Life After Windbird, Day 81: November
Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 55, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA

November. Seriously? I cannot believe it is really November. I think I’ve been in some sort of time warp where days go by but I don’t move forward with them. But the chilly days, with dark coming by 6 pm, is a definite clue that time really is moving forward. By this time next week with the time change on Sunday, it will be dark by 5 pm. The only good news about that is that in seven weeks, the days will begin getting longer again. For that reason alone, I love winter solstice.

Sunday night I made Magic Chicken Mineral Broth with the bones of the organic roasted chicken from dinner and I took the broth to Heather’s this afternoon to can it. I was on Oma duty, picking the boys up from school. When we got home I found that school pictures were sent home today. And when Heather and Jed arrived with Ollie, he had his school pictures as well. The pics of all three boys were really great. Can’t wait to get my copies. I spent my evening talking with my Aunt Ethel trying to find a time that I might drive to Virginia to pick her up and take her to my sister Patsy’s in Tennessee for a week-long visit. I had hoped to do this in December, but Aunt Ethel’s calendar was already full. She thought she could do it in November, but after thinking about it, that was rejected as well. She had promised a neighbor that she would cat sit and she really wanted to honor that promise. So we’ll try for another time after the holidays. Now I just need to decide if I am going to make that trip anyway, or just wait until sometime in January or February. That was pretty much it for my day.

Life After Windbird, Day 80: Happy Halloween
Date: Monday, October 31, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny and CHILLY; High 50, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA

My day was filled with fun Halloween activities. I got a call early from Justin who shared a story with me. Ziggy and Coco’s school has an altar for ‘dia de los muertos’ translated to English it means ‘day of the dead’. This is a custom throughout Latin America, although it is mainly a Mexican tradition celebrated on November 1st. Basically it is a time to honor the dead and today Ziggy and Coco were taking photos of themselves with Granddad for the altar. Ziggy decided he wanted to dress as a sailor today in honor of Granddad, but then he had to ask his dad what sailors wear. In his mind sailors wear ‘jeans pants’ because that is all he has ever seen Mark or I wear. So he wanted jeans and hat, because Granddad always wore a hat. Too sweet.

Ollie’s preschool Halloween parade was in Woods Hole at 11 am, so I went to see that. So many cute little ones. Ollie dressed as a Dalmatian puppy for the parade and was just as cute as he could be. I left after the parade but told Ollie I would be returning to pick him up this afternoon. He said, “I know.” I asked if mommy or daddy told him and he said, “No. I just wanted you to come pick me up so I knew you would.” Sure wish I had that kind of confidence in making things happen just because I want them to! Unfortunately, I think you have to be four years old to have that confidence. At 2:15 I drove to East Falmouth Elementary School to see Sam and Jonah’s school parade. Jonah went as a lacrosse player and Sam was a World War II soldier.

And then I drove home for a bit and then went to pick Ollie up from school. By the time we got home, I had a text message from Justin and Jo with a picture of the Handley-Hunts ready to go Trick-or-Treating in Rincon, Puerto Rico—Ziggy as a Minion and Coco as a Ladybug. And then it was time to eat dinner and get ready to go Trick-or-Treating in East Falmouth, Massachusetts. Heather fixed a fantastic dinner for the seven of us—Sam’s friend, Ethan, and I were the guests. Heather is still getting kale, Swiss chard, and tiny wild cherry tomatoes out of the garden and fixed a yummy side dish using the fresh ingredients from the garden. The food was so good I think we lingered at the table a little longer than we should have because the first Trick-or-Treaters arrived before our gang was ready to go out. That hurried them along. Heather went as Little Red Riding Hood and Jed was the woodcutter. Jed made a really cute train that fit on top of Ollie’s little red wagon and Ollie went as the train engineer. Sam and Jonah stayed in their costumes from the school parade and I stayed home to hand out the goodies. Jonah asked me what I was going to be and I said I was the Great Pumpkin. I had on an orange shirt and I let the kids draw jack ‘o lanterns on the front of the shirt. It was a chilly night but the gang was out longer than usual. They decided to go to the far end of the neighborhood to go to the kids’ music teacher’s home. And by doing so, they each came home with huge bags of candy. They were very happy Trick-or-Treaters.

