2026 Life Logs, Day 86: Anticipation
Date: Friday, March 27, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 48, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Tomorrow is NO KINGS 3 and here in Falmouth the temperature is forecast to be much cooler than today with a high of 36 degrees F. There is no way to know how the cold will affect the turn out in Falmouth, but we know that nationwide there are more than 3,000 scheduled protests all around the country and some around the world and millions are expected to participate. The anticipation level is high.

I spent my morning making arrangements for tomorrow and my afternoon hosting a gathering of the safety team for tomorrow. My friend Karen Baranowski solicited three other nurses to join us tomorrow as medical marshals. And Jim Newman solicited two doctors. And we had a one-hour training session in my living this afternoon. The experience of those volunteering is impressive, and I think we are ready to go.

I got myself invited to the Baranowski’s for a lobster roll dinner and time with friends tonight. I haven’t had a lot of friend time recently, so that was great. Now to bed and on to tomorrow.

2026 Life Logs, Day 85: Build Up to the FIFA World Cup Fun
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 52, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today I had my annual Medicare medical exam and the doctor asked me what I do for fun. I told him my fun these days is organizing resistance against the Trump regime. He cocked his head sideways and said, “Really?” And I assured him it was great fun.

When I got home, I got a text from Heather saying that she and Jed and two other families, were piling into cars and heading to a soccer game between Brazil and France at Gillette Stadium. The FIFA World Cup launches in the June and is in the United States this year. That’s great, but the tickets are something like $4,000 a seat. No joke. So, a new US -based international match series has been created to showcase the world’s top national teams pre-World Cup at prices that are more affordable. I think today might have been the first match. Ollie, Jonah, and a bunch of their friends were very excited for today’s game. Plus, they took the afternoon off school. What could be more fun! At least I get to have fun virtually through my grandkids.

2026 Life Logs, Day 84: Middle Ground and Braver Angels
Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 48, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I’m trying to catch up tonight on sending logs from Monday and Tuesday that were started but not finished. This was going to be my number one job today and here it is after 10 pm and I am just getting started. We make plans and then life happens.

This morning, after answering some time sensitive emails, I took care of a couple of personal chores like getting my hair trimmed and going to Staples to get some necessary office supplies. When my hair gets beyond a certain length, it becomes hard to braid. And it has definitely been too long for weeks.

When I got home from running those errands, I had a one hour Zoom call that turned into an afternoon project for a group I am in called Middle Ground. We were talking with a representative from Braver Angels who have trainings to help people develop skills for communicating across differences and finding common ground. The first ground rule is that you are never trying to persuade people to come around to your way of thinking. You are simply trying to grow understanding of the values and concerns of people who differ from you politically. This is going to be easier said than done! Then the rest of the day was spent on getting things done for No Kings on Saturday. Again, this is something easier said than done. But I am fried for tonight and will continue in the morning.

2026 Life Logs, Day 83: A Dog in a Sinkhole
Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 41, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today was a mix of work, doing some cooking and cleaning, and spending time with Olli.. Heather has been in Boston at a work-related retreat since Sunday afternoon and won’t be home until Wednesday evening. Tuesdays are always challenging, even when there are two parents, but with one, it is tricky. I take Ollie to his saxophone lesson after school, and now that it is soccer season again, while he is at his lesson, I go pick up dinner for him to eat on the way soccer practice. This should have been easy, but today it became a bit of problem. Driving the half mile from my house to pick Ollie up, I saw that the police had Jones Road blocked off. There is a little side street that leads to Jones Road, so I took that. I figured there must have been a wreck at the intersection. Then when I picked Ollie up and we continued on down Jones Road, we found it was blocked in that direction as well. There were 3 fire trucks, including the big ladder truck, emergency vehicles, and more police cars. But we saw no evidence of fire or a wreck or anything else. The police let us through, but it was very strange. When I dropped Ollie off for his lesson, I sat in the car for a bit and tried to find out why Jones Road was closed. The only thing I could find was on Facebook and it said a dog had fallen into a 10-foot deep sinkhole. Then I received an email from Ollie’s soccer coach saying their soccer practice which was off Jones Road was being moved to East Falmouth because the soccer practice field had fallen into a sinkhole. That was obviously meant to be a joke, but it confirmed the Facebook message about a sinkhole. On our way home, when we got close to Jones Road there were two police helicopters overhead and the road was totally blocked. We had to the long way home for Ollie to get dressed for soccer practice and then drive all the way back to East Falmouth where we had just been for his saxophone lesson. It made for a crazy afternoon, and yes, a dog did fall into a 10-foot deep sinkhole. But it still seems strange to me that a major road was closed and that every emergency vehicle and police car in town, plus three fire trucks and two helicopters were all in play for one dog, stuck in a deep but narrow sinkhole that was not even in the road. It was in someone’s yard. If I find out there is more to the story, I’ll let you know.

