2020 Life Logs, Day 90: Chipping Away
Date: Monday, March 30, 2020
Weather: Overcast and Misty; High 44 degrees, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today a children’s song about chipping away layers of fossil rock kept creeping into my head. “Chip, chip away those layers of clay. Knock, knock, knock to the fossil rock.” I arrived at Heather and Jed’s new house around noon to install shelving liners in the kitchen. Then mid-afternoon after hours of working and schooling at home, the Goldstones arrived. Heather started chipping away at the stubbornly attached wallpaper on the walls of the master bedroom while Sam and Jonah were upstairs removing the carpeting tack strips with hammers and crowbars. Jed was unloading a van full of bins from the old basement to the new. And Ollie and I were taking down curtains, putting them in the washer while going back to wash the windows, putting the curtains in the dryer and then putting the curtains back up. We are all working as fast and as hard as we can, yet it is a little overwhelming to think about how much more needs to be done. But we shall persist until the move is complete.

2020 Life Logs, Day 89: Working Sunday
Date: Sunday, March 29, 2020
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High 47 degrees, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I’m sure the weather could be worse, and our work today was inside, but it was surely a most dreary, cool, rainy day. It didn’t help that Shadow got me up at 2 am and again at 5 am to go out in the rain. But at least after the 5 am get up and go outside affair, we then slept in until 9 am. Then it was time to get up and get ready to go to Heather and Jed’s new house to clean the basement and the garage. Those are the jobs I volunteered to do along with Jed and the boys. We started by working on the basement while Heather attacked the wallpaper in the master bedroom. She and Jed have given in on getting rid of the carpet in their bedroom and will do that later when carpet installation is once again allowed. But she really wants to get that wallpaper replaced with fresh paint. She has stripped wallpaper before, but this stuff is really stuck in many places. She has to get back to fulltime work at home starting tomorrow morning, so I will try my hand at wallpaper removal tomorrow. I also offered to pick the boys up tomorrow morning and take them with me to the new house to continue working. Yesterday they started stripping the carpeting out of their new bedrooms and evidently Sam and Jonah figured out how to remove those wooden tack strips that hold the carpeting in place. They can work on that tomorrow while I help Ollie turn cutting pieces of Con-Tact Shelf Liner into a math lesson. Hopefully we can get all of the kitchen shelves covered so we can begin moving the non-essentials from the old house to the new. The basement is ready to start ‘accepting’ deliveries and with a little more work tomorrow, the garage will be ready as well. The plan is to move Jed’s wood shop into the double car garage, along with all of the sports equipment. Hopefully there will be room left for a car or maybe two. And hopefully we’ll get periods of dry weather during the week so we don’t have to move things in the rain. Progress is being made, but there is plenty of work to keep us all busy full-time. And then, of course, Heather and Jed are working full time from home and the boys are supposed to be completing school activities at home. Those Goldpebbles are going to have to get creative and turn all their help with moving into school assignments. That’s my challenge to them!

2020 Life Logs, Day 88: Making Adjustments
Date: Saturday, March 28, 2020
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rain Late; High 45 degrees, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

This morning Heather and I talked and we decided to make some adjustments in our stay-at-home and stay apart policy. For the past 16 days, both of our households have been on our version of a lockdown. Since we are now past that 14-15 day Covid incubation period and none of us has any symptoms, this morning we decided to treat our two households as one. We will proceed with as much caution as possible even though we will now be together in the same house sometimes. There will still be no hugging or kissing—elbow bumps only! But I will now be able to help them with their move. Since they closed on Thursday, they can now move into the new house. And if things go as expected, they have one month to get out of their current home as the closing on that house is the end of April. They had devised a work schedule to get workers in both homes to do various projects, but that went out the window when our Governor put this state on a non-essential work order this past Tuesday. Painters and carpet layers are non-essential, so Heather and Jed are going to have to do the work themselves or just put it off until later. Today they started working on a new plan. Heather, with a little help from Sam, started ripping carpeting out of the boys’ upstairs bedrooms in the new house and they ordered wood flooring that they will put down themselves. They are going to leave the current carpeting in the master bedroom downstairs and the bonus room above the garage and replace it later. Today Jed worked on cleaning the carpeting that is staying and I offered my services driving back and forth delivering things from our current end of town to the new house. And in between trips, I contributed a bit to cleaning efforts in the new house. Tomorrow I have offered to clean the basement and garage with the help of the boys so we can start moving things in. The move would have been a lot easier if they could hire the work done, but we will get the essentials done and some things will just have to wait until life is back to normal. Thankfully the old house and new house are both perfectly livable as is. You just always want to paint and replace flooring before you move into a new house, but doing that while working full time from home while also trying to home school three boys certainly limits the amount of time and energy you have. It is not the perfect situation, but hopefully the excitement of moving into the perfect new home will prevail.

