2023 Life Logs, Day 132: More Boat Work, Computer Set-up, an Encore Meeting
Date: Friday, May 12, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny, Warm; High 76, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I’m starting feel like a broken record. My days are filled with boat work, computer set-up, and meetings associated with Encore. I intended to spend 2 hours sanding the teak this morning, but that got reduced to an hour and a half. I had to stop at 10:30 am to get to an Encore organizational meeting. That lasted until 12:30 and I had to then hurry home to meet with Art Gilbert for an hour or two to get my computer into working order. It should have been simple, but it was not. At 5:30 we were still at it. At that point, I made a decision about how I wanted to transfer files. It wasn’t the perfect decision, but it was one I could live with. We set it up and left the computers doing their thing. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Art Gilbert. He refused to let me compensate him. What a wonderful gift he shares with friends helping them with their computer issues. I am deeply grateful.
I left immediately, made a stop at the hardware store just minutes before they closed, and then went to the boat and sanded until 7:30. I treated myself to sushi for dinner and am now shutting down and heading to bed. It is going to be a full weekend of more boat work so I am going to need all the energy I can muster.

2023 Life Logs, Day 131: Boat Work
Date: Thursday, May 11, 2023
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Sprinkles Late PM; High 69, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I am writing this log on my new computer, but I set aside computer work to do boat work today. Since there was a showing of the cottage this afternoon, I took Shadow with me. He stayed in the car while I sanded, sanded, and sanded some more. And there is still more to do. But tomorrow I will divide my time between boat, computer, and Encore work. Hopefully by Saturday, the teak on the boat will be ready to be cleaned with a teak cleaner.

I left the boat at 3:15 this afternoon to head to Lawrence School to pick up Jonah after a field trip day on Cuttyhunk Island. I dropped him at home while I went to Staples to buy a mouse and the adapter I need to connect it to my computer. I got the mouse, but no adapter. I took Jonah to his bass lesson and when I returned Jed was home. Thankfully he was able to find one that belongs to Sam that I can use until I can get one from Amazon and he was able to use a handsaw to cut a sanding block to the width I need to do some final sanding tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be boat work early, Encore interviews mid-day, meeting with computer ‘helper’ at 1 pm, back to boat at 3 pm . Hopefully after my meeting with Art Gilbert, the Newcomers techy guru, I will have a handle on using and transferring data to my new computer. And hopefully the boat sanding will be completed. I think that is a stretch, but it is my hope. Wish me luck.

2023 Life Logs, Day 130: Working on Getting Connected
Date: Wednesday, May10, 2023
Weather: Sunny; High 63, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The saga continues. I had a very busy day and did not get to start working on my new computer until tonight. Oh my, the things one takes for granted until you don’t. The new computer has a touch pad and a touch screen. But it does not have two ‘old fashioned’ USB ports. So, I can’t have my current hard drives connected to download files and use my ‘old fashioned’ mouse at the same time. I will go to Staples first thing in the morning to see if there is a mouse that can plug into the newer USB C ports. Or maybe I can get a USB C hub that has two or three regular USB connectors I can plug into. I literally don’t know how to cut and paste using the touch pad. Once I can use a mouse with a hard drive connected to the new computer, I can start copying My Documents from the old computer onto a hard drive and then saving the files and folders on the new computer. But I need my mouse to do this. I have the techy ‘king’ of Newcomers coming on Friday afternoon to help me transfer files, get apps on the new computer, etc, etc. But until then I will limp along.

This morning I attended my first Encore Board meeting. Those of us who will be the new officers for 2023-24 were invited to observe. That took longer than I expected as, along with the other co-president elect, Christina Brodie, we started our “Getting to Know You” interviews with other Board members. I left downtown around noon, dropped a huge load of bedding at the laundromat, headed home to grab a bite to eat and let Shadow out, went back to the laundromat to put the bedding in the dryer, and got back to Sullivan Tire for a 1 pm appointment to change the oil, rotate the tires, and install a new driver’s side brake light. Whew! Then it was back to the laundromat to pick up the laundry, go back home to walk with Shadow, and then come back to town to pick Ollie up and take him to his saxophone lesson. By the way, the reason I had to wash all the bedding is that Shadow threw up on the bed. Since I got home from North Carolina, his stomach has just not been settled. I do think it is better today. I sure hope so as these trips to the laundromat are killing me.

This day would have been so much easier if I were already living at the new house in town. I look forward to that. By the time I did finally get home, I needed time to just do nothing, so I watched the latest episode of Ted Lasso before attacking the computer issues. Tomorrow, I work on the boat all day, so the computer work just has to wait until Friday. But it is coming along.

2023 Life Logs, Day 129: New Computer
Date: Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Weather: Sunny, Windy; High 74, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It was a Book Club, work on the boat, and take Sam to Harwich to rowing kind of day. But instead of sitting and reading for the two hours Sam rowed, I drove back to Hyannis to go to Best Buy to look at computers. Sam made a list of what I wanted—16 GB of RAM, 12 generation or newer i5, 15 inch touch screen, HDMI port if possible, etc for under $1,000. I showed the list to a salesperson at Best Buy and he led me to a Lenova that was on clearance. They had only one and Sam and I came home with it. Heather spent the next hour and a half getting it going and I headed home. I had Word, but I couldn’t find Outlook, the way I get my email. I knew Heather put it on the computer, but I was just too tired. So this is being posted a day late. Things are coming along.

