Life After Windbird, Day 131: Three More Days
Date: Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 40, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

There are three more days until Christmas, so I spent my afternoon scurrying about in grocery stores and doing a little last minute shopping. I will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Heather and family and I volunteered to do most of the food shopping for our holiday meals. I have one more store run in the morning, and then the food shopping should be done should be done. Xfinity also comes in the morning to try and figure out why I don’t have a cable signal and I want to bake some cranberry bread with the last of the cranberries we harvested from the bogs in Heather and Jed’s neighborhood and honey harvested from Heather’s bee hives. So tomorrow will be a busy one. Heather and Jed both work through Friday, but tomorrow is the last day of school for the boys. I have invited them over for dinner and to spend the night tomorrow night. I only extended the invite late this evening and have not heard back yet as to their reply. But hopefully, Sam, Jonah, and Ollie will come spend tomorrow night and then we will spend part of our day on Friday baking the last of the Christmas cookies. We have already made lots of thumb-print sugar cookies, but we have more to make. On Christmas Eve we will deliver baked Christmas goodies to neighbors and friends.

I didn’t mention in last night’s log that Heather and Jed’s furnace developed a major leak last night at the end of solstice celebration. The spraying water in the basement looked a little like a fireworks display! Heather and Jed got the water supply turned off that goes to the furnace which meant they had no hot water in the house and no heat. But they have a very nice wood stove that keeps them cozy in this kind of weather. The furnace repair guys came today and spent the entire day. None of us wants to see the bill for that work before Christmas, but tonight they do have heat and hot water once again. Seems like there is no end to the drama around here!

Life After Windbird, Day 130: The Shortest Day
Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High Temp 41, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

At 5:44 am, the shortest day of the year for those of us who live north of the equator will be upon us. For centuries, people have celebrated this special day which marks a change in the seasons. This is a celebration shared by everyone on earth. There are not many things all of us can celebrate together, so that makes solstice very special. Heather and Jed have a tradition of celebrating winter solstice, so this evening just after sunset, we ushered in the shortest day and the longest night with friends from Heather and Jed’s neighborhood. Heather read a poem that was written for Revels called The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper and Sam lit the solstice fire as we all yelled out, “Welcome Yule.” Heather made her traditional chocolate yule log and we had cookies made by boys and myself and some from the neighbors. We also had hot mulled apple cider, egg nog, and hot chocolate for drinks and the fire to keep us warm. It was a delightful celebration.

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule.

After our celebration and dinner, I headed to downtown Falmouth to attend a Christmas concert at St. Barnabus Episcopal Church with friends Jane and Bruce and Olivia and Terry. This year the concert was ‘A Skylark Christmas’ presented by an ensemble of world-class vocalists who call themselves Skylark. Tonight’s program featured excerpts from the works of German composer Hugo Distler’s Christmas cantata. The singing was superb. And afterwards, we all went to Liam Maguire’s, a downtown Irish pub, for drinks and conversation. It was a lovely day and evening . . . until I got home and discovered that I have yet another technical difficulty. These days when I write my log, I turn on the TV to catch up on the day’s news. Yesterday I thought I had rectified my cable issues, but tonight they are back. I have new equipment that worked great yesterday and this morning, but tonight when I got home, there once again was no internet and no TV. I rolled back the rug, moved the Christmas tree, and tried to reboot the system with no success. This time when I talked to Comcast, they did more trouble shooting and decided that I am having signal issues. A technician cannot come until Thursday. It’s not the end of the world, but it makes me very sad and frustrated to keep having these issues. I just want things to work right without so many hassles. And it doesn’t help that I had to roll back the living room rug and pull the Christmas tree out of the corner in order to get access to the cable equipment. Yesterday after I got the new cable box and everything was working just fine, I wrapped the Christmas presents and put them under the tree. Tonight I had to move all of that and will have to leave it that way until Thursday. What an ugly ending to such a delightful day.

