2022 Life Logs, Day 307: Enjoying a Gorgeous Fall Day
Date: Thursday, November 3, 2022
Weather: Gorgeous and Warm; High 63, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

We are experiencing a run of gorgeous fall days. The temperature is in the low 60’s, but with the bright sunshine and very little wind, today was warm enough that I was outside in a tank top. After lunch, I took Shadow for a walk and when we came back, I decided to spend time just sitting in the sunshine reading. I have a reclining lounge chair that I keep in a secluded, sunny spot, so I reclined and read. But I also took time to look up at the beautiful blue sky above me. The green, red, and brown leaves of an oak tree hung over my right shoulder and a tall tree that has lost all of its leaves towered in front of me. All of this with a Cape Cod blue sky backing was just gorgeous.

Before going back inside, I played fetch down by the water with Shadow. Watching him run back towards me with a yellow tennis ball in his mouth and his floppy black ears flying just makes me smile. And then he stops, puts the ball down, and sits in front of me with that big pink tongue hanging out. He is definitely my crazy little wild man.

Jed and Sam were successful this morning in overseeing the hauling of Eider from Mattapoisett to a friend’s yard in North Falmouth. Eider will spend the winter there. Heather and Ollie had a wonderful day exploring the Cape Cod National Seashore. They got back to the school at 5:30 pm and then headed to Mashpee for Ollie’s final soccer game of the season, played under the lights. Ollie was goalie for the second half and his team gave it their best effort.
They lost the game, but not their high spirits. They just look forward to next season

2022 Life Logs, Day 306: Fabulous Fall Day
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022
Weather: Warm and Sunny; High 64, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

With only 59 days left in 2022, I savor every warm, sunny day we are experiencing here on Cape Cod. To be sure, we have had some rainy, cold fall weather as well, but days like today help you forget about that and just focus on the sunshine. It was windy earlier today and a new blanket of leaves now carpets the ground. Shadow and I played fetch down by the water this afternoon and loved watching him run through the leaves to find the tennis ball. I finished baking the last of a batch of granola I made for Heather and family this morning. And then I made fried green tomatoes. Peter and Karen Baranowski sent me a flyer from Spout Farm in Mashpee saying they have a lot of green tomatoes still on the vine in their greenhouses. I can never resist fried green tomatoes, so not only was it warm like summer today, I ate my favorite summer food.

The busy fall rowing and soccer season is slowing down. Tonight, I drove Jonah to his last practice and on Sunday he has his last game. But the Goldstone household is still abuzz so many things to do in the next two days. Tomorrow Eider comes out of the water at 8 am. Sam is going to take the morning off school to help because Heather is going on a field trip to the Cape Cod National Seashore with Ollie. Sam and Jed have to leave home just after 6 am in the morning to meet their 8 am haul out deadline. Jonah has jazz band at 7:15 am, so I will go take him to that. It is just too early and too far to walk with a bass guitar, and if I take him, Heather can stay home and focus on Ollie. At the end of the day, Ollie has one last soccer game and then has to finish a major school project that is due on Friday morning. Jed, Ollie, Sam, and Jonah leave Friday at 5 pm for a weekend of Scout camping and on Saturday, Heather flies to Egypt for the climate conference. She thought she was almost ready for that until a security meeting at work today for those traveling to Egypt. Computers need to be wiped, as well as phones. Heather is the communications person and has to have full use of her computer and phone. They are doing a work around for the computer. Instead of wiping her phone, which would mean adding everything back when she gets home, Heather made a decision to buy a new one. But when Sam heard her talking about this, he came up with the brilliant suggestion that she rent one. He found a place that rents phones, tv’s, all sorts of electronic devices, even furniture. And it is not that expensive. I guess the moral of that story is that if you have a technology issue, don’t go to the technology person at work. Find a teenager to solve your problem.

I do hope things go as smoothly as possible for the crazy family schedule tomorrow. My hope is that by the end of the day, Eider will be successfully stored on land for the winter, Ollie and Heather will have had a wonderful field trip to the seashore, and that Heather’s preparations for leaving for Egypt are back on track. Next week’s schedule looks so much easier. It is only a four-day school week leading up to Veterans Day on Friday. By the time Heather gets home the following week (and I leave for Puerto Rico), the schedule looks almost humanly possible. And by the time I get back from Puerto Rico, it will be time get ready for the holiday season. That sounds easy and like fun compared to all of this. Then it will be 2023. Time truly flies when you are having a good time!

