Life After Windbird, Day 71: Great Day in NH
Date: Saturday, October 22, 2016
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 50’s, Low 40’s F
Location: At Home with Detta and Tom Porat, Greenland, NH

I drove to Greenland, New Hampshire, this morning and had a great day with Detta and Tom Porat despite the rain. The closer I got to Greenland, the more beautiful the colors of the leaves.

First we drove to North Hampton to have lunch at a local brewery called the Throwback—good food and great company. Then we drove to Exeter to Applecrest Farm Orchards to buy an apple pie for dessert and some apple cider donuts. This is a huge farm that grows all kinds of vegetables in addition to the apples. Their store is huge and there is also a restaurant. We then returned home and had afternoon coffee with those apple cider donuts. I obviously went off my gluten-free diet today, but it was worth it. Detta fixed a great salmon dinner with asparagus and freshly picked corn from the farm. I was surprised that they still have corn and it was yummy. We spent the evening watching bits and pieces of videos on u-tube, mostly comedy. But Tom and Detta also introduced me to some new people in the music world. Well, not new, just new to me. I love being here enjoying the big window views of Great Bay and the warmth and friendship of two very special people.

Life After Windbird, Day 70: Day of Frustrations
Date: Friday, October 21, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rain Late; High 70, Low 60’s F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Our world does not need any more negativity these days, but I have to be honest in saying that this was a day of frustrations. I’m working hard to rebound and put the best face on things, but I had more than one melt down today. And melt downs are not my normal way of dealing with issues. My first mild meltdown was when I went to the gym to an Indoor Cycling class. Oh, my. I haven’t been on a real bicycle for years, but I have been riding a bike at the gym the past two weeks and enjoying it. But the Indoor Cycling class was hard, very hard. I won’t go back to that class for a while. The bike was an upright like most bikes, but the one I have been exercising on is a recumbent with pedals in front, not directly under you. So not only was just pedaling harder, you were supposed to stand up on the pedals for a great deal of the time. It was just too hard on my knees, so I just sat and pedaled. I’ll continue biking on the recumbent and when I’m stronger and my knee is less inflamed, I’ll try the class again. But I have to admit that I left the gym a little frustrated—feeling older than I am.

I left the gym and took my computer to the repair shop. I spent a long time explaining the two things I wanted checked out. I asked if I should write this out, but the young man assured me he knew the two things I needed done. The major issue is my email. On my computer, I can only send and receive when I first boot the computer. I left the computer and came home to try and edit photos on Mark’s Asus computer. You’d think there wouldn’t be that much difference between two computers, but there is and I again found myself frustrated trying to learn new systems. But the killer of the day came when I was called to say that my computer was all fixed and I could come pick it up. When I got there, the young man that had worked on it was gone for the day and another young man handed me the computer and the bill. I started asking questions about what was done and he said that nothing was done except a scan. The scan showed that there were no problems and they were able to send and receive emails all afternoon. Really? And the second thing I wanted done had been ignored. I didn’t have time to stay as I needed to get to Heather and Jed’s to be with Jonah and Ollie. Jed and Sam had soccer practice and Heather had to leave at 5 pm for an evening work assignment. I paid the bill for nothing being done and left. That was frustrating, but when I got to Heather and Jed’s and turned on the computer, the frustration level went off the scales. I opened the email account and three thousand emails started coming in—at least that is what the send/receive window showed. The emails kept rolling in, but thankfully they were nowhere to be seen. OMG. Actually Jed had cancelled soccer practice due to the rain, so I didn’t need to stay with the boys. I brought the computer home to see what it would do here. Only hundreds of emails came in here and as soon as a couple of hundred clicked off, the send/receive trouble sign would appear. The computer shop thinks my problem might be my internet router, but I have no problem sending and receiving emails on Mark’s computer. I just have trouble using it! Long story short, I’ll drop my computer off at Heather and Jed’s tomorrow morning on my way out of town. Jed hopes to have time this weekend to check it out. But since it reacts different there than here, and completely differently at the computer shop, I’m not sure we’re going to figure this one out. I might just have to get used to using Mark’s computer and love it.

