Day 136, Year 11: Scout Awards Ceremony
Date: Sunday, March 6, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny, High upper-30’s, Low 20’s F
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA

Before returning to Lowell today, we attended a Scout awards ceremony for Jonah and Sam. Jonah is a first year Tiger Cub and Sam is a Bear Cub. I’m having to relearn how this Scout thing goes. We went through it with Justin, but that was over 30 years ago! We learned to day that next year Jonah will be a Wolf Cub and Sam will be a first year Webelo. I was not quite sure why the awards ceremony is held mid-year, but it is and it is quite a long affair lasting about two and half hours. But long as it was, we enjoyed spending the time with the Heather, Jed, and the boys. When the ceremony was over, we headed back to Heather and Jed’s to finish up the laundry we had brought with us and then we headed north to Lowell.

160306 Day 136 Cape Cod, USA–Scout Awards

We really enjoyed our short visit and will return next Saturday and plan to spend four to five days on the Cape. Jed will be out of town for a conference and Heather had two different speaking engagements during his absence and needs some child care assistance. There is nothing I would rather do. Of course, if Mark has to be in Boston for further testing, we’ll figure that out. But right now we don’t know exactly when we will hear from Mass General as to the next steps.

Tonight when we got home we watched the Democratic debate. I must make full disclosure by saying that I am a born and bred Democrat and this primary season, I am most proud to say that. Tonight’s debate stood in such stark contract to the Republican ‘show’ this past week. “Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.” I read this on my daughter-in-law’s Facebook page and when I see what is happening in the Republican primary, I think it must be true! In contrast, on the Democratic side there is Hillary with her fastidious step-by-step plans and Bernie with his truth and compassion. I’m definitely being led by my heart and supporting Bernie at this point. But, in my way of thinking, either Democratic candidate is a far better choice than any Republican candidate at this point in the race. We live in the most interesting of times.

Happy birthday to our good friend, Alan Kanegsberg. Nine years ago on this date we were together in New Zealand celebrating both of our birthdays in Milford Sound on the South Island. Maybe next year we can plan to be in some equally fabulous place to celebrate my 70th and Alan’s 7—th. My, we are so young!

Day 135, Year 11: Trip to the Cape
Date: Saturday, March 5, 2016
Weather: Partly Cloudy, High in the 30’s, Low in the 20’s F
Location: At Home with the Goldstones in East Falmouth, MA

Today we made a trip to the Cape to attend Bruce and Jane Woodin’s annual Tacky Gift Party. I think the best of the gifts was one that Heather and Jed took. It was a plastic pickle the size of a large Kosher dill that yodels. Yes, a yodeling pickle. Jane ended up with it and she was absolutely delighted. Mark ended up with a fish that sings Christmas carols. The party was great fun with lots of tacky gifts! When it was time for desert, all of a sudden everyone was singing Happy Birthday . . . to me. Heather and Jed provided the cakes and candles, so that was an extra added birthday treat for me.

160305 Day 135a Cape Cod, USA–Tacky Gift Party

Earlier in the day I was presented with handmade cards from Jonah and Ollie and after we got home tonight and the kids were in bed, I got birthday presents from Heather and Jed and from Mark. I also got calls and emails from friends and family, so it was a very happy day.

160305 Day 135b Cape Cod, USA–Happy Birthday, Oma

I must mention a very special highlight of the day. We arrived at Heather and Jed’s in the early afternoon. Sam needed to work on a school project and Jonah elected to stay home, so I took Ollie to Peterson Farm to see if the baby lambs have arrived. When we got there we saw the sheep dogs in the large field herding the sheep. This was obviously a training exercise as there were three adults in the field with whistles and it was amazing to watch them direct the dogs, and in turn to watch the dogs direct the sheep. But there were no baby lambs to be seen in that field. So Ollie and I walked back to sheep barn and at first glance we still saw no babies. We walked around the fenced area where there were some other children. When we got to that area, we saw that the other children were watching one baby lamb intently. As we looked closer, it became evident that this little lamb had just been born. The baby was still wet and still had wobbly legs. Ollie was so excited that he was so close to a newborn. Eventually we saw a pair of twin lambs that were all white and fluffy indicating that they had been around for a week or so. But it was the newborn that Ollie was fascinated with. I promised to bring him back to the farm to see if there are more babies when Mark and I return to the Cape next weekend. Ollie suggested that we should take the newborn home with us since it was born on my birthday. I thought it was a great idea, but I was sure that Heather and Jed wouldn’t agree with my assessment. Instead I suggested that we just name the newborn Judy in honor of our joint birth date. But Ollie decided the little lamb’s name was Birthday Lamb. So it is.