2022 Life Logs, Day 305: Focus on Health Day
Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 61, Low 49 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The fall I had while gardening in early July has become a four-month battle with my back and knees. But finally, things seem to be mending. My day started in the chiropractor’s office. My back issues are better, so I’m switching from weekly appointments to a visit every two weeks. My day ended in Hyannis with an evening MRI, and in between those two appointments, I made another trip to Hyannis to meet with the physician’s assistant to my knee surgeon for a knee evaluation. And as long as I was in Hyannis, I did a little grocery shopping at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. But back to the health issues . . . the prednisone that my primary care ordered last week has reduced the swelling in the herniated disks in my back so that I no longer have the pain, tingling, and numbness in my legs. That has relaxed the muscles in m lower back and hip area, so my back is staying aligned. And for now, I think I can put off a knee replacement for another year. All good.

2022 Life Logs, Day 304: Happy Halloween
Date: Monday, October 31, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Warm; High 62, Low 56 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Happy Halloween! I headed over to the Goldstones at 5 pm to see the boys getting ready for an evening of fun. Sam was destructing, with power tools, his Power Tool Man jack-o-lantern that he created with other power tools last night before going to spend the evening with good friends.

Jonah and Heather were transforming Jonah into The Joker with found things from around the house, a mom-made vest, and a lot of hair and face paint. Ollie was getting into his gorilla costume. And Jonah’s friend Luke arrived as a fisherman to join them for Trick or Treating. I drove Sam to his party, Jed got into his wizard costume and took Luke, Jonah, and Ollie to East Falmouth to Trick or Treat with in their old neighborhood and to then return to go around their new neighborhood, and Heather stayed at home to give out treats. I saw on Facebook that my other two grandchildren, Ziggy and Coco, were also heading out to go Trick or Treating.

Halloween is fun for kids, but many adults struggle with this holiday. This night is commonly referred to as the “Witches” New Year or the “Day of the Dead”, a time when the spirit world comes back to haunt us. “It was a Celtic belief that the dead would wander the earth, along with good and bad spirits. Thus, scary costumes were worn to scare off he bad spirits. Lights were placed outside to guide the dead to the homes of their families. Food was placed outside for the hungry spirits.” But for many Christians, this is the eve of “All Saints Day” or “All Hollowed Eve”, a time to celebrate those who have passed during the year.

Whatever you believe, I wish you a Happy Halloween and hope you had some fun on this evening.

2022 Life Logs, Day 303: Sails and Pumpkins
Date: Sunday, October 30, 2022
Weather: Another Beautiful Sunny Day; High 65, Low 29 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It is noon on Monday, and I am just now writing yesterday’s log. Yesterday was a beautiful fall day, but such a busy one that I just didn’t have the energy to write last night. The day started with sail cleaning. Eider is coming out of the water this Thursday morning, so Saturday when Heather and gang motored her to Mattapoisett where she will be hauled, they took down the sails and brought them home. They needed to be washed down and dried before storing, so that was the first job on Sunday. Heather and Ollie came over early with the sails and we used Shirley’s huge side yard to spread them out and spray them off. When Jed, Sam, and Jonah arrived, they helped wash down Shirley’s back deck where we would hang two sails, erect a temporary line for drying the head sail, and then move the sails to the drying area.

There was no time for lunch. Lunch was going to be eaten on the road as Jonah needed to be in Brockton for an afternoon soccer game and Heather and Sam had to drive back to Eider in Mattapoisett to do the final prep for getting her ready to haul (booms down, turnbuckles lubricated, etc.). So once the sails were hung, we all headed to Tony Andrew’s to the pumpkin patch. We usually do that earlier in October, but this whole month as been jam-packed with weekend activities. We grabbed a couple of little red wagons and walked down the road to the pumpkins patch. Well, some of us walked and some decided they needed to be pulled in the wagons. Why should pumpkins be the only ones to ride in wagons? Each of us picked our pumpkin of choice, took out annual pumpkin patch pictures, and headed off in our different directions.

Ollie and I took the pumpkins to my house to spray them off and then we had lunch. We had hoped to start the etching process on Ollie’s pumpkin and clean out the inside of Jonah’s pumpkin for him, but by this time it was mid-afternoon and time to start folding the sails and haul them to my basement for a day or so before stuffing them in the storage bags. Ollie was unbelievably helpful and strong. Sails are not light, but by folding them and putting them on tarp, we were able to drag them from Shirley’s front yard down by the water to the back of the cottage and down in the basement.

Now it was time to get dinner ready. So, we packed up and took everything to Heather and Jed’s. Ollie and I arrived first. I set him up to work with his pumpkin on the dining room table. He was not going to make a jack-o-lantern. He wanted to leave the pumpkin whole and etch a World Wild Life Fund animal pattern on the pumpkin. This involved printing the stencils before we left my house, making a choice (an elephant won), taking the stencil to the pumpkin, using a little pumpkin poker to punch little dots all along the borders of the outline, and then etch out the area between the dots. While he did that, I started getting dinner ready.

