2026 Life Logs, Day 166: Pinning Down the Details and Day One in the Arctic
Date: Monday, June 15, 2026
Weather: Rain Overnight, Partly Sunny; High Temp 82, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

What I did not do today was go on a field trip to Providence. It was a walking tour of the town and sounded like a wonderful opportunity, but I needed to spend the day trying to pin down the details of my sister’s move here. She is weathering her second bout of Covid and pneumonia okay so far, but this morning her sugar levels spiked, probably due to the meds she is on. I needed to make the final decision on when the Flying Angels would arrange the trip, and that was settled by the doctor. He can’t sign off on a flight for her until her sugar levels are in control and her lungs are completely clear. It took many calls throughout the day to finally get him to say that he thinks we can plan on June 29. But it was after 5:30 pm when I got that message, so tomorrow I will finalize with Flying Angels. Then there is the chore of choosing a doctor here, dealing with her health insurance, and many other details. That is how I spent my day and will spend my day tomorrow. Hopefully by tomorrow night most of the details will be pinned down.

I woke up to a text message from Heather announcing that she had arrived safely. Then later in the day she sent a photo of her in a tunnel dug through permafrost standing next to bison femur. Bison? I know but I didn’t know bison ever lived that far north. We can all envison polar bears (Nanuag) and grizzly bears (Aklaq), and caribou (Tuttu), moose, and wolves (Amaguq) in the Arctic, but I was surprised by bison. I had to educate myself a bit. What I learned is that prehistoric steppe bison lived in the Arctic as ‘recently’ as 30,00 to 9,000 years ago, and in Alaska and the Yukon as recently as 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. But that ‘recently’ was a long time ago. So I am going to forgive myself for not knowing.

2026 Life Logs, Day 165: Rise Up, Sing Out
Date: Sunday, June 14, 2026
Weather: Sunny and Hot; High Temp 82, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I spent part of my day opening up the house for summer. Old windows that are hard to open and fans that needed to be cleaned took more time than planned. But I did while watching soccer games and tried to make it fun. Then I had a visit from Xfinity late in the afternoon to figure out why the tv signal was off and on. A really great technician newly in this country from Japan fixed a number of issues that other technicians have just let go.

Then tonight I watched Rise Up, Sing Out, Jane Fonda and The First Amendment group’s counter to the spectacle on the White House lawn. Rise Up, Sing Out was the true opposite of what was happening in DC. It was just a plain stage at The City Hall in New York City. No electronic music, just singers and a piano. When Canadian-American singer and songwriter, Rufus Wainwright, sang Judy Garland’s ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, it brought tears. And I hung tight to some of the quotes.
• “Our politics won’t save us. Our humanity will.”
• “No stars. We are all in this together.”
• “The people have the power if we make it so.”
• “We have to start thinking of ourselves as light bearers of the future we want; architects of a new America.”
• And finally, “Keep marching on.”

2026 Life Logs, Day 164: A Taste of Summer
Date: Saturday, June 13, 2026
Weather: Sunny and Hot; High Temp 86, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

It is not yet officially summer, but it sure felt like it today. The first official day of summer is next Sunday, June 21, but we are close enough to call this summer.

I dealt with my flat tire early on this morning. Jed came over first thing to help me get the spare tire on (Thank you, Jed!), and then I drove the car to Sullivan Tire. As I suspected, I need a new tire and it had to be ordered. Hopefully, late on Monday afternoon that issue will be settled. Then I did some canvassing for 23-year-old Jack Richardson who is running to be a State Representative. This was my first foray into the door-to-door canvassing world here in Falmouth, and it went well. But I did learn that I need to take a hat, sunglasses, and water with me on hot days like today. Then I went to the Falmouth Green for our weekly standout for democracy. Because I got into an interesting conversation with a woman who was in the class I just finished yesterday, I didn’t get home until almost 2 pm. That gave me enough time to eat a late brunch, as there was no time for breakfast this morning, before I headed to Main Street to Arts Alive to hear the Falmouth High School jazz band play under the big tent on the library lawn. This was the first time they have played without the graduating seniors, so they invited some guest musicians. The jazz band director and Ollie’s saxophone teacher plus a seventh grader, joined the saxophone section and another older man filled in as the third trumpet player. And as they have been all this year, they were fantastic! There will be more eighth graders moving to the high school that will join next fall, eliminating the need for the extra adults. But every year a few middle school musicians perform with the high school. It was so much fun to hear them play this afternoon, Ollie on tenor saxophone and Jonah on trombone.