2023 Life Logs, Day 128: Disconnected
Date: Monday, May 8, 2023
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High 72, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I am writing this log, but I will not be able to send it as my computer is currently disconnected from the internet. I don’t know if it is a computer problem or an internet provider. I just spent an hour and a half on the phone with a technician who ended up saying he couldn’t figure it out and that he would send a technician tomorrow morning. A new cable box that was installed by the internet provider two weeks ago seems to be malfunctioning. But I have been having issues with my computer since the trip to Vermont in February, so I think I have two problems. Much to figure out, so stay tuned for the results when I am once again connected.

I spent most of my day at the boat sanding. Making progress, but much left to do. And I had the evening off as I didn’t have to drive Sam to rowing practice this afternoon. He decided this morning that he is not going to rowing practice on Mondays any longer. It made for an insanely long day for him as we had to leave at 3 pm to get to Harwich for 4 pm rowing, row for two hours, eat a quick dinner that I got for him while we drove a couple of miles to the soccer field where he then had soccer practice for an hour and a half and then home after 9 pm. For the rest of the spring, he will row on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning, and go to soccer practice M-W-F. I agree with his decision. Mondays were just crazy. He loves soccer and rowing, but two sports in the spring season, both with practices 50 minutes from home is just too much.

Good news from Puerto Rico. Ziggy was accepted today into the high school of his choice for next year. Congratulations, Ziggy!!!

2023 Life Logs, Day 127: Soccer Sunday
Date: Sunday, May 7, 2023
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High 69, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was soccer Sunday. I got up and got the cottage ready for another Sunday Open House. I had hoped to work on the boat for a couple of hours before leaving for Whitensville, MA for Sam’s soccer game, but that was an optimistic hope. Whitensville is an hour and a half north of here, so it was an all-afternoon affair. I left home at 10:45 am and returned after 5 pm. It was a long afternoon, but the weather was beautiful. It was a good soccer game as the teams were well-matched. The game ended in a 0-0 tie. Sam plays defense and he played a really good game.

I left Shadow at the Goldstones this afternoon since there was an Open House here. When I dropped Sam off, I picked him up and headed home. I was outside playing with Shadow when I got a text from Heather inviting me to come back for dinner. Since I had no idea what I was going to eat, it was a most welcome invitation.

Heather did get boat work done this afternoon. Jed couldn’t help since he had to take Jonah to his soccer game mid-afternoon, but Heather made more progress on preparing the bottom of the boat to be painted. Unfortunately, there is more sanding and stripping to be done. Hopefully that will be completed next Saturday.

2023 Life Logs, Day 126: Boat, Soccer, and a Coronation
Date: Saturday, May 6, 2023
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High 69, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today I went from boat work to a soccer game to watching the coronation of a King. Quite an interesting array of activities. My boat work today was mostly assisting. I reviewed with Ollie how to use the electric sander to sand the inside and top of the toe rail and then set him loose to do that. I forgot to tell him to make sure there was masking tape applied to the deck next to the toe rail to protect the fiberglass deck from any sanding mishaps. But he remembered and applied the tape on his own. Ollie is only eleven, but he is every bit as good and reliable as many adults. About the time I finished giving Ollie directions, Heather asked me come down from the boat and consult with her and with Jed about how to proceed with the stripping of old bottom paint near the waterline that was not removed by the soda blasting process. We came up with a plan that required Jed to go home to get some things we needed. While he was gone, Heather and Sam applied masking tape just above the waterline to protect the fiberglass hull once Jed returned and started sanding. We abandoned the idea of using stripper. It take too long and the sanding worked just fine. As in all jobs, the prep often takes longer than the actual work. Taping is tedious and required moving two ladders, one for the taper (Heather) and one for the person holding the tape (Sam). I was the overseer to make sure it was done right.

We were still finishing up the taping job when Jed returned. And it was time for me to take Ollie home to get dressed for an afternoon soccer game and to get him some lunch. Jonah was expected home soon as he had been in an off-Cape soccer game all morning. Friends delivered him home and then he went with Ollie and I to Ollie’s soccer game. We returned home after the soccer game, and I got my clothes out of the dryer. Somehow I was able to get a laundry done in between trips to and fro. Since there was an Open House at the cottage today, I had Shadow with me. He went to the boat with me, but I left him in the upstairs ‘red’ room during Ollie’s soccer game. Unfortunately, when he was a puppy, the boys and I taught him to run after soccer balls. Now, every time he sees a soccer ball, he goes after it. That makes taking him to a soccer game an impossibility. I planned to return to the boat, but it was almost 5 pm and Heather, Jed, and Sam were headed home.

Tomorrow morning, Shadow and I will return to the boat for a couple of hours. Then I take off with Sam and his friend Sebi to a soccer game north of Providence, RI. It is an hour and a half drive, so we have to leave by 11:30 and won’t get back until almost 5 pm. We’ll stop by the boat on the way home to check progress.

