2023 Life Logs, Day 294: Voyage of Windbird Presentation Revised
Date: Friday, October 20, 2023
Weather: Overcast; High 63, Low 58 degrees F; Sunset 5:56 pm
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Today was overcast and a good day to just stay inside on work on revising my Voyage of Windbird presentation. I have been invited to give it for the third time in six years to Falmouth Newcomers, so I figure it is time to ‘brighten’ it up a bit. I can use some of the old photos, but I am going through hundreds of photos to find ones to illustrate what I want to present this time. I will need a few more rainy or overcast days.

At 3pm I went over to spend a couple of hours with Ollie. He was home sick with a cold again today. I know it is taking a chance going over to be with him, but I hated to think of him sitting at home all alone. Jed had to go to work and Heather is in Rhode Island. So, I took my computer and Ollie was interested in helping me edit some of the photos I have chosen for my presentation. He then said he would like to go to South Africa to Cape Town. So, I showed him my Cape Town photos. That led to my photos from our safari through Kruger National Park and then he wanted to see my presentation from beginning to end. It was a good review for me, and I loved sharing the information with him.

2023 Life Logs, Day 293: Quiet Day at Home
Date: Thursday, October 19, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 62, Low 55 degrees F; Sunset 5:57 pm
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

The days are noticeably shorter as fall progresses. I have been taking Shadow out to play fetch around 6:15 pm most days, but that is too late now. It is dusk by then. I have to readjust my schedule which is depressing. I like long, sunny warm days.. So, just to make myself fully aware of my misery, I am going to note the time of sunset in my logs. Then once winter solstice arrives, very slowly the time of sunset will tick back in the other direction, and I can rejoice each night when I note the time of sunset.

I had a quiet day at home with Shadow today. Our only big outing was to go meet Ollie after school so he could walk Shadow. But there was no Ollie. I drove on to Heather and Jed’s and found Ollie on the sofa watching the second Hobbit movie and looking miserable. He has cold or fall allergies and didn’t go to school today. Sam was out yesterday with the same thing, but he was back in school today.

Heather is in Rhode Island on a business trip until late Saturday and Jed is trying to work and be super dad. I did pitch in a little this evening to go pick up Jonah at the high school after he returned from an away JV soccer game. Jed had two overlapping meetings, so I offered to pick Jonah up at 7:15 pm when the JV soccer team returned home. I then came home and enjoyed a quiet evening, but Jed had to go back to the high school after 9 pm to pick up Sam upon his return from a Varsity away game. So goes the life of a modern-day parent.

2023 Life Logs, Day 292: Encore October General Meeting
Date: Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny, Turning Cloudy with Rain Late Day; High 61, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

The Encore General Meeting this morning featured a speaker talking about AI, something we hear about all the time, but often find it difficult to understand. It was an interesting presentation. But it ran longer than expected and I didn’t get home until noon. I spent my afternoon catching up on paperwork. I literally hadn’t opened my mail for two months, but fortunately, I never get anything very important. Most everything I get online, so it was a lot of junk mail. I then started writing up minutes from the morning meeting. Our Recording Secretary has Covid and her back-up was not present, so the job landed in my lap. But I barely got started before it was time to meet Ollie after school so he could take Shadow for his daily walk, and then take Ollie to saxophone lesson. Dusk comes early these days, so by the time I got home it was 6 pm and too dark to take Shadow out to play fetch. So I promised him I would take him out two times tomorrow. Now it is off to bed.

2023 Life Logs, Day 291: A Little of This, A Little of That
Date: Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Misty Rain; High 58, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Not much to write about tonight. The back nerve pain, which is really pain in my hips and legs, was better yesterday. I overdid it and paid for that today. I had a dental cleaning appointment, worked on my puzzle, did a little Encore work, went shopping, and took Shadow to meet up with Ollie for his afternoon walk. That was my day of a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

2023 Life Logs, Day 290: Work and Play
Date: Monday, October 16, 20231/2
Weather: Mix of Clouds and Sun; High 58, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

My morning was spent working on Encore business, doing laundry, going to the grocery store, and to Hannoush Jewelers. The laundry was bedding—a quilt Lynne used while she was here and the bedding on the inflatable mattress I have had in the living room since August. I deflated it and put it away today. All of this stretched the limits of my back, but it needed to be done. The trip to the jewelers was an emergency visit. Last night I found that I had an open sore under the ring that Mark gave me years ago. We were not really into wedding rings, but one day I walked past a jewelry store and saw a beautiful antique ring. He bought it for me, I have worn it every since. That was 49 years ago. But the open sore required I take the ring off and I just could not get it off no matter what I did. Soap was helpful, but not helpful enough. So today I went to Hannoush Jewelers to see if they could help me. They sprayed Windex on my finger and with a lot of effort I was able to remove it. Now it needs to be increased from a size 5 ½ to a 7 ½ and that is going to cost more than $200. I will pay to have it done, because I feel naked without that ring on my finger. At least they didn’t have to cut it off. I was sure that was going to be the case.

