2019 Life Logs, Day 35: Feels a Bit Like Spring
Date: Monday, February 4, 2019
Weather: Partly Sunny, Feels Like Spring; High 51, Low 35 degrees F
Location: Back Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today felt a bit like spring. I know this is just a cruel joke Mother Nature is playing on us, but I’ll take it. A warm day or two in the middle of winter is welcome in my world anytime. The warmth today did motivate me to start thinking about spring gardening. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, it is actually time to start pepper and tomato seedlings indoors. And by the end of February, there is a longer list of seeds to plant. So it is time to gear up for spring, and then brace ourselves for the winter yet to come.

Not sure what I accomplished today, but I did get to the gym to use the stationary bike. I am increasing the amount of time slowly and will also start increasing the resistance. But this knee of mine requires that I do this very slowly. Tomorrow is an Early Release Day for the Goldpebbles, so I will be picking them just after noon and spending the afternoon with them.

2019 Life Logs, Day 34: Super Bowl LIII
Date: Sunday, February 3, 2019
Weather: Partly Sunny, Continuing to Warm Up; High 39, Low 35 degrees F (in Nyack)
Location: Back Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

They did it again! I got home late in the afternoon from New York and headed to the Goldstones to watch the Super Bowl. Heather and Jed had invited neighbors that have two boys, so we had five boys 13 and under. Maybe it wasn’t the most exciting football game I’ve ever watched, but when you live in Massachusetts, there is a special pride when the New England Patriots win yet another Super Bowl. They are proof of the success team work can bring. Go Patriots!!! And when I got home from New York late this afternoon, I saw that Punxsutawney Phil failed to see his shadow yesterday. Do you really think we can win the Super Bowl and have an early spring?

2019 Life Logs, Day 33: In Memory of Ed
Date: Saturday, February 2, 2019
Weather: Sunny and Warmer; High 30, Low 25 degrees F (in Nyack)
Location: At Home with Lynne Kirwin, Nyack, NY

This morning I drove from the Cape to Nyack, New York, to attend the memorial service for Ed Kirwin. Mark and I got to know Ed and Lynne as we sailed across the Indian Ocean together. We met in Malaysia and spent time together in Thailand before taking off for our Indian Ocean adventure. Ed and Lynne’s boat, Constance, and our Windbird were so perfectly matched in terms of speed that we couldn’t lose each other if we tried! Just as our boats became ‘buddies’, so did we. We sailed to India for a six week stay, down to the Maldives, on to Chagos where we spent two months, then to Madagascar for four months, and finally on to South Africa. The words people used today when talking about Ed at the memorial service described him as we all knew him—always a smile, always a gentleman, always kind, caring, and supportive. He loved to share his stories of the 17 years that he and Lynne spent sailing around the world and used those story telling opportunities to help people see the beauty in people around the world. When Ed found out he had cancer in the spring of 2015, he and Lynne left Constance on land in southern Georgia and moved to Nyack, New York, close to family and new friends they would make. Lynne starting volunteering with the Soup Angels at a local church who serve two meals a week to the homeless and needy. Ed helped out when he could, especially at the street fairs where he was very effective in getting donations to fund the Soup Angels. He and Lynne volunteered at the local library, sorting books for the annual book sale. They became an integral part of the community and Lynne wanted to have Ed’s memorial in the church community room where the Soup Angel’s serve the homeless. The Soup Angel volunteers offered to host and it was a beautiful affair in just the right atmosphere to honor Ed’s life. The large room was the perfect size for those who gathered and was artfully decorated by the Soup Angels and the tables were laden with all sorts of yummy nibbles. There were photos of Ed, and family and friends spoke about the goodness Ed brought to this world. As people mingled and talked, Ed’s favorite music played in the background, and as if perfectly cued by Ed, his very favorite came near the end of the afternoon. The song was “Time to Say Goodbye” by Andrea Bocelli. Lynne had held up so beautifully all afternoon, but this song that Ed had requested brought a few tears. Ed’s gentle presence in the world will be sorely missed by all of us. Later in the evening, Lynne took all of the family members and a few friends out to dinner. It was a huge group and we ate, drank, and mingled all evening. I especially enjoyed getting to know Lynne’s nephew, Jeremy, who flew in from Michigan. Lynne will have a gathering there in warmer weather, but Jeremy felt especially close to his Uncle Ed and came to represent Lynne’s family. The entire day and evening was a perfect celebration of the life of Edward John Kirwin.

