2026 Life Logs, Day 46: Singing Resistance
Date: Sunday, February 15, 2026
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 37, Low 26 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Singing in solidarity has been a powerful form of protest throughout history. Public singing can be used to oppose authoritarianism and injustice while promoting love and solidarity at the same time. Singing has been with us throughout history as a nonviolent but powerful means of expressing dissent. Most recently it has been used in Minnesota to help turn fearful crowds into supportive communities. And because it was used so successfully in Minneapolis, it is spreading across the country and has arrived here in Falmouth.

Led by woman named Karen Nell Smith, a large group of people gathered in the sanctuary of the Waquoit Congregational Church this afternoon to learn songs of resistance from Minnesota and practice popular protest songs well known by most. Karen attended our Indivisible meeting last Monday evening and announced this practice session. She made her pitch so enthusiastically that I just had to go check it out. And I am so glad I did. The whole experience was so positive.

Otherwise, I spent my day trying to play catch up. I made some progress and will continue tomorrow in between a full day of Zoom meetings. My Zoom day starts at 9:30 am with a Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition Zoom. Then I have a two-hour break before a complete afternoon of Zoom conversations with prospective Encore board members. Those don’t end until after 5 pm, but there are snippets of time between conversations. Hopefully I can use those ‘snippets’ to try and organize the piles of papers that have taken over my dining room table.

2026 Life Logs, Day 45: Happy Valentine’s Day
Date: Saturday, February 14, 2026
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 35, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

It is still cold and there is still snow and patches of ice on the ground, but the streets are finally completely clear, at least here in town. Has it really been 3 weeks since we had the winter storm whose snow has not yet melted? The calendar tells me so, but it doesn’t feel that long ago to me. But it has been a while since Shadow and I have had a nice long walk, so with the clear, dry streets, we did walk this morning. For the past three weeks, we have just been walking around the block. It felt good to do a longer walk again.

I went to the weekly rally on the Green and did some Encore work this afternoon and evening. My Valentine’s treat was a long phone conversation with my son Justin this afternoon. He is recovering nicely from his surgery but still can’t drive and won’t be able to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for many weeks. But he can walk and can once again help some with doing the chores around the farm.

That’s it from me on this Valentine’s Day. I do hope your day was more exciting than mine.

2026 Life Logs, Day 44: Friday the 13th
Date: Friday, February 13, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 36, Low 22 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I know it makes no logical sense, but I have always been superstitious. I don’t walk under ladders, I hate it when a black cat crosses my path, and I’m always a little leery on Friday the 13th. But I had to start my day with a drive to Yarmouth, about an hour away, to the RMV to renew my driver’s license. Here you do this every 5 years, but you can do it online until after you are 75. Then you must go in for a vision test. I made the trek with no problem, but then when my number came up, I was called to Window #13 on the 13th. Double 13’s! This couldn’t be good. But, actually, it all went well. I spent my afternoon doing Encore Nomination Committee Zoom conversations with people interested in various positions, wrote checks for the library and delivered, picked up Ollie from school, and then launched back into a project for Indivisible Falmouth. Pretty much the story of my life these days.

Next week is school vacation week. The Goldstones leave tomorrow for a week of skiing/snowboarding in Vermont, so tonight I went over tonight to see them before they leave. We watched Olympic half-pipe snowboarding competition, which is enough to give a grandmother a heart attack. But I survived. I’m on call to head to Vermont next week in case Ollie gets super bored being alone on days when everyone else is on the mountain. But as of tonight, he thinks he will be fine. If not, I’ll drive up and find things for us to do.

2026 Life Logs, Day 43: The Future
Date: Thursday, February 12, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 37, Low 16 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today’s them was all about the future. I met a woman in Woods Hole this morning who will be doing future trainings for Indivisible Falmouth. We had talked on the phone, but this was my first time meeting her. She is going to be great, so that was a very productive morning meeting. Then I headed to an Encore meeting where the topic was the future of media. I was asked to come an hour early and bring the Encore sound equipment in case their new equipment didn’t work. They bought it just before last month’s meeting and had the strangest knocking sound throughout their speaker’s presentation. They certainly didn’t want that to happen again. But today they got it right and all I had to do was enjoy conversations with friends and listen to the presentation. I had to leave the second it was over to go pick up Ollie, take him home, go in to give Heather a welcome home hug, and head home for the weekly Indivisible Zoom, “What’s the Plan?”

While I was on that Zoom call, a friend texted saying she was walking her dog in the neighborhood and that she would like to stop by to visit. It was Joanie and Archie, the dog I walked every day for a few weeks in the fall after Joanie’s foot surgery. Of course, I said yes. We finished watching What’s the Plan? together and then visited until it was almost dark outside.

