2017 Life Logs, Days 162: Writing, Talking the Day Away
Date: Sunday, June 11, 2017
Weather: Temp Around 70 F, but Felt Cooler; Partly Sunny
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I was up early with the Goldpebbles and we had a fun morning. They got deep into their Lego building and didn’t really want to leave, but I started rounding them up at 10:30 am to take them home to get a few things they needed for their two picnics today. Love having those guys come stay with me. They are looking so grown up.

Heather and Jed got home just before we arrived, and we did the transfer of boys. I then headed home to work on the family history project. I have run out of time, so I did no more research today. I just wrote the story I want to share with the younger member of the family. I’m learning that writing this sort of thing takes a lot more time than expected. I also spent a good deal of time talking and texting to family members about our upcoming gathering. This included a long conversation with my 101 year-old Aunt Ethel. I also had a long conversation with friends Ed and Lynne Kirwin. Ed is doing great and it was so great to talk with them. And that was my day. So I basically wrote and talked my day away. Tomorrow I am off for a tour of Cuttyhunk island with the Newcomers Club. I leave here just after 7 am and don’t return until the end of the day.

Congrats to my niece Candi’s husband Char. This weekend he completed a 130+ mile bike ride to celebrate this 60th birthday!

2017 Life Logs, Days 161: Glorious Day
Date: Saturday, June 10, 2017
Weather: Finally . . . Sunshine and Warmth
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

What a glorious day . . . finally. The weather has not nice to us here recently, but today was just perfect. There was a clear blue sky with lots of sunshine and the temperature probably hit 80. Wow! It was wonderful. I went to my Zumba class, came home and did a little bit of genealogy work, and then headed to Heather and Jed’s. Heather was headed to the Outer Cape to attend the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies Women in Science Banquet. I offered to take the boys for the night so that Jed could go with her. They so seldom get to go out together without the boys and this was the perfect opportunity. They will return tomorrow in time for an 11 am Scout picnic, but at least they had this evening together. Jed and Sam were in Westport for an all-day soccer tournament, but Jed left early so he could be back to head to Provincetown with Heather. I stayed with Ollie and Jonah until Sam got home. Sam was exhausted when friends dropped him off. His team had played three straight games in the sun and for the last game they had no substitutes, so there were no breaks. They won one game, lost one, and tied one. Sam just wanted to lay on the couch, but we finally got him motivated and we all headed to my place . . . with a required stop at the beach on such a beautiful day. I had the beach shovels in my car and all three boys went crazy just digging a deep hole in the sand. Sam dug an incredibly deep hole so he could just lay in the cool, damp sand. Jonah had fun sitting in the life guard’s high seat since life guards will not be on duty until school is out. And after digging holes in the sand, Ollie wandered down to the water and we all followed him. The water was cold on my feet, but Sam took a dip and Ollie and Jonah frolicked along the edges. Then all three boys worked together to build a dam by the water’s edge. Going to the beach was the perfect afternoon activity on our first really warm day.

Heather, Jed, and boys have back to back picnics tomorrow, so once I deliver the boys to the Scout picnic, I’ll come home and do more genealogy work. And maybe I’ll take a mid-afternoon break and go for a short bike ride. But I have only a very few days left to complete the family history project before the family gathering and tomorrow is one of those days. On Monday I am making an all-day trip to Cuttyhunk island with a Newcomers Club group and Friday afternoon I think Sam Weigel, Windbird’s captain, is going to come visit. He has a flying stint in and out of Boston to London and has a layover from Friday noon to Saturday evening. If things work out, he is going to come down and stay over on Friday night. On Saturday morning we might head back to Boston to see the Parade of Tall Ships. And I think Jed’s mom is coming to visit next weekend, so hopefully I’ll get to see her on Sunday. Then on Monday, Camp Oma for Summer 2017 begins with Ollie and on Thursday we all head to West Virginia. As you can see, I really have very little time left to complete the family history project. So, regardless of the beautiful day tomorrow, I must put my nose to the grindstone. Thankfully I really love doing the research.

