2025 Life Logs, Day 328: Indivisible Falmouth General Meeting
Date: Monday, November 24, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 50, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today the only thing on my calendar was an Indivisible Falmouth General Meeting at 6:30 this evening. I spent part of my day getting ready for that and tried to tackle the mounting piles of papers on and around my desk. To be continued on that job.

The Indivisible meeting tonight was a working meeting. We had a ‘meet and share’ activity to get people talking to one another and to become familiar with 8 categories or methods of nonviolent action. People were a little confused by the directions, but once they started talking to one another, I think they could have spent the entire meeting just doing that. But we had another activity planned to share with people the many things that Indivisible Falmouth could be doing if we had more people willing to do the work. So we spent the rest of the evening outlining the 8 major areas and encouraging people to let us know if they are interested or if they are willing to help. We collected that data and it will help guide our future actions.

2025 Life Logs, Day 327: Second Viewing of the Katharine Lee Bates Film and Wine Group
Date: Sunday, November 23, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 44, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I explained in an earlier log that I volunteered to be the tech support for a viewing of the Katharine Lee Bates film at the Congregational Church this morning. It took longer than I anticipated, basically from 9:30 am to 1 pm, but I truly enjoyed watching it a second time. Katharine Lee Bates was a precocious child growing up in Falmouth in the mid-1800’s and she spent her life always on the cutting edge and dedicated to doing good in the world. When her poem, America the Beautiful, became so popular and many people wanted to buy the rights, she simply gave it away. It was her gift to her country, and it has endured. And the cake they served at the reception afterwards was beautiful … from Sea to Shining SeaThen at 5 pm, I headed to a Wine Group gathering. The wine bottle I was taking was supposed to be decorated for the holidays, so I chose to take a turkey. The project looked easy, but was much more time consuming that I anticipated. I was using super glue, but if I had thought of using a glue gun, it would have been so much faster. Live and learn.

2025 Life Logs, Day 326: New Neighbor
Date: Saturday, November 22, 2025
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High Temp 47, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today was the Rally on the Green for Democracy, as are all Saturdays. The problem with Saturday was the rain. The 30 hearty souls who came brought umbrellas and we protested as usual. The Freedom Singers, who come every week and sing patriotic songs for about 30 minutes each week, came and someone held an umbrella over the guitarist, keeping his guitar dry.

When I got home, my new neighbor had moved into the studio apartment attached to the back of the house I rent. The studio apartment has always been there, but it has not been rented because it was being used as an office by the Lynda, who owns this property. The new neighbor is a 22 year-old young man named Billy who has a new job at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole. His specialty is salamanders, specifically the axolotl, which are used to study regeneration. They are one of those animals that are so ugly that they are cute. I look forward to learning more about them.

2025 Life Logs, Day 325: Whiplash
Date: Friday, November 21, 2025
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 49, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

The chaos of the Trump regime is enough to make a sane person crazy, but what happened today was enough to cause a whiplash. Marjorie Taylor Green, MAGA firebrand, is resigning her position in the House as of the first of January. To do what? We don’t know. But the fact that she has totally ended her support of Trump is enough to cause whiplash. Then there was the meeting of Zohran Mamdani and Trump today when Trump appeared to totally embrace him and his ideas. When just a few days ago Trump was vilifying him. Those two things happened in one day. And then there is the fact that this week the Republicans in the House and the Senate voted virtually unanimously to release the Epstein files after spending months doing everything possible to block that release. Again, whiplash. But it’s all good. Each whiplash gives us a little crack, a little possibility of stopping the absolute madness we have been experiencing. It is really hard to turn a ship around that has been going at top speed in one direction for a period of time, but between the election (Was that just last week?) and this week’s whiplash experiences, at least the ship has been slowed down a bit.

I made some progress today in getting caught up on so many things. I am not there yet, but things did get done. I will continue on tomorrow.

2025 Life Logs, Day 324: Another Meeting, Meeting, Meeting Day
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2025
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 47, Low 32 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

This morning it was a special meeting of the Board of Library Trustees. This afternoon it was the Exploring Public Policy group. And tonight it was the Falmouth Democratic Committee and the weekly Indivisible What’s the Plan? zoom meeting. Since I had to miss that this afternoon, I just finished watching the recording. So meetings over at 9:54 pm. I had a little time in between meetings during the day, but not enough time to really get anything done. But there really is nothing on my calendar for tomorrow, so hopefully it will finally be the day that I get caught up on things. But don’t hold your breath!

