2017 Life Logs, Day 31: Second Snow of the Winter
Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Weather: Sunny AM, Snow PM; High Temp 30, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH

It’s the last day of the first month of 2017 and it snowed today! This is our second snow of the season, with the first happening over the first weekend of January. That was a major snow storm whereas today’s snow was just an inch or two. The coat of white was very pretty and the warmer temps tomorrow will melt the snow quickly.

I spent my morning with a couple of Comcast technicians from Boston. When I had problems with my cable service in December, the problem was solved temporarily, but an order was issued to have new wiring put in from the street to this apartment. I got a call yesterday asking permission to come today to do just that. The two technicians came from the main office in Boston, checked out the system, and found a way to run new wiring. It was not an easy task, but the technicians were dedicated to finding a way to do this . . . and they did. Kudos to Comcast and their team of technicians.

We’ve all heard the term, “Like father, like son.” Sure hope that doesn’t hold true for mother and son. At least not in the case of Trump’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice. The nominee’s mother was the infamous Anne Gorsuch Burford who was the first woman to head of the Environment Protection Agency. This was in the 80’s under Ronald Reagan. Before being forced from office, she fostered the burning of toxic waste on ships offshore Maryland and Delaware and totally mishandled the 1.6 million dollar Superfund. Despite his mother’s indiscretions, Judge Gorsuch is an obviously highly qualified candidate. And kudos to the Trump administration for rolling out this nomination in an appropriately dignified manner. But politics is politics, even with a Supreme Court Justice nomination. Interpretations are just that, and I’m not sure Judge Gorsuch would interpret the Constitution to my liking. President Obama presented an equally qualified candidate that didn’t even make it to first base. So we shall wait and see what happens.

2017 Life Logs, Day 29: Catching Up on Correspondence
Date: Sunday, January 29, 2017
Weather: Slow Slide into Colder Weather; High Temp 42, Low 24 F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH

I devoted today to catching up on correspondence. I made some progress, but will have to continue this tomorrow. I’m so far behind that I am just now sending thank you notes to all the wonderful family and friends who contributed to New Hampshire Public Radio to celebrate Mark’s life. Although September 11, 2016, seems like only yesterday, when I look at the calendar it tells me it was four and half months ago. In addition to those thank you notes, I got one email sent out and that was to my friend Linda Stuart who is biking around the world with her husband, Mike. A few days ago they returned to Guayaquil, Ecuador, from the Galapagos Islands and today they were headed out of town on their trek to Peru. I no sooner sent that email than I got a call from Linda. They had, indeed, biked out of Guayaquil but were already in a hotel for the night. The phone communication was a bit garbled, but it was wonderful to just hear Linda’s voice and know that she and Mike are doing great. My only New Year’s resolution was to do a better job of keeping in touch with friends. I didn’t get very far today, but at least I made one baby step toward that goal.

Late this morning I got a call from Ollie requesting that I come over and bring his bike to him. It was left in my car at the end of the day yesterday, and I had promised him I would bring it over this morning. Just before that call, I realized that I had not made reservations for the last “Greatest Show on Earth.” Ringling Brother’s Barnum and Bailey Circus is closing down for good in May and I want to take Sam, Jonah, and Ollie to the circus before it is no more. Heather, Jed, and I had talked about whether to go see the circus in Rhode Island in early May or in Worcester, Massachusetts in mid-April. So when I returned Ollie’s bikes, Jed and I discussed dates, and when Heather got home from a run, we made a group decision to attend on Easter Sunday in Worcester and made the reservations. And then later in the afternoon, I attended the Volunteer Fair in downtown Falmouth. People of all ages turned out to check out various possibilities for volunteering. The fair started at 3 pm and I didn’t get there until 4:45 . . . and the place was packed and more people were coming. It made me very proud to be a part of this community.