2017 Life Logs, Days 160: Ollie’s Preschool Graduation
Date: Friday, June 9, 2017
Weather: Mixed Day—Clouds, Sun, Drenching Rain; High Temp 70ish F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

This evening, an entrepreneur named Sylvester McMonkey McBean graduated from the Woods Hole Daycare Cooperative. Well, actually it was Ollie that graduated from preschool, but during the entertainment portion of the ceremony, the children acted out the Dr. Seuss story of “The Sneeches.” In this story, the Sneeches are a group of yellow creatures. If you are not familiar with the story, some of the Sneeches have a green star on their bellies and some do not. The ones with stars think they are superior to those without stars and Sylvester McMonkey McBean, who calls himself Fix-It-Up Chappie, takes advantage of this situation. He offers a Star-On machine for only three dollars per person. Now everyone now a star, but the ones who originally had a star fear they are losing their special status. So McBean offers them a Star-Off machine for only $10 per person. Then he offers everyone the Star-Off machine and the Star-On machine and the Sneeches find themselves running from one machine to the other so they can all be alike . . . until they run completely out of money. McBean leaves the poor Sneeches as a rich man. Obviously, Dr. Seuss intended this as a satire of discrimination and hopefully the little ones performing the story this evening learned that whether you have a plain belly or a star-belly, not one is better than the other. Everyone, no matter what their differences, should be able to get along and be friends. And this is what they teach every day at the Woods Hole Daycare Cooperative. They really don’t stress academics. Instead, they teach little ones how to be kind to one another by treating everyone the way they would like to be treated. And they do a wonderful job of preparing their graduates to enter kindergarten knowing exactly how they should act in school. I applaud their mission.

05 Ollie and Granddad

00 Ollie Proudly Displays His Certificate AFTER the Program

2017 Life Logs, Days 159: A Visit to Quissett Harbor and More
Date: Thursday, June 8, 2017
Weather: Mostly Sunny AM, Partly Cloudy PM, Still Cool
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Despite the continued coolish weather, there was a little sunshine this morning for my visit to Quissett Harbor. This is the harbor where Mark I lived aboard Windbird for three summers. I have only been back there twice since Mark died. That made it one of those happy-sad times. Today’s visit was the longest of my visits as I was attending a two-hour photo shoot with the Falmouth Newcomer’s Shutterfly group. I have now joined the Newcomers Club and the photo shoot was my first official club activity. The leader of the group is a professional photographer and I thought it would be interesting to learn more about the art of taking ‘perfect’ photos. Today we focused on the positives of using a tripod and certain lens filters. I refused to use a tripod because I know I’ll never take the time to use one even though I know they can be helpful in stabilizing the camera. I have a UV filter and a polarizing filter, but I stopped using them about a year after I bought them in Singapore. I just found it too much trouble to put them on and take them off depending on the situation, but I will dig them out and try them again. I don’t think I got any award winning photos today, but it was fun to try.

I came home to work on the family history project and eat lunch. I ate lunch, but I ended up watching the Comey hearing and not getting much genealogy work done. Then I headed out to meet Lynda, the friend from the gym who is a member of Newcomers Club and leads a biking group. She was at the photo shoot and invited me to come biking. Since I didn’t go to the gym this morning, I took her up on the offer. There was only one other woman who came today and we rode our bikes on the bike path from downtown Falmouth to Woods Hole. It is a 4-mile trek, so 8 miles round trip. At one point, Lynda checked her speedometer and we were riding between 8 and 10 miles per hour. Since I haven’t ridden a bike for any distance since the 1980’s, I felt good that I made it successfully. Lynda and the other woman rode on when we got back to our starting point, but I decided to call the ride a win and try a longer distance at a slower pace the next time. I feel like I should build up stamina slowly and not push it too hard.

It was an active day. I came home from the biking and launched back into the family history project. I’m making a little progress each day, but it is slow, slow work. Even so, I love it and will continue tomorrow morning. Unfortunately for Sam and Jonah, tomorrow is supposed to be rainy. They were supposed to have their annual school field day tomorrow. It has been postponed until Friday, June 23, and they won’t get to attend as we will be in West Virginia. I know they are disappointed, especially Sam since this is his last year in that school. Hopefully we’ll have enough fun in West Virginia to make up for missing field day and the last day of school.

All that is on my schedule tomorrow is more family history work and attending Ollie’s preschool graduation tomorrow evening. Can’t believe that little one is going to be in kindergarten next year.

2017 Life Logs, Days 158: A Little Break in the Weather
Date: Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Weather: Partly Sunny, Still Cool
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

There was a little break in the weather today with a hint of sunshine, but it is still cool. I have on a sweat shirt and wool socks and it is only 14 days until the official beginning of summer. Already people are talking about the hope that we will have a long, warm fall to make up for this cool start to the summer. The forecast looks like we might have sunny weather in the low 70’s starting on Saturday. That’s cause for celebration! Let’s just hope that forecast holds.