When I got home from Arts Alive, I spent the next hour and a half on the phone with Xfinity. When I got home, I turned on the television to see when the Morocco versus Brazil World Cup soccer game was on, and that is how I discovered I had no cable. Then I checked and saw that I had no internet. It took a bit to negotiate the online ‘live’ chat blockade before I got a real person on the phone. By that time the soccer game was underway, and it was almost over by the time I finished on the phone with the technician. I do have both cable and internet tonight, but there were issues with the cable that the technician could not resolve. He managed to get someone to come here tomorrow afternoon to check things out.

Tonight I went over to the Goldstones to give Heather a farewell hug. She leaves in the morning for two weeks in Alaska. Tomorrow, she flies to Minnesota and then on to Fairbanks, Alaska, and then has to drive 365 miles, on a dirt and gravel road, further north to the Toolik Field Station which will be her base for the next two weeks. From the field station to Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean it is another 133 miles, which on a dirt and gravel road takes another three hours. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get to go that far afield. But she will be taking day trips out from the station. This is an opportunity that comes from a grant that was applied for five years ago and finally came through this winter. I wish her safe travels and interesting adventures in the land of the Midnight Sun. The sun never sets there in June. In fact, the sun remains above the horizon for almost 70 days from late May to late July.

2026 Life Logs, Day 163: Go USA
Date: Friday, June 12, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny and Hot; High Temp 81, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

It could not have been a crazier day. Nothing went as planned, but in the end I finally have an invoice and paid the deposit for the food for next Wednesday’s Encore luncheon, all papers were signed to officially admit my sister Patsy to memory care at Bridges of Epoch in Mashpee, I attended the last These Truths class, and the US soccer team won their first game in the World Cup. Go, USA!

But, in all of my crazy running around today to get everything done, I hit a huge pothole going a little too fast and ended up tonight with a flat tire. My neighbor Billy got home just after dark when I was trying to loosen the lug nuts with no luck at all. He got them loosened, but it was time for the USA-Paraguay World Cup soccer match that we both wanted to watch, so we abandoned the flat tire to watch soccer. I will hopefully be able to finish the job in the morning and get the car to Sullivan Tire.

2026 Life Logs, Day 162: Working on Arrangements for My Sister’s Move
Date: Thursday, June 11, 2026
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High Temp 75, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

This is going to be short and sweet. I basically spent my entire day trying to figure out details for moving my one month away from 93 years old sister from North Carolina to Cape Cod. And due to no fault of her own, she is not cooperating. Yesterday she was diagnosed with pneumonia and Covid for the second time in two months and tonight she managed to fall in her bedroom. She is okay, but all of these little blips, just two and a half weeks from moving day, are making me very nervous. So, I spent my day figuring up how to speed up the move if necessary and this require making double arrangements. Thankfully, Flying Angels are used to this kind of uncertainty and they are being very cooperative and fairly flexible. In addition, I contacted Restore of Habitat for Humanity in Mooresville, NC to arrange pick up of all of her furniture by the end of the month. I wrote an email to family members to see if anyone wants any of her things, telling them to get go the things out of her apartment on May 30, the day after to proposed date for the move. I bought furniture for her room here at Bridges this evening. It will be delivered next Tuesday, just in case we need to move her sooner than planned. And I talked multiple times to her Power of Attorney to figure out how to pay for all of this. There is way more, but you get the picture. There are many details to work out. And then this evening about 45 minutes after her private care companion left for the day, she had a fall. She is okay, but I don’t feel like she is safe where she is right now. That is why I am trying to be ready to move her at the first instant when Covid and pneumonia are under control. This is quite a project, but I am finally convinced that it is a necessary move for the well being of both of us. Managing her healthcare long distance is just no longer an option. And I feel confident that I have found the perfect place for her.

One other thing I did today was work on finalizing plans for Encore’s end-of-the-year reception next Wednesday. Finally, I feel like I have that under control as well. But I have more to do on that tomorrow.

And I did some house cleaning in preparation of a visit from two special sailing friends the beginning over Father’s Day weekend. It was a productive day.