I’m going to put frustrations behind me and head to New Hampshire to have fun with friends. I was coming home on Sunday until today when I got an email invitation to attend a Hillary-Elizabeth Warren rally in New Hampshire at noon on Monday. I contacted Helaine Kanegsberg to see if she would like to go to the rally with me and she responded that she would. So on Sunday I will drive from coastal New Hampshire to inland Concord, spend the night with the Kanegsbergs, attend the rally on Monday, and THEN head back to the Cape. Should be a frustration-free three days.

Life After Windbird, Day 69: Technical Difficulties
Date: Thursday, October 20, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Cooler, High in the 60’s, Low in the 50’s
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today I continued my battle with technical difficulties. In dealing with those, I ran into a huge backlog of photos from this summer and fall that have never been edited and organized. They are just sitting in a folder on my computer desktop waiting for me to have the time to deal with them. I was vaguely aware that I have had this huge backlog, but still it was a rude awakening today to actually see how much work I have to do. I’ve gotten behind before, but this time is even harder because I can no longer use Picasa. Google stopped supporting that program the middle of August, and I have simply not had the time to learn the new skills needed to make Google Photos do the same job for me. I have yet to been able to post a photo album in a log. I used to be able to post a whole album very easily. Only the first picture showed up on the website, but if you clicked on that you were taken to the whole album. Google Photos doesn’t really have a process that allows this. You can post one photo at a time, but not an album. Justin came up with a way for me to do this, and he even made a video to lead me through the process. But it is not an easy ‘one click’ deal. It took me almost an hour today to watch Justin’s little two minute video and take written notes so I can actually try this in the morning. I’ll let you know if it works. And if it does, I need to go back through over 3,600 posts and repost all the albums I have posted over the last eleven years as the links to those were broken when Picasa went away. But photos aren’t my only problem. My other technical difficulty is my email. If I want to send or receive email from my computer, I have to do it the second I turn the computer on. If I wait, it won’t go. So today I backed up major files from my computer and will take the computer into the shop tomorrow. For years Mark has been my technology go-to person and because he was so good at it, I just let him do everything. So I have a tough learning curve ahead of me. Thankfully I have Heather and Justin to fall back on when all else fails. But I will continue to try and figure this out on my own the best that I can.

My early morning was spent at the gym in a group training called “Butts and Guts”. I knew from the name this was going to be a tough one for me, but I made it through and did my cycling afterwards. Tomorrow morning I attend another training group in indoor cycling. I’m anxious to see what this involves. And I ended my day by going to Heather and Jed’s for dinner. They had planned to come here, but Heather was then asked to watch the kids next door and thought it would be easier for me to come there. I ordered the pizza, picked it up, and Heather made a salad. It was not a gluten-free dinner for me, but it sure was easy and all the kids ate. During dinner Heather asked the kids to talk about their day and she mentioned that Oma went to an exercise class and that they should ask me the name. They asked and I told them, and they immediately started chanting “butts and guts”—they thought the name was hilarious. Brian took Molly and Joey home and I stayed and read bedtime stories to Ollie while Heather read to Jonah and Jed read to Sam. It was Ollie’s turn to bring the preschool mascot, Swimmy, home for the weekend and they let him come home with Ollie a day early. Ollie enjoyed posing with Swimmy so I could get a photo. It was a fun evening. Heather has an evening work commitment tomorrow, so I will return there to be with Jonah and Ollie until Sam and Jed get home from soccer practice. Then on Saturday morning I’ll be off to New Hampshire.

Life After Windbird, Day 68: Debate Night
Date: Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Weather: Partly Cloudy, High in the 70’s, Low in the 50’s
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

The big highlight of today was tonight’s Presidential debate. No matter what political stand you take, the debate was not a deal breaker for either candidate. But I do find it earth shattering to hear a presidential candidate refuse to say whether or not he will accept the results of the election. Not a democratic statement in my mind, actually I found it horrifying, so thank goodness we have less than three weeks to go.