Life After Windbird, Day 79: Cape Cod Marathon and Halloween Party in PR
Date: Sunday, October 30, 2016
Weather: Perfect Weather Today, Light Rain Tonight; High 74, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA

Wow! What a beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was much warmer than forecast–just right for the Cape Cod Marathon. At 10 am I got a call from Heather saying that Jed was on his way from the Scout camp out, but she was a bit nervous that he might not make it. I headed in that direction just in case he didn’t, but he did make it and he and the Goldpebbles dropped Heather near the spot where she would take over for the fourth out of five sections for relay teams. I headed to the grocery store to get an organic whole chicken to roast for dinner as there were none when I went to the store yesterday. I delivered that to the apartment and then drove to Woods Hole to be there for Heather’s arrival around noon. The Woods Hole Daycare Cooperative runs the water stop in Woods Hole and Jed and boys were there helping. Jed was filling the water and Gatorade for runners while Ollie was ringing the cowbells as the runners came by. One of his little friends, Paulie, was offering candy to runners and then Paulie decided to help Ollie with the cowbells. Sam and Jonah were playing on the playground and eventually the cowbell ringers left their job and went to play as well. We knew Heather should arrive at noon give or take a few minutes, so I walked with the boys to the place where she would pass off the baton to Sean Corcoran, one of her co-workers at WCAI. At 12:04 the pass was made and the boys ran with Heather to the water stop at the preschool where she promptly threw herself on the ground for a little rest. But after a snuggle with her boys, she left to drive to the green in downtown Falmouth to meet with her other teammates to cheer for Sean when he ended the race. While she was gone, I walked to Pie in the Sky to get lunch for all of us. There was quite a long wait, so by the time we finished our lunch, Heather was back. Then it was home for me, to soccer for Sam and Jed (and Jonah who decided to go along with them), and to a post-marathon party for Heather and Ollie. In the meantime, I headed home to fix dinner for them. And while doing that, I received some photos via text messages from my daughter-in-law Jo in Puerto Rico. Coco’s good friend Anala was having a Halloween birthday party at the Lighthouse in Rincon this afternoon and Coco and Ziggy were all decked out in their Halloween costumes for the affair. Coco was a what I would call a Princess Ladybug and Ziggy was a pirate. Arrrrgh, Matey. And Anala was definitely a princess.

It was a great day for Heather and great day for grandkids here and in Puerto Rico. And that makes it a great day for me. Unfortunately, the weather here tomorrow is going to be 15 to 20 degrees cooler tomorrow, so Halloween will be a chilly affair.

Life After Windbird, Day 78: Another Soccer Saturday
Date: Saturday, October 29, 2016
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Windy, Warming a Bit; High 59, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today was another soccer Saturday. Sam’s travel team played this afternoon and will play again tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon’s make-up game will end the travel team’s season. Jonah and Ollie play recreational soccer which continues for two more Saturdays. Then we’ll have a break from organized soccer until spring. But soccer goes on in the front and backyards of the Goldstone’s, even in the dead of winter with snow on the ground. Today was not a winning day for either Jonah or Sam’s teams and Ollie did even go to his game this morning. But he played on the sidelines of Jonah’s game. He loves to play, but he really doesn’t like playing against kids he doesn’t know and having people who don’t know him watch him play. None of us see any reason to push that, so we’ll just try again next year. But even though Jonah and Sam’s teams didn’t win, both boys played great games. Jonah alternates between goalie and forward, whereas Sam plays defense. Near the end of Sam’s game, a kid from the other team kicked the ball in the air. Sam was standing close to him and got hit in the head with the ball. Since soccer balls are supposed to stay on the ground, Sam’s reaction was classic. He threw up his hands and it looked like he was saying, “What the heck!” Well, hopefully it was ‘heck’ that he said. I was sitting near people from the other team and a few of the dads got a chuckle out of Sam’s reaction and said that they thought they would react the same way in that situation. I saw Sam briefly at the end of the game and he said he was okay. But I always hate to see kids get hit in the head with a ball at close range.

