2022 Life Logs, Day 138: House Cleaning to Concert
Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 70, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was spent moving as much as possible out of the living room, dining area, and kitchen so that I could mop and wax. This was an all day job that I am glad to be able to check off on my TO DO list. Then this evening, I went to Ollie’s fourth grade concert. In June, there will be a band and chorus concert, but not all students participate in that. Tonight’s concert was called a Farewell Music Concert and it included all fourth graders. Fourth graders in Falmouth leave their elementary schools at the end of this year and move on to Morse Pond School where they spend their fifth and sixth grade years.

For tonight’s concert, each fourth grade class did a presentation in between pieces done by all students together. The students sang, played recorders, and played percussion instruments including a gong played by Ollie. The concert ended with everyone singing the Mullen Hall school song, Sweet Mullin Hall, adapted from Sweet Caroline.

Afterwards, we went to pick up Jonah from soccer practice and then celebrated with a DQ.

2022 Life Logs, Day 137: MelMel, Please Come Home
Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Weather: Sunny and Windy; High 66, Low 51 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

MelMel is the nickname for Melbourne, the Goldstone’s male kitten. Well, I guess he is not really still a kitten. He and his sister, Leo, arrived at 43 Grasmere on May 14 last year when they were eight weeks old. Now, this afternoon, one year and three days later, Mel went missing. Mel and Leo are house cats, and I don’t think either one has ever been outside. But tonight, after an exhaustive search, Mel is nowhere to be found. Hopefully he will show up tomorrow. MelMel, please, please come home!

This morning Shadow and I went for a walk with friend, Olga Mitchell. We had hoped to walk through Spohr Gardens with Shadow, but when we got there, we discovered no dogs are allowed. We did a short walk with Shadow and then left him in the car while we walked through the gardens. Then we drove to nearby Quissett Harbor and walked with Shadow out to the Knob. It is one of the most beautiful places in Falmouth, so we soaked in the sunshine and the beauty. I came home and got another raised bed ready for planting. Now I have only one more to go. Then later in the afternoon, I drove Sam to rowing in Hyannis. Just after we arrived, it started pouring rain, so going out in the boats was delayed. But the rain stopped, the sunshine returned, and they went out. I was supposed to take Sam to Scouts when we returned to Falmouth, but he was soaking wet and decided to go home and skip Scouts for tonight. When we got home, Ollie decided to take Shadow for a walk using a new leash I had bought for him. When I left home to go get Sam, I put Shadow in the car but not his leash. I stopped at Job Lot to buy a leash, but all they had were those retractable leashes. I figured that would do for one evening, so I bought it. But unfortunately, when Ollie took off with Shadow, Shadow took off and Ollie ended up falling and skidding on the pavement on his knee. Ouch. Ollie was a little shaken and when he went inside for a little R&R on the sofa, Shadow insisted on lying down right beside him. It was like he knew he had caused Ollie to be sad and he wanted to make up for it.

Just got a text from Heather. MelMel is back. All is well.

2022 Life Logs, Day 136: Monday, Monday
Date: Monday, May 16, 2022
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 70, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Due to my lingering lack of motivation, my Monday was not a particularly productive day. I did go play Mah Jongg this morning at Claudia Needham’s home and afterwards I asked if I could go out back and see the raised bed gardens. Last week after play Mah Jongg, Claudia’s husband, Peter, gave those of us interested huge heads of red lettuce from the garden and I wanted to see the source. Their backyard has full sun all day, so Peter gives credit to the full sunshine and the fact that they make their own blend of organic garden soil for producing such robust veggies. This should have motivated me to come home and work in my gardens, but that didn’t happen. I think I am still recuperating from (wo)manhandling the 58-pound bags of raised bed garden soil yesterday. There was a time in my life when lifting a 50-pound bag was no problem, but those days are long gone. Maybe I’ll recuperate enough by tomorrow to do more (wo)man-handling and gardening.

In the afternoon, Peter Baranowski came over to try and put my wooden garden bench back together. A few weeks ago, while he and Karen were over playing with Shadow, they sat on the bench and the next thing they knew, they were on their backs on the ground looking up at the sky. The bench totally collapsed. Thankfully they were not hurt. I have been unsure of what I should do about the bench, but Peter insisted that he put it back together. He worked all afternoon and I worked much of that time with him. We did get it back together, but I am not convinced that I want anyone sitting on it again until I have found a way to reinforce it. Time ran out today as I had to stop to go take Jonah to his weekly music lesson and Peter had to go home to have dinner. I’ll check it out tomorrow and decide what to do about it.

