2025 Life Logs, Day 126: Photos, Photos
Date: Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Weather: Partly Cloudy with Periods of Rain; High Temp 61, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Focused my entire day on photos. Getting there.

2025 Life Logs, Day 124: Productive Sunday
Date: Sunday, May 4, 2025
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 66, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

It was a fast-moving, productive Sunday, making it NOT a day of rest. I walked with Shadow and then went over to Heather and Jed’s to share with them what I have learned in my search for a boom for Ardenna in the past couple of weeks and to mesh that with what Jed has learned about an available boom that can possibly be adapted. No decisions were made, but we had a good conversation and there is a plan of action. More information is needed before a decision can be made.

I then hurried home to try and complete phase one of the photo project I have been working on (off and on) since January for Sam’s graduation. I’ll get there, but I am starting now to work on this project for Jonah and Ziggy now as they both graduate two years! It is a time-consuming project, so if I start now, I might get there.

Changing gears, I headed to Christina and Warren Brodie’s to watch The Resistance Lab 2.0. The Resistance Lab is a series of one and a half hour classes preparing people in the tried and true methods of non-violent resistance against leaders who seize power in authoritarian ways. Just writing those words sends a chill up my spine. This is not training I ever thought I would need. But now I find that I do, so I am investing the time into learning the most effective tools and tactics to utilize. These classes are on Zoom and are organized and run by Representative Pramila Jayapal from the state of Washington. There is no cost and all of the material is online to copy and use to train others. I certainly appreciate what Rep Jayapal is doing. One of the first lessons I have learned is to do this training with a group. That is why I didn’t sit at home alone to watch as I did for the first class.

Then, changing gears again, I left Christina’s, went home to take Shadow out, and then went back to Heather and Jed’s to help re-work the irrigation system Heather uses on the deck to water her various planters. She tried space-saving upright planters, but they have just not worked. So, she has ordered a new set of planting boxes, thus the need to rework the system that is in place. While Heather and I were doing that, Jed was working on installing a few more deck flooring boards. By 6 pm, Heather and Jed needed to stop to fix dinner, so I headed home, did a little more photo work, fixed dinner, and collapsed.

What I did not get done today was the garden work I had planned to do. Yesterday I punted that forward to today. Today I am punting that forward to tomorrow. We are supposed to have a rainy week, but I am hoping there will be periods without rain when I can get the yard and garden work done.

2025 Life Logs, Day 123: Saturday Protest and Beginning the Gardening Season
Date: Saturday, May 3, 2025
Weather: Partly Sunny and Warm; High Temp 62, Low 54 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

No jacket needed today. When I headed outside with Shadow this morning, I was greeted with a warm wind. I spent much of my morning on the computer, went to the every Saturday protest on the Green, and then dedicated my afternoon to outdoor gardening and yard work. The peas Ollie planted for me on March 22 took a full month to come up and then the ever-spreading lily-of-the-valley moved in and were overtaking the peas. This afternoon I weeded out the lilies, restrung the bean tower that the pea vines climb, and put the rabbit fencing back in place. I didn’t get to plant the things I bought yesterday, but that is tomorrow’s job. I spent time getting some of the summer outdoor furniture out of the basement and hooking up the irrigation system for the garden. It felt so good to be outside all afternoon. And while I was out and about today, I had a big pot of chicken mineral broth burbling on the stove. Good day.

2025 Life Logs, Day 122: Hard to Keep a Positive Attitude
Date: Friday, May 2, 2025
Weather: Rain Early, Then Partly Sunny; High Temp 60, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

My ‘Beyond the Whitehouse’ course met this morning. This week we focused on William Howard Taft. His aspiration was always to become a Supreme Court Justice, but due to circumstances and the insistence of his wife and family, he became President. Almost a decade after his presidency, he did get his dream job. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. So far in this course, we have focused on Thomas Jefferson who built the University of Virginia after his presidency, then John Quincy Adams who spent almost three decades in the House of Representatives, post presidency. Grover Cleveland’s claim to fame was being the first president to serve two non-contiguous terms. Until Donald Trump, Cleveland was the only US President to do this. And then this week it was Taft. Next week we focus on Herbert Hoover. I will miss that class, but we all know what Hoover did after his presidency. The last two weeks of the class will highlight Jimmy Carter and George W.

I came home and worked on the photo project that I really need to get done, went to buy some plants for the garden, and came home to continue working on the photo project. All of those things are fun and uplifting, but the reason I titled today’s log ‘Hard to Keep a Positive Attitude’ is what our current president decided to axe today. I’ve known that funding for public broadcasting was on the chopping block, but today it was made official, and I was surprised by how hard that hit me. Having spent so much of my life dedicated to public radio, I guess I should have expected it, but still, I found it very depressing. Compared to how so many people’s lives are being torn apart by Trump’s actions, the need for public broadcasting pales. But we can’t let ourselves make that kind of comparison. Lives are definitely more important, but we have to fight to keep everything. Despite the cuts, public broadcasting will continue because only a percentage of the budget is federally funded. Public broadcasting is member supported, but relying just on member support is a little like trying to keep the Defense Department funded by bake sales. The end of federal funding will affect public radio differently from public television. But the cuts to both, in the beginning, will mean that very small stations in far away places will be closed. As with all these cuts, the marginalized lose the most.

