2023 Life Logs, Day 255: Seven Years
Date: Monday, September 11, 2023
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Humid, A Little Rain; High 75, Low 68 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Seven years ago tonight, Mark left us, but he is still with me every day. If I had to make a list of the things that Mark did for me, I wouldn’t know where to begin. But I guess the main thing is that he opened my eyes to a world of possibilities that I never knew existed. We dreamed together and then made those dreams come true. My life will never be the same without him, but I live each day as Mark would want me to … looking to the future, dreaming of what comes next, and making plans to make sure those dreams come true.

Kevin and Claire dedicated their day to checking things off my to do list. And I am so grateful. They fixed clocks that haven’t worked for a couple of years, got the leaf on my dining room table properly attached, put up cup hooks under my cabinets that I just couldn’t do, and best of all, fixed the bedroom closet door that the flooring installers broke before I moved in here. It was one of four folding doors and finding a match to replace it seemed impossible. But with Claire’s stash of odds and ends that included the exact screw we needed, a stick from the yard, some epoxy, a drill, and a lot of ingenuity, that door is now up and working. This evening, Lynda, the friend that owns this house I live in, stopped by to get her mail after a week away. She was delighted that the closet door was finally fixed. She stayed and visited a bit and Kevin and Claire told her the story of how we met. Before Lynda left, I made sure she went into the garden to pick her ripe tomatoes in our garden. She beamed like a little kid in a candy shop. It seems my living here is a win-win for both of us.

Kevin, Claire, and I spent our evening talking about the Voyage of Windbird, my favorite topic. They had never seen my PowerPoint Presentation, so we went through that and then they gave me suggestions for things I can do to improve it. In November, I am giving that presentation to the Falmouth Newcomers for the third time in seven years. There are new members, but I really wanted input on how to change it up to still engage those who have seen it before. Their main suggestion was to tell stories that exemplify the closeness of the cruising community. In a world so divided, that suggestion makes all the sense in the world. And I have some wonderful stories to share.

2023 Life Logs, Day 254: Kevin and Claire Arrive
Date: Sunday, September 10, 2023
Weather: Overcast, Humid, A Little Rain; High 77, Low 68 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

It was not a beautiful day outside today, but it was certainly a beautiful one inside. Kevin and Claire arrived mid-afternoon. We spent the afternoon catching up on life and preparing for a family dinner tonight. Heather, Jed, and boys were returning from a weekend camping trip late this afternoon and were then going to join us. Tomorrow is the 7th anniversary of Mark’s death and I wanted our dinner to be a celebration of his life. I don’t know if Kevin and Claire adopted Mark and me, or we adopted them, but from the time we met, Kevin and Claire were family. So, it was fabulous to have them with us tonight. If only Justin and family could have been here, it would have been complete.

Kevin and Claire are my friends, but they are the ages of my children. Kevin and Justin share the same birthdate of September 14, just not the same year. Kevin, Claire, and Jed all went to undergraduate school at Yale, so they have that in common. And we all love sailing, so there is always a lot to talk about. The table will piled high with food and we devoured most of it, and talked way past bedtime for the boys who have to go to school early in the morning. But I wouldn’t trade the time we had together for anything. I almost felt like Mark was there with us.

2023 Life Logs, Day 253: Canning Day
Date: Saturday, September 9, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 80, Low 69 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Today was canning day for those tomatoes I processed yesterday. I ended up with 24 pints of marinara sauce from the 30 pounds of organic sauce tomatoes. Hopefully with what is left over from last year, this will be enough to get the Goldstones through the winter.

Tomorrow my good friends Kevin and Claire arrive. They can only stay a couple of days, but we’ll just make the best of the time we have together. Today I heard from another friend, Peppe Christianson, and she and her sister that she is visiting in New Hampshire are hoping to come for a few days, arriving on September 23. And then Lynne Kirwin, my friend who lives in New Zealand but visits with family in Michigan each summer, is hoping to come right after that to spend a few days. My September days are filling up quickly! But that is fine with me as I am really looking forward to the visits.

2023 Life Logs, Day 252: Tomatoes
Date: Friday, September 8, 2023
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 82, Low 71 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

It is that time, time to process tomatoes and can marinara sauce for the winter. So, my day was mostly spent in the kitchen. But when I did go out on the deck for a break, the hummingbird that loves my firecracker plant came to visit. I tried to get a photo, but this is when I realized the limits of a cell phone camera. My Google Pixel phone camera is great, but it can’t capture small, fast-moving creatures like a hummingbird. Made me think I need to buy a ‘real’ camera.