Justin sent photos today of their horse Hopi and her new baby Barnaby. So precious. And then he sent a text with a photo of baby bunnies born today. There is certainly a lot of depressing news coming our way these days, but new birth is always uplifting. Ziggy and Coco must be so excited to have a new foal and baby bunnies. So a new house for my grandchildren here and newborn friends for my grandchildren in Puerto Rico makes me a very happy Oma.

2020 Life Logs, Day 87: Another Computer Day
Date: Friday, March 27, 2020
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High 62 degrees, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Ahh . . . I love it when the wind switches from the north to the south. Yesterday the high temp was 53, but with winds blowing from the north, you could feel the icy cold in the breeze. Today it was 10 degrees warmer and what little bit of wind there was came from the south. It felt like summer and you didn’t even need a jacket when outside. Unfortunately, I didn’t allow myself to be outside enjoying the beautiful weather. I am on a mission to complete the photo organization project on my computer, so I worked on that all day. Every couple of hours I did take time to go on a walk with Shadow and late in the afternoon, I went out and cleared the leaves out of my raised beds. Tomorrow I hope to add new garden soil and plant the first seeds which will be peas. It is too early to plant arugula outside, but I might try it anyway. But definitely, I will plant some inside. The tomato seeds I planted inside last week are already coming up. Fantastic. I ended the day with a Zoom meeting with my Newcomers wine group. I was so much fun to just enjoy the company of other adults and not worry for a bit of time about the coronavirus.

2020 Life Logs, Day 86: Congratulations, Goldstones
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2020
Weather: Sunny with a Chill in the Wind; High 53 degrees, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Congratulations to the Goldstones! Despite the statewide ban preventing all non-essential businesses from conducting in-person operations, they were able to close on their new home today. Evidently banks, the registry of deeds, and lawyers are considered essential services, so the sale was finalized today. The new home is only 3.4 miles from their current residence, just a little closer to downtown. It is a beautiful home in a wonderful neighborhood and now that it is theirs, they are anxious to make the move. The plan had been to wait until the school April vacation to move, but since there will be no school until at least May 4th, there will be no vacation week. The move can begin now. They spent the afternoon in their new home doing some cleaning and planning. Getting any work done right now is tricky. For one thing, you don’t want anyone coming into your home, so Heather and Jed are going to have to do most of the work themselves. The problem being that now that they are working and schooling kids at home, there is no time for anything else. But they will figure it out. For this moment, I just hope that they are celebrating tonight and dreaming of how wonderful it will be once they are moved into the new home. Once they returned home, I delivered a bottle of bubbly to Heather in the front yard as a celebration gift. They had just gotten home and it was past time to fix dinner, so we really didn’t get to talk. Hopefully we can talk this weekend so she can fill me on their moving plan.

Shelter-in-Place, Stay-at-Home, Lockdown, Quarantine . . . the policies that guide our lives in the time of Covid-19. It was a busy day and I thought I was following all of the ‘rules’ of physical distancing. But tonight as I reflected back on the day, I think I overstepped the bounds of safe confinement. This morning I delivered a couple of books to my friend Midge Frieswyk. We had planned to meet in her driveway, but before I got there, another friend stopped by and they were sitting in the open garage when I arrived. There was another chair for me, as well as a cup of tea, so I sat down and visited for a bit. It was wonderful to visit face-to-face, but probably not the best idea. Then I drove on to the Woodin’s to deliver a package, a hardcopy of a ‘How to Use Zoom’ PowerPoint, and some potting soil for Jane so she can start growing microgreens inside. We met outside the front door and certainly kept more than 6 feet between us as we tried out our abilities to connect via Zoom. It was great to see them for the first time in two months, but again, we’ll try to stick to Zoom in the coming weeks. When I got home it was time to take Shadow for a walk and get ready for my Memoir Writing class on Zoom. Today we reviewed my book introduction and first chapter in what I hope to develop into a complete book about the Voyage of Windbird. It was a small group of 4 and the input was very helpful and encouraging. We enjoyed the class on Zoom so much that we plan to meet again next week.

