2017 Life Logs, Day 354: Up, Then Down . . . Way Down
Date: Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Weather: Sunny; High 49, Low 23 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Believe it or not, I returned from a trip to Hyannis this afternoon singing, “It’s a Holly Jolly Christmas.” Usually a trip to Hyannis does not evoke a happy feeling. Too many people, too much traffic, and shopping which I do not enjoy. Today I had an eye examination where I picked out new glasses as a Christmas present to myself. Then I went shopping at Whole Foods, went to two different stores to retun things I bought as Christmas gifts but were the wrong size, went to Barnes & Nobles to pick up a last minute gift, started the drive home, and did some more food shopping for Heather on the way. Why all of this made me feel so happy, I have no idea, but I was definitely in the holiday spirit. I stopped by Heather’s to drop off a couple of bags of goodies, went to the post office to send cards, and made another stop at CVS. There I met up with a friend from the gym and Newcomers. She leads the biking group I am a part of and just returned from visiting her brother in San Diego. We had a great conversation. Then I continued on, making yet another stop at a different grocery store to pick up something needed for our Christmas Eve Feast of Seven Fishes. I came home, wrapped more presents, and was still singing “It’s a Holly Jolly Christmas.” Then I turned on the TV to catch up on the news. I already knew about the passage of the new GOP tax bill, but I didn’t know the piece about how it is going to affect Puerto Rico. That bit of news took the “holly jolly” totally out of today. After learning the details of the additional tax that is going to be imposed on Puerto Rico as a “foreign nation”—which it is not—I understood why the people at Maximo Solar in Aguadilla were asking Justin yesterday why President Trump and the US government so dislike Puerto Ricans. I thought their questioning was due to the lack of support after Hurricane Maria. But after hearing about this new tax being imposed, I think that is what they were referring to. Ricardo Rossello, the governor of Puerto Rico, has been very careful not to ‘upset’ President Trump since Hurricane Maria, but now even he is up in arms. There are many things about this tax bill to be upset about, but to punish Puerto Rico like this seems unbelievably cruel. That plus the millions of people who are going to immediately lose their health insurance is almost more than I can handle. It certainly doesn’t sound like the wonderful Christmas present the Republicans and our President are touting.

2017 Life Logs, Day 353: A Christmas Celtic Sojourn
Date: Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 51, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Routine dental cleaning, talking on the phone with Justin, preparing more holiday/thank you cards to send, and then a trip to New Bedford for dinner and the theatre with Bruce and Jane Woodin. That was my day. New Bedford is about a 45-mile trip across the bridge, but the trip tonight was most certainly worth it. We had a wonderful seafood dinner at Elisabeth’s in Fairhaven, across the harbor from New Bedford, and then went to the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center in New Bedford to see the 15th Annual ‘A Christmas Celtic Sojourn’. The traditional Celtic singing, dancing, and music were all superb, but I think the young children from the Harney Academy of Irish Dance stole the show. They all looked to be in the five to seven year-old range and they can dance an Irish jig as good any. So adorable. This program is presented by WGBH in Boston. Brian O’Donovan is the natural host and producer of the show as he is also the host of WGBH’s weekly Celtic music program by the same name, A Celtic Sojourn. He grew up in West Cork, Ireland, in a small town, and after graduating from university, he came to Boston for a three-week visit. He is still there twenty-nine years later. Thanks, Bruce and Jane, for inviting me to tag along tonight. It was absolutely delightful.

My conversation with Justin today brought the news that the solar system we purchased will not be installed before Christmas. We have to wait one more week. Today’s installation date has been changed to Friday, December 29. So now we are hoping for solar power for the new year. They have had electricity since the first of December, but it is on-again, off-again. Sometimes it is only off for a few hours, but other times it is off for a day or two. When electricity is off, they have been able to use their little 250-watt solar system to keep the fridge going while the sun is shining, but when the sun goes down they just don’t open the refrigerator until the next morning. Not a perfect solution, but it is working for now. Justin spent his morning at Maximo Solar trying to pin down a realistic installation date, and hopefully we now have that. We just have to wait and trust. The good news from Puerto Rico today is that more and more Christmas packages are arriving. Hurray for the US Postal Service!