2019 Life Logs, Day 32: One Month Down
Date: Friday, February 1, 2019
Weather: Sunny and COLD; High 23, Low 11 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I feel like time is in super drive these days. It seems to me that we welcomed in the New Year just a few days ago. But now it is February–one month down and only eleven to go in 2019. Today fit the super drive pattern. It was morning, and then all of a sudden it was evening. Where does the time go? I worked on my impossible puzzle this morning and made almost no progress. I’m going to have to call in forces. Then I visited with Shirley and Doris next door. They seem healthy and happy right now—no easy feat when you are in your nineties and a hundred years old! They played gin rummy with their in-home help this morning and laughed so hard they cried. I’m going to have to join them some Friday morning. Laughing is good. I then went to the gym to put my time in on the stationary bike, did some shopping, picked up a few things I need for my trip to New York, and then headed home. It wasn’t a productive day, but it was sunny, a tad bit warmer, and I was relaxed and happy. Off to New York early in the morning. Life is good.

2019 Life Logs, Day 31: Sunny, Freezing, and Busy
Date: Thursday, January 31, 2019
Weather: Sunny and COLD; High 15, Low 3 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Too busy living life to write about it tonight! I thought I had nothing to do today, but things came up making it a busy one. Tomorrow I will spend time getting ready for my trip to Nyack, New York, on Saturday for Ed Kirwin’s memorial service. I had hoped that it was going to warm up a bit tomorrow, but I just checked the weather and we are still going to be in the deep freeze tomorrow and tomorrow night. Maybe Saturday.

2019 Life Logs, Day 30: Happiness
Date: Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 39, Low 7 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Happiness is watching your six year-old grandchild playing his violin along with your oldest child, his mother. Heather started playing Suzuki violin when she was five and I have years of wonderful memories of her developing as a violinist. Now I’m getting to watch Ollie do the same. But the happiness doesn’t stop there. Happiness is watching your oldest grandchild playing percussion (drums) for one of your favorite songs in years past. And then watching your nine-year old grandchild play a Pink Floyd song on electric guitar. Yes, the Goldpebbles are all blossoming musicians and it gives me great pleasure and happiness to watch to this development. So, having dinner at the Goldstones this evening and getting to watch Sam, Jonah, and Ollie practice on their various instruments made me very happy . . . especially today. This afternoon I went to the viewing of a documentary at the Woods Hole Library that dealt with the topic of happiness. In the 1960’s documentary, The Pursuit of Happiness and Inquiring Nuns, people on the street are interviewed by two young nuns asking them the central question, “Are you happy?” They delved deeper by asking people what made them happy. Positive relationships and a loving family were at the top of the list of responses. And tonight I got to experience that happiness!

Just before dinner, there was more happiness. Snow makes little boys squeal with joy and there was just enough white stuff blowing around outside to make this happen. They immediately put on shoes (no coats) and headed to the back deck to slide in the little bit of icy snow that fell. By the time I got home the snow had stopped, but the wind continued blowing. It is blowing in frigid weather and the low tonight will be in the single digits. Tomorrow and Friday will be well below freezing with highs in the teens. The weekend will see high temps back in the 30’s. Not warm, but better.

2019 Life Logs, Day 29: Eclectic Day
Date: Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 38, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

My activities today ran the gamut, so I’m just calling it an eclectic day. Knee exercises, visit to the chiropractor, visit to the physical therapy facility I have chosen for post-surgery, class at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis on total knee replacement details, and finally a wonderful dinner at the Baranowski’s where I shared my Voyage of Windbird PowerPoint with a couple from Newcomers who have wanted to see the presentation for some time. And now I need to turn my focus to those things I could do to get ready for the coming deep freeze headed our way over the next few days. Tomorrow night’s low is forecast to be 7 degrees F and Thursday’s high will be 17 degrees. Cold and windy.

