2020 Life Logs, Day 50: Post Office Run Around and Mah Jongg
Date: Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 4 degrees, Low 22 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

What a day! Something that should have been so simple ended up taking a great part of the day. Friends that are out of town asked me to pick up a package delivered to their home. I had the tracking information and once I saw it had been delivered, I went to pick it up. But it was not there. There was some confusion because the package was coming from out of the country. There was one tracking number for passage into the country, but another once it arrived. It was sent via UPS, but once in the US, it was to be delivered by the US Postal Service. I talked to UPS and then I talked to USPS Customer Service. No help. They suggested I go to the main post office in Falmouth. I did. I suggested that maybe the package was not really delivered to the house since mail was on hold. I asked them to check. No package. So I was told it must be in the North Falmouth Post Office. I drove there. No package. But there was a young postmaster who finally figured out the problem and sent me back to the main post office downtown Falmouth. I was still told there was no package, but I persisted, talked to a supervisor, and sure enough—the package was there all along. During all of this, I went to a Lunch and Learn program about horseshow crabs and picked Heather up from work mid-afternoon and drove her to the bus station for her trip to Maine to meet up with Jed and the boys. I spent late afternoon time with Shadow and then went to play Mah Jongg tonight. I got home for the last 45 minutes of the Democratic debate. And now it is definitely time to go to bed. Tomorrow should be a much quieter day with only one appointment. I’m ready for a quiet day.

2020 Life Logs, Day 49: Goldpebbles Off to Maine
Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Weather: Rainy; High 49 degrees, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

This was one busy, busy day. Since all of the Goldstones had spent the night, we started with breakfast before Heather headed to work and Jed headed home to get ready for their trip to Maine for three days of snowboarding at Sunday River. Sam, Jonah, and Ollie stayed with me and we had a great morning. I took them home at 11:15 so they could pack their bags for the trip. That was bigger job than anticipated and the 12:30 pm take-off time just didn’t happen. But they did finally get underway. I headed home to take Shadow for a walk and give him lunch, then I returned to Heather and Jed’s and spent the afternoon taping off the living room so that it would be ready for Heather to paint the walls once she got home from work. When she got home, I went back to walk and feed dinner to Shadow before returning to get the kitchen and dining room ready for the crew that will be coming tomorrow to paint some walls and all of the woodwork throughout the house. What a big job it is to get ready for painting. But the job did get done. I left Heather as she was still painting the living room and headed home to spend some time with Shadow. Heather arrived a couple of hours later and we spent too long talking and got to bed after midnight. It has been a crazy few days trying to move things to storage, Heather and Jed will have to do the walls and trim in that room next weekend. Hopefully after that, the house will be ready to put on the market.

2020 Life Logs, Day 48: The Work Continues
Date: Monday, February 17, 2020
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 46 degrees, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

