2025 Life Logs, Day 16: A Little Field Trip to Boston
Date: Thursday, January 16, 2025
Weather: Sunny AM, Partly Sunny to Cloudy PM; Temp 31, Low 23 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

My search for a vintage watch for Coco continues. A woman in my book group that lives in Cambridge half time, suggested that I go to the Swiss Watchmaker on Church Street in Harvard Square. So, I took off this morning to do that, and to do a little reconnaissance in Chestnut Hill for a Newcomers/Encore upcoming field trip to a Mary Baker Eddy house there in late February. I took two watches that Heather gave me for Coco and two that Jane Woodin donated to be assessed to see if adding a battery would get them running again. I scored two out of four, but I had only one battery changed today. It costs $25 to have a battery replaced and $25 for some sort of high-tech cleaning. The watchmaker told me one of the watches from Heather and one from Jane are not battery watches. They are wind up types and the initial cost just to look at them is $50, so I skipped those even though one of them is perfect for Coco. The young woman at the desk at the watchmaker shop admired it and said it was ‘very’ vintage. She told me lots of girls wear vintage watches even if they don’t run. I think that is the watch I wore when I started teaching in 1969. If that is correct, it certainly is vintage! But it looks brand new and will make a nice bracelet. I should have had the band shortened on the one that got the new batter today, but at the time I was not sure just how much to have it shortened. Plus, shortening the band was going to take all afternoon. I will check to see if a jeweler here can shorten the band. If not, I will return when I can spend all day.

While I was waiting for the watch battery to be changed, I drove about 20 minutes from Harvard Square to Chestnut Hill to check out the location of a Mary Baker Eddy home and museum, and to see if there was free parking available near the restaurant that was recommended for lunch on the day of our field trip. There was easy and free parking at all three locations. I knew this from calling, but since I was in the area, I wanted to check it out in person before recommending the trip. The house is in one location and the museum is about a mile from the house. Then the restaurant is a mile from the museum. It is easy to get from one place to the other and will make a great little mid-winter adventure. Now I just have to learn something about Mary Baker Eddy. All I know is that she founded the Mother Church of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston.

2025 Life Logs, Day 15: Democracy
Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Weather: Sunny, Windy, Cold; Temp 31, Low 19 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Tonight, my head is exploding with thoughts of democracy. I spent my day preparing for and then leading my Exploring Public Policy group. The focus was to help us better understand how representative democracy works in our local government. And then tonight, I listened to President Biden’s farewell address where he gave us a stark warning that our democracy is changing before our eyes into an oligarchy. Heavy stuff to absorb.

You could hear the frustration in the voices of the members of the Exploring Public Policy group this afternoon as they expressed a feeling of being overwhelmed with the complexity of the job of running town government. When they saw the huge number of committees filled with people who are elected, appointed, or who volunteer to serve, that advise and regulate and vote on everything that happens in Falmouth, they wondered how people do this in their ‘spare’ time. The committees and boards are filled with people holding down full time jobs, raising families, and just trying to survive. The group had one question. “How do you add the responsibility of making all of the decisions for your entire town to people who lead full lives and serve local government in their ‘spare’ time?” We do have a Town Manager, but all of the decisions are ultimately made by the people. Representative/participatory democracy is hard. But the alternative?

Then tonight listening to President’s Biden’s farewell speech with his stark warning that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America” sent chills running down my spine. He said it will be up to the people to keep democracy alive. The next four years are going to be very require vigilance and hard work to make sure democracy survives. I’m rolling up my sleeves to get ready to do whatever is necessary.