This afternoon I met Ollie after Jazz Band and he walked Shadow. I then returned to spend a lovely “Happy Couple of Hours” with Karen Baranowski. I invited her over as I hardly ever see her. When I lived in the cottage, I saw her often. We had a wonderful couple of hours together. We’ll have to make a habit of this.

2023 Life Logs, Day 289: Another Date with Ollie
Date: Sunday, October 15, 2023
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 60, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Heather, Jed, and Sam headed to Marion this morning to get the boat ready to move to Mattapoisett where it will be hauled out for the winter and to look at a car for Sam. The boat work was successful, but the car was not the right one. I went over to Heather and Jed’s to make sure Jonah and Ollie got lunch and then Ollie came home with me and we watched the first of thee three Hobbit movies. Ollie just finished reading The Hobbit and wanted to see the movies. When I took Ollie home, I was invited in for appetizers which gave us a chance to catch up on life. That was about it for my day.

2023 Life Logs, Day 288: A Date with Ollie
Date: Monday, October 14, 2023
Weather: Sunny AM, Cloudy PM, Then Rain; High 60, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Yesterday I told Ollie that today there was a Jazz Stroll downtown today and he asked me if I could take him. I agreed, so we had a date. The Jazz Stroll is sponsored by Arts Falmouth and I assumed Main Street would be closed and we would stroll down the street listening to different jazz groups. But when I researched it this morning, I found that it was jazz performances in different locations from 3 pm until 11 pm. I picked Ollie up at 3 pm and he decided there were two performances he wanted to attend. Then I told him I found out that various businesses and non-profit organizations had scarecrows on display on Main Street. So we came up with our own ‘stroll’ agenda. We attended a performance at the old train depot featuring a young man play R&B on the guitar. He was fabulous. We then drove to one end of Main Street and Ollie took off with my camera to get photos of each of the scarecrows. We combined strolling and driving and parking in different locations so that I could do some of the walk with Ollie. There was no way I could walk the entirety of Main Street. We took a break and went back to my house so Ollie could walk with Shadow. Then it was back downtown to the Museums on the Green for another performance. It was a fun afternoon!

2023 Life Logs, Day 287: A Little Success
Date: Friday, October 13, 2023
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 67, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

My trip to Hyannis yesterday was not in vain. Magically, this morning I got a call from my neurosurgeon’s office to make an appointment. After three weeks of calls, it was about time. But I have to first meet with the doctor’s assistant on November 2nd. She will probably order an MRI, and then I can get an appointment with the doctor. At least the process has started. It is my hope that by the time I see him, I will no longer have the problem. But something tells me that is not going to happen this time. The thought of surgery scares me to death, but at the same time, I can’t keep living like this. I can barely walk and I can’t do any of the things I love. So realistically, I either need to hope for a miracle or surgery might be in my near future. Scary.

I spent my day working on Encore business and then at 3 pm, I took Shadow over to meet up with Ollie and his friend Simon after school. They walked Shadow around the neighborhood a couple of times which is good for Shadow and good for Simon and Ollie. It is a win-win.

It is Friday the 13th and I am superstitious, but there are only 19 minutes left in this day and I am going to bed. Hopefully, I can make it to midnight with nothing bad happening in my day.

2023 Life Logs, Day 286: Octoberfest with Wine Group
Date: Thursday, October 12, 2023
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 67, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Annual dermatology appointment, chiropractor appointment, drive to Hyannis to try and make an in-person appointment with my neurosurgeon (no luck with that), taking Ollie to tennis lesson, and an Octoberfest gathering with my wine group. That was my day. Diana and David Brassard hosted our Octoberfest and it was fantastic. I made sauerkraut balls to share and they are a keeper. I’ll say more about the effort to get an appointment with my neurosurgeon tomorrow night. If I start in on that tonight, it would be a long rant that no one needs to hear.

2023 Life Logs, Day 285: Encore Board Meeting
Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 65, Low 51 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

It was up early this morning to go to the public library to set up for an Encore Board Meeting and to meet with one of the members beforehand. Our Recording Secretary has Covid, so she was not at the Board meeting today, so our Recording Secretary took notes but doesn’t have a computer. So, I spent the first part of the afternoon typing up the minutes and have more to go tomorrow. I had to stop and shift gears to take Shadow over to Heather and Jed’s so Ollie could take him for a walk after school. My back has taken another turn for the worse, and I literally cannot stand or walk for any extended period of time, so Ollie is walking Shadow for me. I then took Ollie to saxophone lesson and came home and crashed. The nerve pain level in my right hip and leg is excruciating and by the end of the day, I just can’t do anything other than sit. I still have not gotten a call back from my neurosurgeon. I called again late this afternoon. If I don’t hear back tomorrow, I am just going to drive to Hyannis to the office and sit there until they make an appointment for me. In the meantime, I am hoping for a miracle to get rid of this pain.