Heather and Sam came home next. While Heather worked on making a vest for Jonah for his costume, Sam decided to use power tools to make his jack-o-lantern. No one was sure this was going to work, but he was determined to try and was very proud of the final result—Power Tool Man 2022.

Jonah and Jed returned after dark. Jonah had played a soccer game in Brockton and was so happy that his team won the game. He didn’t score, but he got off one really good shot that was stopped by the goalie and he assisted with another. He was happy. Then after the game, he and Jed had to go pick up boat stands in Marshfield and take them to the location where the boat will be stored in North Falmouth. He didn’t get to start on his pumpkin until after dinner, so I did not get to see the results. Since it was so late, Jed was going to help him. Hopefully I will see a penguin pumpkin this evening.

2022 Life Logs, Day 302: Sailboats, Soccer, and Democracy
Date: Saturday, October 29, 2022
Weather: Beautiful Sunny Day; High 59, Low 39 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The weather gods were good to us today. This morning Heather, Jed, Sam, and Ollie motored Eider, their sailboat, from its mooring in Marion to a temporary mooring in Mattapoisett where it will be hauled out of the water for the winter on Thursday. It was sunny, not too much wind, with calm waters, so they could work on taking down all the sails while underway. I met them in Mattapoisett just after noon as they came up to the town dock to empty the holding tank and off load the sail bags. Then Heather and Jed headed out to the mooring to secure the boat and came back to shore in the dinghy to meet us on the dinghy dock. I drove every one back to Marion to pick up their car so that Heather and Sam could head home while Jed, Ollie, and I drove on to Fall River for an afternoon soccer game. Jonah stayed home today to clean house as the Goldstones were hosting a dinner party tonight. Jed, Ollie, and I arrived at the soccer field in Fall River just after 2 pm. It was a beautiful afternoon for a soccer game. Unfortunately, Ollie’s team was overwhelmed by the Fall River team. But Ollie, number 18 in his Falmouth crimson red uniform, played a good game and somehow managed to keep his composure after a big loss.

So that explains the sailboats and soccer part of the title of this log. Now on to democracy. It was almost 5:30 pm when I got home, so I headed outside to play with Shadow. When we came in, I got dinner ready for both of us and sat down in front of the TV to eat. I thought I’d catch up on the news while eating, but what was on was a live campaign speech by Barack Obama for candidates in Wisconsin. As I listened to him, my eyes filled with tears as he so skillfully described an America from another time—the time when you could disagree with someone without it leading to violence, when Democrats and Republications could find some common ground. But no more. The point of his speech was to convince the audience that it is the Democrats who have their backs in terms of the economy and personal rights. He was agreeing that those things are of huge importance to people’s lives, but he was also saying that without a democratic form of government, none of that will make any difference. His plea was for people to use their vote to take a stand. I voted early, yesterday, by mail. However, you vote, make your voice heard.

2022 Life Logs, Day 301: Lawn Work and FHS Band Step-Up Night
Date: Friday, October 28, 2022
Weather: Sunny, Windy, and Cooler; High 54, Low 42 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Autumn leaves are wonderful to look at, but when they fall, the work begins. I spent a good part of my day using the leaf blower to clear the leaves from my driveway and side yard area, plus the concrete pad in front of Shirley’s house and her front yard. I also ran some errands and went to water plants at the Woodin’s home, as they are out of town. Then, just as I started to settle in for the evening, Heather called and told me about the Falmouth High School Band Step-Up Night. Jonah plays trombone in the middle school band and for tonight’s high school football game, the middle school band was invited to come sit in the stands and play during the game. Heather asked if I would like to join her and Ollie for dinner at Home Port Sushi and then go to the game. So off I went. Dinner was great and the football game certainly brought back many high school memories. But most of all, I enjoyed being there to support Jonah and the middle school band. The experience provided them with a great opportunity to decide if they want to be part of the high school marching band next year. Yes. Next year Jonah will be in high school. I cannot believe it!

2022 Life Logs, Day 300: 48 Years Ago Today
Date: Thursday, October 27, 2022
Weather: Sunny and Windy; High 69, Low 44 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Forty-eight years ago today, Mark and I were married. I reserve this one day each year since his passing to allow myself to remember how wonderful our life was together and to feel just how lonely my life is without him. I have wonderful friends, a loving family, and a list of things to keep me busy forever. But that doesn’t take away that empty hole in my soul that moved in when Mark died. I’m sitting here drinking a glass of Pouilly-Fuissé, the first wine we ever drank together, while hearing in my mind the lyrics of Hank Williams Sr’s song, “I’m So Lonesome, I Could Cry.” Tonight, with the slightest sliver of a moon in the sky, the second stanza of that song is most fitting.