The Exploring Public Policy meeting today was very interesting. About five months ago, Falmouth hired their first ever Coastal Resilience Specialist, Josh Wrigley. He came to today’s meeting today to give us a quick course on Coastal Resilience. Only three other Cape and Islands municipalities have such a specialist—Provincetown, Chatham, and the island of Nantucket. What do we do, or not do, to fight the battle of the beaches, the homes along the shore, and the roads that are already regularly covered in sea water? Very interesting discussion.

2025 Life Logs, Day 323: Jam-Packed Day
Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 45, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Encore’s November Program Meeting was this morning. As Program VP, I had arranged for a screening of a new Katharine Lee Bates film, “From Sea to Shining Sea.” Katharine Lee Bates was born in Falmouth in 1859. She did many things in her life but is best remembered for writing the poem that evolved into the song “America the Beautiful.” One of the co-producers of the film and a man who is in the film discussing his research into her life spoke to Encore members after the film. I think the program was well received and the 37-minute film was full of history and some beautiful modern day film scenes to compliment the photos from the past.

I got home with one minute to spare before being picked up by friend Judy Fenwick to drive an hour to Dennis to see another film. This one featured the Dalai Lama. In the film he tells us that in order to reach true happiness we must be self-confident, compassionate, and nonviolent. Another good film.

I got home with enough time to take Shadow for a walk before heading to Lawrence Middle School for the National Junior Art Honor Society (NJAHS). Ollie is an officer of the after school club that has been one of his favorite middle school activities.

Then it was home for a quick dinner and off to the public library for an immigration talk by Massachusetts immigration lawyer, himself an immigrant, Antonio Massa Viara. “Restoring the Promise: A Discussion About Immigration, Democracy, and a Path Forward” was excellent. So, even after a busy day, I was totally engaged and truly appreciated the information on our past and current immigration system and how desperately it needs to be rewritten immediately. We have to stop the inhumane process being used by the Trump regime.

2025 Life Logs, Day 322: Playing Catch-up
Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 47, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I had high hopes for today. My plan was to go through the piles of papers that just keep growing and get everything filed where it needs to be. I was going to play catch-up. That didn’t happen. Not even one little sheet of paper got filed. You make plans, and then life happens. At this point, I have not one thing on my calendar for this Friday, so I will try again.

I heard sad news from Justin this morning. Cacique, one of Justin and Jo’s horses, collapsed near their back door late Sunday night. Justin stayed with him for hours and an army of vets came to help, but he could not be saved. Cacique came to them as a rescue horse. He had been abused by previous owners but was given a new lease on life with Justin and family on their little Puerto
Rican farm, Finca Maravilla.

They are now back to having only one horse, Hopi. She is a beautiful Puerto Rican horse, and Justin said today that they are thinking that they will either get another horse as a companion for Hopi, or maybe something a little smaller like a goat.

I had a 1 pm meeting with the head of the Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition to talk about putting a lot of their documents on the Indivisible Falmouth website. We meet for an hour and half and came up with a general outline for the website and the specific documents that will go there. I didn’t play catch-up today, but I did get things done.

After that meeting, it was time to pick Ollie and his saxophone up at the end of the school day and then head to Ollie’s saxophone lesson. I thought I was going to be on Goldpebble duty again tonight while Heather and Jed attended the second night of Town Meeting. But Town Meeting extended their meeting time until after mid-night last night to finish voting on all the articles. No more Town Meeting until spring.

2025 Life Logs, Day 321: Town Meeting
Date: Monday, November 17, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Really Windy; High Temp 43, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Every spring and every fall, Falmouth reserves two days for Town Meeting. All of the elected Town Meeting representatives come together to vote on the proposed articles. After they have done this, it is up to the Town Manager and Select Board to implement what has been voted on. That is an oversimplification, but I think that is basically what happens. If all of the articles are not voted on during the first night, everyone meets for a second night.