160305 Day 135c Cape Cod, USA–Baby Lambs

Day 134, Year 11: Taking Care of Business
Date: Friday, March 4, 2016
Weather: Overcast with Snow Flurries, High in the 30’s, Low in the 20’s F
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA

Before I talk about taking care of business, I want to wish my brother-in-law Joe (sister Patsy’s husband) a very happy birthday. Joe is much more a brother than a brother-in-law and on special days like this, I very much miss being close enough to give a hug rather than being far away and having to communicate by phone. We called just as my niece Janet came to pick up her mom and dad and take them out to a Japanese steak house for dinner. Joe, hope you enjoyed your dinner and your special day.

We got up early and started the rush hour trek into Boston. At mid-day it takes us only 45 minutes to get from here to Mass General, but at rush hour you can double that time. But in an hour and half Mark was actually checking-in. By 11 am Mark had the biopsy and we were back in the condo. To get the tissue samples needed, they simply numb the specific area, stick and needle in, and then insert another needle into the first one to get the samples. The tissue samples will be sent to Novartis for the appropriate testing and in a week or two the results should be sent back to Mark’s oncologist. So today’s first order of business was completed before noon.

When we got back to the condo, it was time to deal with the heating issue. We took Jared, the neighbor next door to a local hardware store to buy a thermostat and to another hardware store to return the faulty one he bought yesterday. We came back to the condo and installed the new thermostat. This thermostat worked but it did not turn the heat on. The next step was to vacuum out the fresh air intake. Yesterday Jared thoroughly cleaned it, but when he got into it again today, he found that more dust had been sucked in. The fans were now absolutely clean but still we had no heat. Jared tried a few more things, but it became evident that there was some sort of electrical issue and we needed professional help. He called a heating guy that successfully worked on his system and he promised to come in an hour. And he (Bruce) did. The heating system here is a hot water system and evidently our water was so hot that it was keeping the heat from switching on. That probably means a faulty hot water thermostat, but we will have to wait until tomorrow or Monday to find out as the part had to be ordered. In the meantime, Bruce manually turned off the hot water heater which immediately switched the heat on. Hopefully we’ll have both hot water and heat by Monday.

Tomorrow we head to Cape Cod. We are going to a Tacky Gift Party tomorrow night at Bruce and Jane Woodin’s. This is an annual affair and always a lot of fun. Helaine Kanegsberg donated an item from her basement that I will take and I ordered Trump toilet paper for Mark to take. Regardless of your political leanings, this is definitely a tacky gift!

Day 133, Year 11: To Concord, NH, and Back
Date: Thursday, March 3, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny and Cold, High in the 30’s, Low Upper Teen’s F
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA

This afternoon we drove to Concord, New Hampshire (actually Bow, NH) to visit with Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg and attend the Concord Yacht Club dinner meeting at their home tonight. Alan and Helaine visited us on Windbird less than three weeks ago and at that time we had no idea we would back in New England so soon. But we are here and it was great to see good yacht club friends. We always laughed about Concord, a very land-locked New England town, having a yacht club. But there are lots of sailors that live in and around Concord and we have enjoyed the meetings for over twenty years. In addition to visiting with friends, Bob Lux made a presentation about the sail he and Beth made to Bermuda last summer and Alan talked about a book called “The Ship That Held Up Wall Street.” This is a book written about an eighteenth-century ship found as the result of an archaeological excavation at 175 Water Street in Lower Manhattan.

