2018 Life Logs, Day 29—Dirt Made My Lunch
Date: Monday, January 29, 2018
Weather: Overcast, Turning Colder; High 42, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I have a feeling that not many, maybe not any, of you spent your day baking dirt. But, indeed, that is how I spent my day. Last winter, and again this year, I have tried to bring my huge pots of parsley indoors from the deck and keep them going through the winter. And this year, as last, I got an invasion of little bugs that thwarted my efforts. These little guys look like a cross of fruit flies with mosquitoes and the worst problem is that they are in the potting soil and kill the roots of the plants. So today I went on a rampage and baked all of the potting soil in the two large pots to get rid of the critters. Baking the soil to 180 degrees F supposedly solves the problem. But my two very large pots hold a lot of soil, so it took all day to bake away the bugs. Tomorrow I will plant seeds and start a new crop of parsley. I use fresh parsley in my green smoothies and in my chicken mineral broth, so it is a staple for me. Hopefully, I will have a new crop, free of little bugs, in a few weeks. The whole process of baking the ‘dirt’ brought back memories of my days teaching first grade. In the spring, I always did a plant unit and taught my students the song, “Dirt Made My Lunch.” Here are the words of the chorus:

Dirt made my lunch,
Dirt made my lunch.
Thank you Dirt, thanks a bunch,
For my salad, my sandwich
My milk and my munch ’cause
Dirt, you made my lunch.

2018 Life Logs, Day 28—Indoor Soccer and Loving Vincent
Date: Sunday, January 28, 2018
Weather: Sunny, Warmer and Windy; High 51, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

This afternoon I went to see Jonah play soccer and like last week, he scored three goals and his team won. It is such a joy to watch him play because he puts his heart and soul into and gets so excited when his team makes a goal. Jed was the coach today, but after the game I offered to take Jonah home, pick up Sam, and bring him back for his game at 4pm while Jed went to do the weekly grocery shopping. I got to watch Sam play half his game and got to see him make a goal before I had to leave. Good job, Sam and Jonah!

Then I was off to have an early dinner with a friend from Newcomers before we both went to the Cotuit Center for the Arts to see the most unusual film I have ever seen, “Loving Vincent.” “Loving Vincent”, as in Vincent van Gogh, advertises itself as the first-ever fully painted feature film. In the tradition of van Gogh’s bold impressionistic brushstrokes, what you see on the screen is an account of the final weeks of his life with beautiful renderings of the French countryside and characters portraying his real-life acquaintances. Visually, the entire film looks like an animated van Gogh painting. His sunflowers, his wheatfield with crows, his starry, starry night, and so many other of his most famous works are woven throughout and it was not until half-way though the film that I realized that the painted, animated characters were not straight out of his paintings, but were the painted faces of real actors. It was when I saw Eleanor Tomlinson, Dezmelda from Masterpiece Theater’s Poldark series, as one of the painted characters that I could wrap my head around how this was done. It was a visual treat and a very powerful film. I’ve certainly never seen anything like it before. And it was fun to meet up with friend Olga Mitchell and friends and to attend with Margaret Souza.

2018 Life Logs, Day 27—Updating the Refrigerator Photos
Date: Saturday, January 27, 2018
Weather: Sunny, Warmer and Windy; High 51, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

How, you might ask, could one spend the entire day updating the five photos of grandkids that are posted on the refrigerator. I am here to tell you that this is possible, because I just spent the day doing just that. But, of course, in wading through all of the photos I took in 2017, none of which I have properly organized, I kept getting lost just enjoying looking at the year in review. So, it took a very long time to choose the best photo of each grandchild to add to my refrigerator collection. In 2015, I hung a 5 x 7 photo of each grandchild from a book shelf in the main salon on Windbird. Those photos were from 2014. I kept intending to get those updated, but here it is 2018 and I just got the job done today. I had photos from 2016 in a folder ready to print, but that never got done . . . until today. So, I now have 2014, 2016, and 2017 printed and in the magnetic frames decorating the front of my refrigerator. On another day, I will have to go back and do 2012, 2013, and 2015. But I am happy for now. Getting close-up shots of the grandkids gets harder as they get older. They simply do not want to pose for a picture without making monkey faces. I have lots of action shots, but those don’t work for the close-up portraits. I also chose photos from the two family gatherings we had this year to put frame collage-style. I ordered those through CVS online just like I did the photos of the grandchildren, but I must have checked the wrong box as they are coming snail mail instead of instant pick-up. A bit of success today . . . one more photo job done and another half-way there.