We were all up early this morning, as Heather had an early morning appointment to get her hair cut and Jed went home to get the stairwell painted. By the time the boys and I arrived at their house around 10 am to get clean socks and a shirt for Ollie, Jed had finished the stairwell. Ollie, Jonah, and I left Sam at my house with Shadow and we went into town to find some sort of storage box for each of them to pack up everything on their desks. We wanted a wooden box with a lid, but we ended up with plastic as that was the only alternative in the size we needed. We then rushed home to get their desk items packed up. Once done, they went off to play Harry Potter with Joey and Molly next door and I went home to get Sam and Shadow. We got back just in time to fix lunch and head to the our ‘people training for good dogs’ class. The Goldpebbles and I spent a couple of hours with Melissa Berryman learning how to think like a dog. Melissa asked the boys to tell her how people greet one another. They answered that sometimes people shake hands. Then she asked them how many times they had seen dogs shaking hands. Well, never. But she explained that people often extend their hand with outreaching fingers to a strange dog to show that they are friendly and that some dogs will see that as an invitation to bite. She recommends patting your leg and inviting the dog to come to you. If it does, then you can pet it. Otherwise, no petting of dogs you don’t know. And if you are walking your dog and people ask if he is friendly before attempting to pet him, tell them that your dog is friendly with you, but that you suggest they ask the dog if he would like to be petted. You then directing them to pat their thigh along with a friendly greeting and see if your dog goes to them. If so, then they can pet him. If not, walk on. This is just one example of what she teaches, but today she spent most of her time explaining how to use high and low pitched sounds to get a dog to do what you want—low tones for the no-no’s and a really high-pitched ‘good’ immediately when the dog responds. The thing we are having to work so hard on with Shadow is getting him not to jump up on us. He is responding beautifully to the training method, but we do all have to be on the same page. Thus, the classes.
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I took the boys to my house after the training session to give them a treat for successfully completing their first class. I then left Shadow at home to take a nap and returned to Heather and Jed’s with the boys. Heather was still completing the painting of the second upstairs bedroom and Jed as loading things into the van to take to the storage unit. I continued to helped pack things that need to be put in the storage unit, but it had become apparent that the goal of getting all of the downstairs rooms painted before a professional painting crew comes on Wednesday to paint all of the trim in the house was just not going to get done. I left at 5 pm to come home and fix dinner and the rest of the crew arrived a couple of hours later to eat. Heather had bought artichokes as it is the season, and an array of cheeses, a loaf of rustic Italian bread, and raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries to add to the feast. All I had to do was cook the artichokes and get everything on the table. After a wonderful dinner, Heather and Jed returned home to keep painting. Heather has to go to work tomorrow and Jed leaves mid-day with the boys to go for three days of snowboarding at Sunday River near Bethel, Maine. Heather will join them on Wednesday evening. They are coming back here to spend the night and I expected them before now. I can’t wait to find out what the new plan is for proceeding, depending on just how much they got done tonight. Heather still has tomorrow night and I have offered to do what I can tomorrow afternoon. They have accomplished so much this weekend, but the work continues.

2020 Life Logs, Day 47: Support Staff
Date: Sunday, February 16, 2020
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High 42 degrees, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

When you are getting a house ready to put on the market and moving, there’s nothing you need more than a support staff. So that is what I am trying to be for Heather and Jed. Their next door neighbors, the Keefe’s, are also pitching in by having Jonah and Ollie spend more time than normal at their house. Ollie and Jonah spent the night there last night, went to hockey practice with Joey this morning, and spent the remainder of the day there until I went to get them at 5 pm to take them back to my house. Earlier in the day, I went to water plants for friends that are out of town and then picked Sam up when he returned from his camping and ski/snowboarding weekend. He had a great time and was very grateful that one of the Scout masters worked extra hard to keep the wood stove burning in their cabin on Friday night when the temps were below zero. It was so warm last night that he slept in only his sleeping bag liner. He did a couple of Black Diamond trails yesterday and was very proud of that fact. I took him home to shower, went to get lunch for all of us, and then took Sam to my house to be with Shadow while I went back to Heather and Jed’s to pack up a few more things. I had offered to fix dinner for all of us, but the boys and I had go ahead and eat without H & J. They arrived closer to 8 pm as they really wanted to finish the painting in the upstairs bedrooms, hallway, and stairwell. Heather got two coats of paint on in the boys’ room, walls and ceiling, and one coat on in their bedroom and the hall and stairwell. They are using No VOC paint, but still they decided to take me up on my offer to sleep at my house tonight instead of uncovering their bed to sleep there. It would just have to be covered again tomorrow. Right now, everyone is fast asleep except for me, so I think I’ll turn in as well. Heather and Jed plan to be up and out of here by 7:30 to put in another long day of painting and taking things to their storage unit. I’ll take care of the Goldpebbles until I take them to their People Training for Good Dogs class at 12:30. I’ll have lots to report on tomorrow night.

