For the second week in a row, my soccer team played short-handed (footed) but still managed to pull out a 2:1 victory against a skilled Russian team. Once again, I did little to distinguish myself on the pitch but played my position well and made no mistakes, carefully conserving my energy for an hour of playing time.
After the match and a brief stop at the aprés, Jeanine and I packed up her car and took off on the first leg of a 2-week road trip to visit with family. I plotted a course designed to follow the fall color. We traveled west across Massachusetts through the Berkshires to Albany and then south to Binghampton, skirting the Catskills. Our desire to arrive before nightfall did not permit stopping for photos, but the entire journey was a feast for the eyeballs. It was without a doubt the most dramatic fall drive I have ever taken with peak color along the entire path.
Pictured above is the St John’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church located a stone’s throw from our hotel. Binghampton has a large Ukrainian community, many first generation who came to the US under refugee programs offered to Christians leaving the soviet bloc during the Reagan and Bush senior terms.
Maya and Fiona were our guests at the River House last night. This morning, they took the kayaks out to enjoy a perfect fall day on the water. They took off like bats out of hell, perhaps unaware that the Head of the Charles is being contested on a different nearby river this weekend. I took advantage of early voting and completed my civic duty for this election cycle. It will be one less thing to worry about when we return from our upcoming road trip to visit with family.
Fall color has arrived in Concord, a worthwhile reason to spend the morning capturing it. Pictured above is Warner’s Pond. Below is our stretch of the Sudbury River. If you look very closely, you can just see the roof of our house on the left side of the photo. Later in the day, I traveled to Kyle’s house in Medford. Together we installed a frosted glass door in the basement apartment to partition the laundry area from the kitchen. I returned to Concord just in time to for dinner. We were joined by Maya and her friend Fiona who are spending the weekend with us. Guests also include our good friends Irene and Eric and their new and very cute dog Ginger.
Our family dentist owns a portable sawmill and enjoys milling logs as a hobby. For the second time, he gifted us the fruits of his labor. This time, in the form of several slabs of spalted beech, which are destined to become a desk for Jeanine’s office. Spalted wood refers to wood which has been exposed to certain fungi and bacteria over a period of time. This process causes discoloration and produces dark lines or streaks in the grain of the wood. It is highly coveted among woodworkers. Before the raw slabs can be used, they must first be surfaced to make them flat and of uniform thickness. I have been gradually working through all of the material and have now completed the first pass. Once the boards have had a chance to air dry for a couple more months, they will be ready for final machining. Although the work is tedious, it is a little like opening a Christmas present. You never know what grain/spalting pattern you will discover until that first pass over the planer.
The damage assessment is in for Nicolai’s shoulder. He has a grade 3 AC joint separation. He reports that it will not require surgery but no word yet on how long it will take to recuperate. The good news is that crutching will aid in his recovery, as it will push the bones back into their normal orientation. He has already set his sights on competing in Costa Rica in January.
During the last few days, I have passed two of my largest kidney stones ever. The first was on Friday, measuring 5.5mm x 4.5mm. The second was after my soccer game on Sunday, a record of 6.5mm x 4.5mm. For all the blood, sweat, and tears required to produce these, it seems only just that they be more valuable than gold. Perhaps if I add more carbon to my diet, I will be able to produce diamonds, which might make the whole ordeal more worthwhile.
In his first match of the day, after scoring two goals, Nico sustained a serious AC sprain of his right shoulder. The extent of the injury could not be determined with the x-ray taken at the hospital and will require an MRI, which he will have later in the week. He returned to the field, arm in a sling, to watch his New England Revolution team manage a 2:2 tie against the New York Metro Football Club, which was good enough to secure a second-place finish in the tournament.
In case it is not apparent, a shoulder injury for someone who uses their arms to walk is a major inconvenience. Until he recovers, Nico will need to get around on one crutch. Given the level of pain he was in after the injury, I suspect it will take weeks, if not months to fully recover.
Although still suffering from a virus, I joined my short-handed soccer team on the pitch this morning and had an assist to help us secure a 2:1 win.
Five regional teams are competing this weekend for the US Amputee Soccer Cup. Nico plays for the New England Revolution Amputee Soccer Team and had two matches today. The first was against the team from Miami, which is essentially the same as the Haitian national team. Nico had one goal in the 2:2 tie: a good result against the favored Haitians. The second match against Chicago was a one-sided affair, with Nico scoring 4 goals. I spent the day photographing all five teams in action and the album can be found here.