The weather was much warmer today making it feel almost spring-like even though it was very windy. I had planned to take off mid-afternoon to go see The Shape of Water and had thought about going to a Jim Croce film in Woods Hole tonight, but neither of those things happened. I’ll go see The Shape of Water one afternoon next week. Tomorrow Sam and Jonah have afternoon soccer games that I will attend, and then I am going to see the art film, Loving Vincent (van Gogh), at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. I’m going with friends, so I won’t back out of that.

2018 Life Logs, Day 26—Focus on Photos
Date: Friday, January 26, 2018
Weather: Sunny and Chilly; High 34, Low 24 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I promised myself I would focus on photos today, and I did. The living room and hall walls in this apartment are bare. They have been waiting for me to choose photos from around the world to decorate them, so today I got started. I ordered three canvas wall prints, my two favorites of Windbird,

01 Windbird Flying Flags of Countries Visited During Circumnavigation

SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

2018 Life Logs, Day 25—Focus on Food
Date: Thursday, January 25, 2018
Weather: Sunny but Cool; High 32, Low 18 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Why is it so hard these days to figure out what to eat in order to stay healthy? I don’t have a complete answer to that question, but I struggle with it on a daily basis. Because I am constantly seeking the most up-to-date information, I am constantly learning new things. Most recently I have been searching out ways of fighting osteoarthritis and am two days into an elimination diet to see if eliminating certain foods from my diet will help with the pain in my left knee. This diet requires that I eat no dairy, no wheat, no soy, no corn, no eggs, no sugar, no nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, or peppers), no food additives, preservatives, or dyes, no coffee, no alcohol. Okay, I drew the line at no alcohol, but I am eliminating everything else. While doing this you have to eat as close to100 per cent organic as possible and focus on eating lots of colorful vegetables (minus the red tomatoes and colorful peppers). One day into this experiment, I got a call from a niece who is experiencing a bout of extremely high blood pressure. Her doctor put her on a low dose of medication and told her to exercise and eat a healthy diet to see if that will help her lose weight, and in turn, bring down the high blood pressure numbers. They will meet again in four weeks, and if my niece has been successful in adjusting her diet and exercising, the doctor will consider removing the medication. My niece, knowing I put a huge amount of effort into eating a heathy diet, called me asking me for advice on what to eat. I had some basic suggestions, but today, in searching for specifics for her, I came across information on lectins in our diet and how they (lectins) are helping to make us fat. Lectins are found in those same nightshade plants that I have had to eliminate for the arthritis diet. Hmmm . . . Foods that are high in lectins appear to be related to leaky gut syndrome and having a leaky gut can cause the pain of arthritis to be more severe and if you are already quite overweight, it can make it almost impossible to lose that weight. I’ll not bore you with the details, but I’ll check back in with you in two weeks to let you know if this elimination diet has helped me. If not, then I need to add something called a pre (not pro) biotic. Eating should not be so difficult!

I went to the gym this morning, came home and canned the new batch of chicken mineral broth, and started a long-term project of choosing photos from around the world to put on the walls in my apartment. That should be a fun project. I’ll share my choices when they are made.

2018 Life Logs, Day 24—Big Berkey Water Filter
Date: Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 44, Low 19 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today I made a little progress toward my goals for the week. I feel like I am inching forward like a snail, but I am inching forward. I did get my new water filtering system up and running and I emptied two big plastic bins into my father’s old antique dresser. It looks much nicer than the plastic bins sitting in my hallway. And then I went to Heather’s to get my canner and I stayed with the boys until Jed got home from work. Heather had to leave to go to an evening Pub Radio Night. So it was a good day. Since I live in an apartment I decided to go with the same free standing water filter that Justin and Jo have in Puerto Rico. It is all stainless steel, no plastic, and requires no electricity. In addition, it is more effective than any other water filters I compared it to. It does take up a bit of counter space, but clean water for drinking and cooking is a top priority. So I gladly give up the space.

Ahh, the weather. Tomorrow and Friday will be back down in the 30’, Saturday, Sunday, Monday warmer in the 40’s, Tuesday back in the 30’s with a chance of snow, Wednesday cold, then Thursday and Friday back in the 40’s. Tonight and tomorrow night we have nighttime lows in the teens, as well as next Tuesday, but the rest of the days the low will be in the 20’s or low 30’s. Cold, but not too bad for now. It is winter on Cape Cod.

