2021 Life Logs, Day 123: Thanksgiving and a Tribute to NPR
Date: Monday, May 3, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 65, Low, 49 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Thanksgiving is 204 days away, but I am already looking forward to it. Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco will be flying in from Puerto Rico on November 23. It is a long time to wait, but at least there is a plan for having my whole family together again. We will certainly be giving thanks!

I spent today dealing with the little problems in life. Somehow, I did not make an appointment to have Shadow groomed in May and now there is a back log of a couple of months. So, I gave him a bath today and will continue brushing out his coat over the next couple of days. And I will attempt to trim his nails when I can get Heather or Sam to help me hold him. This was cheaper by far, but at some point he will need a haircut and I don’t think I can do that. That was one little problem. I had a mid-day annual doctor appointment and then stopped by Heather and Jed’s to install the new parts to the irrigation timer. The water pressure regulator I bought last evening at Lowe’s worked! But there were a few little leaks that need to be dealt with. I set the system to run for an hour and came home for lunch. When I returned after picking Ollie up at the end of the school day, there was a new irrigation problem. The water ran straight through the upright wall planters and came out at the bottom forming a river of water on the deck. The potting soil in the planter seemed to simply shed the water without soaking the soil. So, this is the next problem to be tackled. The upright wall planters come with the drip irrigation tubing already installed. So, either we have the wrong kind of soil or I set the timer to water for too long. We’ll continue to work out that little problem over the next few days.

Happy birthday to National Public Radio! The first NPR broadcast was on May 3, 1971. Hurray for 50 years of NPR! Mark and I met in 1973 at a public television conference. Mark was working at PBS in Washington, DC when Heather was born in 1975. But shortly thereafter, we changed our allegiance from public television to public radio. By the time Heather was two and Justin was born, we had removed the TV from our home. Heather and Justin heard only NPR. In the late 70’s and 80’s we were just listeners, but by 1984 Mark was putting a public radio station on the air in Salisbury, Maryland. Heather actually helped Mark get his job at Salisbury State College. When we drove from West Virginia to the Eastern Shore of Maryland for the job interview, we had to drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. All Things Considered with host Susan Stamberg was on the radio at that moment . . . something Heather had heard everyday of her life since she was two. Halfway across the bridge, All Things Considered went silent. Heather asked, “What happened to Susan Stamberg?” As we drove on to Salisbury, there was no public radio at all. WAMU out of Washington, DC did not transmit across the Chesapeake Bay. Mark was interviewing for a teaching position in the Communications Department at the college the next day. When the college president interviewed him, he asked Mark what he would do to better the community of Salisbury if he were hired. Mark immediately thought of Heather’s words, “What happened to Susan Stamberg?” He answered by saying he would put a public radio station on the air. He was hired to do just that and spent the rest of his career in public radio. By the time we left to sail around the world, he was President and CEO of New Hampshire Public Radio and Chair of the Board of NPR. Mark put his heart and soul into “creating a more informed public—one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures.” That is the current day mission statement of National Public Radio. Mark believed in that mission statement and was proud to be a leader in the continuing development of the stations in the NPR family for a little more than twenty years of his life. Then our daughter Heather entered the public radio world. In December 2019 she wrote, “I walked into WCAI fifteen years ago with a newly minted Ph.D., and no radio or journalism experience to speak of. Could I learn to be a science reporter, I asked? The answer – yes – literally changed my life.” It took her a few years to leave the research world and join the public radio world, but she never regretted it. Heather wrote this as she left public radio to take the position to lead communications at the Woodwell Climate Research Center (formally the Woods Hole Research Center), a top-ranked climate change think tank. Her passion is climate change, so she now is now putting her passion to work full-time. I am sure a part of her heart will always be with public radio. NPR—my family loves you. Happy 50th!