2026 Life Logs, Day 161: You Make Plans, Then Life Happens
Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Weather: Sunny. Windy, Rain Late Day; High Temp 71, Low 61 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I started to write tonight’s log and only got as far as the subject line when I stopped to make a phone call. I was getting ready to write, “You make plans, then life happens.” But I immediately stopped and called my good friend Lynne Kirwin. She owns those words and I decided I needed to give her a call to say hello. She is home in Michigan visiting for the summer from New Zealand. We had a nice long chat, made some tentative plans for her to visit, and now I am back writing this log.

I have been working what seems like non-stop making arrangements to move my sister here to a memory care facility at the end of the month. She was hospitalized in early April with double pneumonia and Covid, recovered, was sent to rehab, and then back to her assisted living. But through that whole process, I found it almost impossible to manage her healthcare from here. It was a full-time job. Because of that, a couple of weeks ago a decision was made to move her here. Since then, I have again spent almost full-time making decisions and arrangements for the move. Then yesterday, her private care person texted me saying she had a cough again and that it sounded like the cough she had in April. I called her doctor and they wanted her in the office today to do a chest x-ray. The diagnosis today was that she has Covid pneumonia. I could not believe it. The doctor prescribed Paxlovid and Prednisone and sent her home. She has to return on Friday for another chest x-ray and oxygen level check. If her oxygen is below 91, she will be hospitalized. If not, she will be sent back to the assisted living and was told she should be able to resume normal activities on Monday. But who knows what is really going to happen. This sent me into a tailspin. What if, what if, what if? All the plans that have been made and the contracts signed for the move could all go out the window. But there is nothing I can do but wait and see. I hope she bounces back from this, but at almost 93, this is a lot. When I read her My Chart from today’s office visit, I saw that her blood pressure was 120 over 70 and her oxygen level was 98. All good. Maybe we caught it in time, but how did she get Covid again after just having it? I will just have to wait see what each day brings.

2026 Life Logs, Day 160: Changing Hats for a Day
Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2026
Weather: Sunny. Windy; High Temp 72, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I have been wearing my ‘sister hat’ for the past few days, but today, I had to shed that to attend an Indivisible Falmouth Steering Committee meeting, a book club meeting, a meeting with the Executive Director of the Museums on the Green about our Encore reception there next Wednesday, and this evening, a Library Board of Trustees monthly meeting. I did have time to fix myself a wonderful lunch. I baked salmon and had a spring lettuce salad from my garden. But when I got home tonight from the Board of Trustees meeting, the only thing I could find to eat for dinner was M&Ms. How’s that for healthy?!

I did put back on my ‘sister hat’ part of the afternoon as I was on the phone for quite while with a triage nurse at my sister’s primary care’s office working through some details that need to happen before her move. The first half of tomorrow is all Encore, but then I can get back to making travel arrangements for myself and my sister. Evidently, there is no rest for the wicked.

2026 Life Logs, Day 159: Flying Angels and Braver Angels
Date: Monday, June 8, 2026
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High Temp 73, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I spent most of my day, once again, working on things that need to be done in order to move my sister from assisted living in North Carolina to memory care here on the Cape. I had a long discussion with the triage nurse at her doctor’s office this morning posing questions that I need answers to before she moves. Most importantly, whether or not they can get her off insulin injections and back on pills for her diabetes. Assisted living/memory care facilities in the state of Massachusetts cannot give insulin shots. A family member can do it, but that means I would have to go every evening after dinner to administer the shot. Or we can hire an outside nurse for $75 and upwards per day depending on the case. Ugh.

I went from talking to the triage nurse to having my first communication with ‘angels’ today—but not my last. This first was to reach out to Flying Angels to check on the price of a medically assisted door to door transfer of my sister. The Flying Angels take care of all arrangements, buy the flight tickets (one for me and one for Patsy) to fly on a non-stop commercial flight with a registered nurse accompanying us and then transport us from Boston to the Cape upon arrival. It would save me hours of calls to airlines to get special help at the airport, to TSA to try and get ID for her, and to lessen the stress on me of dealing with the whole thing by myself on the day of the transport. The total cost is $9,000 including the plane fare for both of us. That is pricey, but it is an option.

