Day 276, Year 11: Disaster Area
Date: Sunday, July 24, 2016
Weather: Beautiful Summer Day—Sunny and Cooler; High 78 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

This apartment is an absolute disaster area, but fantastic progress has been made in emptying out our storage unit. Lee is steadfast in that we will have everything out of the storage unit before he leaves here next week. His goal is to make sure that we do not have to pay another month of storage, so today we brought seven more plastic bins from storage here and took other items to Heather’s. This small apartment has taken in about as much extra ‘stuff’ as it can and still allow us to walk around. There are plastic bins everywhere. But we just need one more full day to finish the job of emptying the storage unit and that will be on Tuesday. Since we don’t have to go to Boston on Wednesday, Heather asked me to trade my ‘off’ day to Tuesday as she needs to work on Wednesday. We switch gears this week from swim lessons to daily classes at the Science School in Woods Hole. It is a challenging schedule in that Sam has class from 10:15 to 11:45 and then Jonah has class from 12:00 to 1:30. That means hanging out in Woods Hole for a good chunk of the day. My day starts at 7:45 am at Heather’s tomorrow as she has to get to Woods Hole and be on the air by 9 am. So I will be up and out of here by 7:30, leaving the disaster area for Mark, Lee, and Mary Ellen to negotiate.

We spent all of this afternoon moving things out of the storage unit, but at 5:15 pm we stopped and headed over to the baseball field to watch a Falmouth Commodores game. Heather and boys were there and we all really enjoyed the game. The Commodores are a summer collegiate team that plays in the Cape Cod League. There are ten such leagues in the entire country and the Cape Cod League is the premier league. Luckily for us, going to see them is just a short walk down the street. All of us enjoyed the game, but Jonah and Lee were our real enthusiasts. Jonah wants to be a catcher when he grows up and at age 75, Lee still plays baseball and softball on a regular basis. And this evening he enjoyed the game so much that he will go to the next home game on Wednesday. I really enjoyed the game, but one of the highlights for me was the osprey nest at the top of one of the field lights. When the sun went down and the lights went on, the juvenile osprey peaked their heads up out of the nest to see what was going on. Go Commodores and go osprey!

Day 275, Year 11: Continuing the Move
Date: Saturday, July 23, 2016
Weather: Sunny, Hot, Windy; Evening Thunderstorm; High 87 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

I do believe this is the never ending move. We have not even made a dent in unpacking the things Mary Ellen and Lee brought in the trailer, but today Lee and I went to our last remaining storage unit to assess whether or not we can empty it by the end of this month. We think we can, but I’m not sure where in this apartment all of the boxes are going to fit in. Mary Ellen helped me rearrange the converted entertainment center cabinet that now serves as our pantry. Our goal was to be able to fit more food in as a couple of the plastic bins they delivered are full of food. Tomorrow morning I’ll unpack more books and then I think we will go back to storage to get more things. With Jed out of town for the week, I will have the boys four days instead of three, but in the evenings and on Wednesday we’ll continue emptying that storage unit. While Lee and I went to the storage unit, Mark and Mary Ellen went to the UPS Store to send a box of things back to Windbird. The snuba gear is going with Windbird and we ended up with half of it here. So as long as were sending that, we packed in a few more items that we no longer need. Once I get all of the books unpacked we will be able to ship books back to Windbird that should stay with her. Little by little, we’ll get this job done.

In addition to the unpacking, sorting, and getting more things from storage, Lee and I spent part of the afternoon with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie in the nearby park practicing pitching and catching. My role was watching, but Lee still plays in a softball league which really impresses the boys, so he has become somewhat of a baseball hero to them. He is also a diehard Chicago Cubs fan as are Jonah and Sam, and that just enhances the relationship. While we did that, Mark and Mary Ellen got an afternoon nap. Tomorrow will be more of the same, but we do plan to end early and go to an early evening Falmouth Commodores baseball game with Heather and the boys.

Justin called in the late afternoon and we did a Skype video call so we could see the newest additions to their family. Their goat named Cloud had twins, Hannah and Cooper, and they are absolutely the cutest little things you have ever seen. Both the father and mother are light-colored goats with very long white, hanging ears but the babies are black and white and beautiful. It was a treat to see the baby goats and to see Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. They returned to Puerto Rico after a month in England just in time for the birth of the twins.

It was great to hear from so many of you in response to yesterday’s log about the sale of Windbird and the search for a new name for this blog. Thanks for being there for us!

Day 273, Year 11: Mary Ellen and Lee Arrive and . . .
Date: Thursday, July 21, 2016
Weather: Sunny Day; High 82 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

Mary Ellen and Lee, Mark’s sister and brother-in-law, arrived this afternoon. They will be staying with us for a week or so and we are so excited to have them here. They arrived pulling a U-Haul trailer filled with the remainder of our belongings from Windbird. How could one sailboat hold SO MUCH STUFF! Mark spent his morning putting together the bookshelf we bought yesterday at IKEA and putting up the wall-bracketed shelves above the computer desk in our bedroom. As he assembled the shelves, I unpacked most of the books that were already here and put them on the shelves. But when Lee and Mary Ellen arrived, there were five more big boxes of books. There are a number of books that need to be returned to Windbird.