2025 Life Logs, Day 14: Book Club and Prep for Public Policy Group
Date: Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Weather: Sunny, Windy; Temp 34, Low 23 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

After a nice, long walk with Shadow, I headed to Dena Brodie’s for our monthly book club meeting. Dena lives part-time in Cambridge and part-time here and she invited me to come an hour early to catch up. Our book this month was The God of the Woods. None of us were sure we would recommend it to others. Then at some point we started talking about the fires in Los Angeles. One member of the group has a son who lives in Pasadena. He and his family evacuated but are now back at home. The four children all attend a private school called Polytechnic. Their school is fine, but many others have been burned to the ground. So, Polytechnic has a group working on helping find homes for the students that have lost their school. I found out from Kevin Russell later today that his nephew goes to Polytechnic. I mentioned in an earlier log that the school where Kevin’s sister works in Pasadena burned down. I’m wondering if the Connolly family might cross paths with Kevin’s sister’s family. It is such a small world.

By the time I got home and had lunch, it was time to go pick up Ollie. But then I found out that he was home sick today with a cough and is feeling awful. Sure hope he is feeling better soon. I spent the remainder of my day preparing for tomorrow’s Exploring Public Policy meeting. I am learning more about local government structure in Falmouth than I ever wanted to know!

2025 Life Logs, Day 13: A Little Success
Date: Monday, January 13, 2025
Weather: Sunny AM, Then Cloudy, Windy; Temp 40, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today was dedicated to working on a presentation about our local government structure for my Exploring Public Policy group. I tried in vain to get someone from town government to speak with us this Wednesday, but I had no luck. Everyone I talked to about this suggested that State Representative David Viera was the person I needed to contact, but I hesitated because I know he is so busy. But he has been the Falmouth Town Moderator since 1998 and is a Falmouth native, so I sent the email to him late last week. Today was my lucky day because he responded to my email and said he would be glad to come speak with us. That will happen at our February meeting, so today I learned as much as I could from the Falmouth Town website and the meeting this week will focus on getting acquainted with the local government structure through the website. That will not tell the whole story, so in February, David Viera will talk to us further about structure and how people can get involved. One little success. The other little success tonight was that the clouds cleared and the beautiful full moon shone brightly in night sky.

2025 Life Logs, Day 12: Iron Chef Ollie
Date: Sunday, January 12, 2025
Weather: Sunny, but Cold Enough to Preserve Some Snow; Temp 34, Low 24 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

The Goldpebbles have grown up watching Iron Chef on television. If you are not familiar, this is a show where guest chefs compete against a resident “Iron Chef” in a timed cooking battle given a set of ingredients that must be used. The boys have learned a lot about cooking while watching this show and watching their parents cook meals from scratch every single day. Last Sunday when they were here for dinner, Ollie suggested that he should fix dinner this Sunday. He said he wanted to include salmon and steak and make a ‘fancy’ dinner. I didn’t hear any more about this until almost 5 pm this evening when I got a text from Ollie saying dinner would be served at 5:45. In his text, Ollie said, “It’s the fancy(ish) dinner.” So, I dressed up just a bit and headed over. Using Heather and Jed as his sous-chefs, he created a steak and salmon nigiri platter and a cucumber, avocado, and scallion salad with rice on the side and a sashimi platter of steak, salmon, and cucumber.
He had edamame as an appetizer and freshly sliced pineapple, kiwi, and grapefruit with a Meyers lemon juice and honey dressing. The presentation was beautiful and it all tasted as good as it looked.

Sam and Jonah were not home for dinner. Falmouth High School had a ski trip to Waterville Valley in New Hampshire today and they didn’t get home until I was leaving. They said they had a great day on the slopes. Jonah had a sleepover last night with four friends who were going on the trip today. I think Heather said she had been up since 4:30 am getting breakfast for all the boys before they headed to the high school to catch the 6 am bus. Then she and Jed went out with the Falmouth Band Parents to collect Christmas trees to be ‘recycled’ and then Heather went ice skating with Ollie this afternoon. I didn’t realize the local ponds are frozen enough for ice skating, but they are and Ollie said the skating was great. He is hoping to get in more pond skating after school this week. The snow we got last night is still with us. It was above freezing today, but cold enough that most of the snow was preserved. Tomorrow will be a bit warmer, but then the rest of the week will be at or below freezing. So, I think those ponds will stay frozen.