Now for the coronation of a King. My daughter-in-law Jo is from England and I saw her Facebook post where she was very vividly explaining why she would not be watching the coronation of King Charles. I fully understand her feelings, but I am just too much of history buff to totally ignore this historic event that took place this morning between 5 and 10 am EST. I taped the event and started watching it tonight. Using fast forward, I watched the first three hours in two hours, and I ended up agreeing with Jo. My main take away is that the British monarchy has way too many jewels, and they need to separate church from state. Watching the very religious ceremony made me even more appreciative of our forefathers in this country who made it clear that church and state should be separated. In the United States, we are currently going through a challenging period where there is a loud contingency pushing to get religion back into the mix, but we must stand firm.

2023 Life Logs, Day 125: A Day Full of Laughter
Date: Friday, May 5, 2023
Weather: Cloudy AM, Partly Sunny PM, Still Cool; High 55, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

If laughter is good for the soul, my soul should be good tonight. The day started off as just a normal day, but the laughter came later. At 8 am I left home to drove north across the bridge. I was headed to West Wareham to pick up the generator I took in almost a month ago to have the carburetor cleaned or replaced. It sat from 2016 until this last winter without anyone trying to start it, so they did have to replace the carburetor. I thought we were going to need it as an auxiliary power for plugging in our power tools for working on the boat as the electricity source wasn’t reliable. But somehow that remedied itself and the generator wasn’t needed. Good thing because it took much longer to get it back than promised. So that is now running again in case we need it for anything.

I barely got home for the next activity. At 10 am, Claudia Needham came over to meet about the Public Policy group we co-chair. We met for two and half hours and came up with some really good ideas for the group. I had planned to clean house this afternoon as there is an open house on both days of this weekend. But just before Claudia left, another friend called to remind me that we were going to local theater production together tonight. She also mentioned that she was going to the public library at 3:30 pm to see “80 for Brady.” This is the movie starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sallie Fields, and Rita Moreno with appearances by Tom Brady and the Gronk. Claudia and I had both wanted to see this but not gotten a chance. So, we decided to go to that. She went home for lunch and then I picked her up and we went together. The movie was hilarious from beginning to end with a few touching parts that almost brought tears. I laughed ‘til I cried and cried ‘til I laughed. So much fun.

I barely had time to get home, fix dinner, and take Shadow for a walk before returning to town to go to see “Something Rotten!” at Highfield Theater. It was a Falmouth Theatre Guild production. I have never been to one of their productions and I was presently surprised. This play was first produced on Broadway in 2015. It takes place during the Renaissance in 1595. It is a musical comedy, and funny it is. The acting, singing, and music were all top-notch. And it kept the audience laughing for almost three hours as ”two brothers set out to write the world’s first musical in this hilarious mash-up of sixteenth-century Shakespeare and twenty-first-century Broadway.”

I drove home by the light of the beautiful full moon set in a sky mottled with white clouds—very dramatic ending to a great day.

2023 Life Logs, Day 124: Gardening on a Cold Day
Date: Thursday, May 4, 2023
Weather: Cloudy, N Wind, Cold; High 49, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The winter coat had to come back out of the closet today. It was cloudy, the wind was from the north, and it was cold. Despite the yucky weather, I drove over to the house on Lakeview, the one I will be moving to the first of July. I went to help set up the garden that Lynda, the owner, and I will be sharing. She is moving to a condo in Falmouth Port where she cannot have a garden, so sharing a garden is a win-win for both of us. This is a new garden site where pine trees have just been removed, but the ivy and lily of valley remained. Lynda had removed the ivy over the weekend and today we removed the lily of the valley, raked and leveled the area, and put down a black fabric weed barrier. This took about two and half hours. We were cold and hungry and decided to call it a day. I went home to have lunch and rest before driving Sam to rowing. When I got home I had a text from Heather saying that rowing practice had been cancelled due to the weather, so I took advantage of the extra time to take a much needed nap. Felt so good when I got up.

2023 Life Logs, Day 123: Field Trip to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Date: Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 56, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

In 1903 in the Fenway area of Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner had constructed and opened her own museum that she called Fenway Court. It is a four-story building, unremarkable on the outside, but quite impressive on the inside. In the center of the building is a sky-lit courtyard with a glass roof that is always in bloom. After New York born Isabella Stewart Gardner lost her husband, she threw her life into the construction of this museum to house the art and books that she and her husband had acquired, and that she continued to amass. Venice was the source of many of the pieces and red is the color that dominates.

Today I visited the museum with the Newcomers Field Trip group. We arrived and had lunch in the New Wing of the building and then had a two-hour guided tour. The courtyard was by far my favorite part of the museum, but I certainly enjoyed learning about this most interesting woman.

I returned from Boston in time to take Ollie to his Wednesday saxophone lesson. Instead of waiting for him, I drove home to take Shadow for a quick walk before returning to take Ollie home. I spent my evening catching up on Ted Lasso episodes. Another day in the life.