2018 Life Logs, Day 179—Rainy Day . . . Lots of Rain
Date: Thursday, June 28, 2018
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 70, Low 65 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Day Four of Camp Oma 2018 was a rainy, rainy day. Grammy Marti had planned to go to Martha’s Vineyard today to visit, but that was changed to tomorrow because of the weather. So today, the Goldpebbles once again had two grandmothers. With that luxury, we could divide tasks and give individual attention to the boys. When I arrived, Marti was working with each boy to help them remove 10 books each from their bookshelves to make room for new books from the annual Falmouth Public Library sale. While she did that, I worked with Sam and Jonah to help them sort through their end-of-year school papers and notebooks, keeping some and recycling others. After lunch, I took Sam to the opening day of the library book sale and we came home with two shopping bags full of chapter books. Marti stayed home with Jonah and Ollie serving as the audience while Jonah practiced playing his new guitar and Ollie kept beat on Sam’s drum set. Then they did some tidying up in the room in the basement that we are now calling the music studio. All the while the rain kept coming down, but when Sam and I got home, Marti took the boys for a walk and the skies really opened up. It was the kind of rain that little boys can’t ignore. The air temperature was warm and there was water running everywhere. They set about damming and redirecting water and called their efforts the Water Works.

I forgot to mention yesterday that while Marti was here visiting at the Cottage, she taught me some new plumbing skills. Not only has my kitchen faucet been dripping, over the weekend it started shooting little sprays of water in every direction. Marti unscrewed the end of the faucet and cleaned out the filters. Amazing. No more spraying. She then showed me how to troubleshoot the leaks. She really doesn’t think I’ll need to replace the whole faucet. Thank you, Marti.

The sun should be shining tomorrow and from the weather forecast, it looks like we are actually going to get temps in the low 80’s with lots of sunshine for the next week. Yippee! Maybe summer has decided to visit for a few days. I took some photos of my raised bed gardens yesterday and am sharing them here. After a week of warm weather and sunshine, it will be interesting to see how much things grow.

2018 Life Logs, Day 178—A Little Work, A Little Play
Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 73, Low 67 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

On this third day of Camp Oma 2018, the Goldpebbles spent a day with both of their grandmothers doing a little work, and then a little play. Marti, Jed’s mother, will be here until Sunday morning. Of course, she wants to spend as much time as possible with the “Pebbles”. But when she comes to visit once a year, she also takes on one project. This year she has decided to work on sanding and priming the woodwork surrounding the front door. Heather and Jed started the project earlier in the spring, but we have been so busy that not much progress has been made. In between kid activities today, Marti made great progress. I worked with her for a couple of hours in the morning, and then I took the boys to my place to kayak. Sam had cooked up an idea where he would go out in the red kayak and tow Jonah in the inflatable two-man around the end of the island to a place where they could land and have a picnic lunch. Jonah didn’t feel confident that he could kayak on his own, but in the end, I think it would have been easier. But I just let them go and hoped for the best. They made it just fine, but there was a bit of tension between the two when they returned. Sam was convinced that Jonah had not rowed hard enough and Jonah was frustrated because he felt he had. Towing, and rowing two boats in tandem is just not easy, but I think they learned that without me telling them. Ollie and I had a delightful lunch on the dock while we watched Sam and Jonah out on the water. Just as Sam and Jonah returned from their adventure, Marti arrived. She had lunch on the dock while Ollie and I went out in the two-man and Sam came along in the red kayak. Ollie wanted to go around the bottom of the island and go ashore where Sam and Jonah had their picnic lunch. It is important for the youngest to do just what his older brothers have done. We accomplished that and called it a successful day of kayaking when we got back to the dock. While we were doing this, Jonah was back at the house watching another World Cup soccer game. Sam and Ollie joined him which gave me chance to give Marti a quick tour around the cottage and then she took the boys home. Tomorrow she is going to Martha’s Vineyard to visit with a friend, so I will have the boys. It is the first day of the Falmouth Public Library book sale and we plan to go to that and spend the rest of day just hanging out . . . hopefully reading some of the books we purchase from the library sale. It is supposed to rain, making it a perfect day for reading. Tonight is the full Strawberry Moon. The sky looks clear, but hazy. But even through the haze, there are few sights more beautiful than a full moon.

2018 Life Logs, Day 177—Happy Birthday to Jonah
Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 72, Low 54 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was Jonah’s 9th birthday. Happy Birthday, Jonah! Mark and I missed his 1st birthday, but I have always loved the photos of him at that age. Now he is a nine-year-old full of energy who constantly reminds me of a sprite. To promote his love of music, his grandmothers got together for this birthday. I gave Jonah the electric guitar and amp and Grammy Marti gave him music lessons. He is also a very curious child, so Heather and Jed gave him Little Bits electronic gizmos and a build-it-yourself hydraulic lift.