2025 Life Logs, Day 121: May Day or Mayday
Date: Thursday, May 1, 2025
Weather: Sunny and Windy; High Temp 55, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today Robert Reich posted, “May Day has two meanings, both of which are directly applicable to today. It commemorates the solidarity of the labor movement (139 years ago today, workers gathered in the streets of Chicago to demand an eight-hour day).

“Mayday!” is also a distress signal used by pilots to indicate imminent danger or a life-threatening emergency (derived from the French phrase “m’aider,” meaning “help me”).

That about sums it up: Our solidarity is necessary to overcome the imminent dangers we now face — all from Donald J. Trump.”

I celebrated May Day/Mayday! By attending a May Day Strong rally to support American workers up by the Bourne Bridge. Most of the people around me were my age, but the person right next to me was a young man from Plymouth. I am always so happy to see young people at these rallies, and I loved his sign saying that billionaires are parasites.

2025 Life Logs, Day 120: Double Booked
Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 70, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today at 5 pm my wine group met for the first time since December. The date was set months ago before I knew that tonight was the League of Women Voters’ Candidate Night for our upcoming May 20 election in Falmouth. So, I decided to do both. Our wine group gathered at 5 pm, so I had a little more than hour to say hello to everyone. Then I hurried home to take Shadow out, feed him, and get to the library for the 7 pm Candidate’s Night. I got there at 6:40 and found a standing-room only situation. With a little maneuvering, I did find a seat. The two big races are for the School Committee and the Select Board, but I got my one minute to introduce myself as an uncontested candidate running for Trustee on the Public Library Board. Why am I doing this? When I found out no one was running for this position, I felt compelled to fill the spot. I grew up in a home with the only book being a bible and in a town with no library. It was the bookmobile that came every two weeks that introduced me to the world of books and changed my life. Those books led me to a lifelong career as an educator and a lifelong learner. I look forward to sitting on the Falmouth Library Board to do what I can to assure the very well established and wonderfully run Falmouth Public Library system grows into the future.

Tomorrow is May Day, a time for a nationwide protest against the ‘war on working people’ that is being called May Day Strong. The big protest on the Cape will be up by the Bourne Bridge, but there are smaller protests in towns and cities on Cape Cod and all across the country. Please join us.

2025 Life Logs, Day 119: The Never-Ending Story
Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Windy; High Temp 59, Low 52 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I am now calling the search for a boom for Ardenna the “never-ending story.” I did find a boom today that should work, but Heather and Jed will have to decide if they want a new boom fabricated to be just like the one they lost in the fire or whether they are willing to go with something that will work but might not be perfect. And if they want a new boom fabricated, we have to find the original plans and it is unclear who currently owns those. They must exist somewhere in this world. We just don’t know where.

2025 Life Logs, Day 118: Still Looking for a Boom Solution
Date: Monday, April 28, 2025
Weather: Sunny and Warm; High Temp 71, Low 48 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today I traveled back across the bridge to the Mattapoisett, Marion, and Wareham area in search of a solution for replacing Ardenna’s boom that was destroyed in a fire at the end of February. The deeper I dig into the problem, the more complicated it seems to become. It is like the ‘one step forward, two steps backwards’ adage. But I am meeting some very interesting people and truly enjoying this dip back into the marine world. The search continues tomorrow.

2025 Life Logs, Day 117: Boats and a Sunday Sermon
Date: Sunday, April 27, 2025
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 57, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

This morning I went to Woods Hole with Heather, Jed, and Ollie to the Marin Sale at the Woods Hole Maritime Museum. There were loads of people and lots of sale but not a dinghy the of the size that Heather and Jed need to buy. But Ollie found some things for free that can help him adapt one of my kayaks to a sailing kayak. One of the women helping from with the sale overheard him talking to Jed about this and interrupted to tell Ollie that he sounds very serious about his boat project. She pointed out that he can come to the museum any Saturday morning to work with the boat builders there. What a great opportunity for him. I hope he will take her up on the offer.

Then this afternoon instead of working on the photo project that needs to be done ASAP, I ended up working on Ardenna’s needs. The welder who I found yesterday to weld a crack in one of the stays called to tell me he had completed that task, but he also had more information for me about finding a boom. We must have talked for an hour and then I went about gathering the information he suggested I try to get from Heather and Jed about the boom that was destroyed. I will meet with the welder tomorrow morning, and then go back to look at the booms I found on Friday to see if they will really do the job. I did end up spending a couple of hours on the photo project, but I really must focus on that this week.

What I did not do today that I had planned to do was to attend some of the town of Falmouth’s kick-off celebrations for the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution. The event was called Lanterns & Lyrics and it included everything from watching a film about Katherine Lee Bates to learning about the bell made by Paul Revere found in our First Congregational Church on Main Street to an evening musical performance. I hope there are more events coming up that I will be able to attend.

I will end with a bit of a Sunday sermon of sorts from Ronald Reagan. The following words of wisdom were spoken by Reagan in his last speech as President.. They are copied here from Heather Cox Richardson’s LETTTERS FROM AN AMERICAN, April 26, 2025
On the last day of his presidency, in his last speech, President Ronald Reagan recalled what someone had once written to him: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”
He continued: “We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people—our strength—from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.”