Tonight as I have been writing this log, I have also been watching “Tom Brokaw at NBC News—The First 50 Years”. I’ll have to watch this another couple of times to take in all that was presented, but for me the one thing that stood out tonight was when Brokaw interviewed Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star in the Broadway musical Hamilton. When Miranda was asked to make a comment on politics in the real world right now, this one statement stood out as profound to me, “You can get a different set of facts by just changing the channel.” Of course, there is no such thing as a “different set of facts”. There is truth and there are lies. But in todays’s mix of mainstream networks, cable networks, and social media, it is easy to be confused. I watch MSNBC, but I know they are a left-leaning cable network and I fact-check anything I hear that might be questionable. People who watch Fox need to do the same as that is cable network that caters to the extreme right. My father was a third-grade educated man from Appalachia. He was a stubborn, bigoted, hard-working man. He made me take secretarial classes in high school because he said all girls should be secretaries. My lowest grade in all of my education was in high school shorthand, so thankfully I didn’t become a secretary. He told me if I went to college, I would never be allowed to return home. But I was just as stubborn as he was. I went to college, I came home, and he never said another word about it. But the one thing I learned from him that has always made me a better person was to never, ever tell a lie and to never trust a person who lies. So that’s my bottom line. And right now, our new President is making it increasingly difficult to tell who is telling the truth and who is not as he is labeling all media as dishonest. That is so dangerous to our democracy. As I wrote those thank you notes today to people who contributed to New Hampshire Public Radio in celebration of Mark’s life, it reminded me of my faith in National Public Radio as the one place I know I can always turn to hear the truth. All people in the media are not dishonest. Most of them work hard every day to bring the truth to the American people. We must listen with discerning ears, but we must never, ever turn our backs on our mainstream media. It is the backbone of our democracy. Mark’s passion was the same as National Public Radio’s mission–“to create a more informed public.” And I, for one, am all in on that mission. Whoa. That’s my rant for tonight. Time for bed!

2017 Life Logs, Day 28: Play Day
Date: Saturday, January 28, 2017
Weather: Still Windy and Partly Sunny; High 43, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH

Today was a play day. I started out with a Zumba class and then I went to Heather’s to see if I could be helpful with projects today. Jed was gone with Sam on an all-day Scout geologic exploration of the Cape and Molly and Joey next door were not home. So it was strangely quiet at the Goldstones. It appeared that the most useful thing I could do was to take Jonah and Ollie to my house to play so Heather could get some things done. But Jonah was not about to leave his momma. So Jonah stayed with Heather and Ollie and I took off with both of his bicycles—the new pedal bicycle he got from Santa and his little wooden strider. We headed to my house to get some lunch, but we spent an hour in the parking lot riding one bike and then the other before heading inside. Once we got on the deck, I pointed out the ducks in the harbor to Ollie. There was one lone Merganser and a few Buffleheads. He was not familiar with these birds, so I have to get the Goldpebbles over here more often so they can observe harbor life in the winter. After watching the ducks, we finally moved inside for lunch and a little quiet play time. At one point, Ollie was in the kitchen and he picked up a wine cork from my little collection. He reminded me that he and I had taken a wine cork to the beach and released it right after Granddad died. At that time, Ollie said the cork was sending Granddad a message to tell him we love him. Today he just wanted to put the cork in his pocket to help him remember Granddad. Ollie said, “I want to remember him because he was my best friend.” All I could say in return was that Granddad was also my best friend. What a kid! Then we were off for the playground across from the public library downtown. Ollie loves to play in the wooden boats there and was having a good time playing by himself. But then Heather and Jonah joined us and the two boys had a fantastic time playing together. We eventually moved from the playground to the circle in front of the school so the boys could ride their bicycles, but before long, Jonah got so cold that he begged to go home. Ollie, however, wanted to stay. So Ollie and I stayed and he rode and rode and rode for another half an hour. When the sun went down, we finally packed up and went back to my house. We continued to play until 6:00 pm when we got ready to go meet Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah at the downtown Chinese restaurant to have dinner and celebrate Chinese New Year. Once we were seated and food started arriving at the table, we saw good friends enter the restaurant. We invited them to join us and we had a great Chinese New Year dinner.