Heather came over to watch the debate tonight and to work on my computer email problem. Justin tried to work on this earlier today, but was not able to take control of my computer because of a password issue. Basically, for a couple of weeks I have only been able to send or receive emails immediately after booting my computer. If I don’t send/receive immediately, I lose the window of opportunity. But Justin couldn’t figure out the problem, and neither could Heather. So tomorrow, after backing up a lot of files, I will take my computer into the local computer shop and see if they can figure out the problem. Tonight, however, I am writing this log on Mark’s computer and after I transfer files in the morning, I will just use this computer until the problem is resolved. Thankfully I have the back up.

The weather continues to be more like summer than fall. Absolutely delightful. But tomorrow the temperature starts to drop. Heather and gang will come over for dinner tomorrow night as they have another activity on Friday evening. Then on Saturday morning, I’ll head to New Hampshire for a weekend visit. Think that is it for the news from today.

Life After Windbird, Day 67: Eleven Glorious Years
Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Weather: Indian Summer; High 74, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Eleven years ago today, friends Kevin and Claire threw us our lines as Windbird left Shipyard Quarters Marina in Boston headed for ports around the world.

By October 18, 2006, we were in the Kingdom of Tonga. On October 18, 2007, we were in New Caledonia. By October 18, 2008, we were sailing from Belitung, Indonesia, to Singapore. In 2009, we were at the end of a visit to the US for the births of two grandsons, Ziggy and Jonah. On October 18 of that year, we were actually walking with Kevin and Claire on Myrtle Beach just before our return to Malaysia to continue our trek. October 18, 2010, found us sailing from Madagascar to South Africa. And by October 18, 2011, we were back home on Cape Cod preparing for living aboard in cold country. October 2012 found us readying to sail south for the winter. October 2013 we were tucking in for another New England winter at Fiddler’s Cove Marina in North Falmouth. On October 2014 we were anchored behind a little island in Morehead, North Carolina, headed to the Bahamas. And then on October 18, 2015, we were meeting with Jed’s cousin James Emmerling, who crewed with us on our final sail south. Today, October 18, 2016, I find myself without my Captain, but with such glorious memories of our life together. So I celebrate October 18 as a very special day in my life.

And speaking of glorious, this gift of sunny and warm “Indian summer” weather this week has been delightful. Today was so warm I had to go back to wearing a tank top and shorts. I love it. But the winds turn to come from the northwest on Thursday resulting in significantly cooler weather for the weekend. I will be in New Hampshire this weekend visiting with friends Detta and Tom Porat. And I’m sure we will not allow the cooler weather to curb our activities.

Life After Windbird, Day 66: Staying Busy Doing Nothing
Date: Monday, October 17, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warming; High 70, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

It is amazing just how busy one can be doing absolutely nothing. Well, not exactly nothing, but nothing of consequence. But the weather is nice and I am enjoying these rather slow-paced days. I went to the gym this morning for my first exercise class which was called 20/20/20. I think it was 20% cardio, 20% weights, and 20% aerobic. I had to go slow on some of the exercises as my left knee is still inflamed, but for a first try, I think I did just fine. I rode a bike for 20 minutes before I left, and it was after 11 am when I got home. I did get the cranberries sorted and stored away and I got most a big batch of granola baked, but that was just about it for my day.

