2018 Life Logs, Day 119—One More Day
Date: Sunday, April 29, 2018
Weather: Partly Cloudy with Periods of Rain; High Temp 57, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I am spending the first night in my new home under the light of a full moon. How cool is that? The movers arrived at 9 am and although it took longer than I thought or they thought, all of the furniture and boxes are here in the cottage despite my gross miscalculation on how long the job would take. The movers were fantastic. Another positive. The bummer is that I have to return to the apartment on the harbor tomorrow to finish packing the last bits of odds and ends and do a little cleaning. It is a bummer because I had hoped to be done, but one more day will do it. But I would never have made it without Heather’s help. I was so confident last night that I would be able to finish up the job by myself that I declined her offer of help last night and this morning. But at 1 am, I sent a text pleading for early morning help. She and Sam arrived early his morning and helped me pack my car with things that I didn’t want to send in the moving van. Then the movers arrived and I again sent Heather and Sam home as there was not much they could do here. As the movers started packing the moving van, I frantically continued packing up the odds and ends. Again, there was more to pack than I thought, but 4 hours later, the van was ready to head to the cottage. I had called in the reinforcements once again and sent Sam and Heather to the cottage in my car to unload the things we packed in the early morning. They returned just as the moving van was preparing to head out, so we all arrived at the cottage at the same time. Then the decision making began about what would fit in the house versus what would need to go to the basement. When we were done, the basement was full as well as the house. Heather was indispensable in making the decisions about furniture placement. The only disappointment was that the entertainment center that I have been using as a pantry just wouldn’t fit in the cottage anywhere and was too big to get into the basement. So it is sitting in the driveway with a tarp over it until I can find it a home. But I am sitting in my new bedroom on my own bed. I love it.
While Heather and I worked in the cottage this afternoon, Sam and Ollie took nets and played down on the dock. We didn’t hear a peep out of them which allowed us to focus on the issues at hand. I think the boys are going to live visiting here. Even after the movers left, Heather and I worked frantically to try and get the living room arranged. Karen Baranowski had invited me over for dinner tonight, so we had to stop rearranging for today. Slowly I will get things just right. Dinner was fantastic and Karen had also invited Bruce and Jane Woodin. Thank you, Karen and Peter.

2018 Life Logs, Day 118—Not There Yet
Date: Saturday, April 28, 2018
Weather: Partly Cloudy with Some Rain; High Temp 56, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Okay. It is 1 am in the morning and the movers arrive in 8 hours. And I am not there yet. So to bed, rise early, and get the job done. But I do want to take time to thank Heather for her help today and a great big thank you to Terry and Olivia White for delivering dinner. Olivia made a delicious Indian Khicheri, enough to share with the Goldstones, so we had an Indian feast for dinner. And, thankfully, it gave me enough energy to continue on until the wee hours of the morning. The having of wonderful friends and family is a wonderful thing.

2018 Life Logs, Day 117—Working Hard, But Not There Yet
Date: Friday, April 27, 2018
Weather: Overcast AM, Rainy PM; High Temp 55, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I am working as hard and as fast as possible, but I’m not sure I will have everything done by Sunday morning when the movers come. I still have a full day, so here’s hoping. And if I don’t, the movers can still move the furniture and boxes that are packed and I can finish up on Monday. But let’s hope I get it done tomorrow.

I started today my going to the cottage early to wax the floors in two of the bedrooms. Then I headed back to get boxes packed. A friend that I originally met at the gym, but who is also in Newcomers, came to help late morning. We got all the hanging clothes in the closets moved and a few kitchen boxes that I was able to unpack and bring back to use again. We also packed up a few more books. Progress was made, but there is just so much more to do. But thank you, Lynda Onthank! Lynda is also an interior designer and she gave me a little free advice about where to place furniture which was very helpful.

After Lynda left, I put some of the kitchen things away and then headed back to town to buy more wax. The bedroom floors needed a second coat and luckily I found the right floor wax at Walmart. I say ‘luckily’ because if I hadn’t found it in town I was going to have to drive to Lowe’s which is off Cape. That would have taken more than I had. After purchasing the wax, I went home to do more packing and to wait for Jed to arrive. He said yesterday he would come and help me get a pine book shelf that Mark built off the wall in the guest bedroom. Mark nailed it to the studs and I was fearful that I would destroy the wall in getting it removed. But Jed and Ollie and I worked together with a small crowbar and we were successful. When they left, I headed to the cottage to do that second coat of floor wax. Tonight I have continued to pack in between catching up on political news on TV. I needed some diversion so the watch and work routine was the right combination to get me through the evening. I hope to make a quick run in the morning to take kitchen cabinet contents and then Heather comes to help pack. Hopefully we can get the job done.

2018 Life Logs, Day 116—Making the Move Official
Date: Thursday, April 26, 2018
Weather: Back to Beautiful; High Temp 56, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

This log will be short. The move is coming along, but I have to keep the energy level going. Still lots to do. Today I met with the owner of the cottage and signed a year’s lease, so now the move is official. All I have to do is make it happen by Sunday!