2020 Life Logs, Day 85: Breakthrough Day . . . Finally
Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Weather: Overcast; High 42 degrees, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I had a productive day. It felt like I broke through the fog and was productive for the first day in quite a while. I didn’t finish the photo editing/organizing project I have been working on for months, but I will finish it tomorrow. Hurray! Hurray! And as is happening more and more as each day of face-to-face isolation continues, I spent a bit of time on the phone with family and friends. I talked with my niece in Charlotte, with friend Jane Woodin who returned yesterday from Florida, with friend Midge Frieswyk about home schooling issues, and then tonight Justin and I talked for over an hour. Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco have been self-isolating and working and schooling from home. They are feeling healthy, the kids have three hours of on-line instruction each day which helps to facilitate the working at home with kids at home, and last night their horse Hopi had a male foal that Ziggy named Barnaby. Business is slow, not yet at a complete standstill, but slow enough that Justin has had to cut back on staff. He is still paying off the business loan from Hurricane Maria and is having to anticipate another one to get through these times. But the really interesting part of the conversation was about Ziggy’s productiveness on various fronts. Ziggy has a game called Farm House Fortress that is available to download on Apple tablets and computers. Justin thinks he used Hyper Pad that he learned about at a science camp last summer to create the game. In addition, Ziggy is creating comic books and stop motion animated shorts under the name of Zitron Productions. And he is producing Zitron music sets. Justin said he really can’t keep up with all of Ziggy’s various projects. He is certainly a busy little guy these days. He will turn eleven in two weeks, so I am trying to figure out what to give him to support his creative ventures. What he wants is a quail, but I’m not sure I get that to him. You can order 100 quails to be shipped, but not just one. Justin also talked about the frustration of completing the paperwork for Jo’s US citizenship. Certain documents are due on April 8, but all of the government business offices are now closed due to Covid-19 and they can’t get the documents needed. Heather and Jed are running into the same issue with their house closing. That was supposed to happen tomorrow but when I talked to Heather about it yesterday, she wasn’t sure they were going to be able to go forward with the Governor’s new order that keeps all non-essential workers at home. What unprecedented times we are living through.

2020 Life Logs, Day 84: J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes
Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 50 degrees, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

My favorite Tolkien quote from The Fellowship of the Ring is, “Not all those who wander are lost.” Today, however, I happened across a little conversation between Frodo and my very favorite wizard, Gandalf, that is quite apt for these times.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

So true. But on the lighter side, there is this quote from The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. “Do you wish me a good morning, or meant that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?” Think about that the next time you say good morning to someone!

There was a little sunshine today and I think that helped clear my head and get me back in focus. I spent most of my day working on organizing photos from the past year. Eventually I have to go all the way back to the fall of 2016 to finish this project, but I was very pleased with today’s progress. I will continue tomorrow.

2020 Life Logs, Day 83: Out of Focus
Date: Monday, March 23, 2020
Weather: Cloudy with Some Rain; High 44 degrees, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Shadow and I are doing fine during these ‘stay at home’ times, but I continue to struggle with focus. I continue to jump from one activity to another and simply feel out of focus. Surely I’ll get it together soon. Most of my day today was spent in follow-up activities.

I was supposed to receive my first delivery of Misfits organic veggies and fruits on Saturday. The FedEx tracking system said the box had been delivered to my doorstep, but it was not. I tried to reach both FedEx and Misfits on Saturday, but there was absolutely no way to talk to a person. I had to send emails. I still have not heard back from either with a return email, but today I called the FedEx office in Massachusetts that sent the delivery truck out. I did get an agent. She was very helpful and very surprised as she said the driver has been delivering packages to the Cape for years and should be very familiar with the area. Since the box of food is perishable, it seemed silly to try and track it down, but she helped me figure out how to make sure the driver gets detailed directions for this week’s delivery. Hopefully her suggestions work.