2017 Life Logs, Day 352: Holiday Scurrying
Date: Monday, December 18, 2017
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Cold with Evening Rain; High 41, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today I felt like a little mouse scurrying here and there getting ready for winter. Last night I got a call from Justin with one more Christmas request, so after my 9:15 am Monday morning class at the gym, I headed to the post office in East Falmouth to send the little package and cards to friends. I go to East Falmouth as I have had the best luck there in getting things out of Falmouth and on the way to Puerto Rico from there. The doll house that Mark made for Ollie was disassembled and sent from there and it arrived in a timely manner. Then Ollie decided he would send all of the doll house furniture and dolls to Coco, and they arrived today. What I sent today was something that belonged to Granddad for Ziggy and that is supposed to arrive on Wednesday. It was small and was affordable to send it Express. I will be amazed if it gets there, but no matter, the US Postal Service has been amazing over the past three months. They are my heros. On my way home from the post office, I did some grocery and drug store shopping, and somehow it was 1:30 pm. I worked on finishing up the holiday cards to friends, started on the cards to family, and got one more window winterized. I went to a late afternoon Tai Chi class, and here I am still scurrying around to get things done. I start tomorrow with a routine dental appointment and then go to A Christmas Celtic Sojourn which is off-Cape in New Bedford with Bruce and Jane Woodin. We will get home late tomorrow night and the holiday preparations will continue on Wednesday. Only six days and 45 minutes until Christmas!

2017 Life Logs, Day 351: Another Day in the Life
Date: Sunday, December 17, 2017
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 3, Low 19 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

It was another day in the life. I stayed inside all day except for one little foray out to Staples and CVS for needed supplies. I spent my entire day wrapping more gifts, starting the window insulation project, and working on sending holiday/thank you cards to all who supported Justin and Jo after Hurricane Maria . . . lots of people and lots of personal notes to be written. I wish I could say I finished that job, but it will continue tomorrow. We are still in the deep freeze, but tomorrow the high temp is supposed to reach the low 40’s. Heat wave!!!

2017 Life Logs, Day 350: Just a Day in the Life
Date: Saturday, December 16, 2017
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 34, Low 18 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today was just a day in the life . . . Zumba class at the gym, a trip to the post office to send one more package to Puerto Rico, a short trip to the Goldstones that turned into a much longer stay as I got easily sucked into working a 150-piece puzzle with Ollie, home to work on writing a holiday letter to friends and addressing holiday cards. That was it for today. It was sunny but still very cold, so the little snow we got over the past two days is still with us. It is beautiful and the kids sure are enjoying it.

2017 Life Logs, Day 349: Making a List and Checking It Twice
Date: Friday, December 15, 2017
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 29, Low 23 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today I took some time to assess where I am in terms of Christmas gifts. I think this is called “Making a List and Checking It Twice.” I had lots of questions I needed to answer. Have I ordered or bought everything for the Goldstones and the Handley-Hunts in Puerto Rico? Exactly what is the status of the packages that have been sent to Puerto Rico, either through the US Postal Service or Amazon? What gifts will I be taking with me to Nashville? In the midst of answering these questions, I got three different deliveries of Christmas gifts for the Goldpebbles from the USPS and FedX and that launched a frenzy of wrapping. It seems everything I have for Ollie, Jonah, and Sam is BIG, so the packages don’t fit under my little tree. They are now sprawling all over one corner of the living room! I didn’t finish my Christmas assessment, but I am getting close. I had hoped to get holiday cards in the mail today, but that will have to be a job for tomorrow and Sunday. Hopefully by the end of the day on Sunday, I will have Christmas giving under control.

I talked with Justin this morning and then I had a great conversation with good friends Ed and Lynne Kirwin. They are in St. Mary’s, Georgia, getting Constance ready to launch and then sail to Fort Lauderdale. They have had some chilly weather, but today things were starting to warm up a bit. They found out this morning that they will go in the water on Tuesday, and hopefully everything will be fine and they can head out for the trip south. At this point, the weather next week looks good until Christmas Eve. So hopefully they will be in Fort Lauderdale before then. I am just so happy for them that they are getting to spend time on Constance.

It was another day in the deep freeze here, so yesterday’s blanket of snow is still on the ground. And while I was in the gym for a late afternoon class, more snow started to fall. I don’t think we area slated to get much between now and midnight, and then the snowfall should end. It will be Monday before temps are back in the 40’s, so the snow that we have will probably be with us until then.

I learned a new Yiddish word today, mishegas, which means insanity or craziness. A meshugener is a crazy man. So, if anyone asks me to sum up 2017, my response will be be “mishegas”. And I think you can guess who I name Meshugener of the Year.

2017 Life Logs, Day 348: Snow, Lovely Luncheon, Plus Two Reasons to Cry
Date: Thursday, December 14, 2017
Weather: Sunny, Cold, and SNOW!!!; High 26, Low 17 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Oh, it snowed last night . . . and this morning. Beautiful, beautiful, white fluffy stuff–just enough to make the world glisten, but not enough to cause traveling problems. Perfect, as today was the Newcomers Holiday Luncheon. It was a lovely affair, made even lovelier by the snow-covered world. The luncheon was conceived by good friend Jane Woodin and Jane Murphy, co-chairs of Programming for Newcomers, and planned by two women from the Dining In group I am a part of—Karen Baranowski and Midge Frieswyk. And they all did a fantastic job. The luncheon was delightful with good food, good music, and good friends. Thanks to all who worked to make this such a wonderful experience.