A big thank you to Heather for inviting me to dinner this evening. The one thing that has gone by the wayside is cooking, so a dinner invite was perfect.

2018 Life Logs, Day 115—Trip to Foxboro
Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Weather: Rain All Day; High Temp 52, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Foxboro, Massachusetts, is most widely known as the home of Gillette Stadium, the home stadium for the New England Patriots. And in the same complex there is a Mass General Hospital and Brigham and Womens Hospital outreach medical center. That medical center was our destination today. I picked up Jane Woodin this morning and we headed just a bit north of Foxboro to do some shopping at the Wrentham Outlet Mall prior to Jane’s 1:15 pm appointment to have a back ablation. We had a successful shopping outing and then headed to Foxboro. When I dropped off Jane, I headed to a nearby Lowe’s to buy supplies for waxing the floors at the cottage. In the time it took me to do that and to grab a quick salad for lunch, Jane’s ablation was completed and we headed home. She has had this procedure done before and each time it gives her relief from her back pain for a number of months. Hopefully this one will be as successful as the ones in the past. I delivered Jane home and my next stop was the cottage. I waxed the floors and headed home. Tomorrow morning I will return to do a second coat of wax and then come home to pack. I looked at my calendar this afternoon and saw that I paid to attend a special presentation on gardens tomorrow morning, but I’ll have to skip that one. I will only have three hours to pack before I need to head back to the cottage to meet with the owner, Shirley, to sign the lease. Busy days! Sure will be glad when this move is completed.

2018 Life Logs, Day 114—Making Progress
Date: Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Weather: One More Beautiful Day; High Temp 58, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Step by step, I am making progress in getting the cottage ready to move into and in packing up things here. It is s-l-o-w, but it is happening. When I left the cottage this evening, I moved everything out of the living, dining, kitchen, and hallway spaces so that tomorrow I can apply a sealant on the flooring. I will put on the first coat tomorrow evening when I return from taking friend Jane Woodin north towards Boston for a back ablation. This is an in and out procedure and we should be home no later than 5 pm which gives me plenty of time to apply the sealant. If the floor needs a second coat, that will happen Thursday morning, and then I will spend the remainder of the day packing.

Detta and I made a good dent in packing, but there is still plenty left to do. I have run out of boxes, so I am going to have to purchase boxes on Thursday. I also meet with Shirley Wiedemann, the owner of the cottage, on Thursday afternoon to sign the lease. She has to come to Falmouth for a doctor appointment and will meet me at the cottage before heading back to Scituate. But in between all that, I will pack, pack, pack.

I truly enjoyed having Detta visit and so much appreciate all the work she did. I am so grateful for the friendship we share. She gave me a card with the perfect words, “Friends are the family you choose with your heart.” I am so grateful that we chose each other and I feel blessed to have Detta, and so many other good friends.

2018 Life Logs, Day 113—A Ray of Sunshine
Date: Monday, April 23, 2018
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; High Temp 59, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

It is already afternoon on Tuesday and I am just now writing yesterday’s log. It was a busy day and evening and spending time with Detta was more important than writing about it. She has gone home now, thus the time to write now.

Detta’s visit was like a ray of sunshine. She is such an upbeat person and always comes laden with gifts, this time belated gifts for my birthday and house warming gifts for my move to the cottage. As I sit here writing, I am looking at a beautiful pot of yellow mini narcissus that she brought, I just packed up the lovely new placements and linen napkins she gave me, and I can’t wait to go to Home Depot to spend the gift certificate. Detta is a very special friend and she definitely spoils me. I am a very lucky person to have a good friend like her.

On Tuesday, she insisted on putting a fresh coat of paint on the living and dining area of the cottage while I continued cleaning the bedrooms. If you ever a need a painter, hire Detta. She uses no tape and her trim job is better than any professional. Now when you enter the cottage, you are greeted with the beauty of freshly painted walls. Thank you, thank you, Detta. When we drove to the cottage early in the morning, we went with a car full of boxes. We got those unloaded and I managed to find a closet shelf for the picture albums so I could unpack those boxes and bring them home to fill again.

I had to leave Detta just after 3 pm to go pick up Jonah and Ollie . . . and Leo . . . and Kadyn . . . and Molly and Joey. I looked like the Pied Piper as we walked home. Molly and Joey live next door and just needed to stay until 4:15 when their mom got home from work. She often picks up Jonah and Ollie for Heather, so it is a great reciprocal arrangement. Kadyn comes home with Jonah on Mondays and they go to soccer practice together. And Leo just needed an adult to pick him up. He is in fourth grade and can walk home on his own, but the school requires an adult to pick up children. The kids had snacks and played in the backyard. The Huggle Pod (hanging tent) that I got Ollie for Christmas was hung this weekend and the kids love it. Jed also hung the big ball-type boat fenders and they swing on those. And, of course, Jonah and Kadyn spent their time playing sports. This time it was basketball. At 4:45 pm, I loaded J, O, and Kadyn in the car to get the boys to soccer practice and then Ollie and I headed home. Heather was in Boston and got home just after we arrived. I then headed back to the cottage with an invitation from Heather for Detta and I to come back for dinner. I hadn’t had time to think about dinner, so it was a very welcome invitation. Thank you, Heather. Jed, Jonah, and Sam left soccer practice and went straight to Scouts, so they did not join us. But Ollie enjoyed introducing his guinea pig, Zuzu, to Detta, and sharing all sorts of stories. Detta and I then went home and packed more books (still not done with book packing), and then I insisted we just sit and visit for a bit. We haven’t been together for months, so there was enough catching up to do to keep us up past midnight.

