2020 Life Logs, Day 9: Newcomers . . . Morning, Afternoon, Evening
Date: Thursday, January 09, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 32, Low 20 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was centered on Newcomers activities . . . morning, afternoon, and evening. This morning I made my Voyage of Windbird presentation to a full house at the January general meeting. Three years ago in January, before I was a member of Newcomers, I presented my top 10 favorite places at the January Newcomers meeting. Today I presented the Voyage of Windbird from start to finish. It was basically the same presentation I made at Newbridge on the Charles in October and it was really well received. I love giving this presentation because I get to relive the trip of a lifetime every time I do. Afterwards, I came home to play outside with Shadow, feed him lunch as well as myself, make a kale salad to take with me to a dinner tonight, take Shadow for his daily walk, and then head downtown to the library for a new class being offered by Newcomers. The class is Memoir Writing and the first class was very interesting and challenging. There are about 15 Newcomers in the class, all with fascinating backgrounds. I had to leave early, but it was clear to me that this class is going to well worth the time, I left early to get home to take Shadow outside to play and give him dinner before I headed to Midge Frieswyk’s home for our Newcomers Dining-in January dinner. We started our evening with a toast to the New Year. Midge even brought out the noise makers. Then she staged a phenomenal mid-winter clam bake done on the stove top. We ate lobster, clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, corn, and potatoes. Kielbasa and white wine were used to flavor the yummy seafood. We celebrated Terry White’s birthday which is coming up next week and Karen Baranowski’s which is the following week. Wonderful food, very special friends, and so much fun.

2020 Life Logs, Day 8: Lunch with Heather, Mah Jongg Tonight
Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Weather: Snow Overnight, Mostly Sunny Day; High 32, Low 20 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Shadow and I were a little surprised when we stepped outside early this morning and found that it had snowed overnight. Everything was covered with a thin blanket of snow and it was beautiful. But since it was still dark, we came back in quickly and went back to bed for another hour before going out to play in the snow. Shadow loves cold weather and really loves snow. He is true New Englander and I am learning from him to find more enjoyment in being out in the cold. A little later in the morning, Heather picked me up and we went shopping in Mashpee Commons and then had a lovely lunch at a French restaurant in the Commons called Bleu. How delightful it was to spend time with Heather without her attentions needed by three little boys! It is rare that she has time to do this, but since the new job doesn’t start until next week, she is taking some time for herself. When she brought me home, I invited her to come in and help me with one section of the puzzle that I just haven’t been able to conquer. She finished that off quickly and after she left, I spent another hour on the puzzle and have just about finished it. Shadow and I then took a nice long walk before I launched into my final preparations for tomorrow’s presentation on the Voyage of Windbird. And before I knew it, it was 6:30 pm and my Mah Jongg buddies arrived for a night of game playing. It was a day filled with fun.

2020 Life Logs, Day 7: Slowly Back to Normal
Date: Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Weather: Cloudy; High 42, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Last night I wrote that I am finally diving into 2020 after three weeks of battling a cold or the flu or whatever. But it is a slow dive. Very slowly I am trying to get back to a normal schedule. I still have congestion and can’t say I feel great, but I’m going to ignore that for now. My morning began, again, with news from Puerto Rico that another earthquake had hit. This time Justin and Jo could feel the tremors where they live and they were without power. The power outage was a result of an emergency shut off system to keep the grid from being damaged. Today’s quake was stronger than yesterday’s and seems to have done much more damage to homes and other buildings on the south shore of Puerto Rico. I have heard nothing further from Justin and Jo, so I am hoping no news is good news. They are far enough away from the epicenter that they should be fine. I then continued by my morning playing outside with Shadow, finishing the book I was reading, starting a new book, and working on my puzzle. I’m trying to train Shadow to be outside without being on the leash, so today I worked on the ‘come’ command. With enough treats as rewards, he does great. Without the treats, he still doesn’t come, but hopefully we’ll get there. While he ran around the yard, I continued my quest to dig up the briars in the woods around the cottage. We also played a little soccer and then came inside. Last night I finished the book I have been reading and started a new one this morning. The book I finished was ‘Clara and Mr. Tiffany’. It is my book club’s choice for January and I really enjoyed it. Mr. Tiffany is Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, who founded the company. His son Louis diverged from silver and jewelry and focused on the decorative arts, especially stained-glass windows and lamps. Clara Driscoll worked for him and is most likely the person who conceived of the idea of stained-glass lamps. So, the two main characters are real, but the book is a fictional account of how things happened. The author, Susan Vreeland, does a masterful job of writing in detail about the design and detail of making the stained-glass lamps and about life in New York City at the end of the 19th century going into the 20th century. I was right there as each little piece of glass was placed just so. My new book was a Christmas present from Heather, ‘The Overstory’ by Richard Powers. I’m well into the second chapter and am finding this book fascinating. It is described as an eco-novel about trees, but what it really does is to get you to think about the world we live in from a totally different perspective. I finished the morning by working on the Vintage Christmas Card puzzle. I’m getting close to finishing, but it is getting harder, not easier.