Life After Windbird, Day 129: ‘Tis the Season
Date: Monday, December 19, 2016
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High Temp 35, Low 20 degrees F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

My day started on a positive note. I went to Comcast, the cable company, to pick up a new cable box. I came home, hooked it up, programmed it, and I once again have television. As soon as I got home from that trip, the owner of this apartment complex came knocking on my door with the very large missing Christmas present for Jonah. The owner, Paul, and his wife live in the apartment just above mine, and UPS had delivered the package to them by mistake. Paul tried to catch me at home to get the package to me yesterday, but I was gone all day. And the first time he checked this morning, I was gone again. I guess I need to stay home a little more. Not long after Paul left, I heard heavy footsteps headed up the steps to Paul’s apartment and when the steps came back down, I saw it was a UPS delivery person. I ran out to talk to him and discovered that he had just delivered two more of my packages upstairs. He said he didn’t see the number on the side of the apartment. I could understand that, but when I asked him what I could do to make it more obvious, he just grunted and continued on. So, I guess I am going to have to get creative to make sure that #8 stands out clearly.

Heather had a very busy, long day today going into tonight and Jed had double duty tonight with Scouts and Health Board, so I volunteered to help out. I picked Jonah up from school and we rushed home to make sugar cookie dough and get in the refrigerator to chill before we went back to school to pick Sam up from after-school band practice. Sam has taken up playing trumpet and enjoys his once a week after school practice. Jed stayed in Woods Hole to pick Ollie up at 4 pm and by 4:45 we were all home and scrambling to fix dinner and bake our first round of holiday cookies. Sam wasn’t interested in helping make cookies this evening, but Jonah and Ollie each took a round of dough and made thumb print cookies. While they were doing that, Jed was making chocolate chip banana bread to take to the Scout party and I was making salmon cakes for dinner. Somehow, we managed to bake banana bread, Christmas cookies, and French fries for dinner in the same oven and still get Jed, Sam, and Jonah out the door by 6:25 pm. Ollie and I did clean-up and then went to the Scout meeting to take over when Jed had to leave for the Health Board meeting. Whew! Things do get busy here. The Scout meeting was a holiday party and a celebration of their successful popcorn sale this fall. It ended with those selling more than $650 worth of popcorn getting to throw pies at three of their very brave leaders. Things got quite rowdy, since all of the boys had just eaten all sorts of sugary goodies. When Ollie and I arrived, he chose a chocolate cupcake with heaps of red icing on it as his treat, and as he ate it, I could watch his energy level rising. When we walked out the door to go home, there was a little snow falling and Ollie immediately broke into a dance, twirling in circles while singing, “I’m dancing in the snow, just dancing in the snow. What a wonderful feeling to go dancing in the snow.” Yes, he has watched Danny Kaye’s performance of “Dancing in the Rain” and obviously he remembered all of the words. But despite, the high energy level of all three boys, they were cooperative in settling down and getting in bed without drama. Ollie had the hardest time settling down and I think it was that red food coloring. It really turned him on!

Tomorrow is another busy day. I will be helping Heather get ready for an after-school neighborhood solstice party and tomorrow evening I am going to a concert with friends. ‘Tis the season.

Life After Windbird, Day 128: Christmas Revels 2016
Date: Sunday, December 18, 2016
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 58, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I arrived at Heather and Jed’s this morning as everyone was scurrying around, getting ready to travel to Boston. Actually, we were headed across the river from Boston to Cambridge to attend Christmas Revels 2016. While we were waiting to go, I took the opportunity to snap some photos of the very handsome Goldstone family. Jonah was running around in long velvet jacket proclaiming himself to be Harry Potter. Ollie was running around a stuffed Santa and his little mouth in the shape of an ‘o’ chanting, “Ho-Ho-Ho” and persuaded Oma to join him.
Sam was just looking so grown up. I got one photo of the whole family (not an easy feat) and then we were off.

Revels is a theatrical celebration of the holiday season, winter solstice in particular, which is presented through song and dance. Revels was ‘born’ in 1971 in Cambridge. It is the same age as Jed! From the Harvard campus, this celebration has spread to nine other locations in this country—Dartmouth in New Hampshire, New York, Washington, DC, Boulder, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. All of these Revels organizations are linked, but they choose their own theme each year. Basically, a Revels production focuses on a group of people from around the world and tells their story through song and dance, giving particular emphasis to their holiday cultural traditions. This year at the Sanders Theater on the Harvard campus, we were transported to the part of Canada that is today Nova Scotia to watch the story of the French immigrants who were called Acadiens or Cadiens. As this group of people were eventually forced south to the bayous of Louisiana where they became known as Cajuns. Today’s production was a lively with lots of Acadien and Cajun music, but it also featured the Revels favorites–Sussex Mummers Carol and Lord of the Dance, among others. The audience is encouraged to sing along on certain songs and everyone in the theater holds hands and weaves their way to the main lobby for intermission singing ‘Lord of the Dance.’ And the Cambridge Revels always ends with ‘snow’ falling in the theater as the audience joins in to sing ‘Dona Novis Pacem’ which means ‘Grant Us Peace.’ What a perfect way to usher in the holiday season.