I was tipped off to NPR’s 50th by my friend Lynne Kirwin in New Zealand. She sent a WhatsApp message last night saying she had just listened to an NPR podcast about the start of NPR 50 years ago. Then today when I was listening to the local NPR station, WCAI, I heard a great interview with Maria Hinojosa talking about her years with NPR as their first Hispanic news person. It was then that I Googled NPR and found that today was the first broadcast in 1971. But how interesting that I learned of this from someone halfway around the world. NPR has certainly carved a place for itself in the world. I talked with Lynne tonight and was jealous as usual. She lives where she can pick up avocados that have fallen on the ground while walking a dog. But winter is coming there as summer approaches here. Soon I’ll be able to make her jealous when I am picking fresh veggies from the garden. Love you, Lynne!

2021 Life Logs, Day 122: Slow Sunday
Date: Sunday, May 2, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 63, Low, 45 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Some days are so jam-packed with activities that there isn’t a chance to catch your breath. Today was not one of those days. It was a slow Sunday and I’m not even sure where it went. I dabbled at a few different things—cleaning house, sending photos from Bill Frieswyk’s birthday party to friends, making hardware cloth enclosures for some of my plants that rabbits have eaten over the past couple of days, and walking with Shadow. Then mid-afternoon I went to Heather’s to work on the irrigation system. When I left yesterday, I thought I had it working, but there were still a couple of leaks that had me puzzled. Well, at some point after I left, the tubing blew off the timer and water went gushing everywhere. Heather thought it was just that the some of the connections were not as tight as they should be. Not knowing any of this, during the night I dreamed about the irrigation system and woke up realizing that I might have put in the wrong piece for the water pressure regulator. A drip irrigation system has to have a pressure regulator to take the incoming water pressure down to 25 psi. Otherwise, the system blows apart . . . which is what happened after I left yesterday. So, my dream was right. I felt so absolutely stupid not to have double checked that. But to redeem myself, I drove across the bridge this evening to a Lowe’s which was the closest place with the piece needed. We have a Home Depot on the Cape, but they don’t stock the part needed. Hopefully, I can get the system right tomorrow.

2021 Life Logs, Day 121: May Day Soccer Day
Date: Saturday, May 1, 2021
Weather: Sunny; High 63, Low, 45 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was May Day, but I spent the day on the soccer field, not dancing around a May Pole. Ollie started his day with a doctor appointment, so he missed his weekly soccer game at 9 am. Jonah had a game at 10:30 am and Sam’s game was at 1:30 pm. Then Jonah and his friend Kayden volunteered to be goalies for the 7th and 8th grade girls team game at 3 pm. So, except for a break for lunch and a walk with Shadow, I was on the soccer field all day. Afterwards I went to Heather and Jed’s to finish setting up the irrigation system for their deck gardens and made it home just in time to watch Medina Spirit win the Kentucky Derby. I love spending the time outdoors and watching the boys play, so I imagine I will be spending a few more Saturdays in just this same way.

Justin called during Sam’s game. I normally wouldn’t answer a call when at a game, but when I saw it was Justin, I answered. He said he and Jo are scheduled for their first vaccine next week and Jo has been searching for flights for visiting with family in England and here sometime this summer. He wanted information about good times to visit. I told him July would be the best time to visit here, but that is also the best time to visit England. Whenever they can come will be the best time for me. It will be two years this summer since they were here for a visit and three years since I have been to Puerto Rico. It will probably wait a few more months before I will be willing to fly, but hopefully by this time next year, I will get the nerve to fly.