Afterwards, Jane Woodin and I (later joined by Bruce) headed to the Falmouth Public Library for a viewing Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth Sequel. The first film, An Inconvenient Truth, came out in 2006. If you are not familiar with these films, they outline concerns about climate change. I saw the first film in late 2007 when Mark and I flew home from New Zealand for my sister and brother-in-law’s 50th anniversary. I found the information profound, but it certainly didn’t make me cry. However, the sequel I saw today did make the tears flow. It outlines the role Al Gore played in helping to get the Indian government buy into the agreement and, more importantly, it showed just how hard all world leaders worked to make that agreement happen in Paris in late 2015. There was such obvious joy when they announced an agreement among all of the world’s participating countries. That didn’t make me cry. But the timeline that showed that our current President pulled the US out of that worldwide agreement, a fact I already well knew, hit especially hard this afternoon. The film documents just how hard it was to get the buy-in of all countries, and to see it in black and white, that the United States, my country, pulled out of this historic agreement, brought me to tears. It was enough to make me want to become one of Al Gore’s trained climate warriors. Bruce and Jane reminded me that I probably don’t have time for that, but part of me knows that I don’t have time to not become involved. I looked it up when I got home and found out that the next training is in Mexico City in March. The website says, “Give us three days. We’ll give you the tools to change the world.” Very tempting. Then tonight I saw a news report featuring Ady Barkan, a young American activist, a trained lawyer, and a disabled American with ALS, plea for all of us to get involved in the protest against the current Republican tax plan. As he explained so eloquently, his life literally depends on defeating this tax bill. His plea was so compelling that it made me cry for the second time today! But despite the two tear-jerking sessions, it was a good day.

2017 Life Logs, Day 347: Giving Santa a Helping Hand
Date: Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Weather: Sunny, Cold, and VERY Windy; High 38, Low 22 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

An early morning ding on my phone got my attention and then directed my day. The ding was a text on my phone from Jo in Puerto Rico. Santa contacted Justin and Jo to let them know his elves needed help in finding the gift that suddenly Coco has her heart set on. Who can refuse a request from Santa’s elves? Certainly not me, so I got on my computer and on the phone and found the item. In order to help Santa, I needed to drive to Hyannis to pick up the gift and then get it to a post office. Santa pointed out that, unfortunately, the window for sending things from Amazon has closed, but the post office is still optimistic that they can get things to Rincon on time for Santa to deliver. Other than a 9:15 am Tabata class at the gym, the shopping expedition was my day. This evening I went to East Falmouth Elementary School to the 3rd and 4th grade craft fair. Jonah was selling his wares. I bought a few bars of his soap for gifts, bought some bracelets from Mollie, and a different kind of soap from Leo. Molle and Leo are neighborhood friends that are often at the Goldstones. Tomorrow is a busy one with a Newcomers holiday luncheon and a viewing of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth Sequel. I have nothing other than a 5pm class at the gym on Friday, so I am looking forward to a day of nothingness.

2017 Life Logs, Day 346: Happy Hanukkah
Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 50, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I started my day with Tai Chi. And then tonight we lit the first candles of Hanukkah when I was invited to have a wonderful artichoke and risotto dinner at the Goldstones. Earlier in the day I attended the Woods Hole Woman’s Club holiday meeting with singing provided by the students of the Falmouth Academy choir. Then we had “greens workshop” where we made holiday decorations of fir, cedar, holly, pine, and all sorts of other beautiful greenery. So, it was a really mixed day, all good. The wonderful mix of Jewish and Christian tradition reminds me of what Ollie said on Sunday night. Sam was making the argument that in this country everyone, regardless of religion, celebrates Christmas. Ollie simply said, “The Chinese do not.” Out of the mouths of babes. But the fact that we can celebrate the rituals of all religions is very special. Happy Hanukkah!

2017 Life Logs, Day 345: Christmas Shopping and a Movie
Date: Monday, December 11, 2017
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 41, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today’s activities included a class at the gym to start the day, a Christmas shopping trip to Hyannis, and an evening movie at the Woods Hole Library. I do most of my shopping online and after today, I will try to do 100 per cent of it online. The lines in the stores are long, long, long, and no fun at all. Plus, the selection if very limited. I didn’t get home until after 6 pm and I was meeting Jane Woodin in Woods Hole at 6:45 pm for a movie at the Woods Hole Library. I ate a quick dinner and headed out. The movie we went to see was The Glass Castle. This film came out in August and didn’t get rave reviews. It is based on a real-life story and I found it quite engaging. Thanks, Jane, for inviting me to join you . . . and for supplying the refreshments!