2019 Life Logs, Day 194: Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me
Date: Saturday, July 13, 2019
Weather: Sunny; High 87, Low 68 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

So, I’m on the highway headed north listening to one of my favorite programs on NPR–Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. Peter Sagal is the host and the point of the show is to quiz the regular panelists and visiting contestants about the news of the week in a humorous way. One of the questions today was about Costco, and since that is where I was headed, I found it extremely humorous. I don’t remember the exact wording, but the question was to name a store where you can buy designer pants and a tub of guacamole at the same time. It was pointed out that Costco has really increased its sale of designer clothes in the past couple of years. And my shopping today, added to that increase. I bought a Speedo bathing suit for myself and Adidas pants for the boys for Christmas. Then I added organic Mayorga whole bean coffee, organic grass-fed uncured beef and turkey sausages, organic everything, and even a Hyper-lite life jacket for Coco for next week’s kayaking adventures. I didn’t buy a tub of guacamole, but I did buy a tub of organic hummus. All of that under one roof for half the price that any of it would cost elsewhere. And once I got home and put things away, I headed downtown to Stop and Shop to buy a few things I couldn’t get at Costco. The reason for all of this shopping frenzy is that Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco arrive on Monday evening. They will be here until next Sunday and the whole family (me, the Goldstones, and Justin and family) will be eating dinner together every evening. And lunches will include everyone but Heather and Jed. It takes a lot of food to feed ten of us for six days. I’ll buy fruits and veggies as the week goes along, but I do have most everything else now. I think!

2019 Life Logs, Day 193: It’s Friday
Date: Friday, July 12, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Rain Late; High 90, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It’s Friday. No swim lessons, no lessons of any sort, just a day for end-of-the-week chores and then play. Well, Ollie and Jonah played while Sam launched into a money-making venture. He is trying to make money to buy a phone, so I offered the job of scraping and sanding my bike rack on my car. He worked for more than two hours and got most of the bars ready to paint. Then late in the afternoon, we all got in the car and I delivered the Goldpebbles to Woods Hole. Sam was catching the 5 pm ferry to Martha’s Vineyard to spend the night with his friend Robert. Heather, Jed, Jonah, and Ollie had a Woods Hole celebration of the end of the week. And on my way home, I stopped by Karen and Peter Baranowski’s to visit. Peter sent me home with a cooler full of quahogs, so my dinner tonight was a delightful clam, asparagus, and rice dish. I saved all of the smaller clams and will share those with the Goldstones tomorrow. Thank you, Peter! A lovely way to end the week.

2019 Life Logs, Day 192: More Fun in the Sun
Date: Thursday, July 11, 2019
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High 85, Low 70 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

No major excursions today. The Goldpebbles and I spent our morning at Menauhant at swim lessons and then headed home. All three boys are becoming better swimmers every day. This week Jonah was the only kid in his class and he benefitted from the private lessons. Ollie’s class has only three little boys, including Ollie, and they are having a great time. Sam’s Junior Life Saving Class is the largest class this year and he is continuing to meet the challenges. There are no swim lessons on Fridays, so tomorrow will be a day at home. I’m hoping to do some gardening. Heather sent a picture this evening of the raspberries she picked in the garden this evening. I have been so busy, I haven’t even walked down to the garden this week, so I missed the raspberries. During my evenings, I’m starting to get ready for the arrival of Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco on Monday evening. They will be here through Sunday of next week, so Camp Oma will be expanded to include all five grandchildren. Can’t wait to have them all together.

2019 Life Logs, Day 191: A Visit from the Kanegsbergs
Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 92, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

?