After the show, we walked through Harvard Yard to Harvard Square where we did a little window shopping. We spent some time in the Cambridge Artists Cooperative ogling at the wonderful handmade items and visited the only Curious George store in the country. We then had dinner before heading home, so when we arrived in Falmouth we had sleepy little boys who were carried into the house for “a long winter’s nap”.

Life After Windbird, Day 127: From Nashville Back to Cape Cod
Date: Saturday, December 17, 2016
Weather: Overcast and Warmer; High Temp 45, Low 41 degrees F
Location: Back Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I made it from Nashville back to Cape Cod today with minimal drama. There was a slight delay in take-off from Nashville due to ground problems on the receiving end. But as soon as Southwest got the go ahead, we boarded and headed to Boston. The problem was snow in Boston, but by the time we got there, the runways were plowed and things were running smoothly. The snow had stopped and it looked like about 3-inches of accumulation at the airport. Welcome home! I had to wait quite a while for my bag and then had to sprint to catch the bus to the Cape, but I made it and my car that had been sitting in a Park and Ride area for ten days was just fine. It was almost 5 pm by the time I got to Heather’s, and of course, at this time of year that meant it was already dark. Can’t wait until winter solstice on Tuesday when the days start to lengthen again, albeit just one minute per day at first. But dark or not, I just had to stop to say hello to the Goldstones before heading home. And I ended up staying for dinner.

Things had gone fairly smoothly all day, so I hoped the same would be true when I got home. But unfortunately, my luck changed. I walked into a chilly apartment as I had set the heat on 50 degrees. But when I turned it up, nothing seemed to happen. I was not going to be a happy camper with no heat, but slowly, ever so slowly, I started to feel heat coming out of the vents. Whew! Then I did a quick accounting of Christmas packages that had arrived. Those coming through US mail had been held at the post office and mail and packages were all in a bag waiting for me at the mailbox. There was one rather large box waiting for me on the deck, but I knew there should have been one more. I double checked Amazon tracking and saw that, indeed, Jonah’s Christmas present had been delivered to my front porch, but it was not there. I checked with my neighbor, but she had seen nothing. So I called Amazon. This is the third package in three months that has been delivered but disappeared. Amazon immediately sent me replacements for the first two at no cost to me, but because this package was sent from an outside source, they cannot do that. They can only get me in touch with the source via email and that takes two days. There’s no way a replacement is going to get here that way, so I called the source company, explained the situation, and ordered another 3-in-1 soccer training goal. These things aren’t cheap and I had to pay $25 to get expedited shipping, but Jonah will have a Christmas present. The company could not assure me that I won’t end up paying for both, but I have faith that Amazon will hold true to their policy and refund the money for the one that didn’t arrive. But I no longer trust getting packages here, so I had the replacement sent to Heather’s. Okay, now I had heat and the hope of a Christmas present for Jonah, but in the process I had discovered that I didn’t have internet or TV. I reset the system and got the internet going, but nothing I did worked for the television. Of course, the Christmas tree was blocking access to the mess of wires behind the TV, so I had to move the Christmas tree to gain access. The router for internet was working, but the cable box wouldn’t light up. I talked on the phone with a technician at Comcast, and she determined that the cable box was blown. I am not going to be home tomorrow since I am going with Heather and family to a Revels solstice celebration in Cambridge. And I could only get an appointment tomorrow or Tuesday, so Tuesday it will be unless I can take the cable box in Monday morning and hook it up myself. I’ll give that a try, but I made the appointment for Tuesday just in case. In the meantime, but Christmas tree is displaced, but life will go on. I just need to take a deep breath and carry on.