This evening I went over to play games with Ollie while Sam, Jonah, and Heather were at Scouts. Every other Monday Jed has a Health Board meeting, so Heather takes over as Scout leader on those nights. Ollie and I always have fun when we are together and tonight was no exception. When I first arrived, I gave Jed a t-shirt that Heather had given to her dad a few years ago. It was Mark’s favorite t-shirt of all time. Printed on the front was this little quip, “If a man is sailing at sea where no woman can hear him, is he still wrong?” Of course the answer is YES. No matter where Mark was when he wore this shirt, every woman who saw him stopped him so they could read the shirt again. It was quite a conversation piece. But when I gave the shirt to Jed tonight, Ollie stopped me saying we (he and I) needed to keep the shirt so we could touch it to let Granddad know how much we love him. I tried to convince him that when his daddy wears the shirt, we can still touch it to let Granddad know we love him, but he wasn’t buying it. He finally agreed, but I am constantly amazed at Ollie’s determination to do things to keep letting Mark know we love him. Tonight he told me that he knows that when people die they can still talk. And he still hears Granddad tell him that he loves him. Heather often calls Ollie the Ollie lama as he often has insights that are way beyond his years. Tonight he sent a couple of magnets home with me and he said that when I touch them, Granddad will know. He almost has me convinced.

We moved on to the game playing part of our evening. We tried to assemble a very difficult dinosaur 3-D anatomy puzzle. I could figure out how to make the skeletal structure fit in, but I couldn’t figure out how to include all of the various organs. Ollie kept asking me, “You know what they are don’t you?” I assured him I did, but that I just couldn’t figure out how to make them fit. We did get the dinosaur together minus brains, lungs, kidneys, intestines, etc., and then we moved on to playing Zingo, a game I can understand. It is like Bingo, and although Ollie filled his cards first each time, he assured me I didn’t lose because we just kept playing until I filled my cards. He then played on his own for a few minutes while I unloaded the dishwasher and filled it up again. But I had to stop before I was finished as we needed to head to the beach at Menauhant to try and see the launch of Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket being launched from Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Wallops Island. Ollie and I arrived just before launch time, and right behind us came Heather with Sam and Jonah. Unfortunately there were clouds on the horizon and we couldn’t see the launch, but we did get to see the slightly waning full moon rise above the clouds while listening to the waves quietly washing ashore. It was definitely worth the trip even without seeing the launch. That was the perfect ending to a good day.

Life After Windbird, Day 65: Cranberry Harvest and Chutney
Date: Sunday, October 16, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warming Up; High 66, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today was the day to make and can apple chutney at the Goldstones, so I got up, gathered the ingredients that I had, and headed to Heather and Jed’s. When I got there I suggested we make a double batch as we have never gotten more than seven pints out of a single. So Heather got out the apple peeler/corer and with the help of Ollie and Jonah, got the apples ready. We then realized that in order to cook a double batch in one pot, we would need the big pot I bought this summer to make chicken mineral broth, so while Heather cut up the onions and red peppers, I headed home to get the pot. But even with the delay, we were ahead of schedule, so Heather suggested that we all walk down to the bogs to gather some cranberries. The big harvest with machinery started on Thursday which meant there should be ‘leftovers’ that big harvesting operation leaves behind that we could we could gather. Sam and Jonah rode their bikes to invite friends to come along and we said we would meet them at the bogs. We left the chutney burbling and got the Radio Flyer red wagon loaded with nets and pots for gathering the cranberries. But it took us so long that Sam and Jonah were back with their friends and we all headed to the bogs together. What we found was that the closest bogs were actually being harvested today but that the harvest of the bogs across the road had been completed. It was mighty tempting to just dip our nets into the gathered cranberries that were waiting to be sucked up into the big trucks, but we resisted, walked on, and found plenty of cranberries that had been left behind in the bogs harvested at week’s end.

There were lots of berries, but we were struck by the number of them that were not ripe. We think the combination of dry weather and the lack of cold nights and warm days resulted in a harvest with almost half of the berries still ‘green’—for cranberries ‘green’ is really white. But for sure, they weren’t the deep red that we have seen in past years. The other couple with us, Jeanne Harper and Dan Hennen, have two boys close to Sam and Jonah’s ages, and while we gathered cranberries, the boys were racing around the bogs on their bikes. Ollie wasn’t able to keep up with the older boys, but we saw Dan take off with Ollie and realized they were all headed to the huge sand bank on the opposite side of the bogs for a little slip and slide fun. By the time I got there, the boys were having a great time sliding down the sand bank.