These summer days are glorious, but even more so when you get to see good friends. Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg drove down from their new home in Dedham, near Boston, to visit for the day. It was a swim lesson morning, so they joined us at the beach. Then we went to Heather and Jed’s for lunch. I took the food there as that was much easier than packing up dry clothes and lunch items for the boys to have lunch at my house. They have their routine down at home after swim lessons and I didn’t want to interrupt that. Plus, they had croquet set up in their front yard and really wanted to play a game this afternoon. After lunch, Helaine and I joined them for a game and guess who won? Oma! I think it shocked the boys that I would win, but I’ll bet they don’t let that happen again. After playing croquet, we headed to the cottage. I explained to the boys that they needed to give us an uninterrupted hour of time so I could talk with Alan about his upcoming knee replacement surgery. I let them have tablet time and Sam went out in a kayak. They gave us the hour and then it was time for Alan and Helaine to head home and time for me to get the boys home so Jed could take them to Woodneck for a family evening at the beach. I came home and collapsed! So goes the summer here on Cape Cod.
Happy, Happy Birthday to my sister Patsy. Patsy was a young teenager when I was born and she is my only sibling still living. I treasure her friendship and love.

2019 Life Logs, Day 190: Beach, Goats, and Evening Sail on Buzzards Bay
Date: Tuesday, July 9, 2019
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 91, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

What a beautiful day! Early this morning Meghan Hannawalt arrived with her goats to attack the poison ivy on the cottage property. Last year it took two days for the goats to get rid of most of the poison ivy. It was quite successful, but some always grows back. So, I invited them back for a follow-up. After talking to Meghan, I left to get the Goldpebbles and take them to swim lessons. Jonah is having private lessons this week and I think the one-on-one attention is giving him self-confidence. After Jonah and Ollie had their lessons, we left Sam at the beach for his lesson and headed to the cottage to see how Meghan and the goats were doing. Meghan showed us a particularly large poison ivy root they had unearthed and Ollie and Jonah enjoyed playing with Meghan’s new black Lab, Griffin. Then it was back to the beach to watch the rest of Sam’s lesson and head home. Jonah was being picked up by his friend Kayden’s mother for an afternoon playdate and Ollie, Sam, and I had a relaxed afternoon. When Heather got home, I headed to Kingman Marine to meet Bruce and Jane Woodin, Sam and Hazel Patterson, and Doug Doerr for dinner at the Chart Room. All but Hazel had sailed there in Bruce and Jane’s new boat, L’Escargot. Bruce couldn’t do the return sail and he had to head to Boston to pick up his daughter Kate and her family who were returning from a vacation in the British Isles. So I sailed back to West Falmouth with Sam and Doug. It was my first time on L’Escargot and I was very impressed—so easy to handle. Sam, who was at the helm, is a seasoned sailor and I’m sure part of the ‘ease’ was due to his expertise. There was a gorgeous sunset and enough wind to make for a fast sail home. Beautiful day, beautiful evening.

2019 Life Logs, Day 189: Monday at Menauhant Beach
Date: Monday, July 8, 2019
Weather: Most Overcast AM, Partly Sunny PM; High 79, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Menauhant Beach is our home beach, two miles from my cottage and two miles from Heather and Jed’s. And it is where the Goldpebbles are having swim lessons this summer. This is one of only two weeks when all three boys are available for swim lessons as they are also signed up for other various camps throughout the summer. So even though everyone was in slow motion due to a busy weekend with late nights and the fact that it was overcast, we headed to the beach. Jonah’s class is at 10 am and there is one class before his. We try to arrive a few minutes early so he can play beach games with friends at the end of the first class. But this morning when Jonah ran out onto the beach, he came right back to the car where Sam, Ollie, and I were still putting on sunscreen and getting organized. Jonah said, “This is really weird. There is absolutely no one on the beach except the lifeguards.” On an overcast and much cooler day like this last week, there were loads of people on the beach. I guess everyone had too much activity over the weekend and decided to sit this one out. But the boys wanted to stay. Jonah had a private lesson while Sam played on the beach and Ollie played in the water. Ollie found a couple of ghost crabs and came running with excitement with each discovery. Ollie then had one little buddy for his class and they got to take the rescue kayak out to the buoy and back which was a special treat. After Ollie’s class, a harbor seal swam into the swim area. This also happened last week and is a new occurrence this year. It puts the lifeguards on full alert, as where there are seals, there is the possibility that they are being chased by Great White Sharks. Not a creature you want to take lightly. The Great Whites used to stay close to the the Outer Cape shores, but this year there have been many sightings in the Cape Cod Bay to the north. So far this year, there have been no sightings here on the south shore, but you don’t want to be the first one to have an encounter. The seal finally swam back east, and Sam’s class was allowed to go on. Since he was in a photography class last week, this was his first lesson. He is in the Junior Life Saving class and the other kids two to three years older than him. But he was not intimidated by that. In fact, he seemed to really enjoy it. Today the class ran the length of the beach and then swam back. That is about twice as far as Sam has ever attempted to swim, but he did it. Then they practiced lifesaving. One member of the class goes out and fakes floundering in the water while another takes the life preserver out to rescue and then swims back with the victim. Jonah was watching and thought this looked very hard, but Sam reported that it wasn’t hard for him. He has always been resistant to swim classes, but at least for this first class, he was totally enthusiastic. Sure hope this lasts.

