2026 Life Logs, Day 56: The Haves and the Have Nots
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Weather: Cloudy, Some Mixed Precipitation; High Temp 38, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

The decision on whether of not I was cancelling tomorrow night’s film screening at the library had to be made by 9 am this morning. That meant I needed to know if the library had power restored. It did not, so that made the decision. I then spent the rest of the morning getting all of the resources organized for Monday night’s Indivisible ‘Prepared Protester’ training.

By noon, I was ready for a break, so I took time to deliver a few books to my friend Karen Baranowski. She and Peter still have no electricity, no internet, and no cable television. So she needed something to read! The Baranowski’s have a generator, so they are not without power. But three days with no contact with the outside world has left them feeling very isolated. That reminded me of just how lucky I have been through this storm. I have been one of the ‘haves’, whereas most people in Falmouth have been the ‘have nots’. At the end of today, still 70 per cent of the town’s properties are without power. That includes, the rec center, the Senior Center, the library, I assume most stores on Main Street, but more importantly so many people without heat. I am incredibly thankful for my good luck, but very worried for so many without.

2026 Life Logs, Day 55: Snow Recovery Day
Date: Monday, February 24, 2026
Weather: Sorm Over, Beautiful Day; High Temp 33, Low 19 degrees F
Location: Back Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Last night on my last trip out with Shadow, I took a photo of the glistening snow down the driveway. When I went inside and looked at the photos I had taken, I noticed something I had not seen earlier. There are two very tall evergreens down by my mailbox and one of them was minus its top. The top was on the ground in the driveway.Obviously, the heavy snow had gotten to be too much.

But with that one exception, Shadow and I weathered the storm in style with heat and internet and cable TV, all the things many people in Falmouth didn’t have. I woke up early to bright sunshine and a clear deep blue sky. It was gorgeous outside.

My neighbor Andy arrived with his snowplow first thing, clearing a path for Shadow and I out to the road. Shadow was ecstatic, jumping up from the path to walk on the snow. On one side of the driveway, he fell through. But on the other side, he quickly learned that he could walk on the snow. He frolicked and ran and frolicked some more. Obviously, the path to road gave him the same sense of freedom it gave me. We were no longer trapped in our snow cave. Thank you, thank you, thank you to my neighbor Andy.

I did some shoveling, worked to check things off that never ending to do list, shoveled some more, and then went over to shovel off my car in Andy’s driveway. He was actually doing just that when I arrived. He was very carefully using a snow scraper to clean off the roof of my car. I grabbed a snow shovel and finished the job in a couple of seconds! Snow shovels these days have plastic guards on their edges and make great car scrapers. We finished that job and talked about the one remaining problem. He had cleared his driveway and the driveway of many neighbors today with his snow blower, but the more than two-foot wall of ice and snow that the snowplows had left blocking the entrance to his driveway was still there . He had tried to use his snowplow to get rid of it, but the pile was just too icy. I made him promise to leave it there until the guy comes tomorrow to plow my driveway. I said I would get him to do it. I went home and not even an hour later, I got a text from Andy saying the job was done. Neighbors, whose driveways he had cleared in the morning, had come to the rescue. An unlikely coalition of folks; a middle school art teacher, my neighbor on one side who is a Delta pilot, my neighbor on the other side who manages an online Cape Cod magazine. Of the four of them, I know for certain that two of them are stanch conservative Republicans, and I suspect the other two are progressive Democrats. How wonderful that those differences can be put aside to work together to get things done.

Then that euphoria of people working together for the common good was totally obliterated tonight when I watched the State of the Union spectacle. Promoting division seemed to me the core aim of the speech, along with way too much blood and gore. What kind of vicious, wicked person gives a speech like that?

Then one last thing. After the speech when I checked my phone, I saw a Facebook post by my daughter that made me so proud of her and the work she does for this community. “This is a storm for the books. As the sun was setting, just half of roads cleared, ~150 trees down in roadways, and 78% of households without power in Falmouth. This is not for want of trying. Town, contract, and Eversource crews are working as hard as they can, and I hope we can all remember that and be grateful even when the end result isn’t what we’d like. We have power, so if you need a warm place to stay tonight, let me know. There’s more info on resources in the release.”

