Life Logs, Day 19:  Hanging Out with Friends and Family
Date:  Sunday, January 19, 2020
Weather:  Beautiful Day; High 78 degrees, Low 60 degrees F
Location:  At Home with Linda and Mike Stuart, Bonita Springs, FL

It was a day of just hanging out with friends and family.  Add to that clear, blue skies, bright sunshine, and a high temperature in the upper 70’s, and it equals a totally delightful day.  Linda and Mike are here in southern Florida taking a winter break from their bicycle trip around the world.  Their next destination is Europe, and weather dictated that they should wait until March to begin that leg of their journey.  They had planned to stay here in Florida in a condo owned by Linda’s sister until the first of February, spend a month in northern New York where most of Linda’s family lives, and then head to Spain.  But Linda has fallen in love with the weather here in southern Florida and made arrangements to stay here for one more month, making a short trip to northern New York.  And I can certainly see why.  The weather here is just perfect right now and it seduces you into thinking that you never want to leave.  I have one more day and then I head back to Cape Cod.  I’m not looking forward to the winter weather, but I have really missed Shadow and Heather and family.  Today Heather sent a photo of my boys—Shadow, Sam, Jonah, and Ollie—going for a walk, and it jolted me back into reality.  Even if it is cold, I really can’t wait to return home to be with them.

This morning Linda and I did an hour of water aerobics in a warm swimming pool and then I just sat in the sun while Linda swam laps.  We went to Mark’s sister Mary Ellen’s home for lunch and visited with Mary Ellen and Lee and their son Dan and his two teenagers, Noah and Danny.  We returned home to watch the Titans play Kansas City in a game that decided that Kansas City will be going to the Super Bowl (not my choice), and then we prepared a welcome dinner for Mike and Linda’s son Garrett.  Garrett flew in from San Jose late this evening to spend a week with his mom and dad and his wife Katie will arrive on Friday morning to spend the weekend with them.  The dinner tonight was another fantastic meal—salmon stuffed with spinach and Fontina cheese, roasted sweet potatoes, stir-fried oyster mushrooms, and homemade applesauce.  I have not seen Garrett for years, so it wonderful to reconnect with him.  He has to work during the days while he is here, so tomorrow after water aerobics, Linda and I will head to the beach for a couple of hours while Mike plays pickleball.  Then we’ll return home and get ready for another fantastic dinner, this time with Linda’s brother and his wife who live nearby.  It’s tough life down here, but someone has to do it.

2020 Life Logs, Day 18: The Boathouse and Tour of Rialto
Date: Saturday, January 18, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 77 degrees, Low 61 degrees F
Location: At Home with Linda and Mike Stuart, Bonita Springs, FL

It was a lovely day here in south Florida and great to be here with Mike and Linda. During the early morning we walked to the Farmers Market, stopped at the grocery store, sat by the pool for a few minutes, and then drove west of Fort Myers to have lunch with Mark’s family and friends of his brother Steve.We met at a restaurant called the Boat House just west of Fort Myers and after a very long wait, we finally had lunch. But the wait gave us time to visit.

After lunch, we drove to where Steve lives on his boat. The boat is on a dock at what used to be a small marina called Rialto. It is no longer a marina, but the property is just gorgeous. Steve designed the old-style Florida home for the owners, as well as the guest house which also includes an office for him. Steve’s daughter and her husband, Kristy and Nate, drove out to see us with their two boys, Hayden and Caleb. We didn’t get home until almost 7 o’clock and it was just too late for Linda and I to fix the mushroom souffle we had planned. So, we stopped at a place called Black Jack’s and picked up a veggie pizza. I almost never eat pizza, but this was a special treat. Really yummy. Linda and I added sautéed spinach to ours and after pizza, we had the corn-on-the-cob we bought at the morning market. It was another delightful day with delightful people.

2020 Life Logs, Day 17: Happiness is Good Friends, Good Food, and Warm Weather
Date: Friday, January 17, 2020
Weather: Currently 68 degrees (Bonita Springs, FL), 18 degrees (East Falmouth, MA)
Location: At Home with Linda and Mike Stuart, Bonita Springs, FL

Happiness is visiting with good friends after way too many years apart. And add warm weather to that and I am in heaven. My flight from Boston Logan to Fort Myers went without a hitch and Linda and Mike Stuart picked me up at the airport at 7:15 pm. Linda fixed a wonderful dinner using a favorite Mark Hyman recipe for Greek chicken with artichokes, kalamata olives, and lemon slices, plus acorn squash filled with apples, and roasted potatoes. It was delicious and then she presented another Mark Hyman recipe for dessert. It was a cherry cobbler with an almond meal, chopped pecans, and chia seed topping and topped that with whipped coconut milk. Yum! The Greek chicken is already one of my regulars and the dessert will definitely become a standard for me. You always know you are going to eat great food when Linda is doing the cooking.

