Day 246, Year 11: Not Quite as Smart as a TV
Date: Friday, June 24, 2016
Weather: Clear; High Temp 79 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

It was a good day, but tonight we are feeling not quite as smart as a television. I’ll run through the day and then I think you’ll understand why we feel that way.

Heather and Jed dropped the boys off on their way to Woods Hole. A couple of them were a bit on the grumpy side, but we took it slow and easy and finally everyone was in a good mood, sun screen was applied, lunches were packed, and we were ready to walk to the beach. We put all of our ‘stuff’ into the beach wagon and off we went. If we walk the back streets, it is only a half mile to the beach and it took us about 15 minutes. The water felt cold at first, but once we got used to it, it felt delightful. It was a perfect day as the waves were gentle, the sun was shining brightly, and the air temperature was just right. We all got in the water right away. Sam and Jonah were on their boogie boards and played together while I stayed with Ollie. I would walk way out into the water and then follow him back as the waves gently pushed him toward the shore. And once we got there, we’d go back out again. Mark walked down to the beach to join us for a bit, but the sun was so intense that I thought he shouldn’t stay long. He had his little beach umbrella that Heather and gang gave him on Father’s Day, and that does help, but the chemo drugs cause him to be extremely sun sensitive. When Mark left, the boys and I had lunch on the beach, played for another bit before we headed home. We might have stayed longer, but I felt like I needed to put sun screen on them again. And when I tried that with Sam, I turned him gray! The boys had taken turns burying each other in the sand, and even though the sand was brushed off, it left a residue that, when mixed with the sun screen, gave a grayish tint to the skin. No one wanted that, so we just packed up and went home. I don’t think any of us knew just how tired we were until we got in the car to drive them home. We were all exhausted, but it was a good day. And we all love that we can walk to and from the beach.

While we were still at the apartment, Mark had to get behind the TV to connect a stereo speaker and while doing this, he noticed that a television cable was twisted. In trying to get it untwisted, it broke off inside the TV. It was the main cable connection and there was no way to fix it. The TV was an old one that we brought from Lynn’s condo and we knew we were going to have to replace it at some point—just not today. But after we took the boys home, we went to Best Buy in Hyannis to buy a new Samsung Smart TV. Mark had done the research and knew what he wanted. The particular Samsung was on sale, so we bought it. When we got home, we learned that the TV is smarter than us. Mark is usually pretty savvy with hooking up electronics, but this one has him stumped. I’m sure we’ll figure it out at some point, but calls to Samsung and Comcast tonight have not been helpful. We’ll continue tomorrow.

One last thing. We woke up this morning to the news that the people of Great Britain actually voted to leave the EU. Our daughter-in-law Jo is a British citizen, as are Ziggy and Coco. And it just so happens that Justin, Jo, and kids flew to England yesterday to attend the wedding of Jo’s brother. We’ll be anxious to talk to Jo to see what she and her family thinks of this vote. Mark and I have been following this and knew it was going to be a close vote, but we were very surprised at the final outcome. Politics these days on both sides of the pond are most interesting.

Day 245, Year 11: Camp Oma Off and Running
Date: Thursday, June 23, 2016
Weather: Clear; High Temp 79 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

Yesterday was the last day of school for Sam and Jonah, so Day Two of Camp Oma was off and running and included all three boys plus a few neighborhood friends. We decided that for the first ‘free’ day the boys should just be able to stay home and play. And that they did. Sam’s friend Zack who lives just around the corner came over early and Molly and Joey from next door followed right behind. So there were really six children at the Goldstone ‘homestead’ most of the day, but they played so nicely together that having the extra children was not a burden. In fact, I think it is easier to have the ‘extras’—that way they can mix and match and no one is ever left out. I spent most of my time doing laundry for Heather and Jed as the kids really took care of themselves. I did fix lunch for them and delivered to the picnic table in the backyard. The kids had been playing Army all morning, so I told them lunch was being delivered to the mess hall. They loved it. There was one little problem just after lunch, but with the help of Melissa next door, we resolved that and continued on. After lunch the kids decided they wanted to set up a lemonade stand. We had no frozen lemonade in the freezer, so I told them they would have to go next door and see if Melissa wanted to support their endeavor. She must have mixed the lemonade for them and I gave them money to make change and did a little mini-lesson about borrowing money from the bank and then sent them out to do their thing. Jonah came back inside to make some signs and then I heard them hawking their goods. “Lemonade, lemonade. Ten cents a cup.” Oh yes, I did help Sam find some paper cups, but we had only a few. But it was enough for them to make over $8.00 in about half an hour. Bikers stopped and truckers stopped and got out of their trucks to buy their lemonade. Everyone game them way more than 10 cents a cup, but they were delighted with their success. Each of the six kids made $1.35. I helped Sam divvy up the money and made sure he paid back the bank. But that’s all I had to do. It was a low-key day, but a great beginning to the summer. And I must mention that both Sam and Jonah ended their school year yesterday on a high. At the end-of-the-year award ceremony, Sam got to read his award winning haiku poem and Jonah was awarded an Academic Excellence award and was named PeaceBuilder of the year for his classroom. So both boys were feeling really good about the world today.