Sam yelled down from his perch at the top of the bank that the first parent to make it to the top would be paid a dollar by each of the boys. Jed and Dan took the bait and Dan made it to the top first . . . just in time to hear, “Just kidding.” Boys will be boys.

At some point Heather started talking about lunch and said she thought she should make grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with slices of apple between the ham and cheese. Jeanne had never heard of doing this, but said she had some apples that needed to be eaten. Sam really wanted all of us to have lunch together, so Jeanne and Dan invited us all over for this culinary delight. I was quite surprised at how good the addition of sliced apples is for the old ham and cheese stand-by. After lunch, we headed back home to prepare to can the apple chutney and wash the cranberries. The berries were all coated with a heavy layer of tiny cranberry leaves and Heather concocted a way to rinse them using the screening Jed uses for screening compost. The smaller berries fell through the screen, but so did all of the little leaves. So Heather and I decided to cut our losses by not trying to rescreen the smaller berries. Instead, she took them back to the bogs for the ducks and geese to eat and returned with another big load of cranberries. We’ll probably lose about half of our original bounty by the time we throw out all of the small berries and the unripe cranberries, but we’ll still have plenty for making cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and Christmas, for making cranberry bread, and for experimenting with making apple cranberry juice and drying cranberries. I volunteered to bring all of the washed berries home with me in order to pick through and get rid of those that are just not ripe enough to use or were too bruised by the harvesting process to keep. As I write this log, I am surrounded by baking pans lined with sorted cranberries in order to let them dry before storing them away for the holidays.

Today’s double batch of apple chutney yielded almost 14 pints. That will be enough to last us for two years. But next fall I think we’ll try a cranberry apple chutney to see if we like that. Making this Ball Canning Book apple chutney is a family tradition started by Mark and me back in the 1980’s to accompany our favorite veggie curry dinner. Heather and Jed have continued making this as one of their pantry staples, thus I call it a family tradition. It really is yummy.

Life After Windbird, Day 64: Soccer x 3 plus Beach and Bike
Date: Saturday, October 15, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High 50’s, Low 40’s F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I’ll sleep soundly tonight. This was a day filled with outdoor activities with the Goldpebbles. Heather had to work today and Jed, Sam, and Jonah had to be on Cub Scout popcorn sale duty this morning, so I took Ollie to his soccer game—the first of the day at 10:30 am at the field just down the street from my apartment. Unfortunately, Ollie had announced to Heather ahead of time that he was not going to play, and he basically stuck to that with the exception of one short stint on the field with his friend Simon. Ollie and Simon were born on the same day one hospital room away from each other and neither one of them wanted to play soccer today. At one point, Simon’s dad was able to convince them that they are almost like twins and that they could be on the field and just be ghosts of each other.

It worked for a few minutes, but once they realized people could see them, they were off the field again. We had two hours between soccer game number one and soccer game number two, so Sam and Jonah went with Jed and Ollie stayed with me. Ollie rode his strider bike, we ate lunch, and then we headed back to the field for Jonah’s game. Jonah plays with all his heart and soul. He moves so fast that when he gets hit, he sort of flies through the air and does what Jed calls the ‘Jonah flop’ on the ground. But he is always right back up and on his way again. I love the way he constantly works to keep team spirits high, giving others a big thumbs up when they make good moves.

After this game, Sam went one way with friends, Jonah went another way with a different friend, and Ollie went with me. Again we had two hours until the next game. Ollie opted to go to the beach and the two of us really enjoyed the sand and sunshine.

At 4:30, we arrived at a different soccer field for Sam’s soccer game. Heather was able to join us for this one and we closed out the soccer day on a high note. Jed is the coach of Sam’s team and even though they lost by one point, it was a very exciting game. Sam is really turning into a good, aggressive defense player. He is on a team with Ethan, a friend from pre-school days, and it is almost scary to watch them grow up right before my eyes. They looked more like teenagers on the field this afternoon than the little boys I have watched play soccer for the last five, almost six, years.