With that drama over, I went home to feed Shadow and gulp down some dinner before heading back over to be with Ollie. A friend was bringing him home from practice and I got to his house just before he arrived. Jed had to take Jonah and two friends to Hyannis to soccer practice tonight, so they were gone when Ollie got home and I stayed for the evening so he would not be home alone. That is more for me than for him. He was in his room most of the evening and I was working on my computer in the dining room, but I felt better being there than leaving the youngest Goldpebble alone.

And while I am on the topic of a Goldpebble, I will answer a question that four different people have written to ask me about this week. Where in the world is Sam Goldstone, the oldest Goldpebble? In late January, at the end of his first semester at Groningen University in the Netherlands, Sam decided that continuing in the International Relations program there was not the right choice for him. So, he withdrew and was planning to come home at the end of February. But then when he found out that he could not get out of his housing contract, he decided to stay another month since he was paying for the housing anyway. And that turned into one more month. He is using this time to figure out what he is going to do next. One option is AmeriCorp, specifically Forest Corp, for the fall, and those applications are due at the end of this week. Whatever he decides, his current plan is to return home in May.

2026 Life Logs, Day 82: Late Night at the Select Board
Date: Monday, March 23, 2026
Weather: Rainy Day; High Temp 39, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

It was a dreary, rainy, cold day with meetings spread out through the day and into the night. Indivisible Falmouth was appealing to the Select Board tonight asking for permission to have amplified sound at No Kings 3 this Saturday. We were almost the last thing on the agenda, so we were there until after 11 pm. It was worth it because we got the permission, but it was a long day. And even longer for Heather. She drove to Boston late yesterday for a work-related three-day retreat. But at the end of the day, she drove all the way back home, again in the rain, to be at Select Board. She is taking the bus back to Boston very early in the morning. We left the Select Board at 11:15. For Heather’s sake, I sure hope it didn’t go on too much longer.

2026 Life Logs, Day 81: Laura Knoy and Ollie’s Second Birthday Cake
Date: Sunday, March 22, 2026
Weather: Overcast, Rain in the PM; High Temp 45, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I got a text from my good friend Detta this afternoon saying she was going to a hear Laura Knoy talk about the book she wrote. Mark hired Laura soon after we moved to New Hampshire in the early 1990’s. She was from New Hampshire originally, but at the time she was working part time at WAMU in Washington, DC. Mark wanted her to do a morning call in show to launch on New Hampshire Public Radio. Her show was a smashing success and as the years rolled by, Laura became more like family than an employee. The last time I saw her was a year or two after Mark died and she told me she was planning to ‘retire’ so she could write a book about a family story. I knew that she had retired, and I had heard that she writing the book, but not until this afternoon did I know it has been published. About an hour after I first heard from Detta, I received another text with a photo of Laura and Detta and other photos of a personal note to me inside the cover of one of her books. It was so exciting to find out that she realized her dream and that I will get to read her book as soon as Detta sends it to me.

I did some house cleaning and cooking today, I think for the first time in two weeks! And we had another little birthday celebration for Ollie tonight with a birthday cake with 14 candles, instead of just the one candle the cake had last night. Tonight’s candles had flames of different colors and two candles that kept relighting. They were quite the hit.

2026 Life Logs, Day 80: Happy Birthday to Ollie
Date: Saturday, March 21, 2026
Weather: Sunny Day, Milder Weather; High Temp 51, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

On this first day of spring 2026 it actually felt like New England spring day, and Ollie celebrated his 14th birthday. It was wonderful to welcome spring without it feeling like the dead of winter. And although I still cannot believe Ollie is 14, we had a fun day of family times together. The 48th annual Falmouth STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) Fair, what we used to call a Science Fair, was this morning and both Ollie and Jonah were recognized for their achievements. So that was a great start to the day.

