2023 Life Logs, Day 42: Lost in Thought
Date: Saturday, February 11, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny. Chilly; High 45, Low 28 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 6:43 am – 5:12 pm (+2 minutes)
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, NH

This was one of those days that came and went and I am not sure what I did to fill the hours. The Waquoit Congregational Church folks were coming to clear the remaining things from Shirley’s house this morning. Yesterday, after seeing the house I might move into, I called Karen to tell her I had changed my mind about not wanting Shirley’s dining room table. She told me that since I had said I didn’t want it, she had told the church folks they could have it. But she struck a deal with them. I got Shirley’s dining table, and the church got my table and chairs. By the time all of the moving around was done, it was 11 am. I talked to Heather somewhere in between all of that, and after everyone left, I took Shadow for a long walk. After lunch, I spent a good deal of time just thinking and planning, talked with Heather again, and then thought away the afternoon. There are definitely worse ways to spend your time!

2023 Life Logs, Day 41: House Hunting
Date: Friday, February 10, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny and Warm; High 56, Low 33 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 6:44 am – 5:11 pm (+3 minutes)
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, NH

Today was unseasonably warm . . . no winter coat needed. This morning I followed up on a lead on a possible house to rent and it is looking very promising. Great place, just expensive. But renting most anything in Falmouth is expensive. I still need to follow up to make sure there is no possibility of me buying this cottage and I need to talk to Heather and Jed about the possibility of moving into the red room at some point. But for now, it makes all the sense in the world for me to rent this perfect little house . . . on a lovely lot with lots of gardening possibilities . . . right in town . . . from a good friend. The friend is moving to a condo in town, but is keeping the house and attached in-law apartment. Her plan is to rent the house and keep the in-law apartment as her office. After a year or so, if I find that I just can’t afford the house, maybe I can move into the apartment when she no longer needs it as an office. So, lots of possibilities. If I take this place, the move wouldn’t happen until July as that when she can move into her condo. Hopefully I won’t need to be out of the cottage before then, giving me plenty of time to prepare for the move. But if I do have to vacate here before then, I’ll just have to put everything in a storage unit and live with friends until the move can happen. But at least I now have a viable possibility. I no longer feel homeless and helpless.

After touring the house this morning, I rushed home to take Shadow out and then headed on to a Newcomer’s Nominating Committee meeting. We interviewed three people this afternoon and are chipping away at filling the openings for next year’s Board. I then watered plants for friends that are out of town, ran some errands downtown, and made it home to walk with Shadow and play fetch before sundown. Everyday now we gain minutes of daylight and I’m loving that.

2023 Life Logs, Day 40: Busy Day
Date: Thursday, February 9, 2023
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Windy; High 51, Low 46 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 6:45 am – 5:09 pm (+3 minutes)
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, NH

Attending a Newcomer’s meeting, a trip to Hyannis for food shopping, taking Jonah to his bass lesson in Sandwich, phone conversations with friends. That was my day. The Newcomer’s meeting speaker was a young woman from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. Her enthusiasm for white sharks was contagious, but I fear I am still not convinced that I should love these creatures. She did a great job of educating about the importance of protecting the white sharks and I applaud her mission. I just need a little more time to warm up to the idea of feeling at ease in sharing time in the water knowing these guys are out and about. After my food shopping trip and taking Jonah to his music lesson, I ended by day by talking to friends Jane Woodin and Lynne Kirwin about my housing situation and life in general. It is such a wonderful feeling to know I have friends who have my back. I love Lynne’s take on housing. She gets paid by people for staying in their beautiful homes to take care of their dogs while they are away. She doesn’t have to own or rent a home of her own in New Zealand. Brilliant!

2023 Life Logs, Day 39: Oh, What a Beautiful Morning
Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny and Warmer; High 47, Low 30 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 6:47 am – 5:08 pm (+2 minutes)
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, NH

It was a Rogers and Hammerstein’s “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” kind of day. The sun was shining, there was almost no wind, it felt warm and wonderful . . . a great day to pretend you were Gordon MacRae riding your horse across an Oklahoma meadow on a beautiful summer day. Unfortunately, tree trimmers were here early to trim the limbs that hang over the cottage, so I needed to stay inside with Shadow. Limbs were falling everywhere. It wasn’t an environment for a dog or a person and I didn’t want to leave in case there was an issue. So, Shadow and I curled up with my book and tried to ignore the crashing sounds outside.

I am currently reading a book Jonah gave me for Christmas, “Horse” by Geraldine Brooks. The book is based on a real-life racehorse named Lexington, one of the most famous thoroughbred racehorses in American history. The author, Geraldine Brooks, is a Pulitzer Prize winner and she uses the story of Lexington to explore the “roots and legacy of enslavement” in this country in the years leading up to and including the Civil War. Brooks artfully weaves a story that includes Lexington’s life in the 1800’s with an art dealer in New York City in the 1950’s to the lives of two young people in Washington, DC in 2019. Jess, a young scientist working for the Smithsonian even travels to Woods Hole. It is a heartwarming story that I am really enjoying. And it is providing a great escape from facing the reality of my life situation.