2025 Life Logs, Day 11: A Little Snow
Date: Saturday, January 11, 2025
Weather: Some Snow Overnight, More Snow This Evening; Temp 34, Low 26 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Shadow and I enjoyed a little snow on our morning walk. It started snowing in the early hours of the morning, but there was now enough snow to cover the ground … just patches of white here and there. But as we walked, snowflakes were still falling making it feel magical. Once back inside, I took the lights off my Christmas tree and got it out to the street for pick up tomorrow morning. It took a bit to get the lights and other decorations tucked away for another year and then I took the three different recipes of granola clusters over to Heather and Jed’s for the boys to rate. All tasted good, but I will check in tomorrow to see what the final decision was for the best granola clusters of 2025. My bet is that there will be no consensus. None of the boys really liked the recipe made with honey and brown sugar. And the other two of recipes are so similar that I can probably combine and come up with one that everyone can agree on.

During the afternoon, I got a jigsaw puzzle table set up in the living room where the Christmas tree had been and worked on a few other little projects. Tonight, I watched episode one of Ken Burns’ 2-part series on Leonardo da Vinci. I have always been fascinated by da Vinci’s thirst for knowledge. I loved the opening of the first episode where they quote de Vinci as writing that “the chance to question … that is my divine duty.” They also said that in his writings he referred to himself as a “disciple of experience.” Because he was an illegitimate child, he was not allowed to go to university. He learned from nature by living and doing.

I have been waiting to hear from Kevin and Claire about how Kevin’s mother and his sister and her family that all live in the Pasadena area of Los Angeles are doing. The last I heard was on Wednesday when they all temporarily moved out of the area because the fire was moving quickly in their direction. I heard from Kevin and Claire this afternoon and the good news is that Kevin’s mom and sister and family are fine and back in their homes. Kevin said they talk to his mom daily to check on things. The private school where Kevin’s sister works burned down, so the kids are out of school for now and the school is looking for a new home. The whole situation in LA is just unfathomable. This afternoon, Kevin and Claire were just arriving at their marina in Guaymas. They made a stop in a nearby town to see friends at a different marina on their way and ended up staying for a couple of days. But now they are safely ‘home’. (Note to Kevin’s mom: Joan, I was so happy and relieved to hear that you were able to go back home. Please be safe. And if there is anything that I can do to help, please let me know.)

Just before sitting down to write this log, I took Shadow outside and was surprised by a beautiful world of white.

It has been snowing a bit all evening, but now there is enough on the ground to be beautiful. We’ll head out early in the morning for our walk to enjoy the snow before it melts

.

2025 Life Logs, Day 10: A Normal Winter Day
Date: Friday, January 10, 2025
Weather: Sunny, Warmer, Wind Way Down; Temp 40, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday I felt like I was in a freezing wind tunnel, but today was delightful. It was sunny and warm, not windless, but so much better. I know 40 degrees is not warm, but it sure felt like it today, and Shadow and I could finally do our longer walk again.

I spent part of my day working on Coco’s Christmas present. She wanted a vintage bracelet-style watch, so I sent her a new one that looks ‘vintage’. But the band is too big, and evidently it can’t be made smaller. And anything else I find online looks too big as well. Hearing my sad story, Heather and Jane Woodin both offered me some real vintage watches from their jewelry boxes, but none of them are currently running. I took the most promising one to Falmouth Jewelers to ask their opinion on how much it might cost to get it running. They couldn’t tell if it has a battery or if it is truly vintage and is just one you wind. I think the one I took in used to be mine, a Timex from around 1970. When Heather gave it to me, she thought it was hers, but I’ll have to talk to her again. But in any case, the jewelry store would have to send it to a watch repair specialty place that would assess it. The cost starts at $200 if you choose to have it repaired. But if it only needs a battery, the cost would be $30. Either is expensive. But Jane suggested a place in Wareham where she has had watch batteries replaced for just $3.00. Next week, I’ll take the watches there and see what they say. So, the search for a Christmas present for Coco continues.