Tonight is a camp out night for Jonah’s Scout troop. Heather took Ollie and Jonah to the afternoon Scout activities right after Jonah’s game and then Sam and Jed joined them after Sam’s soccer game. It is a family camp out, so Jed is staying with Ollie, Jonah, and Sam, but Heather decided ahead of time that she was not staying. She runs in the Cape Cod Marathon in the morning and decided that a good night’s sleep was in order. Tomorrow’s marathon is a relay for Heather’s team and her part of the run doesn’t start until about 10:30 am. The plan is for Jed and boys to get home in time to drop her off and then they will drive to Woods Hole to await her arrival there. Jed will man the water stop right in front of Ollie’s school and the boys will play on the playground. I’ll drive down to see Heather finish her portion of the race. Then we’ll all drive back to downtown Falmouth to see the end of the race. Heather’s relay team is having a post-race party so Heather will take Jonah and Ollie to that while Sam and Jed are back on the soccer field. While they are partying and playing soccer, I’ll head back home to fix dinner for all of us. All of this activity makes my head spin just to write about it! And speaking of making my head spin, I went to a Zumba class at the gym this morning. The instructor was VERY enthusiastic and all of the other women were regulars. I have never been to Zumba class and had to work hard to just barely follow along. Doing Y-M-C-A near the end, over and over with weights, almost did me in, but I made it.

Life After Windbird, Day 77: More of the Same
Date: Friday, October 28, 2016
Weather: Overcast and WINDY; High 55, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today was more of the same—more overcast, cool weather and more time spent dealing with computer issues. Thankfully in the middle of the afternoon, Heather called to see if I could pick Ollie up from school and bring him home. That gave me the break that I needed and as always, Ollie brightens my day. Jed and Sam had soccer practice this afternoon and Heather had to go to the elementary school to set for a Halloween movie night, so I stayed with Jonah and Ollie until Jed got home. Tomorrow is soccer Saturday with three soccer games spaced throughout the day and on Sunday Heather runs the Cape Cod Marathon. I have invited Heather and gang over for dinner on Sunday evening, so the weekend is full of activity. Then Monday is Halloween and I’ll spend that day traveling to Woods Hole to see Ollie’s pre-school parade, heading back to East Falmouth Elementary for a 2:15 pm parade around the school track, and then help-out with Trick or Treat night at the Goldstones. So I’ll put the computer issues on the back burner for the next three days and just enjoy the activities. Hopefully the wind will slow down a bit by morning, but the temperature is going to remain about the same. Looks like we are in for days in the 50’s and night’s in the 40’s—better than 30’s—for the next week or so.

Life After Windbird, Day 76: Big Emotional Hurdle
Date: Thursday, October 27, 2016
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High 52, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today Mark and I would have celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary so the entire day was one big emotional hurtle for me. I got four calls from different family members and missed them all which is probably best. Just the thought of talking to anyone today made me cry. I went to the gym early for the Butts and Guts exercise class (missed two calls), came home and took a shower over one of my computers remotely and worked on a few issues with me and that took almost two hours. Finally, we had to end our session as I had to pick Sam and Jonah up from school and Justin had a business call coming in. I think we could do this every day for a week and still not get through all the issues. But I must wade through a lot of this on my own. Thankfully I also have Heather and Jed with which to bounce around issues and we did some of that tonight after dinner. I picked up Sam and Jonah after school and then was invited to stay for dinner. We had delicious cod and kale and it was so much fun to just be with the three boys that can keep you laughing, no matter what. So I made it through this day with lots of support from family. Even though I missed all of the calls, I knew that people were there for me. And Justin and Jo and Heather and Jed were all there for me. I’m very lucky to have such a supportive family.

I did reflect on the past 42 years today and remembered some of the best anniversaries through the years. Actually, Mark and I basically ignored anniversaries until sometime in the 1990’s. When Heather was in college in Australia, Mark used the excuse of our anniversary to take me out to dinner and surprise me with airline tickets to Australia. We had a wonderful visit with Heather, chartered a sailboat, and spent seven days in the Whitsunday Islands. Then on our 30th anniversary, Mark gave me stainless steel cowl vents for Windbird. I wanted those stainless vents (rather than the rubber ones) so badly, but each vent cost over $300. There was no way we could afford them. So when Mark surprised me with that gift, I was absolutely ecstatic. In 2006, our 32nd anniversary, we were in Tonga and visited the blow holes that stretch over 10 miles along the coast. It was one of the most incredible sights we saw anywhere around the world. The next biggie I remember was while we were in Singapore. Some of our closest cruising friends met us at Raffles, the home of the Singapore Sling, and we all paid the exorbitant price of $28 US to have a Singapore Sling in honor our 34th anniversary.