2020 Life Logs, Day 46: People Training Class and Helping with the Goldstone Move
Date: Saturday, February 15, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Still Cold; High 30 degrees, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Jonah, Ollie, and I had a good night’s sleep, not waking up until almost 8 am. We had breakfast, and before we knew it, it was time for me to take them home so I could go to “people training” class with Shadow. The one-on-one classes are two and half hours long—lots of lecture and lots of hands on practice. Today we worked on what is called the Leadership Exercise which is basically a version of follow the leader. My job is to show Shadow that I am worth following. This also requires that Shadow learns to sit on command which is something I was not able to get him to do until after last week’s class. Then we worked on the ‘heel’ command using the leash. That was extremely effective. So I think my training is working. On Monday I take Sam, Jonah, and Ollie with me to class so they can learn to better handle Shadow.

After class, Shadow and I went home to have lunch and then we went to Heather and Jed’s to see if there was anything we could do to help with moving preparations. Getting their current house ready to put on the market is the current challenge. The boys played next door at the Keefe’s all day and were invited to spend the night tonight. So, I didn’t get to have them for a second night. But since there is no school this week, I’m hoping all three boys can spend tomorrow night with me. Heather had hoped to paint their bedroom today, but instead the day was spent moving things to a storage unit to make painting easier. Tomorrow will be painting day for the upstairs bedrooms and stairwell and then the Monday holiday will be spent painting downstairs. I’m hoping to spend part of tomorrow helping to get the downstairs ready to be painted. I was amazed at how much they were able to accomplish today. Sure hope tomorrow and Monday are as productive.

2020 Life Logs, Day 45: Happy Valentine’s Day
Date: Friday, February 14, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny and COLD; High 28 degrees, Low 11 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Here’s hoping everyone had a Happy Valentine’s Day. I had a date tonight with two delightful young men named Jonah and Oliver, and we had a lovely evening together. Their bedroom is going to be painted over the weekend–ceiling, walls, and trim–so they are staying here for a couple of nights. I will take them home to play during the day so I can help with the packing and painting, but it is just easier to have them stay with me at night. Heather and Jed won’t be moving until the end of March, but they have to get their current home ready to put on the market. Since this will be a working weekend, we all took time tonight to play and celebrate Valentine’s Day. Heather and Jed went out to dinner and Jonah, Ollie, and I had our favorite dinner of calamari followed by artichokes. Then we watched The Wizard of Oz. Jonah had seen the original movie, but Ollie had not. Jonah watched the first half and then read for a bit, but Ollie, Shadow, and I were in for the long haul. All of us attended a local production of this story last year, but Ollie really enjoyed seeing the movie and making comparisons with the play. The reason Sam isn’t with us this weekend is that he camping and skiing/snowboarding with his Scout troop. They are skiing/snowboarding in New Hampshire tomorrow and the overnight temperature there is forecast to be -4 degrees F. Yikes! The Scouts will be in a building with a woodstove, but if no one gets up to stoke the fire, they will be without heat. He is using the good to -40 sleeping bag that belonged to Mark before I met him. Mark lived in Laramie, Wyoming in the late 1960’s and enjoyed winter camping using that bag. It was a good one, but it is more than 50 years old and has lost a few feathers over the years. Sure hope it keeps him warm enough tonight.

I had planned to spend the day at Heather and Jed’s doing prep work for the weekend painting, but Jed texted early this morning that he was going to be home sick in bed today. He has a terrible cold and needed the rest, so I let him know that I would not come over until the afternoon so he could sleep peacefully. Shadow and I went over after lunch and Jed was feeling much better, but headed back to bed after we discussed the best use of my time. I made some headway, but there’s tons of work to be done. Shadow and I have another “people” training class tomorrow morning, so I will drop the boys off around 10 am, go to my class, and then come back to help out in the afternoon. Either tomorrow or Sunday, Heather and Jed will arrange for the rental of storage unit, and we will start moving things into that which will make the painting much easier. But they still have to live in the house for another month, so deciding what has to stay and what can go is challenging.

We actually had snow flurries here this morning and the temperature dropped so that it felt like winter. Tomorrow will be cold as well, but then things warm up a bit starting on Sunday. Whether or not we are going to get any extended period of winter weather this year is still to be determined.