On the drive home from the tournament, I heard an interview with Nico on Nation Public Radio. He spoke eloquently about his efforts to grow the sport of amputee soccer in the US. Talk about a driveway moment! Later, I heard from friends that they had seen him interviewed on TV as well. I hope to track down that video if it is available.
Here is a link to another interview with Nico from earlier this year. Spoiler alert: Nico is wearing a suit jacket.
Jeanine and I are still feeling quite ill with whatever virus we have contracted (not COVID). Rather than mope about the house all day, we jumped in the car and drove to Vermont for some leaf-peeping. What better way to distract ourselves on what turned out to be a perfect fall day? Our first stop was Brattleboro where Jeanine lived while getting her Master’s degree. From there we drove as far north as Quechee using backroads stopping whenever we were moved to do so.
Jeanine is still feeling under the weather, and I am now starting to show the same symptoms. Nevertheless, we both felt the need to get out of the house. We went to Idylwilde Farms for lunch, then to Kimbal Farms for the last ice cream of the season (they close tomorrow), and on to the Groton area for a little photography. Every time I drive past the pictured barn, I feel compelled to stop for a photo. There is something about the setting and composition that speaks to me. Despite having attempted several times, I feel I have yet to capture the optimal perspective.
Jeanine has come down with a nasty cold, and I am not feeling 100% either, so we decided to spend the day indoors. Even so, we still enjoyed the beautiful fall day from our living room. I made a chicken soup run and we curled up in front of the TV to watch the season finales of “Slow Horses” and “Bad Monkey,” two of our favorite series.
After doing some morning landscape work, I drove to western Massachusetts to enjoy a perfect fall afternoon. I traveled as far as the Connecticut River, where I paused to photograph the French King Bridge. The foliage is only beginning to change and it would be nice to return to the area in about a week with Jeanine.
My sister Mayela and her husband Stephen ventured out to visit their mountain cabin located in western North Carolina, 75 miles northeast of Asheville, to see if it was still standing. They witnessed massive destruction along the route messaging photos to the family as they drove. We were all relieved and thrilled when they reported that their home had been spared, and had electricity and water.
Once they ascertained that their house was intact, they continued further inland to deliver supplies to those less fortunate.
The family gathered this evening to celebrate my 66th birthday. We got to hear all about Maya’s single-day Presidential Traverse, Nico’s ascent of Mount Cotopaxi, and Kyle’s exploits in Panama. Joining us were Owen, Maya’s boyfriend, who shot this photo, and Heloisa, one of Kyle’s housemates. I grilled steaks while Jeanine prepared a wonderful salad, Brussels sprouts, and baked potatoes, which we enjoyed on the patio warmed by a fire. We retired indoors for a delicious ice cream cake that Jeanine had prepared at my request.
My soccer team enjoyed a 2:0 win over Medfield earlier in the day. For the first time this season, I felt good about my game. I made zero mistakes and did something productive every time I handled the ball. My hip joints have been bothering me for the last week and I was pleased that they did not hurt at all during (or after) the match.
Although my birthday was front and center, today is Jeanine and my 34th wedding anniversary. How lucky can one guy get?
In a recent post, I shared the news that the Bionic Project, where Nico works as the Lead Educator, had been selected as a finalist in the national Land Rover Defender Service Awards!
The winner of $25K and a Bionic-branded Land Rover Defender will be determined by public voting, which has already begun.
I am pleading with all my followers to support the Bionic Project by voting every day for the next 12 days. It costs nothing and would mean so much for the organization.
The forecast called for sunny skies and peak color in the White Mountains, so I grabbed my cameras and headed north for the day. I left at 4:30 am to arrive in time for morning light and covered 400 miles in my search for autumnal beauty. The weather was ideal but I estimate that peak color is still a week away at most elevations. Nonetheless, I returned with several nice photographs. I traveled north to Franconia Notch, spending most of my time in New Hampshire. I detoured into Vermont to charge my car and found some nice subjects there as well. Fall is by far my favorite season and such excursions recharge my soul.
We received word today that Nico reached the summit of Ecuador’s Mount Cotopaxi and descended safely. Part of the Pacific Rim of Fire, it is a glacier-covered, active stratovolcano that has erupted 87 times, most recently last year. He is in Ecuador with the ROMP organization on a fundraising drive to provide prosthetics to those who cannot afford them. Celebrating the organization’s tenth anniversary, this year’s event has teams climbing Chimborazo (20,549 ft), Cotopaxi (19,347 ft), and Cayambe (18,996 ft) and has already raised $320,000. Pictured above is the entire group on one of their acclimatization hikes.