I talked to my sister Patsy tonight to tell her what a great time I had while visiting. We all enjoyed the Nutcracker performance last weekend and Patsy, Joe, and I really enjoyed our visit to Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage. But even more enjoyable was just being together. Patsy and I had a great time last night designing a couple of JibJab holiday cards. If you are not familiar with JibJab, it is an online service that allows you to insert photos of people’s faces into cartoon characters who sing crazy songs and dance to, in this case, popular Christmas songs. We sent one card to Janet and Monica and another to Patsy and Joe’s lifelong friends in Ohio. But in doing this, we uncovered some gems from the past. There were some cards Mark had evidently done to send to me at some point, but had never sent. There were a couple of really hilarious ones. Mark and I were in the bodies of Sonny and Cher rolling in daisies and singing, “I’ve Got You Babe.” And there was one where Mark was singing Right Said Fred’s, “I’m Too Sexy for My Shirt.” I thought seeing these would make me sad, but they didn’t. They were just too funny. But then today I was hit with a very sad moment that totally surprised me. I was coming down the escalator to Baggage Claim at Boston Logan this afternoon, when a totally unexpected moment of loneliness and sadness hit me. I miss Mark every minute of every day, but this was an almost ‘knock you down’ moment. I suddenly felt so very alone. I took a deep breath, carried on, and thought for just a moment about those silly JibJab cards. That made me smile.

Life After Windbird, Day 126: A First for Me
Date: Friday, December 16, 2016
Weather: Overcast and Warmer; High Temp 46, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee

Today my niece Janet and her significant other gave me an early Christmas present that was a first for me—a relaxation massage with an added heat treatment. I have resisted getting a massage for years despite the recommendations of many friends and family members. I guess I just thought it was an extra I couldn’t afford. But this gift was certainly a special one. I could definitely get used to massages. Thank you, Janet and Monica!

This is my last day here and we started the day by making final decisions on which set of twin bedspreads for the guestroom Santa will bring Patsy on Christmas. Santa asked me to help figure this out while I was here and it was a bigger job than I expected. A twin bed spread comes in different widths and lengths and stores here don’t seem to keep any twin bedding in stock. So, we searched on the internet, ordered one set from Amazon and actually found full-size bedspreads at a local store that fit the dimensions. I bought those for the viewing and this morning we had a bedroom fashion show. The spreads from the local store got both Patsy and Joe’s approval, so the other spreads were sent back to Amazon and the winning set were sent to Santa for delivery on Christmas morning.

Joe said every day this week that it was like Christmas because boxes from Amazon kept arriving. In addition to the bedspreads, Joe had me order a new Christmas tablecloth, placements, and napkins for the dining table. And Patsy had me order a few things as well. Today, Joe’s sister Judy sent a beautiful live Christmas arrangement to grace the table. Patsy completed decorating the Christmas tree this week with the help of Janet and Tommy. The tree is an artificial one, and the special thing about it is that you can change the color of the lights depending on your mood. The lights can be white, or by stepping on a button one time, the lights change to colored lights. And if you step on the button a third time, the lights alternate between white and colored. Too fancy for me! The outside of the house is also decked out in lights. So it’s looking a lot like Christmas here.

Life After Windbird, Day 125: Quiet Day at Home
Date: Thursday, December 15, 2016
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High Temp 28, Low 19 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee

Other than the very cold weather that moved in during the night, there is not much more to report. I made soup with the turkey broth I made earlier in the week and fixed a salmon, sweet potato, and broccoli dinner. I did go out and do a bit of shopping for Patsy, and after dinner this evening, Patsy and I had a chance to visit. Tomorrow is my last day here as I fly home on Saturday morning. The days have flown by, but I will return to visit for a longer period of time later in the winter. But it has been fun to be here with Patsy and Joe at this time of year to help with the Christmas decorating.

Life After Windbird, Day 124: Glade Diner Breakfast and Hermitage Tour
Date: Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 40, Low 19 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee

Today was overcast and dreary, but we ignored that and had a great day. My nephew Tommy had to be Nashville for a business call at 11 am, so we headed to the Glade Diner around 9 am. This is a Tennessee original and if you like “good ‘ol country food”, this is your place. All orders come with biscuits and gravy, and you have a choice of country ham or city ham. I’ve always heard of country ham, but never city ham. This diner was a little country store before becoming a restaurant, and I’m pretty certain that the wood floor has never been refinished. We all enjoyed the breakfast, and then Tommy was off for Nashville. Patsy, Joe, and I headed home for a bit. While we were home, Joe called his internet provider to inquire about getting help for my computer which had been infected with malware. They reminded Joe that he pays for remote take-over of his computer and they said they would be glad to deal with my issues. Since he is paying for the service anyway, there was no charge. A young man took over my computer and made all the necessary fixes remotely while we went back out to tour Andrew Jackson’s mansion known as The Hermitage. It is an immaculately kept home with original furnishings and even original wallpaper. Andrew Jackson lived here before he was President and moved back to Hermitage in 1837 after serving two terms as the ‘president of the people’. He remained at The Hermitage until his death in 1845. And even though he was a self-made man, he had enough wealth prior to the War of 1812 and prior to becoming President in 1928, to buy the original 425 acres of land. In the beginning, he and his wife Rachel lived in a log home, eventually building a Federalist-styled mansion. After a fire in the early 1830’s, the mansion was rebuilt in the Greek revival style. And by this time, the acreage had increased to over a thousand. This property was kept intact and became a non-profit museum in 1889. No mention was made of how it escaped damage during the Civil War, but today it stands as a national treasure and monument to “Old Hickory.”