FALMOUTHMA.GOV
Storm Recovery Updates • Falmouth, MA
Town of Falmouth Public Works and Public Safety personnel have been working non-stop to clear the roadways. At present, approximately 50% of the roadways have been cleared. Eversource is reporting 78% of properties are without power at this time.

2026 Life Logs, Day 54: 24 Hours of Wind and Snow
Date: Monday, February 23, 2026
Weather: Constant Snow and Wind; High Temp 32, Low 22 degrees F
Location: Back Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

We are finally down to gale force winds from blizzard-like conditions and the snow has stopped, but Hernando gave us a good 24-hour ride.

I am learning to love the sound of the whole house generator as it gives me heat and light when many have none. Thousands of people in Massachusetts are without power, and Ever Source here on the Cape is sending messages to people without power saying it is massive failure that will take 3-5 days to fix. The Baranowskis have a whole house generator, so they have power, but they have no internet or cable. Heather and Jed lost power at 3 am, but they got it back during the morning.

Since I have power and internet, I spent the day trying to catch up on projects that require the internet. When you put aside the misery some are going through due to this storm, you can enjoy the beauty. The white landscape is magical.

But today you had to appreciate it from inside. The time I spent outside was miserable because the wind was blowing the icy snow sideways and right into my face. Shadow loves snow but not snow that is this deep. And he really hates wind. So, it was chore convincing him to stay outside while I shoveled.

The clean-up will begin tomorrow morning, but today l don’t think there was a car on the road and certainly not a plow. I learned from shoveling my walk from the house to the driveway that as soon as I was finished, it was filled with snow almost immediately. Plowing would have been for naught. And besides, it would have been too dangerous because of the high wind. Most everything is closed again tomorrow, including the schools. But I imagine that there will be a flurry of activity in the morning with snowplows, snow blowers, and shovels doing their work to clear the roads and driveways.

2026 Life Logs, Day 53: Hernando Has Arrived
Date: Sunday, February 22, 2026
Weather: Suuny, Then Overcast, Snow Starting Late; High Temp 35, Low 31 degrees F
Location: Back Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

After a full day of anticipation, winter storm Hernando has arrived in Falmouth. At 8:10pm I got on the phone with my friend Lynne in New Zealand. We haven’t talked for weeks, so an hour and a half later, just before we got off the call, I looked out the window and saw snowflakes. I don’t know the exact time the first flake fell, but Hernando has arrived.

Somehow, I managed to get very little done today, but I did go to the Sunday Farmer’s Market. Later in the afternoon when I delivered some blue oyster mushrooms to Heather, I stayed and visited for a bit. Then it was home to fix dinner, talk to Lynne, and watch some of the Olympics closing ceremony. And if the forecast is correct, I will spend most of tomorrow watching falling snow.

So, okay, I watched the closing ceremonies and enjoyed the beauty of midnight on a snowy night as the storm builds. Since no snow at 8 pm, we now have one inch of big snowflakes covering everything, and the wind is beginning to howl. We shall see what the morning brings.

2026 Life Logs, Day 52: Rally on the Green and Storm Prep
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2026
Weather: A Little Snow Early, Clearing; High Temp 34, Low 26 degrees F
Location: Back Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

After my little vacation in Vermont, I am having trouble getting back up to speed. I took notes but didn’t even write my nightly logs while there. I am catching up on that right now, so there will be four logs posted today, not just one.
Today, I got up early with big plans for getting things done, but somehow the day is almost over and the only thing I accomplished was going food shopping. Not sure how that happened, but it is what it is. I did go to the rally on the Green, but otherwise I really don’t know where the time went.

