2026 Life Logs, Day 116: ‘Tying Off the Ends’ Kind of Day
Date: Sunday, April 26, 2026
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Very Little Rain; High Temp 53, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Some days I end up “chasing my tail” but today I caught my tail and “tied off the ends” of a few things–an upcoming field trip I am leading, a couple of Indivisible projects, a long-overdue issue of where I will be purchasing Nexcare and Heartguard for Shadow now that I have switched vets, and things related to my sister’s care. The latter took the most time. I needed to order some new pants and new blouses for her, and it was not an easy task. She had gained weight, no longer 77 pounds wearing an extra small petite, but still petite. I ended up ordering 3 different sizes of everything and will just return what doesn’t fit. I have also decided to try and get her released from the rehab and back to her home at Terra Bella sooner rather than later. That will entail a lot of phone calls to follow up on emails I wrote today. It was certainly not an exciting day, but I did get a few things done.

Tomorrow I am off to Boston on a field trip. It is a guided walking tour of the downtown historic sights. I have ‘led’ this tour for friends and family, but I have never really been on an ‘official’ tour. So, it should be fun. And now I am going to go in and turn on the television, like I did last night, and see what crazy things might have happened in this country of chaos today.

2026 Life Logs, Day 115: Protests and Films That Matter
Date: Saturday, April 25, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny, Not Warm; High Temp 53, Low 339 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today was the ‘Communities Not Cages’ National Day of Action to stop Ice Warehouse Detention. I am sure you are aware that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are trying to expand their existing detention network beyond jails, prisons, and military bases by buying up large warehouse and industrial spaces for mass detention. Current reporting shows that they are actively scouting, purchasing, and planning to convert approximately 23 warehouses across the nation to detain between 1,500 and 10,000 in EACH warehouse. Warehouses are for goods, not people, and citizens are pushing back on this. Some sales have been stopped, and if that hasn’t worked, renovations have been stopped or slowed way down by protesting townspeople. There is no current threat yet here on the Cape, but we protest to increase awareness and in solidarity with others on the frontline of this battle around the country..
Later in the afternoon I headed to the Waquoit Congregational Church to see two Oscar-nominated short documentaries on immigration and hate, A-Lein and Stranger at the Gate. Both are worth the watch. You can watch A-Lein for free on Vimeo and Stranger at the Gate on YouTube.

Then this evening, I had an Indian dinner with the Goldstones. Ollie got home from his spring break in Florida just in time for dinner. He reported that he had a great time and shared photos he took. One of the highlights, and there were many, was getting to watch the night sky light up like sunrise their first night there. At 3 am, they watched a launch at Cape Canaveral from their AirBnB just a few miles away. That is a memory that won’t be forgotten. And Jonah shared thoughts about the colleges he visited in New Hampshire and Rhode Island this week while we watched the first half of the Inter Miamai versus New England Revolutions soccer game.

I left at half-time, but when I got home, I turned on the television to watch the second half of the soccer game. But I never got to the soccer game. When I turned on the television, I found myself watching people hiding under their tables at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Naturally, that caught my attention. I spent the rest of the evening following that story as it developed. When I first started watching, all anyone could report is that the dinner had just begun when security came rushing into the dinner to whisk away the President and First Lady and the Vice President. Then Cabinet members were escorted out and then it was announced that the loud noise heard by some was gunshot and the perpetrator had been caught. Thankfully, no one attending the dinner was hurt and only one agent was shot at, but his vest protected him. It was not clear who fired the shot. There was not a lot of detail tonight, but we will hear plenty more about this tomorrow.

2026 Life Logs, Day 114: Taking Care of Business
Date: Friday, April 24, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny, Not Warm; High Temp 54, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I only had two ‘work’ related jobs I needed to do today, so I thought it was going to be an easy day. But, not so. I only got one of the two jobs done because I spent most of the morning and early afternoon dealing with issues related to the care (or lack of care) of my sister who is in a rehab facility. Communication with the nursing staff there has been almost non-existent despite the many voice mail messages I have left. I have spoken with the head of PT, and the social case worker (who deals with making sure they are paid) has called me three times. But not one call to the nursing staff or the nursing supervisor has been returned. But since Patsy seemed to be doing fine, I finally just stopped calling. Until today when the paid companion let me know that Patsy’s blood sugar numbers have been steadily climbing and today were well on their way to 400. I started making calls and three hours and many calls later, I was able to get someone to do something about this. Okay, enough ranting about this. It is just so frustrating.

