2022 Life Logs, Day 88: No Place Like Home
Date: Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Weather: Shockingly Cold; High 39, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The comfort of home, no matter how grand or modest the home, is hard to beat. For me, there’s just no place like home. No matter how short or long the trip, I’m always happy to get home. The exception to that was when Mark and I were sailing around the world. We missed family and friends, but we had our ‘home’ with us.

Due to the fact that my day began at 5:30 am, this will be a short log. The trip home went without a hitch, but I am running out of speed. I flew from Charlotte to Newark and then Newark to Boston. It was cool while I was in Charlotte, but I was not prepared for the blast of freezing air when I exited the airport to catch the bus back to the Sagamore Park ‘n Ride. It felt shockingly cold, but at least it was sunny. I was at Meghan and Sheri’s to pick up my Shadow by 2:30 pm. I think he had a great time, but he was certainly glad to see me. And when he got home, he basically collapsed. I think we will both sleep in tomorrow!

2022 Life Logs, Day 87: Wonderful Day with My Sister Patsy
Date: Monday, March 28, 2022
Weather: Freezing Overnight, Sunny Day; High 65, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Nephew Tommy’s Family, Huntersville, North Carolina

My sister Patsy is my only living sibling out of seven. My parents first child was born in 1925 and died shortly after birth. The second child was born in 1926 and died at the age of three of whooping cough. The third child was my sister Margie born in 1928. She died in 2005 of Alzheimer’s. The fourth child was my brother Bennie who died in 1964 when he was only 33 years old. Then came my sister Patsy in 1933. She will be 89 in July and I am so thankful to still have her with me. The last of the seven children was my brother Dickie, the father of Tommy whose home I am in tonight. Dickie was born in 1935 and died in 2010 of a heart attack. Then there was me, the afterthought, born in 1947. Today I got to spend a few hours with my sister alone and it was a very special time. She is beginning to have memory issues and is very frail physically, but today she was ‘on’ and we truly enjoyed our time together. I laughed until I cried when I was asking her questions for a personal history project. The question was about her favorite movie of all time. She went way back to 1953 and came up with “Three Sailors and A Girl” starring Jane Powell and Gordon McCrae. She added to that “Two Girls and a Sailor” as her second favorite movie. I don’t know why I thought it was so funny, but I truly lost it!

I returned to my nephew Tommy’s tonight and will head to the airport at 6 am. It has been a special and unexpected treat to get to see all of Tommy and Marilou’s children while here, as well as Izzie, their dog and sixth child. Tonight, when I came upstairs to write my log, Tommy and Marilou’s sixteen-year-old daughter Olivia came out of her bedroom to hug me and tell me how much she loves me and has missed seeing me. I was so impressed that a teenager would take the time to express such feelings. It was another truly special time today. Although at first I was a bit taken aback by my sister’s decline since I last saw her, I have enjoyed every minute of this visit. As I learned today, looks can be deceiving. She is actually doing better than I thought. Parting truly is such sorry, but I am ready to head home. Hopefully by 4 pm tomorrow I will be picking up Shadow and going to check-in with the Heather, Jed, Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. I have missed them so much.

2022 Life Logs, Day 86: Mooresville to Asheboro to Huntersville
Date: Sunday, March 27, 2022
Weather: Frost Overnite, Sunny Day; High 61, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Nephew Tommy’s Family, Huntersville, North Carolina

Some days are so full of life that it is hard to muster the energy to write about them and this was one of those days. I started the day by ‘checking out’ of my niece Jennifer’s home and drive north and east to Asheboro to meet long time friend Patsy Decker. We met for breakfast and caught up on news from our families. Patsy gave me back the copy of The Voyage of Windbird marked with her edits and comments. It was just so wonderful to see Patsy after so many years and I am so appreciative that she took the time to be a beta reader. Can’t wait to have the time to read what she had to say.