Tomorrow, I spend the day canning tomatoes, and then on Sunday, Kevin and Claire arrive. Heather and family are in western Massachusetts for the weekend. They are all doing a Boy Scout camp out weekend with white water rafting tomorrow. I never knew there were places to do white water rafting in this state, but there certainly are. Can’t wait to hear all about it.

2023 Life Logs, Day 251: Some Like It Hot
Date: Thursday, September 7, 2023
Weather: Hot; High 84, Felt Like 91, Low 70 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Some like it hot, and I am one of those people. I love summer and I love hot weather, just not extremely hot weather. Here on the Cape, we often have a ‘hot’ first week of school, but that ‘hot’ weather is usually in the 70’s. A high temperature of 84 that feels like 91 in September on the Cape is hotter than normal. Sam and Jonah were both supposed to have soccer games at 4 pm this afternoon, but those games had to rescheduled for 6 pm due to the extreme heat. I went out to play catch with Shadow at 6 pm as I do most every day, and today he simply stopped playing and fell to the ground. He does that when he is tired, but today he didn’t get up. I finally got him to drink some water and then he went to the door to wait to get back inside. He has never done that before. I know that people in other parts of this country and around the world have high temps 20 degrees or more higher that we do, but this is just scary. I saw an article in the NYT yesterday with a title something to the effect of, “What are the High Temperatures in Your City Going to be in the Future?” I didn’t read it, but I am going to go back and find that article. We can’t bury our heads in the sand. We have to be prepared. And I have to remember to not run my Shadow so hard when it is this hot. What was I thinking?

My project today and tomorrow is processing the 30 pounds of organic paste tomatoes that I bought yesterday. I waited too late this year and won’t be able to buy my usual 90 to 120 pounds to turn into marinara sauce. We will just have to make do with less this winter or breakdown and buy commercially canned organic sauce. A few years ago, when Heather and I started the annual canning of enough marina sauce to get them through the winter, there was no organic sauce to buy. At least now we have that option.

2023 Life Logs, Day 250: Happy 20th Anniversary to Heather and Jed
Date: Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Weather: Hot and Hazy; High 81, Low 69 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

When I talked to Justin on Sunday, he asked me what I thought about having a son with a graying beard. And today Heather and Jed celebrated 20 years of marriage. I guess both should make me feel old, but they don’t. I’m just grateful that both of my children are happily married and that each is living their version of the good life. I went back through my photos this evening to see what we were doing on September 6 of each year since 2003. Of course, in 2003 we were in Boothbay, Maine, surrounded by family for a fabulous wedding weekend. Then it was not until Mark and I returned from our sail around the world that I have photos of Heather, Jed, and boys on the anniversary day. In 2011, we were all (minus Ollie who was not yet born) having an anniversary dinner aboard Windbird in Woods Hole for the 8th anniversary.

01 Anniversary Dinner on Windbird

For number 10 in 2013, Heather and Jed went out dinner while Mark and I stayed with the boys. It was the first year that the anniversary photo included all three boys.

01 Look What Ten Years Can Do

A milestone. In 2017, I went with the whole family to Anejo on Main Street in Falmouth to celebrate number 14, and then in 2021, we had a family dinner on the deck to celebrate the 18th anniversary and Rosh Hashanah. Tonight’s photo was the first I have with no children in it.Number 10 was the first with all three kids in the picture and number 20 is with none. Another milestone in life. Last year, September 6th was the first day of school and I have no anniversary photo—just photos of boys. Tonight, Heather and Jed went out to dinner at Bleu in Mashpee, and I am holding down the fort with those three boys. Happy Anniversary, Heather and Jed. Unless I live to be 96, I won’t be around for another 20 years, but I can only imagine what those years will bring … college and careers for Sam, Jonah, and Ollie, hopefully three marriages that will be as loving and lasting as Heather and Jed’s has been, grandchildren, and retirement years. Mark and I were married for 42 years, and each year just got better and better. I hope the same for Heather and Jed. At the 20-year mark, they have only just begun.