When I went to pick up Jonah, I heard the exciting news that Heather and Jed might be the new owners of a Cape Dory 36 sailboat named Eider. They have made an offer and are waiting for either a counter-offer or an acceptance. The boat is seven hours away in Brooklin, Maine, but if the offer is accepted, Heather is thinking of flying up on Saturday morning to see it, returning home Saturday afternoon. Jed leaves for England on Wednesday and flies on to Sweden on Saturday. Jed returns next Thursday, but Heather leaves for the West Coast on Tuesday. I will be a one busy Oma for the next week and a half!

2022 Life Logs, Day 135: Sunday Gardening
Date: Sunday, May 15, 2022
Weather: Partly Cloudy Early, Turning Sunny; High 67, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

What I could once accomplish in one day takes multiple days as I grow older. Could I really be moving this slowly? Or maybe I never really accomplished so much. Maybe I just thought I did. I think that, then I face the truth, knowing that I simply move slower than I once did. Today, I spent an entire day getting one of three raised beds ready to plant when I had hoped to get all three done. Just the new normal. But at least I did get one raised bed done. ‘Done’ included removing the chicken wire fencing around the bed, digging out the grass that was growing around the edges, topping off the bed with organic manure and raised bed garden soil, digging that in and then planting lettuce and basil plants I grew from seed, planting arugula and zinnia seeds, replacing the chicken wire fencing, and then putting the drip irrigation lines back in the bed. It is a lot to do in one day, so going forward, I will plan to do only one raised bed a day and be glad that I can do that! One down, two to go.

2022 Life Logs, Day 134: Ollie’s Soccer Game, Women’s March, Gardening
Date: Saturday, May 14, 2022
Weather: Misty Overnight, Sunny, Warm Day; High 73, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Last night when I took Shadow out before bedtime, I was surprised by the amount of mist in the air. I was wearing a headlamp and there was so much moisture in the air that it looked like it was snowing in the light of the lamp. Then when I took Shadow out this morning, I was greeted by plants with droplets of water left over from the misty night. The baby oak leaves were heavily laden with droplets of water that glistened in the early morning light and the clematis at the corner of the house was bursting with blossoms. I took a few photos, took Shadow for a walk, and then I was off to Ollie’s 9 am soccer game. He played most of the first half as goalie, and then switched to forward in the second half and made the only goal for his team. In fact, I think it was the last goal of the season. Sam’s league has a few more games, but Ollie and Jonah’s next games will be in the fall.

Early afternoon I headed to the Town Greene to attend Falmouth’s Bans Off Our Bodies Women’s March. And I ended my day delivering some plants to Heather’s and checking in with Ollie after his day at the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He was bummed that he did not win a trophy this year, but his car was a red, white, and blue beauty. Then it was home to do a little garden clean up. Hopefully tomorrow, I will actually get to do little planting.

2022 Life Logs, Day 133: Incredibly Unmotivated
Date: Friday, May 13, 2022
Weather: Sunshine in the Afternoon; High 67, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was a repeat of yesterday, weatherwise—a warm, cloudy morning and a sunny afternoon. The north wind is gone for now. And that is all good. But for whatever reason, I am having difficulty getting motivated to do much of anything. Earlier this week, I made a TO DO list with thirty items. Only six of those items were outside chores, but guess where I have spent my time? Yes, outdoors. I am doing a great job of ignoring the inside cleaning jobs. And I have only marked two outdoor chores off the list and am working on a third. Maybe motivation will come my way tomorrow.

Since I was not motivated to actually get anything done, I spent two hours of today driving off-Cape to return an item I had bought (and ended up not needing) for the trip to Puerto Rico. And I went to the nursery and bought bags of organic soil for raised beds to rejuvenate my gardens. That was the extent of my day. But I did receive a video from Heather this evening that made my day. Tonight was a mother-son dance at Ollie’s school. He refused to go because he thought it was silly that just moms and sons were allowed to attend. Why couldn’t dads attend? What about the boys who don’t have mothers? Why couldn’t girls come with their moms? The questions went on, so Heather did not push going. Instead, they had a mom, dad, and son dance at home. Sam and Jonah are on Nantucket camping this weekend, so Ollie had his parents all to himself. And dance, he did. The video Heather sent was a fantastic Ollie solo. He is quite an impressive dancer.

2022 Life Logs, Day 132: Laundry Day
Date: Thursday, May 12, 2022
Weather: Sunshine in the Afternoon; High 69, Low 51degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Overnight we went from a forecast of days in the 50’s and nights in the 40’s for the next week to days in the 60’s and nights in the 50’s. Sunshine was not in the forecast, but we got that this afternoon as well. I LOVE IT! When I got up this morning, I knew it was warmer than it has been as I had kicked off the winter comforter. I thought maybe I had a temp from the Covid booster, but that was not it. The temperature in the cottage had gone up overnight, not down as usual. I decided that it was the day to change the bed sheets and switch out the winter comforter for the lighter, spring comforter. So, I decided to give Shadow a bath and then take the sheets and duvet cover to the laundromat. Tonight I have a clean dog and a clean bed. That was about it for my day.

