2021 Life Logs, Day 243: Boat Trip to Chappaquiddick
Date: Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 83, Low Temp 65 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Neighbors Andrew and Lara invited the Goldpebbles and me for a boat adventure across the Sound today. We went to Chappaquiddick and beached the boat so the kids could play on the beach and in the water. If squeals of joy are any indication that they were having a good time, I would definitely say they did. We ate a picnic lunch on the boat, up anchored, did a boat tour of the Edgartown Harbor, and then ‘flew’ back across the Sound to the Eel River and beached the boat on Washburn Island. Just as we came in, the ice cream boat appeared, so the kids had ice cream and did some exploration on the island. When they got back in the water to get onboard the boat, they spotted a big red-striped jellyfish with red stripes radiating from the center. We Googled it and think it was a type of sea-nettle (Chrysaora melanaster) whose sting can be quite painful. If anyone reading this knows for sure what it was, let me know. Then it was home and time to get Jonah home for soccer practice. Sam sprained his ankle yesterday and did not go to practice today. Hopefully he will be back at it tomorrow.

Rainy weather is headed our way tomorrow. I have my dining-in group coming late tomorrow afternoon and am hoping the rain will hold off. But there is a 100 percent chance of rain midnight and on into Thursday. Then the weather improves again. Hopefully we will have a nice Labor Day Weekend.

2021 Life Logs, Day 242: Sandwich Glass Factory AM; Fun at 43 Grasmere PM
Date: Monday, August 30, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 82, Low Temp 68 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The Goldpebbles requested that we visit the Sandwich Glass Museum before the end of summer vacation, so we did that this morning. There were previous summers where I felt I was almost forcing them to go there, but now they have become very interested in the art of glass blowing. We arrived just in time for the first glass blowing demonstration of the day. Two years ago when we visited, we saw the same glass blower, but all he could do was blow round glass balls. He has improved and can now make all sorts of things. First, he made a cat and then he moved on to make a fancy little vase. The whole demonstration kept the attention of all of us.
Then we visited a special exhibit of what I would call a psychedelic lighted glass sculptures with names like Magic Garden, Sea Horse, and People. Then we toured the various rooms with glass displays. Ollie was mesmerized by the blown glass marble run and all the boys loved a display of big bowls. One of them looked like it was made of sea weed instead of glass.
We returned to my house to have lunch and pick up Charlie and Lena from next door. The boys had invited them to their house for the afternoon to play soccer in the backyard and have fun on the trampoline. Lena gave a real chuckle a few times during the afternoon when she would come to sit with me because “the boys are being wild as boys just do.”

A great big thank you to Peter and Karen Baranowski for loaning me a car for the next day or two while my car is in the shop to have the brakes checked. When I drove home from Heather and Jed’s at the end of the day, Karen met me at Sullivan Tire where I dropped off my car. Lena, Charlie, and I transferred to her car, took her home, and then returned my house. It is wonderful to have good friends who have your back.

2021 Life Logs, Day 241: Sunday Fun
Date: Sunday, August 29, 2021
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 73, Low Temp 69 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

My new summer ‘almost’ next door neighbors are Andrew and Lara. They have three children. Lena is Ollie’s age, Charlie is Jonah’s age, and Lily is just a few months older than Sam. The kids love to play together, so this afternoon Ollie and Jonah came over to play with Lena and Charlie while Lara and Lily went to Woods Hole to meet with Jed while he fed the fish they use for research purposes. He then gave them an overview of the research done by his lab. Lily hopes to become a scientist some day and really appreciated the time Jed spent with her. Then while I was out taking Shadow for a late day walk and wondering what I was going to fix for dinner, Andrew called and invited me to dinner at their house. We ended up talking way too long but what a fun way to begin this last week of summer vacation.

2021 Life Logs, Day 240: What a Difference 20 Degrees Make
Date: Saturday, August 28, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny, Windy, Felt Cool; High Temp 73, Low Temp 60 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Yesterday it was in the nineties. Today the high was almost 20 degrees cooler and the wind was coming from the north. A high of 73 should not feel cool, but after the past few days, it did. I spent my day getting the lawn furniture out of the basement and back in the yard. I put it away to get ready for Henri, but I am hosting my dining-in group this Wednesday and needed the tables and chairs back in the yard. I also did some shopping for a few things I need for the dinner. I found compostable and biodegradable plates made of palm leaves that have fallen and are collected, dried, cleaned, and pressed to make a plate and salad bowls. Since we are eating outside, I decided to go with plates that can be composted instead of carried back inside to be washed.

I talked to two members of the dining-in group this morning, and both were celebrating wedding anniversaries. Today was the 50th wedding anniversary for Karen and Peter Baranowski and yesterday was the 55th anniversary for Olivia and Terry White. Happy anniversary to good friends!