I took a break to eat lunch and got a text from Heather saying a large package had arrived for me from Amazon. It was a wooden folding table. I went right over to pick it up and when I got home I took Shadow for his daily walk through the neighborhood. Then it was time for me work on the Voyage of Windbird presentation for the Newcomers General Meeting on Thursday. In between cooking and a trip to the grocery store, I think I have put the polishing touches on the PowerPoint presentation. I will go through it again the morning to make sure I am there. And then I’m going clothes shopping and out to lunch with Heather. She has this week off before starting her new job and needs some new clothes. So that should be a fun outing. Then tomorrow night I host my Mah Jongg group, thus the need for the new folding table. Onward, slowly.

2020 Life Logs, Day 6: Diving into 2020
Date: Monday, January 6, 2020
Weather: Cloudy; High 37, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The congestion persists, but I have decided that it is time to ignore it and dive into 2020. Out with the Christmas tree and on with life. My day started with a text from my friend Detta Porat alerting me that there had been an earthquake in Puerto Rico overnight but that there was no tsunami warning. I quickly did a little research and saw that the 5.8 magnitude quake was off the south shore of PR and probably not a threat to Justin and family. Both he and Jo responded to my texts affirming that. They felt no tremors and as far as they knew a few raised homes collapsed but there were no reports of deaths or injuries. So that was relief to hear. I then headed to the gym for my pilates class. On the way I listened to Heather being interviewed on the radio about her new job and why she is making the change. The interviewer read some of the comments people have sent in about how much they will miss her program, Living Lab. People were so complimentary, and I was brimming with pride at her success. When I got to the gym, I found that in my absence over the past couple of weeks, the class has been taken off the schedule. Bummer. So, I hopped on the bike for a bit and then traveled on to the grocery store to pick up a few things. I stopped by Karen Baranowski’s on my way home to check out the LCD projector that I will be using for my Newcomers presentation on Thursday and then I came home and worked on the presentation. After that, I took one last look at my beautiful Christmas tree and then spent the rest of the day packing away Christmas decorations, getting the Christmas tree out of the house, and putting the area rug back in the living room. When I put up the tree, I rolled up the rug to keep Shadow from destroying it. He was still having potty accidents in the house back then. I might have moved too soon, but he has had no accidents in the house over the past week, so I’m going to give it a try.
I took a nice, long walk with Shadow while snowflakes were falling and later in the afternoon when it cleared a bit, we went back outside and I threw a tennis ball as far as I could over and over while he ran after it like a crazy dog . . . and only sometimes brought it back to me. We’re going to have to work on this ‘fetch’ thing. He thinks it is much more fun to run after the ball and then take it further away from me so that I am the one fetching. What’s wrong with this picture?

2020 Life Logs, Day 5: The Twelfth Day of Christmas
Date: Sunday, January 5, 2020
Weather: Partly Sunny and Colder; High 34, Low 18 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was the Twelfth Day of Christmas and for me that means the last day for my Christmas tree. I will keep the Christmas lights on through the night and in the morning the decorations will be stored away for another year and the tree will be taken outside. I donate to the Falmouth Band Parents who will pick up the tree and take it to the Blacksmith Shop Farms to be recycled. This organization has been doing this pick-up service for over 25 years to support the instrumental music program in Falmouth Public Schools.

