2021 Life Logs, Day 223: Kevin and Claire Arrive
Date: Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 78, Low Temp 72 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

After having no visitors during the past almost year and a half due to Covid, I’m making up for it all in one week. Good friends Detta and Tom arrived yesterday and left this afternoon after spending a time touring Woods Hole this morning. Then tonight, Kevin and Claire arrived. Kevin and Claire are closer in age to our children than to me, but we became life-long friends in 2003 when we were living aboard our boats in Boston. Claire was getting her PhD at Harvard Medical at the time and bought a boat to live aboard instead of paying the high cost of rent in Boston. At the same time, Mark and I left our land life and moved aboard Windbird in the same marina. We hit it off and the rest is history.

Detta, Tom, and I drove to Woods Hole this morning and walked through the village. We stopped at Coffee O to get coffee, visited WHOI’s Ocean Discovery Center, had lunch on the deck of the Woods Hole Market, and watched one of WHOI’s research vessels, Atlantis, come in to dock. Atlantis is 273 feet long and backed into a spot on the dock. It was the most amazing parallel parking job any of us had ever seen. Atlantis is the host vessel for the deep submergence vehicle, Alvin.

As is often the case in the summer, it was foggy in Woods Hole today, but when we got back home the sun was shining. It was time for Tom and Detta to head home and time for me to take a nap. Since Detta and I had stayed up talking until 2 am, I felt I deserved a nap! Then this evening Kevin and Claire arrived. We spent a couple of hours catching up on life and will continue tomorrow. I am so envious and so impressed with the two of them. They spent their time during Covid working on becoming super healthy. They switched their diet to be plant-based and have both shed many pounds. They look like teenagers and have both lowered their cholesterol numbers by 100 points each. That is impressive. I’m hoping to spend some of our time together learning from them. I could definitely benefit from losing more than a few pounds myself.

Shadow is loving the company. She spent as much time as possible beside Detta and Tom, and she continued tonight with Kevin and Claire. He is loving all of the attention.

2021 Life Logs, Day 222: Walk to the Knob with Detta and Tom
Date: Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 73, Low Temp 70 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Friends from New Hampshire, Detta and Tom Porat, arrived today. I met them in Cataumet at the Chartroom at Kingman Yacht Center for lunch. They have nicely spaced outside tables, so it felt Covid-safe and we all enjoyed the ‘yachtie’ atmosphere. Then it was home to pick up Shadow and take him with us for a walk out to the Knob in Quissett Harbor.
No matter how many times I do that walk, it is always beautiful. We went home to sit down by the dock to enjoy our wine. We ended the day with a lighter than planned dinner as we were still full from lunch and then Detta and I talked into the wee hours of the morning. So good to be with them again.

2021 Life Logs, Day 221: To the Bridge and Back, Times Three
Date: Monday, August 9, 2021
Weather: Rainy; High Temp 76, Low Temp 67 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I spent my day driving up to the Bourne Bridge and back home again, over and over. The trip takes about 20-25 minutes one way depending on traffic and I had to make the trip three times today. I took Shadow to the groomer at 9 am, came home, went back for an 11 am doctor appointment, and then back at 2:30 pm to pick up Shadow.

Tonight was much more fun. Our dining-in group gathered at Terry and Olivia White’s for a wonderful Indian dinner. It was Bruce Woodin’s birthday, so we celebrated that with an ice cream cake from Smitty’s. Happy Birthday, Bruce!

2021 Life Logs, Day 220: On to Paris 2024
Date: Sunday, August 8, 2021
Weather: Cloudy; High Temp 79, Low Temp 68 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I watched the 2020 Tokyo Olympics right up to the end and will now look forward to the Summer Game in Paris 2024. Heather, Sam, and Jonah arrived in Boothbay this evening and I will be on kitty and guinea pig duty until they return. I got a call from friends Kevin and Claire and as we talked, they made a decision to come visit this week. Can’t wait to see them. Tuesday friend Detta Porat comes for one day. I’m not sure Tom is going to be able to come with her, but we’ll just have to have fun for him while he stays at home to oversee a construction project. Then Wednesday night, Kevin and Claire will arrive. Looks like this is going to be a week of visiting with good friends. Can’t wait.