And speaking of Windbird, here comes the ‘and’ part. Today we got a call from our agent, John Schwab, saying we have a verbal agreement with the prospective buyers, Sam and Dawn. We love Windbird so much and are absolutely elated that a young, energetic couple will be the new owners. I’ll hold off doing my happy dance to celebrate until we all officially sign off on the deal. But in the meantime, as I unpack things from the boat, I am repacking some of it in boxes to send back to Windbird. Lots of house warming gifts for Sam and Dawn.

Day 272, Year 11: Back on the Roller Coaster
Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Weather: Sunny Day; 80’s in Boston, 70’s on the Cape
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

Yesterday I wrote that things here were moving right along, but today we are back to the ups and downs of a roller coaster ride. We went to Mass General this morning to meet with Mark’s oncologist to discuss the results of last week’s scan. The report was not positive. The trial drug has been effective in a few specific areas, but Mark’s cancer has become more aggressive in other areas. Dr. Kwak met with the team before we arrived this morning to go over the scan results and the consensus was that the trial should be suspended because it is just not working for Mark. We had read the scan report this weekend and knew that the results were mixed, but I’m not sure that either of us was prepared for today’s news. In the name of science, Mark will undergo biopsies in three different areas (requiring three different specialists) and we will wait for the results of those biopsies before a decision will be made on the next step. Options will be to go back to the first chemo treatment Mark received in 2012, Folfox, or to choose between two different chemo drugs delivered via pills, not infusion. But there is no guarantee than any of these will work. The fourth option would be to stop chemotherapy altogether. Dr. Kwak was clear that we might not gain any information from the biopsies that will help guide the decision, but Mark wants to do this as the information could help the team better understand how his cancer has progressed. And hopefully that can help with future patients. In the next couple of weeks, he will make his decision on next steps by weighing pain versus gain. Not an easy task and not an easy time, but Mark always sees the bright side of everything. When he found out that the trial was ending, he was immediately excited by the idea that he will now be able to eat without being on the strict schedule the trial drug required. One thing is for sure. Mark is going to fight this thing to end with a positive attitude, living life to its fullest as long as he can.

Day 271, Year 11: Moving Right Along
Date: Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Weather: Fog Early, Clearing to a Sunny Day; High Temp 87 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

The grandkids had another great day at the beach, Mark’s cold is a bit better, and Windbird’s bottom survey was completed. The temperature today was almost the same as yesterday, but the humidity level was lower today and it felt a little cooler—fantastic summer weather. Tomorrow Mark and I head to Boston for Mark’s weekly infusion. We will also get the results of last week’s CT scan. Then on Thursday (or maybe Friday) Mark’s sister Mary Ellen and her husband Lee arrive with for a visit. So things are moving right along.

Day 270, Year 11: Fun with Grandkids; Challenge on the Home Front
Date: Monday, July 18, 2016
Weather: Fog Early, Then Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 88 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

Camp Oma was in full swing today. I had lots of fun with the grandkids, but there was a challenge on the home front. Mark woke up this morning with a very bad cold. It was a total surprise attack and it hit hard. When the boys and I returned from the beach for lunch, Mark was still in bed and even our noise didn’t wake him up. But before we left, he did get up to acknowledge that the cold was no better. When I returned at the end of the day, he did seem to have rallied a bit, but he had only moved from the bed to his lounge chair. Hopefully he can recover quickly as his sister Mary Ellen and her husband Lee arrive this Thursday or Friday. But for now, this ‘doctor’ prescribes lounge chair rest. We had planned to attend a talk tonight by a family that sailed around the world. The focus of their talk was to be their experience with Muslims while sailing through Indonesia. We didn’t get to attend the talk, but I can’t imagine that their experiences in Indonesia were anything but positive. Ours certainly were. We had planned to attend the talk with Bruce and Jane Woodin, so hopefully they will be able to share with us what the speakers had to say.

This morning Sam, Jonah, Ollie, and I had a lot of fun at the beach. While Sam, and then Jonah, had their swim lessons, Ollie transformed himself into Luke Skywalker and sculpted quite a nice X-wing fighter plane in the sand. After Jonah’s swim lesson, he joined Ollie and sculpted his own fighter plane. Magically, Jonah become Luke Skywalker and Ollie turned into Hans Solo. While all of this was going on, Sam played with a friend from his swim class, Shane. Shane’s father, Matt, came over and introduced himself. The family is from Dover, New Hampshire, but have a summer home here in Falmouth. Shane and Sam built a formidable fort down by the water and spent a lot of time swimming and diving. At one point Sam came running to tell me that he had seen a big fish on one of his dives and he swore it looked like a parrot fish without teeth. Not sure what he saw, but he was very excited. After the beach, we had a late lunch at the apartment, played with Legos, and then I took the boys home to play outside. But instead, they decided that they wanted to drag the big Legos, Duplo, out of the basement and play with those. We spent the rest of afternoon building a Duplo village.