By the time I could go outside and play with Shadow, it was windier, and thus felt colder, than it did early this morning. I wore a lightweight jacket for this morning’s walk, but this afternoon, I needed my winter coat and hat back on. The weather for the foreseeable future looks the same, so the winter coat will stay readily available on the coat rack for now.

The happy news for the day is that Jonah has had a busy spring break doing college tours. Jed took him and his friend Kaiden to tour the campus of the University of New Hampshire on Wednesday and yesterday Heather took them both to tour the University of Rhode Island. Then today Heather took Jonah and fellow soccer players to a tournament in Weymouth (near Boston). Ollie returns home from his Scouting trip to Florida tomorrow. And I got a class picture from Justin today of Coco and her fellow eighth graders. They are graduating from middle school and moving on to high school next year. Coco is easy to find in the photo. She is only one of two blondes.

2026 Life Logs, Day 113: A Little Sunshine and Warmth
Date: Thursday, April 23, 2026
Weather: Overcast and Chilly; High Temp 66, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

A little sunshine and warmth goes a long way. The respiratory issue I have been having continues, but the sunshine and warmth sure improved by mental state. In my yard, it is the height of the ‘yellow season’ when the daffodils and forsythia are in their glory. The sunshine today lit up the forsythia making it glow.

I don’t have azaleas or tulip or cherry trees in my yard, but when I walked down the side street today, I saw that the “pink season” is here as well. It was warmer today than forecast, so it was an unexpected pleasure.

I worked on a Library Trustee project on my computer all day, but around 4 pm, I finally went outside to enjoy the sunshine with Shadow and plant some pansies in the planter by the front door. That will make things look brighter even on cloudy days. I also took time to get on Facebook to see all of the photos that have been posted from Ollie’s Boy Scout Troop 42 showing their adventures in Florida. On Monday they hung out at home and frolicked in the pool, sat in ithe hot tub, and did a lot of eating.

On Tuesday, the visited NASA and it looks like they took the full tour. In the photos, Ollie definitely looks like he has the “right stuff.”

And then yesterday, they visited the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Fun, fun.

2026 Life Logs, Day 112: Happy Earth Day 2026
Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Weather: Overcast and Chilly; High Temp 47, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

On Wednesday, April 22, 56 years ago today, the very first Earth Day was spawned by a national “teach-in” that brought out 20 million Americans. That was in 1970 and 10% of the population at the time participated. A U.S. senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson, was the mastermind behind Earth Day, along with an activist name Denis Hayes and Rep. Pete McCloskey from San Mateo in California. The 20 million people on that day protested against industrial pollution, oil spills, and ecological destruction.

Fast forward four years to April 22, 1974. On that day, Mark and I signed the contract to buy 10 acres of forest land in northern Idaho to begin our Back-to-the-Land experiment. We cut down cedar trees to build a log cabin, put the ridge pole in place on August 8th of that year, the day Richard Nixon resigned.

But by Earth Day 1975 we had abandoned our first attempt. Forest land is not ideal for growing food! We went on to buy 10 acres in northern Minnesota and built another home. And then on to southern West Virginia where we bought 40 acres and built a walkout basement with the two-story log home atop.

A decade after signing the contract for the land in Idaho, by Earth Day of 1984, we abandoned the idea of self-sufficient living on a small farm. But never once have I ever regretted that decade of living on the land and giving our children those years living so close to Mother Earth.