2020 Life Logs, Day 44: Recycling, Writing, and Local Politics
Date: Thursday, February 13, 2020
Weather: Rain All Day; High 45 degrees, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I think I must have been asleep when I wrote last night’s log. First, I forgot to change the date and then I wrote over and over that Coco and Ollie are 8 years old. As soon as my head hit the pillow last night, I realized my mistake. I know they are only 7, but since I never trust my memory of ages (Once we made Mark a year older for an entire year until his mother intervened and made the correction.), I must have done a quick math check thinking they were born in 2012 and it is now 2020, so they are 8. Wrong. They haven’t yet had their birthdays in 2020. Not sure how I made that mistake, but apologies.

Until this morning, I considered myself knowledgeable in terms of recycling, but a Newcomers program this morning showed me just how much I don’t know. Unfortunately I didn’t learn as much as hoped as it was hard to follow the speaker. She was very enthusiastic and obviously knew what she was talking about, but she talked fast and the Powerpoint presentation progressed too quickly for me to absorb the information. It would have been helpful to have a handout to follow along. What I did learn was that I need to learn more. I had no idea that if you put a plastic bottle in the recycling bin you need to either screw the lid on or throw the lid in the trash. Small pieces of recyclable plastic simply don’t go through the machines and can gum up the works. So, no lids in your recycle bin unless they are screwed onto the container. I often buy mushrooms that come in black plastic containers that have the recycle logo on it. Black plastic cannot be recycled. Period. So, you can’t go by the recycle logo. I never bag my recyclables in plastic bags, but many people do. That is an absolute no-no. No plastic bags of any type should ever go into your recycle bin. They can be taken to a vendor, like your local grocery store, that has a bin designated for plastic bags, but never in your town recycling system. Once I do a little more research, I’ll report other details. So much to learn.

After the Newcomers meeting, I came home to be with Shadow and do a little writing. Shadow has had digestive issues all week and has needed a little more attention than usual. It started on Monday evening with no appetite. On Tuesday, he had borderline diarrhea and very little appetite. That continued yesterday. He did eat dinner, but not breakfast or lunch. And that pattern continued today. He certainly has no lack of energy, but still I am worried. I will take him to the vet in the morning to check things out. But in the meantime, I am trying to give him as much attention as possible. I took him for a walk and then he slept while I did a little writing for my Memoir Class. This class has finally given me the incentive to start writing my story of sailing around the world. Yeah! Once I had completed my homework, I did leave Shadow and went to the class. I did not stay in town to attend a political meeting tonight to meet candidates for the State Senate from this district, but I am watching it on Falmouth Community Television right now as I write. I’ve never paid attention to local races, but now I realize that we all need to pay close attention to all elections and get to know the candidates.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and after our visit to the veterinarian, Shadow and I will spend our day at Heather and Jed’s helping to get the house ready to be painted inside this weekend. Sam is away this weekend skiing/snowboarding with Scouts and Jed is taking Ollie and Jonah snowboarding on Saturday while Heather stays home and paints. Helping to get ready for that will be my Valentine’s gift to the Goldstones. And I will do my laundry and can the chicken broth I made this week while I am there. So it is a win-win for all. Since I will be gone most of tomorrow, this evening when I got home I took a Valentine’s gift to Shirley and Doris next door. They love biscotti, so I took them dark chocolate biscotti and got a rose for each of them. They were so appreciative. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

2020 Life Logs, Day 43: Art and Music and Coco and Ollie
Date: Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 44 degrees, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Girl Talk is a British magazine for girls 7 to 12 and my granddaughter Coco, who is 7, gets the magazine sent to Puerto Rico by her British grandparents. A couple of weeks ago my daughter-in-law Jo posted a photo of Coco on Facebook describing it as “Coco delighting in texture, movement, color.” The photo is Coco swirling around in a long emerald green dress. It is a bit blurred making it look like a painting. It is perfect vision of Coco who has always been interested in drawing and painting. When she read about a slogan art contest in one of her issues of Girl Talk, she submitted a drawing and it will be in the February issue. At age 7, Coco is going to be published artist! That was special news to receive today.