01 Anniversary Drinks at Raffles

01 A Toast to Our 35th Anniversary at LAX Food Court–How Romantic

13 Beautiful Dinner at Heather and Jed’s

Life After Windbird, Day 75: Inching Forward
Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny and Definitely Cool; High 50, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA

I have spent my entire day sitting at the dining room table working on computer issues.
The computer I am now working on was Mark’s and it has most of the same folders in My Documents as my computer has. But Mark added to some of his folders and I added to some of mine. And each of us added new folders. This required comparing folders and comparing files within those folders and transferring files from one computer to another making sure both mirror each other. I started the same progress with photos, but that job is not completed. In fact, for now, I am taking all photos off my computer and putting them on a hard drive and on Mark’s computer. I printed out 81 pages of my contact files from my computer because they were in my Outlook email. Outlook is going to be deleted and replaced by something else since it is Outlook that is not working properly. By the end of the day tomorrow, I hope to have my computer ready to go back to the shop for a thorough clean-out and rebuild. If I find that is going to cost too much, I’ll attempt to do it myself. And if everything fails, I at least have everything backed up. Unfortunately, I am also having a strange problem with Mark’s computer. When I try to open WeatherUnderground, the computer freezes—every single time. And I have to literally shut down the computer with the on/off button. I will also call Comcast tomorrow and have them come check my router. Since my computer has the same problem here as at Heather’s, I don’t think the problem is the router, but I want to make sure in light of the issue on Mark’s computer with WeatherUnderground. It was not an exciting day, but I am inching forward, even if it is in snail fashion. Forward is better than backward.

Life After Windbird, Day 74: Taking Care of Business
Date: Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny, Cool and Windy; High 52, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA

I keep trying to take care of business, but somehow the ‘business’ keeps increasing. So I keep working harder. I’m sure I am making progress, but it just doesn’t seem that way in the moment. And the computer issues I’m having don’t help. I will spend tomorrow transferring all documents from the computer that cannot receive email to the computer that is working properly. Then I will get the computer shop to totally clean up the older computer, taking off everything, and rebuilding from scratch. I have no idea if that is the right thing to do, but it is all I know to do. If it still doesn’t work properly after that, I will send it to the land of dead computers, along with three other old computers that are still hanging around.

I started my day with a walk with a three mile walk with friend Olivia White. Olivia led the memorial service for Mark when we sent his ashes out to sea, and soon after, she left for Europe for a Viking River Cruise. It is great to have her back and we enjoyed the sunny but cool morning as we walked from her house down to the beach and back.

In the early afternoon, I had an appointment with my newly acquired lawyer to pick-up copies of a new will and all of the other legal documents that go along with a will. I then did some grocery shopping, headed home to do some cooking, and drove to Heather and Jed’s to pick up the non-working computer that I left with them last Saturday. This gave me an opportunity to see the boys briefly and talk with Heather and Jed. I then headed home to fix dinner. I was almost home when I got a call from Ed and Lynne Kirwin. I know you are not supposed to answer a cell phone while driving, but since I was almost in the drive-way, I answered. I had received about three text messages from them in the afternoon that were written in Chinese. They sent those same texts to other people who received them in English. All I can hope is that my phone is not going crazy like my computer. But the news I finally received in English was so fantastic. Ed got the results of his latest CT scan today and his cancer is totally stable—no new growth. I definitely did a happy dance after hearing that news. I am so happy for Ed and Lynne.

Life After Windbird, Day 73: Hillary Rally in New Hampshire
Date: Monday, October 24, 2016
Weather: Sunny, Cool, Still Windy; High 50’s, Low 30’s F
Location: At Home at the Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today was the day of the New Hampshire Democratic Party rally. And it was a great day—beautiful weather, well organized and exciting political rally, time with Helaine and my niece Lynn.

It would have been nice to be able to sit down, but that is not part of a rally with a couple of thousand people. You stand in line, stand while waiting for the speakers, and stand while they are speaking. Today that was about four hours of standing. But it was worth it. This rally was sponsored by the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Helaine and I drove to the rally in my car instead of driving separately because we knew parking was going to be limited. We were going to meet my niece Lynn in the parking area at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester, NH, the site of the rally. Helaine and I were about ten minutes late getting there that I had predicted, but my niece Lynn was stuck in traffic and was also running a few minutes late. Miraculously, she drove in just after us and parked just one car away. Then we spent a lot of time standing in line waiting for the gates to open to the rally site. Originally the rally was to be held inside, but more people responded than expected, so last night an email was sent out explaining the venue would be outside. St. Anselm’s campus is beautiful, so the outside venue was perfect for this beautiful fall day. The temperature was in the 50’s, but with the bright sunshine, a vest and a jacket were just a little too much. But better warm than too cold. After waiting in line for what seemed way too long, the line started moving slowly toward the rally site. We went through airport-type security and finally we were within the fenced area and herded by young volunteers to keep moving. When we were in ‘our space’, we then had to keep standing. It was nearly an hour before things started and then standing for the hour-long rally. So there was a lot of standing today. But there was music, people watching, and media watching (we were standing just in front of the stand where Andrea Mitchell was reporting for MSNBC). We listened to speeches from Colin van Osten, the young man running for governor and Maggie Hasson, the current governor who is running for the US Senate against republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte. Then we were treated to a rousing speech by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren that led to the introduction of Hillary Clinton. Hillary gave an uplifting speech that echoed the campaign slogan of “Stronger Together.” It was heartening to see the number of young people in attendance today and the number of parents with young children. The whole experience gave me renewed hope in what has been an incredibly negative political season.