I spent the entire afternoon at Bridges filling out paperwork and delivering the deposit check that was sent from Patsy’s Power of Attorney via USPS Priority from the Villages in Florida last Tuesday. That supposed 2-day service didn’t arrive until today. When I delivered the check, I just stayed and did the paperwork to get things finalized. I got home just in time to play outside with Shadow and dash to the library for another ‘angels’ encounter. This was with Braver Angels for a two-and-a-half-hour workshop on Depolarizing Within. I learned one thing form the workshop. I have a long way to go in order to depolarize from within. Hard work.

2026 Life Logs, Day 157: But on the other hand …
Date: Saturday, June 6, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny and Warm; High Temp 77, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Decisions. Once again, I sound like Tevye in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. He is forever hashing over a decision, giving equal time to both sides. We could do this, but then on the other hand, we could that. I mentioned the fact that I am having to make many decisions right now, almost to the point of letting it paralyze me mentally. For me, living alone and not having a partner to talk with when making decisions just leaves those decisions constantly rotating around in my head. And that can lead to mental paralysis. No decision at all.

I am planning an end of the year Encore reception for 70 members at the Museums on the Green on June 17. Our programs this year have focused on Falmouth history, so for this final event we will continue to focus on history, celebrating the 250th birthday of this country. I named it the ‘red, white & blue’ reception, and since it is a birthday celebration, of course we have to have a birthday cake. But what kind, what kind of icing, what kind of filling between layers, and how do I want it decorated? I am deciding what kind of wine to buy and how many bottles, what kind of prosecco to buy for an initial toast and how many bottles, what food to order and how much, how do we arrange things in case of rain? And the list of decisions goes on. This afternoon I literally had to go over to see if one of the Goldstones could help me decide on what kind of cake. And thankfully, Heather and Jonah were home and helped make that decision. I went directly to Windfall Market and made that order. One decision made.

Then there are all of the decisions dealing with moving my sister. That list is too long to list here. I did write an email to family last night to ask for suggestions, and I did hear from a couple of people. But this move is really on me. I am not moving most of her furniture here because she is downsizing to a small studio apartment with only one small closet for her clothes from a one bedroom with two big closets. Her queen size bed won’t fit in the new apartment and neither will her double recliners with a little storage unit connecting them. All I know at this point is that I can take possession of the studio apartment on June 15 and begin furnishing it and I will get Patsy here sometime between then and the end of the month. It could be sooner rather than later, so I don’t have time to order furniture. And this is where today’s trip to New Bedford and North Dartmouth comes in. Jonah had to be at New Bedford High School, about 45 minutes from here, at 7:45 am to take the SAT. I offered to take him, and then Heather pointed out that there are a number of furniture stores in North Darthmouth. I could do two things at once. So, while Jonah was taking the test, I shopped. I went to Ashley Furniture, Bob’s Discount Furniture, and Laz-Y Boy. What I found out is that none of them had a recliner in stock that fits our needs and ordering is a 6 to 8 week affair. That helped make one decision. I knew that as soon as Jonah and I got back home, I should go to the furniture store on Main Street and buy the recliner I found there yesterday. But then I debated that with myself. I haven’t signed the paperwork committing to Bridges yet and we haven’t figured out a way to get Patsy from there to here. What if I buy the recliner today and then the move doesn’t happen? I decided to go to Barbo’s, the Falmouth furniture store, to see if I can get my money back if the move doesn’t happen. The answer is yes, so another decision was made. The Best Home Furnishings Sedgefield Leather Power Space Saver Recliner will be delivered to Bridges on June 16. Just now as I was writing about this, I searched online for the recliner I bought and found the description. “The sleek and uncomplicated Sedgefield is the perfect size for someone with a smaller frame. Not too big and not too small, Goldilocks would say this recliner is ‘just right’. This petite recline still offers all the comfort and support you want.” Let’s hope it lives up to the description.

This evening, I forgot about all of this and went to see Ollie’s last soccer game of the spring season. Jonah was one of the referees for this game, so again I got a two for one.

Afterwards Heather suggested that everyone go to Taco Blanco for a team dinner and many parents and players did come. Sam came to join us, then he and Jonah left to watch sunset at the beach with friends. And then Heather and I left Ollie with friends while we drove separate cars to Sagamore. Jed flies home from Canada tonight and will take the last bus to the Sagamore Park ‘n Ride. We left their van there for him to drive home. That way, at least Heather can get a good night’s sleep.