2021 Life Logs, Day 219: Saturday Mix of Work and Play
Date: Saturday, August 7, 2021
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 78, Low Temp 68 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Yesterday I learned that Heather and Jed are having a team come in to paint their front hallway while they are in Maine. This means that access to their laundry room will be difficult. I had been putting off doing laundry until after Heather, Sam, and Jonah leave for Maine tomorrow, but decided that I should get that done today so as not to interfere with the workers. Besides, I wanted to see Sam and Jonah when they returned from Scout camp this afternoon, so I timed going to do the laundry so I would be there when they got home. While waiting for the laundry to dry, I turned on the television to watch the Olympics. When the boys got home, they both shared that they had a fantastic week, and then they turned their attention to the Olympics trying to catch up on what had happened all week while they were gone. They will leave for Maine in the morning as soon as all the laundry from camp has been washed and dried and the house is ready for painters. Looks like they should have nice weather to enjoy their time in Boothbay.

Tonight I was invited to dinner at a friend’s home with a two other couples that I have met but don’t know well. It was great to get to know them better and to enjoy a great meal. Thank you, Christina and Warren Brodie for a wonderful evening!

2021 Life Logs, Day 218: Dump the Cleaning, Work on Weaving
Date: Friday, August 6, 2021
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 78, Low Temp 65 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Ahh, sunshine. The rain ended and today was a sunny day. But as I walked Shadow in the woods by the house, I noticed that lines coming from the telephone pole on the street were draping low through the trees. We followed the line and I discovered that my TV and internet cable came loose from the house is on the ground. I will call on Monday to get Comcast to come fix the problem. I don’t want them to touch anything until the Olympics are over, however. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is my motto for now.
As Shadow and I walked through the forest, we also saw an abundance of huge fungi growing as a result of the two days of rain.

I dumped the cleaning routine today and focused on other things. One of those things was to dust off an old treasure to see if I can get it in working order. The ‘old treasure’ is a weaving loom that Mark and I bought in the 1970’s. As part of our ‘back to land’ move, we bought a loom and a spinning wheel. I guess we thought we would get sheep and spin and weave our own cloth. Well, that didn’t happen. We did get sheep when we moved to West Virginia in 1979 and we did spin some of the wool into yarn and we did weave a few items. I say ‘we’, but it was mostly Mark. When I was cleaning out the basement this spring, I decided I should sell the loom. It had been in storage for almost 40 years. But Heather thought maybe the boys would like a go at weaving, so I kept it. Today a woman from the Falmouth Art Center volunteered to come look at the loom parts with me and give me an assessment as to whether it was worth keeping.
After we figured out how to put it back together, she said it is a good loom and that I have all the parts. It needs a good cleaning and I need to buy a couple of new parts. Once I do that, she will come back and help me get it set up for weaving. I am so thankful that I stopped by the Falmouth Art Center a couple of months to see if they could help me. The Director hooked me up with the weaver who met with me today. The Falmouth Art Center is a treasure as well as that old loom.

2021 Life Logs, Day 217: Not My Thing
Date: Thursday, August 5, 2021
Weather: Overcast with Continued Rain; High Temp 71, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Two days ago I said in this log that I would not be winning any gold medals for my house cleaning hurdles this week. That is still true, but today I decided I just might pull out of the games. I’ve never loved house cleaning, but I am finding it intolerable right now. It is just not my thing right now. I’d rather go get a job so I could pay someone else to crawl on their hands and knees to clean floor level cabinets. I will persist, but I am having trouble convincing myself that this is fun. What was fun was watching the US women’s soccer team win the Bronze. It was not the Gold they were expected to win, but today’s game against Australia was a good one. My soccer hero, 36 year-old Megan Rapinoe scored two goals today as did 39 year-old Carli Lloyd. This made Lloyd the first US women’s soccer player to score in four different Olympics. Those two women were the oldest on the field and they were spectacular. If Lloyd decides that this was her last game, she certainly will go out on a high note. And I just finished watching the US ‘A’ Team will the Gold in women’s beach volleyball. April Ross now has a Gold, a Silver, and a Bronze and her new partner, Alix Klineman, gets a Gold in her first Olympic competition.