After the rally I drove Helaine back to Bow and left there about 4 pm to make the two and half hour drive home. Tomorrow morning, I am up early to walk with friend Olivia White. And after that I might just chill. It was a wonderful weekend, but I need a little down time.

Life After Windbird, Day 72: Traveling Day
Date: Sunday, October 23, 2016
Weather: Most Sunny, Cool, and Very Windy; High 50’s, Low 40’s F
Location: At Home with Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg, Bow, NH

Today was a traveling day—from Greenland, New Hampshire, across the border for a little southern Maine tour, back to Greenland, and then on to Bow, New Hampshire. Bow is what I call suburban Concord and Bow is where friends Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg live.

First thing this morning I checked in with both Heather and Justin about progress on my computer. Not much to be said there, but I did have a great Skype video call with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. This was Halloween costume making day at their house–a ladybug costume for Coco and a Minion costume for Ziggy. When calls were done, Detta, Tom, and I started our touring day by heading across the border to Maine to a store I had never heard of—Stonewall Kitchen. This is a high quality kitchen store with every imaginable jam, jelly, and sauce you have ever heard of, and more. It was enjoyable to walk through and seeing all of the different sauces gave me great ideas for some I’d like to make and can. The Halloween decorations outside the building were lots of fun, from bike riding witches to a very fat and happy scare crow . . . and, of course, lots of pumpkins.
Next we went to the little tourist town of Ogunquit to walk the Marginal Way. This is a one mile walk along the edge of the Atlantic with beautiful views of the rocky coast of Maine and ending at an expansive beach with lots of surfers in the water. The high winds today resulted in great surfing waves with the tops of the waves being blown off by the wind. We had lunch in a very nice restaurant called The Roost and then did a driving tour through Ogunquit with businesses all decked out in Halloween fare. We drove out to a newly renovated hotel called the Cliff House—not a beautiful building on the outside, but a gorgeous interior with an all glass wall on the ocean side affording gorgeous views. And it is properly named as it is on a cliff that falls right down into the ocean. From the Cliff House, we did a meandering tour back through York and Kittery and then back across the bridge to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In addition to beaches, scenic rocky coastline, and the Nubble Lighthouse in York, there were still lots of colorful fall trees to add to the beauty. A huge thanks goes out from me to Tom and Detta for treating me like a queen during my time with them. They fed me, showered me with gifts, took me on delightful tours both yesterday and today, and most importantly took time out of their busy lives to spend quality time with me.

By the time we got back to Greenland, it was time for me to leave the coast and start the drive to Bow in the center of New Hampshire. Soon after I arrived Helaine served a delicious dinner of baked flounder and sautéed swiss chard with currants and pine nuts. It was definitely a gourmet dinner topped with gluten-free apple crumble. The only photo I took tonight shows Alan and Helaine both deeply engrossed in the tablet and computer world. I took the photo because they looked like a couple of teenagers hard at work! Actually, Alan spent the entire evening helping me with various computer issues. The computer I am now using works just fine, but it is set up so differently than the computer I have been using that I needed some friendly guidance. Thank you, Alan and Helaine.

Helaine and I got emails this evening indicating a bit of a change in the Hillary rally we are attending tomorrow. It sounds like there has been a greater response than expected and the event has been moved outside. The suggested arrival time is much earlier than it was yesterday. So we will be up and out of here in the morning and then spend about three hours waiting for the rally to begin. The high temperature tomorrow will be 50 degrees F and windy, but at least it is supposed to sunny. I guess we’ll just have to see if we can stand the wait. If it is miserable, we might just leave. But I have a feeling we’ll hang in there. My niece Lynn is driving up from Massachusetts, so it will be fun to see her there as well.