2018 Life Logs, Day 149—More Garden Work, No Chiropractor
Date: Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High 81, Low 55 F
Location: Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Weather Underground tells me the high temp today was 81 degrees! I’m pretty sure that is the warmest temperature we have had this spring. It felt great, but unfortunately it was one-day event. The ten-day forecast shows daytime temps in the 60’s and even in the 50’s. So, I’m glad I enjoyed the time outside today.

I got up this morning and immediately called my chiropractor. Thankfully my back is hanging in there and allowing me to be upright, but I really hoped to see the chiropractor today. Unfortunately, tomorrow at 4 pm is the first appointment he had, so that will just have to do. In the meantime, I pushed the limits. I needed to remove sod from an area next to the house in order to plant the day lilies I got yesterday. Removing sod is not easy, even in this sandy soil, but I did it and got the day lilies planted. I took a break for lunch, went to Heather’s to check on how yesterday’s transplants were doing, and went to the hardware store to get parts needed to attach multiple hoses to my one outside faucet. Then I went to the Waquoit Feed and Seed and bought bags of compost. I needed one bag to put around the day lilies and another for my smallest raised bed. And I bought two extras ‘just in case.’ I got those unloaded and spread, and then stretched the limits a little more by opening the bags of potting soil that needed to be spread on the last of the last of the 4×8 raised beds. By this time, it was late afternoon, so I decided to wind down for the day. Ahh, but when putting the tools in the shed, I decided that I had to organize the shed a bit to make things fit. The shed is Shirley’s and has years of accumulation. It was time to put the trash out for pick up tomorrow, so I took the liberty of filling the trash can with broken items. I’m hoping to keep my bike in that garden shed, but it is going to take more cleaning up before that can happen.

It was almost 7 pm when I finally came inside. My phone rang, and it was a grand niece who just got her first teaching position. She is doing an ocean unit and needed help understanding the classification of various sea life. So, I spent a great deal of my evening typing up Aunt Judy’s Primer on Sea Life. It took a lot of time, but I gladly did it for her. I can still remember the feeling of knowing so little when I started teaching. I think it is the same for everyone. In those first years, you have to scramble every night to learn what is needed just to get you through the next day.

So now it is 11 pm and my back survived the day. It is now time to get an ice pack out of the freezer and head to bed. I’m going to try going to my Wednesday morning class at the gym. I hope my back can handle that, but I look forward to that 4 pm appointment with the chiropractor to begin the process of getting things back in alignment.

2018 Life Logs, Day 148—Memorial Day in Falmouth
Date: Monday, May 28, 2018
Weather: Overcast and Cool, Some Clearing Late Evening; High 64, Low 54 F
Location: Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

What a day! Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony with Sam and Jonah participating . . . grocery shopping with Heather and Jonah . . . taking time out at home . . . gardening at Heather’s with Heather and Ollie . . . dinner together at my house. And it was one of those days when a picture is worth a thousand words. There is the ‘picture’ of Sam marching in the Memorial Day Parade as the youngest of five young people representing the Boy Scouts. We knew he was doing this, so it was a joy to see, but not a surprise. But coming just a little behind Sam in the parade, came Jonah. We didn’t know he was going to be one of three little guys representing the Cub Scouts and leading the Pledge of Allegiance. So this was a surprise. Click. Get that photo quick. And then there was Ollie who watched the entire affair with great interest and seriousness. The day started with Jed leaving to take Sam and Jonah to the parade. Heather, Ollie, and I followed but Ollie took great pains in getting ready to go. He had watched Sam put on the cap and white gloves required when you are part of an honor guard. So Ollie chose a similar cap and borrowed his momma’s white gloves. Too cute. We watched the parade with great pride as Sam, and then Jonah, passed by us. Then watching them both stand at attention in front of the large gathering made us all so proud. After the ceremony, we all changed gears. Jed took Ollie and Sam to his lab at Woods Hole to get some things Sam needed to complete a 5th grade science fair display while Heather, Jonah, and I did the weekly grocery shopping. Jonah taught me how to use the hand scanner. You just scan the bar code of each item you want to purchase and put it right in a bag in your cart. When you check out, you just have to scan in the scanner info. Why didn’t I learn to do this sooner? When we all met back at Heather’s, everyone but me headed out for a special lunch to celebrate a very successful morning. I opted to go home for lunch so I could do a little dinner prep. While home, I took time to watch the four baby geese that hang out in Shirley’s yard next door. They are so cute. And then I went to a friend of Heather’s to pick up some tiger lilies. Heather’s friend, Jeanne, wanted to thin her lilies, so I gladly took what she didn’t want. Then it was time to do our traditional Memorial planting in Heather’s garden. Jonah had to work on a book report that is due this weekand Sam, with Jed’s help, worked on Sam’s science fair display board. That left Ollie, Heather, and I to do the gardening and we really enjoyed our time planting the little plants that we started from seeds a few weeks ago. Then it was off to my house for dinner. It was a lovely day and I am so happy about my back. It seems to have ‘righted’ itself. I used Ibuprofen and cold packs all day yesterday and during the night. When I got up this morning, I could still feel the tweak in my back, but I was able to stand up straight. I strapped a cold pack on my back when I left this morning and my back has been fine ever since. It is like nothing ever happened. I’ll still head to the chiropractor tomorrow, but I am just so grateful that I was able to function normally today. Thanks and praises.