I’ll never forget the first winter we lived in West Virgina and had two baby lambs living in our bedroom because they had pneumonia. Heather and Justin thought it was the coolest thing ever! Or the spring in Minnesota when Heather went out into the sled dog lot and crawled into the doghouse where our Siberian Husky named Natashia had newborn puppies. Or letting a three-year-old Justin forage for berries for breakfast, once running back to the house with the report that a copperhead was wrapped around the raspberry bush. Was I a negligent mother because I let my children have these freedoms? I don’t think so, even though it is chilling for me to think about what could have happened. I’ll have to ask them what they think.

Well, on this Earth Day, a full 52 years after signing the contract for those 10 acres in northern Idaho, that daughter of mine launched a new podcast for Woodwell Climate called “Not a Climate Scientist.” In these podcasts, she is giving voice to common people who are acutely aware that climate change is a real thing. They are collecting data, just not scientifically ‘approved’ empirical data. They are reporting what they are experiencing. I am brand new as podcast subscriber, but I just Googled ‘YouTube Not a Climate Scientist’ and her first three podcasts came up—a conversation with a rancher, a fire chief, and a climate therapist. Check it out.

So back to Earth Day 2026 … I attended a climate strike on Main Street. It was organized by a young woman named Madison and Indivisible Falmouth put our support behind her. It was disappointing how few people were there, but I was so happy that my friends Karen and Peter Baranowski braved the truly chilly weather to join us. I hope Madison will not be deterred by the low turnout. She is doing good work and we will just have to persist. Then tonight I attended a film screening of Leslie Jonas’ new film, Climate Voices. Heather was one of the voices in the film and I watched with pride. Both of my children have a deep connection to the land, both in different ways, but both dedicated to doing what they can to improve our time on this precious planet Earth. That makes me a very happy mama on Earth Day 2026.

2026 Life Logs, Day 111: Just a Day in the Life
Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Weather: Still Chilly, Partly Sunny High Temp 48, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I’m still wearing my winter coat, but at least there was some sunshine today. No planting got done, but maybe since tomorrow is Earth Day, I’ll get myself motivated to plant the pansies and lettuce I bought on Sunday. But I did get one thing done to prepare for warmer weather. I don’t have a concrete patio for my summer table and chairs. Instead, I have a woven outdoor rug that serves as the patio. I have one older rug for the winter months to cover the bare earth where the table and chairs sit outside my front door. And I have a new rug I put down for the summer. In the past I have had help moving the glass-topped table when replacing the winter rug with the summer one. But today, I managed to do that by myself. If warmer weather does ever return, I have a lovely place to sit outside.

Otherwise, I had two Indivisible meetings today, one in person and one on Zoom. Things are improving at the rehab where my sister is currently. I talked to her this afternoon, and she sounded good. Whatever respiratory issue I have is not improving. I think we can eliminate that the problem was a bacterial infection because the five days of Azithromycin did not to improve things at all. I still have this terrible cough. I will now go back to taking an antihistamine and using an inhaler and see if that helps. And I haven’t decided when I will fly to Charlotte to check on my sister. I really don’t want to fly while I still have this cough, but I have decided that I will not drive down. Driving two days down and two days back to be there for 2-3 days just doesn’t make sense to me. Photos on Facebook from Troop 42 show that Ollie appears to be having a good time in Florida. And Heather’s sprained ankle seems to be improving. That’s the daily update from here.

2026 Life Logs, Day 110: Treading Water
Date: Monday, April 20, 2026
Weather: Chilly, Mix of Sun, Clouds, Rain; High Temp 51, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

My day started with a phone call from the physical therapist at the rehab facility where my sister is currently a temporary resident. And the entirety of my day until 4:30, with a 30-minute lunch break, was spent either talking to people on the phone about my sister’s situation or writing texts or emails about it. It was never ending. And still I have not gotten a call from the head of nursing at the rehab facility and have no clarity on her care or lack of care there. If I didn’t have this terrible congestion that is not getting better with the antibiotic, I would hop on a plane and go to Charlotte. So I spent part of the day researching flights and car rentals to go to Charlotte. But it is a full 14 hours of driving without traffic to get there, or for me, two 7 hour days of driving one way and then two more days home. And if I drove down and flew home, a one-way car rental would be over $1,000, not including gas, and then I would still have to pay to get home. I finally gave up and will work on that another day. In the meantime, I decided I will stay here until I am feeling better and keep trying to manage from a distance. Just not easy.

