My soccer season came to a close this morning as we played our most difficult opponent thus far. We competed in Sherborn against Medfield on grass which is not our best surface. With half a dozen of our players sidelined by injury, those of us who were able got plenty of playing time. The first half was scoreless with many close attempts from both sides. In the second half, we gave up an early goal but managed to equalize shortly thereafter and to score again to capture the lead at 2-1. Medfield responded almost instantly knotting the score at 2-2. We spent the remainder of the game relentlessly attacking, scoring one, then two, and in the closing minutes a third unanswered goal to produce a 5-2 victory. Although this season will not go into the record books because of Covid-19, it nonetheless was our third undefeated season in a row and my first to complete without a single significant injury.
Ever since I started working in my late teens, I have saved all of my federal and state income tax returns. That’s over 40 years of filing documents, financial records, receipts, and other supporting materials. Today, I used the paper shredder at work to destroy all but the last seven years’ worth of supporting documents. I decided there was no value in continuing to store these in our new house where we are trying to downsize everything. I could not bring myself to shred the actual returns but that will probably make sense at some point. Pictured above are two waist-high trash bins of five that I filled to the top with shredded paper.
Every now and again, the combination of clouds and sunrise makes for a very lovely scene when viewed down the long extent of the field behind our house. Today we were treated to such a pairing. I am sure our new home will offer many equally enchanting sunrise views, but I suspect that they will be very different than the ones we have enjoyed here for the last 17 years. With that knowledge, I paused to enjoy this morning’s entire show which lasted for all of about two minutes before the vivid colors and patterns morphed into something much more mudane.
Last month we printed our first commercial part at Digital Alloys. The print quality of the tool steel part was fantastic but it took forever to print. Today, we hit a new speed record of 6100mm/min and we will begin the analysis to determine if we have been able to do so without compromise to quality. This represents a 61x improvement in speed and puts us above the threshold for economically attractive printing. Our next challenge is to achieve speed in this range on a much larger part.
When I learned that Bald Eagles routinely fish in the Sudbury River in close proximity to our new home, I could not have been more excited. Today one of our new neighbors posted the picture above of a bobcat taken with his trail camera which has me equally delighted. Although our closing continues to be delayed, we have made arrangements to occupy the residence until it does and took possession of the keys this morning. We will start gradually moving in over the next two weeks.
Yesterday afternoon, I started passing another kidney stone and the pain peaked earlier today leaving me in no mood for taking any photographs. Instead, I found another taken by Maya of her housemates. Bryce’s dog has since returned to his parents and Maya is going through animal withdrawal symptoms.
On the way home from my soccer match, I stopped to photograph a small herd of Holstein Friesians cattle which have been hanging out in a field near our home for several months now. Known as the best dairy cow bread, it appears these ones are heifers and not yet ready for milk production.
In an effort to get a more competitive soccer match today, we played a Division 1 over-49 team which were 10 years our junior. They requested modified rules due to Covid-19. Specifically, headers were disallowed, throw-ins were replaced by kick-ins, and slide tackling was not permitted. We were compelled to accommodate their request even though I believe none of these make sense. We were ahead at the half having scored a single goal. In the second half, one of our defenders cleared a corner kick with a header (very hard to change 50 years of habit) earning our opponent an indirect kick from very close range. They scored and we had to settle for the tie, an unfortunate consequence of the silly rule changes.
My sister Alissa is 4 years my junior and still strutting her stuff on the ballroom dance floor. I am glad to see that the pandemic has not prevented her from pursuing her passion at a time when we all need to be finding ways to preserve some semblance of normality.
I generally only post my photos on this blog, but occasionally I come across an image that is just too good not to share. Today, I have a pair related to animal photography.
I completed work on our expanded walk-in closet today and returned the original shelving and storage units to their original locations. The new owners are going to have custom-made, built-in furnishings fabricated, as was my initial plan. Until then, these should serve them well. What is not shown in the photo is the remaining 1/3 of the closet which should offer enough space to create a nice seating / dressing area.