I am writing this after leaving Jonah and Ollie fast asleep and heading home. On Town Meeting nights, I prepare dinner that can be eaten early by Heather and Jed before they head to the meeting, and then a little later by Ollie and Jonah. This evening, Heather and Jed ate at 5:30 and then Jonah and Ollie and I ate at 6:30. Jonah, Ollie, and I then had a great discussion about how textbooks no longer drive the curriculum in schools. Things have changed tremendously in the past 20 years. I would love to go observe in some of the high school classes.

Once Jonah and Ollie were tucked in for the night, I headed home. During the evening, had been watching Town Meeting on the Falmouth Cable TV and knew that they had voted to continue meeting past the 11 pm deadline. I will find out in the morning whether they stayed until all business was voted on or whether we have a second Town Meeting tomorrow night. Stay tuned on that.
Other than preparing for Town Meeting night, this morning I had one-on-one meetings. When they ended at 1 pm, I headed to the grocery store to buy things for tonight’s dinner. I then spent much of the afternoon cooking and then heading to the Goldstones for the evening.

2025 Life Logs, Day 320: Resistance and Revolution
Date: Sunday, November 16, 2025
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; High Temp 54, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I just finished watching the first 2 hours of Ken Burns’ The American Revolution. I first met Ken Burns sometime in the 1990’s when I believe he was on the Board of New Hampshire Public Radio. I am not sure about that, but I know I met at the annual meeting of the Board. My husband Mark was President and CEO of New Hampshire Public Radio from 1990 to 2005, as well as serving as Chair of NPR during his last few years there. As his wife, I met many people from the public radio and public television world. But what I remember from the first time I met Ken Burns was that sparkle in his eyes. At the time, to me he looked like a young kid in his signature jeans, sports coat, and boyish haircut. A few years later, I met him again and realized that he was only 6-7 years younger than me. Fast forward 25 years, and he still has that sparkle in his eyes and is still wearing the signature jeans and sports coat, but he has racked up success after success after success with his documentaries. I loved watching the two hours of The American Revolution tonight and can’t wait for more.

I left Wayland this morning and stopped at Costco on my way home. It was after 1 pm when I got to Falmouth, ran a few errands, picked Shadow up from Heather’s, and headed home to attend a Resistance Lab on Zoom. These ‘labs’ are done by US House Representative Pramila Jayapal from the state of Washington. This is the third resistance lab I have attended, and I always learn so much. They are really well done and inspiring.
But I have had an overdose of resistance and revolution for one day. Time for bed, then on to the next.

2025 Life Logs, Day 319: Philanthropy Talks
Date: Saturday, November 15, 2025
Weather: Beautiful Day; High Temp 46, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Friends of mine from Wayland (west of Boston) invited me to ‘Philanthropy Talks’ tonight. The purpose was to get a group of people together to discuss what organizations you support financially or with your time to make the most impact for saving our democracy. The hosts, Jim and Susie, knew everyone invited, but most of the people didn’t know each other. Unfortunately, Susie came down with a killer cold today and stayed hidden away for the evening. But her pre-planning was meticulous and allowed us to carry on without her. We first had to find someone who did the thing on a list we were all given. Find the person who sailed around the world. That would be me. Find the person who globetrots on top-secret negotiation missions. Find the person who served as chair of the Wellesley Select Board. Find the person who is currently chair of the Head of the Charles Regatta. Find the person who has rafted the Grand Canyon nine times. And on and on for all 14 of us, each one a person with a fascinating background. We picked a card out of bag that was either red or black, and that determined where we sat for dinner—black at a table in one room and red in another room. There was enough food to feed a small army, so we filled our plates and got to work. We were given a piece of paper with a large circle drawn on it and told to make a pie chart of how each person spends their philanthropic money and time currently. Then, after dinner, we all sat together and shared our results. I wish Susie had been able to join us to hear the final discussion. The well thought-out activity she designed certainly elicited a number of very creative ideas.

Thanks to the Goldstones for dog sitting for me so I could attend this. I was not going to drive the hour-and-a-half home after this event, so I needed a one-night home for Shadow. Heather sent me a photo to reassure me that all is well with Shadow. In fact, he looked as happy as I have ever seen him.