2017 Life Logs, Day 27: Not Enough Hours
Date: Friday, January 27, 2017
Weather: Windy with a Mix of Sun and Clouds; High 46, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH

I know many of you will agree me when I say that there are just not enough hours in a day. My goal for today of getting my photos from 2016 in order just didn’t happen. I made a teeny, tiny bit of progress and will continue as I can. But between going to the gym, doing the laundry, going to the grocery store to do some major shopping, and doing a bit of cooking, there were just not the hours needed to get the photo job done. And the bigger problem is that when that one is done, I have a long list of additional photo-to-do projects. I’ll just say that maybe someday I’ll get these projects completed, but probably not this winter. The positive side is that I am in no danger of being bored any time soon!

I’ll start my Saturday morning at the gym attending a Zumba class and then I’ll check in with Heather and Jed to see if there is anything I can do this weekend to help them out. I have this weekend and next here before I leave for Puerto Rico. And even though I return here for about four days at the end of February to help with child care during school vacation week, I won’t be back here full-time until March 10th as I will be taking off again to visit with my sister in Nashville. So, any jobs I need to do here, need to be done this week. Could be a busy one.

2017 Life Logs, Day 26: Puerto Rico Bound
Date: Thursday, January 26, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 48, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH

I finally did it. Last night I booked my flight to Puerto Rico to visit with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco from February 6 to February 20. I talked with Justin last night about the new development that he will be having surgery in the next couple of weeks, but he felt strongly that we shouldn’t change plans because of that. If things go well, it will be an in and out surgery, and if I am there, hopefully I will be able to help-out while he is recovering. I am just so anxious to see their new home and spend time with them. And the added bonus is that it will be warm. Can’t wait. I will return here on February 20th to pitch in with child care during February school vacation week—vacation for the boys, but not for Heather and Jed. And at the end of that week I will take off again for visit with my sister in Nashville, but I will return by March 10 to help Heather while Jed is out of town for about eight days. And then last night I got an offer that will be hard to refuse. Sam and Dawn on Windbird have offered to fly me to the Bahamas in April to spend a little time with them on Windbird. I’m going to consider that offer very seriously. So lots of travel in the next couple of months.

Today was definitely a better day than yesterday. It was not an exciting day, but I did basically get my taxes done for 2016. Well, H&R Block got them done for me, but done is good. I need to get two more documents to them and then the job will be completed. I must have done my own taxes before I met Mark, but I know I haven’t tackled that job since the early 1970’s. After watching the process today, I see that my taxes are very straight forward and I probably could have done it myself. Maybe I’ll tackle that next year.

I went to the gym for the Butts & Guts class. It is a hard one and as I went through the routine this morning, I figured out how I inflamed my knee last week. It was the ankle weights I wore during this class. So I took those babies off today and won’t put them on again. The added weight just puts too much strain on my left knee. It is getting better, but I have had to baby it since the pain started last Friday. After going to the gym, I went to H&R Block, and then I spent a couple of hours at home in the early afternoon before picking Jonah up from school. Sam had an after-school enrichment program and Jonah and I returned to get him an hour later. I was so happy to see that Jonah is just fine after last night’s trauma. The gash to his head is on the right temple and is about half-an-inch long. The super glue applied in the Emergency Room is holding just fine. Jonah said it didn’t hurt at all and that he had a great time while in ER because he got to play games on his dad’s tablet! Before going to pick up Sam, I got a chicken in the oven to roast and then I stayed when get got home to try and assist Jed while he got dinner ready for the boys. But just like Heather, he works so fast and efficiently that there is no way I can keep up. So I mostly just stay out of the way. When Jen and the boys sat down to eat, I headed home. Tomorrow I hope to spend most of the day tied to my computer getting photos up-to-date. I know that doesn’t sound exciting, but I love doing it and it desperately needs to be done. I’m looking forward to a quiet day at home.