We started the day at my house where Sam, Ollie, and I kayaked while Jonah watched a World Cup soccer game. We had a build-your-pizza lunch and then headed to Woods Hole to Stoney Beach. We all found the water a little chilly, but we still dove in and enjoyed. Sam had to leave to go to drum lessons and when he returned, we all decided to head home to welcome Jed’s mother who arrived while we were out. She then took us all out to a Mexican restaurant on Main Street for the birthday dinner. That was Jonah’s choice and we all enjoyed it. He then wanted us to walk down to the Green before heading back up the street to Charlie’s Cupcakes where we each picked out our favorite cupcake to take home to have while Jonah opened his presents. We were then treated to a demonstration of what he learned in his first guitar lesson yesterday. At this point, just tuning the guitar is a big part of the process, but I see a rock star in the making!

2018 Life Logs, Day 176—First Day of Camp Oma 2018
Date: Monday, June 25, 2018
Weather: Mix of Sun, Clouds, and Some Rain; High 72, Low 54 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was the first day of Camp Oma 2018 and it was a good one even though the beginning was a little rocky. I had planned to start the day with a planning meeting to get the input from each boy on what they would like to do this summer. I divided a white board into three sections and was going to have each one write the things they would most like to do in one of the sections. The problem was that all three boys wanted to write in the center section. I tried all of my best cooperative ways of deciding who would get that center section, but nothing worked. So, I just gave each one a sheet a paper and had them write on that. Whew! That worked and disaster was avoided. Mostly Sam would just like free time to play with friends. The younger two are more open to some organized day trips. Not sure how I’ll pull this off, but where there is a will, there is a way. After the planning meeting, I was the pitcher for a baseball game between Team Ollie and Team Jonah, and I did a little gardening and a little laundry while Sam and Jonah watched a World Cup soccer game in the afternoon. Ollie just didn’t want to watch soccer, so I caved and let him watch an episode of Shaun the Sheep on my computer. We’ll come up with summer rules for screen time, but today I just went with the flow.

Tomorrow is Jonah’s ninth birthday and I got him an electric guitar and amp as his present. The middle school music director, who is the father of twins Roland and Meadow, kindergarten friends of Ollie’s, will give him lessons on Mondays afternoons this summer . . . starting today. So Heather and Jed met us at my house at 4 pm for the gift opening and then Jed took Jonah to his first lesson. Jonah has quite the head of hair, and once he had that electric blue electric guitar in his hands, Heather commented that the hair had just been waiting for that guitar. And the snaggle-toothed smile added to the wild look. Jonah wants to be a rock star (this month), so he and Sam will practice drums and guitar in the basement this summer. Ollie says he will learn to play bass so they will have a full-fledged band. Oh my, poor Heather and Jed!

While Jonah went to his first lesson, Sam and Ollie went down to the dock to feed the mother and baby ducks and to go out in the kayak. At this point, we have only been using the red kayak I bought from my neighbor at The Studio. Both boys really wanted to get out the inflatable two-man kayak, so we did. But it was totally deflated at the end of last season and has been packed in a large plastic bin. Heather was still back in the cottage trying to get some work done, but we had to call on her to put the pieces of the kayak together and to get it inflated. It was very late when we got that job done, so using that kayak had to be put on hold until tomorrow morning. We’ll kayak in the morning and then head back to Heather and Jed’s to await the arrival of Grammy Marti. Jed’s mother arrives tomorrow for Jonah’s birthday and will be here for the remainder of the week. What a special way to begin the summer for the Goldpebbles.

2018 Life Logs, Day 175—Ed and Lynne Head Home
Date: Sunday, June 24, 2018
Weather: Overcast; High 69, Low 64 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It was so wonderful to have Ed and Lynne here, but all good things must come to an end. They had to head home this morning, but not until Lynne finished working the coffee table puzzle. She persisted, and she did it!

I spent the rest of the day doing a little Camp Oma planning, taking the ‘equipment’ I’m giving Jonah for his birthday to a music teacher to have it all checked out, and then doing laundry. I went to the laundromat, but it was closed. There was a note on the front door that made me think it might be closed permanently. I sure hope not, but for today, I took the laundry to Heather’s. I also took leftovers from last night’s dinner and we had a nice Sunday night dinner together. And then I spent my evening talking on the phone to various family members. What I didn’t do is fix my leaky kitchen faucet. I have purchased a new faucet and watched various YouTube videos on how to install. Some evening this week, I’ll give it a go.