After our company left, Shadow and I played outside for a while, came in to have dinner, and then I hopped on two Zooms at once, watching one on my phone while watching the other on my computer. The one on the computer was about lessons from Minnesota and the one on my phone was about the future we hope to build when we somehow shake loose from the orange man. Then I watched the day’s recap of the Olympics in fast forward, only stopping to watch some of the women’s snowboarding competition. I think I have found my solution for not enough time in the day. I will just work in fast forward!

2026 Life Logs, Day 42: One of Those Days
Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 41, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

This was one of those everything, everywhere, all at once kind of days. I thought my morning was going to be quiet, but for various reasons, I was communicating via email or on the phone most of the morning. I am always on my computer, but I rarely am on the phone. One of the weirdest calls was from an unidentified caller from Georgia. I answered because I have family in the Atlanta area and I was not sure I had all of their phone numbers in my contacts. I thought it might be one of them. But it was a woman who was in American Samoa when Mark was there in the 1960’s, and what a talker she was. She is writing a memoir, and I really don’t know why she called other than to connect. I hardly said a word. I just listened as she talked about people I have never heard of. And how she got my phone number is beyond me. But I finally got off that call in time to eat lunch and get on Zoom for Encore Nominating Committee conversations with people interested in being on the Board. Then I was in communication with Jonah who was in try-outs for State Band. I picked him up, took him home to change clothes, and then took him to meet friends to play ice hockey on a pond. Then it was back home to play with Shadow, have an early dinner, and off to Wareham to see a screening of the film we are showing here in two weeks about Temporary Protected Status families. In between, I was finalizing the schedule of upcoming trainings for Indivisible Falmouth as I needed to get the events calendar submitted for the ‘weeklyish’ Indivisible Falmouth newsletter. The whole day was disjointed. bouncing from one thing to another. But I survived. And while I was in Wareham, Heather got home from her trip the Netherlands. I am not sure if I mentioned in a prior log that Sam was not coming home with her as planned. He will arrive next Friday.

2026 Life Logs, Day 41: Yucky Weather Coming
Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Weather: Sunny, Warmer, Tonight Snow, Then Rain; High Temp 33, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I have really enjoyed having real winter for a change, but it looks like our beautiful blanket of snow is not going to last much longer. Tonight, we are supposed to get a little snow, topped by rain that will freeze everything by morning, then the temperature rises and the thaw begins. Yuck! I much prefer the snow and haven’t minded the cold. I really don’t like 40 degrees and rain. Yuck.

Today was a catch-up day in between running here and there. I had a Board of Library Trustees meeting tonight and book club this morning. But I could only be there for about 20 minutes. At least I got to see everyone and add my comments about a book that I haven’t finished. I only made a dent in my ‘to do’ list today, but that is better than nothing. I have been so incredibly busy that many things that need immediate attention have been put on the back burner. I’ll keep at it tomorrow morning, before things get really busy again.

Justin is recovering from this hernia surgery much faster than the last time. So that is good news. And Heather flies home from the Netherlands tomorrow. Sam is not flying home for another week or so, which is a bit of a change in plans. But there are things he still needs to attend to before leaving Groningen.
I should keep working tonight to chip away at that ‘to do’ list. But right now, I am going to get on my exercise bike and watch a little of the Olympics. I think I deserve that!

2026 Life Logs, Day 40: Thinking of Justin
Date: Monday, February 9, 2026
Weather: Sunny, Still Cold but Warming Up a Bit; High Temp 32, Low 15 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

My son Justin had hernia surgery today. He had his first hernia surgery on this exact same date in 2017. I flew down to help out. I was way more painful than Justin anticipated. For the first day or two post-surgery, it was all Jo and I could do to help him get up to go the bathroom. But we learned quickly and by the time I left, things were pretty much back to normal. The surgery went well, but I will be anxious to hear from Jo tomorrow morning as to how he is doing. Ziggy and Coco were too young to help out in 2017, but now Ziggy is almost as big as Justin and can help with the lifting. I said it then and I say it again here, hernia surgery is not serious, but it is one surgery that should allow a night in the hospital. I have only had knee and back surgery and with those, it hurts a bit, but you can get in and out of bed without help. With abdominal surgery, you don’t have the muscles you need to lift yourself up. Love you, Justin, and sending you healing thoughts.

I spent my entire day preparing for the Indivisible Falmouth February meeting tonight and also cooking dinner for Jonah and Ollie. Jed had a Health Board meeting starting at 5:30 pm, so I dropped off dinner for the boys and headed to the library, also at 5:30 pm to set up for tonight’s meeting. I am in charge of the organized activity for the monthly meeting, and that, plus nailing down the times and making room reservations for our trainings prior to NO KINGS on March 28, took me all day. But I was successful in getting the calendar or trainings all set and we had a great meeting tonight. Almost everyone was there for the first time which was great. I don’t know where all of our ‘regulars’ were tonight, but it was wonderful to welcome newbies. We are growing which is a very good thing.