Despite not liking it, I reached my cleaning goal for today but haven’t set one for tomorrow. Maybe I’ll take the day off. At 1 pm I meet with a woman from the Falmouth Arts Center to have her give me guidance in how to get my table loom up and running. I haven’t used it for 40 years so I am assuming I will need to replace some parts. I took it to Heather’s as Ollie has expressed some interest in learning to weave. It could be a fun winter activity.

This morning I saw a video on Facebook of Camp Yawgoog in Rhode Island where Sam and Jonah are in Scout Camp. It was pouring rain and not a creature was moving about. We had a few hours this afternoon with no rain before it started again. Hopefully that was the case there and the boys got to get out of their tents and do something fun. I’m trying to imagine what a wet, muddy mess the boys’ clothes and shoes will be when Heather picks them up on Saturday. I also saw a post on Heather’s Facebook page of a Newsweek Opinion article from her debate on a Newsweek podcast last week with a climate denier. The debate question was, “Is global warming an emergency?” The headline, “Climate Change Is the Biggest Threat We’re Facing—Period.” Go, Heather. I am posting the article here in case you are interested in reading it.

OPINION
Climate Change Is the Biggest Threat We’re Facing—Period. |
HEATHER GOLDSTONE
CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, THE WOODWELL CLIMATE RESEARCH CENTER

The following is a lightly edited transcript of remarks made by Heather Goldstone during a Newsweek podcast debate on climate change. You can listen to the podcast by Googling The Debate Podcast.

Is Global Warming an Emergency?

There is extensive science that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are completely unprecedented. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have not been this high in over 800,000 years. Modern humans have been around for a little bit less than half that. If you look at the last 10,000 years, at the evolution of agriculture, at the entire development of civilization, that has all taken place in a time of remarkable climate stability. It’s that stability that has made it possible for civilization and the societies we know to develop.

The fact that we are now so far outside the bounds of anything that we’ve seen in the course of human evolution is an emergency. It’s a cause for huge concern.

Carbon dioxide has always been in the atmosphere and it’s an incredibly important part of our planet that we have had this warming layer. What’s really critical here is to realize is that you can cherry-pick specific statistics to support an argument, but there is no scientific debate about the fact that the buildup of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is causing dangerous climate change.

So you have to really stop and ask a deep question: What would drive some people to deny an overwhelming body of science that tells us we are headed in a really dangerous direction.

We have a body of science that has begun answering that question. There are a few answers, but in general, what seems to motivate this denial is that when information conflicts with a deeply held worldview, deeply held values or beliefs, we will often reject that information.

When we talk to climate scientists there is no question that human beings are causing dangerous climate change. This conclusion has been come to over and over in large consensus reports in individual studies. Does that mean we know every single thing about climate change? Absolutely not, and nobody’s claiming that. But we certainly know enough to know that we are in the midst of an emergency and that we need to act urgently and dramatically to respond to it.

It’s really a false dichotomy that has been around for a long time, that we have to choose between a healthy environment and a healthy economy, when in actual fact, what the science tells us is that a healthy environment is the underpinning of a healthy economy.

At Woodwell Climate Research Center, we’ve been working with McKinsey and Company, and what our work is showing is that climate change is material, it poses material risks to economic prosperity. Investments in green energy in renewable energy, in the kinds of changes that we need to make to meet the challenge of climate change, they actually earn back more than you invest in them.

In the past month, we have seen more than 500 deaths due to climate change- fueled extreme weather events. They are more extreme and made more extreme and more deadly by climate change.
Heather Goldstone is the chief communications officer of the Woodwell Climate Research Center.

2021 Life Logs, Day 216: Little Women
Date: Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High Temp 71, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

As I sit here writing, I’m looking at the bookshelf in the dining area that I spent yesterday and the entire morning today emptying, cleaning, and putting back together. It looks no different than it did before I started, but I know it is a heck of a lot cleaner. Now the dining table where I am sitting is filled with things from the kitchen cabinets. Every thing has to come out so the shelves and wooden cabinet doors can be cleaned. I also started cleaning the guest bedroom. I took all the bedding to Heather’s to launder and tomorrow I will clean behind and under everything before putting the bed back together.

