2025 Life Logs, Day 224: Workday
Date: Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Weather: Still Warm, AC on; High Temp 82, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

It was a workday for me. I had to get ready to give my first financial report to the Library Board of Trustees tonight, prepare for the Encore Board meeting tomorrow, and send out communications inviting a few people to look through a list of 125+ nonviolent resistance films for the film series I am heading up for the Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition. I feel like a juggler that always has three balls in the air!

Shadow is moping around with the plastic cone on his head, but I took him for a long walk this morning and another one this afternoon. I had to hand-feed him last night, but I refused to do it this morning, so he didn’t eat. Tonight, I tried putting the food on a plate instead of in a bowl and I put it up on a step stool and that worked. The cone was hitting the floor when the food was at floor level.

Late this afternoon, another Goldstone returned to the Cape from Maine. Today it was Sam. He drove home so he can spend a little time with his friend Ethan who leave on Friday for university in Montana. I delivered Sam’s baskets of clean clothes this evening before my Library Trustees meeting. I hope most of the clothes stay clean until he packs. Monday and Tuesday will be packing days, and on Wednesday, he and Heather leave for the Netherlands. Never a dull moment around here.

2025 Life Logs, Day 223: Shadow Update
Date: Monday, August 11, 2025
Weather: Warming Up Again; High Temp 78, Low 66 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

One Goldstone is back on the Cape today. This morning, Heather took a bus from near Booth Bay to Portland and on to South Station in Boston where I picked her up. She needed to be back home to attend Select Board this evening. I jumped at the chance to go pick her up so we could have some one-on-one time to talk. Once the kids are around, that never seems to happen. It was delightful to catch up and have a little private time with my daughter!

The problem of the day was Shadow. Well, not Shadow, but Shadow’s surgical incision. Last night after my dining-in friends left, I went to Heather and Jed’s to pick Shadow up. Since I knew we were going to be going in and out of the house, there was no way I was going to be able to keep Shadow on a leash while carrying food and drinks back and forth. And until the incision is healed, I have to keep him on leash all the time. I picked him up, came home, wrote my log, and then got ready for bed. It was then that I noticed that his incision was no longer stitched together. Since I have been wearing a soft collar on him rather than the hard plastic cone given to me by the vet, I knew I was taking a chance that he could use his paw to try and rub the incision and break the stitches loose, either on purpose or by accident. It happened, and however it happened, it scared me to death to just look at it. The incision is on his eyelid, right next to his eye, and part of the incision was gaping open. I took a deep breath, put medication on the incision, and put the awful plastic cone back on him. After wearing the other collar for a week, he is a little better with the cone, but he obviously hates it. I took him to the veterinarian first thing this morning and was told that the incision will heal without doing more stitches. This just sets the timeline back a bit. They gave me a different tube of ointment to put on the incision that has an antibiotic in it (another $50) and was told to return with him on Thursday. That is when the stitches were supposed to come out, and there are still a couple of stitches in place that do have to be removed. I should never have taken the plastic cone off. Nor should I have let him off-leash in the yard a few times. Those stitches would have stayed in place if I had left the cone on. Live and learn. But it is not a good feeling to know that I have caused such great difficulty for Shadow.

2025 Life Logs, Day 222: Dining-In at My House
Date: Sunday, August 10, 2025
Weather: Perfect Summer Weather Continues; High Temp 77, Low 64 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

What I have been calling perfect summer weather has been great, but it is dry. Today as I was walking through the yard, I could hear the sound of grass crunching underfoot. Grass is not supposed to be brittle. We have had no rain of consequence for some time now, and the forecast going forward shows no rain. Maybe my perfect weather isn’t so perfect after all. We do need rain!

It was my turn to host my dining-in group for dinner tonight and yesterday was Bruce Woodin’s birthday. So, we celebrated this evening. Happy Birthday, Bruce. Jane’s double chocolate cake was delicious.

2025 Life Logs, Day 221: The Laundry Fairy
Date: Saturday, August 9, 2025
Weather: Perfect Summer Weather Continues; High Temp 73, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

When Sam gets home on Thursday of this week, he will have just four days to get ready to leave for university in the Netherlands. So, this morning when I went over to feed the cats at the Goldstones, I went up to his room to check out the clothes situation. It was apparent that he has not started packing unless throwing all of his clothes in the middle of the floor was part of the process! So, I gathered up four big laundry baskets of clothes and hauled them downstairs. When Sam and Jonah left for Maine, there was a huge pile of towels piled in front of the washer. I started washing those yesterday and had one more load to go today. So, I left the heavy sweatshirt load there and brought the rest of the baskets home with me to do here. That will be easier than running back and forth. Plus, I can keep both washers going. I hope Sam won’t be upset with me for doing this. Maybe he had a plan. But if he is upset, I’ll just plead that the good fairy genes in me ‘forced’ me to do it!