We had a change in plans this morning when Heather realized the house cleaner was coming today. I had planned to deliver Shadow and have Meghan of Get My Goats feed Shadow lunch and dinner there. But Shadow would not have been happy having to stay in his crate with the cleaning people running around the house, so Meghan did Shadow’s mid-day walk and lunch at my house and then Heather moved Shadow from my house to hers and Meghan did the evening visit at Heather’s. A little more complicated than planned, but it worked out fine. Tonight was Sam’s birthday dinner with friends in Hyannis, thus the need for Meghan to feed Shadow dinner. I got a great report from Meghan after her mid-day visit and a hilarious selfie of Heather and a wild child puppy tonight. Both made me a happy puppy momma.

Tomorrow will be spent just enjoying friends, family, and sunshine–at least I’m hoping for sunshine. After a walk to the Saturday Farmer’s Market, we are going east of Fort Myers to visit with Mark’s brother Steve. He lives aboard his boat adjacent to a property that I call the Garden of Eden. It is a part of Florida I want Mike and Linda to experience and Mark’s sisters, Mary Ellen and Jeanie are going to join us.

2020 Life Logs, Day 16: Changing Weather
Date: Thursday, January 16, 2020
Weather: Mix of Sun & Clouds, Super Windy; High 47, Low 19 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The weather was mixed today. It started out cloudy, then turned sunny, cloudy again, then back to sunny. The whole time it was super windy and that wind was bringing in colder weather. For a week we have had days with high temps in the 40’s and above and temps above freezing at night. But tonight the temp will dip into the teens and the high tomorrow is forecast to be 25 degrees F. Sounds like a great day to head south to Florida! Unfortunately, it is going to be just as cold when I return on Tuesday. So I will certainly enjoy the warmer Florida weather for a few days. I hate that I can’t stay longer, but I just couldn’t bear to think about putting Shadow in a kennel. I am so grateful that Heather and boys are willing to take care of him over this long weekend. And I really wanted to be back for Sam’s 13th birthday on Tuesday. I just have to be here to see my first grandchild become an official teenager. Can’t believe it!

I scurried around getting ready to go today. I went to Heather and Jed’s this evening to be with Sam and Ollie while Jed took Jonah to a Scouting event and I took the first load of puppy ‘stuff’ with me. The food, the treats, the toys, the crates . . . it is quite a lot of stuff for little puppy. And I took written directions and went over everything with Sam and Ollie. Jed is leaving on Saturday, so I am depending on Sam to relay the details to Heather. She is in New York until tomorrow afternoon, but I will be gone and will have delivered Shadow and all of his ‘stuff’ by then. I will take a few more things early when I pick Sam up at 7:15 am to deliver him to school for his Friday morning Environment Club meeting. And then I will make the final delivery at 10:30 am. At 11 am I head to Sagamore to catch the bus to Logan Airport in Boston. My flight is at 3:15 pm and I arrive in Fort Myers at 7:00 pm. I am so looking forward to visiting with Linda and Mike Stuart and Mark’s family. Let the fun begin.

2020 Life Logs, Day 15: Warm, Sunny Day
Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 49, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I know it is probably coming to an end, but I have been loving the unseasonably warm weather. Today there was no wind and it felt much warmer than the 49 degree high temperature reported. Shadow and I spent a great deal of the morning outside with Shadow following me around as I cleared more briars out of the woods around the cottage. I try to loosen the roots with a shovel and then put on my briar-proof gloves and try to pull them out. Sometimes that doesn’t work and I just have to cut them at ground level. They will be back, but surely I have slowed the process. I have been putting the briars in one of my raised beds and will cut them into small pieces to be composted. That work can be done if and when the ground is frozen. I think both Shadow and I have really enjoyed our work outside, but it looks like colder weather is on the way.

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Shadow and I drove into town to do some errands just before lunch and later in the afternoon we picked Ollie up after school and delivered him to his violin lesson. Heather met us there and we went to pick Jonah up to take him home. Once there, Sam and Jonah had a good time playing with Shadow in their backyard. Shadow loves to play soccer and run after a tennis ball, so puppy and boys were all happy doing their favorite thing. Tonight was my weekly Mah Jongg night and I think I am finally beginning to understand the game. That doesn’t mean I’m good at it as it is really not an easy game to master. But I enjoy the group of women and I enjoy learning to play. Our formal lessons have ended, but our coach Jackie continues to come and play with us which is tremendously helpful.