2018 Life Logs, Day 23—Tai Chi to National Town Hall on Facebook
Date: Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Weather: Stormy with Lots of Rain; High 51, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Wow! I just finished watching The Medicare for All National Town Hall live on Facebook from Washington, DC, moderated by Bernie Sanders. As he said tonight and has maintained for y64 ears, “It’s time to make health care a right.” But what I was most impressed with tonight was that using Facebook as the vehicle for this town meeting, there were no commercials, no corporate institutions making demands on what could and what could not be presented. There were three panels, each representing different groups, one medical, one business, and one international. It was an impressive hour and 45 minutes and I applaud Senator Sanders for continuing to bring information to the American public.

My day started with a phone call from Justin and then Tai Chi class. When I explained to Justin that I had to get off the phone to go to Tai Chi, he responded by saying that I seem to spend a lot of time going to the gym. Tai Chi is not the same as exercise at the gym, but it is true that I dedicate a portion of each day to exercise. The addition of Tai Chi is simply adding a piece of calm to my life and it adds learning something new. There are 64 moves in the type of Tai Chi practiced by the group I attend, and I am only on move number 3. It will take a couple of years to learn all 64 moves and then you spend the rest of your life trying to master those moves.

Justin is still playing catch-up trying to complete business projects that were started before Maria hit. He was already paid for some of those projects, so most of the work he is doing now is not bringing in new money. But completing those jobs is what will keep his business afloat. He is working long, long hours, but hopefully he will soon finish off the old jobs and start working on the new. And at least there are jobs. But I know working 18 hours a day is no fun. Jo’s sister and her family are visiting this week from England, so hopefully Justin will be able to take a break and enjoy time with the family.

We had lots of rain here today. Heather was in Boston, but I sent a text offering to go pick up Sam at the bus stop after school. He has to walk about a half mile from there to home and it was pouring. Heather got back to me saying that she was sure Sam would appreciate that, so I picked up Sam and couple of other kids from neighborhood and drove them home. The heavens decided to literally dump on us just about the time their bus arrived, so I was glad that I had made the offer. I had to go to the grocery store anyway, so as long as I was out and about, picking the kids up was no problem. And the bonus was that I got to see Sam’s new drum set that he got for his birthday and he gave me a private concert. As Heather said over the weekend, there is probably a teenage basement band in the making.

I made chicken mineral bone broth today which is all day affair. I totally forgot to pick up the canner and jars when I was at Heather’s this afternoon, so I will have to get those things tomorrow. But the broth is made and will be fine in the refrigerator for a day or so. Tomorrow I hope to finally get my new water filtering system up and running. That was a goal for today, but I just didn’t get there. Thankfully there is always tomorrow!

2018 Life Logs, Day 22—Work Away, Work A Day
Date: Monday, January 22, 2018
Weather: Overcast with Some Rain; High 39, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

It seems like a very long time when I have looked my calendar for the week and saw almost no commitments. But this looks like one of those weeks. I have my daily commitment to early morning classes at the gym, but otherwise, I have a free week. So, I launched my week by attacking some of those little jobs about the house that always seem to be lurking. I rearranged kitchen cabinets and cleaned out parts of my ‘pantry’. Since this is a small apartment with no pantry, when we moved in here I bought an old tv cabinet that serves as my pantry. I didn’t make a huge amount of progress, but I got started. Fantastic! I also did some cooking and some food shopping. Tomorrow I will attempt to be put together my new Big Berkey water filtration system and make chicken mineral broth from the remains of the chicken I roasted today.

2018 Life Logs, Day 21—Happy Birthday, Sam
Date: Sunday, January 21, 2018
Weather: Sunny; High 50, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Sam turned eleven today and the theme was drums. This year Sam is playing drums in the school band and this morning Heather and Jed unveiled a new drum set-up in the basement. Then this afternoon, my present to Sam to was to take the whole family to New Bedford to see Yamato perform at the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center. Yamato is a percussion ensemble from Japan. They take the ancient art of taiko drumming into the 21st century. We had read that taiko drumming is a physical, as well as a musical experience, but we didn’t really know what to expect. There are nine drummers, some of who also play other classical Japanese instruments with a modern twist. They move and play the drums together as if they are one. Think sitting cross-legged on a bench suspended in the air and leaning back and coming up like doing sit-ups while playing huge drums in front of you, and then leaping in the air, down to the stage to start playing a new set of drums and not missing a beat. For two hours, no words are spoken, but they communicate completely through body language. In addition to be incredibly talented whether playing tiny hand cymbals or gigantic drums, they are funny and they include audience participation—something for everybody. All of us really enjoyed the show, but at intermission we were a bit sad to find out the Patriots were losing to the Jaguars. Then at the end of the show we checked our phones and found out the Patriots pulled out another win. So, we were doubly happy—great show and the Patriots will be in the Superbowl. Woohoo!!! I picked out a sports pub in a bit of a shady part of town for dinner (didn’t understand the location when I chose it), but it turned out to be a great place to watch the Vikings-Eagles first half while enjoying good food with a Portuguese twist. If you saw the opening of this game, you were probably as overwhelmed as we were. A retired Navy officer singing the Star-spangled Banner was spectacular with the back drop of an American flag big enough to cover the entire football field. And then a bald eagle soared across the field. Maybe this happens all the time, but for those of us who watch very little football, this game opener was dramatic. Minnesota got off to a great start, but that was it for them. It will be the Patriots against the Eagles in Super Bowl LII. And to top it all off, it was sunny and warm today with a high temp hitting 50 degrees F, so I went for a two mile walk by the ocean this morning. It was a good day in this part of New England.