I headed to the Green at noon for the Saturday Standout for Democracy. I was thrilled that two of the couples that came to the Community Resistance Gathering at my house on Thursday night were there, and they said that they plan to come as often as they can. The third couple was also there, but one of them is a regular attendee, and I think the other will now come more often as well. I’ll call that a win for Indivisible’s Oner Million Rising program.

My afternoon and evening were filled with doing chores: a little gardening, a little more laundry, moving outdoor furniture for tomorrow evening’s Dining-In gathering, shopping for tomorrow evening’s dinner, and getting the inside of the house ready. Tomorrow evening, we will start with appetizers outside, but then we will probably move inside for dinner. I guess it will all depend on the mosquitoes. I was outside until almost 8 pm tonight without the threat of mosquitoes. I keep saying the weather is perfect, but the problem with that is there has been no rain. The grass is turning brown, and I have to water some things every day now. But maybe no rain means no mosquitoes. We shall see.

2025 Life Logs, Day 220: The Resister Sisters
Date: Friday, August 8, 2025
Weather: Still Perfect Summer Weather; High Temp 74, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

The moon is full overnight at 3:55 am, but The Old Farmer’s Almanac says the best view is tonight. I just got inside from taking Shadow out, and indeed, that full moon is beautiful.

The big event today was going to a Resister Sister sponsored standout on an overpass above the highway leading up to the Bourne Bridge coming onto Cape Cod. I met one of the Resister Sisters at last week’s standout on the Green and she said she needed extra hands today. So, I volunteered. The group has very long signs that span over a long distance, so they need extra hands to hold the signs up high against the fencing as it is against the law the even temporarily attach a sign.

Unfortunately, this ended up to be a real ‘pain in the neck’ for me. And I mean that literally. After standing there for an hour and half with hands high above my head, my neck and surrounding shoulder muscles were not happy. I think I will have to leave protesting on overpasses to the younger protesters.

I also had another very interesting encounter. Those attending the standout had been asked to carpool as there was no place to park right at the overpass. I got an email from a woman asking I would like to carpool with her, and I said yes, even though I had never met her. When I got to her house, I found out another man whom I also do not know had offered to take both of us. So off I went with two new friends. We had been instructed to park at a farm and walk about 4-5 minutes to the overpass. It was supposed to be a walk along a quiet country road. But this afternoon, that country road was full of cars and trucks and there was no place to walk other than in the road. It really did not feel safe, but we proceeded in single file and held our breath when the big trucks went by. It seemed like we had already walked for more than 5 minutes when a truck headed our way stopped. The driver, a woman, got out and yelled across the road telling us to get in her truck because walking on that road was not safe. See seemed nice enough, but she was insistent. We had to make an instant decision, so we walked across the road and got into her truck. We told her we were going to the overpass to protest, and wouldn’t you know, she happened to be a Trump supporter, an Evangelical Christian Maga. And she was more than a Trump supporter. She believes God chose Trump to dismantle the evil government because he is the only one who can fix it. But she explained that even if we are successful in getting Trump out of office that it will be okay because God will take over and make it right. She told us she still loved us even though we are on the wrong side of this struggle. And when we arrived at the overpass, she got out of the truck to hug us. Wow! I don’t think I have ever been so glad to get out of car in my life. No more hitching rides to protests for me.

2025 Life Logs, Day 218: Walking at Highfield, Dinner with the Dearman’s
Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Weather: Still Perfect Summer Weather; High Temp 77, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

How lucky we are here on the Cape to have such perfect summer weather. I started my perfect summer day with a walk with Shadow, followed by taking Jonah to the high school for soccer practice, and then on to Highfield Hall for a walk with Jane Woodin. Jane and I attended a presentation at Highfield last week about the history of the gardens there. We wanted to walk around afterwards to see how the gardens had changed, but I had another commitment that evening. So, we set today as a date for walking through the gardens and into Beebe Woods. The main garden, which most refer to as the sunken garden, has been changed from a garden with annuals, to a garden mostly of perennial hydrangeas
.

