2025 Life Logs, Day 158: Family Brunch as a Final Graduation Celebration
Date: Sunday, June 8, 2025
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 69, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

The last of Sam’s graduation celebrations was mid-day when we had a quiet family brunch at Heather and Jed’s. Sam opened his graduation gifts after we ate Cape Cod bagels with Jed’s leftover gravlax from yesterday’s party. Yummy. Sam seemed sincerely appreciative of his gifts from everyone. I still have to pinch myself when I look at him and realize that he is a young adult now. The photo frame of pictures of Sam through his 18 years was rolling in the background today reminding each of us that he is no longer the little boy in those photos. It is wonderful and exciting thinking about what the next few years hold for him, but at the same time it is hard to let go. Sam has a couple of days to recover from all of the graduation frenzy before he works W-Th-F-S at Corner Cycle. He repeats the same schedule next week before leaving for his graduation tour to Europe. Quoting what Heather said on her Facebook page, “I still can’t believe this is happening.” I couldn’t agree more.

Jed’s mother, Marti, leaves for Maine tomorrow morning. With graduation over, I think things will slow down just a bit. But there is boat work to be done before Ardenna is launched on Friday of this week. Lynne is here until Saturday, and I think things will settle down a notch or two this week so that we have time to do things together.

2025 Life Logs, Day 157: Sam’s Graduation
Date: Saturday, June 7, 2025
Weather: Mostly Overcast, A Little Rain; High Temp 68, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Samuel Ellery Goldstone, Falmouth High School Class of 2025 and on to the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Congratulations!

Today was the big day–the day my first grandchild graduated from high school. The threat of rain moved the graduation indoors, but the outside celebration in front of the school afterwards was joyous. Pictures were taken of Sam with … his brothers and mom and dad … both his grandmothers … his good friend Robert … Robert, Audrey, and Cece … Robert and Ethan … Sam, Jonah, and Ollie with Molly and Joey who the Goldpebbles regard as another brother and a sister … and on and on with other groups of friends. Congratulations to Sam and to all members of the Falmouth High School Class of 2025.

After the photo frenzy, we moved on to the after-graduation parties. Sam and Robert had a joint party immediately after graduation at Robert’s home. Then the graduates and some parents moved on to a late afternoon party at Ethan’s. Ethan, Robert, and Sam are headed to Europe later this month to meet up with Sebastian who rounds out the quartet of closest friends. After Ethan’s party, I think there was an evening of party hopping still to go.

Heather and I changed gears and went to Ollie’s last soccer game. Jonah was a line ref for the game, so we got to see both in action. But we had to watch much of the game in fog and then pouring rain. It was an ‘interesting’ way to end the spring soccer season!

2025 Life Logs, Day 156: Museum Visit, Blink, A Last Minute Shopping Frenzy
Date: Friday, June 6, 2025
Weather: Another Warm, Partly Cloudy Day; High Temp 75, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Part of my day was spent at the Cape Cod Cape Verdean Museum in East Falmouth. I met with two other Encore members to introduce them to the curator of the museum. She is the person we have asked to speak at one of our Encore program meeting next spring. When I set this meeting date, I had no idea how busy I would be with Sam’s graduation activities, Lynne’s visit, and all the normal craziness in my life. But the museum visit was helpful. I didn’t get back home until almost 2:30 and Lynne and I had planned to attend a movie, Blink, at the public library. She had lunch ready when I got home, so we wolfed it down and headed to the library. Blink is a National Geographic documentary about a family with four children with an incurable eye disease that would cause all four of them to go blind. So the parents decided to take them on an adventure around the world to see as much as possible so that when they do go blind, they will have visual memories. It was heart warming and heart breaking all at the same time. We thought about skipping it, but we are both glad we went. I then went on a wild shopping trip trying to find something that Heather and Jed wanted for Sam. The trip was unsuccessful, but the world will not end. When I got home around 6 pm, hooked up a new hose I bought today to water plants out by the driveway. And after taking a little break, I warmed up lasagna for dinner. Tomorrow is graduation and I have to be at Heather and Jed’s before 9 am. Everyone attending has to park in a Steamship Authority parking lot nearby and take a shuttle bus to and from the graduation ceremony. So off to bed I go.