2026 Life Logs, Day 38: Snowy Saturday
Date: Saturday, February 7, 2026
Weather: Snow, Wind, Cold; High Temp 30, Low 5 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Yep! It is winter. Heather and Jed were predicting today that we have at least 3 more weeks of this cycle of snow, followed by wind, a few sunny and cold days, then we start over with another dose of snow, wind, cold days all thanks to the polar vertex. Shadow has always loved snow. But tonight, when we went out after the snow stopped, the wind was blowing the snow off the roof of the house and was swirling around our feet. I walked him out the street, but as soon as I turned around to head back to the house he started pulling really hard. I just let him go and he went straight to the front door as fast he could run. Jonah is loving the cold weather because the ponds are frozen and he and his friends can play ice hockey. Unfortunately, Ollie has been house bound due to the broken arm and has not had a chance to enjoy the snow.

Heather is in route to Amsterdam tonight. Sam finished finals last week and then withdrew. University in the Netherlands is just not for him and he decided it made no sense to spend another semester of misery. He has made some very good friends, and he is going to miss them. But now it is time to start the next chapter in the life of Sam. They arrive home late Wednesday night, and then the whole family leaves on Saturday for a week in Vermont as it is school break. I’m planning to join them for a couple of days to have some adventures with Ollie while everyone else is skiing or snowboarding.

This afternoon I met with the producer of the documentary that we are screening in late February about Temporary Protected Status families in this country. We talked for almost two hours. I’ll share some of that conversation with you tomorrow. And, of course, I went to the rally on the Green. Today it was a rally with falling snow, but that didn’t dampen our spirits.

2026 Life Logs, Day 39: Super Bowl Sunday
Date: Sunday, February 8, 2026
Weather: Windy, Sunny, and Cold; High Temp 20, Low 8 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

It was a beautiful day. The snow we got yesterday was a light, powdery snow and it blanketed everything with a soft white cover that makes it look like the ground has been covered with the softest, puffiest comforter imaginable. I headed out with Shadow this morning when the temperature was about 7 degrees F. It was bright and sunny, but we only made it a tenth of mile before Shadow started hopping on one leg and then the other. I think he get frozen snow between his toes, but whatever, I knew I needed to turn around and get him home. It was windy today, but nothing like last night, so he was once again enjoying being out in the snow.
I worked all day on an activity I will do at the Indivisible meeting tomorrow night, and I am still not finished. It is challenging because I don’t know how many people we will have. We had over 70 last month, so I am planning for that many and then making plans for fewer and more people. I was also trying to pin down dates for the trainings we will have during the month of March to prepare for NO KINGS on March 28. Plus I had to update the calendar on the website. Lots to keep me busy.

Heather made it to Groningen today and had dinner with Sam. They will begin the packing tomorrow. I went over to check in with Jed, Jonah, and Ollie just before the Super Bowl tonight and got photos of Ollie and Jonah with the chocolate football I bought for them. It really looked like a real football, the same size but I little lighter in weight, and it even felt like one. They did a couple of successful passes, thankfully without it falling to the floor, but decided they would start the eating process during the game.

I decided to come home and watch the game here so I could keep working on my PowerPoint for tomorrow night. If you watched the game, you already know it was not an exciting Super Bowl if you are a Pat’s fan. But since it was not a nail biter, I actually got a bit of work done while watching. And I really enjoyed the halftime show. I think Bab Bunny did a fabulous job of celebrating his beloved Puerto Rico. As he often does, he focused attention on some of the problems the island continues to struggle with, like the electric grid that is always ‘exploding’. But his political statements were subtle, which in this case I appreciated. I loved the celebration of Puerto Rican culture. I’ll be interested to hear Jo and Coco’s review. They both like Bad Bunny, but Justin and Ziggy do not.

On to tomorrow.

2026 Life Logs, Day 37: Work and Friends and the Olympics
Date: Thursday, February 6, 2026
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Snow on the Way; High Temp 32, Low 3 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today was a welcome change for the work, work, work previous days of this week. I did work on Indivisible and Encore things all morning. But I took a break and had lunch with friend Eileen Mattingly. She worked with me on the Nonviolence in Action film series in the fall and I have not had a chance to see her since. I came home for a bit and worked on the upcoming film screening. One of the producers wrote and wants to meet with me at the library this weekend to make sure the tech set up is adequate. That required a trip to the library to see when the room is not use so we know when we can try things out. Then I went to an early dinner with friends Bruce and Jane Woodin and came home and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Andrea Botticelli’s voice is so powerful. His performance during the Opening Ceremonies was so moving. It will stay with me always. And I applaud Italy for choosing the theme of ‘peace’ for these games.