Mark stayed at the apartment all day and had a good time unpacking a few boxes and going for a two mile walk. He is so happy here in the apartment that I don’t worry about leaving him all day. It really is the perfect place for us just now. He walked to CVS to get sunscreen, walked to a Radio Shack to get an FM antenna for a radio he unpacked, and in doing so discovered a little Italian Deli with all sorts of goodies. And I have to mention how much I am enjoying the kitchen. I cannot believe how much easier and faster it is to cook dinner in a land kitchen versus on the boat. This kitchen is laid out a little like the galley on Windbird, just bigger. It is a small kitchen, but it is so much bigger than the galley on Windbird that it feels luxurious. It takes me about half the time it would on the boat too prepare food. I love it.

Tomorrow is a beach day with the boys and Sunday is Jonah’s birthday party, but on Saturday we will spend the day at home unpacking more boxes. Fun, fun, fun.

Day 244, Year 11: Hear, Hear
Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Weather: Partly Cloudy with Mid-day Rain; High Temp 79 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

Hear, hear. Mark can hear! On our way home from Boston late this afternoon we stopped to pick-up Mark’s new hearing aids. So far, so good. He is hearing sounds he has not heard for years and finds the hearing aids totally non-invasive. We are currently sitting here watching television with the volume turned way down and Mark can still hear it when he goes back to the master bedroom. I’m sitting in a rocking chair that has a terrible squeak, but Mark has never been able to hear it. Now he wants to fix it because the squeak is so loud. He just said, “I’m loving this.” And so am I. The new technology is amazing.

We are thinking of our good friends Linda and Mike Stuart, and their son Garrett, tonight. Linda and Mike left New York in August 2014 on their bicycles with the goal of eventually biking around the world. Earlier this week they were in Columbia in South America when they got word that Mike’s mother was dying. They flew home in time to have a day with her before she died. We can’t be with them, but we send our most positive thoughts.

Tomorrow is a full day of Camp Oma with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. So it is early to bed tonight.

Day 243, Year 11: Happy Birthday, Jo
Date: Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Weather: Rain Early, Turning Sunny and Windy; High Temp 77 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA

Today was our daughter-in-law Jo’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Jo!!! We talked to her via Skype on Sunday. On Thursday they leave for a trip to England to visit with Jo’s family and will be there for almost a month. Jo’s younger brother is getting married and then the whole extended family is headed to France. Sure hope they have a wonderful trip.

Today was also the first full day of Camp Oma. We had Ollie yesterday for the afternoon, but today he arrived early and was ready for a full day of activity. The morning was low key just playing at home, but the highlight of our day was an afternoon walk to a little park just down the block. It is really just a green with a swing set and some park benches, but Ollie thought it was great. Granddad pulled him in the little red beach wagon which was fun for him. When we got home, we went out for a little shopping trip and then it was time to head to East Falmouth Elementary to pick up Sam and Jonah. We brought them back home with us and waited for Heather to show up. She ran from Woods Hole to here and then still had the energy to go on a walk with us back to the little park. By the time we were ready to go, Jed was here, so we had a family walk. We went through MacDougall’s boat yard to see a 46-foot Beneteau that was dismasted this weekend when the captain decided to try and make it through the Eel Pond bridge as it was closing. The boat was going very fast, as seen on captured video, but not fast enough. A call to the bridge tender to declare his intentions would have been a wise thing to do. The mast is still lying across the boat, but most of it is submersed in the water, along with the furled sail. Painful to see.

Day 242, Year 11: Solstice, Full Moon, and Happy People
Date: Monday, June 20, 2016
Weather: Beautiful Day, Very Windy; High Temp 76 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Tonight the full strawberry moon coincided with summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Add to that two very happy people settling into their new home and you have a great beginning to the summer. We made some progress today in terms of unpacking boxes. We’re going for the ‘slow but sure’ approach. We had Ollie with us for the afternoon and once we took him home, we continued the unpacking into the evening.