2025 Life Logs, Day 154: Provincetown, Lynne Arrived, Ollie’s Spring Concert
Date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 68, Low 59 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Early this morning, I was off with 19 other Newcomers and Encore members on a field trip to Provincetown. Once there, we hopped aboard the Mayflower Trolley for a narrated trip through the town, out through the national park, and back to the Provincetown Town Hall. We then did a walk around town and had lunch at Bubala’s.

The car I was in returned home right after lunch, and when I got home I was greeted by my friend Lynne walking down the street with Shadow. Lynne now lives in New Zealand, but she is back in this country for the summer with her family in Michigan. I get her for the next 10 days. I have done my best to clear my calendar so we can have a few relaxed days together. But first, we need to get through the rest of this week culminating in Sam’s high school graduation. After that, things calm down considerably.

Jed and his mother, Marti, arrived from Washington, DC, just in time for Ollie’s spring concert at Lawrence Middle School this evening. Ollie played his saxophone with the jazz band and with the 120-student strong concert band.

Lynne and I then came home for a vegetarian lasagna dinner. Tomorrow morning, I am off to a meeting while Lynne will take a walk down to the beach with Shadow. Then we will drive to Costco to buy burgers and buns for Sam and Robert’s graduation party on Saturday. And tomorrow night, I will go with Heather and Jed to Awards Night at the high school. So goes the life here in Falmouth, Massachusetts on this warm and wonderful June day.

2025 Life Logs, Day 153: Sam’s Senior Walk of Honor
Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 74, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Sam and all of the seniors that attended East Falmouth Elementary returned there today for the Senior Walk of Honor. They were in cap and gown and a few tears were shed by the parents, and this grandmother, attending. The parents were back where their now grown up seniors began their education career. Soon these seniors will be on to new adventures. The realization is tough, but it is also exciting. I was just so thrilled that Heather invited me to go along. Sam hates having photos taken, but I have been Oma Paparazzi for 18 years. So, I’m not going to stop now!

This evening, Ollie had his last soccer game of the spring season. And he played better than I have ever seen him play. Jonah was one of the referees for the game. It was fun seeing them both on the field together in their different roles.

2025 Life Logs, Day 152: Sam’s Week
Date: Monday, June 2, 2025
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 62, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

In my mind, this week is all about Senior Sam. There is shopping to do and food prep for the graduation party on Saturday. And of course, the graduation itself on Saturday. Tonight was the Senior Banquet. As I noted yesterday, Jed is in DC until Wednesday evening and Heather had meetings tonight, and again tomorrow night. So, I was the lucky grandmother that got to see Sam and Robert off as they left for the banquet tonight. So handsome and grown-up.

Tomorrow is the Senior Walk of Honor where the seniors go back to walk the halls of their elementary school. I wish I could be a fly on the wall for that. I remember taking the photo of an exuberant Sam walking to East Falmouth Elementary for his first day of kindergarten wearing those brand new red suede shoes. I get emotional just thinking about it.

04 Sam Waves to Oma’razzi’

Sam works at the bike shop on W-Th-F, but Thursday night is Falmouth High Awards Night. The whole family will be attending that. Jed’s mother and my friend Lynne arrive on Wednesday. I lead an all-day field trip to Provincetown on Wednesday and return just in time to go to Ollie’s middle school Spring Concert. Whew! A lot to pack into the next five days.

2025 Life Logs, Day 151: Outside, Inside
Date: Saturday, May 31, 2025
Weather: Rain Early, Sun, Clouds, WIND; High Temp 64, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I started my day outside. There was a little rain overnight, but by 8:30 am the rain disappeared. There was a mix of overcast skies, then sun, then clouds, then more sun, then more clouds. But it was nice enough to lure you outside. Shadow and I took a long walk and then I came home thinking I would spend my day on the computer getting caught up on all the little jobs on my ‘to do’ list—emails that needed to be returned, Encore documents that needed to be updated, communications with possible program speakers for next year that needed to be written. But I looked at my calendar and saw that Ollie had an away soccer game in Yarmouth, and I decided to chuck the work and go. I sent a text to Heather and got an invite to go with her. So off to Yarmouth we went to watch number 23 play soccer!.