I knew last night that the coming storm was forecast to be a big one, but the amount of snow was going to be around 16 inches with winds gusting to 40-45. Now there is a blizzard warning here from 4 pm tomorrow to 7 am on Tuesday. Monday during the day looks like it will be challenging with winds gusting to 60 and snow between 1-2 feet. We still have a good 4 inches on the ground, so 20 or more inches is more snow than I have dealt with since living on the Cape. Mark and I were not here during the winter of 2014-2015 which is when we last had a lot of snow. I did spend time this morning rescheduling a couple of meetings from Monday to later in the week. Monday sounds like a day to stay inside with falling snow and heavy wind all day. Just taking Shadow out will be interesting.

2026 Life Logs, Day 51: From Waterbury, VT Back Home to Falmouth
Date: Friday, February 20, 2026
Weather: Overcast with a Wintry Mix; High Temp 36, Low 30 degrees F (in Falmouth)
Location: Back Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

A big thank you to my neighbors, Billy and Andy, for sharing parenting duties for Shadow in my absence. Andy came over this afternoon when I got home around 4 pm. He seemed a little sad that he wasn’t going to get to play ball with Shadow now that I was back. I told him not to worry, that he could come borrow Shadow to play ball anytime. Shadow never gets enough of that!

The trip home from Vermont was fine, but as I headed around Boston, suddenly there was a wintry mix of snow and rain and the visibility was not good for about 45 minutes. But the closer I got to the Cape, things cleared up. Heather and Ollie left later than I did, and they had some of the same ugly driving weather. Plus, they had an encounter with a ladder that was in the road and had to stop to get a new tire. Thankfully the two of them were safe and arrived home by 7 pm.

I did not have the energy to do anything tonight other than catch up on the women’s figure skating Olympic competition. Hopefully, I can get caught up on things that need to be done tomorrow. But I learned from Any that the coming storm might be a little more serious than I have been assuming. It looks like we might get as much as 16 inches of snow starting Sunday evening. When we learned of this while I was in Vermont, Ollie and Jonah were hoping for a Snow Day on Monday. It looks like they might get that.

2026 Life Logs, Day 50: Trip to Montpelier with Ollie
Date: Thursday, February 19, 2026
Weather: Sunny and Warmer Than Expected; High Temp 40, Low 19 degrees F (in Waterbury)
Location: At Home at an Airbnb in Waterbury, Vermont

Today’s adventure took Ollie and me to Montpelier, Vermont. It is the state capital, and we both thought it would be a bigger town. It is not. It is a tiny town with a population of around 8,000 residents which grows to about 21,000 each weekday due to the large number of jobs associated with it being the state’s capital. It has a main street with some businesses and then it has the state capital complex. That is about it. Ollie and I wondered why the capital was located here, and when we looked that up, we found it was simply because of its central location in the state. When it was chosen as the capital city in the beginning of the 1800’s, the population of Montpelier was around 900 people.

Ollie and I had crepes for breakfast at the Skinny Pancake which were really yummy, and we visited a fabulous outdoor recreation shop next door before heading to the State House. It sits majestically up on a hill with its gold dome glistening in the sunshine.

The granite steps leading up the hill are bigger steps (higher) than normal making it quite a climb to the top. I got a photo of Ollie standing in front of a statue of Ethan Allen by the front door, but then we had to walk around to the side of the building to get in. We found out that the front doors that look like they are bronze are really pine painted to look like bronze. The inside doors are also pine, painted to look like they were made of mahogany. The people of Vermont are known to be frugal!

We used ‘magic wand’ listening devices on our self-guided tour which took us to the second floor to see the Senate Chambers and the Representatives’ Hall. We could enter the viewing area of the Senate Chambers, but the legislature was in session. We stood outside the open doors and watched. And while we were standing there, they adjourned. So we waited until most people vacated and then went into the viewing area to take a closer look.

We also made a quick trip to the Vermont Historical Society Museum next door. It was interesting, but we spent most of our time playing a game of checkers. The display of a typical home in the 1800’s had a checkerboard on the kitchen table. So, Ollie challenged me to a game. Guess who won. It wasn’t me!

After we got home, I took a trip just to the edge of town to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory. It was too late for a tour, but I just couldn’t be in Vermont without visiting the only Ben & Jerry’s factory open to the public.