We really are loving it here, but being right on the water means that it is cooler than a few blocks inland. And today it was super windy making sitting on the deck just a little chilly. One part of the deck is protected from the wind, so I set Ollie up to play in that area. If the wind continues, I’ll encourage Mark to move his chair to that area of the deck as well. But today he put together a steel and glass desk that belongs to Justin. We got it out of the storage unit and will use that to house our computers.

Tomorrow we have Ollie all day and will mix play with unpacking more of these boxes. The more I unpack, the more I am amazed by the amount of storage we had on Windbird. The owner of this apartment complex came to visit yesterday. He took a look around and asked, “Was all of this stuff on your boat?” Since he was only looking at the boxes stored in the dining area I could reply with a definite ‘yes’. And I must admit that it is really hard to believe that a 42’ sailboat could hold this much. Now the daily challenge is to find a place to store it in this apartment. We are so grateful to have the chest and dresser given to us by Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg. Having a place to put clothes is such a luxury. And the entertainment center that we bought at the Restore for $50 was such a good deal. It was just what we needed to hold all of the extra food from a well-provisioned Windbird. I’m going to call it our garage.

Day 241, Year 11: Happy Father’s Day
Date: Sunday, June 19, 2016
Weather: Another Beautiful Sunny Day; High Temp 73 degrees F
Location: First Night in Our New Home, The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Happy Father’s Day to all of the wonderful fathers I know, but especially to the father of my children and the fathers of our grandchildren—our son Justin and our son-in-law Jed. Jed returned from California this morning, so we got to see him today, and we did a Skype video call with Justin. They were both enjoying the day with those beautiful grandchildren of ours. Mark and I spent the day putting things away in the apartment. As a Father’s Day gift, Mark wanted to spend our first night in our new home tonight. So I worked all day to try and get things organized to do that. And Heather and Jed delivered all of the things that we had at their house. Sam, Jonah, and Ollie brought Mark an umbrella to attach to his beach chair, so he is now all set for summer. We invited Heather and gang over for dinner, so the Goldstones were our very first dinner guests in our new home. It was a lovely day and evening and we are finding the apartment just perfect for us. There are still tons of boxes to be unpacked, but we can do that that slowly over the next few weeks. We have both the master bedroom and the guest bedroom ready for sleeping and the kids found it to be a 15 minute walk from here to the beach this afternoon. It is wonderful to have a place within walking distance to the beach. They returned here and had showers in the guest bathroom and that worked out great as well. The apartment is small, but the layout is perfect for having guests. And I’m finding the kitchen to be easy to negotiate. So it was a perfect Father’s Day and a perfect first day in our new home. Thanks again to all who have helped this happen!

Day 240, Year 11: Great Moving Day
Date: Saturday, June 18, 2016
Weather: Beautiful Sunny Day; High Temp 77 degrees F
Location: At Home with the Goldstones, East Falmouth, MA

We had a great moving day—great weather and great help. We made the move from the two storage units into the new apartment with loads of help from family, friends, and four college kids we paid to help us. If we have ever done good deeds for others, we were paid back in spades today. Mark was planning to be the ‘director’ of the kids we hired, telling them how to pack the moving van. But Mark woke up with pains in his stomach for the first time in weeks. We decided that I would take him to the apartment to rest while the moving van was being packed. But since I needed to be in the storage unit telling the kids what to load in the van, someone had to be on the other end to oversee the packing. In Mark’s absence, good friend Tom Porat did that. He and Detta drove down from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, this morning to help out. And in addition to bringing their expertise help, they brought a chest-of-drawers and a dresser from Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg’s home in Bow, New Hampshire. The college students did a great job. Thank you to Vincent (West Virginia University), Alex (Barry University in Miami, Florida), Kanieka (University of Maryland, Eastern Shore), and Thooba (University of California, Santa Cruz). These students are here from all around the country to study in Woods Hole for the summer. While they worked to load the van, Heather and boys arrived and by noon the moving van was full. We all drove to the apartment, ate some lunch, unloaded and headed back to get a few more boxes out of the long-term storage unit. We didn’t empty it because much of the stuff that is left there just won’t fit into the apartment. My hope is to find a new home for all the things left behind by the end of June so we will be rid of storage unit payments. But if that doesn’t happen, we’ll just keep paying for that one unit for a couple more months. But the new storage unit we rented to hold things that came north from Windbird and the things from my niece Lynn’s condo in Lowell is now empty. Hurray! And our apartment is stuffed.