2020 Life Logs, Day 14: Taking Care of Business
Date: Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Weather: Overcast; High 43, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

An appointment with my knee surgeon was the first order of business today. In the fall, I scheduled March 2nd as the date to have my right knee replaced. Since then I got a puppy and I have been having second thoughts about the timing even though I am having increasing difficulty with that knee. I talked to the surgeon today and he agreed that it would be wise to wait until Shadow is trained to walk with me instead of me being pulled along my Shadow! The other day a gentleman we passed while walking commented, “Ah, I see your dog is taking you for walk.” That, plus the fact that I will not be able to drive nearly as quickly with a right knee replacement, made me give serious thought to my friend Lynne Kirwin’s very generous offer to come spend a week or so with me if I could move the surgery to be after April when she returns from New Zealand. She will return to New Zealand in late November, so with that time span as a possibility, I am thinking that I would rather have the surgery after the summer. When the nurse calls to reschedule, I will set a mid-October date and hope that Lynne can come then. But if not, I will have a year-old puppy that will go on a walk with me . . . I hope! And, Lynne, thank you for your offer to come.

The knee appointment was in Hyannis, so I next made a stop at Whole Foods before returning home. Since I am leaving for a few days on Friday, I didn’t buy a lot of fresh food, but I did buy the non-perishables that are always on my Whole Foods list. When I got home, it was time to take Shadow on a nice, long walk and then I got on the phone and made arrangements for walking and feeding Shadow while I am gone and Heather is not at home. Shadow will be staying with the Goldstones during my absence, but Sam’s 13th birthday party with his friends is this Friday night. He is taking some of his guy friends to a Brazilian Grill in Hyannis for dinner and then home for an overnight. I leave at 11 am on Friday, so I need someone to walk Shadow mid-day and feed him lunch. The kids will be able to walk him when they get home from school, but then someone needs to come to feed him dinner while they are all in Hyannis. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are covered, but on Tuesday everyone goes back to work and to school, so someone will need come walk and feed him mid-day again. Heather linked me with a friend who has a pet sitting business, but getting signed up takes a couple of days. Meghan, my friend with the goats, had once said she would be glad to do dog walking and feeding when needed. So, I called Meghan and the timing is going to work for her. She does this as a friend, not as a business, so I will make sure that I can reciprocate at some point. And I will go ahead and get signed up with Upper Cape Pet Sitting (Heather’s friend) so that I can use them in the future. I do feel guilty leaving Heather with Shadow while Jed will also be out of town as Shadow has gotten more demanding and his mommy (that would be me) has just not been able to keep up with the training needs. He is house trained, at least at this house, which is great thing. But he resists putting the leash on, still nips as a way of showing love, and jumps up on everyone. I have an appointment with a trainer next week, but that is not going to help this weekend. It is my sincere hope that the Goldpebbles and Heather will survive and have some fun with Shadow at the same time.

Correction to last night’s log . . . I wrote that I didn’t think there were any quakes in Puerto Rico yesterday. Well, Justin wrote this morning to let me know that there were more yesterday than the day before. ” Just for accuracy, I’m pretty sure there were 24 quakes here yesterday, down from 49 the day before. Today already we’ve had five (9:18 am there), and they are getting stronger again (up to 4.6 this morning) where the biggest yesterday was 4.2.” We just have to hope this stops soon.

2020 Life Logs, Day 13: The Basics
Date: Monday, January 13, 2020
Weather: Mostly Cloudy with Some Rain; High 45, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Laundry, canning chicken mineral broth, starting to pack for my weekend trip to Florida, and walking and playing with Shadow—the basics took my time today. The weather cooled down a bit and felt a little more like winter today, but it was not really cold. Shadow and I went to Heather’s to do the laundry and canning. We were still there when the boys got home from school and we did a little training with Shadow. He is still a wild child when he is around the boys. Shadow is so adorable, but what a rascal. I feel bad leaving a not yet well-trained puppy with Heather for the long weekend. Maybe she will be more successful with training than I have been. He is house trained which is one good thing. It is just the jumping up on people and the constant chewing on everything, including people, that we have to work on.

Justin called via Skype this evening to show me Ziggy’s completed Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon. This was my Christmas gift to Ziggy and it took until today to get it fully assembled. It is quite an impressive vehicle with all sorts of movable parts. On Christmas Day, Ziggy bet it would be assembled in hours, but Justin said two weeks. I guess Justin won that bet. There were no quakes in Puerto Rico today, at least not that we have heard about, so that is a good thing. And Heather’s first day in her new job when smoothly. All good.

2020 Life Logs, Day 12: Blustery Day
Date: Sunday, January 12, 2020
Weather: Blustery and Cooling Down; High 59, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Windy, windy was this morning. It was a warm wind, but tonight things are cooling down a bit, making it feel a little more like winter. Today I did my normal walks and play times outside with Shadow, spent some time continuing to remove briars from the woods next to the cottage, took Shadow next door to meet Shirley and Doris, and in the afternoon, the Goldpebbles and I went with Heather and Jed to see the house they looked at yesterday. It is a beautiful home in a really wonderful neighborhood, but the timing is not great. If they decide they want the house, just finding the time to deal with making an offer and then putting their current home on the market would be super stressful. Heather starts her new job tomorrow and will be NYC on Thursday and Friday. Then on Saturday Jed flies to Heidelberg, Germany. I leave on Friday for a long weekend trip to Florida and Heather and boys will be puppy sitting for me. Then next Tuesday is Sam’s 13th birthday. You get the picture. Busy, busy, busy. Add to that the energy and stress of a new job and just thinking about making an offer on a house and moving would put me over the edge. So, we’ll see where this leads. But wherever, I just hope that Heather can compartmentalize and have the energy and focus for a successful start in her new job.