I left the STEAM Fair to go to the weekly rally on the Green, and then afterwards, I meth Heather, Jed, and Ollie downtown for a birthday lunch at the Tap City Grille on Main Street. Then it was home for present opening. Ollie got a new zoom lens for the camera he got for Christmas. This lens has a 70-300 mm capability and should be good for taking bird and sports photos, both of which he is interested in. Parents and grandmothers went in on the gift, and I had made arrangements for Ollie to go on a teaching photo shoot with a photographer friend who specializes in bird photos. Heather and I were both very surprised at how excited Ollie seemed by that. Teenagers normally think they know everything and aren’t interested in ’lessons’, but this time it worked.

Then tonight, Heather and Jed went out to the Falmouth Education Foundation yearly affair and I did dinner and spent the evening with Jonah and Ollie. We had sushi take-out from a Chinese restaurant in town, and it came with fortune cookies. Ollie read his and then I read mine. It said, “A long-lost memory may resurface tonight.” That prompted Ollie to tell me that he had recently done a writing assignment connecting their sailboat, Ardenna, to Windbird. And to him, Windbird is a ‘long-lost memory’. So, he asked me to share some of those memories with him. A full two-hours later we were jolted back to reality when Heather and Jed got home. Who knew a fortune cookie could spark such a wonderful conversation? Ollie asked me to share some memories from Windbird and that led us to the map on their dining room wall where I did a geography-based tour around the world. Then I asked if he would like to see some photos of the places I had just told him about. He did, so we went into the living room, and I got out my computer. Away we went around the world looking at photos from my top 10 favorite places. Ollie had all sorts of interesting questions, and it was almost like the world stopped for 2 full hours while we traveled. None of my grandchildren have ever asked about the voyage of Windbird, so this is the first time I have ever shared the full story with any of them. Jonah was in the room watching a soccer game, but he must have been listening, as he chimed in a couple of times. It was a wonderful evening, and all because of a fortune cookie!

When Heather and Jed got home, we celebrated with birthday cake. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day. Congratulations to Ollie and Jonah for their award winning science (Jonah) and engineering (Ollie) projects. Happy birthday to Ollie. Welcome spring. And thanks to that fortune cookie for causing those memories to resurface tonight.

2026 Life Logs, Day 78: Another Crazy, Busy Day in the Life
Date: Thursday, March 19, 2026
Weather: More of the Same—Sunny and Chilly; High Temp 40, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

In addition to my already truly busy life, I took on a job for pay just this week and all of the work needs to be completed by tomorrow. In between that work today, I had a dental appointment to have a tooth crowned. I came home from that and did a little more work and then I was off to an Exploring Public Policy meeting. The presentation today was focused on water quality management in Falmouth. And then I was off to a Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition Community Watch training. This time I was going as an attendee, not as the workshop organizer. Bu unfortunately, not enough people showed up. The training will be rescheduled and I’ll try again. Heather had also showed up as an attendee and as we were leaving, she invited me to come over for dinner. I latched on to that invitation immediately and enjoyed the time catching up on what’s happening in the Goldstone household. The busy life will continue tomorrow morning.

2026 Life Logs, Day 77: OLAUG to NO KINGS
Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Chilly; High Temp 37, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

The Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage (OLAUG) presented at this morning’s Encore program meeting. And what a dynamic group they are. Susan Baur, an 86 year-old author of oceanography books turned psychologist, founded OLAUG after years of solo evening swims in Cape Cod’s freshwater ponds. During these swims, she learned to love the turtles that shared their ponds with her. That relationship led her to find a way to help them by clearing garbage out their ponds, improving the water quality. In 2018, she recruited two other women to help her. Her solo effort has now gained national and even international interest. Other places around this country are reaching out to Cape Cod’s OLAUG to learn now to form their own OLAUG team. At this morning’s meeting, we got to hear all about their history and current work. After the meeting, I had a wonderful conversation with Susan Baur. She has a book coming out in September and I can’t wait to read it.

The remainder of the day was work, work, work and last night was attending a two-hour webinar on getting prepared for No Kings on March 28. We have already had our in-person training here in Falmouth, but I like to keep track of what others are doing.