While Heather and Tom worked to assemble the bed in the guest bedroom and the dining table, Detta and I took the crew back to get that second load from storage. About that time my niece Candi and her husband Char arrived with the storage cabinet I bought from the Restore in South Yarmouth here on the Cape. Mark and I drove there on Thursday looking for a massive storage cabinet that would fit in our back hallway, but we came home empty-handed. We were looking for something a little more than four feet wide and two feet deep going from floor to ceiling. But we wanted something that looked like a piece of furniture, not storage shelves. What we found at the Restore were various entertainment center cabinets ranging from $50 to $350. We actually liked the cheapest one the best, but we just couldn’t figure out how to get it here. When we got home we searched online, IKEA and Amazon, and the cheapest thing we could find was $250 to $2,000. So that $50 cabinet at the Restore started looking really good. But it is an hour away from here and we didn’t think it would fit in the van. Then my niece Candi offered to drive down from Boston to deliver it to us today. That put the icing on the cake. So now we have all the furniture we can use in the apartment and we spent the last couple of hours of the afternoon actually starting to put things away in the kitchen. But it was getting late and Candi and Char needed to get back to Boston and Detta and Tom needed to get back to New Hampshire. And Heather, Mark, and I were all exhausted. So we called it a day and will continue tomorrow. Sam, Jonah, and Oliver had played beautifully all day, but they were getting tired as well. So we sent Heather home with the boys and Mark and I stayed in town to pick-up a sushi order for dinner. In this family, all good days have to end with a sushi dinner.

A special note of thanks to Heather and family for the house warming gifts they gave us today. We got two new sets of queen-sized sheets for our new bed and a fantastic little red canvas beach wagon. One reason the boys were so good today is because they gave each other rides in the wagon all afternoon. They went right to sleep tonight, so I think they wore themselves out. And I don’t think we’ll be far behind him. It was a great day that should be celebrated with a great night’s sleep.

Day 239, Year 11: On Track for the BIG Move
Date: Friday, June 17, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warm; High Temp 71 degrees F
Location: At Home with the Goldstones, East Falmouth, MA

We are on track for the BIG move tomorrow. Internet and cable TV were installed today and the new mattress set was delivered. Mark and I spent the day shuffling back and forth from our home base at Heather’s to the new apartment delivering miscellaneous ‘stuff’ and doing some cleaning at the new apartment while waiting for deliveries. Heather and Ollie made a surprise visit in the early afternoon. This was Ollie’s last day of school and Heather had to pick him up before nap time as he had an appointment to have his stitches taken out. But there was a period of time between pick-up and doctor’s appointment, so they dropped by to see if they could be helpful. Ollie is so excited about the fact that Oma and Granddad are going to have their own home in Falmouth. But he asked me today if we would be here in the fall when he goes back to school. All he has ever known is that Oma and Granddad appear at the end of the school year and leave again just after school starts. He squealed with delight when I told him we would be here all of the time now. The apartment will be our permanent home. He liked that, but he would be happier if we still had a dinghy with a motor that he could drive around the harbor. So would Mark.

We are anxious to see how things go tomorrow. We’ll report in tomorrow night. But for tonight, it is time to get some rest to be prepared for the BIG day.

Day 238, Year 11: Much Better Day
Date: Thursday, June 16, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warm; High Temp 76 degrees F
Location: At Home with the Goldstones, East Falmouth, MA

Today was a MUCH better day than yesterday. I got up and took Sam and Jonah, and then Ollie, to school since Heather had to be at work early. Jed will be out of town until Sunday, so we are trying to pitch in and help as much as we can. When I got back to Falmouth, after taking Ollie down to Woods Hole, I went to Walmart to buy cleaning supplies. My plan was to then go home, get Mark, and head to the apartment to start cleaning. But as I was leaving Walmart Mark called and said Paul, the owner of The Studio apartments, had called to let us know that cleaning was being done as he spoke. Mark wanted to get there as fast as possible to make sure things were being done to our satisfaction, so he drove Heather’s van to town and I went to the storage unit to pick up some other cleaning things—just in case—and then met him at the apartment. The cleaning was almost done by the time I arrived and everything looked so much better. It was back to being the apartment we loved when we made the decision to rent it. And a workman that was in the apartment volunteered to carry the bed frame boxes in from the van in the parking lot to the apartment. Heather came over later in the day and helped her dad put the bed frame together, so we are back on track.