160718 Day 270 Cape Cod, USA–Fun with Grandkids

Tomorrow is another Camp Oma day and it will probably be a repeat of today. I hope the only exception to that is Mark’s condition. Hopefully he will be feeling much better tomorrow. And tomorrow is the second scheduled haul-out of Windbird for a bottom survey. Last week’s attempt was thwarted as the haul-out location was too shallow. Here’s hoping tomorrow goes smoothly. Once the bottom survey is completed, the prospective buyers, Sam and Dawn, will make a final decision about purchase. Stay tuned.

Day 269, Year 11: Quiet Sunday
Date: Sunday, July 17, 2016
Weather: Foggy AM and PM, Partly Sunny In Between; High Temp upper 70’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

It was a quiet Sunday here. The Goldpebbles spent the night, but they were particularly quiet and low-key this morning. Sam got up with the sun as usual, but he read until Ollie got up just before 7:30. I got up right after Ollie and found him in bed with Sam and Jonah—but Jonah was still fast asleep. So I got Sam and Jonah into the livingroom while Jonah slept-in. Sam played MineCraft on my phone while Ollie worked on an intricate plastic bead craft activity. This craft kit belonged to my nieces Janet and Jennifer when they were little girls, so it is probably at least 45 years old. My sister Patsy kept the kit and gave it to me to let the boys use. You have to place these tiny little plastic beads on a template and then use a hot iron to weld the beads together. I was amazed at Ollie’s diligence and his intricate pattern. Sam gave it a try for a couple of minutes and then announced that he just didn’t have the patience for this kind of activity, but Jonah decided to join in once he got up. We then had breakfast on the deck and finished off the morning watching a Wild Kratts episode on TV and then playing with Legos. By noon, it was still foggy, so the boys decided to skip a beach trip today and just go home.

160717 Day 268 Cape Cod, USA–Ollie and Jonah with Craft Project

In the afternoon, Mark and I went out to a couple of local hardware stores to look for the parts to put a couple of bracketed wall shelves on the wall in our bedroom. We are desperately trying to figure out a place to unpack the boxes of books that we have so we will have room to store more boxes of books when the next trailer load of things come from Windbird next weekend. The solution would be new bookcases, but they are expensive. So we are searching for cheaper alternatives.

Day 268, Year 11: Special Overnight ‘Guests’
Date: Saturday, July 16, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Hot; High Temp mid-80’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

Our special overnight guests are Sam, Jonah, and Oliver. Heather and Jed wanted to go out for the night with friends, so we offered to keep the boys. They often stayed with us on Windbird but have been reluctant to stay with us in our new land home. So I went to pick them up instead of having Heather and Jed drop them off and that seemed to do the trick. Granddad cooked ribs on the grill for dinner and then we watched Finding Nemo. Actually we started watching the movie before dinner and put it on pause while we went out on the deck for dinner. After the movie we read bedtime stories and everyone went to sleep quickly. So all is quiet here at The Studio at this hour.

We also had another special visitor today, but this one was of the bird variety. Mark and I returned from a short shopping trip and when we drove into the parking area I saw new addition on the roof. There has always been a wind vane up there, but today there was a big bird atop. At first we both thought it was a new addition to the wind vane, but then it moved and we realized that it was a big, fat osprey sitting up there enjoying the day.

160716 Day 268 Cape Cod, USA–Osprey Visits The Studio

Day 267, Year 11: Kevin and Claire Leave
Date: Friday, July 15, 2016
Weather: Beautiful Day; High Temp in the 80’s F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

After spending a lovely morning with Kevin and Claire, they headed to Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island where Claire will make a presentation before heading home to Janelia Farms in Virginia. We really enjoyed having them visit us in our new land base. Previously, we have only seen them while living aboard Windbird. They both loved our new land-based home as much as we do. In addition to the waterfront location, they really loved the fact that we can walk to the beach, to the grocery store, to the drug store, to the Thursday Farmers’ Market, and most everything else in town. It’s nice to have friends validate your decisions.

I left early this morning to go pick up the Goldpebbles. I brought them back to the apartment and then all of us drove to Highfield Hall. The boys led us on a tour of their favorite things there. We first visited the gate decorated with jingle shells (different design than last year) and then walked to the garden. From there we went to the lawn of the main house to see the sea glass house and the boys walked in the labyrinth. We then said our goodbyes to Kevin and Claire and let them get on the road. We then went back to the apartment for lunch. Sam had an afternoon playdate in East Falmouth, so Jonah, Ollie, and I drove him there and then spent our afternoon at the nearby Menauhant Beach where we had a great time playing in the water and on the beach. The boys made lounge chairs in the sand, and just like Granddad’s new chair, theirs had control pads and could be set in a zero gravity position. Then Jonah decided to put on a magic show with rocks and buckets. A rock would be under one bucket, then magically it would be under another. Ollie studied Jonah’s technique and later when Jonah went back in the water, Ollie stayed on shore to practice his bucket magic trick. Very cute.

Mark used his grill to fix dinner again. Tonight we had grass-fed tenderloin steaks, marinated veggies, and corn-on-the-cob. I love this grill!

160715 Day 267 Cape Cod, USA–Highfield with Kevin and Claire; Menauhant with J&O