I did force myself to do some work today. I started doing a purge and organization of my huge food storage cabinet. It is a huge IKEA wardrobe with shelves and desperately needs attention. At least I got a start on that. And later in the afternoon, I took Ollie to his saxophone lesson. His instructor walked him out to the car at the end of the lesson to once again say what a great job he is doing. Go, Ollie.

2023 Life Logs, Day 38: Hard Day
Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny and Chilly; High 35, Low 32 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 6:48 am – 5:07 pm (+5 minutes)
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, NH

This was a hard day for me. I woke up feeling homeless and helpless. Not a good way to start your day. But I fought back and started making lists of what I need to do to find a place to live. The cost of buying a home on the Cape, as well as the cost of rent, has tripled since the onset of Covid, making it difficult to live on Cape Cod on a limited income. I tried to think logically through my choices. I certainly can’t afford to buy this cottage at the current inflated price of somewhere between $500,000 to $700,00. I will have to rent or possibly move in with Heather and family. The only other option is to leave New England to an area where housing is not so expensive, and that is just not something I want to do. I will meet with Heather and Jed this weekend to explore the possibility of moving in with them. The space would be much smaller, so all of those storage boxes in the basement need to go. That led me to turn my attention to figuring out what I really need and how to get rid of all of the other stuff. I started with books and tomorrow I will head down to the basement to start to tackle that. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

2023 Life Logs, Day 37: Moving On
Date: Monday, February 6, 2023
Weather: Windy; High 46, Low 28 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 6:50 am – 5:04 pm (+0 minutes)
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, NH

With great sadness, I must announce that the cottage is going to be put up for sale, probably in the next couple of months. I just found out today, so I must move on. I know all good things must eventually come to an end, but I have really loved living here. I will leave with sadness, but I am so grateful to Shirley for the five years I have had here. Yes, it will be five years the end of April when I moved in. Living near the water and being able to use Shirley’s dock as if it were my own has been a delight. I have especially appreciated the bird life. I have been gifted two of Shirley’s hooked rug wall hangings, one of land birds that call this little place home, and one of the water birds that are so abundant down by the dock. Those will go with me, wherever it is that I land.

Other than adjusting to the idea of moving, the only other thing I did of consequence today was to go to the laundromat. I had two comforters, sheets, and towels, plus clothes, so the big machines at the laundromat were a necessity. Hopefully I can do something more creative tomorrow.

2023 Life Logs, Day 36: Full Snow Moon
Date: Sunday, February 5, 2023
Weather: Warmer Weather; High 45, Low 37 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 6:50 am – 5:04 pm (+2 minutes)
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, NH

The snow moon was officially full this afternoon when we couldn’t see it, but the sky was clear tonight and it was a beautiful presence. But is this is the snow moon, I just want to know . . . where is the snow? I took Jonah to his futsal game, not in Newton where it was supposed to be because the school hosting the semi-finals had a broken water main. Seems to be a broken record. The game time and venue was changed and it was back at Four Kicks, just across from the Gillette Stadium. Jonah’s ACI team lost, so they will not proceed to the finals. So, futsal season is over for Jonah. Now on to winter training for the upcoming spring season.

I spent my morning finishing another jigsaw puzzle. I started working jigsaw puzzles because studies have shown that they can reduce the risk of developing dementia. But jigsaw puzzles have become more important to me for their mental health benefits. After spending this morning completing another puzzle, I felt guilty for spending so much time ‘doing nothing’, while at the same time I felt completely renewed. For me, working a jigsaw simply clears my mind from everything else in the world. It is like hitting ‘reset’. So, I will continue ‘doing nothing’ and loving it.

To redeem my lazy self, I went to Heather and Jed’s in the afternoon to help with some basement clean up. They are having a new heat pump system installed and the installers have made a mess in the basement in the Lego play area, in the music practice area, in the storage bin area, and on and on. Heather and Jed kept asking if they should cover things and were told repeatedly, that no, that wouldn’t be necessary. Well, it was, but Heather had gotten most of it cleaned up before I arrived. I helped a little and then we launched into a purge festival—getting rid of things the kids no longer need. Then I headed home to play fetch with Shadow before returning to take Jonah to futsal. Another good day in the life.

2023 Life Logs, Day 35: Sam’s 16th Birthday Party at RI Karting
Date: Saturday, February 4, 2023
Weather: Epic Cold; High 20, Low 17 degrees F (feels 8 degrees F with wind chill)
Sunrise and Sunset: 6:51 am – 5:03 pm (+2 minutes)
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, NH

It was truly COLD this morning. Around 11 am, I took Shadow for a short walk. I wore good winter gloves, not the little stretchy things I normally wear, but still my fingers were so cold I lost all feeling in them. Plus, my face hurt from the cold. Shadow was walking as fast as I allowed, so I think he was freezing as well. But it is warmer tonight than it was this morning, so all is well.