After the meeting, we drove back to Lowell. That was not in the plan, but just before we left to drive to Concord Mark got a call from Mass General telling him that his biopsy has been scheduled for 9 am in the morning. We were thrilled to get the call but we immediately realized that we didn’t want to drive from Concord to Boston in the morning. Being here just gets us an hour closer, but an hour in the early morning is a lot. We will still have to leave here by 7 am in order to fight the rush hour traffic, but that beats leaving Concord at 6 am. We also discovered another problem just before we left for our trip north. The heat in the condo had stopped working. The room temperature went from 70 to 65 over the period of the morning. My niece had told us that if we had ‘technical difficulties’ of any sort, we should contact Jared who lives next door. Mark knocked on his door and he was on the job immediately. We found multiple issues and Jared was going to work on them in our absence. When we got back tonight, he came right over and reported that he was not successful in getting the heat working but he’s hopeful he can get it fixed tomorrow. Thankfully the temperature has not gone down too many more degrees, so we’ll be fine tonight, especially since Jared brought over a space heater for us to use.

So in the early morning we head to Mass General for Mark’s biopsy. The purpose of the biopsy is to get new tissue for the tests that Novartis must run to see if Mark is eligible for the drug trial. We really thought it would be sometime next week before this procedure could be scheduled at Mass General Hospital, but once again MGH has proven to be extremely responsive to our needs. We are so grateful to have Mass General as our home medical base.

Day 132, Year 11: More Waiting
Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny, Windy and Cold
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA

Mark got a call from Dr. Kwak this evening telling him that we have another hoop to jump through which is going to result in more waiting. Mark’s tissue sample was sent to Novartis this week and they got back to Dr. Kwak today saying they want a new sample. This means another biopsy and that has to be scheduled through regular hospital channels. We have to wait for a call from scheduling and hope that the wait is not too long. First we thought all the necessary testing was already completed. Then we found out that more testing was required by Novartis. Now we find out they want brand new tissue. So we just keep getting these little delays. At this point it seems doubtful that we will know anything until the end of March, but hopefully not later than that. Thankfully Mark is a very patient person. I am not, but I am learning.

A cold front swept through the area today. It was 10 degrees cooler today than yesterday and tomorrow will be even colder. It is no longer polar fleece weather. It is full-fledged winter coat time. We went for a walk this afternoon and we needed coats, hats, and gloves. But if we can survive the next four days, it looks like the temp will be on the rise once again. I heard a long range forecast today saying that it is going to be warmer than usual in the Northeast through May. Sounds good to me!

I spent my day making Chicken Magic Mineral Broth. It takes hours to let it simmer and then it takes hours of waiting while it is cooling down so the fat can be skimmed off. That is really an overnight process, so hopefully I’ll get it canned in the morning before we head to Concord, New Hampshire. We plan to attend the Concord Yacht Club dinner meeting tomorrow night. Of course, if we get a call from the hospital requiring us to be there, we’ll have to switch plans. But if we do get to go, I know we will enjoy seeing good friends. It is only an hour’s drive from here, but we will spend the night and return on Friday.

Day 131, Year 11: It’s March
Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, High in the 40’s, Freezing Rain Tonight
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA

I cannot believe that it’s March already. I still haven’t bought a calendar for 2016. Where have the past couple of months gone? Obviously they have passed me by, but I am now in the here and now and trying to catch up. We spent most of today out food shopping. My niece’s condo came fully furnished with a fully equipped kitchen. There is a whole cabinet of spices, but unfortunately they are not the spices I need. Not wanting to spend a fortune on spices, which is easy to do, we left the condo and drove toward the New Hampshire border. We stopped at a Dollar Store and bought a few of the items needed. Then we continued on to Nashua, New Hampshire, to an Ocean State Job Lot. This is a discount store where most spices cost only $1 and I was able to buy a few more of the needed spices. Next door was a regular supermarket, so we went there and bought other items on the list. But there were still obscure items like Japanese kombu (seaweed) and juniper berries that I needed to make the Magic Mineral Broth, so we continued on to a Whole Foods. It took about three hours to do all of this shopping, but we did end up with everything needed. I came home and cooked the afternoon away. But making the mineral broth is a multi-day process. So that will continue tomorrow. We did take a short walk in the late afternoon and then spent the evening watching the coverage of Super Tuesday on MSNBC and CNN. We are settling in quite comfortably to a land-based life.