I left Asheboro at 12:20 pm and drove back toward Charlotte to ‘check in’ to my nephew Tommy’s home in Huntersville. I haven’t seen Tommy, his wife Marilou, and their five children since July of 2019. Their oldest son, Josh, is now married to Erica and they live in Ashville. I had no idea they were going to be here today and was totally delighted to see them, as well as their son Ryan who lives in Myrtle Beach. Yesterday was his 28th birthday and he was here this weekend to celebrate. Then there was Cory, Madeline and her significant other, Cole, and their youngest, Olivia, who is still in high school. My niece Jennifer drove down with my sister Patsy and we had a wonderful afternoon of family visiting topped with a delicious dinner. Tommy and Marilou lived in a different house the last time I saw them, so I also got a tour of the new house which includes “Big T’s Tavern” attached to the garage and an introduction to their Bernese Mountain Dog, Izzie. Fantastic day.

2022 Life Logs, Day 85: A Working Day with My Sister
Date: Saturday, March 26, 2022
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Very Windy; High 66, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Niece Jennifer, Mooresville, North Carolina

Well, it does look like spring here, but tonight the temp will dip to 33 degrees. And today the wind was blowing a steady 20 mph with higher gusts. Last night I made my green tea so that I would have cold tea to drink today and this morning I got up and made my green smoothie. I packed salad makings for lunch along with the leftover salmon and my niece Jennifer and I headed out. Feels like home. (By the way, Jennifer’s husband, Bill, is out of town this weekend, so I am not just leaving him out of my logs. He is not here.)

Our first stop this morning was Big Lots to buy two outdoor chairs, a low table, garden soil, and a large flower pot for my sister’s little concrete patio. We went to Walmart to buy pansies to plant and gold ink pens to write in a family history book. Then we went to my sister’s apartment where I spent most of my day organizing. She moved from Nashville to Mooresville last June, but has still not gotten things arranged in her apartment to her liking. She had framed family pictures tucked away in about ten different places. I gathered them all together and put them on a bottom shelf of a living room credenza. Then I gathered all of her photo albums which, like the framed photos, were scattered in different places. Those filled the bottom two shelves of a living room display case. That was enough organizing for today, so then we started recording things in a family history book. It is really neat book that has more than two hundred prompt questions with spaces for answers. We didn’t get very far as both my sister Patsy and my niece Jennifer needed a nap. I spent their naptime typing those prompt questions into my computer. I cannot handwrite my sister’s answers fast enough, but I can type them and then transfer them to the book at a later time.

Dinner tonight was at the Olive Garden. The food was good, but the portions were huge. Nobody needs to eat that much food! And we had competition tonight as it was prom night here. None of us could figure out why they are having their high school prom in March, but they are. Tomorrow morning, I head out early to meet a friend that I have not seen for almost twenty years. Patsy Decker is the mother of one of Justin’s best middle school buddies from our time on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and we have kept in contact over the years. She now lives in Chapel Hill, so we are going to meet for breakfast at a halfway point. Patsy volunteered to be a beta reader for my book, and she has already finished her read. Meeting in person she can give me the edited manuscript and face-to-face feedback. Plus, I get to see her after so many years. It is a win-win. The last time we were together was at Heather and Jed’s wedding in 2003. Mark, Heather, Jed, and I had sailed up to Boothbay, Maine, for the wedding, but then Heather and Jed left for their honeymoon and I had to get back to work and couldn’t sail home with Mark. Patsy is a sailor and volunteered to be crew. I can’t wait to see her tomorrow. And after we part, I will drive back to Mooresville and a little further south back toward Charlotte to my nephew Tommy’s home in Huntersville. I will be staying there for the next two nights but driving back to Mooresville on Monday to be with my sister.

I heard from Meghan and Sheri this morning that Shadow is doing great. They even sent a photo of him herding their goats.

I wrote back asking if he actually herded the goats or chased them. Meghan admitted that it was a bit of both, but things are working out great. That is a relief for me. I miss my little guy, but it looks like he is probably having a great time and Meghan and Sheri are surviving.