As a follow-up to other things I wrote about yesterday, I heard from Jo’s parents in England and they are doing fine, but like here, staying at home and not visiting with family. Margaret reported that she had a wonderful Zoom online gathering with all three of her children, but it was the first Mother’s Day she has ever spent without actually being with at least of one of the three. I also learned that Mike and Linda Stuart are going to stay in Spain. In order to be within the new rules being imposed there, they are going to have to stay in their current Airbnb, even though it more expensive, because they already have a contract. They have found a Facebook page where other Americans in Spain are sharing experiences and that is helping them feel more connected. And tonight I talked to Heather and they had a good day despite the rainy weather keeping boys inside during the afternoon. Sam is recovering from his skateboard fall on Sunday. And Heather and Jed are striking a balance between work and checking in on what the boys are doing. Heather and Jed are supposed to close on the purchase of their new home this Thursday, but Governor Baker’s announcement today that all non-essential workers in Massachusetts must now stay home might interfere with the closing. “Beginning Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 12:00 PM, Massachusetts join a growing number of states in closing non-essential businesses and organizations to employees, customers, and the public.” This order applies to the “physical workplaces and facilities” until April 7. It is going to take a day or so to figure out exactly if and how this might impact a closing in a bank. But they are prepared for a delay. Even if they do close, they now are not sure that the work they wanted to have done before moving in can go ahead. What is essential? What is not? Such uncertain times, but we will get through this.

Last week Ollie discovered the Mo Willems noontime doodling website. Mo Willems is a children’s author. He, along with a whole lot of other children’s authors, are offering online activities for kids at home. https://www.weareteachers.com/virtual-author-activities/?utm_content=1584565321&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR30-cq5NJbAOJ9zPEvGZeI2gvALwKDwMwazDc4BIvidKG40qAtJ_lI7i9k
Tonight on the Rachel Maddow Show, Rachel did a piece on how the children of the people who are still working to produce her show are taking advantage of the Mo Willems offering. She showed a lot of their doodling art and highlighted what one child had written beside her doodle. “We’re all connected.” Even though we are currently physically distanced, we must all find ways to stay connected.

2020 Life Logs, Day 82: All Over the Place
Date: Sunday, March 22, 2020
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 35 degrees, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It’s no wonder I can’t figure out where my days are going because I bounce all over the place. I read a little bit, I write a little bit, I bounce from one project to another, and the day is gone. Today I did go to the 1:00 pm group ‘people training’ class. The instructor, Melissa, wrote and promised we would be outside, use physical distancing, wear gloves, and do everything possible to be safe. I decided to go as I am really struggling with Shadow’s training. He knows he’s the boss and I am just not able to assert dominance no matter what I do. Going today helped as Melissa watched me interact with Shadow and could then coach me in what I should and should not be doing. But Shadow is a tough one, but he is now six months old now and I really need to get on top of this. I will persist. Just as I left the class, Heather called to bring me up-to-date on Sam. At the end of our virtual birthday party on Zoom last evening, Sam fell off his skateboard and hit his head on the road. In a rush to help Ollie celebrate his rollerblade birthday gift, Sam had hopped on his board without a helmet. It ended up to be a harder fall than anyone thought at the time. He had quite a large goose egg on the back of his head but he didn’t have the symptoms of a concussion. Heather got through to the pediatrician and a trip to the ER was avoided. Not a place any of us wants to be these days. The goose egg reduced in size with icing and today Sam seems fine. But lesson learned. No skateboard, not even for a few minutes, without a helmet.

Before I went to the group training class, I got a group email from Justin and Jo announcing an 11 am Silvermouse Isolation Concert on Facebook. Their email said, “Going live again at about 11am – join us to hear some of our new material, dance, and generally just… do something while the world goes crazy?” They are using their music as a way of trying to bring people together online in these days of physical distancing. If you want to check out their Facebook page, you can click on this link: https://facebook.com/silvermouselive. After their concert ended, I decided to look online to check on the spread of the coronavirus in the UK where Jo’s parents live. I immediately saw that today was Mother’s Day in the UK and that in their county of Surrey, the cases of coronavirus jumped from 19 to 68 just today. I sent an email to wish Margaret a Happy Mother’s Day and hope to find that they hunkering down and doing just fine.

