Day 283, Year 6 Unplanned Trip to Hyannis
Date: Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
You just never know what a new day will bring, no matter how well you have it planned out ahead of time. Somehow, driving to Hyannis to get our dinghy legally registered in Massachusetts seemed more important, or maybe more inviting, than putting AwlCare on the hull. So I took Mark to work at 9 am and headed on to Hyannis. Mark had thought he might do this tomorrow afternoon, but then we remembered that the traffic on Thursday seems to be much worse than Monday through Wednesday. And you really try not to travel far on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday here in the summer as the weekend traffic is even worse. I had a smooth trip to and from Hyannis today with very little traffic, so it was probably a wise choice. When I got to Hyannis I found out that we actually had until the end of August to get the dinghy registered, but now it is done and we no longer have to worry about that. “Visiting” dinghies have to be registered if they are staying in Massachusetts more than 60 consecutive days. The registration is good for two years, so even if we leave and spend time elsewhere, we won’t have to re-register. We paid our $40 and have now successfully negotiated one more bureaucratic obstacle.
On the way to and from Hyannis I listened to the Cape and Islands public radio station, WCAI. It is summer fund-raising time and I got to listen to my daughter do on-air fund-raising. And even if I am her mother, I must say she is one of the best “pitchers” I have ever head-and I’ve head a lot of them! She absolutely convinced me that I need to contribute and if I could have made the call while driving, I would have. In the end, I didn’t call to make a pledge, but this evening she told me she is on again mid-day tomorrow, so I’ll call then to support her and the public radio programming that I value. While listening I learned that August 7 is the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Cape Cod National Seashore. That is coming up this weekend and there are all sorts of activities planned for the celebration. Henry David Thoreau called the 40 mile sandy stretch from Eastham to Provincetown “The Great Beach.” It is a stretch of fine white sand beaches backed by towering cliffs carved into the sand dunes Sometime this fall when the tourists have gone home, we’ll drive out to enjoy “The Great Beach.”
I stopped at Trader Joe’s in Hyannis before returning home and bought all of the nuts and seeds I’ll need for my next batches of granola. I looked for these items in North and South Carolina, but just couldn’t find them at a price I could afford. Trader Joe’s is a real treasure where you can buy items in bulk at affordable prices. I then headed back to Falmouth to pick up the boys and spend another wonderful afternoon with them. They actually nap through most of the afternoon, but I do get some quality time with Sam before his nap and after Jonah is asleep. And then I get quality time with Jonah when he wakes up and Sam is still asleep. Then when both boys are up, we get to have fun together. It is a grandmother’s dream to be able to spend this kind of time with grandchildren.
Tomorrow I make a second visit to the chiropractor here. I didn’t mention it in last week’s logs, but on Wednesday morning when I was rushing around getting ready for Justin, Jo, and Ziggy’s arrival, I managed to throw my back out once again. I was reaching into the car to pull out a heavy bag of groceries, and the angle at which I bent to pull was the trigger. I caught myself and stopped pulling immediately. Thankfully the damage was not as severe as it has been on other occasions. But I immediately called an activator chiropractor and made an appointment for the next day. Dr. Walko might not be the miracle worker that my chiropractor back in Concord has always proven to be, but he did do a great job of getting things back in place so I could enjoy the weekend with the grandchildren. I was so grateful. And in addition, he discovered the weakness in my right arm. This was due to the injury I sustained on the sail north from South Africa when I was thrown from the companion way ladder. Tomorrow’s follow-up appointment is to check on that arm and to assure that all is well with my back.