Since the inside cleaning of the apartment was done early, Paul wanted to have the deck cleaned in the afternoon. That meant that we either needed to stay in the apartment for the afternoon or leave for a few hours while the cleaning was done. So we left and drove to Hyannis looking for a storage cabinet to put in the back hallway. There is not a ton of storage in the kitchen cabinets and there is not a linen closet, so we need a place to store various things. Unfortunately our look at the Restore in South Yarmouth and at Home Depot in Hyannis came up with nothing, so we are probably going to order something from Amazon or get something at IKEA. But today we had to head home empty handed as it was time to pick Sam and Jonah up from school and to then meet Heather and Ollie at the apartment. This was the first time Heather and the boys have seen the apartment and they really seemed to like it. There is certainly not a lot of room for the boys to play outside, but the deck is spacious and it is a very short walk to a little park and a little longer walk to the soccer field and the beach. So I think they will be fine. Heather and boys left to have a very early dinner at a nearby pizza place and then Mark and I met them at the baseball field to hear Sam’s school chorus sing the national anthem to open the Falmouth Commodore’s baseball game. The Commodores are a collegiate summer baseball team and the kids love to go watch the games. Mark and I stayed only for the national anthem tonight and then headed out to have dinner and go to the storage unit to look for the router for wifi hook-up. Comcast arrives at the new apartment tomorrow morning between 9 and noon and luckily we found the router so the TV and internet can be hooked up. Sears comes between 1 and 3 pm tomorrow afternoon to deliver the mattress set and then Mark and I will head home to pick up Sam and Jonah at the end of the school day. By that time all should be ready at the apartment for Saturday’s big move. Can’t wait to get things moved in and begin to settle into our new home.

Day 237, Year 11: Not a Banner Day
Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 81 degrees F
Location: At Home with the Goldstones, East Falmouth, MA

Saying this was not a banner day is the positive way of saying this day was a real bummer. We were anxious and excited to see our new apartment, so after a long day in Boston we arrived back in Falmouth and went straight to the apartment. We understood it would be ready to move into today, but it is far from it. Walls have been painted, but in one of the bathrooms there was more splattered paint on the floor than on the walls. And I don’t think I’m exaggerating. The beautiful cream-colored carpet in the master bedroom has been replaced by a dismal brown carpet that we will we have to cover with lighter colored area rugs in order to tolerate it. The tile floors in the kitchen, bathrooms, and living room haven’t even been swept, and on and on. We understood that the apartment would be painted, the carpets would be shampooed, and that a general cleaning would have been done. Walls are painted, carpet has not been shampooed, but has been replaced with something we can’t tolerate, and no general cleaning at all has been done. Tomorrow I’ll start the cleaning process and see how far I get. Another disappointment is that we discovered that we are just not strong enough to get the new bed frame we bought at IKEA today out of the van and into the apartment until we have crew on Saturday. It took all of our strength to just get the boxed frame and under-the-bed drawers off the shelves and into the van. We had hoped to get that bed assembled tomorrow, so that when Sears delivers the mattress set on Friday it could be put in place. Sears will just have to lean the mattress set against the wall until we can get the bed in place. Obviously things are going to go more slowly than we had hoped. Mark and I have always been so self-sufficient. Now, not being able to do much of anything in the way of moving stuff without help is really tough. This getting old thing just sucks!

Add to the frustrations with the apartment, a new diet recommended by Dr. Kwak today. Mark has been having all sorts of gut issues that just keep getting worse, so Dr. Kwak recommended the FODMAP diet. FODMAP is an acronym for Fermentable Oligo-Di-Monosaccharides and Polyols. These are short chain carbohydrates (oligosaccharides), disaccharides, monosaccharides and related alcohols that are poorly absorbed in the small intestines and need to be eliminated from the diet. Dr. Kwak is hoping that by changing Mark’s diet, his gut will settle down and he might be able to gain some weight back. But this means eliminating onions and garlic totally from his diet, eliminating all dried beans except for a small amount of chick peas and lentils, and going totally wheat and dairy-free. Since a bulk of our diet consists of beans with lots of onions and garlic, we will start by eliminating those items. At the same time we’ll limit wheat and dairy and eventually eliminate those completely if needed. It is just so hard to focus on diet while in the middle of a move. But obviously getting settled in this new apartment is going to take much more effort and more time than we had hoped. The timing is horrible as school is out next week and I start keeping the boys three days a week. Sure wish we could have made this move the first of June. But that wasn’t possible. So now I’ve just got to take a deep breath and carry on.

When we did get home tonight, we gathered the boys from the Keefe’s next door who had fed them dinner. In addition to everything else she does, Heather is Co-President of the PTO and tonight was 4th grade graduation. She had to be there for set-up and clean-up. So Mark and I asked the boys to get ready for bed and then settle into pre-bedtime reading. I asked Ollie what he was going to wear to bed and he paused and then replied, “My birthday suit.” And he did. At least that made me smile after such a bummer of a day. Kids are great!