2019 Life Logs, Day 188: Special Day in Two Very Different Ways
Date: Sunday, July 7, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 79, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was a special day in two very different ways. First, I went to Heather’s to watch the Women’s World Cup final game between the US and the Netherlands. Yesterday, at the last minute, Heather and Jed had invited members of Jonah’s and Sam’s soccer teams and their parents to come watch. Many already had plans, but we had 12 boys, if I counted right, and a few parents watching with us. It was a hard-fought game, but in the end we won 2-0. This is the fourth World Cup win for the US Women’s soccer team and the second consecutive win. In today’s game, it was interesting that the two goals were scored by, first the oldest member of the starting line-up, and then by the youngest. Our group filled Heather and Jed’s living room. And during the half time and after the game, the boys played soccer in the front yard. This was the grand finale for soccer, but tomorrow we’ll have turn our attention to tennis and check out what is happening in Wimbledon.

The second special event today was the observance of Mark’s July 7th birthday. He would have been 77 today. No day goes by without thinking of him, but on his birthday and on the September 11th anniversary of his death, there are always special observances. This evening I had Heather and gang over for a special dinner and the three boys went out in kayaks. I always feel closer to Mark when I am near the water, so sitting on the dock watching the boys kayak was a delight. There were lots of geese and almost grown goslings and a family of ducks that joined us. Mark wouldn’t have enjoyed the soccer game as he really did not like competitive team sports, but he would have loved watching the boys out in the kayaks.

2019 Life Logs, Day 187: Jonah’s Birthday Scavenger Hunt, Then Shopping
Date: Saturday, July 6, 2019
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Windy, Humid, Rain Late; High 84, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA


We celebrated Jonah’s birthday with family on June 26th, but his party with friends was delayed until today as his two best friends were out of town until now. Luke has been Jonah’s best friend since pre-school and Luke was in Paris with his mom attending a couple of World Cup soccer games. Lucky Luke! Kayden is Jonah’s best friend from elementary school and his family left for a trip to the west coast immediately after school was out. There are a couple of girls that have been good friends throughout elementary school, but only Lillie could come today. And Molly and Joey from next door were out of town this weekend. But Jonah was fine with just enjoying the day with just three of his best friends. After watching a little World Cup soccer and eating pizza, the remainder of the party was centered around a scavenger hunt. Evidently someone had stolen the birthday cake but left clues as to where it could be found. The clues were quite challenging and took the kids down to the bogs and all around the neighborhood. Jed and Sam tagged along to take photos and give a little direction when needed and finally the cake was found. After eating cake and opening presents, it was back to the front yard to play soccer. What a fun birthday party!

After the party, I headed to Hyannis to do a little food shopping in preparation for the arrival of Justin and family next week and then came home and finished the window cleaning I have been working at for a couple of weeks. Now I can open the windows and get some fresh air in this cottage.