2026 Life Logs, Day 49: Trip to Burlington with Ollie
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 35, Low 12 degrees F (in Waterbury)
Location: At Home at an Airbnb in Waterbury, Vermont

Heather, Jed, and Jonah headed to Stowe to ski and snowboard early this morning. A little later, Ollie and I drove to Burlington. He and Jed had already been to Burlington the day prior, but I wanted to go to see Lake Champlain frozen over and visit the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain known as ECHO. Jed had already taken Ollie there while Heather Jonah visited the University of Vermont yesterday. But I wanted to see the museum, so Ollie gave me a tour.

It is a science and nature museum right on the shores of Lake Champlain. Ollie took me through the nature exhibits, but we spent most of our time on the second floor, which had engineering activities interesting enough to keep us engaged for a couple of hours. At one point I saw Ollie, one-handed since he cannot use his broken right arm, discovering the power of pulleys as he was lifting himself up easily with one hand.

When we left the museum, we ventured out onto frozen Lake Champlain far enough to say we had walked on it.

And on the way out of town, I got to see a bit of the University of Vermont. It is the first school Jonah has visited in his college search.

I forgot to mention in last night’s log that soon after I arrived, we walked down Waterbury’s charming little Main Street for dinner at Prohibition Pig. It gets its name from the combination of being located in a former speakeasy during Prohibition and their focus on barbeque and smoked meats (pork). Thus, Pro-Pig.

2026 Life Logs, Day 48: From Falmouth to Waterbury, Vermont
Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 35, Low 26 degrees F (in Waterbury)
Location: At Home at an Airbnb in Waterbury, Vermont

I made the trip from Falmouth to Waterbury, Vermont today, arriving here around 6 pm. I left home at 10 am, but I had four different stops to make before leaving town. And then I made a few stops along the way, enjoying the day of traveling.

Ollie and I will hold down the fort tomorrow and on Thursday while Heather, Jed, and Jonah head to Stowe to ski and snowboard. Ollie is content to just stay home, but I am hoping I can get him to go along on a few adventures.

Today was the beginning of the Lunar New Year (the year of the fire horse), the beginning of Ramadan, Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday), as well as George Washington’s birthday. It was also the day we lost Jesse long time civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson. He was known as an “impassioned orator” and I actually met him in 1971 when he was giving one of those passionate speeches. I was the audio-visual coordinator at Glenville High School in Cleveland, Ohio, at the time. It was a huge high school of 3,000 black students and we hosted national figures from Martin Luther King (before my time at the school) to Muhammad Ali. As AV Coordinator, I was in charge of the auditorium speaker system. On the day Jesse Jackson spoke, the microphone kept cutting off and on. (It turned out to be a short in the microphone cord.) But I was frantically trying to resolve the situation as he spoke and didn’t hear a word he said. Thankfully he had such a booming voice that people could still hear him when the mic cut out, but he was publicly not too happy with me. It was truly an unfortunate situation. But on this day of celebrations, I celebrate his life and his never-ending dedication to the idea of the “rainbow coalition” through the Rainbow/PUSH organization. They are still hard at work “to protect, defend, and gain civil rights by leveling the economic and educational playing fields, and to promote peace and justice around the world.” His legacy lives on.

2026 Life Logs, Day 47: Zoom, Zoom, Zoom
Date: Monday, February 16, 2026
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 39, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today was all about Zoom meetings starting at 9:30 am and ending at 5:15 pm. I had seven different calls throughout the day, although 6 of them were really conversations, not meetings. The Encore Nominating Committee had a full afternoon of talks with prospective Board members. And I have been on my computer all evening trying to catch up on answering emails. I did go outside a few times with Shadow, otherwise I just sat here and listened, and talked, and wrote emails

I heard from Heather this afternoon that maybe Ollie could use a little companionship on Wednesday and Thursday, so tomorrow late morning, I am headed to Vermont. No more Zoom calls or meetings for a few days. Yippee!