Pictured above is the amount of junk we have acquired over 17 years of living at our current home, roughly 3 cubic yards. Next week it will be picked up and taken to the dump. We have done our best to recycle everything that has residual value or use but some things just need to be thrown away. I just hope that my extremely efficient packing of this dumpster bag has not made it too heavy for the waste disposal company to remove.
Followers of this blog may recall that we got into a bidding war for our new home, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars over the asking price and fair market valuation. Prices in the real estate market have been driven up by the Coronavirus pandemic in which many are seeking safe refuge from the virus in suburban settings such as Concord. We made some of that back on the sale of our current home which was buoyed by the same market forces. The remainder, I made back today when I sold several positions in the cruise and air travel industries. Both of these sectors tanked when the financial implications of Covid-19 first became apparent and I decided to invest heavily since the fundamentals of both suggested they would eventually recover. With the promise of an effective vaccine on the horizon, they surged to new recent highs and I walked away with a 2.5x return.
Jeanine has a new best buddy, Kobe. He is part of her posse enjoying the weekend together on Martha’s Vinyard. I had a productive day both on and off the soccer pitch. We played Hopkinton, the third-place team in the league, and defeated them soundly. I got my first goal of the season, a blistering half volley from the top of the box. It is the kind of shot that makes you feel like you know what you are doing. Unfortunately, two of our wing halfbacks pulled up lame with strained hamstrings, leaving us no subs at that position. We face our toughest opponent in the league next weekend and I am in no kind of shape to be playing for 90 minutes straight. I hope our manager will be able to find some reserve players to help us (me) out. On the home front, I was able to pack and move most of my shop from the basement to a staging area in the garage.
Jeanine is enjoying a much needed weekend getaway on Martha’s Vinyard with a small group of her gal pals. She spent part of the day doing “clam therapy” in her bare feet and will be making a meal of the harvest this evening. I took advantage of what can only be described as perfect weather to move a good amount of my shop from the basement to the garage in preparation for moving day which is rapidly approaching. Doing so with a hand truck using the sloping lawn as a ramp is much easier for the heavy items than the shorter distance up the stairs.
I find geese much less interesting than most other birds and rarely take the time to photograph them unless they are doing something interesting. Today, the field behind our house was overrun with them so I thought I would do a couple of group portraits. The first features just over a dozen, the second about a hundred, and the final one something in the neighborhood of 300. That’s a lot of geese.
Our goal is to pack the entire contents of our house (excluding my shop) into the tiny POD on the right. Impossible you say. Perhaps, but this is what we are attempting to do. The plan is predicated on selling most of our furniture which I have been doing diligently for the past several months and packing the POD from floor to ceiling. Only time will tell but I feel like we might actually make it. I will move my shop using a U-haul trailer or truck to the garage of our new house where it will be stored until I can prepare the basement for occupancy.
I have more than 50 for sale listings on Craig’s List at the moment, most of them for furniture. I am most interested in selling items that are either large or heavy so we do not have to move / store them. Our new home represents the beginning of a new chapter in our lives and we have decided we should give ourselves a fresh opportunity to furnish it. Today, I sold this set of wicker furniture to a couple who drove three hours with a U-haul trailer to pick it up.
Today I started packing the POD we will be using for our move. I made extensive use of surplus banana boxes in which food was delivered to Open Table. The uniform size and strength allow for packing to the full height over our 16-foot-long moving container.
Having sold my snowblower last week, I could have predicted we would soon have snow. It arrived today in greater amounts than predicted. It was very wet snow which makes for wonderful images and downed power lines. Unfortunately, I did not have an opportunity to go outside to enjoy it and had to settle for this picture taken through our kitchen window.
Inspired by my brother who is equipping his new woodworking shop with pneumatic blast gates, I built a prototype of the one I will use when I put my new dust collection system into action. The idea is that all of the dust and chip producing tools share a common vacuum system and each one is fitted with a blast gate to connect or disconnect from the ducting system. When a tool is turned on, the corresponding blast gate is opened while all others remain closed. My brother’s system is much more sophisticated, employing an Arduino controller and current sensors on all machines. Mine is basic with each valve solenoid hard-wired to each tool and a slower close than open rate to allow the lines to clear. Above is a video of my test run. I spent less than an hour putting the whole thing together and it worked like a charm.