I started my day at the gym at a Tabata class. This is a high-intensity training style that was developed by a Japanese professor to train Olympic speed skaters. Well, I’m never going to be an Olympic speed skater and I might not survive another Tabata class. Each set of exercises is timed and fast-paced. It goes something like this . . . jumping jacks to fast feet for 3 minutes . . . jump squats 30 times, lateral lunge to knee 30 times each leg, mountain climber to single leg push-up 30 times each sdie, skater to curtsy lunge 30 times each leg . . . you get the idea. I’m absolutely amazed that I can survive this class. Admittedly, I was exhausted when I left the gym, but the energy comes back quickly. But by the time I came home, took a shower and got ready for my day, it was after 11 o’clock. I dove into the genealogy work, entering data into Ancestry.com, but it was just not working. I then noticed a pop-up message saying they were doing maintenance on the website, so I switched gears and wrote emails to the young woman coordinating our family gathering in a couple of weeks and to the caterer. I then had lunch and dove back into the genealogy work. It makes me feel like a monk transcribing books prior to the advent of the printing press. But I got the information I have about my father’s side of the family entered today . . . inch by inch. Tomorrow I have to stop entering information and start writing the story I want to share with the younger members of my family at our gathering. I know those stories have to short to keep their attention and that’s a challenge.

Tomorrow morning I am joining a photography group called Shutterbugs at 8 am. This group is sponsored by the Falmouth Newcombers Club that I am going to join in the fall. So even though I am not a member yet, this class starts tomorrow and I want to be in on it from the beginning. I have taken thousands of photographs, but I have never had any formal training. I’m looking forward to learning from a professional photographer. After the class, I’ll return to the monastery to continue my genealogy work.

2017 Life Logs, Day 157: Details, Details
Date: Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Weather: Overcast and Cool, Now Raining
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today was spent dealing with details for the upcoming family gathering in southern West Virginia the last weekend of this month. Because we are gathering in a remote location without restaurants and have a busy schedule that precludes cooking for a group of 40, most meals are being catered by a local woman. So my focus today was details, details. I needed to figure out each family group’s costs and send that out to the ones who will pay the bill. I got that job done and then picked Sam and Jonah up after school. Tonight I am getting ready to take part in the first class in an online course called, “Plant-powered and Thriving.” This is offered by the Food Revolution Network and I am interested in what they have to say about a plant-based diet. I seem to be going more and more in that direction and this course will go into some of the most current research into this topic.

The weather today was overcast and very cool, and now it is raining . . . again. It is going to be summer soon and we haven’t had spring yet. I’m very anxiously awaiting warm, sunny days.

2017 Life Logs, Days 156: Lost in the World of Genealogy
Date: Monday, June 5, 2017
Weather: Overcast and Misty
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today I traveled back in time to the 1300’s to Scotland. My mother’s Grandpa Jim married a woman named Sarah Catherine McGhee. It so happens that her lineage led me to Gregor of the Golden Bridles, first chief of the Clan Gregor and son or brother of Kenneth MacAlpine who was the first King of Scotland. It so happens that Clan Gregor is a Highland Scottish Clan dating back to the early 800’s and they were among the first family to begin playing the bagpipes—but not until the 17th century. A person (me in particular) could get completely lost in the world of genealogy.

The weather today was miserable. It was cool and misty and overcast here on the harbor all day. I went out early for a class at the gym, but basically spent the remainder of my day sitting behind this computer working on the family history project. Rain is forecast for tomorrow, so I’ll probably be right here again all day tomorrow.

2017 Life Logs, Days 155: It’s Raining . . . Again
Date: Sunday, June 4, 2017
Weather: Partly Sunny Day, Rain Tonight
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

As I sit here writing this log, I am listening to what sounds like pouring rain outside. This rain just won’t give up. Garden plants love rain, but not this much rain. The bean, cucumber, and tomato plants we bought and planted in Heather’s garden are starting to wither from too much rain, lack of sun, and cool temperatures. So hopefully, we get some warm, sunny days soon. If not, I’m afraid we’ll all wither away!