It has become obvious to me that I didn’t do spring cleaning this year. It is no longer spring, but spring cleaning I am doing now. I spent January to June writing, writing, writing and then cleaning out the basement. This afternoon I went to see the College Light Opera Company’s presentation of Little Women and it was quite enjoyable. The lead role, Louisa May Alcott’s Jo March, was played by a young woman with an incredible voice and great acting skills. Jo is a writer with dreams of seeing the world. It reminded me that I have seen a great deal of the world and it made me want to come straight home and continue my writing about the Voyage of Windbird. But that is going to have to wait until September. If I work full time from now until Tuesday when friends Detta and Tom Porat come to visit, I will maybe, just maybe, finish the house cleaning project. And there is gardening to be done, Olympics to watch, a dog to be trained, and some social engagements on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Just not enough days to do it all. I’ll finish the kitchen and guest bedroom cleaning tomorrow and the rest will get done as time allows. I have another two weeks before the Goldpebbles return, so we’ll see just how much I can get done.

Speaking of Goldpebbles, Jed and Ollie made it to Maine yesterday and we hope Sam and Jonah are enjoying their week at Camp Yawgoog in Rhode Island. At least the photos their Scout Master is posting on Facebook look like they are having a great time. They probably had rain today which might continue into tomorrow, but then Friday should be bright and sunny. Heather will go get Sam and Jonah on Saturday, come home to wash all their dirty laundry, and then pack up and leave for Maine on Sunday morning. Life is good.

2021 Life Logs, Day 215: Just a Day in the Life
Date: Tuesday, August 3, 2021
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 75, Low 61 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I’m not going to win any gold medals for my house cleaning hurdles and dog training sprints, but I’m slowly chipping away at the to do list while relaxing and enjoying life and spending my evenings until almost midnight watching the Olympics. I have been an Olympics junkie all of my adult life, with Summer Olympics being my favorite. Swimming, diving, and gymnastics were always my favorites, but in the 2016 Olympics I added women’s beach volleyball to my favorites list and this year I am loving all of the track and field events and really enjoyed skateboarding and surfing. US Soccer, both the men and with the women’s teams, was a bit of disappointment, but I’ll still watch the US women go for the Bronze. Tonight, I was so proud of Simone Biles on the balance beam, bringing home a Bronze for her performance. I cannot imagine how hard it has been for her to withdraw from the other competitions, but I think the whole world was pulling for her tonight.

The price I pay for staying up so late is that I have been slowed down a bit during the day. But that’s okay. I am making some progress. Today I set up a new aquarium. I think I had some sort of strange algae growing in the old one and decided to retire it for now and try a new one. I made a little progress on window and cabinet cleaning. And I also attended a drop-in hour long dog training class from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. Shadow is making progress, little bit by little bit. But as the trainer, Ian, said this evening, “No matter what the literature says, a ‘doodle’ is a ‘doodle’ and they love to jump.” Shadow is certainly proof of that. He would win Olympic Gold in in any dog running race and the high jump to catch a tennis ball mid-air. Reining him in so he does not jump up on people is proving to be a true challenge, but we will persist.

2021 Life Logs, Day 214: Day Off
Date: Monday, August 2, 2021
Weather: Beautiful Day; High Temp 78, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

What a beautiful day to just lay back and enjoy being. The weather was perfect and it ended up that I didn’t spent the afternoon with Ollie. He was deeply immersed in a building project and then had a friend coming over at 3:30. That meant I had the afternoon off and I enjoyed doing very little. I did roll up the Maui mat. It is 6 feet by 9 feet and is rigid foam. I rolled it as tight as I could and put it in my car to take to the Goldstones. The boys loved taking it to Maine last summer and requested to do the same this year. I did a little shopping for supplies needed for some of my planned projects while I was in town and then headed home to watch the Women’s Soccer Olympic semi-final game between the US and Canada. The US team will not be vying for the Gold in Tokyo as expected. It was a disappointing performance for the US team. Canada has not beaten the US team in twenty years, so they were ecstatic. I finished my evening by watching more Olympics. Hopefully tomorrow I will attack my to do list like some of the Olympic champions attack their races.