Nico’s team of 20 began their ascent at midnight to reach the summit by sunrise. Only 9 reached the top; of that group only 3 were amputees; of that group he was the only one on crutches. Recent eruptions altered the climbing routes making the final ascent considerably more difficult than in year’s past. Nico reported that it was the most physically demanding and terrifying climb he has ever made. While traversing a crevasse, he lost his balance and dropped one of his crutches. Had it not been tethered to his other crutch, it would have been lost to the volcano, leaving him stranded on the mountain. Had he not been on belay, we would have had one less Christmas present to shop for this year. The day before he left, Nico and I were reviewing his gear and discussing safety. I asked what he would do if he broke a crutch while climbing. He thought it far more likely that he would drop one and it would slide down the mountain. Ten minutes later, I had fashioned a bungee cord with slip locks to secure the crutches together and still provide the range of motion needed for climbing.
The team climbing Cayambe encountered snow and high winds, forcing them to forfeit the summit. The Chimborazo group will start their ascent later this week.
Nico returns on Sunday, and I hope to post photographs of the climb then.
An unexpected benefit of removing trees that threatened the house is that I can get a better photographic perspective of the house than was possible before. Regrettably, it is still not possible to position my drone for an unobstructed view of the river side of the house. I expended a great deal of effort to ensure that the windows on all three floors were of equal width and perfectly aligned, a detail that is essentially masked from view.
Maya shared this photo of the vest she knitted for herself. Completed just in time for the fall season, she started the project while we vacationed in England. My mother was an accomplished knitter and would have been so pleased to see Maya pursuing the art. Unlike knitting in a single color, the attention to detail necessary to make a multi-color, complex pattern is an order of magnitude higher.
The Kingfisher is an aptly named bird. With its huge dagger-like black bill, it is a lethal hunter. This morning, I spotted this one having just secured breakfast. Unfortunately, the angle of this photo does not reveal how large the fish is; so big in fact that the kingfisher was having trouble getting it down its gullet.
Maya and Owen hiked the Presidential Traverse yesterday. They started their 19-mile hike at 3:30 am with headlights, saw the sunrise from atop Mount Madison, and bagged seven 4,000-foot summits. Completing the traverse in a single day is arguably the most difficult climb in New England, with over 8,000 feet of elevation gain.
Nicolai arrived in Quito, Ecuador in time to connect with his climbing team for their attempt to summit 19,347 ft Cotopaxi later this week. If successful, this will be his highest ascent, a whopping 6 feet higher than Kilimanjaro.
Kyle sent us greetings from Panama, where he decided to travel at the last minute. Perhaps the smartest of our children, he seems focused on enjoying the food, sights, and nightlife rather than subjecting his body to intense physical strain.
I ventured into my shop this morning and then completed an 11-foot ascent back to the first floor. On a less sarcastic note, I followed that arduous climb with 60 minutes of playing time in a soccer match against the defending division one champs in our age group. We beat them 2:0, which made my birthday all the more joyous. As if the day couldn’t get any better, our dentist gifted me several huge slabs of spalted beech wood from which I will eventually build a desk for Jeanine’s office.
This evening, we attended the Conantum Harvest Supper, a gathering of our neighborhood with a long history. New this year was the venue. It was held at Verrill Farm, which made it possible to include children for the first time and to make it easier for seniors with mobility issues to attend. Jeanine was instrumental in driving the change. It resulted in record attendance and far greater inclusivity than in years past. I was on photo duty and enjoyed capturing both young and old. The full collection of photos can be found here.
This morning, Nicolai set out for Ecuador to join his ROMP climbing team for their ascent of Cotopaxi. Unfortunately, he only made it as far as the Logan Airport check-in desk, where he learned that his flight to Atlanta had been delayed due to Hurricane Helene and that his connection to Quito would be missed. He is rebooked for tomorrow and believes he can still meet up with his team before they depart for the mountains. Fortunately, I decided to visit nearby Constitution Beach after dropping him at the airport and was only 5 minutes away when he requested that I pick him up for a return to Concord.
The Bionic Project is hosting a big fundraiser gala tomorrow, and I visited their website to get the details. Instead, I found recent news coverage of their visit to California. It presents a nice overview of the program they offer.