2021 Life Logs, Day 120: Birthday Party for a Dear Friend
Date: Friday, April 30, 2021
Weather: Sunny, Super Windy; High 64, Low, 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Bill Frieswyk is the husband of Midge Frieswyk and both are members of my dining-in group. There are nine of us in that group that have been meeting for dinner most months since 2017—Midge and Bill, Jane and Bruce Wooden, Olivia and Terry White, Karen and Peter Baranowski, and me. We have all become very good friends and today was a special birthday party for Bill Frieswyk. I think it was his 77th, but don’t tell anyone that I wrote that! Bill has recently been diagnosed with a type of cancer that, as he says, is not curable. This diagnosis came after months of being in and out of the hospital and rehab. But despite all of this, he maintains such a wonderful attitude and he and Midge are fighting the good fight together. Midge invited our dining-in group, plus a few other good friends, for a short but delightful birthday gathering this afternoon. Since all of us have been fully vaccinated, we gathered inside without masks. I know. It felt very strange, but wonderful at the same time. And it was so special to see Bill enjoying the affair. He has such a great sense of humor and that added to our time together this afternoon. There were many gifts, but Terry and Olivia White’s framed collage of photos from our various gatherings over the years was an obvious hit. And Karen Baranowski baked his birthday cake, her special carrot cake with cream cheese icing that Bill loves. Midge and Bill’s sister made the most delicious Ina Garten cheese sticks. And we had a champagne toast. I was the ‘official’ photographer and documented the event for the pages of history. Happy Birthday, Bill.

2021 Life Logs, Day 119: Costco Trip
Date: Thursday, April 29, 2021
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High 54, Low, 49 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was a shop ‘til you drop day at Costco with friend Jane Woodin. In the past year of Covid, I have only been to Costco a couple of times. And when I did go, it was an “in and out as quick as you can” experience. Today Jane and I took our time wandering through the store and finding the ‘treasures’ within. Jane was looking for a certain Tommy Bahama beach chair and she found it. I was looking for particular items of clothing for the Goldpebbles. It is the wrong season to find exactly what I was looking for, but I found some seasonal substitutes. Both Jane and I were happy with our finds and returned home with my little Honda Fit full of food, clothes, and plants.

I was so happy to be able to pick Ollie up after school today after a week of spring school vacation and three days of being in the hospital. It feels good to get back into our daily routines, but Ollie is going to have to get used to having the PICC line in his arm. He needs to be actice, but he has to be careful not to get that left arm hit hard by a soccer ball or another person. So play is going to have to be somewhat supervised. The visiting nurses arrived shortly after we got home and as Ollie explained to me, he will have his infusion of the new antibiotic every day when he gets home from school. He says the infusion took only 10 minutes in the hospital, but it will take more than 30 minutes at home. He is being a trooper in dealing with all of this. I was supposed to take Sam to rowing practice after delivering Ollie home, but it was raining so practice was cancelled. I headed home to spend some time with Shadow and do a little cooking. I’m hoping to get back to proof reading and writing in the morning.

2021 Life Logs, Day 118: Home – Ollie and President Biden
Date: Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 62, Low, 46 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Ollie is HOME from the hospital. Hurray! Hurray! And President Biden addressed the Congress tonight. In my opinion, he hit a HOME run.

I’ll start with Ollie. His day went as planned. By 8 am I heard from Heather that they were taking the two of them down to the OR to have Ollie’s PICC line inserted. By 8:45, Ollie was asleep and taken into the operating room. At that point, Heather went to the waiting room. Less than an hour later he was out of the operating room and not long after that Heather sent a text saying he was awake and chatty. Later in the afternoon Heather and Jed had their practice session in giving him his infusion of the antibiotic through the new PICC line. Then he was released from the hospital and they headed home. But before leaving his room, he had one more fun experience with what Heather called his robo bed. Even with Boston rush hour traffic, they were home before Jonah and I got home from his soccer practice. There were lots of hugs and kisses and then we enjoyed a homestyle Cambodian dinner that Heather and Jed picked up at Stir Crazy once they were back on the Cape. Ollie has dark circles under his beautiful eyes, but he was upbeat and okay with the new PICC line on his left arm. It was wonderful to see the Goldstones together as a family again. Welcome home, Ollie!

After dinner, I headed home to listen to President Biden’s address to the Congress. I must say that, like a majority of Americans, I find it hard to disagree with most of what he is promoting. I like having a grandpa as President right now. I think he is just what the doctor ordered.