2017 Life Logs, Day 25: One of Those Days
Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 45, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH

This was one of those days that I should have skipped. One thing after another went pear-shaped (my favorite British term for things going awry or horribly wrong). And ‘pear-shaped’ definitely defined my day. It really started late last night. I got an email from Justin telling me he has an umbilical hernia and will have surgery in the next week or two. He should be fine, but I am just so sorry that he has to go through this right now when they haven’t even finished their move into their new home. And, of course, a mother worries. Evidently lifting a 10-gallon aquarium full of water and fish was the culprit. Hopefully he won’t try that again.

This morning actually started off great. I went to Heather and Jed’s early to watch the removal of three pine trees in the front yard. Before the job was completed, I left to take Ollie to school and Heather headed to Boston after delivering Sam and Jonah at school. Jed stayed at home to oversee the tree removal. So far, so good. Then I stopped at the bank to deposit a check made out to ‘The Estate of Mark Handley’. That’s when things started going downhill. I won’t bore you with the details of why my bank send a $1500 check to Phoenix Life Insurance Company by mistake. But they did and Phoenix sent a check back to me, but made out to Mark’s estate which doesn’t exist. If it had been made out just in Mark’s name, there would have been no problem. But the bank refused to deposit it without a letter from Probate Court. I called my lawyer and he explained that the requested letter would cost a few hundred dollars and 6 weeks to process. He gave me the wording to use to get Phoenix Life to reissue the check in my name. I made the call and was told that was not possible. I used “the right words” and was put on hold for a very long time. Finally, I was told they would reissue. But that all took more than hour of my day that I would have preferred to spend some other way. I made granola in the afternoon and that went along okay, but then the evening did not. I picked Ollie up from school and delivered him home. I then went home to eat a quick dinner and headed back out to attend a Falmouth Democratic Town Committee meeting. My friend Olivia White invited me to come to check out the group. I turned the volume down on my phone when I entered the building and it wasn’t until I got home that I saw I had received three text messages. The first one was from Jed and said, “On way to ER. Please call.” That was sent at 7:15 pm and it was 8:35 pm when I read the message after the meeting. I felt terrible that I hadn’t responded. Heather is in Boston tonight, so Jed was all on his own with the three boys. Thankfully he followed up with another email explaining that Jonah had a 1 cm split in this head from hitting a corner in the kitchen and that it was superglued shut and all was okay. I’m assuming Jed had to drag all three boys to the Emergency Room and I feel terrible that I didn’t get the ‘help’ message. But all is well. That’s the important thing.

Now add to all of this our current political situation. The Executive Orders signed yesterday and today have sent me over the edge. I started my teaching career as a high school American History teacher. If I were in that position today, I truly don’t know what I would be able to say to my students. I feel like this President lives in some sort of alternative universe and it is not a universe I want to live in. So I’m going to go to bed and hope that tomorrow is a better day.

2017 Life Logs, Day 24: Love Affair with the Dining Room Table
Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 46, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH

It appears I am having a love affair with my dining room table as we were inseparable today. It was overcast and rainy and I had no reason to venture out, so I sat at the table on my computer and phone all day and evening. But I was productive and I could use another couple of days like this. I talked with my nieces, Lynn and Candi, in Boston. Candi lost her mother-in-law late last week and it was good to hear from her and know that she and Char are doing fine. I communicated with Mark’s sisters and brother and solidified our plans for the entire Handley clan to convene in in Florida for Thanksgiving. I searched for the best flights for my trip to Puerto Rico in February. And I talked with Jed’s mother, Marti, and encouraged her to come up for a visit while I am out of town in February and early March and stay in this empty apartment. I know the Goldpebbles would love to have her come visit. She could visit with them and then come home to this little haven to catch her breath in between activities. If Marti comes while I am gone, it will keep me from feeling so guilty about leaving Heather and Jed with no support. It takes a village.