Camp Oma begins tomorrow morning. There are no big plans for the first couple of days. I think the boys just want time to play and I want to involve them in the planning for the summer. So we will play and plan for a couple of days and then Grammy Marti will arrive for Jonah’s birthday dinner on Tuesday evening. I’m sure the boys will want to spend time with her on Wednesday and I’m hoping to talk the boys and Marti into taking the ferry to Nantucket on Friday to visit the Nantucket Whaling Museum. It is one of the Massachusetts museums that are free on Friday. Of course, it costs a bit to get there, but I think it would be a great adventure for the Goldpebbles and their two grandmothers. Let the summer begin!

2018 Life Logs, Day 174—Fun with Friends
Date: Saturday, June 23, 2018
Weather: Overcast with Drizzle Off and On All Day; High 64, Low 61 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Lynne and I did what we do on many days. We spent most of the day in the kitchen ‘playing’ with food. Actually, we weren’t playing, but we were having fun. We were prepping for tonight’s dinner with Judy and Dave Howell and their friends who flew out from Oregon. We fixed a Mexican “build your own” dinner with chicken fajitas and ground beef taco fixings. For dessert we had fresh fruit and the big hit was the mangoes. I think I mentioned in last night’s log that Ed’s son in Fort Lauderdale sent him the mangoes from his back yard and they were absolutely the best! Just being together was so special, so it was a wonderful evening. Here’s hoping it won’t be another eight years before we see each other again. Ed and Lynne leave in the morning. I have enjoyed every moment with them, but the time has passed much too quickly.

2018 Life Logs, Day 173—Last Day of School, Plus More Friends Visit
Date: Friday, June 22, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 72, Low 57 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was the last day of school for the Goldpebbles. Heather had been told that Jonah was getting a special award at this morning’s school-wide Town Meeting, so I decided to go. I left Ed and Lynn on their own and went to the school by 9:15 am. I haven’t been to a Town Meeting since my days of teaching in Concord, New Hampshire, and I was very impressed by the East Falmouth meeting. There were numerous year-end awards, music, student-produced videos, recognition of a retiring teacher, and more. Jonah and Ollie both got a certificate of attendance for missing less than 5 days of school and Jonah got the Academic Achievement Award for his third-grade classroom. Go, Jonah! Jonah has also been part of Peace Builders group that meets for lunch once a week and that group read The Peace Book for the whole school. Near the end of the meeting, the kindergarten classes sang a very cute little song about moving up to First Grade. Can’t believe Ollie is going to be a First Grader. The students were all well-behaved and the meeting helped end the school year on a very positive note. I got back home after 11 am and then at 12:15 I got a text from Heather asking if there was any way I could pick the boys up at 12:40 as this last day was just a half-day. She got up to go running at 4:30 am and then went to work in Woods Hole for three hours, rushed back to East Falmouth for the Town Meeting, but then had to go back to Woods Hole to finish getting her program “in the can” for airing. I went to pick up J & O and took them Smitty’s for an end-of-the-year ice cream treat (the boys splurged and both got frappes) and some play time with other friends there. When Heather arrived, I headed home and found that Lynne had made a lot of progress on the coffee table puzzle. But I stole her and Ed away to work on screwing down the loose boards on the dock. They did a great job and I got some gardening done while they did that.

Later in the afternoon, David and Judy Howell arrived in their motorhome. The last time we were together, Judy and Dave in their catamaran named Freebird, Ed and Lynne in their sailboat named Constance, and Mark and I aboard Windbird, was in Cochin in southern India in 2010. A lot has happened in all our lives since then and none of us still owns our sailboats, but it was great to be reunited as the ‘new’ us. Dave and Judy left their home on the California-Oregon border the first week of May and have been traveling across the country since then. From here they will head north to Boston and eventually on to Nova Scotia. But tomorrow they will return here from dinner and more visiting, bringing with them friends who are flying in from the West Coast to be with them for about week in the Boston area. Unfortunately, it is supposed to rain, but we’ll find a way to enjoy.

One last note. In the afternoon after I left Ollie and Jonah with Heather, Heather took them to the beach to celebrate the last day of school with friends. She sent me a great photo of Jonah with his friends that I just had to include here.

2018 Life Logs, Day 172—Happy Birthday to Jo . . . and . . . and . . .
Date: Thursday, June 21, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 77, Low 57 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

So many good things happened today. I start by wishing Jo a happy birthday! For the first time since she met Justin, she is in England with her family and friends for her birthday celebration. Justin, Jo, and kids flew to England on Monday and will arrive here in a month for a visit before returning to Puerto Rico. I certainly hope Jo had a wonderful day.
. . . and the second good thing is that today was summer solstice. Summer, my favorite season, is here. Welcome, summer!