I enjoyed a wonderful morning sailing aboard L’Escargot with Jane and Bruce Woodin and Sam Paterson. It was a truly delightful sail. We had about 7 knots of wind, but as Bruce said, Sam is the master of sailing in light winds. Thank you, Bruce, Jane, and Sam.

2023 Life Logs, Day 249: First Day of School
Date: Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Weather: Yet Another Beautiful Day; High 85, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

Today was the first day of school. Heather sent a photo of the three boys, two of them not looking so happy. Sam and Jonah had to get up at 6 am this morning to get ready to be at school by 7:20 am. Brutal. This was the first day of this for Jonah, so he was looking particularly grumpy. Ollie got up a bit early to be in the photo, but somehow he managed a smile.

At the end of another beautiful day, I had to go to Walmart to buy something. When I walked out, I was stopped in my tracks by the gorgeous red sails on the sunset. From my new abode on Lakeview Avenue, I see neither the sunrise nor the sunset. I am going to have to make a habit of driving to the beach (or Walmart) near sunset this fall to see more sunsets.

Late this afternoon, I drove to the high school to see the first Falmouth High School soccer game of the season. Sam (number 12) did play in a tournament this past weekend, but this was the first official game. Both the JV and Varsity teams won their games this afternoon and Jonah (number 14) managed to get two goals for the JV.

2023 Life Logs, Day 248: No Labor on Labor Day
Date: Monday, September 4, 2023
Weather: Yet Another Beautiful Day; High 77, Low 65 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

On this beautiful day, I took the opportunity to do absolutely nothing. It really wasn’t a choice as the little bit of gardening and weed pulling I did yesterday set my back issues back a bit. I just have to stop doing those things I love but that I know will aggravate the two herniated disks in my back. And that is hard for me. But I actually enjoyed my day doing nothing. I sat in the sun, took a nap, played with Shadow, and read my book. I should do this more often!

Heather and gang returned from their weekend sail and invited me over for dinner. School starts tomorrow, Sam will be a junior in high school, Ollie will be in sixth grade, and Jonah … Jonah will be in high school. Hard to believe. Yesterday I had a long Skype conversation with Justin, Coco, and Ziggy. Jo is in England this week attending the wedding of a cousin. And Ziggy, like Jonah, is now a freshman in high school as well. Coco is home schooling for her sixth-grade year, and Ziggy is attending a private high school in Mayaguez. I said I did nothing today, but I did spend part of my evening trying to figure out when I can go to visit Justin, Jo, and the kids in Puerto Rico. I would love to go for Christmas, but the airfare is two to three times what it would in a non-holiday time. Plus, Heather, Jed, and kids will be in Maine and who would keep my Shadow? I’ll spend more time researching this and figure it out.

2023 Life Logs, Day 247: A Weekend of Beautiful Days and Sunsets
Date: Sunday, September 3, 2023
Weather: Yet Another Beautiful Day; High 76, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

It has been a weekend of beautiful days and sunsets. Heather, Jed, and the boys have spent the weekend sailing Ardenna across Buzzards Bay from Marion to Quissett Harbor to Vineyard Haven and this afternoon to Great Harbor in Woods Hole. I met them in Quissett Harbor on Friday evening for the first beautiful sunset and then this evening in Woods Hole. Sam’s friend Robert joined them last night in Vineyard Haven, spent the night aboard, and sailed with them to Woods Hole and we all enjoyed the sunset together. “Believe me my friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” So says Ratty to Mole in Kenneth Grahame’s classic novel ‘The Wind in the Willows’. And so says me.

2023 Life Logs, Day 246: Another Beautiful Day
Date: Saturday, September 2, 2023
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; High 70, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA

I got up at 5:45 am to go take Sam to Falmouth High School. He was meeting up with his soccer team to take a school bus to Nauset for a soccer tournament. I then came home and went back to bed for too long, got up and sat on the front deck with Shadow for a bit, went for a walk with Shadow, went to the store, made zucchini bread, and suddenly it was time to go back to pick up Sam. I took him home to shower and pack to go to the Vineyard to meet up with his parents and I went to a gathering of friends on Midge Frieswyk’s front deck. I then came back to pick up Sam to take him to the ferry in Woods Hole. By 7 pm, he was in a dinghy with his brothers and his friend Robert whose parents have a family home on the Vineyard. And I was back home with Shadow having dinner. That’s what I did on this beautiful Cape Cod day. I’m hoping for another tomorrow so I can do some gardening.