The day seemed to be determined to focus on art and music and 7 year-olds. I decided to drive up near Boston to pick up the violin that I took in for repairs for Ollie. I made a couple of other stops, so naturally it took longer than I anticipated. When I got home it was almost time to take Ollie to violin lessons. And then it was time to run home and have a quick dinner before Ollie’s second grade school concert.
On the way home from his violin lesson he told me that he thought I would know and really enjoy one of their songs. In his special 7 year-old way, he proudly announced that the song was Count on Me by Bruno Mars. He didn’t tell me that one of the other songs was their music teacher’s rendition of one of my favorite children’s books, Caps for Sale. Mr. Charles read parts of the story interspersed with the children singing the repetitive lines and with each child getting a chance to keep the beat on a xylophone. It was a fun concert.

It was most sunny today, but I think we are expecting rain tomorrow. But that’s okay. I have a Newcomers General Meeting in the morning and a Memoir Writing Class in the afternoon. Between the two, I need to do some writing, so the rainy day will give me no excuse to go outside and do something else.

2020 Life Logs, Day 42: Lunch & Learn with Bourne Newcomers and Friends
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 49 degrees, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Any day that I get to make my presentation about the Voyage of Windbird is a great day for me. I love reliving the almost six years that Mark and I spent sailing around the world. Today’s presentation was given to the Bourne Newcomers and Neighbors Lunch & Learn group. Bourne is the town just on the other side of the Cape Cod Canal and many of the people there are sailors. It was a great group of people and another well received presentation. Good friend Olivia White helped the Bourne group launch their Newcomers organization about four years ago and they invited her to come to the presentation today. She just got home from a two week visit to friends and family in Texas late last night. Always the supportive person, she was up and raring to go this morning.

It was another rainy day, but I did take Shadow for a short walk this morning before heading to Bourne. He got soaked to the bone yesterday when we walked in the rain, so this morning I put the little coat on him that was given to him by Heather’s neighbor, Melissa Keefe. I need to work on the Velcro fasteners, but it did keep Shadow from getting quite so wet. When I got home, later than expected, we mostly spent time together inside before heading over to Heather and Jed’s to pick Ollie up to take him to his Tuesday tennis lesson. Then even though it was dark when we got home, we took another walk. The rain had subsided and a flashlight gave us the light we needed. Then when we got back inside, Shadow sat with me while we watched the New Hampshire Primary results. Tomorrow it looks like we get a break in the rain before it returns on Thursday, so hopefully we’ll get in a couple of long walks. `
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2020 Life Logs, Day 41: Rainy Day
Date: Monday, February 10, 2020
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 47 degrees, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

We’ve had such beautiful weather this winter that I feel guilty complaining when we have dreary, rainy days. So, I won’t complain. I’ll just state that it was dreary and rainy all day. Shadow and I still took our walks, but during the last walk of the afternoon, Shadow got soaked to the bone and is drying out. I went to an interview for a position on the Newcomers Board for next year, spent some time writing for my Memoir Class, prepared for a presentation I give tomorrow for the Bourne Newcomers, started reading a new book, and put away the impossible puzzle that has been taking up my dining room table for a few weeks. I was working the puzzle on a very large piece of cardboard the size of the dining table and was making almost no progress. I am saving what progress I have made by putting the large piece of cardboard with the puzzle pieces I have managed to sort and assemble atop a wardrobe in one of my bedrooms. In the fall, when my friend Lynne arrives to help-out after my knee surgery, we’ll get the puzzle down and continue working on it together. In the meantime, I might cover it with a cloth so it doesn’t get dusty, but for now it is out of sight and out of mind!

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On our way out for our last walk of the day, Shadow and I stopped next door to deliver some soup and the mail to our neighbors Shirley and Doris. They asked if I had noticed that the big tree by the boat dock was blown over during our very windy Friday. I had not noticed and was shocked to see it. The tree and its entire root system was simply blown over. Then I noticed that the kayaks I have stored under their deck were also blown about. The tarp I had secured over the kayaks was blown off and one of the kayaks was blown over. I’ll work on fixing that on Wednesday as tomorrow is supposed to be another day of rain.