Over the past week papers and file folders and notebooks dealing with family history took over my dining table and living room. I spent part of my morning making this space look livable again. I’m not sure why as I know tomorrow when I continue the work, it will all come out again. But it felt good to tidy up. Then I went to Heather and Jed’s to see if I could be helpful with the kids today. Jed is working hard on getting that shed built and Heather had a commitment at school starting at 6 am this morning. It was the annual June Jog, a 4 mile/10 k run, that earns a big chunk of money for the elementary school. Heather got home shortly after I arrived and we discussed plans for the afternoon. Sam’s last soccer game of the spring season was this afternoon at 4:30 pm about an hour north of here. The problem with that was that it is now tourist season and getting off the Cape on Sunday afternoon is not easy. So that meant leaving at 2:30 to get there on time. Heather considered going, but she didn’t want to make Jonah and Ollie spent so much time in the car. She was going to stay home, but I could tell she really wanted to go and be supportive of Sam. So, I suggested that Ollie and Jonah stay with me, and I invited Heather, Jed, and Sam to join us for dinner when they got back. The problem with that idea was that Sam would be starved by the time they got back. A decision was made that they would go out to dinner and I would fix dinner for Jonah and Ollie. It all worked out great. Ollie, Jonah, and I rode our bikes on the bike path and came back to my place for a nice dinner. Sam’s team had their best game of the season and Heather was so glad she decided to go. I was sorry to miss the game, but staying home with Jonah and Ollie was by far the best decision for them . . . and we had a great time together. I made Sam pose for a photo in his uniform before he left since I wouldn’t get to take photos at the game. Jonah spent part of his time at my house this afternoon drawing a picture of one of his favorite soccer players, Neymar da Silva Santos, usually just referred to as Neymar. Jonah sure loves his sports.

2017 Life Logs, Days 154: Active Day
Date: Saturday, June 3, 2017
Weather: Partly Sunny, Still Cool and Windy with Afternoon Showers
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

It was an active day starting with a morning Zumba class, going to pick up my new bike, home for a Skype call with Ziggy and Coco, and then off to Jonah’s last soccer games of the spring season. I saw ‘games’ because there were two back-to-back. One was a make-up game. After Zumba this morning, I went to Heather and Jed’s to borrow their bike rack and Ollie then went with me to pick up my bike. I took him home and then went to my house to have lunch and have a Skype video call with Ziggy and Coco. They were very excited because they were getting ready to go to San Juan for the night. And that usually means staying in a hotel with pool and they love that. Then it was off to the soccer field. Ollie wanted me to bring my new bike to the soccer game so we could ride laps around the track between games, so I had my very first ride on the new bike and did just fine. I haven’t really ridden a bike much for years, but I’m feeling good about this new bike and the possibilities it offers. And I love that my five-year-old grandson can give me instruction. I was having trouble getting off the bike and he told me stay on the seat and then throw my leg over the back. Oh, yeah. That worked! We got a bit wet with rain showers during the games, but the showers were short-lived. Jonah played two great games and Ollie met a new friend at the field. Someone had a beautiful dog that was so very gentle. Ollie loved petting her and she loved being petted. So sweet.

2017 Life Logs, Days 153: In Over My Head
Date: Friday, June 2, 2017
Weather: Sunny Day, but Still Cool and Windy
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I am totally in over my head with this whole genealogy project I have been working. It is painstaking, but relatively easy to record the information I have that takes us back to the late 1600’s. But then there is documentation for certain branches of my mother’s family that go all the way back to Charlemagne. Sounds cool to be related to Charlemagne until you find out that anyone whose family came from Europe is also related to him. But today I enjoyed tracing my family’s relationship to him through my great, great, great, great, great grandmother Barbary Mauzy. She was born in France in 1735 and at some point was brought to this country and met my fifth great grandfather, John Miller. He was born in Faulkner’s Swamp, Mongomery County, Pennsylvania, about ten years after his father, Jacob, come to this country from Germany. I’m not sure if John and Barbary met in Faulkner’s Swamp or in Rockingham County in Virginia. That is not clear in the recorded history, but what is recorded is that they made their way to Monroe County in southern West Virginia and lived there until they died. Barbary died at age 74, but John made it to 92. Their son Jacob had a son named Henry. Henry had a son named Moses and Moses had a son named Wilson who was my maternal great grandfather. Just tracking down this one story takes a lot of time, and I have literally hundreds of stories to track down. This is not all going to happen before the family gathering the end of June, but I will keep chipping away getting as much done as possible.

Other than sitting at this computer, I did very little today. I went to my Friday evening exercise class and on the way there, I returned to the bike shop and bought a bike. I’ll pick that up tomorrow and am excited to get on the bike path. I also talked to my son, Justin. He is headed to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Sunday to work out a last-minute business deal. Sounds like a lovely place to work for a few days!