We returned home in the late afternoon, but my sister and I weren’t done yet. We headed back out to the outlet mall about 12 miles east of here. Patsy and Joe game me new Eddie Bauer jacket as an early Christmas present. I have complained since I arrived here of the bulk of my winter jacket, admiring Patsy’s quilted down jacket that is so very compact compared to mine. But somehow she knew this before I arrived and had the gift ready. Today they presented me with the jacket. The size was perfect and I love the color. The only thing that would make it more perfect would be if it had an attached hood. So, we went to the mall to see if it could be exchanged. But the only jackets like it with a hood were a longer length and that I don’t want. So I made the decision to stay with the original jacket. And there will be no more complaints about a bulky jacket!

Tomorrow we are going to need jackets as the daytime high will be below freezing. It is a one-day deep freeze and the temp goes back up until Sunday. The high temperature here and at home seems to change by about ten degrees each day—60 degrees, 50 degrees, 40 degrees, 30 degrees, and then back up and back down again. So tomorrow we will have a high of 30 degrees increasing to 60 degrees by Saturday and back down to 30 degrees with a chance of snow on Sunday. Sunday on the Cape is forecast to have a high of 55 degrees before the temp there drops on Monday and Tuesday. Hard to keep up with the changes.

On this day, I always think of my brother Bennie. He would have been 85 today, but died at the early age of 33. The only sibling I have left is my sister Patsy. My mother had two children, both boys, when she was just a teenager. If the oldest had survived, he would be 92 years-old now. My sister Margie was the third child born in 1928, Bennie was the fourth child born in 1931, Patsy the fifth born in 1933, Dickie the sixth born in 1935, and then twelve years later I came along. Lots of years of memories.

Life After Windbird, Day 123: Quick Note
Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rain Early; High Temp 44, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee

Just a quick note to say all is well. The day was filled with more cooking, shopping online and in real stores, and visiting this evening with nephew Tommy. In the midst of all this some malware took over my computer and thankfully Heather and Jed were able to help me figure out what to do temporarily. I use two different browsers and can now only access one of them. I’ll deal with that tomorrow. But despite that issue, Tommy, Patsy, Joe, and I had a great evening together.

Life After Windbird, Day 122: Special Visit
Date: Monday, December 12, 2016
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Rain Early; High Temp 50, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee

The highlight of today was dinner this evening with my niece Janet, who lives nearby, and my nephew Tommy who flew in from Charlotte, NC, today. He is here on business, but the timing of his visit was perfect. Patsy and I spent part of our day doing more cooking and Joe and I ran errands in the afternoon. Tommy is staying at Janet’s tonight, but she is leaving on a business trip tomorrow. So he will return here tomorrow evening. Tommy brings laughter and happiness wherever he goes, so it is great that he could be here this week while I am visiting. He and Janet finished decorating the Christmas tree and hung a 45-year-old Christmas decoration Janet made for her parents when she was a little girl. For dinner, we had our Martin Family special—salmon cakes and greens and beans with mashed potatoes. The greens were kale cooked in the turkey broth I made on Sunday, not creasy greens cooked in bacon fat, and the beans were Patsy’s special spicy pintos. Janet and I don’t do dairy these days, so the mashed potatoes were made with unsweetened almond milk and everyone thought they were delicious.

I did a ton of Christmas shopping on Amazon tonight while watching the Patriots-Ravens game. And I even had a bit of time to help Patsy order a set of bedspreads for her guest room with twin beds. The bedspread on Amazon that met Patsy’s size and likability requirements had only two left in stock, so we ordered both. We will still do some shopping around in the stores here, and can make a final decision once the bedspreads arrive from Amazon. They make it so easy to return things if you don’t want them. What did I ever do without Amazon?