Tomorrow is a fall harvest day. I will go to Heather and Jed’s in the morning to make chutney from the apples they picked in Maine. And then we will walk down to the cranberry bogs to harvest left-over cranberries. The big harvest happened on Thursday and Friday, so we’ll pick through the berries left behind.

Life After Windbird, Day 63: Goldstones Come to Dinner
Date: Friday, October 14, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High Temp 57 degrees F, Low Tonight in the 30’s
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

It was a good day. I got up and went to the gym for the first time since joining the end of September. I chose to do bike riding rather than tread mill walking, hoping the biking would be easier on my knee. I sat there and pedaled for over 30 minutes, but the machine told me I had only biked about five miles. I feel like I would have gone farther than this on a real bicycle, but I was happy with my progress. I then tried all of the upper body strength machines before heading home. I’m really hoping to go to the gym at least three days a week and attend a few exercise classes each week. I’m terrible at disciplining myself to exercise, so we’ll just have to see how that plays out. When I got home it was time for lunch and then it was time for an appointment with a lawyer to get a new will crafted. When I returned home, I had a great phone conversation with friends Ed and Lynne Kirwin, and then it was time to get ready for dinner. I had invited the Goldstones over for tacos. I barely got the taco meat done when Jonah showed up at the door. Jed and Sam had soccer practice and were dropping Jonah off with me. Jonah brought his bicycle and some wood to make a bike jump and I hung out with him in the parking area as he did jump after jump. When he tired out, we went back to the apartment and I continued to get dinner ready. Very soon Heather showed up with Ollie and we all headed outside for more bike jumping. Sam and Jed arrived later than expected because Jed had to mark off the soccer fields for tomorrow’s games, but when they did arrive, we had a great taco dinner. When it was time for the Goldstones to leave, we had a bit of a problem. It was 8 pm and the temperature outside was already in the 40’s. But the sprinklers were on and there was no way for them to get to their car without getting soaked. There is a way to get to the parking area by climbing over the deck railing and walking behind the apartment building and back out to the parking area. None of us had ever done that, but they opted for that rather than getting soaking wet. I helped them over the railing and evidently they made it as I didn’t hear otherwise. I am going to have to find out just when these sprinklers are on so we can time arrivals and departures. It wasn’t a huge problem when the weather was warmer, but getting wet this time of year is no fun at all.

Tomorrow is soccer day. Ollie plays at 10:30, Jonah at 1:30, and Sam at 4. In between soccer games, I’m hoping to get the granola baked that I had planned to do today. And the chutney making is going to wait until Sunday.

Life After Windbird, Day 62: Sailing Through the Fog
Date: Thursday, October 13, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High Temp in the 60’s F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA

No one enjoys sailing through the fog, but that is just what I feel like I am doing. I have some sense of direction but no radar. So I am moving very slowly, always checking for obstacles. But my bigger problem is that I’m not sure of my destination. So I’ll keep sailing along, hoping this fog lifts soon, and I’ll find a welcoming port.

In the meantime, daily tasks keep me busy. This morning I waited for the service person to arrive to fix my heat issue. At 10 am, they still were not there but I got a call from friend Linda Stuart. Linda and Mike were at the airport in Chicago waiting for their flight, with their bicycles, back to Columbia, South America. We talked for over an hour until the serviceman appeared. At that point we said our farewells and I focused on the heat issue. I have natural gas heat but I have no access to the furnace. Evidently it was just a pilot light issue. I actually kept the heat on for a bit to take the chill of, but then I turned it down to 64 degrees. Tonight the temp will be in the low 40’s, so the heat might kick on. The temp inside this week has been 61 degrees with no heat. I don’t mind that at night when I’m sleeping, but during the day that is just too cool for me. It will be interesting to see just how much it will cost to heat this apartment this winter.

Tomorrow I’ll busy myself with cooking. I need to make granola and I have invited Heather and family over for a taco dinner. And I also need to start gathering the ingredients for making apple chutney. Heather and Jed brought the apples back from Maine, so I just need to get those and start the process.