Day 130, Year 11: Holding Pattern
Date: Monday, February 29, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Another Relatively Warm Day with Afternoon Rain
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA

Happy Leap Day! I’m afraid we didn’t leap very far forward today. But we didn’t go backwards either, so that’s a good thing. We had the appointment with Mark’s oncologist but we didn’t get to sign the papers to apply to be in the drug trial. Instead, we had to sign papers to allow Mass General to send Mark’s tissue samples to Novartis for further testing. Novartis is the pharmaceutical company sponsoring the trial and they need to run one more test on the tissue samples before Mark can be considered as a candidate for this trial. That will take a week or more. If Mark is still found to be a good candidate, we will then go back to Mass General to sign the paperwork. That will be followed by a few more in-hospital tests. Hopefully by the end of March we will know whether or not Mark is in the trial. In the meantime, Dr. Kwak prescribed new medications to help Mark deal with the pain. And now we will sit and wait. Patience has never been a strong suite for either of us, but we are learning.

My niece Lynn, owner of this condo that she has so graciously agreed to let us stay in, became our hero for the second day in a row. Yesterday she was our hero for welcoming us to her condo. And today she was our hero because she accomplished what Mark found to be impossible. She got us hooked up to cable TV and internet. This morning Mark called Comcast, the cable company we have to deal with here, to see if they could use Lynn’s existing equipment to get us hooked up to internet and TV. After waiting for over 30 minutes to talk to someone, the answer was simply no. It all seemed like way too much trouble and money, so he hung up and decided he never wanted to deal with Comcast again. Later in the day we got a call from Lynn. She had called Comcast and was told the same thing, but she persisted, talked to someone higher up, and got that person to agree to let us use her existing equipment. Lynn called and gave us the name of the person and her direct line. We called and almost instantaneously we had both TV and internet. Thank you, Lynn! With the spotty cell service we have here, having internet via cable will make life so much nicer. And since we have weeks of sitting and waiting patiently, we will enjoy watching the political ‘show’ as it continues to evolve. Mark is a political junky, so he is a happy camper. And I can now use Skype to call people on their home phones. If you want to reach me, you can call or text to let me know, and then I can call you back on your cell or home phone via Skype on my computer. Otherwise, I have to stand outside to talk on the phone. On a day like today, that’s not too bad. But we have a few cold days coming up and standing outside on the deck to talk on the phone just doesn’t sound like fun.

The rain this afternoon thwarted our efforts to go into Boston on the train. The train ride would have been fine, but the walk from North Station to the hospital would not have been fun in the rain. So we drove. It took us 45 minutes to get to Mass General. Not bad, but we were sure the ride home in rush hour traffic was going to be horrendous. But we were wrong. It was actually just fine. So at least we now know how long it takes to drive and we know that coming home at rush hour is not all that bad.

Day 129, Year 11: A New Home . . . for now
Date: Sunday, February 28, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny, Temp in the High 50’s—Felt Like Spring
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA

We made the move into our new temporary home today. We are now residents in a condominium complex called Evergreen Preserve. It borders on the Massachusetts State Forest, so you have no idea when you are here that you are really in the city of Lowell with a population of 110,000 people. You feel like you are just out in the woods. Lowell is an old mill town on the Merrimack River and is located on the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border. My niece Lynn owns this condo but is not living in it right now. Her mother, my sister-in-law Sue in Boynton Beach, thought up the idea of us using the condo as a temporary home and Lynn immediately embraced the idea. We are so very, very grateful. I think we feel like displaced persons as this is certainly not like living on a boat, but it is a lovely place. It is a spacious two-bedroom condo that is fully furnished. All we had to do was move our things in and go to the grocery store. We actually hopped across the border to a Costco in New Hampshire which was a one-stop shop for pillows and food. Tomorrow we will go to a regular supermarket for a few more items. But basically we are all set. Now we just have to get used to living on land.