2019 Life Logs, Day 186: Museums on the Green and Sonnay Fiddlers
Date: Friday, July 5, 2019
Weather: Sunny and Hot; High 86, Low 68 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA



The 4th of July celebrations are still in full swing here in Falmouth. The traffic is unbelievable so you just have to plan an extra 15-20 minutes to any trip into town. Today Sam had his last day of Photography camp and Jonah had a 10 am annual physical, so Jed took Jonah to the doctor and I had Ollie. Ollie and I headed into town to go to the Free Friday at the Museums on the Green. We went last year, and photos of Sam and Jonah playing colonial games have been used by the Museums in their advertisements for this year. Sam’s photo is in the official Chamber of Commerce tourist booklet and a photo of Sam and Jonah has been in all of the emails sent out by the Museums on the Green. There was no official photographer today, but Ollie had a great time playing colonial games–learning to roll the hoop–and then trying to break the huge bubbles that the Bubble Man made for the children. Once Jed and Jonah arrived, the boys had free Smitty’s ice cream (red strawberry, blueberry, and white vanilla) and Jed and Jonah played the games. Then we all toured one of the colonial homes. At that point, Jed had to leave and the boys went back outside to break more bubbles. When I thought we were ready to leave, Jonah said, “Oh, Oma. We can’t leave yet. They are going to read the Declaration of Independence at noon.” How do children know these things? And how can you deny a 10 year-old who wants to hear a reading of the Declaration? So, we stayed and listened for a bit before the boys got a bit antsy and wandered back into the forest area to explore the model of a colonial building. It is big enough for an adult my size to stand up in, just barely. I continued listening to the reading and then I heard this beautiful voice singing America the Beautiful. I knew instantly it was Jonah. It was enough to bring tears to my eyes. It turns out that the words to that song were written in chalk on the inside walls of the model building and Jonah couldn’t resist singing the song. When I went back to investigate, he and Ollie sang the song together for me. Very special.

Heather had the afternoon off and she and Jed met after Sam’s class to take the boys to the beach. I took the opportunity to do a massive grocery shop and then at 6 pm, I met up with the Goldstones at Peg Noonan Park on Main Street for a Stanley & Grimm and Sonnay Fiddlers concert. Stanley & Grimm is Ollie’s violin teacher, Nikki, and a guitar player who play Irish tunes and a little bluegrass. The Sonnay Fiddlers are Nikki’s violin students of all ages who come and go from the stage depending on the songs being played. Nikki wanted Ollie to play with the group tonight, but he decided to sit this one out and just watch. Since he has only been playing for six months and has already done a couple of pubic concerts, sitting this one out was just fine. And I think he really enjoyed watching his teacher play. He took my camera and got some great photos.

Coming up . . . tomorrow is Jonah’s belated birthday party with friends and Sunday morning at 11 am EDT is the final game of the Women’s World Cup–USA versus the Netherlands. Later in the day we will have dinner at my house in honor of Granddad’s birthday as Heather and the boys still like to observe that day in his honor.

2019 Life Logs, Day 185: Happy Birthday, USA
Date: Thursday, July 4, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Hot; High 89, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I got up this morning, dressed in red, white, and blue, and headed downtown to the 4th of July parade and public library book sale. I stopped by Heather’s on the way to see if anyone wanted to go to the book sale with me, but they were all enjoying a lazy morning together. Well, all except Heather. She had been up since the crack of dawn to go to a special yoga class and then came home and put together a red, white, and blue breakfast for everyone. She had granola in wine glasses with a strawberry perched on the rim of the glass for everyone, and then yogurt (the white), blueberries, more strawberries, and watermelon in the shape of stars. Impressive!

When I returned from the book sale, I worked at Heather’s installing the drip irrigation system I have been thinking about installing for weeks. I finally got up the nerve to do it and it really is as easy as advertised. It just seems so complicated until you finally just do it. I am not quite finished, but almost. It was brutally hot today, so mid-afternoon, Heather, Jed, and boys headed to the beach and I headed home to shower and change clothes. While I was home, Karen and Peter Baranowski stopped by to visit and then I returned to Heather and Jed’s for dinner. After dinner, we were off to the fireworks. There are three beaches in town from which we have watched the fireworks, but two of them provide viewing from a distance. That means less traffic, but Jonah was lobbying for Falmouth Heights Beach which is the closest to the fireworks barge. Heather and Jed worked out a plan where Jed would drop us at the beach, drive a mile or so to where he could park, and then ride his bike back to the beach. It worked and we had a great view of fireworks display. The Hennen’s, neighbors of Heather and Jed’s, met us there and their two boys and our three had a great time standing at the water’s edge watching the fireworks. Happy Birthday, USA!