On the way home, the wind picked up and it continued to build. When we got home, I went outside to do some planting, but it was actually too dangerous to be outside. I big branch fell out of a tree right next to where I was working, so that was it for gardening. I drove to the hardware store to get something I needed. On the way, another branch came flying out of a tree and hit my windshield hard enough to leave a very long crack on the passenger side.

hat was it. I went home and stayed inside for the rest of the day and evening. It is 10:30 pm and I have been sitting at this computer since 5 pm. I am proud to report that I got a huge number of the computer jobs on my list done. Hurray!

2025 Life Logs, Day 150: Last Class, Boat Work, Dinner with Friends
Date: Friday, May 30, 2025
Weather: Mostly Cloudy with Sun Breaking Through; High Temp 64, Low 57 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

This day can be divided into three parts.

Part 1 took all morning. I attended my last ‘Beyond the Whitehouse’ class. Thomas Jefferson built a university. John Quincy Adams became a member of the House of Representatives … for 18 years. Grover Cleveland lost his re-election, and then came back to win another four years, the only President to do this until our present king. William Howard Taft had always wanted to be on the Supreme Court but ended up as President. Beyond the Whitehouse, he finally got appointed as Chief Justice. After a failed Presidency, Jimmy Carter became an international negotiator, an election watchdog, and best-selling author while building house s for Habitat for Humanity. And I can’t leave out Geroge W who left politics total behind and became an artist. What would you do in your post-presidency?

I didn’t get home from class and running errands afterwards until 2 pm. Part 2 took the rest of the afternoon. I went to the boat to apply teak oil to the teak surrounding the cockpit.

And finally, Part 3 was spent having dinner at Terry and Olivia White’s, with Olivia’s friend Renu who lives most of the year in Switzerland.

Tomorrow. Who knows? I am to tired to even look at the calendar.

2025 Life Logs, Day 149: Grand Aspirations
Date: Thursday, May 29, 2025
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Light Rain; High Temp 60, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today I had ‘grand’ aspirations to catch up on all of the correspondence and related list of ‘to do’s’ by 11 am and then move on to cleaning house. It is after 10 pm, and I am still just finishing up the correspondence and am starting on the ‘to do’ list of things that have to be done on the computer like writing the Encore Programs budget for next year. That is just one of about 12 things like that, and all 12 need to be done in the next week. Then I can think about cleaning house. Maybe, just maybe I can get those 12 tasks done tomorrow and think about cleaning house this weekend. Obviously, I am overcommitted, but I am determined to get things done. I just need to remember that everything takes me at least 4 times longer than I anticipate! My daily goals need not be so grand.

But on the bright side, this morning I did email Justin to ask him to help me figure out why for the last month my printer has not been printing in color and has not been printing double-sided without me turning the paper over and reinserting it into the printer. I have tried every setting and nothing has solved the problems for me. When Justin called, he took over my computer through an app called Duet. It took him about half an hour before he admitted that he couldn’t figure it out either. So, he suggested resetting the printer to factory specifications. That did it. Hurray. Hurray. Dealing with this day after day has been so frustrating, so I am celebrating that victory tonight. Thank you, Justin!

2025 Life Logs, Day 148: Visiting My Friend Helaine and A Little Shopping
Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 66, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

We are all missing Alan, but today I dropped by to visit with Helaine to see how she is doing. All family members have now gone home, so today was her first day alone since Alan’s death. And the good news is that she is doing really well. She had already been to exercise class by the time I arrived and this evening she was going to dinner with friends. I was able to help her with a couple of issues. We went to visit the nearest Social Security Office to find out exactly what she needs to do, and she made an appointment to return in mid-July to finalize things. After taking care of business, we went out to lunch. It was wonderful to be with her for a few hours.

On my way home, I stopped at Costco for just a couple of things. More importantly, I needed to go to the New Balance outlet near Costco to get a new pair of sneakers. They had the newest edition of the 1080’s that I have worn out. Hopefully this new pair will be as comfortable as the old.