2022 Life Logs, Day 131: Second Covid Booster Shot
Date: Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Weather: Some Rain Overnight, Overcast and Windy; High 55, Low 47 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I had an 11 am appointment at CVS to get my second Covid booster shot today. I stayed with Moderna, which is what I have had from the beginning. Some say to mix it up, but others believe that if you started with Moderna, you should stay with it, as it has proven its effectiveness. I don’t know if it was a reaction to the shot or to this ugly weather, but by 3:30 pm, I literally had to lay down to take a nap. I was exhausted from doing nothing and ached all over. When I got up at 5 pm, I was fine, except for a sore arm. Who knows?

This dreary, cold, windy weather is not my cup of tea. I know I must feel this way every spring, but I feel like it stays colder longer every year. So, I looked back through my logs and the weather history. The historic average temperature in Falmouth on May 11 is 64 for the high and 48 for the low. We are below average today with 55 as the high and 47 as the low. Then I looked back at 2021. It was sunny and windy with a high of 61 and a low of 44. Still below average, but it was a book club day and we met outside on the back deck of one of the members and enjoyed the sunshine and her beautifully landscaped backyard. How about 2020? The name of my log on this day in 2020 was, “Still Wearing My Winter Coat.” Yep. Same as 2022. It was even cooler than today with a high of 54 and low of 41. But at least the sun was shining and the extreme wind we had over the previous weekend was under control. Let’s go back another year to May 11, 2019. I was in Tennessee visiting my sister, but the high in Falmouth was 69 and the low was 48 with 15 knots of SW wind. It was 80 degrees F in Nashville. I went back one more year to 2018. I had just moved into the cottage the end of April and on May 11 that year the high was 73 and the low 45. Five years of weather information is certainly not enough to see any pattern, but I want the spring we had in 2018. Maybe next year.

2022 Life Logs, Day 130: Mah Jongg and Afternoon with J & O
Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Windy; High 55, Low 46 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It was another windy day, winds still from the northeast and feeling chilly. I spent my morning inside playing Mah Jongg. Next week will be the last lesson and I will have to decide if I am ready to play with a regular team or take another class. I’m really not a game player, but I force myself to do this because it’s good for my brain! And after Mah Jongg, I came home to get Shadow to take him with me to pick up Ollie and Jonah from school on this Early Release Day. I brought them home with me and Ollie finished cutting Shirley’s lawn. The battery-operated lawn mower is great, but it doesn’t go quite long enough to finish Shirley’s yard without needing to be charged. Then we watched another Marvel movie. The boys want to make sure I get a proper Marvel education.

Tomorrow, I get my second Covid booster shot. I will start my day with a broccoli sprout smoothie. There is evidence that when you combine a broccoli sprout shake with a flu vaccine, you can amplify the vaccine’s ability to boost your immune system. The sulforaphane in broccoli is the natural chemical that boosts the immune system, and the amount of sulforaphane in the baby broccoli sprouts gives you a twenty-fold boost over mature broccoli. So, I had broccoli for dinner and will have the broccoli sprout shake in the morning, and then have more broccoli sprouts in a salad for lunch tomorrow. I hope to get the best possible boost from my booster shot!

2022 Life Logs, Day 129: NE Wind Still Roaring
Date: Monday, May 9, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, NE Wind 15-25; High 54, Low 43 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Watching the tree limbs sway side to side and lunge forward and backward all at the same time, is enough to make one feel seasick. And the wind causing this chaos is not settling down. It is ramping up. Tomorrow the NE winds will blow 20 to 30 miles an hour. According to WeatherUnderground, Wednesday the wind will begin to stabilize, and by Thursday the winds will still to be from the NE but blowing less than 10 miles an hour. Whew! Just going for a walk will no longer be challenging. And I am looking forward to Friday when the winds will have calmed down and clocked to the SE and overnight going into Saturday should move on to the SW. No matter what the air temp, south winds will feel warmer.

I had an annual appointment with my gynecologist this morning and came home to fight the wind to walk with Shadow. I then spent time making a ‘to do’ list of 30 housekeeping and gardening things that need to be done as soon as possible. Then I started working on the gardening list. Shadow and I spent the afternoon outside transplanting tomato seedings into larger containers and setting up felt planting bags to receive Brussels sprouts seedings. I have been hardening them off outside for a week now, so it was time to plant them.

Tomorrow I have a morning Mah Jongg lesson and then it is a school Early Release Day. I will pick Ollie and Jonah up at 12:30 pm and we shall see where the afternoon leads us.