I felt like I was treading water today, an exhausting activity getting me nowhere. Even when I went outside with Shadow, I just wanted to hide my head and get back inside. The high temp was 51 degrees F, but it was definitely winter coat weather for me. The pansies and lettuce plants I bought on Saturday are still sitting outside waiting to be planted, but I refuse to do it until I can be outside without my winter coat on.

Desperate for some bright spot for today, tonight I asked Google to tell me something joyous that has happened on this date, April 20, in some other year. What Google came up with was the lunar landing of Apollo 16 on April 20, 1972. There was one more lunar landing that year . Apollo 17 on December 11, and we are still waiting for the next one. But at least we got close last week with Artemis II. This made me think of Ollie down in Cape Canaveral, wondering if he felt or saw the launch at 3 am this morning. Thinking of Ollie always makes me smile, so that was the bright spot in my day.

2026 Life Logs, Day 109: My Only Sunshine Today—Grandkids
Date: Sunday, April 19, 2026
Weather: Overcast, Rain, Chilly,; High Temp 53, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

The weather today was my most unfavorite–chilly and rainy with no sunshine at all. But I was sent a little sunshine from my grandkids.

I saw a post by my daughter-in-law Jo on Facebook today with some photos of my granddaughter Coco in her school play last night. They did the musical “Guys and Dolls” from the mid-1950’s and Coco, in 8th grade, was a Hot Box Girl or chorus girl from the New York City nightclub, the Hot Box. I was in early grade school when “Guys and Dolls” was popular, but I remember that both of my older sisters (13 and 20 years older than me) loved it, especially the song, “A Bushel and a Peck.”  As far as I could tell from the photos, Coco was the only blonde in Puerto Rican cast.

Then I got the news that Jonah got home late this afternoon from his high school band trip to Hershey, PA. They came home with two huge trophies and the video of Jonah and his friends walking through the lobby of the hotel in their black suits and sunglasses was a hoot.

I guess I have two grandkids headed to Hollywood! Then there is the other end of the spectrum. Jed sent a photo of Ollie waiting in the security line at the Providence airport headed to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a week of ‘rocket science’ and fishing and snorkeling.

The Scout Troop is staying in a house so close to Cape Canaveral that they can see it and at 3 am in the morning when a rocket is scheduled for take off, they are told the house they are in will shake so hard that even if they are asleep, they will wake up. Not Hollywood, but sounds like fun.

The question all of this leaves me with is how did my two youngest grandchildren, Coco and Ollie, get old enough for Coco to be a chorus girl in a musical and Ollie old enough to go to Florida for spring break?!!!

2026 Life Logs, Day 107: Class, Meeting, Catching Up
Date: Friday, April 17, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Still Warm; High Temp 68, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Last year I started attending a class at the Mashpee Public Library taught by a local woman who was a constitutional law professor. She has been retired for about 8 years now and has taught a class each fall and each spring. It is so popular that if you don’t enroll within a few hours after it is posted, you can’t get in. The room holds about 60 people, and it is always full. The class this spring is based on the one volume history of the United States written by Jill LePore called THESE TRUTHS. LePore is a Harvard professor and a prolific writer. This book is a full 2 inches thick. But it is very interesting, as is the class. I almost didn’t register because I am already more than too busy, but then I realized that this is one thing I do for myself. And after the first class today, I am so glad that I made that decision.

This afternoon I had a meeting with the person who will replace me as Encore Vice President of Programs and the woman who will come in as Assistant VP. We met from 3 until after 5 pm, but I think we ended up with a plan for every program for next year. There is much work left to do to make that plan a reality, but at least we have a plan. I have two more programs that I am in charge of this spring, plus helping get things planned for next year. But then, as of July 1, I will no longer have that ‘job’. I have been on the Encore Board for three years and have loved doing it, but it will be wonderful to get back a piece of my life.

Tonight, I spent the entire evening on my computer catching up on email correspondence. In fact, it is after midnight, already tomorrow, so I am closing down for the night.