Before purchasing our home on the Sudbury River, our family resided about a mile away on Mattison Drive. Today, I learned about an unbelievable real estate scam involving the sale of the last undeveloped lot in that neighborhood. The true owners of the land, purchased in 1991, live in South Carolina and have been paying property taxes ever since. They had hoped to return to Massachusetts one day or gift the property to one of their children. A scam artist posing as the owner contacted a local real estate agent by e-mail seeking a seller’s agent. The realtor failed to verify the fake seller’s identity and proceeded to list the property for sale. A New Hampshire-based real estate agent made an offer to purchase the land for $550,000, a little over half the going rate for comparable undeveloped land in Concord. His father-in-law is a developer and the pair saw an opportunity to build and sell a home in the highly desirable neighborhood for a nice profit. The deal was contingent on being able to secure the necessary Natural Resource Commission permits. The true owners of the property received registered mail from a contractor preparing work for presentation to the NRC, their first indication that something was amiss. They contacted the NRC and explained that they were not selling the property and that the request for a permit hearing should be denied. Apparently, the request was initially denied but weeks later was heard and approved. Closing moved forward, site work followed and a new house was framed. When the true owners inquired as to why they had not received their property tax bill, they were informed that the property had been sold.
I learned all of this by reading the lawsuit filed by the true owners. They are suing the buyer, the developer, the realtor, and both real estate lawyers for failing to notice any of the red flags suggesting this was a scam (forged signatures, fake forms of ID, improperly notarized documents, several misspelled names and locations, and request for half a million dollars in proceeds to be sent to a UPS store in Pennsylvania,)
I will be inquisitive to see how this plays out. All defendants named in the lawsuit had a profit motive for seeing the deal close, and it would appear that they saw only what they wanted to see.
UPDATE:
A few minutes of sleuthing turned up this posting by the selling agent thanking the “seller’s” real estate attorney for “all your hard work representing our clients, and ensuring we get to the closing table.”
It is always exciting to have a first-time visitor at the River House. This juvenile red-tailed hawk showed up today, undoubtedly interested in the abundant chipmunk and squirrel population here. He hung around for about 15 minutes but did not seem to be in the mood for hunting.
Had he lived, today would be my father’s 100th birthday. On this day, I remember a kind and loving man who adored his family and lived life to the fullest. I will never forget his infectious laughter and often think of him when I hear a story that would have gotten him started. I only wish he could have lived to see his grandchildren become adults. He would have been so proud of them.
From his obituary:
Dr. Frank M. Calabria, 86, of Wendell Avenue, Schenectady, NY, died peacefully in his home surrounded by his loving family on October 20, 2010. Frank was born in Brooklyn, NY, son of the late Ernesto and Rosina Calabria. He was predeceased by his brother, Ernest Calabria and sisters, Jacqueline Gomez and Antoinette Barkley. He met his beloved wife, Angela, of 54 years at the Byrnes & Swanson dance studio in Brooklyn while working as a ballroom dance instructor there. They have four children and nine grandchildren. His son, Carl and his wife, Jeanine reside in Concord, MA with their children, Kyle, Nicolai and Maya; son, Mark and his wife, Marie reside in Plymouth, MN with their children, Mario, Rory, Sophia and Rose; daughter, Alissa Quinn and her husband, John reside in Slingerlands, NY with their children, John and Rachel; and daughter, Mayela Harris and her husband, Stephen reside in Fuquay-Varina, NC. Frank graduated from City College with his bachelor’s in science degree and was accepted into the graduate program in clinical psychology. He received his Ph.D. at New York University. Frank began his career as a professor of psychology, teaching in the evening division at Russell Sage College for five years. He was a professor of psychology for 24 years at Union College and retired professor emeritus. He also maintained a private practice as a psychotherapist and was an author of two books, “Dance of the Sleepwalkers: The Dance Marathon Fad” and “Let it Be a Dance – My Life Story.” He served in WWII as an athletic instructor where he was decorated with a Victory Medal, Good Conduct Medal and American Theatre Service medal. He received an honorable discharge in 1946. Frank formed a body building club as a young teenager, after spending a year in a wheelchair. He was a teacher of ballroom dance at the local USO, Dance of America conventions and in various local studios. Frank played classical guitar and was an avid ballroom dancer for over 50 years.
Kyle has been in Ithaca, NY this week, hanging out with half a dozen friends from his running group. He shared this image of spectacular Taughannock Falls. The last time I was in the Finger Lakes district, I stopped here but the falls were not flowing at the time. This picture makes me really want to go back and I am thrilled that Kyle had an opportunity to visit this very special place.
My sister-in-law shared this photo from our recent visit to Minneapolis. There is a lot to digest in this image, and I will leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