I’ve never seen a night so long
And time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind the clouds
To hide its face and cry.

When we first found out that Mark had cancer, in typical Mark style, he was more concerned about me than he was himself. I told him not to worry. I promised him that I would be fine, no matter the outcome. And I am fine. But I sure miss him with all my heart and soul.

I walked with Shadow today and enjoyed the beauty of the changing colors of the leaves. The oak leaves are just starting to turn. They turn a deep scarlet red and then seem to instantly turn brown. But today I enjoyed the green and scarlet leaves. And I love the mix of bright yellow leaves that look like someone took a paint brush and tipped their edges with bright red paint. I enjoyed the time outside, but after the walk, I spent the rest of the day inside cleaning house. Not fun, but necessary.

At 3 pm, I stopped that and headed into town to pick up Sam and take him to rowing practice. It was so windy that they didn’t row tonight, but the kids had a great time playing a version of Capture the Flag, Tug-of-War, and various other games on the beach. And their coach had them take time to pose for a team photo atop the lifeguard stand. Tomorrow is the last practice until spring, and I know Sam will miss it. But he has an elaborate plan for off season training. He truly loves rowing and has really enjoyed the company of his teammates.

When I dropped Sam off at home, Heather invited me to come in and have a drink and visit. It is rare that she is home as she is usually off taking one of the other boys to soccer practice. But the frenzy of fall practices is easing off and she almost didn’t know what to do with an evening at home. She shared that today was a productive day for her. In addition to a full day of work, she finalized plans for hauling Eider out of the water next Thursday. She went to Town Hall for early voting since she will be in Egypt on Nov 8. And she bought tickets for Revels, our annual celebration of the winter solstice. I really enjoyed out time to talk. Life might be lonely tonight, but life is good.

2022 Life Logs, Day 299: Dreary Day
Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Weather: Rainy Morning, Clearing Mid-Afternoon; High 68, Low 56 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

This morning when I took Shadow to the Vet for his annual check-up, it was rainy and dreary. But at least it was warm. I had on my rain jacket and had to take it off because I was too hot. I ran some errands in town before heading home, and when I did get home, I made some calls about a health issue my sister is having, helped finalize plans for a Newcomers field trip, and had a Zoom call with my primary care. He is going to order an MRI for my back, but in the meantime, wants to take a round of Prednisone. After lunch, I went to play Mah Jong and as I left to head home, I had thoughts about not playing again. I’m not very good at it and just don’t enjoy playing. I know it is good for my brain, but I have never been a game player. I’ll give this some more thought, but I think it is just not for me. In the middle of the Mah Jong afternoon, I had to sit out a game to talk to the companion who works with my sister. Dealing with Patsy’s health issues is becoming a full-time job.

The fun started when I got home. The rain had stopped, so Shadow and I took a walk and played fetch down by the dock. That I enjoy. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm and sunny. I need to clean house, but I know I am going to want to be outside. I’m going to try to get up early and get in a couple of hours of cleaning and then spend the rest of the day outside. The temperature drops on Friday, so tomorrow is the time to be outside.

Three weeks from tonight, I will be in Puerto Rico. I am looking forward to spending a week with Justin and family. Today Jo sent a photo of Coco and her friends who joined a 4-H club at school today. I look forward to spending time with Ziggy and Coco and learning more about their everyday life.

2022 Life Logs, Day 299: Dreary Day
Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Weather: Rainy Morning, Clearing Mid-Afternoon; High 68, Low 56 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

This morning when I took Shadow to the Vet for his annual check-up, it was rainy and dreary. But at least it was warm. I had on my rain jacket and had to take it off because I was too hot. I ran some errands in town before heading home, and when I did get home, I made some calls about a health issue my sister is having, helped finalize plans for a Newcomers field trip, and had a Zoom call with my primary care. He is going to order an MRI for my back, but in the meantime, wants to take a round of Prednisone. After lunch, I went to play Mah Jong and as I left to head home, I had thoughts about not playing again. I’m not very good at it and just don’t enjoy playing. I know it is good for my brain, but I have never been a game player. I’ll give this some more thought, but I think it is just not for me. In the middle of the Mah Jong afternoon, I had to sit out a game to talk to the companion who works with my sister. Dealing with Patsy’s health issues is becoming a full-time job.

The fun started when I got home. The rain had stopped, so Shadow and I took a walk and played fetch down by the dock. That I enjoy. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm and sunny. I need to clean house, but I know I am going to want to be outside. I’m going to try to get up early and get in a couple of hours of cleaning and then spend the rest of the day outside. The temperature drops on Friday, so tomorrow is the time to be outside.