2019 Life Logs, Day 28: Good Beginning to a New Week
Date: Monday, January 28, 2019
Weather: Mostly Cloudy with a little and Sunshine; High 45, Low 22 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Monday . . . beginning of the week . . . class and biking at the gym . . . Bruce Woodin comes to pick up paint and visit . . . call from friend Karen Baranowski that ended up as an invitation to dinner tomorrow night and a chance to present my Voyage of Windbird PowerPoint presentation for friends . . . wrestling match with technology . . . phone conversation with my niece Janet . . . just a Monday. That was my day in a nutshell. In the longer version of the day, Bruce Woodin and I had a great visit when he came to pick up boat bottom paint that my friends Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg ‘willed’ to him. Thank you, Alan and Helaine. While Bruce was visiting, I got a call from Karen Baranowski, so I called her back after Bruce left. She was inviting me to dinner tomorrow night which I accepted, but we ended up inviting another couple that has been wanting to see my Voyage of Windbird presentation. So, I headed to Karen’s house to check out the connection between by computer and their television. I can project onto my TV with no problem, but I couldn’t get to the connections on the back of Karen and Peter’s TV and I couldn’t get my projector to work. Yesterday morning Jonah saw a little post-it note on my dining table and asked what it was about. I told him it had been on my computer for weeks but that I had removed it because I wasn’t sure what it was referring to. While wrestling with technology at Karen and Peter’s, I realized that little cryptic note gave the directions for getting the projector to work with my computer. So I packed up, came home, and indeed, got everything to work by following the directions on the Post-it note. So now I am all set for the presentation tomorrow evening. Good thing as I have a busy day leading up to the evening. After I got the technology under control, I had a great phone conversation with my niece Janet who lives near Nashville. She brought me up-to-date on happenings with her mom and dad (my sister and brother-in-law) and we talked on to solve all of the world’s problems. Good beginning to a new week.

2019 Life Logs, Day 27: Day in the Life
Date: Sunday, January 27, 2019
Weather: Yet Another Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 42, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was just a day in the life. I enjoyed the morning at my house with Jonah and Ollie, but we had to cut our time short to head back to the Goldstones as Sam was going to be dropped off at 11:30 am—home from his Klondike Scouting weekend. He said it was a cold weekend, but he still had fun. He brought home lots of dirty laundry, so I launched into laundry mode and got that done. Jonah and Ollie spent time biking this afternoon, as well as enjoying more play time with Joey next door. Heather and Jed got home from their weekend in Provincetown in the late afternoon. They had some wonderful long walks on Provincetown beaches, walking through the dunes to get to one beach and walking across a causeway to the West End of Provincetown to get to the other one. They found all sorts of ‘treasures’ washed up on the beaches and, as a result, came home with a renewed commitment for reducing plastics in their lives. We had artichokes for dinner and then I headed home.

2019 Life Logs, Day 26: Fun Day with Jonah and Ollie
Date: Saturday, January 26, 2019
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 33, Low 24 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It was a fun day with Jonah and Ollie. The temperature was barely above freezing, but it was sunny and felt a little warmer than that. The boys came home from their overnight next door around 11 am and reported that they had a great time. But it was obvious that a good night’s sleep was not part of the great time. Ollie was uncharacteristically grumpy and Jonah was just tired. He and Joey slept on the living room floor and shared an air mattress and blankets. Evidently there was a constant battle for the blankets and Jonah lost, leaving him very cold. He said he kept waking up because he was so cold, so tonight I made sure he has plenty of blankets. Hopefully a good night’s rest tonight will make-up for last night.

Since Ollie was so grumpy, I decided to arrange a playdate for Jonah so he didn’t have to argue with Ollie all day. In the afternoon, Jonah went to play with his friend Luke and I took Ollie to the school playground that is across from the public library where he managed to play all by himself and have a great time. He had on camouflage pants and a matching shirt, so he decided that the playground was the perfect place for Army training. Everything became an obstacle course and he ran and played, with me for an audience, for over an hour. Then we went into the library to check-out a 3 pm children’s program about China. Originally Ollie wanted to go as he really wants to go to China to see the Panda ‘kindergarten’ at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. But when he saw that the ‘presentation’ was really just doing art projects, he chose to search for books about pandas and play with the wooden trains. While searching for panda books, I saw a book on display entitled “Spirals” which invited me to read it. My love of spirals in nature runs deep. Nautilus shells and fern fiddle heads are my very favorites, so I decided to share this with Jonah and Ollie and get a couple of books explaining the math that creates these spirals. Ollie and I then walked over to Main Street to get a hot chocolate to drink while reading about pandas. When we finished, we got a hot chocolate to go for Jonah, picked him up, and returned to the Goldstones to play outside with Molly and Joey for the last half-hou of daylight. Then we traveled on to my house for the night. I fixed dinner while Jonah listened to music and Ollie took a very long hot bath. After dinner we read about spirals in nature and pandas. I was very excited when the book explaining that the pattern that produces spirals in nature are the result of Fibonacci numbers was of great interest to Jonah. He loved holding my very favorite nautilus shell while reading about it and that led to a conversation about the architectural spirals in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Ollie was tuned into this conversation, but he was also busy telling Jonah and I more facts about pandas than either of us had ever thought about. It was a fun evening.