Heather invited me over for dinner this evening and I got an update on their trip to Maine. But before I got an update, they had a special gift they brought home from Maine for Shadow. It was a lobster bow tie, just like the one Ollie has and loves.
His is white with red lobsters and Shadow’s is red with white lobsters. What a stylish little puppy! Now for the update. The Goldstones had a second Christmas with Jed’s mom, Marti, in Boothbay, and on New Year’s Day they headed to Mt. Abram in Bethel, Maine, for three days of snowboarding. All three boys made it to the intermediate trail and will return during the February vacation week for more fun in the snow at Sunday River which is very close to Bethel. They really enjoyed their time on the slopes of Mt. Abram and are so appreciative that Jed’s Aunt Carol, who lives in Bethel, invites them to come stay with her when they want to go snowboarding. She was a ski instructor for almost thirty years and is not only a gracious hostess, but a great coach for the boys.

The Goldstones returned from Maine with Zuzu, Ollie’s guinea pig that was injured on Christmas eve when he jumped out of Heather arms. He is functioning totally normally except that he doesn’t have the use of his back legs. He simply drags them behind him and seems quite happy to do so. If the veterinarian here in Falmouth agrees, they have decided to keep Zuzu and support him as a handicapped guinea pig. They have been designing a wheeled device that he can be strapped on that will help him get around. He will have to be kept in a cage separate from the other two g-pigs, but everyone is very happy with the decision to keep him.

Heather and Jed will both be home this week, Heather because her new job doesn’t start until next week, and Jed because he threw his back out today and is really struggling to move about. All he did was bend over to get something out the dryer, but as I know all too well, just the wrong little bend can cause days of agony. It was a reminder to me that I really do need to get back to the gym for those pilates classes to strengthen my core muscles. It is your abdominal muscles that keep your back from going out of alignment. So, I’ll be up and out of here early tomorrow morning for the Monday morning class.

And I can’t forget to mention the little white mouse. Heather and Jed returned from Maine with boxes of L. A. Burdick chocolates that were gifts from Jed’s Aunt Sue and Uncle John. These are wonderful chocolates and I especially appreciated the little white chocolate mouse in the box.

2020 Life Logs, Day 4: Return of the Snowboarders
Date: Saturday, January 4, 2020
Weather: Totally Overcast with Rain; High 41, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I haven’t seen them yet, but I got a text from Heather announcing that the snowboarders had returned from the North Country. She posted a couple of photos on Facebook, so I was able to see the Goldpebbles in full snowboard regalia. It sounds like everyone had a great time. Here’s what Heather posted on Facebook: “Started 2020 with so much fun in Bethel (Maine) this week! The boys were the last ones (except ski patrol) off the mountain 2 out of 3 days, and the last ones up the lift on the third day. Jed tested his mettle on some lightly groomed advanced runs. And I got reacquainted with my cross-country skis after far too many years.” Hopefully I’ll get a first-hand report tomorrow.

I must be better because for the first time since before Christmas, I got back on my computer and started editing the photos from the holidays. The fact that I didn’t post any photos from Christmas tells me that I really must have felt worse than I thought. I always post my photos, no matter what. Just not this time. But I’m back on it now. I still have some congestion and my energy level is not 100 per cent, but good enough that Shadow and I could take our mile-long walk in the rain. By the time we got back, he was soaking wet, so I took the opportunity to give him a bath . . . not his favorite thing. He lets me bathe him without a fuss, but he just is not ready for the hair dryer. So basically, I wrap him in blankets and hold him for an hour, feeling sorry for him while he shivers and dries out a bit. I can’t believe how big he has gotten. Somehow I thought he would stay tiny for a few months, but he is half grown now and does his best to pull me at a fast pace down the street when we walk. It is definitely time for some training, so I must look into that this week. He is doing great with potty training, but sit, stay, heel, and down are actions he just doesn’t care to engage in on command. And I’ve made very little progress on ‘no bite’. When Heather and Justin were little, they loved reading Maurice Sendak’s book, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. The book is about a little boy called Max. His mother calls him a ‘wild thing’ and he says to her, “I’ll eat you up.” He is then sent to his room without his supper and there he imagines that he lives in the land of the wild things. “And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws till Max said “BE STILL!” and tamed (them) with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once and they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all and made him king of all wild things.” Sometimes I think Shadow wants to eat me up, he loves me so. I need to learn Max’s magic trick!