I spent time in the afternoon working on a presentation for my public policy group and tonight I attended an MBL Falmouth Forum. The speaker was Deborah Blum, a science journalist and author who writes about the history of poisons in food and drink over the years. Her presentation was a little strange, but interesting. And I got to see my friend Judy Fenwick which made it worth the trip to Woods Hole.

2025 Life Logs, Day 09: Windswept
Date: Thursday, January 9, 2025
Weather: Partly Sunny, Gale Warning in the Sound; Temp 28, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

It really has been only four days of daytime temperatures in the 20’s and eight days of non-stop wind. But it feels to me like it has been like this forever. I am feeling windswept and freezing. But I shall not complain. I am just stating the facts, folks. As we are all seeing, from sea to shining sea in this country, people are having much tougher weather challenges that we are here on Cape Cod right now. Still, I’ll be out in the street doing a happy dance when I can once again walk more than a half mile with my Shadow without freezing. Actually, the walk I have been doing every morning during these windswept days is six tenths of a mile, and that is as far as Shadow really wants to go. He walks faster and faster as we get nearer to home, so much so that we are almost running down the driveway to get inside. Our walking speed records are being broken again and again with each passing day.
After getting home from our morning walk, I headed to the Congregational Church for the Newcomers general monthly meeting. Encore members are always invited to attend the Newcomers general meetings, and visa versa. I don’t often do that, but Michael Kasparian, head of the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce, was speaking this morning. I always enjoy hearing his upbeat reports on just how things are going in our town. Today, he did not disappoint.
As soon as I got home, I turned on the television to watch the last bit of Jimmy Carter’s of funeral service at the National Cathedral. President Biden was just beginning his eulogy. Biden’s three words, “Character, character, character” summed up Jimmy Carter’s life perfectly. And I was very moved by the tribute by Andrew Young. I remember him most vividly from his civil rights days in the late 1960’s. His body has not aged as well as his mind as he was not able to stand. But at 92, he is still a wonderful speaker.
The remainder of my day was spent doing a little bit of everything. I felt like I had a severe case of attention deficit. I finished my third batch of granola clusters for the granola cluster taste test, started writing the Presidents’ letter for the February Encore newsletter, wrote emails to people to get information I need to complete that letter, researched information for next week’s Exploring Public Policy meeting, researched information for a field trip in February, read a few summaries of a book I finished reading last night for next Tuesday’s book club, and took all of the ornaments off my Christmas tree. The tree has to be curbside on Saturday night for an early Sunday morning pick-up, but I want to leave the lights on until Saturday morning before ushering the tree out the door. I love the lights of Christmas. And I did all this while half listening and sometimes watching news coverage of Jimmy Carter’s funeral and the fires in the Los Angeles area. What is happening there seems almost surreal.

2025 Life Logs, Day 08: Catastrophic Fires in the Los Angeles Area
Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Weather: Same, Same–Sunny, Windy, Cold; Temp 29, Low 19 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

It has been cold for days, but the wind today was brutal at times. Right now, it is 22 degrees outside, but WeatherUnderground says it feels like 7 degrees F. Brrrrr. But no complaints. It could be a lot worse.