Heather heads to Boston tomorrow morning and doesn’t return until Thursday. I will start my day by taking Ollie to school at Woods Hole while Jed works at home to be there when the tree removal crew comes. They have been waiting for months to get a couple of trees removed so they can put up a storage shed and tomorrow is the day. Yeah!

2017 Life Logs, Day 23: Focus on Travel
Date: Monday, January 23, 2017
Weather: Overcast, Windy Evening with Rain; High 41, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH

I started my day at the gym and ended it by playing Monday night games with Ollie while his brothers were at Scout meetings. Otherwise, today’s focus was on travel. Heather, Justin, and their families, plus myself, made a decision to travel to Fort Myers Beach for next Thanksgiving to reconnect with Mark’s family. We had been planning to go during the April school vacation, but there were conflicts. By waiting until November, we are hoping we can get close to a 100% of the Handley clan cousins together for a Thanksgiving celebration. I also focused on my travel to Puerto Rico to visit with Justin and family. After consulting with Justin and Jo, I have decided to fly down around the 7th of February and spend two weeks with them. When I return, I will drive to Nashville to visit with my sister and brother-in-law and will probably spend my 70th birthday with them before returning home. And driving to Nashville will include visits with good friends and family along the way, so I now need to make arrangements for those visits. February is definitely going to be a month of travel for me and today was a full day of checking flights and accommodations for these various trips.

I also spent a lot of last night and today catching up on the travel of friends.

• Sam and Dawn, Windbird’s new owners, made their way down the ICW in Florida during the past couple of stormy days. They made it to Vero Beach where they will stay for a couple of days before continuing. http://wotwater.blogspot.com/
• Ed and Lynne Kirwin, my very dear friends from Nyack, New York, also fought the nasty weather of the past couple of days as they drove from New York to Georgia for a visit to their sailboat Constance (currently on land).
• Over the weekend, Lee and Lynda Kaufman of Sea Turtle, friends from Myrtle Beach, made the sail from Ft, Lauderdale to the Keys to visit with friends.
• Mike and Linda Stuart, my ‘round the world biking friends, finally got to post some of their logs from their boat cruise through the Galapagos islands. It was so exciting to read their logs and see their photos. I felt like I was right there with them. https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=tS&page_id=493128&v=1w
• And Bruce and Jane Woodin are leaving early Wednesday morning to drive to Florida where they will get on a cruise ship to tour the Caribbean. Then they will return to Florida to visit with family and friends. Last night while watching the football game, we talked about things Mark and I had seen in some of the places they will visit–Bonaire, Curacao, St. Lucia, and Sint Maarten. Just talking about it made me want to go along with them. Maybe I’ll change my mind about going on a cruise. Their agenda certainly sounds good to me.

With friends like these, it is a full-time job to keep up with their travels!

2017 Life Logs, Day 22: Separation of Sport and State
Date: Sunday, January 22, 2017
Weather: Overcast, Drizzle in Late Evening; High 52, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH

Bruce and Jane Woodin invited me over for dinner and to watch the Patriots versus Pittsburgh Steelers football game tonight. Soon after I arrived I got a couple of text messages. Knowing my political stand against Donald Trump, my daughter Heather sent me a link to a Newsweek article pointing out that some Patriot loyalists are feeling very uncomfortable with the friendship between Patriot owner Robert Kraft and Trump and coach Bill Belichick’s and quarterback Tom Brady’s apparent support of Trump. I’m not much of a sports fan, but I have been loyal to the Patriots. Never thought I’d ever have to question that allegiance because of politics! But then there are a lot of things that are happening right now that I never expected to question. But back to the text messages. Just before Heather’s text, my niece in Nashville, Janet, sent a message to see if I was watching the game. I responded that I was, but then told her about Heather’s text which was making me question my allegiance to the Patriots. She sent back a great response saying that I could give up my allegiance or we can all just say, “There is a separation between sport and state.” I’ll stick with that until after the SuperBowl!

