner Cycle to buy a new tire for his bicycle. Just as we turned into the parking lot, my sister’s primary care called. I had been waiting for this call since last evening. So, with Ollie having to sit and listen, I was asked to brainstorm with the primary care what medications my sister should be given for her diabetes. I know nothing about diabetes and less about the medications to treat it. But the goal is get her off insulin injections, so I guess I had better learn about these things quickly. When she said she was going to put her on Metformin, I did have to say no way. She was taken off that four years ago because it made her lose weight. So much so that she got down to 77 pounds. The primary care listened, she came up with another possibility, and wee agreed on a plan to make the change. She was going to make the change immediately, but I had to insist that we wait until Monday to make sure the new meds have been delivered. Been there, done that in May when her meds were changed on a Friday and the insulin prescribed didn’t arrive for three days. Like I said in the beginning, it is better that I stop writing. It is just too crazy and too depressing and scary.

2026 Life Logs, Day 203: Small World
Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Weather: Mostly Overcast, Morning Rain; High Temp 74, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Mark and I met Dick and Claire Wiklund in 2003 when we started living aboard Windbird in Boston. They lived aboard a beautiful trawler during the week and returned to their home in North Falmouth on Friday afternoons. Dick was the head of OR at Mass General and needed to be at work in the wee hours of the morning, thus commuting from the Cape was just not an option. And it was Dick, after reading my log in December of 2011 when I announced that Mark had been diagnosed with colon cancer, who contacted me immediately and got me in touch with his best friend who was head of surgery at Mass General. During the years when Mark was battling cancer, we lost contact with Dick and Claire, but I still think of them often. This afternoon I attended a Family Forum at Bridges, and a woman came up to me that I didn’t recognize at first. It was Claire. Dick has been at Bridges for two years. It really is a small world.

I spent my morning getting my sister’s health insurance transferred to Massachusetts and I started working on a spreadsheet outlining her monthly finances in her new ‘home’. Then after the Family Forum at Bridges and a visit with Patsy, I met up with Jane Woodin, and we went to an event at Woodwell Climate Research Center. It was good to spend some time focusing on something other than my sister’s issues.

2026 Life Logs, Day 202: Ups and Downs
Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Weather: Sun, then Overcast, Windy/Thunderstorms; High Temp 78, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

My morning started at Bridges with my sister. We had a nice, but short visit before the physical therapist came to do an evaluation. Halleluiah! I have been trying to get this done since Patsy’s first week at Bridges, but insurance issues complicated the matter. The young woman who came was wonderful with Patsy and prescribed a plan to try and get her walking again. She says Patsy has the strength, just not the will. But at least we now have a plan. The problem of keeping her falling out of bed is trickier. In order to have a bed rail, you have to go through a lot of red tape and are not normally successful. Memory care facilities cannot restrain residents and installing a bed rail does just that. If I understand correctly, you have to get permission from some state office. So, alternatives were offered. One is to get a hospital bed with a specific type of mattress. I think that costs a couple of thousand dollars and I have already spent $1800 on her current bed, mattress, waterproof mattress covers, sheets, blanket, etc. The hospital bed will be a different size, so I will have to buy all of the stuff again. I will begin to figure this out tomorrow and see where the search takes me. So, the upside is that Patsy is fully capable of walking again, but the downside is just how to make that happen. And in the meantime, we have to find a way to keep her from falling out of bed and fracturing something.

After leaving Bridges, I went home to change into beach wear and then did something for myself. I went to the beach. By the time I got there, it was overcast and windy, but I didn’t care. I was sitting on the beach for the first time this summer and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Then it was back home to change and then go back to Bridges for a Family Support Group meeting. I am not sure I will go to another one of those. There were eight of us, all women, and only one other person caring for someone other than a spouse. It was heartbreaking to hear their stories. Some are caring for husbands at home, and four others have husbands at Bridges. The hour and a half with these women convinced me to go home and celebrate Mark’s life. He fought cancer for 5 years, but the stories these women were telling made the cancer battle sound like a walk in the park. Dementia is a demon.

The first thunderstorm happened before I left Bridges and they have continued throughout the evening. Right now it is pouring rain, accompanied by a chorus of thunder. We need the rain, but not buckets of it all at once.

2026 Life Logs, Day 201: Chocolate Brooklyn Babka
Date: Monday, July 20, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 80, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

A little Chocolate Brooklyn Babka goes a long way. Let me explain. I got up too early, unable to sleep because I was worried about my sister. I worked all morning talking to various health care entities, PT, primary care, memory care family support, and by noon I was exhausted. So, I actually went outside with Shadow and sat in sun. Of course, I fell asleep until I hear Shadow bark and another ‘dog’ bark back. As I awakened, this continued until I finally realized the other ‘dog’ was my neighbor Andy. We had a nice conversation, and I then went inside to have lunch. I was on the phone with memory care family support again, when I heard knocks on the front door and then someone walked in. I do have a ‘walk right on in policy’, so that didn’t seem weird. It was a book club friend delivering a goodie package. She put the package down and we waved as I continued talking on the phone. But when I got off the phone and read the note on the package, I learned that Dena had brought me a Chocolate Brooklyn Babka from Trader Joe’s. I had no idea what that was, but it ended up to be the most delicious thing I have had to eat for weeks. It was just what I needed to jolt me out of the doldrums I have been experiencing. Thank you, Dena.

This evening Indivisible Falmouth, Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition, and Latinx in Action hosted a vigil for all of the victims of ICE violence. I was proud to be MC for the program with speakers from the faith community, local government, the immigrant community, and the Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition. It was just the right number of people and just the right speakers who said just the right things. So grateful to be a part of this wonderful community.