2018 Life Logs, Day 147—A Little Light at the End of Dreary Day
Date: Sunday, May 27, 2018
Weather: Overcast, Rainy, and Cool; High 65, Low 51 F
Location: Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The light that came at the end of this dreary day had nothing to do with the weather. The weather was consistently cool, wet, and miserable throughout. But at 7 pm, I decided to watch a PBS Ken Burns 2-hour program on the Roosevelts—Eleanor and Franklin. It immediately took me back to my early childhood days. From the time I became aware of the world, I was told by my father that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was to be revered next to God. I didn’t know what that meant, but I knew that FDR was a very important person in my father’s life. My mom and dad were married in 1924. They were both teenagers, my mother 15 and my father 19. They had three children before the financial crash in 1929. Two of those three died young, but then my parents went on to have three more children between 1931 and 1935. My parents were living through the Depression, but they were losing hope. Then when FDR was elected in 1932, things began to change. He gave them the hope the so desperately needed. I didn’t come along until 1947, an afterthought for sure, but the positive influence FDR had on their lives was still very much alive. And somehow as a young child I began to admire FDR’s wife, Eleanor. Move forward to the spring of 1960. By this time, I was in seventh grade and had just been selected to be head cheerleader in my junior high school. I thought of myself as a serious student, but being a cheerleader gave a different impression to others. That spring, I was interviewed by the school newspaper and asked who I would be if I could choose to be anyone. I immediately answered without hesitation, “Eleanor Roosevelt.” I won’t go into how much grief I got for that choice when it was published. To my friends, Eleanor Roosevelt was an old, ugly woman. Why in the world would anyone want to be her? I had my answer to that, but none of my friends wanted to listen. Tonight, when I watched the program, it made me proudly stand by my 1960 selection. Eleanor was a woman who fought for the rights of people that others would not stand up for her entire life. I am proud that I made that selection in 1960 and watching the program brought a little light at the end of a dreary day.

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Today was supposed to be garden planting day, but the weather was not encouraging. Despite that, I was out early to complete getting the bagged garden soil into the third raised bed. I have been lugging these heavy bags for days and have been worried that my back might not be able to handle it. But lifting the weight didn’t seem to be a problem. But this morning after I got the soil into the bed, I picked up the rake to level the soil. I reached across to pull the rake back towards me, and that was it. The weak disc in my lower back pulled sideways and that was that. This has been a persistent problem for me for the past 20 years, but through exercise and the help of good chiropractors, I have been able to avoid the problem for the past few years. At least this time, I am still upright, albeit a bit bent over. But I can function until Tuesday when I hope to get an appointment with my activator chiropractor who can right things. An activator chiropractor does not physically manipulate your back. He uses a tool called an activator to apply the slightest bit of pressure in just the right places to get my spine back in alignment. Until then, I will have to take it a bit easy. But I am still hoping to get planting done in my gardens and in Heather’s tomorrow afternoon. But before planting in the afternoon, I will go to the morning Memorial Day Parade and ceremony in downtown Falmouth. This afternoon I took Sam to practice as he will be one of five Scouts who will carry the flags. The other three Scouts who showed up for the practice were all so much older than Sam. He has just moved up to Boy Scouts from Cub Scouts, so it is an honor to be chosen to be Honor Guard for tomorrow. I might not be able to stand for the whole ceremony, but I certainly don’t want to miss watching him marching in the parade and being one of the five presenting the flags for this ceremony.

2018 Life Logs, Day 146—Beautiful Moments
Date: Saturday, May 26, 2018
Weather: Sunny with Building Winds; High 75, Low 55
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It was a beautiful day filled with beautiful moments. I spent my morning removing sod from the third raised bed and then filling it with purchased garden soil. That was not a beautiful moment, but on one of my many trips to the compost bin to deposit the removed sod, I spotted a pink Lady Slipper. I made many trips to the compost bin yesterday and didn’t see it. So, either it bloomed overnight or I was somehow blinded yesterday. But what a beautiful moment. Seeing the pink Lady Slipper prompted me to walk around the yard the take photos of some of the other beautiful plants that seem to just pop up here and there. Delightful.