2020 Life Logs, Day 3: More of the Same
Date: Friday, January 3, 2020
Weather: Totally Overcast; High 44, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Unfortunately, I can’t report that I am better, so I’m still reading, working my puzzle, and napping with Shadow. But at least I am not worse. So, I’ll take that for now and be happy with it. If you are getting bored reading that I am doing nothing, I apologize. However, I fear I am starting to enjoy this lazy life! But when I look at my schedule for next week, I am going to have to snap out of this in the next four days because next Wednesday I have a Wine Explorers late afternoon get together and that evening I am hosting my Mah Jong group. Then on Thursday, I make a Voyage of Windbird presentation to the Falmouth Newcomers in the morning, have a memoir writing class in the afternoon, and a dinner with my dining-in group that evening. If I live through that, I have a few days off and then I fly to Florida for the long MLK weekend to see Mike and Linda Stuart, my good friends that are taking a break from biking around the world. They are in Bonita Springs and that is where Mark’s sisters live, so I will also get to visit with them as well. I would stay longer, but Shadow is still too young for me to leave him for long. Heather and boys have offered to host him for the long weekend, so it works out perfectly. I spent this evening booking a flight to Lexington, Kentucky in late April. I have always wanted to see Willie Nelson in concert, so my niece Janet who lives in Nashville found a concert with Willie, Chris Stapleton, Sheryl Crow, and Yola at Kroger Field in Lexington on April 25 and has convinced a few of my nieces and nephews and my 86 year old sister to join us. I will again be away from Friday to Monday. I’m hoping Heather will be willing to puppy sit again. But if that doesn’t work out, I’m sure I can find someone to take care of my little precious. Restrictions on travel are the problem with having a pet, but I think the trade off is worth it.

2020 Life Logs, Day 2: Day Two of 2020
Date: Thursday, January 2, 2020
Weather: Mixed Sun and Clouds, Still Breezy; High 42, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Normally, I just accept that it is a new year. But I think the fact that the political implications of 2020 have been looming over us for so long, I am having trouble believing it is actually here. But it is here and day two of 2020 for me was just a continuation of the first day of the year . . . more slow baking of granola, more walks with Shadow, more working on the vintage Christmas card puzzle, and more reading. I certainly feel better than I did last week, but I am still not in a healthy place. In fact, today I feel like I might have slipped backwards a bit. But I keep hoping that tomorrow will be the day that whatever it is I have just magically goes away.

On New Year’s Eve, I sent a Jacquie Lawson e-card to a few people. One card went to Phil and Margaret Hunt, Jo’s parents who live in Haslemere, County Suffolk, England. I received my first Jacquie Lawson card from sailing friends from England and learned that this online email card business is located in England. What I didn’t know is that it is located just 6 miles down the road from where Jo’s parents live. Phil wrote back to me yesterday saying, “I see that your message was via a Jacquie Lawson card. Margaret has received these before for Christmas and birthdays and they are very popular over here. I had never received one myself before. I had always imagined that they were American but on looking closer (ie through the usual About Us on Contact us links) I see that it is a very English company and actually operates from a village only six miles from where we live!! If you look at the website you will see that Jacquie Lawson herself still runs the company from the village of Lurgashall (Jo had a school friend there) but now with assistance from people up to 150 or so miles away. On the signpost in one of the photos you can see Haslemere 6 (ie six miles away). A small world indeed.” And I am grateful for technology that allows us to feel like we are not so far apart.