2022 Life Logs, Day 84: Spring in North Carolina
Date: Friday, March 25, 2022
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 66, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Niece Jennifer, Mooresville, North Carolina

It is spring here in North Carolina. When I opened the curtains in my motel room this morning, I was greeted with cherry blossoms. It is not all that much warmer here than in Falmouth on a good day, but it is obviously more consistently warm as the plant life has definitely awakened. We drove a little north to shop for shoes for my sister in the morning and in the afternoon we drove a little south to have a late lunch with my sister’s sister-in-law named Judy and one of her daughters and a grandson. I keep in touch with the ‘other’ Judy but have not seen her for a few years. My how the time flies.

After returning from lunch, I went to my sister’s apartment, and we just sat and visited. Then I moved into my niece’s home for tonight and tomorrow night. I fixed a quick dinner and my niece and I returned to my sister’s to have dinner together. Tomorrow I will spend the day with my sister and help her with some apartment organization and we will go out to dinner.

I can’t believe how much I miss my Shadow. I am sure he is having a great time with Meghan and Sheri, but I do worry about how they are faring. I am very grateful to Peter and Karen Baranowski for checking on the cottage after the electrical outage yesterday. Evidently it did not screw up my automatic light timers, so seedlings and fish are doing fine. I’m already looking forward to coming home on Tuesday. I think I have become a homebody.

2022 Life Logs, Day 83: Made It
Date: Thursday, March 24, 2022
Weather: Rain in the NE, Partly Sunny in Charlotte Area ; High 68, Low 43 degrees F
Location: Fairfield Inn, Mooresville, North Carolina

Today was a bit of an obstacle course, but I made it to Mooresville, North Carolina, just north of Charlotte and saw my sister for the first time in almost three years. Even with the obstacles, the trip was worth it.

The short story is that I traveled from Falmouth to Sagamore to Boston to Newark to Charlotte and finally to Mooresville, just north of Charlotte. The long story including the obstacles went something like this. When I took Shadow out at 7 am, it was raining so hard I had to put his raincoat on him. I had loaded the car last night as I knew it was going to be raining, and I was ever so glad that I did. I left East Falmouth and drove to Meghan and Sheri’s to drop off Shadow. From there I drove over the Sagamore Bridge to the Park ‘n Ride to catch the 10:05 Logan Airport Express bus. As I prepared to board, the driver told me the bus had broken down and everyone onboard was waiting for the next bus, not an express. But even with that obstacle, we all got to the airport on time. The first leg of my flight was from Boston to Newark. We boarded but were delayed 15 minutes and I panicked as I only had 40 minutes between flights in Newark. But somehow, we left 15 minutes late and arrived 10 minutes earlier than the original arrival time. When I got off the plane, I saw the boarding area for the next flight was right there. The boarding area was overflowing with people, but I checked the board and confirmed that I still had a few minutes, so I grabbed some sushi for lunch. Then I went back to the boarding area. No one was there. I started to panic again, but I checked my phone and saw the boarding area had just been changed. Then I got a text from Eversource telling me the electricity in my neighborhood was out due to a downed tree. I hoped the outage would not affect the timers I had set for the plants and the aquarium. I will ask Heather or Jed to check that over the weekend. But back to the Newark airport, we finally boarded 15 minutes late and then waited and waited. The pilot explained that the original plane “was broken”, his words, not mine, and changing to a different plane was taking time. I couldn’t believe I had confronted a broken-down bus and a “broken plane” in the same day. We finally took off and had a bumpy ride, especially as we descended into Charlotte, but I did make it. I got into my rental car and drove north to Mooresville to have dinner at my niece’s home with my sister. I then took my sister back to her assisted living facility and got my first ‘tour’ of her new home. She wanted to show me all around the building, but because it was late, I suggested we continue the tour tomorrow morning. So that we will.

2022 Life Logs, Day 82: Almost Ready for Take Off
Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 45, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I loved traveling around the world in my own ‘home’. As Mark and I sailed around the world, we never had to pack a bag. We just got ourselves to shore, explored, and went ‘home’ for dinner. I don’t love packing for a trip and I don’t look forward to taking my dog and all his paraphernalia to the dog sitters, driving to a Park ‘n Ride to get on a bus that will take me an airport to get on a plane, getting off that plane in another city and getting on another one, negotiating the destination airport to get to the rental car agency, and then driving to a motel to check-in for the night before I get to see my sister. Unfortunately, in order to use the credit from a previously cancelled flight, I have to fly United, and they have no straight through flights from Boston to Charlotte. I know once I get there, all will be fine, but tomorrow just doesn’t sound like fun.