I completed getting the third raised bed filled with soil and then it was time to take off for the May Fair in Woods Hole. I met up with Heather and Ollie and we all had the traditional strawberry shortcake sold by the Woods Hole Daycare. Sam and Jonah were off doing things with friends, but Heather, Ollie and I watched a new addition to the May Fair—a local Celtic dance troupe. Two friends of Sam’s were in the troupe, Benjamin and Audrey. Audrey was Sam’s first girlfriend in preschool. I haven’t seen her for a few years. In fact, I think the last time I saw her was when we were viewing July 4th fireworks from the top floor of a Woods Hole Oceanographic building. Sam was maybe 5 years old and at one point in the evening, Audrey had him pinned on the floor. She was also the goalie on his soccer team that year and certainly a good match for Sam. Now she is beautiful young girl leading a Celtic dance group. They grow up so quickly, but how special to watch that happen.

After watching the dance troupe, Ollie met up with friends on the playground and I hung out watching him while Heather walked around and visited with friends. The plan was to move to the Captain Kidd to watch the UEFA (Union of European Football Association) Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. Heather, Sam, and Jonah headed to the Kidd, but I stayed with Ollie at the playground while he played with friends, Roland and Meadow from East Falmouth Elementary kindergarten and Paulie, a friend from his days at Woods Hole Daycare. Eventually we headed to the Kidd, but by the time we got there the game was well into the second half. Liverpool made a goal just as we entered, making the score 1-1. A large group Sam’s soccer team were gathered at a table watching the game, along with Jonah who was cheering on the Liverpool team. Evidently Real Madrid has won the championship for the past four years, so Jonah and many of Sam’s friends were routing for the underdog. But Real Madrid made a couple of dramatic goals and won the championship once again. When the game ended, most of the adults watching exited the bar seats and Jonah immediately took up a front row seat to watch the awards ceremony. Even though his team didn’t win, you could see how mesmerized he was with the awards. Another beautiful moment.

2018 Life Logs, Day 144—Girls Night
Date: Thursday, May 24, 2018
Weather: Mostly Sunny but Cool; High 64, Low 51
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was a just one frustration after another, but tonight was delightful. I met Oliva and Jane at the Falmouth Public Library at 5 pm for a lecture in the Science Before Supper series sponsored by the Marine Biological Lab. The top was ‘Understanding Aging’ using a novel aquatic animal model. There was a good turn-out and it was great to get a bit of science in before dinner. Earlier in the day I had offered to have Jane and Olivia come home with me for leftovers for ‘supper’ and that is what we did. Heather and family have been here, but Jane and Olivia were my first non-family guests. We relaxed with a glass of wine while dinner warming on the stove and then we continued our conversation over dinner. It was a fun ‘girls night’.

My frustrations today came from in-the-house projects. I drove into town first thing this morning with a list of what-to-buy-where. That all went fine except that it took four times longer than I expected. When I did finally get home, I started in on the projects. I won’t go into specific detail, but generally I just simply could not get screws to go into the walls without great difficulty when trying to put brackets on the wall for book shelves, to install a paper towel holder, to install curtain tie-backs, and on and on. My carpentry skills are pitiful, but I will persist.

2018 Life Logs, Day 145–Another Work Day Inside and Outside
Date: Friday, May 25, 20 418
Weather: Sunny and Breezy; High 74, Low 60
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I launched an all-out effort today to try and get my list of jobs, both inside and outside, completed before the holiday weekend. I was successful inside, but it took most of the day, and didn’t leave the time needed to complete the outside jobs. But good progress was made. I got the wall-mounted shelves securely in place. I hung curtain rods, a big bulletin board for the boys, and a few pictures. It doesn’t sound like much, but when you are doing it by yourself, measuring is extremely difficult and I didn’t always get it right. So that meant precious time was spent starting over to get it right. When I moved to the outside list, I got two of the 4 x 8 raised beds ready to plant, as well as a smaller 2 x 7 raised bed. And I added a new 4 x 4 bed to an existing 4 x 4 making a third 4 x 8. In between all this, I met with Meghan Hannawalt whose business is natural brush cleaning and poison ivy control using her goats. The business is called ‘Get My Goats’ and during the second week of June she will be bringing her goats here to do a little work.

Hopefully tomorrow morning I can get the third 4 x 8 raised bed filled with garden soil and get a few things planted. But late morning, I will head to Woods Hole for May Fair and some afternoon activities with Heather and the boys. Jed is away this weekend attending the 25th anniversary of his graduation from Yale, so I will be available to help Heather tomorrow and Sunday and then Monday morning we have the Veteran’s Day observance downtown and on Monday afternoon we will try to get Heather’s garden and my raised beds planted. Heather’s garden is already half-way there, but I haven’t planted anything yet. Tis the traditional weekend for planting in the northeast, so we will try to get the job done.