2021 Life Logs, Day 117: It Takes a Village
Date: Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 58, Low, 45 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It is such a wonderful feeling to see friends step up to help when help is needed. Yesterday Anna, the mother of Jonah’s good friend Luke, took Jonah to soccer practice up near Hyannis. This evening the Keefe’s, Heather and Jed’s neighbors when they lived on Vidal Avenue volunteered to pick Jonah up and take him to Scouts. And tomorrow Grace, the mother of Sam’s good friend and school partner during Covid, has volunteered to pick up Sam and Jonah after their half day of school and take them home with her for the afternoon. Jed could have stayed home to do all of this, but that would have left Heather alone in Boston with Ollie. Or I could have done it all, allowing Jed the time to be with Heather and Ollie. But isn’t it wonderful the way people just pitch-in to help? Life can be done without the village, but it is so much nicer when everyone works together.

Ollie gets his PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line inserted tomorrow morning at 9 am. Once that procedure is done, Heather and Jed will get training in how to give Ollie the intravenous antibiotic infusions and how to flush the line at home. VNA (visiting nurses) will also come to their home for a couple of days making sure they have the process down. When Jed got home tonight, he said they expect Ollie to be released from the hospital late tomorrow afternoon and they hope to be home for a late dinner. Yippee!!! I know Heather and Ollie will be so glad to be home and spend tomorrow night in their own beds. And I know Jed will be glad that he doesn’t have to drive back and forth to Boston.

I spent my morning outside continuing garden clean-up and adding compost to the beds. Then from 2:45 onward, I was shuttling Sam from here to there. I have done no writing or proof-reading this week, but I plan to start my day doing that tomorrow. Mid-day I have an appointment to get the oil changed and tires rotated on my car. Then I’ll come home and do a little more gardening until it is time to pick up Sam and Jonah. Jonah has soccer practice tomorrow evening and during that time, I might co-opt Sam to help me spread compost on the raspberry plants and pound in some garden stakes to support them. Then we’ll all head to 43 Grasmere to welcome Ollie home.

2021 Life Logs, Day 116: Not the Week We Planned
Date: Monday, April 26, 2021
Weather: Sunny and Warmer; High 56, Low, 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Yesterday was not the day we planned and today it became apparent that this is not the week we planned. But there is some good news from Children’s Hospital regarding Ollie. The specialist that reviewed the lab tests told Heather this morning that there is no evidence that there are pockets of Lyme in Ollie’s body other than in his left knee. But the infection in that area is significant is going to require another month of a different antibiotic, Ceftriaxome, that has to be administered daily via IV. In order to do this from home, they have to anesthetize Ollie to insert a PICC line. Through this PICC line, Heather and Jed will administer the antibiotic for the next month. A VNA nurse will come to their home for the first two or three days to train them. But the hang up is that the hospital cannot schedule time for Ollie in an operating room until Wednesday morning. So, he and Heather are still there. Jed came home in the wee hours of the morning as it was after 2 am before Ollie was moved from ER to an actual room. He is being a trooper. He has learned one thing, however. He really doesn’t like needles! Only parents can visit and when Jed goes back tomorrow, he has to be Covid tested on site and wait for the results before seeing Ollie and giving Heather a couple of hours of time off. Just the Covid testing process can take 45 minutes to 2 to 3 hours. That, plus the drive up and back, will make for a full day for Jed. I had Sam and Jonah all day yesterday and overnight. Jed has them tonight and I will do after school deliveries to various activities tomorrow evening from 3 pm onward until Jed gets home. There are drum lessons, rowing practice, and a Scout meeting just tomorrow afternoon and evening. Busy boys!

It was a beautiful day and as I took Shadow for his walks today, I realized that the whole neighborhood has blossomed. Azaleas, tulip trees, tulips, daffodils, Shirley’s Japanese plum tree, and even the moss in my backyard are in bloom. I spent some time today working on getting my raised beds up and going, but I have lots more work to do.

Late this afternoon Heather sent a selfie of herself and Ollie enjoying a rooftop garden at the hospital. You can’t see her chai in the photo, but you can see Ollie’s half of a big M&M chocolate chip cookie. Heather is hiding her half which Ollie insisted she have. As Heather labeled that photo, things could be a lot worse. She is trying hard to make sure Ollie’s hospital experience is as positive as possible. Go Heather and Ollie!