Before driving from Cape Cod to Lowell, we had a delightful morning with the Goldstones. Heather fixed pancakes for breakfast and then Ollie and Jonah put on a show using the new flashlights we gave them. It is great fun to watch an almost four year-old try to jump into the light of a flashlight that he is holding. ‘Mysteriously’ that circle of light keeps moving. After the light show, the boys went outside to play and immediately started shedding clothing. It was sunny and in the 50’s, and when they found crocus blooming in the front yard, they declared that it is now officially spring. It took some convincing to get them to put long pants and fleece jackets back on for a walk down to the cranberry bogs. It was windy on the bogs and the fleece jackets were much needed. The boys ran, threw sticks and rocks into the water, ran down hills of sand, and watched the mallards and swans on the water. I especially loved watching the swans. They sit so majestically, and then suddenly they emerge their heads in the water which shoots their tails straight up into the air—wrong side up. We all had a great time and then headed home for lunch. Mark and I left right after lunch and arrived in Lowell to meet Lynn and her sister Candi at the condo at 3 pm. They got us settled in and then all of us headed in different directions. This is when we headed to Costco. Tomorrow we have a 3 pm appointment at Mass General and we think we are going to take the train. We’ll spend the morning figuring out exactly how to do this, but we know it is about a 45 minute train ride and then a 10 minute walk from North Station to Mass General. Mark is going to meet with his doctors to sign the paperwork to officially apply to be part of a trial drug study. Hopefully we’ll find out when he will know if he is accepted and when treatment might begin. In the meantime, we’ll explore this new area we call home . . . for now.

160228 Day 129 Cape Cod, USA–A Walk on the Bogs

Day 128, Year 11: Back Home with the Goldstones
Date: Saturday, February 27, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny and Windy
Location: With Heather, Jed, and the Goldpebbles, East Falmouth, MA

I got an email from a friend this morning referring to the whirlwind of a life Mark and I have been leading the last few months . . . and the hurricane of a life we survived this past week. Jane, you pegged it. But as we drove from Nyack to Cape Cod today, I began to feel like things might actually settle down a bit in the next few weeks. It felt really good to get back to the Cape this afternoon. Mark and I both spent time just playing with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. And then this evening we stayed with the boys while Heather and Jed went out to a gala event. We love it when we get to spend the evening with the boys and put them to bed. Reading aloud at bedtime to our own children, and now to our grandchildren, is one of the most comforting and relaxing activities I can think of. Actually Jonah read to me and to Ollie tonight and Sam read on his own, and that made that quiet time of the evening even more special. Tomorrow we’ll make the move to Lowell. We are supposed to meet my niece Lynn tomorrow afternoon and begin the settling in process there.

160227 Day 128 Cape Cod, USA–Back Home with the Goldstones

Day 127, Year 11: Ashburn, VA to Nyack, NY (in a car)
Date: Friday, February 26, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny, Still Windy
Location: At Home with Ed and Lynne Kirwin, Nyack, NY

We had breakfast with Kevin and Claire, said our farewells and our deep felt thank you for Kevin’s help in getting Windbird to South Carolina, and then we headed on north. We made it to Nyack by late afternoon and have enjoyed a delightful evening with friends Ed and Lynne. Ed’s two sons and two grandsons came over to visit and the youngest grandson, Anthony, gave us a karate demonstration where he could jump in the air and twirl around. He is just so cute. Lynne prepared a fantastic dinner which was enjoyed by all and then showed us photos of her sister’s 50th wedding anniversary party that took place at The Breakers in Palm Beach last weekend. What a beautiful setting for such a special celebration. We also enjoyed looking at 20+ year-old photos of Ed and Lynne when they first arrived in the South Pacific. Some things have changed, but their beautiful smiles are just the same. We always enjoy our time here and hate to move on, but tomorrow morning we head to Cape Cod. We are really looking forward to seeing the Goldstones before we head even further north on Sunday to Lowell where we will be spending the next few weeks. We talked to my niece Lynn this afternoon and she will meet us at the condo on Sunday afternoon. We are so grateful for her generosity in letting us stay in her condo and we anxious to get there. The events of the past week seem almost like a blur to me and I am having a bit of difficulty believing that I am going to be living in a condo in Massachusetts instead of on a boat in Florida. I’m sure once we are there, the apprehension will disappear. We’ve just had too many changes in our lives in a short period of time and I think I’m beginning to be overwhelmed by it all.