2018 Life Logs, Day 143—Weather Ping Pong
Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High 72, Low 53
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The weather ping pongs back and forth between sunny, warm, and beautiful and overcast, cool, and rainy. A day or two of this and then a day or two of that. But that is better than overcast and rainy weather every day. So, I’ll take the ping pong weather. Today was beautiful. I worked on getting shelves put up in the third bedroom that is going to a playroom for the boys and a pantry and work room for me. But it was so beautiful outside that I abandoned that work to get outside and work on the raised garden beds.At one point, I took a little break and walked down to the water and had a couple of surprises. The geese have had babies and they are so cute. And I came upon what looked like an all brown ferret. He stopped to give me the once over, as I did him. But in looking up what I saw, I think it was an American mink, not a weasel or a ferret. Tomorrow I’ll try to get photos. In the late afternoon, I drove to Hyannis to buy one more 4 x 4 foot raised bed to complete my garden design and then I attended the evening ice cream social, book fair, and art walk at East Falmouth Elementary. Jonah gave me a tour of his art work

2018 Life Logs, Day 142—Back to Yucky Weather
Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Weather: Overcast with Sprinkles Here and There; High 72, Low 52
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Yesterday’s glorious weather was short-lived. Today we were back to overcast skies with sprinkles here and there. But it is a little warmer, so maybe more sunny days are to come. I made a trip to the Swap Shop to take things we weren’t able to sell at the weekend yard sale. Then I borrowed Heather and Jed’s van and picked up some used 6×6’s that friends Terry and Olivia were getting rid of. I will use these to create another raised bed. Thank you, Terry and Olivia. I came home and did a little gardening and a little work around the house and then this evening I went to Heather’s to spend the evening with Jonah and Ollie. Jed was in Boston, Heather had a district-wide school volunteer dinner, and Sam had an all-evening activity. I enjoyed the time with Jonah and Ollie, put them to bed, and didn’t get home until 11 pm. Tomorrow I plan to spend the day at home working on getting the raised bed ready for planting. Hoping for sunshine.

2018 Life Logs, Day 141—Glorious Weather . . . finally
Date: Monday, May 21, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Beautiful; High 71, Low 50
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It seems like we have had weeks of bad weather. Actually, it has been only ten days since the last warm, sunny day. But generally, it has been a cool, cloudy, rainy spring. Finally today, the weather today was just glorious. I went to the gym, stopped at the grocery store, stopped at Heather’s to borrow some garden implements and ended up staying long enough to hoe between the rows of young plants in her vegetable garden, came home to make some phone calls and take a shower, and then it was time to pick Jonah up after school. I ended up staying at Heather’s and helping get ready for a cook-out for Jonah’s Cub Scout Pack members and their parents. The glorious day slipped away much too quickly, but I’ll hope for more sunshine tomorrow to work on getting the raised beds in my front yard ready to be planted with veggies. A little warmth and sunshine does amazing things for my energy level and I hope to take advantage of that tomorrow.

2018 Life Logs, Day 140—Yard Sale Day
Date: Sunday, May 20, 2018
Weather: Overcast with Light Rain and Wind AM, Some Clearing PM; High 63, Low 54
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The weather didn’t cooperate as forecast, so instead of the rain ending around 6 am, light rain continued off and on during the morning. And it was windy. So not the best weather for a yard sale. But the decision had been made that it would go on despite the weather, so it did. This was a fundraiser for the East Falmouth Elementary PTO, but due to the weather, we didn’t get a lot of visitors. But despite that, Heather and I got rid of a few things and what I didn’t get rid of, I refuse to bring back into the house. I will take the furniture pieces to a local shop tomorrow that I hope will take them and I will take the small items to the Swap Shop at the town dump on Tuesday (only open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday AM when it is sunny). It is incredibly hard to get rid of things you don’t want around here. I actually drove all the way to Hyannis after the sale was over and had hoped that Goodwill would take everything. It was the first time I have ever been told by a Goodwill that they take only furniture in pristine condition. Falmouth is getting a Habitat for Humanity Restore that supposedly opened recently, and hopefully that will make things easier. I drove there today and saw OPEN signs, but there was a chain across the road. So not open today. Maybe tomorrow.

Being at the school all morning gave me the opportunity to see the pergola that was installed this week that will be used as an outdoor classroom space. This pergola is a large structure with corner pillars supporting a lattice roof that will accommodate a whole class underneath. This has been a labor of love for Heather and it has not been easy, but the results are spectacular. There is still work to be done, but the basic cedar structure is in place. A nice touch is the black locust upright posts that are integrated into the roof. The next step is to add a special kind of wood chip flooring that is ADA (American Disabilities Act) approved. As an outdoor classroom, it must be accessible to all students. To celebrate the success of this project, I bought sushi for all of us for dinner tonight. Way to go, Heather! What a wonderful addition to East Falmouth Elementary School.