I spent my day with Heather, Jed, and boys. I got a kick out of Heather’s early morning Facebook post saying, “There are six boys that have spent the past two hours engaged in a running Nerf gun battle in my yard. One of them is 45 years old.” #nevergrowup When I arrived the battle was still raging. Sam’s greatest hope for his birthday was to have a full-blown Nerf gun battle, something that Heather and Jed have really tried to circumvent in the past. But they gave in and Sam was having the time of his life. He also really enjoyed having his friends for the sleep-over. So Sam had a fantastic birthday and everyone else survived. We’ll call that a success.

While the big boys were outside battling it out with the Nerf guns, Ollie and I stayed inside and built with Legos. Then after lunch, Heather, Jed, and I had time to do a little organizing. Jed put new basement shelving together and I helped to start filling those shelves. Heather reorganized things on the shelves in the dining room and I assisted her with that task. And then there was the never-ending laundry task that I kept going throughout the day. None of us accomplished anything earth shattering, but it felt really good to have a relaxed day helping out. We also took time to discuss travel plans. There has not been a gathering of the entire Handley clan for years, so after Mark’s death, his sister Mary Ellen proposed that we try to do that sometime this year. We had thought that might happen in April, but after today’s discussion, we are going to suggest having Thanksgiving together in Florida. The time the Goldstone kids have off school in April is around Easter and the cost of travel and accommodations in Florida at that time just proved to be too much for us. I have been waiting for this decision to be made before making reservations for a trip to Puerto Rico and a return trip to Nashville. I can do that now, so that will be tomorrow’s task.

2017 Life Logs, Day 21: Sam’s Tenth Birthday and Solidarity Rally
Date: Saturday, January 21, 2017
Weather: Mostly Cloudy with Periods of Sunshine; High 47, Low 38 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, NH

What a day! I started by going to the gym to Zumba class, but I wasn’t a very enthusiastic participant as my left knee is causing me a lot of pain. But I went and participated as best I could. Then I came home and got ready to attend Falmouth’s ‘Together, In Solidarity’ gathering on the Village Green. This gathering, as so many around the country and the world, was planned to support today’s Women’s March on Washington. The Green was packed with men, women, and children of all ages, more older than younger, but all in attendance to show support to empower grassroots change. Dr. Phil Duffy, President and Executive Director of the Woods Hole Research Center, was the main speaker. The Woods Hole Research Center’s website tauts this organization as the number one climate change think tank in the world. Duffy pointed out the President Obama’s senior advisor on science and technology, John Holdren, was also in attendance today. Before going to Washington, Holdren was a Woods Hole scientist, and after his position ended in the Obama administration yesterday, he headed home to Falmouth. Other speakers spoke to support human rights in other areas and I was proud that I could be there to add to the body count of the hundreds of thousands of Americans and people around the world who gathered today to speak with one voice. I had arranged to meet my friend Olivia White on the Green. When I asked her how I would find her, she simply said, “You won’t be able to miss me.” When I arrived, I found she was correct. Olivia was wearing her colorful ‘pace’ (peace) flag and I spotted her immediately.

Then it was on to Heather and Jed’s for Sam’s birthday dinner. Sam made the decision to not have a party this year. Instead, he invited two friends to come for dinner and for a sleep-over. Two more friends will join them in the morning to play together Ollie and Jonah were supposed to come home with me to spend the night, but that plan was abandoned as they so desperately wanted to be part of their big brother’s celebration. Sam requested steak tips and fries for dinner and angel food cake and chocolate fondue for dessert. He opened presents between dinner and dessert and was quite pleased with all his gifts. His big gift was his new bedroom set. But he loved the Nerf gun gifts from friends and additions to his railroad set-up from me and Heather and Jed. I still cannot believe my first grandchild is ten years old. Happy Birthday, Sam!