2021 Life Logs, Day 115: Not the Day We Planned
Date: Sunday, April 25, 2021
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High 49, Low,41 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, but the weather forecast for today was rain. I planned to finish proofreading the latest chapter I completed on Thursday and the Goldstones planned a laid-back day. Then we were all going to meet at my house for dinner. But we make plans and then then life happens. I got a call from Heather around noon saying she had talked to Ollie’s orthopedic specialist for his swollen knee due to Lyme Disease. He wanted Heather and Jed to take Ollie to the ER at Children’s Hospital in Boston today. The labs from tests run last week had come back looking like there might be a secondary infection in his knee. That, along with a red rash that has appeared in the area at the base of both thumbs had him concerned. I volunteered to take Sam and Jonah so that both Heather and Jed could go with Ollie. They are still there and one or both of them will spend the night with O and meet with a team of specialists tomorrow. Sam and Jonah are tucked in for the night here. I will take them to school in the morning. When we talked to H, J, and O tonight at bedtime, Ollie was just getting to eat his first food since this morning. He does not appreciate all the needles but sounded in good spirits. He was still in a room in the ER, but Heather and Jed were hoping for a ‘real’ room for the night. The good news is that the ER team does not think he has a secondary infection. I hope to have even better news by this time tomorrow. Six weeks on Doxycycline has not done the trick. We are all hoping the Infectious Disease specialists at Children’s can work some magic.

2021 Life Logs, Day 114: First Soccer Saturday Since Fall 2019
Date: Saturday, April 24, 2021
Weather: Sunny, Winds Building; High 65, Low,46 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Most of my day was spent at the soccer field . . . for the first time since the fall of 2019. It was hard to believe that it has really been a year and half since the last soccer game. But, surprisingly, even with Covid ‘adjustments, today felt ‘almost’ normal. Only two adults were allowed per player and everyone, including the players, wore masks. Those of us on the side lines also used physical distancing. But since all of that seems normal these days, I hardly noticed. But what I did notice was how much all of the boys have changed in the last year and a half. They are all so much taller! Jonah has continued to practice and play some games this school year with a different league, but most of the boys have not played in a game since the fall of 2019. They are not really playing competitively this spring. The local Falmouth travel league has simply lumped the kids together by grade levels. The teams are large enough that they can divide in half and play against each other. So due to Covid, there is no traveling, but at least the kids get to play. Again, even that seems normal these days.

Ollie had a game at 9 am, Jonah at 10:30 am, and Sam at 1:30. I came home between Jonah’s game and Sam’s to walk with Shadow and grab some lunch. Then after Sam’s game, I hurried to a local plant nursery to buy a few more herbs and then headed home to walk with Shadow again. I spent an hour proofreading the first half of the latest chapter I completed in the Voyage of Windbird. Then I spent the rest of my evening listening to the audio presentations of the first day of the Food Revolution Network’s Spring 2021 Summit. Today’s topic was: How Food Can Change Your Life. The evidence becomes more obvious and convincing each year. We all need to be eating a plant-based diet. I am not there yet, but presentations I listened to this evening were very convincing. There are three hours of presentations each day, but I listened to only two from this first day of the Summit tonight. Dean Ornish, MD, the “father of lifestyle medicine,” gave critical insights on how the right diet and lifestyle can address chronic conditions like heart disease, cancer, and dementia. He reviewed the differences between preventing and reversing disease and shared some of the top insights he’s gleaned in forty plus years on the leading edge of the lifestyle medicine movement. I actually only listened to about half of his presentation. Not because I wasn’t interested, but because I had heard most of it before and because there just weren’t enough hours left in my day. But then I was riveted by the presentation of William Li, MD. He is brilliant and shared his stunning research on food and COVID-19 outcomes—all new information to me. He shared what to eat (and what not to eat!) if you want to build a healthy immune system. His book, “Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself” is one that every household should have as a reference book. My copy is in large print and is about three inches thick and every single page is jam-packed with vital information. I would love to organize a study group focusing on Dr. Li’s work. Anyone want to join me?