Jonah didn’t really get to practice this morning as his foot was injured in yesterday’s game. But he needed to go to practice anyway. The top of his foot either got kicked or stepped on. He has been icing it and thinks it will be fine by the time he returns from Maine. Special wishes for a quick and total recovery.

My afternoon was spent on library treasurer tasks, and then tonight I was invited to Lara and Andrew Dearman’s for dinner. It is always wonderful to visit with them. The food was great and we had quite a ‘rousing’ political discussion. We are all on the same side but have differing views on the best way to move forward. It was an enlightening exchange of ideas.

2025 Life Logs, Day 217: M+M+M+M+S
Date: Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Weather: More Perfect Summer Weather; High Temp 77, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

M=Meeting

S=Soccer

So, my day start at 9:30 with a meeting Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition Events Committee meeting to explore possibilities for a non-violent resistance film series. We also have an upcoming book talk and an art exhibit. So that committee is alive and well. From there I went to the library to meet with an administrative assistant who helped me figure out why the library treasurer reports I completed yesterday would not print on my computer. The assistant, Mary, is wonderful, and she had all of my issues sorted out for me. Then it was home to walk with Shadow, gulp down half my lunch before the next meeting began at my house. I met with the Encore’s Assistant Program Vice President where we developed a ‘to do’ calendar from now until the end of December. That, plus reviewing some other issues, took us almost two hours. I finished just in time to get to the library at exactly 3 pm for a Resource Committee meeting to review this past year and set the budget for next year. At 4 pm we adjourned that meeting, and I headed home to take Shadow out and give him his pain meds before picking up Jonah and heading to Hyannis for a summer soccer game. I think the score was 12-1 with Falmouth winning. Jonah played a great game and then we grabbed dinner At Five Guys before heading home. We got home around 8:30 pm. Since I had not even had time to check my email today, I did that, answered the necessary email, watched some TV news, and am now headed to bed. No meetings tomorrow!

2025 Life Logs, Day 216: Shadow’s Surgery Day
Date: Monday, August 4, 2025
Weather: Sunny, More Perfect Weather; High Temp 77, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Shadow developed a cyst right above his eye in June, and by mid-July it was evident that it needed to be removed. Today was that day and tonight I have one very sad doggy. The doctor says the surgery went well and sent Shadow home with one of those big, plastic cones around his head. I had to lift him up to get him in the car and lift him down when we got home. He would walk on a leash, but the minute I took the leash off, he would just stand in that position and not move. He was not a happy dog.

Sometime during the first hour he was home, he finally laid down just where he was standing. I sent a text to my friend Lynne to let her know how Shadow was doing and she suggested that I might want to buy a soft, inflatable ring to put around his neck rather than the cone. I went out to buy one, and what a difference that made. He is still groggy from the drugs, but he will now get up on the sofa and sit with me. For the surgery, they shaved all the hair around his one eye. It gives the appearance that he is wearing a pirate patch on his other eye. He gets the stitches out next Thursday, but it will take a bit for the hair to grow back. For the next couple of months, I have Shadow the Pirate Dog.

2025 Life Logs, Day 215: Family Dinner at My House
Date: Sunday, August 3, 2025
Weather: Sunny, Perfect Weather; High Temp 77, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Not too hot, not too cold … perfect summer weather. That describes the weather we are currently experiencing. Perfect weather is hard to come by these days, so we here on Cape Cod are thankful for this break from the heat and humidity. Monday and Tuesday look like they will be a little warmer, but still with coolish nights. I guess we’ll see what that means.
Heather, Jed, and Ollie leave tomorrow for Maine. Sam and Jonah follow on Thursday as Jonah really doesn’t want to miss summer soccer practice and games. Sam, Jonah, and Heather will also return early next week with just Ollie and Jed staying through the next weekend. I wanted to have everyone over for a Sunday summer dinner as it is the last chance for all of us to be together on a Sunday before Sam leaves for college. I grilled chicken, made stuffed baked potatoes with all the stuffings the boys love, and had corn on the cob and salad. It was a fun evening with lots of talk about packing for college.

But the Woodin’s were having a little happy hour gathering starting at 5:30 pm this afternoon that I wanted to drop in on. So, I made the stuffed potatoes ahead of time and had everything else ready to go. I went to the Woodin’s, had a great time visiting with friends, got home by 6:40 pm, fired up the grill, and we had dinner by 7:30. It was a fun evening. And if we don’t get a chance to have another family dinner with all of us until Sam comes home for Christmas, I will at least have the memories from tonight.