The good news is that I am packed, and Shadow’s things are packed. I finally got a timer to work that will turn the grow lights off and on each day for my garden seedlings. And I have ‘vacation feeder’ for the aquarium. Did I forget anything? If so, I’ll just have to do without!

2022 Life Logs, Day 81: Boston Field Trip with Newcomers Group
Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Weather: Sunny, Windy; High 52, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Great tour of the State House and the Museum of African American History in Boston today. The Falmouth Newcomer’s Teacher Group believes that field trips are not just for school children.

We admired the beauty of the State House, stood under the flag of the Town of Falmouth in the Hall of Flags, and visited the House and Senate Chambers. Then we moved on to the Museum of African American History, had a great 30-minute talk about the history of the Abiel Smith School, which is now the museum, and the African American Meeting House.

We ended our tour with lunch at Ma Maison, a French restaurant on Cambridge Street. And I was delighted when I got home and found that the daffodils outside my front door have opened fully.
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Now I am panicked. I leave on Thursday morning for a trip to North Carolina to visit my sister and I am NOT ready. Tomorrow is going to be one busy day.

2022 Life Logs, Day 80: Happy Birthday to Ollie (his actual birth date)
Date: Monday, March 21, 2022
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Windy PM; High 54, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Ollie’s birthday celebration went on all weekend, but today was the actual day. When I went to pick up Ollie and Jonah to take them to music lessons this afternoon, they were out in the middle of the road with the remote-controlled truck which was my main present to Ollie. He loves it because it is all-terrain and fast. As I approached the driveway, I could hear him yelling, “Oma, it goes as fast as a real car!” He was one happy little boy. Happy Birthday, Ollie.

Tomorrow morning, I lead a small group on a field trip to Boston. We are visited the State House and the Museum of African American History and then having lunch at a French restaurant, Ma Maison. But a day trip to Boston means an early start. So, I need to wrap up this day and get to bed. Hopefully I’ll have a great report tomorrow night on the field trip.

2022 Life Logs, Day 79: First Day of Spring Brings More Birthday Fun
Date: Sunday, March 20, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 58, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The weather today was warm enough, but it was mostly cloudy and didn’t look so much like spring. But there are signs that spring is here. The daffodils just outside my front door look like they will burst open any minute. The chives are two inches tall and the vinca forest cover is beginning to bloom.

I did some outside work today, but somehow everything seems to be taking way more time than it should. Slowly but surely, I will get there.

This evening we celebrated Marti’s birthday (Jed’s mother) which was today and Ollie’s a day early. We started with a few moments of silence on the back deck just to breathe in spring and toast the birthdays. Then we moved inside for dinner. Ollie requested duck breast and smashed potatoes with salad for dinner and all was delicious.

Then the birthday cakes were brought out. Heather and Ollie constructed a replica of a Ninja warriors warped wall. I had seen a warped wall before yesterday’s Ninja birthday party, but I didn’t know the name. It is just a curved ramp to run up, similar to a half-pipe. But it is high and very difficult to get to the top. Of course, the cake was small compared to the real thing, but it was probably 18 inches high, chocolate inside, with black chocolate icing. Heather, with Ollie’s help, did an amazing job.

Marti’s cake was from Whole Foods at my suggestion. Through my dining-in group, I have been introduced to the Whole Foods Berry Chantilly cake. With mascarpone icing and fresh berries on top as well as inside, it is both beautiful and delicious. Then from dessert, we moved to opening presents.

It looked more like Christmas than a birthday, but then it was two birthdays. Ollie has shown a real interest in art this year, so many of his presents were arts supplies. But he was very impressed with the 100-year-old silver dollar from Marti. Impressive. Happy Birthday to Ollie and Marti!