I read about the fires in the Los Angeles area last night, but it was not until this morning that I realized just how catastrophic the situation really was. When I saw that it was not just the Pacific Palisades area, but that there were other fires that started during the night in different areas of Los Angeles (specifically in Pasadena). that I got concerned for my friends Kevin and Claire, Kevin’s mother, and his sister’s family. His mother lives in Pasadena, and his sister and family live close-by in Eagle Rock. I knew that Kevin and Claire had put their little motor home in storage in Pasadena while they flew to Toronto for the 80th birthday celebration for Claire’s mom, but I did not know when they were returning. So, I sent a text and Kevin called immediately. He said they returned to Pasadena and got the van out of storage yesterday. They were planning to leave for Mexico this morning, so they parked the van just outside where his mother lives. He said the winds were unbelievably strong last night and he had to carefully place the van in the hope that none of the very tall palm trees on the street fell on it overnight. When they got up this morning, the tallest tree in the neighborhood had fallen on another tree and a utility pole and that whole mess was blocking one end of the street. The entire area was smoky, and ash was falling all around. But they didn’t think they should head across to Arizona because there were reports of 70 mile an hour gusts in the desert. When we hung up, Kevin said they were getting his mom to pack a bag, and they would take her to his sister’s home. Then they would all go to a friend of his sister’s which was a little further away from the fires. I was hoping they would get his mother with his sister and then head out of town. But plans were changing even as we spoke. I heard from Claire at 7:30 tonight telling me they had decided to get away from the fires and cross the desert and that they were now in Phoenix. They used Windy (a weather app Mark and I used for ocean navigation) to time each leg of their trip to Phoenix to miss any dangers. And she said it certainly looked like they did miss dangers as they saw five to ten trucks blown over on their way. But now they are stuck in Phoenix for the night due to a freeze warning on the way to Nogales in Mexico, their next stop. As Claire said in her text, the drama never ends. But I will sleep more peacefully tonight knowing they are away from the fires. All of this made the stories about the fires today much more personal. I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose an entire town in 24 hours. It sounds like Pacific Palisades is simply burned to the ground. In 1975, Mark and I lived in Santa Monica for six weeks while he was producing a public television pilot program. We could walk over to a residential area of Pacific Palisades from where we lived and often did. And some of his filming was in Topanga Canyon. It makes me so sad to think about those beautiful areas being burned to a crisp. I guess the only thing we can do is hope those winds die down completely overnight, stopping the rapid spread of the fires. The last report I heard said the winds have died down enough that the helicopters can now be used to try and control the fires, but that the wind that is blowing tonight is blowing the fire toward Hollywood.

I had a hard time focusing today because I kept turning on the television to find out what was happening with the fires. But I did manage to start my chucky granola clusters experiment. I have been making granola since I lived in northern Minnesota in the mid to late 1970’s, but I have never wanted chunky granola. But a few days ago, Sam asked me if I could make some chunky granola that he could eat as treats. I did a little research and found three recipes I wanted to try. I made two of them today and will make the third tomorrow and then have a taste test. When I picked Ollie up after school today and told him about my experiment, he suggested that I adjust my recipe and try that as well. So, I might make a fourth option tomorrow as well.

2025 Life Logs, Day 07: Birthday Luncheon at Fisherman’s View
Date: Tuesday, January 7, 2025
Weather: Sunny, Windy and Cold; Temp 26, Low 19 degrees F (feels 12 degrees colder)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

The women in my Dining-In group gather for birthdays throughout the year. But with travel schedules, we often have to combine birthdays and celebrate more than one at a time not really close to either. But the thought is there. Today we celebrated Karen Baranowski’s January birthday and Midge Frieswyk’s February birthday. This is the last time we will all be together again until the next March birthdays celebration in April. We will still get together between now and then, just not everyone be present. Today we met at The Fisherman’s View on the Cape Cod Canal. It is a great location with good food and we enjoyed great conversation as well.

Late afternoon, I took Ollie to his saxophone lesson and went to Karen and Peter Baranowski’s during the lesson. They live about 5 minutes from the lesson location, and it was just the right amount of time for the three of us to have a toast to the new year. It was one of those “must drink this wine” events. On Sunday evening, I put a bottle of Southern Right sauvignon blanc in the freezer to get cold quickly before Heather and Jed arrived. However, they decided on a red wine and I forgot all about the wine in the freezer until after they went home. The wine bottle had not broken, but the wine had frozen enough that it had pushed the cork most of the way out. That meant it needed to be enjoyed this week and tonight’s short New Year’s toast with the Baranowski’s was a perfect time. After the sax lesson, I returned home to have dinner and can the Magic Mineral Broth I made last night. I ended up with 5 quarts and 9 pints. I got on the scale with the pot of broth to see just how much it weighed. It was 26 pounds including the pot, so you can see why it is difficult for me to lift all of the broth in the one pot. And before the vegetables and chicken bones are removed, it would have weighed 32 pounds. You can see why it is difficult for me to life the whole thing to move it off the stove.