2018 Life Logs, Day 20—Sam’s Birthday Weekend
Date: Saturday, January 20, 2018
Weather: Warmer with South Winds; High 45, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Oh, my. They grow up so quickly. My oldest grandchild, Samuel Ellery Goldstone, will be 11 years old tomorrow. I have a hard time believing it has been 11 years since Mark and I flew home from New Zealand for his birth. But it has been 11 years and Sam is growing up. I went to Heather’s late morning to help with some birthday projects. Sam’s party with friends was tonight, but he will get his birthday present from mom and dad tomorrow. He doesn’t know it, but he is getting a full drum set. So today the basement needed to be cleaned out to make a space for drumming. I made a run to take things to the swap shop at the city dump and to take cardboard to be recycled. Jed had to drive off Cape to get the drum set and then he had to go to work in Woods Hole, so I returned to help Heather clean out the basement. I had a dresser that belonged to my family stored in the basement room where the drums need to go, so I got that in my car, along with boxes and bags of more things that need to be donated. By 3 pm, we had the basement looking better than I have seen it for a long time, so I took off with my carload to go to the donation bins and then home to unload. It was then time to return to pick up Jonah and Ollie to take them to dinner. Sam’s request for a party this year was to have four good friends come for dinner out and then an overnight. He requested that little brothers not be a part of the dinner and not be in the same for the overnight. Fair enough. So, I was to take Jonah and Ollie to dinner. Sam requested that he and his friends go to the British Beer Company and yesterday he told me he thought I should take Jonah and Ollie to the same place, just not the same table. Growing pains. You love your brothers and want them close by, just not too close! Fair enough. Jonah and Ollie agreed with the plan, so we all went to dinner at the same place and had two completely separate experiences. You can make reservations for six or more, but not for three. So, when we arrived, Sam and crew had a table in the main restaurant, but it was going to be a thirty-minute wait for Jonah, Ollie, and myself unless we wanted to eat at one of the high tables in the bar. At first Jonah didn’t like that idea, but when we went in and sat at the table to wait, he decided it was a great idea. We could watch all the games on the tv’s and we had quite an interesting dinner conversation about football. Even Ollie was quite knowledgeable about football teams and we all discussed who we like and who we don’t and why. It was a fun evening and after a quick run on the beach (across the street from the BBC), we returned home for the opening of presents and birthday cake. We all got a kick out of one of Sam’s presents, a book called A Manual to Manhood, touting how to cook a perfect steak, change a tire, impress a girl, and 97 other skills you need to survive! Like his dad, angel food cake is Sam’s favorite, drizzled with chocolate, so that was the birthday fare.

Tomorrow, Sam’s actual birthday, will be a continuation of the festivities. My gift this year is an ‘experience’—tickets for all of us to attend a performance of a Japanese drumming troupe called Yamato. After Sam’s friend leave tomorrow morning, he will get his drum set gift and then mid-afternoon we will head off-Cape for the Yamato drumming experience.

Amidst the birthday celebrations, I watch with disbelief at our government shutdown. I support the Democrats in their insistence on a clear and free deal for DACA, but I just don’t understand why this couldn’t have been settled before now. And I applaud those who turned out for the women’s marches around the country today. My heart was with all those who gathered in Cambridge. I stayed up very late last night watching what was happening in the Senate chamber leading up to the midnight shutdown of the government. You could see, but not hear, what was happening on the floor, and I could see clearly that our Massachusetts senator, Elizabeth Warren, was in the fight to the end. So proud to have such a strong female senator representing Massachusetts. And Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Maggie Hassen of New Hampshire were right there with Elizabeth Warren.