2022 Life Logs, Day 170: Happy Father’s Day
Date: Sunday, June 19, 2022
Weather: Overcast with Intermittent Rain; High 58, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Happy Father’s Day to all of you who are fathers, but most especially to my two favorite fathers, my son and my son-in-law. Neither got to be with their children today. Well, Jed got be with Ollie for half the day before he and Heather left for Maine, but Sam and Jonah are on a weekend biking trip. And Justin is still in Virginia. But I’m sure they both felt the love being sent their way.
The morning was dreary and rainy with the exception of about 15 minutes when the sun came out. It went away quickly, and the rain returned. It was just dibble dops, not a hard rain, but it continued on into the afternoon. Mid-afternoon Heather and Jed arrived with the van and with Ollie. They headed on to Boothbay where they are sleeping tonight, but by 8 am they need to be two hours further downeast from Boothbay for the survey of Eider. After the survey, the sailboat will be put in the water, and they will get aboard for the sea trial before heading home. They are hoping to be home by midnight tomorrow night. In the meantime, I will pick Sam and Jonah up from their biking adventure tomorrow morning and we will spend some time mowing grass for my neighbors and then go to their house to get ready for my 4:15 dining-in friends to arrive. We are meeting at Heather and Jed’s so the boys can get things ready for school the next morning and put themselves to bed. Shadow and I will sleep on the sofa and be ready to head home when Heather and Jed arrive. Or maybe we’ll stay there for the night. It all depends on when H & J get home.
Ollie and I had a lovely afternoon together. He has a terrible cold, but he is feeling okay—just lethargic. I helped him work a globe puzzle ball
and he helped me take apart the shelves I use to start plants, transport them to the basement, and put them back together.
And on his own, he took the screens for my living room windows from the basement upstairs and installed them.
He seemed to really enjoy helping. Then we started another 300-piece jigsaw puzzle called “Strut Your Mutt”—lots of dogs and their owners. We did that one on a portable frame so we can take it with us tomorrow. Then it was dinner and get ready for bedtime. Ollie and Shadow are fast asleep in the guest bedroom and I am going to follow suit and get to bed early tonight. I have to leave here by 8:45 am to drive the 45 minutes or so to pick up Sam, Jonah, and a friend. I’m hoping Ollie can sleep in and just be getting up when we return.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “that all persons held as slaves are, and henceforward, shall be free.” But it took another two and a half years for a Union Army Major General to ride into Galveston, Texas, and issue General Order No. 3 proclaiming that the enslaved African Americans there were free. That was on June 19,1865 and it became known as the Juneteenth Independence Day. Now, one hundred and fifty-seven years later, today was finally the first June 19th that we are celebrating as a national holiday. The holiday is tomorrow, but today was the day. “Let Freedom Ring.”