When I got home from the training class, I caught up on reading the daily logs from Mike and Linda Stuart who are now in Spain. I last checked their website on Thursday and it looked like they had made a decision to stay in Spain. But by today, that stay is uncertain. There, like here, things are changing daily. Spain is now closing down all tourist lodging which includes hotels and Airbnb’s. They had planned to stay in their current Airbnb, but the owner upped the price. So even if they can stay, they will move to another place. And if they do decide to leave, they have to figure out some way to get their bikes packed up. Linda said that with all the stores and bike shops closed, that could be difficult. But she sounded upbeat and confident that they will work this out. I got a kick out of the fact that she is doing the same daily lunch doodles with artist and author Mo Willems as Ollie is doing. Ollie loves Mo Willems books and Heather said he sat for a full hour on Friday doodling online with Mo. If you have children or grandchildren that like to draw or if you would just like to doodle, check out Mo Willems new daily doodling video: https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems/

By late afternoon, I needed a break from how the coronavirus is affecting our lives, so I watched a couple of organic gardening videos from a current series being offered for free on the internet. One of today’s videos was about raised bed gardening and it was helpful. And then I read another chapter in my current book. Late last week I decided to read the Harry Potter series so I can talk about these books with my grandkids. I have all the books in the series sitting on my bookshelf and I am now about halfway through the first book. I’m compiling a list of questions and comments on each chapter and hope that I can get into a book dialog with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie as they are Harry Potter fans.

Today felt like winter. It was almost 20 degrees cooler than yesterday and with the wind it felt downright cold. The next few days look warmer, so hopefully I can get outside to do some gardening chores.

2020 Life Logs, Day 81: Happy 8th Birthday to Ollie
Date: Saturday, March 21, 2020
Weather: Sunny; High 52 degrees, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

01 The Goldstones Three

It was on a Wednesday in 2012 when Oliver Preston Goldstone was welcomed into this world. Mark and I stayed at home with Sam and Jonah when Heather and Jed headed to the hospital. Then once we got the call that we could come visit, we headed to the hospital as fast as we could. When Sam and Jonah got their first glance of their new little brother, Ollie immediately reached out to his brothers with his tiny little hands. And he continues to this day to reach out to others and often says things that show wisdom beyond his years. Because of that Heather has always called him the Ollie-Lama. I can hardly believe he is already 8 years old. Happy Birthday, Ollie.

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It took a lot of ingenuity to think of ways to celebrate his birthday in these days of social distancing, but Heather and Jed managed in one day to pull off two different virtual birthday parties as well as a walk in the woods with family. They chose the Quashnet River Area in East Falmouth for the walk as the loop road has plenty of room to stay 6 feet apart . . . easier said than done, but we were fairly successful and had a great walk. It took us a little longer than expected and Ollie was almost late for his virtual birthday party with friends. He had invited a few friends to all get online with him at 4:30 on Zoom. It was 4:30 when we got back to the cars, so Heather just got Ollie on her phone and the party started while they were driving home. I learned later that when one of his friends found out they were in the van driving home, he said they should drive by his house to say hello. Then the other friends said they wanted him to drive by their homes as well. It’s a whole new world when an eight-year-old has a great birthday party on a phone in a van while driving by the homes of friends who came outside to wave to him. Ingenuity at its best. Then later in the evening, Grammy Marti in Washington, DC and I got an email invitation to another birthday party via Zoom. If you are not familiar with Zoom you probably will be before we get through this coronavirus pandemic. It is a fabulous way to have an online meeting or a class or a visit with friends or even a birthday party. On your phone or on your computer screen, you see small individual frames showing live video of everyone who has been invited to join. The full screen picture then moves from person to person, depending on who is talking. We sang Happy Birthday, watched Ollie open his presents, and then went outside and watched him try out his new roller blades from mommy and daddy. It’s not the same as being together in person, but once you get into it, you almost forget that you aren’t really together. I think we are all going to learn many new things in the next few weeks, months, or whatever it takes to get this virus under control. But I am definitely going to embrace this wonderful technology and I might even take up the idea of driving by friends homes just to wave hello! I think Ollie felt like his birthday had been properly celebrated and I think it is a birthday he will remember throughout his life. Hopefully he will never have to have another one under these circumstances, but if he does, he’ll know just how to do it.