My oldest grandson, Sam, was supposed to have his 16th birthday party on January 21, his birth date. Unfortunately, his good friend Robert tested positive for Covid that morning, so Sam wanted to cancel and go when Robert could go with. The outing was rescheduled for today at Supercharged Entertainment in Wrentham with friends Robert, Sebastian, and Ethan. But when we got there, people were leaving. Supercharged’s water main had burst so they had to close for the day. What to do? Heather got on her phone to search out other possibilities. A similar place in Rhode Island looked the best and after a few tense minutes, she was able to make the reservations and off we went. Luckily, it was only 15 miles from Wrentham. It had the indoor go kart track we were looking for, plus it had something called Time Mission. I called it ‘escape room’ as you try to solve the puzzle presented in each room. They advertise it as the biggest time machine gaming experience in the world. The ‘time machine’ has 25 portals (rooms) where you “put your intelligence, physical condition, and hand-eye coordination to the test.” Basically, you form teams to solve the challenge in each portal and try to amass as many points as possible. If you beat all the other teams playing at the same time, you become a Master of Time. The rooms are small, so you wouldn’t want more than five people on your team. Some of the challenges are mental and some are physical. All were fun. I was on a team with Heather, Jed, Jonah, and Ollie that we called the Goldpebbles and came in fifth. Sam and his three friends, Robert, Sebastian, and Ethan called their team Mike’s Cereal Shack, and they came in first—the Masters of Time. Only the boys got on the racetrack while Heather, Jed, and I watched. Ollie and Jonah joined in on the first race which was for ages 6+, the warm-up. Then Sam and his friends did two more races in the 16+ category (a little faster) while Jonah and Ollie went to the arcade. It was a fun filled afternoon followed by dinner back at Heather and Jed’s and then an overnight. Once again, Happy Birthday to Sam!

2023 Life Logs, Day 34: Really COLD
Date: Friday, February 3, 2023
Weather: Sunny, Windy, and Cold; High 35, Low -3 degrees F (feels ~20 degrees colder with wind chill)
Sunrise and Sunset: 6:52 am – 5:02 pm (+3 minutes)
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, NH

Watching the weather on my phone tonight is a little scary. Every time I look, it is 2 degrees colder and is presently at 6 degrees F with gale force winds, so it feels like -16 F currently. This morning at 7:30 am when I took Shadow outside for the first outing of the day, it was windy, but didn’t really feel too cold. But as the day progressed, that changed quickly. Tonight, when I have gone outside with Shadow, I can really feel the cold and don’t want to be outside for too long. I’m still recovering from playing fetch for 15 minutes around 5 pm. I still have that burning feeling you get when you stay out in the cold too long. But if we can make it through tonight and tomorrow night, things should warm up considerably.

I spent most of my day today driving to Boston to pick up my Olga Mitchell from the New England Baptist hospital where she had a shoulder replacement on Wednesday. She is 89, which is always a worry with surgery, but she seemed to be doing great. Tomorrow we head back up north to Wrentham to spend the afternoon at the Supercharged Entertainment for Sam’s belated birthday party. It has a multi-level go-kart track and “Insane Fun Guaranteed” is the advertisement.

After I took Olga home late this afternoon, I made it to the last few minutes of a Nominating Committee meeting and then came home to play with Shadow. I ate an early dinner since I had totally forgotten to eat lunch and then I headed to Heather and Jed’s to take Sam to winter soccer practice. He has a cold and did not go to school today and decided not to go to practice tonight, so I headed home. Heather had taken Jonah to get his hair cut before taking him to indoor soccer practice, so was not at home. Jonah’s hair was growing out and getting a little on the ‘wild’ side. Heather sent photos and I love the new look.

2023 Life Logs, Day 33: Ground Hog Day
Date: Thursday, February 2, 2023
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 37, Low 22 degrees F
Sunrise and Sunset: 6:53 am – 5:00 pm (+2 minutes)
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, NH

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today which ‘might’ mean we will have six more weeks of winter. The problem is that we really haven’t had ‘winter’ yet. Not complainin’, just sayin’. But winter is coming tomorrow for a couple of days. The temp tomorrow night will be below zero. Add the wind chill factor to that and it equals COLD. But by Sunday, we will once again have days in the 40’s and night’s in the 30’s.

I had a delightful day getting almost nothing done and I enjoyed every minute of it. I did not get in my car today. Shadow and I just enjoyed a day at home walking, playing, and doing nothing. I thought I was going to have another day of nothingness tomorrow after a 9 am meeting, but it looks like I will be driving to Boston to pick my friend Olga up after shoulder surgery. She was supposed to come home today, but she is not recovering as fast as the doctor would like, so he had her stay another day. The friend who was going to pick her up today cannot do it tomorrow, so she took me up on my offer. It is possible the doctor will keep her another day, but unlikely. So I am on standby and will hopefully get her home tomorrow.