2025 Life Logs, Day 361: Travel from Maine Back to Cape Cod
Date: Saturday, December 26, 2025
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 23, Low 21 degrees F
Location: Back Home with My Shadow on Lakeview, Falmouth, MA
The drive home from Maine was not nearly as beautiful as the drive up on Christmas eve with the new fallen snow, but there was very little traffic, and I made it home safely. When I got home and was carrying things from the car to the house, I heard someone saying, “Here he comes.” About that time, Shadow gave me a very enthusiastic greeting. My neighbor Andy had taken Shadow to his house to play in his fenced backyard and was returning him home. Shadow’s ‘home alone’ Christmas was not so alone after all.
I got a photo from Justin this afternoon showing off one of the Christmas presents I sent to them. I wrote out the story of this gift and attached it when I sent the package. The story went like this. A few weeks ago, my neighbor next door put a few things out on the sidewalk with a ‘free’ sign. As Shadow and I walked past, I noticed these beautiful leather pouches. They looked like what I imagined saddle bags to look like, but then I thought they looked too small. But I had no use for whatever they were, so we walked on. The next day, some of the ‘free’ items had been taken, but not the leather bags. I admired them once again as they looked like they had never been used, but I kept walking. Then, the third day I went out to get the mail, and it was starting to rain. I looked and saw that all of the ‘free’ items had been taken except for the beautiful leather bags. I just could not let them get ruined in the rain, so I took them inside, hung them over a chair in the dining room, and forgot about them. A few days later when I was packing presents to send to Justin and family, I looked at those bags and thought that surely Justin and Jo would find a use for them on their farm. I was still convinced that they weren’t really saddle bags, and had no idea what they were, but they needed a good home and I thought they might be useful at Finca Maravilla. I labeled the package as “A Mystery Gift for Finca Maravilla.” Now fast forward to Christmas Day in Puerto Rico. Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco read the story attached to the gift and opened it. Unlike me, they instantly knew they were saddlebags and were overjoyed as they have wanted saddlebags for Hopi for years but couldn’t afford them. And they laughed and laughed at my ‘made-up’ story. They were convinced that I was joking and that I had bought them. When we talked yesterday afternoon, the first thing Justin said was that they all got a real kick out of my made up story. I explained that it was a true story and they could hardly believe it. Justin kept saying, “You’re kidding. Right? You didn’t pick those up off the street.” It took some convincing, but finally he believed me. Proof that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!