When I got home this evening from my shopping trip, I had a wonderful Skype video call with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. I got to see Ziggy and Coco’s bedrooms that have been recently updated and they look great. Yesterday was the end of their first week of school and I got to hear all about that. They are in a school called Arts and Beyond that has grown along with Ziggy. His class is the oldest and this is the first year they have had a seventh grade. The school plans to add eighth grade next year and then Ziggy will have to find a new school for high school. He has been spending time doing animation using his iPad and adding to his repertoire on a keyboard he was given by a friend last spring. He is also continuing to write programming for games. He is one busy twelve-year-old. Coco keeps busy, but much of her time is spent socializing. She seems much more interested in friends than in school, but says she loves school because it is fun. She gets to see friends! Jo has taken a part-time position teaching English at Arts and Beyond and is enjoying that. Things are going well on Finca Maravilla.

2021 Life Logs, Day 239: Finally, Too Hot for Me
Date: Friday, August 27, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Hot; High Temp 91, Low Temp 66 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The high temperature in the past few days has been in the upper 80’s with high humidity and lots of people were complaining. But not me. I love hot. But today was a different story. I assumed the high today was the same as in the past two days, but my body reacted differently. I took Shadow for a walk at high noon and when I got home my clothes were soaking wet from sweat and I was so exhausted that I really couldn’t do anything but sit outside in the shade and eat watermelon and drink water. I finally gained enough energy to eat lunch, but that didn’t do it. I just wanted to take a nap, but it was almost time to go pick up the boys. Jonah had a school open house this afternoon making today’s pick-up time 2 pm instead of noon. By the time I got to Heather and Jed’s I was feeling better and their air-conditioned house felt so good. But I continued to move in a slower gear for the rest of the afternoon. Thankfully all I had to do was sit in the shade and watch the boys having fun in the water on the Maui mat with neighbor kids, Charlie and Lena.

At the end of the day, we met Heather and Jed at the beach and getting into the water finally did it for me. I was back to normal. As I do every evening, I check the daily high and low temperature when I start of write this log. It was just now that I discovered it was in the 90’s today. Those extra few degrees hotter must have been just a little too much for me. It is currently down to 75 degrees and that is supposed to be the high for tomorrow. Whew! We are going to get a break from the heat. But if the temperature rises again, I will check the temp before going on a mid-day walk.

2021 Life Logs, Day 237: Beach Day with a Surprise Ending
Date: Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 88, Low Temp 69 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It was a hot, sunny day today with a high temperature of 88. This morning Ollie and I went to the Falmouth Arts Center weaving open house and then went to pick Sam up from soccer practice 30 minutes early. The coach decided it was just too hot to continue practice. Tomorrow is supposed to be about the same, so he might need to be picked up early again. Because of the heat, it seemed like a good afternoon to spend time in the water, so we went to Menauhant Beach. We had to leave to take Sam to do yardwork for friend Olga Mitchell, but then Ollie, Jonah, and I returned to the beach before ending the day at my house. I left Ollie and Jonah to take showers while I went back to pick up Sam and then took all three boys home. Just as I was getting ready to leave to take them home, I got a call from Midge Frieswyk. She had an extra ticket for a Jamaica Night dinner at Coonamessett Farm and wanted to know if I could join her. And I did. The dinner was great and Midge and I had a lovely evening together. Thank you, Midge.

2021 Life Logs, Day 236: Just a Fun Summer Day
Date: Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 84, Low Temp 69 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

As I have all summer, I let Sam, Jonah, and Ollie basically set our agenda each day for Camp Oma. I offer ideas, as do they, and then they decide what we will do on any given day. Their goal for the summer was to have mornings at home to read, relax, and play and then spend afternoons doing low-key summer activities. Their plan for today was to go to the Sandwich Glass Museum or go play mini-golf. We ended up doing neither. Sam made last minute plans with a friend to go downtown for lunch after his morning soccer practice and when I picked him up he expressed interest in going to the Glass Museum on a day when he could go. I let Jonah and Ollie make the decision and they definitely wanted to wait and go with Sam on another afternoon. Then they decided that rather than go play mini-golf, they would like to play at home, go to Trotting Park to practice soccer kicks, and I added to that the suggestion that we go to Highfield Hall to have a picnic lunch and play in the stick house built by artisans last summer. We went with this revised plan.

Our picnic lunch at Highfield was at the base of a huge old American Beech tree (Fagus grandifolia) planted by the Beebee family when they lived on the property in the late 1800’s. We then moved to the front lawn of the mansion and had dessert sitting on a stone bench in the shade with the stick house as our view. Just looking at it invites you to want to play hide and seek in its twists and turns, so we did. Since we were there, I asked the boys if they would like to go inside the mansion to see the current art exhibits focused on the sea. One is named SeaChange and is “a call to action that explores the interconnectedness of all living things: our responsibilities toward our environment, our efforts to recognize the fragility of our Earth, and the need to restore balance to preserve it.” The second exhibit was Turn the Tide which “explores the dual threats of climate change and ocean acidification.” Ollie and Jonah both seemed to enjoy the exhibit, but the thing that impressed them both the most was a visit to the men’s room at the end of our visit. They went in and came right back out with Jonah almost screaming, “Oma, you have to come in here and see this.” There was no one else in the bathroom, so I looked in. It is a jaw-dropping beautiful bathroom with tiled floors and walls that made it look like an art exhibit. Next time I am at Highfield, I will have to find the women’s room and check it out.