2020 Life Logs, Day 1: New Year’s Day
Date: Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Weather: Sunny and Breezy; High 38, Low 26 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It was a gloriously sunny day, but quite windy. Still it was a wonderful day for a long walk with Shadow. We enjoyed New Year’s Eve and didn’t get into bed until 1:30 am. We were then up briefly at 7 am and then up for good at 8:30 and our New Year’s Day proceeded in quite an ordinary way. But as I went through the morning doing what I do most mornings, there was a recurring theme running through my head. I no longer do many things the same way I have done them for most of my life. Some of those changes came about during 2019, but most have been an evolution over the past five years or so. There is a ad from the American Cancer Society on TV these days that kept going through my head today. In the ad, a young man states that he used to have cancer, but not he doesn’t. Today I kept saying, I used to do . . . and now I don’t.

When I made my morning smoothie, I said to myself that I used to make smoothies with lots of fruit and yogurt, and now I don’t. My smoothie has a pear in it, but it also has kale, arugula, celery, cucumber, nuts, and seeds. And instead of yogurt, I use unsweetened almond milk.

Next, I made granola. I used to eat granola every day, but now I don’t. I eat it once or twice a week at most. I used to put seeds and nuts in my mostly oat granola, but now I put some oats in with mostly seeds and nuts.

Then I made soup. I used to use store bought chicken broth when making soup, but now I don’t. I make my own organic chicken bone broth.

I used to eat sandwiches for lunch, but now I don’t because I no longer eat bread. I now have a salad with beans, seeds, and avocado added.

When I looked in my refrigerator, I realized that I used to be the queen of plastic. I used more Ziploc baggies and Tupperware than anyone else I know. Now I don’t. I have gotten rid of all plastic containers and replaced them with glass. And cloth baggies and beeswax wrap have replaced all those baggies.

When I went on my walk with Shadow, I thought about how much trouble I had walking this time last year. But now I don’t. With my new knee replacement in February of this past year, I can once again walk without fear of falling.

The one thing that I noticed today that has not changed is my love of the lights on a Christmas tree. When I went to bed in the wee hours of the morning, I left the Christmas lights on so that the first thing I would see when I got up on New Year’s Day was the gentle light emanating from my Christmas tree. It is just magic to me. And those lights will stay on until January 6th, the twelfth day of Christmas, when the tree will come down. But the sparkle of those Christmas lights will stay with me all year. I think we all know that 2020 is going to be tumultuous year with all the political chaos. I will look forward to December when I can once again have the peace and calm those Christmas lights bring to me. If things get too chaotic, I might just have to put up my Christmas tree in July. But for now, I’ll just hope for a happy, peaceful, and prosperous 2020 for all.

2019 Life Logs, Day 365: Happy New Year to All
Date: Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Weather: Dreary and Misty; High 38, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Happy New Year to all of you from me and my Shadow. We are having a quiet evening at home except for Shadow’s barking fits when fireworks go off. In fact, Shadow has been a little crazy all day. Maybe he is affected by the dreary weather. I know I am. It rained all day yesterday and today there was so little light inside that it was hard to see to work on my puzzle. So, I read and slept and cooked while Shadow ran around like a crazy pup. My friend Bruce Wooden posted this on my Facebook page a few days ago: “Having a puppy is like having a strong, fast, lightly armed infant that loves you unconditionally, but gets bored easily.” Yep. Even a long walk didn’t help today. We did take one nap together on the couch, but I was abruptly awakened with a wild black furry thing sitting on my head.

I got a text this evening that said, “SNOW, SNOW, SNOW, SNOW, SNOW, SNOW.” That was a message from Jonah. Evidently, they have had two days of snow in Maine and are headed to the slopes tomorrow for a few days of snowboarding and skiing before heading home. And then I got a Skype video call from Justin. The Handley-Hunts in Puerto Rico are bringing in the new year by camping out on the beach with many friends and lots of music. Ziggy was wearing the greatest 2020 gold rimmed glasses. And as soon as I hung up from talking to Justin, Lynne Kirwin called via Whats App from New Zealand. She is spending our winter, their summer, in New Zealand and is having a wonderful time connecting with friends. So from snowy Maine to tropic beaches to warm and wonderful New Zealand, I spent the last couple of hours of 2019 communicating with wonderful friends and family. And I just watched the ball drop in Times Square. Happy New Year to all!