2018 Life Logs, Day 112—Bees, Birthday Brunch, Detta’s Arrival
Date: Sunday, April 22, 2018
Weather: Beautiful Day; High Temp 52, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Happy Earth Day! I was up at 6:45, getting ready to head to the Boston area. It is now 1 am on Monday, and I am just getting ready to wrap up a full day. But it was a good one. I did my part for the earth by driving north and east of Boston to Peabody to pick up bees for Heather. By the time I got them home in the late afternoon, she had to calm them down with a little sugar water, but hopefully they are fine. After picking up the bees, I headed west to the town of Westford to attend a birthday brunch for my sister-in-law, Sue. This was her 84th and she is still going strong. Three of her four children were there with their families. The brunch was fabulous and it was great to visit. Sue and Brad live in Florida and are flying home on Tuesday. But I am really hoping they will be able to come down to visit when they return in August. Happy Birthday to Sue, my niece Candi, and Candi’s granddaughter Hailey.

Once I got home, I got ready for the arrival of my good friend Detta Porat. She was a bit delayed by an accident, but once she got here, we drove to the cottage for sundowners. We then headed home to have dinner and pack, pack, pack. We filled all the boxes I have here, so will have to return to Heather and Jed’s tomorrow to get more. We plan to put in a full day of cleaning and painting tomorrow and then pack more boxes tomorrow night. Detta leaves on Tuesday morning, but I think the packing will continue until Sunday when the movers arrive.

2018 Life Logs, Day 110—Turtles, Little Boys, and Birds
Date: Friday, April 20, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Cool; High Temp 52, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

What do turtles, little boys, and birds have in common? The answer is . . . me. I had wonderful experiences with all three today. I met Sam, Jonah, and Ollie in Woods Hole this morning to watch the documentary film called “Saving Sea Turtles: Preventing Extinction.” Much of this film was shot here on Cape Cod because late each fall many endangered Kemp’s Ridley turtles that are cold-stunned wash up on the Cape Cod Bay side of the Cape. These turtles belong in the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico but get caught in currents that bring them north. When the northern summer ends and the water starts to get a bit chilly, they try to make their way back south. But because of the Cape Cod hook that forms the Cape Cod Bay, they swim in and can’t find their way. When it gets really chilly, they suffer hypothermia and get washed ashore. Over the years, a group of volunteers have been trained in how to pick them up off the beaches and get them to the Wellfleet Audubon, who in turns transports them to a facility run by the New England Aquarium. There the turtles are nursed back to health and then released back into the wild when the waters warm a bit in the spring. But in the fall of 2014, an unprecedented number of turtles were recovered and needed help. Facilities up and down the East Coast had to work together to save as many of the recovered 1,242 endangered turtles as possible. That story was the basis of the film. The boys have met the man that heads up the Wellfleet Audubon who was in the film. And last August, we participated in the release of eight Kemp’s Ridley turtles that were rehabilitated and released by the National Marine Life Center. Ollie and I have even had a tour of the Marine Life Center’s hospital for seals and turtles. These personal experiences enriched the content of the film for the boy. So, that was the turtle part of my day. I then spent the afternoon messing about with the Goldpebbles—climbing their favorite tree in Woods Hole, playing soccer at the park in Woods Hole, having lunch at Oma’s, and then going to the public library to participate in a scavenger hunt. Actually, just Ollie, with some help from Jonah, did the scavenger hunt, while Sam and Jonah curled up on a sofa and read. Ollie made some puppets of characters from the books associated with the scavenger hunt. It was just a lovely, peaceful hour in the library. So, that was the ‘little boys’ part of my day. Now we get to the birds. I took the boys home and then headed to the cottage to do some cleaning. It was late afternoon, the sun was shining, and the sound of birds was overwhelming as I got out of the car and went into the cottage. Before starting to work, I grabbed a sparkling water out of the refrigerator and headed down to a concrete patio on the adjacent property where I have located one of my little glass deck tables with chairs. It is a perfect viewing area and I just sat there and enjoyed. An egret was mucking about in the marsh, geese and ducks were swimming in the river, tiny birds of some sort were in the brush in front of me and were very brazen. They would look right at me and hop towards me before flying away. What a peaceful place. Unfortunately, I needed to get to work, but the nature break with the birds was very special. So, that was the bird part of my day. A good day. Tomorrow is all about cleaning the cottage, but maybe I’ll take a couple of bird watching nature breaks along the way.