We went home to pick up Sam and go to the Crooked Coast store. Crooked Coast is a local music group that has a small shop that sells their paraphernalia. We have tried to catch them open all summer, but once again we were unsuccessful. So, we headed to soccer field for the boys to practice kicking goals with the new soccer balls they bought yesterday. We then had to head home for the Goldpebbles to get showered and dressed for an evening of outside fun for the families of Woodwell Climate Change Research Center on their campus. And I had to rush home to pick up Shadow and go to a 5:30 pm dog training class. It was a day filled with summer fun.

2021 Life Logs, Day 235: Shopping Spree with the Goldpebbles
Date: Monday, August 23, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Rain Late; High Temp 82, Low Temp 71 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

You know your grandsons are growing up when I am the one that wanted to go to the beach to play and they are the ones that ones that wanted to go shopping for clothes. And they knew exactly what they wanted. Ollie wanted Columbia shorts and shirts. Sam wanted Nike shorts, t-shirts, and soccer cleats. And Jonah wanted Nike or Adidas soccer cleats. He has enough hand-me-downs from Sam that he doesn’t have to worry about buying school clothes this year. The Wrentham Outlet sounded like the one place that might have all of these things, so off we went with masks and Heather’s credit card in hand. I became the mode of transportation instead of the adult forcing kids to go look for back-to-school clothes. When did this change come about?

I think I can speak for the boys in saying that we had a good time. Since Sam has a phone, we could split up and stay in contact via text. We decided on a place to meet if our phones failed (the Lindt Chocolate store—yum!!), walked past it to get our bearings and then on to the Nike outlet. On the way there was a great children’s climbing playground. It was too crowded for the boys to try out, but they thought it was a great idea to have a play area in the middle of an outlet mall. When we got to Nike, there was a long line to enter, so Sam and Jonah waited in line while Ollie and I walked to the Columbia outlet. He wanted shorts, but the closest we could find were long pants that zip off above the knee to make shorts. He decided that was a good deal as he could wear the shorts when it is hot and add the zip-ons when the weather gets colder. Then he saw the type of Columbia shirts granddad always wore. He loved the colors, one bright blue shirt and one bright green one. The shirts are long-sleeved, but you can roll up the sleeves, so he bought one of each. Not cheap, but he was so pleased with his choices. When we were walking back to the Nike store, I got a text from Sam saying that he and Jonah found nothing at Nike and were now in the Burton store. Their thinking was that if you can’t find school clothes and soccer cleats, you might as well get ready for snowboarding this winter and Burton is the place to do that. Sam found a wild pair of snowboarding pants and some t-shirts that he just had to have. Then it was on to Adidas. Sam and Jonah tried on pair after pair of soccer cleats, but in every case, the ones they really liked were not available in their size. Jonah found the cleats of his dreams, but they were a half size too long. They were $250 cleats on sale for 50 percent off because they were last pair of that style. He was disappointed but took it in stride and we decided to give up outlet shopping for the day. We made one last necessary stop at the Lindt Chocolate store to buy a sampling of truffles to eat while we traveled on to the next exit on the way home to a store called We Got Soccer. Jed had suggested we look there for cleats and Sam was successful. He found a pair of Nikes that he loved. So did Jonah, but Jonah’s weren’t on sale and were insanely expensive. He made the decision to try to find them cheaper online and bought a soccer ball instead. Sam and Ollie also decided to buy soccer balls and I drove home with three happy boys. And I have to say, it was more fun than I have ever had shopping.

2021 Life Logs, Day 234: Henri Goes Easy on the Cape
Date: Sunday, August 22, 2021
Weather: Overcast, Windy, Rainy; High Temp 77, Low Temp 73 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Henri went from tropical storm to hurricane, back to tropical storm and now a tropical depression in twenty-four hours. And although downgraded, Henri is certainly still with us. Lucky for Cape Cod, Henri went easy on us. We have had a windy day, but certainly not as windy as we have gotten with a nor’easter. We got some rain early and then lots of mist for the rest of the day, but not enough to cause any serious issues. There are thousands of people in New England without power, some of them in Massachusetts, but as of yet, just not as many as expected. We have to remember, however, that Henri is not finished with us. It is moving very slowly, still to the west and is expected to turn back to the east tomorrow. In the meantime, the storm is wrecking havoc in New York and New Jersey with so much rain that they are having flash floods.

Like most people, I stayed home all day. As I walked Shadow through the neighborhood, it felt like a ghost town. Not one car passed by us, and I saw no one outside. Just me and my Shadow. Other than walking with Shadow and playing ball with him, I spent the entire day in the kitchen. With tomatoes I picked in my garden, I made a batch of marinara sauce to can and I made tomato pesto that I will freeze. I also made a wild rice and mushroom casserole. Heather and I share my canner and it is at her house right now. I’ll get it when I go get the boys at noon tomorrow. Sam has high school soccer practice all morning every weekday until school starts, so he will probably just stay home and rest up most afternoons. But Ollie, Jonah, and I will spend the afternoons of the next two weeks enjoying the last days of summer.