. . . and Ed and Lynne arrived for a weekend visit. We just tried to use our collective memories to come up with the last time we were together. We all knew I drove to Nyack. But when? I finally remembered that it was just a week before the first section of the new Tappan Zee Bridge was to open, so I Googled that. August 24, 2017. Ah, hah! That is when Heather and family were in Sweden, so I made a get-a-away to New York. It has been too many months, but it is so good to be with them again. Lynne has decided that the puzzle on my coffee table needs some attention, so in between conversations, she and Ed are diligently working on that puzzle this evening. Wonderful to be with good friends on this first day of summer.

2018 Life Logs, Day 171—Getting Ready for Visiting Friends
Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Weather: Partly Sunny; High 77, Low 62 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Tomorrow Ed and Lynne Kirwin arrive for a weekend visit. They are friends but feel much more like family. They will be my first overnight guests other than the Goldpebbles and that makes it doubly exciting. On Father’s Day, I got a text from Lynne telling me that they went on a hike with Ed’s family and Ed took a tumble and got lots of scrapes on knees, arms, and head. Whether it is due to all the chemotherapy or something else, Ed’s skin is paper thin. I feared this might keep them from coming, but as of this morning, Lynne says they still plan on coming. So I spent my day doing food preparation. I wanted chicken to make chicken salad, so I roasted a chicken. Tonight the chicken broth is burbling away and I’ll use that for making soup tomorrow morning. Ed and Lynne should arrive tomorrow afternoon and we will just sit back and relax. On Friday, other mutual sailing friends are arriving on the Cape and at this point the plan is for us to drive to the outer Cape to the town of Brewster where Judy and David Howell will be camping in their motorhome. The five of us haven’t been together since India in 2010. And on Saturday Judy and Dave, as well as friends of theirs that are flying in from the West Coast, will come here for dinner. I just checked the weather and, unfortunately, it looks like it might rain on Saturday, but we’ll still enjoy visiting.

Today Meghan Hanawalt came, without her goats, to pick up the last of the piles of poison ivy. Meghan still contends that this property wins the ‘most poison ivy’ award. The back of her truck was certainly piled high.In fact, it was so high, Meghan had to get in the truck bed and stomp it down. She and her goats did a fantastic job of clearing key areas of this property. Now it is time for me to do some brush clearing, but I have a feeling that won’t happen until late fall. Camp Oma begins on Monday and it is time to focus on enjoying the summer.

2018 Life Logs, Day 170—Appointments, Appointments
Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Hot; High 81, Low 57 F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Hot! Yes, finally the temperature climbed above 80 and it really felt hot today. Not oppressive, just pleasantly warm. I had to open windows for the first time this spring. I love hot, so it was a happy day for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend the day outside enjoying the weather. I had an appointment in Hyannis to pick up a brace for my left knee. And then two hours later, I had a physical therapy appointment twenty minutes from Hyannis. So, I spent the time in between shopping. I went to a music store to finish up my shopping for Jonah’s birthday. I was able to get a used Fender amplifier for the new electric guitar that I ordered on Amazon. Jonah wants to be a rock star, so we’ll support that. I think anything that gets a child playing musical instruments is a good thing. But I had to laugh when I went to pay for the amplifier. I had to give the guy my name and he put that in the computer. He then asked me if I know Justin Handley. Of course Justin was in his data base. He’s the only person I know who graduated from college with a degree in How to Party Like a Rock Star! And I’m pretty sure Justin has shopped at every music store from Concord, New Hampshire, to here. But back to Jonah, the used amp was half the price of the new one, so that was a good deal. I left the music store and turned my attention to food shopping at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Having neither of those options in Falmouth, it is always a must to stop in when in Hyannis. Then I was on to my PT appointment which was an evaluation. There is still much work to be done on my knee, but I asked them to release me for the summer as I just won’t have time to travel back and forth to Sandwich for the appointments. Tom and his assistant Hannah are top notch and they suggested that if in two weeks things are getting worse, I give a call and find a way to resume sessions. But if I am doing okay, I will wait until my next appointment with my orthopedic surgeon in August and reassess at that time. Tom really doesn’t recommend surgery at this point, so I will continue to follow the outlined leg strengthening exercises and hope for the best. Once the brace was fitted today, I wore it while shopping and it really helped. So, I will wear it when gardening or standing for long stints in the kitchen. But as Tom cautioned, you don’t want to wear it all the time. You have to balance it with aggressive muscle strengthening. Tomorrow I have, hopefully, my last appointment with the chiropractor. All of these appointments over the past month have felt like a having a part-time job. But now I need to change my profession from patient to Camp Oma Director. Friday is the last day of school, so Camp Oma begins on Monday morning. Let the fun begin.