In addition to his job at Concord Carlisle High School teaching World Cultures this term, Nicolai is also coaching the men’s junior varsity soccer team. This evening, at his request, I took the team photo employing a small hill to help create a more interesting COVID-19 appropriate portrait. Earlier in the day, I had one of my teeth extracted. It was one I would have preferred to keep but I broke it too badly to repair. My dentist does not feel I will miss it all that much so I am going to do without tooth number 18 from here on out.
We are sending positive energy to my younger sister Mayela and her husband Stephen today. Their beloved dog, Peachy, is having surgery to remove a tumor. Despite her lovely face and docile demeanor, this dog is tough as nails, a lot like my sister come to think of it. This dog is so tough my sister uses her as bait while fishing.
Maya came home today to help pack up her belongings in preparation for our move. While she was going through her stuff she came across her childhood piggy bank and was thrilled to discover that it contained over $800 in babysitting savings. She had forgotten about or never realized she had amassed such a small fortune. I believe she is going to treat herself to a new set of hiking boots with some of her newly discovered loot. Later in the afternoon, Maya and I replaced the front brake pads on her Audi. I did most of the first wheel and she did all of the second. Next weekend she plans to do the rear pads.
My morning on the soccer pitch was rather chilly but netted a satisfying 7-0 win. I played a good 60 minutes and my conditioning is improving with each week. I had one shot on goal but it missed by more than a good bit. Jeanine spent the day packing for the move while Kyle went apartment hunting, returning with a lease in hand.
The last of our trees to show fall color, the Japanese maple we planted 17 years ago was looking very beautiful today. It is not as close to our kitchen sink window as the photo suggests but it does frame one side of the view into our backyard. Over the years, I have pruned it to create a canopy over the stairs that lead from our deck into the yard. I hope the new owners of our home continue with the practice, as it creates a very strong connection between the house and the great outdoors.
This evening, our driveway featured a new addition. Behold Kyle’s Mazda CX 5. Now all three kids have their own cars which will eliminate the source of contention that car-sharing has caused in recent months. Some people drive cars that just do not seem to fit their personality. I’d say that this one is a perfect match for Kyle’s.
Photographing mirrors can be very tricky for obvious reasons. I am rather pleased with the way this one turned out after I carefully selected a pleasing reflection to complement the scene. I have now posted for sale listings for about 80% of the furniture we own on Craig’s List. Our goal is to enter our new home with as few decorating constraints as possible and to give ourselves a chance to change things up after more than 30 years with most of our furnishings.
It has been ten years now since my father passed away. I wish he could have seen how all his grandchildren have grown up. I am sure he would have been extremely proud of them. He was a man who worked hard but knew how to have fun. I hope to honor his memory by emulating his passion for life.
When Nicolai was honored with the Shane’s Inspiration Award in 2008 for raising over $100,000 to provide free wheelchairs for people with mobility impairments in Tanzania, he received a framed drum cymbal and drum sticks signed by Alex Van Halen, Eddie’s brother and drummer for the band. Now that we are downsizing, we have let the kids know that we will no longer be able to store their stuff for them. Nicolai has a number of awards that he does not have space for in his current apartment including this one. Not clear what we will do with them yet, but I thought I would start by photographing them all for digital posterity.
On the way to Ashland, where I played soccer this morning, I came across this lovely scene in Framingham. The sun was not being very cooperative and I could not wait for it to make an appearance. My soccer match was rather one-sided. We were up by 5-0 at the half and played two-touch for the entire second half to make the game more competitive. I got a lot of minutes, had a nice assist, and sustained no injuries; no better outcome on a perfect fall morning. Beyond the pictured falls is the Sudbury River Reservoir Number One. It should be possible to kayak to this location from our new home with one short portage but it would make for a rather long day of paddling.
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