I had dinner at Heather and Jed’s and then came home to watch an evening of Masterpiece Theatre on PBS. At 8 pm, I watched the first episode of Howard’s End, based on the novel by E M. Forster. Then following that were the first two episodes of a miniseries based on Jane Austen’s final novel, Sanditon. It was a lot of drama for one night but quite enjoyable. Since I’ll be in Florida next Sunday, I’ll have to record next Sunday night’s episodes.

2020 Life Logs, Day 11: Overwhelming
Date: Saturday, January 11, 2020
Weather: Warm and Windy; High 60, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The numbers are overwhelming . . . 1.5 million acres of Australia is engulfed by wild fires affecting half a billion animals and I don’t know how many people . . . severe weather including tornadoes in the southern US killed 11 people today . . . over 1,000 earth quakes in Puerto Rico since December 31. The numbers are not only overwhelming, they are almost unbelievable. A thousand earthquakes in less than two weeks in one area? I’ve never heard of anything like this before. An “earthquake swarm” is a term that showed up in my reading today. It refers to a sequence of earthquakes in the same area in a short period of time without an outstanding shock. I don’t feel that really describes what is happening in Puerto Rico because in between the lesser quakes, they keep having major ones. A 5.9 magnitude hit this morning that does not seem insignificant. The stronger quakes can be felt where Justin and Jo live, but they are not in danger. Still the continued tremors are starting to fray nerves. And it was 60 degrees here today. Really? In January? I’m not complaining, but this is supposed to be our coldest month with an average high temperature in the 30’s. It is supposed to get cooler later in the week, but I had to put my heavy coat away and get out my lighter weight fall jacket. Weird weather events.

Shadow and I spent our morning at Heather and Jed’s. They had an appointment to look at a house but thought it was too preliminary to take the boys, thus the need for Oma to hold down the fort while they were gone. Heather and Jed stopped house hunting months ago and are making plans to renovate their current home, but this one caught Heather’s attention and she wanted to take a look. They came home very excited. They both really liked the house and love the neighborhood and we might all go back to take look tomorrow. I came home and put on chicken mineral broth to burble, played outside with Shadow, and then took a nap. I still have congestion and don’t have my normal energy level back yet, so resting is a good thing. After the nap, Shadow and I went for a long walk and then I left for a couple of hours to go to a nursing home to give my Voyage of Windbird presentation to a good friend. After my presentation at the Newcomers meeting on Thursday, Midge Frieswyk asked me if I would be willing to give the presentation to her husband Bill. He had a fall a couple of months ago and has been in a nursing home for rehabilitation since. I was delighted that Midge thought he would like to see the presentation and I was anxious to do something special for Bill. But when I arrived this evening, he was not able to come down for the presentation. Midge’s sister who lives up near Boston and her daughter and two grandsons were there to see the presentation, so we went ahead without Bill. When he is feeling better, I will certainly return and give him a private showing.

2020 Life Logs, Day 10: Slow Day
Date: Friday, January 10, 2020
Weather: Overcast; High 50, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Yesterday was so busy that I decided to take today off. Shadow and I went to bed late last night and he didn’t get up until 7:30 this morning. I took him out, fed him, and we went back to bed and slept until 9:30! I finished the Vintage Christmas Card puzzle, but I have two empty spaces and two pieces that simply do not fit. And I know Shadow ate at least two pieces. So tomorrow, I’ll take a closer to look to make sure that I don’t have pieces in the wrong places, but even if I do, why don’t I have more empty spaces for those pieces Shadow ate? Weird. I ran a few errands, played outside with Shadow, removed more briars from the woods next to the cottage, took a long walk with Shadow in the neighborhood and a shorter one on Menauhant Beach, roasted a chicken, and visited briefly with the Shirley and Doris next door. They returned yesterday after a three month stay at Doris’ home close to Boston. They have home helpers who come in every morning and evening, and Shadow is very confused by the cars in the driveway next door. I’ll take him over to visit tomorrow or Sunday and maybe that will help him understand that we are now sharing out little corner of the world with other humans. I was really looking forward to the full Wolf Moon tonight, but the sky is not clear like it was last night and the moon doesn’t look nearly as dramatic. I am just thankful that I was out and about last night and got to see it in all of its glory.